“Soon,” she said.
They reached the door to the attic stairs, which creaked as it opened. Climbing the stairs and passing through the second door, they stepped into the cavernous attic, made of darkness and shadows. Lovisa closed the door behind them and felt safer suddenly, hidden from the rest of the house.
“We’re almost there,” she said, tugging at the string around her neck that held the key. He crossed the floor with her, his breath quickening audibly. Lovisa reached out and felt for the door to the little room, finding the keyhole, while Pari pressed against her and gave his hands free rein. His hands were everywhere on her body. No, not everywhere, for he still hadn’t discovered the letter opener. A boy in the dark doesn’t care about my hands. I can hide things in my hands, she thought, filing it away for later, even though she was never going to do this again.
The lock clicked. “Okay, Pari,” she said, “you just wait out here for a second while I get the room ready.”
“I’m sure it’s ready.”
“Sometimes my brothers have sleepovers in this room,” she said. “You want them to see us like this? Let me make sure it’s empty and safe. Here, hand me that lamp.”
He shoved the lamp at her. “Be quick.”
“How about you count to a hundred? Okay? Think how good it’ll feel after you count to a hundred.” She kissed him, then started counting, slowly. “One, two . . .”
While he gritted his teeth and counted, she disentangled herself, pushed into the room, shut the door quickly, found the keyhole, and locked it closed from the inside.
“Hey!” she heard him yell. “You’re going to let me in, right?”
“Of course!” she said. “Be quiet! The guards will hear!”
Then a voice spoke inside the room, soft and vague, as if its speaker were half-asleep.
“Hello?” it said, in Lingian. “Giddon?”
Lovisa stood frozen. She felt as if her head were swelling up like a balloon. “Hello?” she responded in Lingian, not even knowing what she was saying.
“Who’s there?” the voice said, stronger now, more alert, switching into Keepish. “Hello?”
The room was as dark as all the punishments Lovisa remembered from her childhood, and it smelled the same too, cold and thick, like a chamber pot. Shaking, she crouched down to set the lamp on the floor, so she could light it.
A spark. Lovisa raised the unsteady, growing flame.
A young woman in a bed looked back at Lovisa. She was small like Lovisa, dark-haired and plain like Lovisa, with big, wary eyes and a stubborn, determined set to her mouth. Her skin was browner than Hava’s or Giddon’s, but paler than Lovisa’s. She looked like . . . she looked like the Lienid prince who’d had the Graceling boyfriend. Prince Skye.
“Who are you?” the woman demanded of Lovisa, in nearly unaccented Keepish. She glared, expecting an answer. Lovisa stared back, unbreathing, unbelieving, because this could only be one person, imprisoned here in her family’s attic.
“Have you come to help me escape?” the woman asked, pushing her blankets back and swinging her feet to the ground, standing, facing Lovisa. She was Lovisa’s same height and she was wearing one of Lovisa’s favorite pairs of pajamas.
Staring at this vision, Lovisa understood a number of things at once. Why her mother had left class early the day the Monseans had arrived, then been late for an important dinner. Why her parents were fighting, because of course Benni would never stand for this. Why it no longer mattered what her father had been planning to store in this room. How serious this was, for this was a capital crime. It was the kind of crime that could start a war.
She also understood that now she, Lovisa, was responsible for the Queen of Monsea. And she couldn’t help this queen escape, because Pari Parnin was waiting outside the door. She couldn’t help this queen escape, because, where would she take her? She couldn’t help this queen escape, because her family would be ruined. Her parents imprisoned, maybe even executed, their wealth confiscated by the Keepish government, and Lovisa’s name, her brothers’ names, infamous, synonymous with scandal and shame, not just in Winterkeep but across Torla, and on the Royal Continent too.
My mother ruined our lives, she thought.
“Well?” said Queen Bitterblue. “Are you freeing me?”
Lovisa needed a plan. “Yes,” she said, improvising. “But not right now.”
“When?” said the queen, stepping forward. “Where am I? Who are you?”
Pari Parnin knocked on the door. His voice was a whine. “Let me in, Lovisa.”
“Who’s that?” said the queen sharply.
“I’ll get rid of him,” said Lovisa, moving toward the door. “Then I’ll come back.”
“Will you?” said the queen, following her. Then she said, in a voice that was certain, and more imposing than the tiny person who spoke it, “Why don’t I believe you?”
Stricken with confusion, Lovisa spun back to her. “Please,” she said, a bit wildly. “Don’t tell my mother I saw you.”
“Your mother!” said the queen. “Who is your mother?”
“I’ll come back,” Lovisa lied, “but don’t tell anyone.”
“Is this a private home?” asked the queen. “Am I in Ledra?”
“I’ll explain everything later.”
“Are you allied with the fox?”
“What? No! Of course not! He’s bonded to my mother!”
“But you’re allied with me?”
“Yes. I’ll come back for you!”
Queen Bitterblue stared into Lovisa’s face fiercely, not believing her. Lovisa knew it, and was ashamed. “Take this,” she said desperately, shoving the letter opener into the queen’s hands, as a sort of bribe. Then she rushed to the door, turned the key, pulled the latch. The queen followed, standing close. On the other side of the door, Pari pushed.
“Wait!” cried Lovisa. “I’m coming out.”
Pari thrust the door so sharply that Lovisa stumbled and almost dropped the lamp. Pari surged into the room with a grunt of frustration. Then he stared wide-eyed at the queen, who stood before him in bare feet and pajamas, brandishing a letter opener.
“Who are you?” he asked in bewilderment.
“No one,” said Lovisa quickly. “A cousin from the north. We’re disturbing her. Let’s go to my bedroom, Pari.”
“She doesn’t look like a northerner,” said Pari, in the same moment footsteps sounded outside the door. A young woman, that guard who hated Lovisa, pushed into the room.