“Then how?” Bri made a note to speak to these food tasters. “In the air somehow?”

“There were others in the room who were fine,” he said. “Some say it was a magic curse that did it.”

“I’ve never heard of such a curse,” Bri murmured, reeling him in.

“Nor I,” he replied. “But these are strange times we live in. Dark magic is being awakened. Who knows what magic the attackers might have wielded?”

She considered him—his balding head and scraggly beard. Had he heard about the battles with Balorn Vostemur and Augustus Norwood in Valtene? Had the news traveled to Swifthill of the odd magic that was coming back to life in Okrith? If Norwood’s violet smoke could poison the air, who knew what other poisons he might be able to conjure. Rua seemed to think the Queen’s assassination was his doing.

“Did you keep any alive?” Bri asked, narrowing her eyes at the decor as if she could divine the truth.

“No.” The man snickered. “They met the ends that they deserved.”

“That lack of restraint could cost more people their lives.” Rage made fools of them all. It blinded the vengeful until they’d harm themselves to claim their due. “How can we know what they’re planning if there’s no one left to question?”

He turned up a spiraling set of stairs, his open-toed sandals scuffing against each step. “The Queen’s council is investigating.”

Bri snorted. “Investigating.”

“Perhaps with a Golden Eagle here they will have more luck,” he said sarcastically.

“You are very forthright with your opinions.” Bri bristled as if rankling her feathers. “Did you speak to Her Majesty this casually?”

“You are not my Queen.” He chuckled far more than was necessary to get his point across. “You’re not even a countryman. You’re a foreigner here. It doesn’t matter if you’re fae and I’m human. I’m a Westerner, and you’re not.”

“Gods, I get it.” She rolled her shoulders in the habitual way she did when they bunched around her ears. “Are you all like this?”

His cheeks dimpled. “Yes.”

“Where is Delta?” The question had churned in her mind since she’d dismounted her horse. Despite her injuries, Bri had expected the Captain to greet her, especially considering it was Delta who had begged her to come.

“She is preoccupied at the moment.” They reached the fourth-floor landing, and the man panted as if he had just summited a mountain. He hobbled halfway down the hall and extended his arm to the door. “Your room, My Lady.”

Bri frowned at the title, giving the man a quick nod and thumbing him a gold coin from her pocket. He was already turning even as he caught it from midair, and she sighed at his icy reception. She needed to find the assassins and get out of this strange and unwelcoming place.

Closing the door, she entered a small hallway into her suite. The stone floor gave way to large terra-cotta tiles. They seemed perfect for baking in the winter sun and keeping cool underfoot in the sweltering summers, but the shrouds over the windows kept the room chilly, unable to absorb the strong Western rays.