Sometime later, Nola came into the room, carrying a candle. A wind was moaning steadily outside. It made Lovisa feel like Torla’s Neck was the end of the world.

“Lovisa?” she said.

Lovisa grunted, pretending to be more asleep than she was.

“How are you feeling?” said Nola. “Do any of your muscles feel tight?”

It was a hilarious question. Lovisa couldn’t find a muscle in her body that didn’t feel tight. The muscles of her shoulders, neck, and skull were trying to pop her head right off her body. “A little,” she said.

A hand touched her shoulder. “May I?”

“I don’t care,” she said. “Do what you like.”

“I need a yes or a no, Lovisa.”

“Fine. Yes.”

So Nev’s mother massaged her back, shoulders, and neck with skilled strokes, finding the lines of tension, smoothing them. How unexpected, to be soothed by a stranger. Lovisa began to cry from the intensity of the comfort it gave her. When Nola found a necklace on Lovisa’s neck, she moved carefully around it, because Lovisa wouldn’t remove it. It was the cord that held the attic room key. The attic room no longer existed, but Lovisa couldn’t let the key go. It was the only thing she had left that she understood.

The candle hissed. Puffs of wind pushed at the walls. Lovisa imagined that this was her home, her life. But this is my life, she realized; then, before she could get too confused about that, she fell asleep.

—

In the middle of the night, Bitterblue woke her with a soft “Lovisa?”

“Huh?” she said, coming awake to a pounding headache. She was still in Nev’s bed. The queen stood beside her, wearing Ferla’s furs and holding a glowing lamp. “What?”

“We’re leaving for your house.”

“Now? What time is it?”

“About four o’clock,” Bitterblue said. “You don’t have to come, but we didn’t want to leave without giving you the choice.”

“Can you do the plan without me?”

“We’ll manage,” said Bitterblue diplomatically.

In the dark blankness of her half-awake state, Lovisa’s biggest truths arranged themselves starkly for her consideration. Her mother was dead. Her father was probably already in jail. Her brothers. Who was taking care of her brothers?

“Bitterblue?” she said in a breaking voice. “Is there some hope, do you think, for a better life for my brothers?”

“Oh, of course,” said the queen. “I’m sure of it, Lovisa.”

The queen’s certainty annoyed her, and woke her up.

“There’s hope for you too,” the queen added. “Lovisa—”

“Oh, stop,” said Lovisa. “I don’t need any more inspiring slogans.” The queen saw everything as flowers and sunshine, because she was in love.

“All right,” said Bitterblue quietly. “I have to go, because the others are waiting. Nola and Saiet are staying behind if you need anything today.”