Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(53)

“I wasn’t! I’m just on probation.” I took her hand, tugged her thumb from inside her fist, and patted her knuckles. “You’ll break your thumb that way, and you should always go for the throat, nose, or ears.”

Maud rolled her eyes, sitting on the edge of my bed. “I’m not one to start fights.”

“No.” I smiled. “But you should know how to finish them.”

“I’ll finish you,” Maud muttered. She bumped her fist—properly folded—against my cheek. “You’re plainer than I thought you’d be.”

“I deserved that.” I nodded to her hair. “You’re all out of sorts.”

“All thanks to you.”

She deserved more than an auditioner doomed to die. Like Grell’s bounty. It had to go to someone, and she’d get more use out of it than I would. I’d have to will it to her later.

“I am sorry though. I’m trying to stay in, but I’m probably going to die and lose you your job—”

“You know how long I worked trying to get out from under Dimas?” Maud asked, throwing her hands up and interrupting me. “And cleaning! I don’t like it, but I’m good at it, and everyone says an eye for detail like mine can’t be wasted on some wealthy merchant coming to town and keeping me around to run the guests rooms, but this was finally something they couldn’t stop me from doing.”

I stopped smiling, completely done with being interrupted and ready to be Twenty-Three again.

“I’m on probation and all the auditioners are out to kill me,” I said. “Sorry if that disrupts your business plans, but I have to get a killer to recant in order to prove my innocence. So I’m going to focus on that.”

She sucked in a breath, walked to the tub, and started going through the chest of drawers next to it. She returned with a tiny jar. “Shirt up—you can’t do anything if you pull your stitches out.”

She washed her hands with a bottle of watered-down witch hazel and opened Isidora’s salve. The spicy scent of hot peppers wafted around us, burning my nose.

“What do you need?” she asked.

“You’ll be breaking the rules.”

“Those rules were made for auditioners not on probation.” Maud sniffed and patted the salve down my side. “They never specified rules for this.”

“I knew I liked you.” I grinned and saluted her. If I died, she didn’t get paid. Helping me, even if it was slightly wrong, helped her. “I need to know what the others are up to, and there’s only one sort of person they won’t attack—a servant.”

She nodded and said, “I’ll have to get you a uniform. What else?”

“It’s about time for another test, isn’t it?” I tested the edges of my wound, wincing with each pinch of pain as I twisted. “You heard about that?”

“I thought you’d never ask.” She sighed. “It’s breakfast.”

“So you’re fine with helping me win but not fine with telling me stuff like that outright?”

She frowned.

“Your face will stick like that one day.” I laid out my mask, knives, and lock picks on the bed. Best take stock of what I had and what I needed. “Ruby’s been teaching us manners, and you need those at the breakfast table. The meal’s poisoned—there’s Emerald’s lessons—and they’re seeing if we paid enough attention to Amethyst and Isidora to know how to counter it. They using servants?”

Maud nodded. “I volunteered to serve drinks.”

“Think the Left Hand will notice if I take your place?”

“Probably not. Their servants recruited us.” She shrugged. “They’ll be too busy with the food to check.”

The door handle twisted. I threw a hand over Maud’s mouth, dragging her to the other side of the room.

“Someone picked it,” I whispered. “Be quiet and still.”

No one had seen me enter. I’d made sure of it. So this was meant for me the next time I opened the door. I let go of Maud and lowered myself to the floor as quiet as I could, cheek pressing into the floorboards. Small feet—too small to be Four, Five, or Fifteen—tapped against the entrance steps. Gloved hands fluttered around the bolt keep.

Eleven.

She had to be trapping my door. I knew a few common ones: packets that blew powder and vials filled with oils that ignited as soon as the air hit them. I could disarm one of those without killing myself. Probably.

I’d done it once, and Rath had only lost some knuckle hair.

Eleven shut the door and hurried away.

I tested the handle, wincing at the pressure. The trap was inside the bolt keep and probably a packet of something nasty. Sliding one of my finer, thinner picks between the keep and the door, I wedged the pick in place. Silver shone in the crack between the door and the jamb. I took a small breath.

A mealy, slightly acidic scent hit my nose.

“It’s Lady’s Palm.” Fresh from the earth and potent enough to kill a grown man. Emerald had shown us the mushroom in a dark, damp corner of her greenhouse. I’d only ever seen it dried before coming here. “I mess this up, don’t touch anything. Just go get Emerald and Isidora.”

This wasn’t clever. Eleven’s trap didn’t discriminate between auditioner and servant. Lady’s Palm was the easiest poison to use and the hardest to counter. The antidote only worked if you knew how much to take.