An Affair of Poisons(43)

He leans over the board to make a note. “Finish collecting everything you need, and I’ll bring it later tonight. I’m supposed to meet La Voisin in her solar now to discuss this week’s order.” He crosses the room but pauses in the doorway. “Take the servants’ stairs when you go; they’re less crowded. And, Mira?” His eyes lock with mine. “Be careful. I couldn’t bear to lose you a second time.”





12



JOSSE


As soon as La Voisin’s lackey lumbers down the hall, I spring to my feet and get all tangled up in my bedamned skirts. “Did you hear what he said?” I demand as I emerge from behind the cauldrons.

“He’s going to help me procure supplies,” Mirabelle says with a clap. “That went far better than I could’ve hoped.”

“That went horribly! Your mother is planning to execute the remaining nobility. I may not know much about alchemy, but I’m going to assume something called Viper’s Venom isn’t pleasant.”

Mirabelle looks away, suddenly very interested in a doublebarreled contraption on the counter. “It’s not.”

“We have to stop her. Or help the nobility. Something.” I wait for Mirabelle to agree, to erupt with righteous indignation and suggest—no, insist—we rush to their aid as she did for the common people. But she simply watches me stalk back and forth. “Well? You dragged me into this palace full of poisoners in the name of the people. Shouldn’t that include poor and rich alike?”

Mirabelle folds her arms across her chest. “Of course I’d help them if I could, but there’s no antidote to Viper’s Venom.”

I gape around the laboratory, at the hundreds of colorful bottles lining the walls, refusing to believe that none of them contain the necessary elixir. “Nothing?”

“Nothing.”

“Well, then make something. You are an alchemist, aren’t you? How hard could it be?”

“Viper’s Venom is the most sophisticated poison known to man. My father, who was a far better alchemist than I, developed the compound, and his grimoire full of notes is locked in my mother’s strongbox. In her bedchamber. If she hasn’t destroyed it.”

The way she tacks on the last excuse suggests this isn’t likely. La Voisin has the book. We just have to steal it. My eyes flick up to the ceiling. “How hard could it be to pop abovestairs and take a book?”

“Out of the question. It’s too dangerous.”

“Too dangerous? We’re already inside the palace! What’s a little more risk?”

“A lot more risk,” she fires back. “I have what I need to resume making curatives. That’s enough. I see no reason to—”

“You don’t care what becomes of the nobility.” I bang my fist on the board, rattling the phials.

Mirabelle slams her own fist down with equal force. “Why do you suddenly care so much? I thought you despised the nobility. You’re always so adamant you’re not one of them.”

“I’m not … Not wholly, anyway.” I groan and drag a hand down my face. “I don’t know what I am, but I do know—no matter how much I loathe the aristocracy—if we allow La Voisin to exterminate them, we will never have enough strength to overthrow her, which will seal her hold on the city and make it impossible for my sisters and I to flee.”

“Ahhh, there it is. The real reason.” Mirabelle gives me a condescending pat on the cheek. “This may be difficult for you to believe, princeling, but there are others to consider beyond you and your sisters. Hundreds of thousands of them.”

“Exactly! Your mother is desperate and grasping and dangerous. Things are no better for the people under the Shadow Society than they were during my father’s reign. He may have ignored the rabble in favor of the rich, but how is that different from exterminating the nobles? Half the city is still forsaken. More than half! You’re stealing alchemy supplies because the poor are being neglected.”

She opens her mouth to argue, so I quickly add, “How much can you honestly hope to accomplish—a single alchemist, working alone, in hiding?”

Mirabelle tilts her head back and lets out a loud breath. “What do you suggest we do? There’s no solution.”

Oh, there’s a solution. But it’s so preposterous, I’m afraid she’ll laugh me out of the Louvre. I suppose people have been doing that all my life. “We do what neither my father nor your mother could accomplish. We unite the nobility and the common people.” She barks out a laugh.

“It could work! The noble families still have enough power and influence to overthrow La Voisin, but only with the strength of the commoners behind them. Then, once the Shadow Society is removed from power, we reestablish the monarchy.”

Mirabelle scoffs. “Only the aristocracy will be in favor of that. If you want the people’s support, they need a voice, a vote. Representatives from among them who will bring their concerns to the king, along with a guarantee that he will address them promptly and to their satisfaction.”

“I’m certain Louis could be open to that …” I say, even though I’m not certain at all. If we get to that point, I’ll make him open to it.

Mirabelle chews her lip and studies me. “I thought you weren’t interested in helping the whole bedamned city.”