Page 57 of When We Lost The Moon

“I never knew what they were for,” Madame Brezing said. “But one of the elite visited me, decades ago when I was a young woman, working for my grandmother who founded this boutique. He said if there were any young women who needed help, but weren’t yet old enough to work, he said he had a place for them. An orphanage of sorts.”

“And you believed him?” Rivka asked.

“I wanted to. Or maybe I allowed myself to be deceived. I went along with it for far too long, imagining the girls safe somewhere in the citadel, maybe even working in the palace. But as the years passed, and whispers grew of young girls who had disappeared… we even had some parents come looking.”

“I helped you search for them,” Rivka accused. “I hung posters. We raised charity funds, collections for their families. You were lying the whole time.”

“I’d made a bargain with the devil,” Madame Brezing said. “It came with certain favors. We were never raided. There was an invisible halo around this whole neighborhood. It has had its uses, and I didn’t want to give it up.”

“He killed them,” I said. “All of them.”

Madame Brezing took a deep breath. “Then it is as I always feared.”

“It wasn’t your fault,” I said, “he may have compulsed you.”

“It wasn’t compulsion. Greed maybe, or fear. But I knew what I was doing.”

“Do you remember who it was?” Rivka asked.

“No, someone I haven’t seen for a long time. More recently, I just gave the girls an address and they’d go there of their own accord. I didn’t know what happened after, though I suspected it couldn’t be good. To voice concerns, to allege crimes without proof, it would have been seen as direct rebellion.”

“You can make up for all of that now,” I whispered, sitting closer to her. “Ifwe manage to defeat Nigel and claim the throne, Damien and I can help make amends. And you will have power,” I glanced at Rivka. “But you won’t have to buy it with blood and sacrifice.”

“If your plan fails—” Madame Brezing started.

“Say I dosed your wine without your knowledge. They’ll just add it to my list of crimes. We’ll take care of the rest. You just stay locked inside, safe. It’ll be over by tomorrow morning, one way or the other.”

She nodded and gave me a hug. Rivka bounced her curls as I left, her arms folded around the vial, which she clutched to her breast possessively. I thought I saw something malicious in her eyes.

Could I trust her? I didn’t have any choice. I left them behind with the antidote, hoping they wouldn’t rat me out for a reward.

One errand down, one to go.

I felt conspicuous in my hood, so I borrowed a brimmed cap from the lost and found bin at Madame Brezing’s and tucked my hair up. Then I added a long coat, even though it would be too warm. The fashion in the citadel had always been eclectic, though the nobles set the fashion and it filtered down into knock-offs months later. Only recent immigrants still wore regional garb from their respective compounds, but there was enough diversity with all the new people from Algrave that I didn’t stand out too much.

I wondered at the people around me; were the refugees from Algrave holed up, or were they out exploring—tourists rather than hostages? The weather and brightness brought out rich colors, and there was an air of festivity, of hope. Laughter and red cheeks. Children with wide eyes looked up in wonder at the palace and cathedral on the hill, the tall statues and cultivated gardens, the winding staircases and covered bridges connecting towers.

Was I right to risk everyone’s lives, for mine and Damien’s?Yes, I thought fiercely. They didn’t know what it had taken to build all of this, and were being seduced by the citadel’s jeweled facade. But it was a shiny crown on top of a rotting skull, a history buried, its screaming jaw filled with earth in the caverns down below.

I saw by the large clock in the central towers that it was nearly noon. Afternoon practice would start at one. I had to get to the training center before that, but I couldn’t be seen.

The large, glass building wasn’t that far from Damien’s apartments; a collection of high-rise towers in a tight group to the left and below the renewal center. There was a strange sense of nostalgia as I cut through the covered corridors between the buildings, half expecting to see Damien cross my path. His pale face and tense expression, that sometimes softened into a teasing smirk that made my insides melt.

The practice room had a stunning view and absolutely no privacy. It felt oddly familiar to be back, even comforting. But I knew I was no longer welcome.

The door was slightly ajar. I held my breath as I slipped inside. The locked cabinet was in the same place as it always was. I felt the seams of the door, and studied the lock, wishing I’d paid more attention to it before.

Emma had shown me how to pick a lock, but I hadn’t gotten enough practice. I slipped two hairpins inside and tried twisting them, furrowing my brow, but no luck. I was concentrating so hard I didn’t notice the footsteps in the hall until they were too close to avoid. I swore under my breath, then rolled under the counter behind Master Svboda’s large oak desk. I saw her legs come into view.

Maybe I could talk to her before class, convince her to help. But then someone else came inside. She wasn’t alone. A guard’s boots from the look of it, maybe a general.

“Four drops today,” he said. “Nigel’s orders.”

“I don’t take orders from that man.”

“Who else, then?” the guard grumbled. “Look I’m just doing my job.”

He left, but then the chosen started to arrive, in sneakers and simple black workout clothes. The class was smaller than I expected. My class was nearly twenty, now only about seven girls remained from what I could tell. They trained hard, mostly unsupervised, for an hour. I thought about sneaking out but there was no way I’d get past all of them. I cursed myself for wasting so much time this morning. My neck was cramped when they finally took a break. Master Svboda came to stand so close to me I was sure she was about to fling the door open, but instead I heard the light clinking of a chain and key being turned. She lifted the small cabinet and set it on the desk, pulling out a large container of raw elixir and opening the top before pouring it into a glass pitcher.

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