In fact, she wouldn’t go. She’d go back to her room, where Amon was waiting. Sort of.

She circled around the table, meaning to slip past Micah and into the hallway. He must have seen something in her face, because he moved to block her path. “Come on, now,” he said. “We’d better hurry;we’re expected.”

She shook her head. “Actually, I’m exhausted, and I’m not feeling well,” she said. “Please give my apologies to the queen, but I think I’d better go on to bed.”

Micah sighed. “Raisa, I’m sorry, but I have to bring you. If it makes you feel any better, neither one of us has a choice, all right?”

Raisa looked into his face and saw that he meant it, so she walked past him and turned toward the privy chamber. All the while, her mind raced, struggling to make sense of it.

Neither one of us has a choice.

Who was giving the orders, then? Her mother or Gavan Bayar?

C H A P T E R  T W E N T Y - F O U R

UNHOLY
CEREMONY

Four guardsmen flanked the doors of the queen’s apartments. Holding her head high, Raisa swept past them, with Micah following behind. Raisa heard voices within, but as soon as she pushed the door open, the conversation stopped and several people turned toward them.

Queen Marianna smiled, her cheeks flushed with excitement and wine, still wearing the stunning green dress she’d had on at dinner. Beside her, Gavan Bayar, also in his formal garb, and Micah’s sister, Fiona, her pale face alight with—what? Triumph? Satisfaction?

And there, like a plump, giddy turkey among the foxes, was Speaker Horas Redfern, chief cleric of the cathedral temple. Raisa had never cared for Redfern, who, in her opinion, spent too little time tending to his flock and too much time cozying up to the aristocracy.

Redfern, too, looked as if he’d had a little too much to drink. He seemed rather frenetically cheerful.

“And here they are now,” Queen Marianna said. She swept forward and kissed Raisa and Micah in turn.

Raisa scanned the room. It had been transformed from the last time she’d seen it. There were flowers everywhere—two extravagant arrangements of lilies and roses on either side of an altar, bowls of blooms on all the tables, tucked in with thousands of flickering candles. An altar cloth was embroidered with entwined roses and falcons. A peculiar design. To one side was a serving table with wine buckets and glasses. Why, it looked almost like a…

“How do you like it, sweetheart?” Queen Marianna took Raisa’s hands and gazed into her face as if eager for her approval. “We had very little time to put it together, but I think you can appreciate the importance of discretion. I know it may not be exactly what you pictured, but…”