I wondered if that would be hard for my mother. Or if she’d seen the flaws that drove him to betray Raverra sooner than anyone, and had removed him from his position as envoy to give him a chance to avoid the pitfalls of his own character.

“He was right,” I said quietly. “It was too late for him long ago.”

Marcello squeezed my shoulder.

“How about Ardence?” Zaira sprawled in her chair as if she didn’t care, but the tautness of her voice betrayed her. “Is it too late for the city, too? I’m going to need a big dinner if you want me to have the energy to set everything on fire tonight.”

“That appears, unfortunately, to be up to me.” I gritted my teeth. “So if you two might be so kind as to help me out of bed, I should take a bath. It’s going to be a long day.”

I started with Domenic, because I knew he would forgive me if I made mistakes.

Ciardha helped me arrange myself in a chair in the opulent yet intimate Blue Room such that I would be able to rest without looking insultingly at ease to my guests. Still, all I wanted to do was sleep, and I had a pounding headache from the aftereffects of the poison. Ignazio probably could have mixed me something to help with the pain.

I tried not to think about how he had no motivation to mix me anything helpful ever again. Except perhaps to keep my mother from ordering his death.

Domenic arrived with the distracted air of a man who has been pulled away from struggling to put out a fire. But he listened as I told him everything I knew about Lady Savony and Ignazio’s conspiracy, grimacing or exclaiming at points. At the end, he jumped up and started pacing, despite his obvious exhaustion.

“Damn them to the Hell of Corruption. They were using our pain and anger, all that time. This never had anything to do with justice. They were laughing at us.”

“We need the Council of Lords and the Ardentine court to see the truth.” I rubbed my temple, attempting to smooth out my headache. “So long as some of them still believe Savony’s lies, making peace between Ardence and Raverra will prove difficult.”

Domenic shook his head. “Lady Savony. I would never have guessed she, of all people, would betray Ardence.”

“In her own mind,” I said, “I don’t think she did.”

Domenic’s brows climbed his forehead. “I don’t see how it’s not a betrayal to murder your duke and push your city to the brink of a war that would destroy it utterly.”