Ash Princess (Ash Princess Trilogy #1)(102)

Two more guards appear behind them, unlocking their shackles. One guides the other girl before the Kaiser. Crescentia’s older slave, I realize. She limps as she walks and the skin around her left eye is dark and swollen. Unlike Elpis, though, she isn’t frightened. She holds herself tall and confident.

“What is your name?” the Kaiser asks her.

“Gazzi, Your Highness,” she says with a wobbly curtsy.

“Gazzi,” he says with a kind smile. “Will you repeat what you told my guardsmen when the Theyn’s body was found?”

She casts a glance back to me, but there is no softness in it. Astrean as she might be, I am not her queen. “I told them that earlier in the day Elpis had answered the door for a visitor. I was in another room, but they spoke for several minutes. I could tell it was Lady Thora—she visited Lady Crescentia so often I recognized her voice. When she finally left, I peeked out from the door and saw Elpis slip a glass vial into her apron. She was smiling bigger than I’d ever seen her.”

“And you didn’t mention this to Lady Crescentia or the Theyn?” the Kaiser asks.

“I didn’t know what I’d seen,” she admits. “I thought maybe it was a present for Lady Crescentia—they were such close friends, it wouldn’t have been unusual. It wasn’t until we were preparing dinner that I saw her take the vial from her apron and tip it into the dessert wine. I asked her what it was and she hit me, Your Highness.” She motions to her bruised eye. “Locked me in a closet. She finished preparing dessert herself, and the next thing I knew, the guards had found me and I told them everything. But it was too late and the Theyn was dead. Luckily, poor Lady Crescentia only drank a sip of wine because she’d had a bit too much of the dinner wine already.”

Only a sip. A sip alone should have killed her. It would have killed someone twice her size. But I can’t imagine they have any reason to lie about that now. Even though I still don’t really believe Cress is alive, my knees buckle with relief.

“Thank you, my dear,” the Kaiser says, before motioning Elpis forward.

The guard shoves her along and her eyes meet mine. I give her an encouraging nod, but we both know what will come of this. To my surprise, the fear dissipates from her eyes. She nods once at me before turning her attention to the Kaiser.

“Do you dispute the charges leveled against you?” he asks.

“I don’t,” she says, her high voice strong and clear. “My queen offered me a chance to help her strike back at the people who have hurt everyone I love. I leapt at it.” She smiles and it is wild and triumphant, despite everything.

But the Kaiser responds with a snap of his fingers and a grin that turns my skin to ice. The guard holding Gazzi unsheathes his sword.

Gazzi is too shocked to do anything before the guard holding her stabs his sword through her back, the bloody point of it coming through her chest. A quick death. My attention doesn’t linger on her. I wait for Elpis’s guard to do the same, but instead, he pulls a vial from the inside of his cloak and removes the cork. Keeping one arm firmly around Elpis’s waist, he brings the vial to her lips.

Her eyes lock onto mine and I realize what the Kaiser has planned. I’ve confessed, yes, but I haven’t told him everything. He’s smart enough to know that.

“Just enough poisoned wine left for one,” the Kaiser says. “You have a choice, Ash Princess. Tell me the truth and I’ll send her to the mines instead. Otherwise…”

The guard pulls Elpis’s hair back until she has no choice but to open her mouth and he tilts the potion closer. I struggle against the guard holding me, but his grip is like iron.

He won’t spare her, no matter what I do—just like he didn’t spare Ampelio. He’s a liar and he doesn’t show mercy. I know that and so does Elpis. So does everyone in the room. I cannot save her. I cannot save her. I cannot—

“Stop!” The word is wrenched from my throat like a sob, against my will. The guard freezes.

“I thought we could come to an understanding,” the Kaiser says with a nauseating smile. “I’ll ask again: Where did you get the Encatrio?”

I swallow. Suddenly I don’t feel anything like a queen. A true queen could weigh the lives of many against the life of one, but I can’t. All I see is Elpis. All I hear is Blaise’s voice, telling me she’s my responsibility. I asked this of her, I brought her here, I’ve as good as killed her. I owe her this. Even if the Kaiser doesn’t spare her, he’ll give her a clean death, like Gazzi. Not the Encatrio; he’ll save that for someone else.

“My Shadows,” I say, trusting that they are long gone now. “Rebels replaced them last month. Where they got it, I don’t know.”

The Kaiser frowns and motions to the guard, who tips the vial again.

“I don’t know!” I shout, fighting against the guards who hold me, but it does no good. “I swear, I don’t know anything more!”

They don’t stop, though. Elpis’s guard tips the vial just enough to give her a drop before pinching her nose until she swallows. The sound that erupts from her is like nothing I’ve heard before, the hoarse cry of a dying animal that vibrates through my whole body, scraping over my skin like claws. I fight against my guards, my elbow flying up. Something cracks and one of the guards lets out a string of curses, but their hold never loosens.