“We’re not telling you that,” said Lovisa, in the same moment the queen said, “North.”
“How far north?” said Vera. “Hardippa? Torla’s Neck? Kamassar?”
“Hardippa,” said Lovisa in an attempt at misdirection, in the same moment the queen said, “Torla’s Neck.”
“You might want to consult with each other,” said Vera, “before you start putting your money down for things. Though I understand you’re the one likely to pay,” she added, turning her eyes to the queen. Bitterblue handed her a ring, which she considered closely.
“I have cash,” said Lovisa, hearing her own childish belligerence and not understanding it. Who cared where they went? Who cared who paid?
“Let’s save it,” said Bitterblue quietly, “until we really need it. My rings are replaceable.”
Vera was now studying Bitterblue more closely, with a new, amused gleam in her eyes. “Besides,” she said, “I think that after all, I’d like a ring or two. I have a feeling that someday, they’ll be souvenirs of a very interesting story.”
“Oh?” said Bitterblue. “You’ve changed your mind about whether I’m an act?”
“My colleagues are quick to believe stories,” she said. “I believe gold. I know the difference between the rings worn by the Lienid commonfolk and the rings they don’t ever wear. Though I suppose you could be a thief,” she added, still peering at Bitterblue critically. “But that would also be an interesting story.”
“What exactly are we paying for with these rings?” Lovisa said. “We’re not boarding an airship leased from the Varanas.”
“Indeed you’re not,” said Vera. “We’ll leave as soon as the sky is dark, and have you in Torla’s Neck by morning. Until our departure, you’re welcome to enjoy the comfort of our baths again, or the bathhouse.”
“The baths or the bathhouse? Nighttime is hours from now!”
“There’s nothing I can do about that,” said Vera. “No number of fine gold rings will make the earth turn faster.”
* * *
—
Back in the bathhouse, the queen began to strip off her coat.
“You’re bathing again?” said Lovisa.
“My whole body hurts,” Bitterblue said. “It hurts less in the bath.”
“Where did you get all your rings?” said Lovisa, watching them flash as the queen undressed. “I’m sure you weren’t wearing them the first time I saw you.”
“I found them,” said Bitterblue.
“In the attic room?” said Lovisa, surprised.
“Yes.”
“Oh,” said Lovisa, slipping her hand into her pocket, touching Katu’s ring.
“May I ask,” said Bitterblue, “if you know anything about my delegation? Hava, Coran, Barra, Froggatt? Giddon?”
“I heard that Coran, Barra, and Froggatt went to Kamassar,” said Lovisa. “Giddon and Hava stayed in Ledra. They came to dinner at my house one night and I caught them snooping in my father’s desk.” How angry she’d been about that, once. “I didn’t know you were in our attic then,” she added defensively, not actually sure she would’ve told them if she’d known.
The queen only nodded. “Did they find anything?”
“Not that I know of.”
“How much do you know about what’s going on?”
Lovisa’s fingers closed around her uncle’s ring. It was a small, hard, sharp reminder of why she’d done all the things she’d done. She pulled it out and sat beside the queen.
“This is what Hava and Giddon would’ve found,” she said, “had they known how to open the hidden drawers in my father’s desk.”
“Katu’s ring,” said Bitterblue.
Lovisa was astonished. “You know my uncle’s ring?”
Bitterblue glanced once, thoughtfully, into Lovisa’s face. “I know your uncle,” she said. “He visited my court a while back, for rather a long time. The first time I saw you, in fact, I thought of him, because of your hair.”
“Oh, of course,” said Lovisa, remembering Katu’s stories about visiting the Monsean queen. Irrationally resentful, suddenly, of their time together in a place Lovisa had never been. “His ring made that much of an impression on you?”
Bitterblue shrugged with one small shoulder. “Rings matter to the Lienid. Do you know what happened to him? Have you heard from him since he started traveling?”
“He hasn’t written,” said Lovisa, who no longer had any doubt about why. “And he’s been drawing money from his bank using checks in places like Kamassar and Borza, but I also found these in the desk.” She fished Katu’s identification papers and checkbook from her coat pocket and passed them into the queen’s hands.
The queen examined this new evidence soberly. “It doesn’t look good.”
“I’m sure he’s dead,” said Lovisa, her voice flat and hard.
“I’m holding out hope until we know for certain.”
“Oh? And how exactly will we ever know? Do you think they erected a sign over his body or something?”
Bitterblue’s eyes touched Lovisa’s with a kind of gentleness that irritated Lovisa further. “I intend to learn every single detail of what’s going on,” said the queen. “I believe it’s a story that touches my own kingdom, which means I need to know.”
“Why should Katu’s murder touch your kingdom?” said Lovisa, with a sudden, vicious stab of jealousy. “He’s not your uncle.”
“I think he was murdered because he knew about things that touch my kingdom.”
“What things, then?”
The queen hesitated. “Lovisa,” she said, “how much do you want to know?”
Lovisa’s fingers closed so tightly over Katu’s ring that it hurt her palm. “What you mean by that is that my parents have done even more bad things, besides kidnapping you, murdering Pari, and probably Katu.”
“Yes,” said Bitterblue.
Lovisa stared at her hand. At the way her knuckles showed a paler brown because of how hard she was holding Katu’s ring. She’d heard them arguing, after all. Her parents had had some kind of plan. Her father had been hiding something important in a banker’s box. The Estillan envoy had been involved.