Page 314 of The Priory of the Orange Tree

“You cannot fathom the depth of the enmity I have felt for you. I have cursed your name with every sunrise. The thought that I might one day create the elixir of life, then deny it to you, has driven my every action. All I longed to do was thwart your ambition.”

“You will not speak to Her Majesty in this manner,” one of her shining knights interrupted.

“I will speak to Her Majesty however I please. If she wants me to stop, let her stop me herself,” Niclays said curtly, “rather than letting her metal-clad manikin do it for her.”

Still Sabran said nothing. The knight in question looked at her before desisting, tight-lipped.

“Years I spent on that island.” Niclays spoke through gritted teeth. “Years on a scrap of land clinging to Cape Hisan, watched and mistrusted. Years of walking the same few streets, aching for home. All because I had promised you a gift that had never been given, and you, the Queen of Inys, were naïve enough to swallow it whole. Yes, I deserved chastisement. Yes, I was a cur, and a year or two away might have done me good. Butseven. . . by the Saint, madam, death by burning would have been a mercy in comparison.”

His hand clenched around the blade so hard that his nails bit into his palm.

“I could forgive your theft of my money. I could forgive your lies,” Sabran whispered, “but you preyed on me, Roos. I was young and afraid, and I confided my deepest fear to you. That fear was something I concealed even from my Ladies of the Bedchamber.”

“And that warrants seven years in exile.”

“It warrants something. Perhaps I will apologize when you consent to make even the slightest reparation for your lies.”

“I wrote to you,groveling,”Niclays spat, “after Aubrecht Lievelyn refused to allow me to return home. He was so desirous of your sacred cunt that he prized it over—”

Sabran stood, her face bloodless, and every partizan in the room snapped toward his chest.

“You will not speak of Aubrecht Lievelyn again,” she said, deadly soft, “or I will have you thrown off this ship in pieces.”

He had gone too far. The Knights of the Body wore no visors indoors; he could see the shock written on their faces, a disgust that ran far deeper than it would at a crude insult.

“He’s dead,” Niclays deduced. “Isn’t he?”

The silence confirmed it.

“I received no letter.” Sabran kept her voice low. “Why not disclose its contents to me now?”

He chuckled darkly. “Oh, Sabran. Seven years have not changed you. Shall I tell you why I am really here?”

The blade was ice in the heat of his hand. Behind Sabran, Ead Duryan was none the wiser. Just one lunge, and he could get it into her throat after all. He could hear Sabran scream. Watch that mask of a face crack open.

That was when the door swung open, and none other than Tané Miduchi strode into the cabin.

His jaw dropped. The Knights of the Body crossed their partizans in front of her at once, but she shoved against them, looking more than ready to claw his throat open.

“You cannot trust this man,” she barked at Sabran. “He is a blackmailer, amonster—”

“Ah, Lady Tané,” Niclays said dryly. “We meet again. The strings of our fates appear to be tangled.”

In truth, he was shocked to see her. He had assumed that she had drowned, or that the Golden Empress had hunted her down. What she was doing with the Queen of Inys was beyond him.

“I let you live on Komoridu,” she hissed at him, “but no more. You always come back. Like a weed.” She wrestled against the Knights of the Body. “I will gut you with my own blade, you soulless—”

“Wait.” Ead grasped her shoulder. “Doctor Roos, you said you would tell us why you werereallyhere. I recommend you do so now, before your trail of destruction catches up with you.”

“He is here to do us ill, for his own gain,” Miduchi said, staring him out. “He always is.”

“Then let him confess it.”

Miduchi shrugged off her hand, but stopped pushing against the guards. Her narrow shoulders heaved.

Niclays sank back into his seat. His arm was full of fire. His head throbbed.

“The Miduchi is right,” he said, between heavy breaths. “I was sent here by some . . . sorceress, or shape-shifter. Kalyba.”

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