Mask of Shadows (Untitled #1)(54)

And Lady knew no one wanted to guess how much nightshade extract to drink.

I eased another three picks into the crack and opened the door. No click, no puff, and no white cloud of death.

A small white ball of Mizuho rice paper—thin enough to fold and thick enough that the powder didn’t seep out—sat in the keep. If I’d opened the door as normal, the ball would’ve rolled out and the needle glued above it would’ve torn a hole in the rice paper. It was crude but effective.

“That’s it?”

I glanced at Maud. “Killing people isn’t hard.”

And wasn’t that how everyone died? Not expecting death from something simple.

“You all need better locks.” I studied the ball, gently turning it over in my hands.

“You really don’t trust anyone, do you?” she asked, crossing her arms over her chest. “It’s impossible to cross the river and get here—”

“I did it.”

“—normally.” She stepped around me and peered out the door, blocking me from view with her skirts. “They changed security for the auditions.”

“Handkerchief.” I held out my hand, and Maud handed hers over. “What do you mean?”

“Most of the guards are new recruits,” Maud said. “They switched them up for auditions.”

I’d not thought of that. I pried the needle off the door, tossing it aside. The ball was trickier, and I wrapped the handkerchief twice around it. If Eleven had used rice paper, the powder was too big to fall through the holes, and she’d surely not put herself in danger with a leaking trap. Maud took a step back from me, eyes on my hands. I nodded to the door.

“Shut it.” I weighed the bundle in my palm. This could work. “Know where I could get nightshade extract?”

“Lady dal Abreu has everything in her laboratory.” She shook her head a breath later when she realized why I’d asked. “You can’t—she has everyone searched before they enter and again when they leave.”

“That’s fine.” I pictured the building for healing training in my mind, trying to remember how many doors and windows it had. “I’ll just go in properly and leave some other way.”

“The window,” she said softly. “Go out the window.”

“What?”

“The orphanage masters searched us when we left and when we returned.” Maud shrugged. “So we used the window.”

Of course—concerned more with if their charges were stealing than why.

“We used to break our falls with this old hay cart. It worked fine as long as you landed properly.” She nodded slowly, spreading her arms out wide, as if to prove all her jumping had left her in one piece and I’d be fine. “I’ll leave a laundry cart there, and you can land in it. That might work.”

She arched her brow and tapped her foot when I didn’t agree immediately, as if jumping out of windows was normal.

“Trust me,” she said. “We’ve got nothing left to lose.”

I snorted. Trust got people like me killed.

But she’d used “we.” Maud was in this too.

“All right.” I clapped her on the shoulder. “Let’s jump out a window.”





Thirty-One


Maud was quick to remind me that she wasn’t jumping out of any windows.

She left to get me a uniform. I double-checked my stitches and bandaged up the rest of my hurts so they couldn’t be seen while I was playing servant. She returned with a sharp-looking set of clothes identical to Dimas’s fitted shirt, flared coat, and matching gray pants. I tucked the soldier’s uniform away for later and got dressed. Maud looked me over with her critical gaze.

“Passable.” She buttoned the collar up to my chin. “Now how to serve drinks.”

I shifted about in the stiff coat. “Pour when the glass is empty?”

“Just be quiet and pay attention.”

It was boring. Exhausting for sure but mostly boring, and the fact that Maud had a strong enough will to stand around waiting for folks to order her about made her all the more interesting. Anticipating people’s needs was a whole different kind of spying. It took me till dawn to get the hang of all the little rules. I even had to stand a certain way.

Maud straightened my clothes one last time and wrinkled her nose at my less-than-polished boots. “Go now—the guards will switch shifts after you get there. It should buy you some more time.”

“You sure you’re not a criminal mastermind?” I muttered as I left.

Maud only scowled.

But she was right. Two yawning guards patted me down as soon as I crossed the threshold. I’d not stayed in training long enough to study the building, but it was larger and taller than it looked. The first floor dropped into the ground—more basement than anything else—and gave the guards their own little room for checking people as they came and went. I adopted Maud’s passive stance while they looked over me.

“I only need something stronger to clean up my auditioner’s mess.” I shrugged while he patted down where I’d hidden my lock picks and dropped my voice into the soft, resigned tone of someone forced to do something out of their control. “You know how they are.”

The explanation had been Maud’s idea.