Riley felt cozy in Lady Maribelle’s tea room after walking through the rest of the castle. It was at the top of the highest tower. Windows lined the walls letting in light between shelves of books, matching tomes with austere gold print. They sat in four high-backed leather chairs in a companionable circle around a low table.
“Oh, my sweet baby, you really are an apple fallen right off of my tree.” Lady Maribelle was smiling and Riley smiled with her. It was impossible not to. The parlor smelled of Bergamot and roses. “You have grown into a great woman.”
Riley took a sip of tea. It tasted like spring.
Cora reached for her cup and said, “It’s not like you don’t have a warehouse of chandeliers.”
“Every chandelier I buy is a job. For a glassblower, for a silversmith, for a carter to transport it. The taxes that I collect then get redistributed.” Lady Maribelle sat tall, hands folded on her knee. “Many homes will feast on that broken glass. Tell me what is so important, my porcelain doll?”
Riley took a deep breath and told the story. Maribelle gasped at the condition of the old woman. Tears streamed down her pretty face leaving trails of black ochre. Riley thought of the red streams on that woman’s face by the spring. Riley finished the tale this time with the scene with her family after dinner. The closed borders. The refusal to send help. The envoy to Kalden.
“We will send medicine to Kisten today! Though I don’t know what kind. They’d need itch cream, eye drops, pain relievers of course—”
Lissie cut Lady Maribelle off. “There is more. This plague comes from the Plains, where my people live. My grandmother told me about it. Send your doctors if you will, but we must travel to the Plains to find the cure.”
Lady Maribelle favored each of them with a smile in turn. “I can send mercenaries with you. I know that the war is over, and it’s supposed to be safe. But it is a hostile countryside. I hate to think of my beloved daughter going with only her friends to guide and guard her.”
Riley paused and took another sip of her tea. She had not considered other travelers.
I thought she would try to trap us, Riley thought.
Aloud, she said, “You’re not going to stop us?”
Lady Maribelle’s laugh was throaty, her eyes glittered. She replied, “I would trust this with no one else.” She stood up and spread her arms. “Do you know who has ruled this duchy for fifteen years? A woman. A woman who was seventeen when she became a duchess. A woman raising a daughter all on her own. Who has kept the king from reappropriating these lands to a general? Who has grown the gold in the coffers? Who raised the towering factories across the land? I could trust this to no one else.”
The room was silent after the speech. Lissie was the first to speak, “Riley, we cannot take an army with us into the Plains. We cannot gain their trust that way. We need their trust.”
Riley knew her friend was right. Her hand went to the hilt of hickory at her side. She traced the carving of Ruskin with her thumb. “She’s right. We must go alone. We will take only Alexander.”
At his name, both Cora’s and Lady Maribelle’s cheeks flushed. Cora asked, “Where is he?”
“Oh, he said he was going to go check on that boy. Tawn. I told him that he was in class, and that he should wait. But he just ran off anyway.” Lady Maribelle shot a knowing look at her daughter.
Lissie turned to Riley and asked, “How long do you want to stay and rest here?”
Riley considered for a moment before answering, “All we need is food and fresh travel clothes.” She let herself smile at the look of relief on Cora’s face.
“You will have nothing but the finest. My beautiful warriors, saviors, and salvation. You are the bastion I will have against the panic to come.”