AN ATTACK

The next day, Anna was, as predicted, quite sore from her fall. However, it did not excuse her from arms training or any of the other tasks required of her. She was heading to her chamber in the Rider wing when Lieutenant Mara poked her head out of her doorway and called to her.

“Yes’m?” Anna said.

“Do you have time to run some reports up to the queen?”

“I do.”

“Good. I was going to send them with a Green Foot runner, but there’s been some sickness among the servants and the runners have been pulled to cover other duties. Besides,” Lieutenant Mara added with a smile, “the queen likes you.”

Anna accepted the reports still bewildered by the idea the queen thought anything about her whatsoever. She hurried to change and wash up before heading to the west wing of the castle. On the way, she wondered what sort of sickness had hit the servants this time. It wasn’t unusual, given how close they lived and worked together.

She strode through the main castle corridor. It was much quieter than usual, like castle grounds, with so many off to fight Second Empire. The corridor seemed all the more cavernous and echo-y.

She paused in a seating alcove to fix the buttons on her shortcoat—in her hurry she’d done it up unevenly and it just wouldn’t do in the presence of the queen. Unfortunately, the alcove was occupied by her old foe, Nell Lotts. She groaned and turned to move on.

“Well, if it isn’t Anna Ash,” came Nell’s mocking voice.

Anna took a deep breath and turned back around. “Hiding from your work again, Nell Lotts? And with so many other servants sick?”

“So? No one ever notices. And I suppose you are so important you are on your way to see the queen again.”

“As a matter of fact, I am.”

“You’re just a runner. The queen probably doesn’t even notice you.”

Anna smoldered, wanting to tell Nell how the queen liked her and had actual conversations with her, but the best answer was to walk away. Nell, however, decided to make another jab.

“Not trying to ride that ugly horse of yours today? And I mean trying. I hear you end up in the dirt more often than not.”

So, someone was keeping an eye on her to see how she failed. “At least I have a horse,” Anna retorted. “How many do you have, Nell Lotts?”

She did not await an answer, but charged out into the corridor and fixed her buttons as she walked. She should report Nell for neglecting her work, but the last thing she wanted was to get entangled in the affairs of servants again, especially if it meant confronting Master Scrum, who oversaw them. He’d made her life miserable before she had left to join the royal household to serve the queen. When she became a Rider, she’d thought herself well free of it all. She then felt guilt at her parting jibe at Nell. Servants, of course, were not wealthy enough to own horses, and few could even hope to aspire to a level where they could. She knew all too well what the life of a servant was like, and how futile hopes and dreams could be, and pointing it out to even Nell Lotts was insensitive in the extreme.

She tried to put it out of her mind as she entered the west wing and climbed the stairs to where the royal apartments were located. When she reached Queen Estora’s door, she found it guarded by a pair of Weapons she did not know. They must have been brought up from the tombs to replace those who’d gone east with King Zachary.

“I’m Rider Ash,” she said. “I’ve some reports for the queen.”

“Are you healthy?” one of the Weapons asked.

“Yessir.” Of course they would not want anyone with the sickness that was going around to enter the queen’s presence.

“Wait here a moment,” he said. He passed inside, leaving Anna to wait uncomfortably beneath the deceptively impassive gaze of the other. Little, she knew, escaped the notice of Weapons.

When the first Weapon returned, he said, “You may enter. The queen awaits you.”

Before she proceeded, she worked up her courage and asked, “What are your names?”

The two exchanged surprised glances. She assumed they were rarely asked down in the tombs.

“I am Lennir,” said the one who had gotten the queen’s permission for Anna to enter.

“And I am Scotty,” said the second with a slight bow. He was clearly the younger of the two.

“Please call me Anna. I am pleased to meet you.”

This brought tentative smiles to their otherwise stern faces, and it pleased her. She couldn’t imagine working in those tombs all the time, which she thought must be so gloomy.

When she reached the queen’s chamber, it was bright with the drapes drawn back. There were even more plants than before, filling up floor space, and any other flat surface. It was a garden gone wild. Many of them leaned not toward the light, but toward the queen on her bed.

“Anna,” the queen said, “I am so delighted to see you.”

A servant was handing her a glass. “Your concoction from the menders, my lady. You must drink up.”

“Thank you, Felice. Rider Ash will see that I do. You may be excused.”

The maid, whom Anna had never met, hesitated before bowing her head and leaving.

“Come sit beside me,” the queen said.

Anna obeyed and sat in the chair at the queen’s bedside. The queen herself looked, if anything, even more enormous than the last time, and fairly uncomfortable.

“Master Mender Vanlynn says my time is very soon. It will be such a relief. If I remain in this prison much longer, I will go mad.”

Anna did not know what to say to that, so she said, “Lieutenant Brennyn asked that I bring you these reports.”

Queen Estora smiled. “Keeping me informed as I had asked your colonel to do. You may set them on my bedside table and I will look them over in a while.”

Anna found a spot for them beside a bushy fern.

The queen took a sip of her drink and grimaced. “My concoction from the menders. It’s a little more bitter than usual. It’s supposed to relax me and be healthful for the little ones. Now, tell me all that you’ve been up to since last you visited.”

The queen was eager for even the most trifling news, and so Anna told her of her continuing trials with Maddie, including the healing Mason had performed.

“Another true healer,” the queen said. “That is wonderful news. I wonder if his gift works only with animals, or if he can use it with people, too?”

Anna certainly did not know, but the queen’s curiosity aroused her own. Surely the two abilities couldn’t be all that different, but she’d never heard of Ben true healing an animal. She’d have to ask.

As they talked, the queen sipped her drink, her expression growing ever more pinched.

“I don’t think Felice prepared this correctly,” she said. She poured the remaining contents, more than half the glass, into the fern plant. “Don’t tell her I did this.”

“I won’t,” Anna said.

“Felice is kind and helpful, but she isn’t my Jayd, or even one of my other maids.” She sighed. “They all came down ill, even Mistress Evans, and that woman never gets sick.”

The conversation moved on, the queen asking how the courtyard gardens looked, and she showed Anna a baby blanket she was embroidering. It featured frolicking Hillander terriers, and each square featured a border of flowering heather. Anna, who had not learned the finer stitching techniques noblewomen were expected to perfect, was duly impressed. But then, while describing how the stitching was done, the queen trailed off and an expression of discomfort flickered across her features.

“Is something wrong, Your Majesty?” Anna asked.

“Just feeling . . . I’m all right.” She smiled and started to explain how the blanket would be pieced together.

Felice entered the chamber to collect the empty glass. “Is there anything else you wish of me, my lady?” she asked.

“No, thank you, Felice.”

The maid bowed her head, but paused and gave the queen an odd look before turning to leave.

“Now, where was I?” the queen asked.

Anna’s gaze drifted to the fern plant the queen had poured her drink into. It had wilted.

“Oh, yes,” the queen said. “The stitching of the border. It was—” The color suddenly drained from her face and she doubled over.

Anna jumped to her feet. “What is it, Your Majesty?”

“Terrible cramps.” She moaned.

“I’ll get Ben right away,” Anna said, but when she got to the door, Felice blocked the way.

“No, you won’t,” the maid said.

“What? The queen needs—”

A knife flashed in Felice’s hand, and with reflexes honed by working with Angry-Mad, Anna jumped back. Felice pushed forward and swiped the blade, and Anna again evaded it with a sidestep.

The queen cried out in pain. A quick glance revealed she was curled on her side.

Felice cut at Anna again, but Anna managed to evade the knife once more. “LENNIR! SCOTTY!” she cried at the top of her lungs.

A look of alarm, then determination, came over Felice’s face, and she charged toward the queen. Anna ran after her. Without thinking, she grabbed a flowerpot with a lily in full bloom, and as Felice raised her knife to strike the queen, Anna bashed the pot over her head. Felice sank to the floor unconscious.

When the Weapons arrived, Anna said, “Something is wrong with the queen and the maid tried to kill her. I’m gonna get the menders.”

She did not wait for Lennir’s reply, but set off at a run and did not stop until she reached the mending wing. She babbled at the menders until they understood what was wrong. Ben was found, and he and two others charged from the mending wing. Master Mender Vanlynn hobbled behind with her cane at a much more sedate pace.

“Come, Rider,” Vanlynn said in a calm voice. “Carry my kit for me and tell me exactly what happened.” When Anna did so, the mender said, “And the maid attacked you, and then tried to attack the queen?”

“Yes’m.”

“Are you hurt?”

“No’m. My horse trained me to move quick.” Anna just felt shaky from the excitement of it all, both full of energy and just ready to collapse, but she kept by Vanlynn’s side at her slow, slow pace.

“Good. That means just one patient.” Was that a smile playing on Vanlynn’s lips? How could she be so calm with the queen in distress?

“Will Queen Estora be all right?”

“There is no telling until we have a look at her, see what we’re dealing with. Help me up these stairs, child, then you must tell Lieutenant Brennyn to come to the queen’s apartment to wait with the others.”

“The others?”

“The higher-ups who will be witness to whatever outcome there is for the queen. When a monarch is ill, it’s very important business as to how the realm proceeds, and if the worst should happen, well, decisions must be made.”

Anna helped Vanlynn up the stairs in the royal wing. Already, important looking-people were congregating outside the queen’s door. Weapon Scotty guarded it, looking fierce.

“Go now,” Master Vanlynn told Anna.

Anna hurried down the stairs and to the Rider wing, praying all the way that the queen and her babies would be all right.