“It will cost me much less than testifying will cost you, Lovisa,” she said. “And being able to help you will be my reward.”

Lovisa reached her fork to the serving plate and took some duck. Sliced it, pushed it around. She wasn’t hungry, but she needed something to do, while she tried to absorb the shock of this woman caring about her and her situation.

“Lovisa,” the queen added. “Did you ever overhear your parents allude to the sinking of the Seashell?”

“No,” said Lovisa. “Not specifically.”

“I don’t like the gap it leaves in the court case,” the queen said. “My men were murdered. And Katu’s suspicions, and his abduction, make little sense without it too. Ah well. Have you shared any of your evidence with the Magistry yet?”

“No,” said Lovisa, thinking about the words her mother had yelled at Benni. “We never needed to hurt anyone! We were going to do everything legally! You never would have had to break a single law!” She’d told Mari her evidence. She’d told Nev. She’d shared it with her piglet, Worthy, cuddling him in a quiet corner of the Devret house, which was where Worthy was living these days, delighting her brothers, and apparently gaining a reputation as a genius. “We found him in the heat ducts,” Arni had told her gravely, the last time she’d visited. “Wandering around inside the walls from room to room. No idea how he got in there. Seemed confused about it himself.”

But she hadn’t shared it with the Magistry. Lovisa’s evidence lived inside herself, wandering around from head to heart to stomach, trying to decide where it belonged.

Maybe it could stay where it was?

“I’d like to think about this,” Lovisa told the queen. “May I have a few days to think about it?”

“Of course,” said Bitterblue. “As long as you need.”

“I—have homework to do,” Lovisa said. “Do you mind—”

She knew she was being rude. A queen had invited her to lunch. But just now, Lovisa needed to escape. She had a feeling Bitterblue would want her to escape, if that’s what she needed.

“Go, and be well,” said Bitterblue.

—

Outside, Lovisa’s feet carried her to the Devret house. She wanted to visit her brothers.

She saw a lot of them now, bringing her homework to the Devrets’ some nights, sleeping over on weekends. She and the boys had bedrooms of their own, in the part of the house where family slept. She would crowd with them on one of their beds and they’d all be talking and snacking and laughing, and she wouldn’t be able to shake the sense that it wasn’t safe. And then she’d remember that none of them were going to be punished if they were found together. Joy was no longer a thing they needed to steal.