Lady Thaciana reached under the counter and procured a piece of parchment and a piece of graphite. “You may write what you need here, and I will procure it for you.”
“Thank you.” I took the graphite and scribbled the ingredients first, then paused, unsure whether or not they knew what a syringe was and if they had one.
Then I decided that someone who owned a place like this must have many years of experience in the trade and would endeavor to make themselves familiar with all healing techniques available to them. The Fae knew about our realm just as well as we knew about theirs, and the treaty we had in place allowed for all kinds of “cross-training.”
I finished my list and pushed it in Lady Thaciana’s direction. She picked it up with a bony, wrinkled hand and quickly perused its contents. She picked up the piece of graphite, jotted something on the list, then turned to one of the attendants, a dwarf barely taller than the counter whom I hadn’t noticed before.
“Dedron, fill this order, please,” she said.
He quickly disappeared through the back door, reading the list through round spectacles and stroking a long beard.
Lady Thaciana turned to Cylea. “I hear the prince is at the palace.”
“He is.” Cylea nodded.
“He will be the talk of the ball, then.”
Cylea only offered a smile. The prince would be chained and drugged. He would be conspicuous in his absence, which would certainly be a reason to gossip about him.
“I still remember the first time he came to Imbermore,” Lady Thaciana said. “He was only a boy.”
“How long ago was that?” Cylea asked.
She thought for a moment. “I guess about a hundred and ten years or so.”
The reminder of Kalyll’s age made my stomach twist.
“Even then, all the young females lined up to see him,” the lady added.
“It sounds like not much has changed.” Cylea chuckled.
“He is a handsome fellow. I’ve met him twice. Made me wish I was younger.” She let out a croaky laugh.
“It doesn’t hurt that he’ll be the king one day.” Cylea’s comment sounded jaded, which made me think she’d probably found a good number of queen wannabes among Kalyll’s admirers. Apparently, there were gold diggers everywhere.
“For me, that is the only drawback,” Lady Thaciana said. “Being queen… what a nuisance.”
She was about to say something else when Dedron came back carrying what looked like a shoebox. He placed the box in front of Lady Thaciana with a slight bow. She halfway lifted the lid, gave a quick look, then pushed the box toward me. I reached for it and was about to open it when Cylea gave me a nearly imperceptible shake of the head, as if it was considered rude to ensure nothing was missing. The Fae were weird.
I gave the box a tap. “Um, thank you.”
Lady Thaciana wrote something on a piece of paper and handed it to Cylea, who read it, then reached into her pocket and procured two gold coins.
Witchlights!Two gold coins?! I’ve never spent more than ten silvers at Yalgrun’s, which was about two hundred dollars. Two gold coins were—I quickly did some mental math, translating from coppers to silvers to golds—over two thousand dollars.Holy shit!That syringe cost a pretty penny.
Cylea bowed. “It was a pleasure seeing you, Lady Thaciana. Until we meet again.”
On our way back to the palace, I held the box close to my chest. “This better work for two gold coins.”
“The gold is of no consequence, Dani. If it works, the king’s crown would be a worthy price.”
Way to make the heavy weight on my shoulders triple.
CHAPTER 21
AtthebrutalpaceCylea set, we made it back to the palace in no time. Kryn was waiting for us, pacing down the length of a long rug in the foyer of the side entrance through which we’d left.
“Finally,” he said in greeting, then led us through many labyrinthine corridors and down a set of winding stone steps that ended in what looked like a forgotten section of the palace. It was a windowless space that revealed itself when a few sconces came to life on their own, as if they sensed our presence.