Page 39 of The Witch in the Dead of Night

Wiping sweat from my upper lip, I spotted Maxence hovering nearby. Relief washed over me, an emotion I never thought I would feel at the sight of him. I approached, slipping past the crowd.

“What do you want?” he asked, his tone irritated as he ushered the next group in. “I’m sure you can see that I’m busy at the moment.”

“I need to talk to you,” I said.

“Why?” he asked.

“Because …” I faltered, searching for the right level of flattery. “Because you know things.”

“I do know things.”

I gripped his sleeve, pulling him into an alcove behind the statue of a wyvern curled around its own tail. He raised an eyebrow. “Aren’t you supposed to be one of the nobility now? This is rather improper.”

I rolled my eyes. “I guess I’m still a chambermaid at heart.”

“Clearly,” he said. “I’d hate to invoke the King’s temper. I hear he’s quite territorial about his new adviser.”

I frowned. “I’ve heard nothing of the sort, and even if I had—” I stopped short, reminding myself why I was here. Maxence got under my skin nearly as quickly as Enhart. They should exchange notes sometime.

“I’m here about the missing girl,” I said.

“Not this again,” he groaned. “The King is meeting with her parents this evening.”

I frowned. “Ruby’s parents?”

“No, Alice Falsworth’s. Her father is one of the foremost textile merchants in the kingdom with some connections with the Tradesmaster. She disappeared from the Trade District.”

The couple, I thought. That explained their grief. “Why were they here?”

He sighed. “They demanded that the King investigate her death.”

“I thought there was already an investigation underway.”

“It stalled, but now the seneschal and I are in charge of looking into it further, to make the parents happy. As if we don’t have better things to do.”

“And what of Ruby?”

“The laundrymaid?”

I nodded. “I just ran into Sigrid. She said no one’s heard from her since the night that I was attacked.”

“Servants leave our service without explanation all the time! We can’t just assume that they were murdered in the streets of Valnar or we’d never get anything done.”

“What about when two servants are attacked on the same night?”

“Coincidence, most likely.”

I opened my mouth to speak, but he held up a hand. “Why are you even coming to me with this, anyway? Why don’t you take it to him?” he asked.

I bit the inside of my cheek. “His Majesty has politely but firmly discouraged me from looking into it.”

His eyes widened. “Godsdamnit, Erramun, you’re going to lose me my job.” He moved to shoulder past me, but I tightened my grip on his sleeve.

“Please,” I said. “I can’t risk losing focus right now given my training is painful enough as it is, but you just said that you were in charge of the investigation.”

“I regret letting you get that out of me. Besides, I shouldn’t have said anything. It’s confidential. I assume.”

By now the doors to the throne room had cracked open again and people spilled out into the receiving room. The King appeared, flanked by a gaggle of advisers. Standing at least a head taller than the rest of them, his silver crown gleamed in the dim lamplight.