The Princess of Ash novel · Chapter 9 of 24

Chapter 9: The Maid's Last Cup

Marit drank from the sovereign's flagon because she was thirsty and because he had told her not to.

It was the fourth night, at the long table in the great hall, in front of two hundred dragon-kin.

She tipped the silver jug up with a wink, laughing, and drank half of it.

Auren turned his head to say her name, and she put the jug down.

Her laugh broke.

"Oh," she said, quite softly.

Her hand went to her throat, and she fell off her bench.

I was on my feet before she hit the floor.

The hall exploded.

Auren was on his knees beside his sister, calling her name over and over, in a voice I'd never heard from him.

Her lips were already turning blue.

I knew the smell on her breath, bitter and thin and black.

"Ash-root," I said.

"Get me charcoal, from the hearth.

"And salt, a handful of it, and water."

"What do you know about this?" the Speaker shouted from the high table.

"Be quiet."

"The bride poisons the sovereign's own blood!"

"Be quiet!"

A cook ran with a bowl of cold ash from the kitchen fire.

I crushed it to powder against the stones with my palm.

I'd made this once, in a locked room in Harrowgate, because Lord Hask had told me, "Know the cure, in case you need to prove your hands are clean."

I stirred it into the salt water and tipped Marit's head into my lap.

"Hold her jaw," I said to Auren.

He held it.

I poured the black water down her throat, and she choked and coughed and fought me.

Auren's hands shook, and I never took my eyes off Marit's face.

For a long minute, nothing.

Then she retched, and a black stream came up onto the flagstones.

She gasped, and her eyes opened, huge and wet.

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