“I heard you,” Lovisa said. “I heard your conversations with Mother. I know you’re the one who kidnapped the queen. I know you killed Pari, not Mother. I know she didn’t want any of that. I know you drowned the men on the Seashell! I know you trapped Katu in that cave, with that horrible scientist building explosive weapons above him!”

Benni sat with that for a while, in an injured sort of silence. The evening grew darker, and colder, as they sailed; Lovisa was grateful to be unable to see his face. But he could put so much into his voice. He’d always had that power. She supposed he was a consummate actor.

“That really hurts,” he finally said. “You can’t imagine how it hurts to hear those words from you, Lovisa. I’m your father. Are you forgetting everything I’ve done for you?”

She heard low, sharp voices telling Benni to shut his mouth, and became terrified that someone would hit him again. Finally, in desperation, she leaned herself against the queen. She let Bitterblue wrap her small, strong arms around her own shivering form. She let Bitterblue rub her back while she wept.

“I’ll be held liable for the Gravla house, you know,” Benni said, in a new voice. A voice of reproach, for a bad daughter. “And their airship, which is even more expensive. Probably the Tima airship as well.”

“Let us gag him, Lovisa,” Bitterblue begged, close to her ear. “Don’t let him do this to you. He’s bullying you!”

“I can’t,” she whispered, crying harder.

“It’s absurd to imply that anyone drowned those men in the Seashell,” Benni added, in a voice that contained both reproach and a kind of fatherly chiding, for a daughter who was being silly. “There’s been nothing to suggest that. Not a jot of evidence.”

“I’m going to tell you all about the Royal Continent,” said Bitterblue in her ear. “More than you ever wanted to know. I’ll tell you about every Graceling I’ve ever met. Okay?”

“Okay,” said Lovisa.

“You’re worthy of love, Lovisa,” said the queen, whose voice was close enough to drown out Benni’s voice, which had risen again. “You’re stronger than the way he’s making you feel.”

“I’m not,” she cried.

“Of course you are,” said the queen. “Haven’t you figured out that Hava would be dead if it weren’t for your quick thinking? That we couldn’t have rescued Katu or Hava without your knowledge of the cave? Don’t you remember that you saved my life?”

—

To the sound of the queen’s chatter, Lovisa finally fell asleep.

When the boat reached land, she woke to the feeling of being carried. She cried out, needing to know where her father was.