Chapter 41: Maeve's Price

The Frosthold nursery smelled of fresh paint and betrayal. Nora had not chosen the room. The staff had prepared it quietly after the Council recognition, trying to be kind. White curtains. A carved crib. A rocking chair with a cushion beside the window. Nora had avoided it because hope felt dangerous in furniture form. Now the crib had been turned upside down. Black thorn symbols marked the walls. And in the center stood Frosthold's head housekeeper, Mrs. Ellery, holding a silver rattle in one hand and a blood key in the other. Maeve made a wounded sound. "No." Mrs. Ellery had been the woman who brought Nora broth after the snow rescue. The woman who corrected the guards when they called her Lady Vale. The woman who placed extra blankets in Maeve's room. Darius's face was terrible. "Why?" Mrs. Ellery smiled sadly. "Because your mother made a promise, my king. Someone had to make sure it was kept." "My mother promised Thornveil nothing." "Not Thornveil." Mrs. Ellery lifted the blood key. "The patron." The rattle began to ring by itself. Nora's stomach tightened. Darius stepped forward. Mrs. Ellery pressed the key to her own throat. "Another step, and the ward collapses into the mother." Everyone froze. Maeve was shaking. Nora saw it before anyone else. Not fear. Recognition. "You wrote the blue ribbon note," Maeve said. Mrs. Ellery's eyes softened. "I needed you moved." "You let Rowan take me." "I let Rowan think he had taken you. Thornveil would have killed you in the infirmary. I sent the ribbon so Nora would follow the trail to the records." Nora stared at her. "You helped us?" "I served the promise." "That is not an answer." "It is the only one I have left." Mrs. Ellery looked suddenly old. "Darius's mother stole a Thornveil ledger page before she died. She gave it to me with instructions. When the crown-moon mother came under Frost protection, I was to guide her to the midwife house, then wake the nursery ward." Darius's voice was low. "You could have told me." "You would have burned the path to protect her." No one denied it. Mrs. Ellery turned to Maeve. "I am sorry for your pain." Maeve's eyes filled with fury. "My pain is not a tool." "No," Nora said. "It is not." The silver root around Nora's wrist pulsed. The rattle stopped. For the first time, Mrs. Ellery looked uncertain. Nora stepped forward. Darius said her name like a warning. She kept walking. "Everyone thinks the way to protect this child is to move women around a board. My mother. Darius's mother. Mara. Maeve. Me. Even you." Nora stopped at the edge of the ward circle. "No more." Mrs. Ellery's eyes filled with tears. "If the patron finds the child unprepared, she will take the bond before birth." "Then tell me how to stop her." Mrs. Ellery looked at the blood key. Maeve said, "Start by putting down the weapon." For a breath, it seemed she might. Then the nursery window shattered inward. A black-feathered dart struck Mrs. Ellery's neck. She collapsed. Darius caught the blood key before it hit the floor. Nora dropped beside Mrs. Ellery. "Who shot?" The dying housekeeper looked past Nora to the broken window. "Not who," she whispered. "What." Outside, in the snow below the nursery tower, stood a white-haired woman with no shadow. The patron had arrived.