We rode hard back to Trianon, our plan developing as we shouted back and forth to each other over the sound of pounding hooves and gusting wind. Collecting my mother and hiding her away until the night was over and Anushka had lost the chance to perform her spell wasn’t an option. For one, the King’s compulsion beat in my head like a drum, marching me toward my goal; and two, it might be the only chance we had to catch Anushka. The masque was a trap for us, but that didn’t mean it couldn’t be turned on her. Her death was long past due.
Trotting our lathered horses through the frosty streets, we stopped in front of the townhouse, and I dismounted, handing my reins to Tristan.
“Stay with her,” he said for hundredth time. “Don’t let her out of your sight. Anushka won’t make her move until the sun has set, and I’ll be inside the castle by then.” He hesitated before adding. “If something happens before, you know how to get my attention.”
I nodded, standing on my tiptoes as he bent in the saddle, his lips brushing mine. “Be careful.”
“I will.”
I stood on the front steps watching him until he rode out of sight, and then I extracted my key and went inside.
“You’re back,” the maid said, sparing me a passing glance as she polished the wood of the front table. “We all thought you’d decided to run off again.”
I ignored the comment. “Where is my mother?”
“Not here.”
My stomach dropped and I swallowed the burn threatening to rise in my throat. “Where is she?”
“At the castle, I expect. Lady Marie sent her very own carriage to retrieve her this morning, and your mother was fit to be tied about your absence when she left. Left a message that you’re to join her as soon as possible, though I daresay she’s probably given up hope.”
They had her. My heart hammered and I struggled to keep the dismay from my face. It’s too early for the spell, I reminded myself. But it was cold comfort, because our plans had been disrupted before we’d even begun. The witch had made her move.
And now it was time to make ours. “I’ll leave as soon as I’m washed,” I said. “If you could please heat me some water for a bath.”
Bathing didn’t seem a priority, but I had a part to play that did not include showing up sweaty and stinking of horse. Bolting up the stairs, I went to my room to retrieve the herbs I’d hidden in my desk in case I needed them.
My eyes went to the gown hanging freshly pressed from my dressing screen, clearly my mother’s selection. My stomach clenched, knowing that when she’d had it hung there, her only concern had been my appearance. How I would be received. She had no idea how much danger she was in, and I couldn’t even warn her. As disgusting as the idea was, she was our bait and I could do nothing to jeopardize that.
But I still needed to know where she was.
Hurrying down the hall to her room, I went to her vanity and snatched up a hairbrush. It was as devoid of hair as if it were new. Frowning, I riffled through the rest of her combs and cosmetics looking for strands of hair. Nothing. The maid must have been through, and she apparently did a better job cleaning my mother’s things than she did mine.
Turning up a lamp, I went to her closet and began going through her clothes, searching for the gleam of red-gold, but there was none. How was that even possible? The linens on her bed were freshly laundered, and my eyes roved around the room for something else I could use. An object would work, but it had to be something that mattered to her – not some little knickknack she’d bought and not thought about since.
Tristan’s plan had seemed so straightforward. I’d go to the castle with my mother, and then I’d track down Marie or something of hers, and steal a memory of Anushka’s identity. When I had it, I’d use his name to give him the information, and he’d hunt her down. That failing, I’d remain glued to my mother’s arm, and wait for Anushka’s approach. There was no place she could take me that I could not call him, no place where he could not find me. And we were banking on her not knowing that fact.
The door opened behind me, and I turned, thinking it was the maid with my bath water. But instead, I found myself facing two grim-faced soldiers dressed in formal uniforms, a sprig of dried crimson berries pinned at their lapel.
“Mademoiselle de Troyes,” one of them said. “The Lady du Chastelier requests your presence.”
“I’m not ready,” I protested, taking a step back. “I haven’t even bathed.”
“You’ll be provided with what you need at the castle. You need to come with us now.”
I drew on the earth’s magic. I only needed a few more minutes – a chance to select something of my mother’s so I could find her. To retrieve my supplies where they sat on the desk in my bedroom.
“Wait downstairs. I’ll be with you shortly,” I said, forcing every ounce of my power into the words, feeling the force ripple out.
And fall away.
The guard shook his head, coming forward to grab my arm. “Now.”
And it was then the meaning of the berries struck me. The memory of Chris telling me the wooden charm he’d purchased would ward a person from magic, and my dismissal of the very idea. Of the strange wooden earrings that Lady Marie had worn, and the sprig of those very same berries pinned into her hair.
Rowan. The witch’s bane. And its presence rendered our plans useless, and put Anushka back in control.
If she’d ever lost it.