Chapter 17: The Vial

Rowena's POV

Magnus knocked on my door at seven in the morning.

I opened it in my father's coat, because I had slept in it.

He had not slept at all.

He wore the same ruined jacket, and he held a single sheet of heavy paper in both hands.

"I'm not here to ask you for anything," he said.

"You always say that."

"This time I mean it. Read this."

I took the page and read it standing in the doorway.

It was in his own cramped hand, in black ink.

It said that on the night of the birth he had ordered the Queen's delivery wing sealed.

It said he had done it on the word of the Chief Seer, who told him the Queen's child would keep.

It said the Queen's son had died of that order, and that the King had signed it knowing nothing of the Seer's real purpose.

Under it, in the same black ink, he had signed his name and the date.

"Written," I said. "Not spoken."

"Not spoken."

"The Council can have you hanged for this."

"The Council can do what it likes. My mother has a copy. So does the Greywater Healer."

He looked at me.

"I'm not giving you this to get you back, Rowena. I'm giving it to you because it's true, and you should hold it."

I thought about that.

I thought about all the times he had come to my door with a reasonable voice and the exact right words.

Keep reading free with an account. Start He Sacrificed Our Child, Now He Begs for Me from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.