Chapter 5: The Hunt

"I promise," I said.

Rose kissed my cheek and floated away down the corridor.

That night I didn't sleep.

At first light, I made Edie turn out every boot I owned.

"What are we looking for, my lady?"

"A knife."

"You have a little silver one. Your father gave it to you for your name day. You keep it in your riding boot."

"Find it."

She searched every boot twice.

The knife wasn't there.

"Maybe you left it somewhere," Edie said.

"I've never left anything anywhere," I said. "Where else would it be?"

She didn't know.

Neither did I.

The hunt gathered on the lawn below the east terrace while the sun was still low and pink.

Forty riders. A hundred hounds. Grooms running everywhere with buckets.

I had never been on a horse in my life.

They led out a tall grey mare with a black mane, and I put my foot in the stirrup, and my body swung up into the saddle by itself.

Vivi's legs knew exactly what to do.

My hands gathered the reins.

I sat there with my heart pounding.

At least something in this body was on my side.

"Lady Vivi!"

Rose waved at me from a little brown pony two sizes too small for a hunt.

She wore pale yellow and a straw hat with a ribbon.

I rode over to her and stayed there.

Beside her, not behind. Where everybody could see both of my hands on my reins the whole time.

The horns blew.

The hounds poured into the trees, and the riders went after them.

The Emperor rode at the front on a huge black horse, in a dark green hunting coat.

Prince Lucan rode beside him, laughing at something.

For the first mile, I watched only Rose's saddle.

It was a plain brown saddle with a wide leather girth under the pony's belly, buckled on the left side.

Nothing looked wrong.

"You're very quiet," Rose said.

"I'm concentrating."

"On what?"