Evelyn almost laughed at the thought, hysteria rippling just below the surface of her thoughts. It was too much, but it could be done. And perhaps the doing of it would distract her, would erase the image of Urvenon’s bright eyes, and—
Footsteps, running footsteps. Evelyn turned just in time to see Violetta burst into the hallway.
“My lady, come quick,” she gasped out. “What is it?”
“It has reached the house.”
The kitchen was filled with horse grooms, the cook, Violetta’s girl that had fetched her to Pollard, and seemingly all the other household help she employed, save for the guardsmen who were posted about the grounds. They massed around something in the center of the room. A woman, bound to a chair with cutting lines of kitchen twine and broader swaths of fabric, worn shawls and the sleeves of dresses.
She was the other half of Violetta’s hand-picked maids, a girl no more than fifteen. Her name was Iris Polemia, and her eyes were wide and unblinking, almost golden in their fervor, every detail matched to Evelyn’s panicked nightmares. The moment Evelyn stepped into the room, the girl’s head swung around, gaze fixing on her.
“We have made it this far,” Iris said, and Evelyn fell back a step. “We are delighted to see you again so soon.”
No. No, she could not do this, not now, not here. She wanted to scream, to rend her hair, to run screaming out into the night. Perhaps Pollard’s carriage would stop, perhaps he would come back and see this madness for what it was, but no, no—she couldn’t risk it. And now this thing, in her house, and the Judiciary still to come at dawn—she could not bear it.
She must bear it.
Violetta looked up at Evelyn, fear shining in her eyes as well. “It came upon her half an hour ago, my lady.” Violetta glanced nervously between Evelyn, Iris, and the gathered press of people. “While you were with Officer Pollard. She left the mansion yesterday evening, and came back just before we did last night. She seemed whole and healthy then. My lady—”
“All of them, out,” Evelyn said.
Violetta fell silent, then took a deep breath and turned to their audience. “Leave us.”
A few moved to go. The rest remained, staring at Iris, who looked as delighted as an infant, beaming at Evelyn, straining against her bonds.
“Now,” Violetta added, an unfamiliar edge of fury in her voice.
They dispersed back into the bulk of the house.
Violetta subsided then, wringing her hands together. She shut the two doors that led into the kitchen, locking them before turning to Evelyn. “Are you whole?” she asked, softly. “You’ve been in your workroom all day. When Officer Pollard arrived, I—”
Evelyn flushed with anger and shame below her veil. “I am whole,” she sneered, then regretted her tone as Violetta flinched. “And I have handled Officer Pollard, for the moment, though he will return by morning.”
“Morning!”
“We don’t have much time. If we are lucky, I have what might serve as a cure,” she added. “I’ve been working all day.”
“A cure.” Violetta seemed to shrink in relief, placing her hands against her face. “A cure,” she murmured through them. “Oh, thank you.”
“We need no cure,” Iris said, canting her head at them.
Evelyn shuddered, regarding the girl and the thing that rode in her body. The possession. It was in a girl who had access to her inner sanctum. How long had it been inside of her? It hadn’t burned through her mind yet, but what did that mean? The sailors had been normal up until they disembarked from The Verity.
Evelyn went to the scarred wooden table where the other maid had deposited the box of potions, withdrawing one of the vials. The henbane tea blended with valerian. When Iris’s eyes landed on it, her smile turned to a gasp and grin of ecstasy.
“That! That, which we desire most! Oh, but of course you have brought it to us, Evelyn Perdanu.”
Her skin crawled, but she crossed to the chair without hesitation, taking the girl’s chin in her fingers.
“Drink this,” Evelyn said, and thumbed off the cork of the vial, pressing it to Iris’s lips.
She drank it down eagerly, shuddering and sobbing with delight as the last bitter drops landed on her tongue. Her fingers spread wide where they were bound behind the chair, her feet stamping like a joyous child. “I taste it! I know it!”
Evelyn stepped back quickly, breathing hard. The effects would take time to overwhelm her, but the dose was strong.
And what if it didn’t work? The creature in Iris’s body licked her lips and seemed to almost glow from within. No creature would desire its own end, but if it truly recognized the taste of henbane, it would know what she intended.
“We slept for so long, above the great sea,” the creature said with Iris’s voice, taking a deep, satisfied breath. “When we first tasted it, we only stirred enough to follow. But when we landed on this shore, we could feel it, the roads and ways open to us. So much fertile ground to spread along. We knew we had to find this place that holds you like a mother holds her child.”
“Silence,” Violetta hissed, face ashen and eyes wide.
Evelyn slowly raised her hand. “No, let it speak,” she said. “Why me?”
“You have what we need to grow stronger,” the creature said, expression open and wanting. Iris’s body strained against the twine cutting into her flesh, leaning towards Evelyn. “It’s here, here in this place. We feel it. We know it.”
“It’s not working,” Violetta said. “The cure, it’s not doing anything. Give her more.”
“What is it?” Evelyn demanded, even as she snatched up another vial.
“If we tell you, will you give us more?” Iris’s eyes sparkled, pupils constricting to bare pinpoints.
“Yes,” Evelyn said.
Iris shifted forward, and Evelyn leaned in reflexively.
“The origin,” Iris’s voice whispered. “It is here. The start of ruin. We want to reach that beginning.”
Evelyn scowled. “No riddles.”
“We don’t speak riddles, only truth. But perhaps you cannot understand yet. We hope you will, soon. But the medicine, the medicine! You promised us.”
Evelyn hesitated, then uncorked the vial and held it to Iris’s lips, watched her throat move as the creature sucked down more henbane.
The dose should have been much more than a healthy girl could handle, but still there seemed to be no effect at all from it. Evelyn gripped Iris’s cheeks, titling her face upwards and searching for the first signs. Nothing. Nothing. It was unnatural—
And then Iris’s eyelids fluttered, the fervent light in her eyes beginning to dim. Evelyn watched the medicine work through her body, sedating and numbing. She watched as her breast rose and fell in slower and slower rhythms. She watched her eyes fall shut.
Evelyn stepped back, setting down the empty glass and keeping vigil.
“Will it be enough?” Violetta asked. “What is it? What will it do?”
“A sedative,” Evelyn murmured, not daring to raise her voice above a whisper. “So that the fever might burn itself out without destroying her mind.”
“Will it work?”