The Luna Queen's Rebirth novel · Chapter 11 of 24

Chapter 11: The Vial

Eirik carried the vial up the white aisle.

"Third flagstone from the window," he told the priestess. "Behind the yarrow."

He sniffed, pleased.

"Exactly where the lady said, and I'd like it noted I did not have to pry."

"Noted," said the priestess.

She took the little green bottle between two fingers. A silence settled over the hall that you could have cut with a knife.

She held it up to the lamplight. Three spirals in a ring were burned into the glass.

She pulled the stopper and sniffed.

"Wolfsbane and black yarrow in a clove-oil base," she said. "The tonic the Ashen use on their blades."

Her eyes lifted.

"It would stop a pup's heart in an hour."

Gasps went around the tiers.

"That is not mine," Perdita said.

Her voice was clear and small and wounded. A tear rolled down her cheek and she let it.

"I have never seen it. Someone put it there. Someone who wants me gone from the King's side."

"Who?" asked the priestess.

"She did."

Perdita's finger pointed straight at me.

"She sat in that room alone. She knew where it was because she put it there."

It was clever. It was so clever I almost admired it.

It was exactly what she had done to me, with the labels turned round.

"The guard on that door has sworn she carried no vial," said the priestess.

"And she could not have planted it before a Rite she was not known to be breaking."

Perdita's mouth closed.

Rhydian rose from the bench beside me.

"One more thing, if the Moot permits," he said. "The Ashen who attacked my wagons at the Weeping Bridge."

He signalled, and one of his riders came forward carrying a small leather bag.

Rhydian emptied it onto the priestess's table. A copper ring rolled out and spun on the wood.

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