Tarn scowled at the moon. He nodded, then went back inside the ballroom.

“Hungry?” Neel asked Shaida.

“Yes.” She no longer hid her smile. They went inside.

The musicians had set their instruments aside and almost everyone was already seated—though, Neel noted, Tarn and Treb were still standing in a corner, conferring darkly. On a raised platform stood the king’s table, with places for each tribe leader and (at Neel’s insistence) his mother. She was seated next to Jasmine of the Lovari, and as Neel and Shaida took their places alongside them, Neel’s stomach rumbled to see the food piled on his plate. There were fried lotus roots in a red-brown paste of tamarind, chili pepper, and ginger. He spied roasted eggplant mashed with garlic and rosemary, served on flatbread, and chickpeas dressed with lemon and cilantro. A large bowl rested on the table in front of him, filled with mango juice and mint.

Neel had reached for a handful of chickpeas when the scoot jumped from the ceiling onto his shoulder. It clambered down his arm and began munching on the chickpeas as if Neel’s hand was a trough.

A slightly horrified silence echoed through the room, but Neel laughed. He kept laughing until the scoot stiffened with a high-pitched whine. It began to convulse, and flopped off Neel’s arm into the bowl of juice, where it thrashed and suddenly went still. It floated on its back, its small mouth stretched open.

The chickpeas fell from Neel’s hand as he realized what everyone in the room was realizing.

His food had been poisoned.

23

The Spy

THERE WAS A LOT of screaming after that.

Neel felt his mother grip his arm. He heard Jasmine and Shaida shouting in his ear as his advisers bore down on him from across the room. He stared as people shoved back their plates, but he knew they needn’t worry. That poison had been for him alone.

He stepped back from the table. He ducked away from Arun, Gita, and Karim. He went to his rooms and stayed there, and didn’t understand why, even though he was supposed to be king, he didn’t have the power to make his guards keep everyone out. People pressed their way through the door.

“Are you all right? You didn’t eat anything, did you?” Karim pressed a hand to Neel’s forehead, as if the poison would have produced only a mild fever in him, instead of immediately striking him down as it had the scoot.

Neel jerked away.

“He’s going to die right before our eyes!” someone cried.

“And he’s so young!”

“The poor boy. Why, he’s barely older than a child.”

“Who could have done this?”

Arun and Gita pushed through the crowd. “Who had access to the king’s food?” Arun demanded.

There was a brief silence as everyone turned toward Shaida, Jasmine, and Damara.

“Absurd,” said Shaida. “Do you really think one of us would have poisoned the king’s food in full view of everyone? Do you think his own mother would be capable of such a thing?”

“We must get to the bottom of this,” someone said.

“Something must be done!”

“Too right,” said Treb. “And one thing’s sure as a dropped anchor: you’ve got to be tough on this, Neel. You’ve got to suss this person out, and punish like a king should punish, or you’ll be looking over your shoulder in fear for the rest of your life. I’d like to catch the person myself. Someone daring to come after my family? Why, no one has more reason than the Maraki to snuff out my brat of a cousin, and even we—”

“Those aren’t smart words, brother,” Tarn said quietly.

People stared at Treb and Tarn. Neel heard snatches of whispers.

“What if his own family…?”

“Or his mother…?”

“Could it have been her?”

“Get out,” Neel said. “All of you.”

Everyone looked at each other.

“Get out!” he screamed.

There was a flurry of concern among the crowd, and some mild outrage, but Neel kept shouting until Treb glared at the guards and helped them muscle everyone out of the room.

Everyone except Damara.

When the door had shut behind the last courtier and Neel heard the rising and falling of the guards’ voices in the corridor as they ordered people to clear this wing of the palace, Neel turned to his mother and buried himself in her arms.

Softly, she said, “This isn’t the first time, is it?”

“Should I give it up?” Neel asked. “Should I give the throne to the Maraki?”

“Is that really what you want to do?”

Neel pulled away. I don’t know, moaned a voice inside him, but then Neel realized that it was a weak liar. He knew.

Damara read the answer in his eyes. “Treb’s right. A king has to react strongly to something like this. If you don’t, you’ll be seen as vulnerable. The Roma can’t have a vulnerable ruler. And I can’t bear the thought of someone trying to hurt my son again.”

Neel sighed, and nodded. “I’m glad you’re here, Ma.”

“So am I.”

“I wish Sadie was here, too. I asked her to come. I sent a royal summons. She should be here by now. Why isn’t she?”

* * *

“WHY ARE YOU STILL HERE?” Joel, the older of the two Riven brothers, pushed aside his mug of ale and frowned at Sadie. “Prague isn’t safe for you. It hasn’t been for a long time. Your own king ordered you—”

“The king, apparently, is my little brother,” Sadie said dryly. “He can’t tell me what to do.”

Joel made an impatient noise, but Sadie merely gave him a steady look, and he became mesmerized, as he often was, by her beauty. In the light of the tallow candles that lit this noisy tavern, Sadie’s pale skin glowed like a pearl. He glanced around them and dropped his voice to a whisper. “If these people knew what you are…”

“What I am? I am not a thing.”

“I didn’t say you were. But to be half Roma at a time like this…”

“No one would know, to look at me.” In a bitter voice, she said, “I wish they could.”

“You would be imprisoned. Worse. There are no Roma left in Bohemia, save you. The rest are gone, or dead, or jailed, or warped into monsters. Just go home, Sadie. Stop meeting with me.”

“Don’t say that. Don’t ever say that. I’m risking everything to meet with you. The least you can do is hear what I have to say and send a message to the Vatra.”

Joel pressed a hand to his eyes. “Tell me, then.”

Sadie whispered, “A pack of Gristleki went missing in the Novohrad Mountains. I heard the captain of the guard say so. It’s the first time anything like this has happened. The prince doesn’t know what to make of it.”

“Is it possible that the Gray Men regained some of their humanity? Maybe they remembered what they really are, and ran away.”

Sadie bit her lip. “I don’t think that’s possible. The prince had a special prison built to house the Gray Men in the forest behind the castle. I’ve been there. There are rows and rows of cages, each barely big enough to hold a monster. They snarled behind the bars. Bashed their faces against the cages, scrabbling to get at me … they would have eaten me alive, Joel. There was nothing human about them.”

“Maybe a group of Bohemian rebels killed the missing Gristleki. I hear the rebellion is gaining force. There are a lot of people in this country who’d like to toss the prince from his throne.”

“Yes. Or maybe the prince is losing control of the Gray Men.”

They went silent at this idea. The only thing worse than Prince Rodolfo having an army of monsters was the thought of them running wild and hungry, under no one’s command.

“I have to get back to the castle,” Sadie said. “The prince is having a meeting with the captain of the guard tonight. I want to hear what they have to say.”

“I’ll give your information to my brother,” Joel said. “Vincent will see that it gets to the Vatra. Also … there’s something I should tell you.”

“Yes?”

“Vincent received some news from your country. By now, your brother’s friends should have entered Bohemia. Tomik Stakan and Petra Kronos.”

“Petra Kronos.” The anger was back in Sadie’s eyes. “Don’t ever say her name to me again. If she hadn’t tempted Neel into stealing from the Cabinet of Wonders, Prince Rodolfo wouldn’t have turned his hatred toward the Roma. She’s the cause of all of this.”

* * *

SADIE’S BREATH sounded harsh and loud in her ears. She curled tighter inside the trunk, squeezing her arms around her chest. It felt like her heart would burst out of her body, it was beating so wildly. She heard the captain’s guards checking obvious hiding places in the captain’s suite of rooms. They probed the inside of the wardrobe with daggers. They swept a sword under the bed. They wouldn’t, however, open a trunk they thought housed the captain’s very personal possessions—his money, his weapons, his collection of silver codpieces. They wouldn’t guess that Sadie had used her chambermaid’s keys to enter this room earlier and quietly unpack the trunk. They wouldn’t open it. The captain wouldn’t remember something important he’d placed inside, something he needed right away.

Or so Sadie hoped.

The captain and his guards joked about which body part they’d cut off first if they found someone hiding in the captain’s suite. Sweat trickled down Sadie’s cheek and into her mouth, and an eerie silence filled her ears. For a moment, she thought her fear had deafened her. But then the captain said, “Your Highness,” in a reverent voice. Sadie pressed her ear to the trunk’s keyhole.

There was the sound of a door shutting and someone settling into a chair. Prince Rodolfo said nothing.

“The missing Gristleki have been found,” said the captain. “Fiala Broshek examined the bodies, and says they were killed about a month ago. All four of the corpses had been stabbed in the neck or decapitated. It’s as if someone—or someones—knew exactly where the Gray Men are vulnerable. Or they figured it out very quickly.”

Sadie suddenly wondered if there was enough air in the trunk. The prince’s silence seemed to be a rope tightening around her neck. She couldn’t breathe. Would she suffocate in here?

“We’ve seen this before,” the captain added. “More than a year ago.”

The prince finally spoke, and Sadie wished he hadn’t. He said, “Petra Kronos.”

“I assume the Gray Men stumbled upon her when returning over the mountains from Austria. They must have been ravenous after what they did to your brother. Whoever they would have come across afterward, they would have attacked. But it’s possible she somehow knew they were there, and was seeking them out. Of course, there’s no proof that it was the Kronos girl.”

“I hope it was her,” said the prince. “That means she is in my country, close to me. I want her. I want her to suffer, and I want to see it.”

“If she’s here, it’s only a matter of time before she’s found. Everyone in Bohemia knows she’s an outlaw. They’ve seen the sketches of her we’ve posted in town squares. They know the bounty on her head. If she dared set foot in your country, she’d be yours. My only worry is the rebels—”

“I do not wish to hear about the rebels. My Gray Men will destroy them the moment you, Captain, do your job and discover their identities and whereabouts. In any event, the rebels will shortly no longer matter. When the empire is mine, when its military might is mine, no one will dare question me.”

“Well, in fact, that’s one of the reasons I wanted to speak with you tonight.” Sadie heard the captain stir. He crossed the room, his footsteps growing louder. He leaned against the chest, and it groaned under his weight. Sadie held her breath. “Can I make a suggestion?”

“You may.”

“Despite the loss of the four Gristleki, their mission was a success. Your brother Maximilian is dead. I think it’s time to turn our attention to your other brother, Frederic. If you’ll permit me to send another pack of Gristleki into Hungary, in a few days you’ll have condolences from every monarch in the world.”

Sadie imagined the prince’s smile. “If only they knew.”

“No one will be able to prove you killed your brothers. And, technically, you didn’t. The Gray Men did. All they had to do was slip into Maximilian’s room early one night and scratch a finger on his skin. It must have been hard for them to scrape the skin and not feast on his blood. But they did it. They can do the same to Frederic. It’s an excellent idea.”

“Of course. It was mine.”

“It’s amazing, the way their poison works. Imagine how Maximilian slept on, letting the poison spread untreated through his blood for hours. And you know what? He was lucky.” The captain pushed himself off the trunk’s lid, and Sadie let out a slow breath. “After all, doesn’t everyone want to die in their sleep?”

They laughed.

“I am sure my brother Frederic does,” said the prince.

There was the sound of glass chiming against glass, and liquid being poured.

“To the heir of the empire,” the captain said.

“Yes,” said the prince. “To me.”

The glasses clinked.

24

The Academy

“I’VE HEARD that the Academy beds are draped in velvet,” said Tomik, “and that, in the winter, every student is given a metal box full of coals to place under the covers at the foot of the bed. The bed stays warm all night.”