Luntok reached into the pocket of his trousers and retrieved a letter. “Here’s the information that serving girl⁠—Yari or whatever her name is⁠—promised. She slipped it beneath Laya’s door earlier tonight. Said she found it in Hara Duja’s laundry.”

Imeria snatched up the letter, her eyes widening as she scanned its contents. To His Royal Highness, Hari Aki. Her stomach plummeted when she reached the name at the bottom of the letter.

Pangil Gatdula. Maynara’s exiled prince. He used to threaten Imeria with fireballs to the face when they were children. At some point in the twenty-two years since he was banished, he’d found a way to contact the king⁠—but that was not Imeria’s most shocking realization.

“Well,” Gulod snapped from across the table. “What does it say?”

A cool wave of dread washed over Imeria. She set the letter down on the table with shaking hands. Pangil’s words were bafflingly cryptic. Alchemist. Abiding glory. But Imeria was no half-wit. Her fingers flew up to the vials of precioso, which she now wore on a chain around her neck.

“It seems the queen has found a way to hold on to her powers. A cure for the passage of time⁠—or something along those means,” Imeria said. She reached for her wine and took a sip. The inside of her throat had gone dry.

Gulod’s eyes narrowed in confusion. “What are you insinuating? Do you believe Hara Duja has also gotten her hands on precioso?”

Luntok answered for her. “I don’t know about the precioso, but Yari heard something about a man living in the eastern wing. Hardly any of the servants have seen him. According to Yari, the guards stocked his chambers with chemicals and potions and a strange number of things.”

“He’s an alchemist, surely,” Imeria said as she pondered Pangil’s letter. If that man was the alchemist of which Pangil spoke, then he had been brought to the palace for a reason⁠—to produce precioso, or a similar substance, was the only theory that made sense.

Vikal rubbed his temple and let out a low whistle. “Forgive me, my lady. I don’t know much about alchemy, but if I understand what you’re saying, the queen will be very hard to defeat.”

“Not if we act quickly,” she said, her thoughts racing. According to Yari, the alchemist had only arrived in Mariit when the feast days began earlier that week. Imeria remembered the tremors that overcame Duja the other day in the council room. Precioso promised more control over her powers, which meant Duja did not yet have access to the drug. If that was the case, Imeria could still overpower her. She chewed her lip as she weighed her options⁠—it was a very big if.