Page 136 of Once the Skies Fade

Ursula clapped her hands once, a wicked smile spreading across her lips. “Perfect display of that wisdom we want to see, General Orelian.”

“Yes, it was to be you four,” Isa admitted more shamefully than seemed necessary. “You were to choose one—and only one—of the four glasses and see if it was the antidote. The first one to find the correct glass would win.”

“And what if we chose wrong?” I asked. “Would you just leave us to die?”

“No, you all would have been administered the antidote before you died.”

“And now—” I started, but Ursula finished my sentence for me.

“You must choose one—and only one—from your four, to see if it cures the queen. Before she dies.”

“Is this the same poison used on Matthias?” Phillip asked.

Warren released an obnoxiously loud sigh. “How many questions do you usually let them ask before a trial, General Marlowe?”

Isa shot him an icy glare. “As many as I damn well please, Warren.” She turned abruptly to Phillip. “It is similar, but not exactly the same—assuming the Assembly hasn’t changed that part of this trial as well, that is. The four cordial glasses are in no particular order, to prevent you from learning anything by watching your competition.”

I glanced at Calla, hoping to the damned stars that it was similar enough to the poison Korben had used on me. At least then I could be assured she was in no pain right now but in a peaceful darkness. Though who knew how the shadows in her blood might alter that.

“How much time do we have?” I asked, keeping my attention on the queen. “Until she…untilweare too late?”

“Two hours, I believe,” Ursula said flatly. “If the healers are to be trusted.”

So little time, and I know nothing of fucking poisons aside from my own personal experience. Which won’t exactly help me here.

“And we can only try one?” Graham asked.

Isa nodded.

“And how are we supposed to give her the antidote when she’s obviously unconscious and can’t swallow anything?” Phillip asked with more indignation than I’d ever heard or expected from him.

Isa breathed out a sigh, dropping her chin to her chest. Pulling in a long breath, she started to answer before she ever looked back up at us. “It should not have taken such quick effect. Originally, you would have been given a dose that would keep you conscious at least for half an hour. As you can see”—she shot a glare toward Ursula and then Warren—“Calla was poisoned with a larger dose. Still, the antidote does not need to be swallowed to be administered. While drinking is most effective, the plain truth is, sometimes that is not possible. The next best thing is to be absorbed through any bodily fluid: blood, saliva, etc. The antidote—should you find it—should show signs of efficacy within a minute or two, if not sooner.”

“General,” Warren groaned. “Seems like you’re giving a lot of information that should be better left for the competitors to figure out—or to know on their own. Hence thewisdompart of this trial?”

Isa ignored him, turning to Phillip to say more, but Korben’s voice boomed through the room, forcing Isa to snap her mouth shut.

“Aren’t we wasting time asking all of these questions?” he asked, already bringing his four cordial glasses closer to him.

“I have one more though,” Phillip said warily. He drummed his finger nervously on the table, eyeing his four options as if they might leap up and bite him.

“Yes?” Isa asked, ignoring how Korben and Warren both groaned in unison.

Phillip peered up at the general sidelong. “What’s in the other three glasses? The ones without the antidote? Are any of them…dangerous themselves?”

“Water, I believe,” she said. “The antidote is colorless, flavorless, with no aroma—as undetectable as the poison itself.”

Graham shook his head slowly, his hard gaze landing on Warren across the table. “And we are just supposed to trust the Assembly to not have added this invisible poison to any—or all—of our glasses?”

“What would that achieve, Graham?” Ursula asked.

But I answered before he could. “Kill off a competitor you don’t approve of, for one.”

The female clicked her tongue as she shifted her head to one side. “Come now, general. We only want to find the best king for our kingdom—and for our Calla.”

“For the queen you tried to strip of her crown?” I asked, curling my toes inside my boots to keep from jumping to my feet and strangling her.

Ursula softened her features into an innocent expression. “We were merely adhering to the lawsherparents insisted on. Now you’re welcome to keep arguing with me, general, and you can think all manner of awful things about me, but time is slipping away with every barb you cast.”

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