Page 146 of A Court Bright and Broken

“They are all alive and well… which seems to disappoint you,” I said. “Why is it that you were so certain one or more of us had perished?”

“There was an assassin inside the castle walls, was there not?” she asked, obviously knowing the answer full well.

“A failed one,” she added in an acid tone.

“Apparently. And what doyouknow about that?”

She gave me a snaggle-toothed smile. “I know vials of poison were found—poison of the sort that’s particularly deadly to Elves.”

“And how would you have come by that information?”

“Good news travels,” she said. “Even down here to the dungeon.”

I was growing weary of her cryptic answers. “It sounds a lot like you were involved. Likely you’re the assassin herself. Tell me why I shouldn’t order your execution right now.”

“If you do, you’ll never know what really happened that night,” she said. “You’ll never know the answer to therealquestion you came down here to ask me.”

“Oh, and what’s that?”

“Whether a certain pretty little human was involved.”

I flattened my hands against the cold steel, leaning closer to the door.

“Was she?”

The woman let out a titter. “It’s hard to think with my belly growling so. The daily rations have been somewhat… diminished recently.”

“Guard,” I yelled.

The man poked his head around the corner.

“Food for the prisoner.”

He nodded and disappeared again.

“And I haven’t breathed fresh air in so long, it’s made my brain foggy. The details grow faint.”

She fanned herself dramatically.

“Oh no. You’re not getting out of here until you give me something,” I said. “You could be bluffing for all I know.”

The woman rose from her sleeping pad and strolled ever so slowly toward the door. Her tone was a dreamy sing-song.

“Hair the color of cocoa-dusted caramels,” she crooned. “Eyes like flame-warmed brandy, lips as full and pink as wild strawberries… sound familiar?”

“You were in the cell next to hers that night,” I said. “This tells me nothing. Whoisshe? Was she involved in the plot?”

“I will tell all that I know, all that thereisto know, but you must give me something in return,” the crone said.

A bargain.ThisI understood.

“I have the power to release you,” I said. “And I will—ifyou give me something real, something I can use to prove to my brother he’s in danger. Then, and only then, will I free you.”

“It’s bad luck to break faith with an Earthwife,” the woman warned. “As Raewyn will soon learn.”

At the sound of that name on her lips, a flash of irritation heated my skin, and my gut soured. I wasn’t sure why.

I was asking this woman to confirm my worst suspicions about the human girl. She was about to give me exactly what I wanted.

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