By the end of the day, Thisbe had coerced Dev into dumping out and rinsing the old bottles of dragon-bone broth while she tended to her secret ancestor broth. When it was ready, she scooped out the steaming ancestor bones and threw them away so they wouldn’t be discovered. She started filling the clean vials with her new batch of bone broth. Once she had several dozen bottles poured, she stopped Dev and gave him his dose to drink, then set one aside for herself. She picked up seven more, then hesitated as a thought struck her. She grabbed an additional seven and brought all fourteen to the outer chamber to give to the soldiers to disperse.

“Why so many bottles?” asked a soldier.

“The Revinir wants two doses for each slave,” Thisbe said smoothly. “To make up for the spoiled dose last time.”

“Oh.” The soldier seemed to accept the explanation, and since she hadn’t gone out to Dragonsmarche when the slaves had, she wouldn’t have known what was said. Because the slaves all told the truth now while under the Revinir’s control, she didn’t need to question the girl.

The soldier headed out. Thisbe heard her explain the reason for two doses to her partner. Satisfied, Thisbe went back inside the kitchen to finish filling bottles and putting them in the throne room, starting again from the left as before. Then she built a new batch of dragon-bone broth, deliberately making sure Dev saw her hoist the large bones into her cauldron in case he ever got questioned about what Thisbe was doing. Once she had it going, she helped Dev finish bottling his dragon-bone broth, and she brought it into the throne room. She examined the bottles carefully, memorizing the ones that she’d made: more golden in color and even a little thicker in viscosity. There was definitely a difference, and Thisbe was determined not to confuse them.

As Dev started his next batch, Thisbe pocketed a few extra vials of ancestor broth to bring back to her crypt in case she and Rohan needed them as an antidote. She hesitated. She wanted Dev to ingest two vials like everyone else, but she didn’t want to tell him to take two—he’d been with her this whole time, so he knew that the Revinir hadn’t actually given that order. She didn’t think he’d accept the directive from Thisbe—not the way he’d accept it from someone in authority like the Revinir or a soldier. So she kept quiet and made sure he’d finished his single vial.

She rinsed it out and saw that Dev was acting strange again, like he had been the previous time. He was leaning over the counter, his face tinged with gray.

“Are you all right?” Thisbe asked him. She checked for soldiers, then went over to him. He stood up, a bit shaky, and turned to face her.