“It’s cold in here,” he said. “The air swoops down the staircase and under the door. Every time someone comes in, it’s freezing.”

Lovisa noticed the way he was shivering, hunching his shoulders to his ears. Looking up the stairs, she saw the fox, his eyes glinting through the banister, serving as Viri’s guard. If she or anyone brought Viri warm clothing or socks, he would end up with an even harsher punishment.

Something inside Lovisa went hard and certain. “I’m going to check on you,” she said, “soon.”

Then, a little frightened of her own fury, she turned toward her father’s library.

—

Inside the library, Lovisa stood like a girl made of electric confusion. She hardly saw the room around her. She only saw Viri on his square, and the queen trapped in the attic room. She touched the key tucked against her breast.

Lovisa understood that she was here to get the queen out of her prison.

But how? What could she do? Make a scene at dinner? It might’ve worked at the dinner with the Monsean delegation, but it was too late for that now.

What, then? The fox knew she was home, which meant that her parents knew too, and would be hypervigilant about keeping her away from the attic. Should she try to incapacitate her mother somehow while her father was in bed, then run for the attic? No. What was she going to do, attack her own mother?

Lovisa went to her father’s desk and began yanking the top drawers open, looking for some clue that would make sense of everything and tell her what to do. What had those Monseans been looking for? She found pieces of graphite, pens, envelopes, a button, a neat little pile of unpaid bills. Another neat pile of Keepish cash. No clues.

When she reached the few small panels that she knew were the fronts of secret drawers, she focused on a childhood memory. She’d pretended to fall asleep in Benni’s big armchair once, then peeked through her eyelashes as he’d felt around inside one of the top drawers with a deliberation that had interested her. As she’d watched, another, handleless drawer had popped open nearby.

Lovisa took a careful breath. After a minute or so of gentle fiddling inside the top drawers, a click sounded. One of the panels sprang forward, just enough for Lovisa to slip a finger inside. Quite satisfied with herself, she pulled the hidden drawer open, then cringed in horror as it made a terrible screeching sound. Quickly, she peeked into the drawer, saw that it contained some papers and jewelry, swept everything out, and shoved it into her pocket. She slid the noisy drawer closed and ran to the armchair, where she sat with her legs curled up around her, trying to look young and calm and innocent.