Chapter 15: Ask Her a Question

"That's the perfumer's," the groom said. "The veiled one. I've seen her wear it."

Every face in the stable court turned to me.

I stood there with my veil held shut in my fist, because it had nothing else to hold it.

The guard stood up with the pin in his palm.

"Take her," he said.

Laleh came across the court at a run with her hair wild from sleep.

"She was with me," she shouted. "All night, she was..."

Nobody listened to her.

They never did.

They took me by both arms up the long stairs and into the Hall of Pillars.

It was the hour of morning court.

The Hall was full.

The council sat on their cushions along the left side, old men in good wool.

The court ladies sat on the right, and the oldest one sat up very straight when she saw me.

Ruya lounged on the dais in saffron silk, beside her father's chair.

Sadeq stood beside the throne.

The throne was empty.

"The royal physician is dead," Sadeq told the Hall, in his soft voice that somehow reached every pillar.

"Strangled in the night, in the stables. And in his hand, this."

The guard held up my pin.

A sound went through the Hall.

"The perfumer from Tel Zahra," Sadeq said. "A stranger. Two weeks in the palace, and the Sultan's own physician dead."

"Did anyone think it odd, how quickly she knew which jar to smell? How quickly she found ash rose wherever she went?"

He shook his head sadly.

"I should have seen it. I'm an old fool."

"The Sand Gate. At dawn tomorrow. No water, no shoes, no hat."

He turned and held out his hand to the chamberlain.

"Bring the seal to His Majesty."

My knees wanted to fold.

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