Lovisa’s mind was still stupid and slow. She focused on the story she would tell her parents: She was in love with Pari Parnin. What was wrong with that? He was rich, from a good, Ledra family. She’d brought him up here because it was the most private place she could think of. She had no idea who the girl in the room was. A guest, maybe? Sleeping up here because she was ill, perhaps? In quarantine?

Lovisa grasped her hair, knowing, even in her numb state, that her parents wouldn’t believe any part of that story.

The door opened again. Ferla stepped out with her fox, holding the lamp, followed by Benni and the guard. Benni and the guard carried something long and heavy and sagging, wrapped in a blanket.

It was a body. Of course Lovisa understood it was a body. She even understood, from its height and girth, that it was Pari’s body. She saw it; it was unmistakable; and yet it was impossible. Her mind rejected utterly what her eyes saw.

Ferla locked the door, her every movement stiff, deliberate, angry. The figures carried their burden not to the stairs that led down to the house, but to the stairs that led up to the roof and the airship. They ascended the steps together, an awkward parade, while Lovisa crouched in the corner, incredulous, beginning to shake. The fox brought up the rear. Once, he swung his head to Lovisa, eyes gleaming, staring at the corner where she was losing her mind.

Benni was struggling with his grip. His hand slipped and a golden-green scarf Lovisa recognized emerged from the blanket. Ferla made an impatient noise.

“Maybe you’d like to carry it,” Benni snapped at Ferla.

“Maybe I’d like to carry it?” Ferla repeated, her voice falling into the room like icicles crashing onto the ground. “Maybe I’d like to carry it? Have I wanted any of this? You did this. You created this situation, and every nightmare before it, with your precious ambitions. Or should I call them delusions? Can you not see that if you’d just rescued her, like a normal human being, then you’d be the hero who worked with the silbercows to rescue the Queen of Monsea? No one would’ve blinked twice at anything you did after that! My own brother, Benni. My own brother!”

“But now we have her!” said Benni. “It changes the game, don’t you see? We have so many options! Monsea will pay for her. Estill will too!”

“We don’t need ransom money!” Ferla almost screamed. “We never needed to hurt anyone! We were going to do everything legally! I was going to give you your zilfium vote! You never would have had to break a single law! We had a plan!”

Their voices became muffled as they rose. Then the heavy trapdoor on the roof closed behind them, and Lovisa could hear no more.

—