Page 106 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

The queen shook her head with a mournful expression. “He hasn’t opened his eyes since we found him like this.”

“Is he asleep? Unconscious?”

The High Priest stirred in his seat, smoothing the folds of his long golden robe over his bluesnakanatail. “His Majesty is neither sleeping nor dead. He is not alive, either. He’s—”

The queen interrupted him with a sob.

“See what that human girl did?” She snapped her teeth, as if wishing to sink them into Sparrow. “I need her found and brought to justice.”

“Are you sure it was Sparrow who did it?” He really had a hard time wrapping his mind around that.

“Who then? She was the only one here with him.”

He ran a hand through his hair, pondering what would drive Sparrow to such a drastic action.

“This dagger is not from Sky Kingdom,” he noted. “It glows with the magic of Under.”

The queen must’ve known that already. She threw her hand over her mouth, muffling her tortured gasp.

“Leave us,” she snapped over her shoulder at the High Priest and the royal hag.

The two got up silently and exited the bedroom through the door that led to one of the king’s many sitting and entertainment rooms inside his sprawling suite.

The moment he was left alone with the queen, she moved on to him.

“The human brought this vile weapon into the palace. I want you to find and bring her to me. She needs to answer for her crimes.”

“The dagger isn’t Sparrow’s,” he replied firmly. “I know every single contact she’s ever made since coming to Sky Kingdom, everyone she’s ever spoken to. There is simply no way she could’ve sourced a weapon like that.”

“But she was the one who stabbed the Sky King with it!” the queen screeched. “I want her punished.”

He pinched the bridge of his nose with his fingers. He knew the dagger didn’t belong to Sparrow. But the queen was right on one thing: Sparrow had to be found. There was nothing but danger for a young human girl out there, unprotected.

“Who was the person who found the king? Can I speak to them?”

“No.”

He raised a questioning look at the queen. “No?”

“No,” she repeated quickly. “Those servants are no longer here.”

“Where are they?”

She blew out a breath impatiently. “That’s not what I need you to investigate, Voron. I want you to find the human.”

“To do so, I need to know what exactly happened here.”

Rubbing her forehead, she paced the spacious room.

“You can’t know it all. No one can. Even I don’t know everything,” she kept muttering under her breath as if talking to herself, then stopped suddenly right in front of him. “The king was found lying in his own blood, on the floor.”

“Where?”

“In one of the rooms he uses to entertain his guests in.”

“Which one?” He was very familiar with the layout of the palace, including the king’s suite.

“It’s a secret room, reserved for special guests only. And no.” She raised her hand, stopping his next question. “You can’t see it. No one can.”

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