A moment later I’m lying in his arms and we’re moving.

“You’ll be seen by my own physician,” the prince says, gently stroking my hair. “You’ll be fine.”

His voice is shaking, and I look up at him. He’s dusty and dirtier than I thought, and his eyes are red and swollen.

“Are you all right?” I ask.

He shakes his head and holds on to me, a hand wound around my arm.

“I—” He breaks off and looks away from me. “I asked Mother about the wells,” he says in an oddly detached voice. “She told me it was true. They put poison in the water. She said it was necessary, a merciful thing, or else the poor would grow too numerous and we would not be safe. She said they had risen before and they would rise again if we didn’t keep careful control of their numbers.”

Ysengrim take them. They are monsters, one and all.

“I asked her if she ever thought of doing it again,” he continues mournfully, “and she got up, walked to the fire, and put her hand in the flame.” He pauses, horrified at his own admission. “I didn’t even stop her.” He stares at the empty seat before him like a man haunted. “She wouldn’t stop screaming.”

He wrings his hands as if they were covered in blood.

“When I told her that I wouldn’t lead the attack, she said I had no choice. That if we allowed the rebels to unite, they would march on the palace and turn us over to the guillotine, as they tried to years ago. Every single one of us.”

He’s right. That’s what the six little mice attempted to do in the last revolution.

“How could I let that happen? She said if I didn’t go, she would send another captain and charge him with executing every civilian he saw.”

He’s shaking.

“And so you went,” I say quietly.

“The queen said an example must be made. I had to ride at their head and let the soldiers do their job.” He shudders. “They ambushed and crushed every cell. They took no prisoners, Nina. None. And when they were done, they lined up the bodies side by side to make it easier for the cart to take them away.”

He closes his eyes and I see a tear run down his face.

“We had to cross their names off a list.” He swallows. “The plan was thought up by advisors. Father and Mother sanctioned it, but I gave the order. I did it, Nina. I killed all those people, as sure as if I were the man firing the gun, the hand wielding the sword.”

His eyes are bright with horror. I take his shaking hand in my own and lift my gaze to his.

It is strange, the urge I have to comfort him, when he is telling me of all the people that have died at his hand.

“It’s finished,” I say gently. Because there is nothing else to say.