I hurried out before the first tears could fall, wiping them on the back of my glove as I opened the door to the hall outside.
I set off toward the civil quarters. It was time for me to be in control. It was time for me to do something. And Annika would be in their meeting, which meant I could do things a bit differently than I had during my disastrous, too-public audit of the treasury. If I found evidence in their rooms, I’d arrest them. If I didn’t, I’d arrest Olloi. Grand dukes made grand gestures.
Annika made sense as a suspect. Someone had been talking to Sigis in the law library. They owned land in Drysiak, and they’d switched from opposing a parliament to supporting one in the matter of a day. And if the uneasiness grew in me, if I felt as though I was sneaking around, I reminded myself that I was the grand duke and that my word was law.
Annika’s rooms were locked, but I motioned to Viljo. He came forward warily. “Break the lock,” I ordered. He stared at me, uncertain, and my temper flared again. “Do you need to hear it twice?”
“Ah, no,” he mumbled. “Your Grace.”
He took out a knife and fumbled with the lock until I heard a brittle snap. The door to Annika’s rooms creaked open.
The apartments were green and gold, with a low couch in the antechamber and a desk carved from a pale wood in a series of intricate knots, more in the style of one of the Western countries than our little snowbound place. Maybe Annika owned land there, too.
I went to the desk first, opening each drawer in succession. Land agreements, taxation records, farming leases, and serf reports. All were dated in the last three months. And all were for land within Sigis’s empire. They would make good evidence.
“Your Grace,” Viljo said nervously.
“Watch the door.” From the desk, I moved on to Annika’s bookshelves. If I were to hide truly damning information, I’d do so in the most boring-looking book on my shelf. For me, it would be a biology tome. For Annika…
I pulled On the Technological Advances in Soil from the shelf and flicked it open. No luck. I picked up the book next to it, and the book next to that. Each one looked less interesting than the last—but none of them hid anything.
Under the bed. Behind a sconce. In the cushions of couches and chairs. In the lining of tapestries. As I took a quick inventory of the rooms, my pulse increased. You’re the grand duke. You don’t snoop. You investigate. This palace was my right. Serving my family was Annika’s privilege.
“Your Grace,” Viljo repeated. Did he have any other language in his vocabulary?
“I told you to watch the door,” I snapped.
“Why?” said an all-too-familiar and unwelcome voice.
I whirled, dropping the stack of books I held. They bounced off my toes. I tried to look like the kind of person who dropped books on my shoes for fun. “Minister Reko. What are you doing here?”
“I must ask you the same question.” Reko’s eyes fluttered from the bookcase to me to Viljo. “I wasn’t aware you had business with Minister Annika—” His eyes swept the room again. “Without Minister Annika.”
“And you just happened to come this way?” I challenged him. “Your quarters are on the other side of the palace. Are you following me around?”
He didn’t answer. That only solidified my certainty, like ice freezing over the dark lake. He had been waiting for me to leave the royal apartments to see what I’d do next. But he cocked his head and said, “And what are you doing here?” as though he had all the right in the world to be in Annika’s rooms, and I had none.
His insolence rubbed at an open wound. “I am the grand duke. I can go where I please in my own palace.”
“That it is your palace does not make it all your property. Would you demand that the entire duchy open its doors for you to stomp around and throw their books on the floor?” Reko sounded both amused and outraged.
“If that’s what will bring my father back, yes.”
“Even a grand duke must abide by the law,” Reko said.
I called on the cold rage of my father and mother. “I am the law.”
The sneer began at his lips. It pulled back, and back, twisting his face, darkening his eyes. “You are the law?” he seethed. “How dare you? Your father was the law. You’re nothing but a despot. This is a person’s private room.”
“That’s enough,” I said, and tried to signal the paralyzed Viljo.
“It is not enough,” he said, and from the way he pitched his voice, theatrically loud, I knew he was trying to signal people to come. And it was working. I heard footsteps in the hall, saw half a face behind the doorframe. “You have violated a sacred rule. Are you planting evidence? Are you setting them up? Orchestrating their downfall so that you can replace them?”
“I’m trying to find the truth.” I wanted the truth. The chance to escape. Freedom. Not the scrutiny of the servants and delegates and lesser ministers who had begun to crowd the hallway, curious.
“Whose truth?” Reko said.
“Truth isn’t subjective. It’s scientific.” And there was a truth to all this.
Reko laughed, bitter as poison. “Of course. Your truth is the only truth. I should have expected.”
“Reko, stop.” I hated how pleading I sounded. But I hated the spectacle more. I hated that people peered around the corner and didn’t avert their gaze when I glared at them. I hated that my plan was truly awful and that I was only now starting to realize it. I hated that if I’d understood even the simplest politics, I probably wouldn’t be here.
“No,” Reko spat. “Not until you’ve stopped the coronation trials and abdicated. I won’t stand by while you seize power. You’re not fit for it.”
I know, I wanted to scream in his face. I knew better than anyone.
Reko stepped toward the door, and his voice rang out down the corridor. “I’d rather have no grand duke and let Kylma fall into the lake than have a thief and a murderer for my grand duke.”
The murmurs that fissured through the corridor picked up in volume and speed. Syllables punched through the air like the sound of ice cracking. Murder. Curse. Stealing.
I was going under.
I grabbed Viljo by the arm. “Arrest him.” I dug in my fingers and gave him a look that said plainly, It’s him or you.
Viljo opened his mouth to dissent—then marched over to Reko. Reko didn’t try to resist as Viljo turned him against the wall and twisted his arms behind his back. At Viljo’s nod another guard came forward and took Reko away, their shoes clicking on the ice in a disjointed beat.
The crowd parted as they passed. The look Reko gave me over his shoulder was bitterly triumphant.
Silence followed, as thick as honey. I needed to save face, and I needed to do so before anyone else left. “And arrest Minister Annika, please. On suspicion of treason.” Viljo nodded, and another guard was dispatched to find them.
I lifted my head and gathered the cloak of my mother about me. My spine was rigid. Let them talk. Let them think me a despot.
Grand dukes made grand tyrants.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Father probably would have made some magical demonstration to remind everyone who was in charge. I retreated. Aino followed me, but wisely kept her mouth shut until we were in my rooms. Then she said, “What’s the point, Ekata?”