Shadow Weaver (Back on Wattpad 2020!)

Chapter 39

I take a step back and reach for the divan. My head spins, my legs feel as though they are being pulled down, and my fingers are so heavy the knife is slipping from my grip.

She is lying! I saw the Prince's sketches, the young woman with the wavy hair, large tormented eyes, and a thin nose.

"You are not Lady Calmi."

"It seems you have been as little informed about me, as I about you. Has the Prince told you nothing?"

I sink into soft cushion, try to curl my yielding fingers back around the knife, but they are unresponsive. The light in her eyes alters as she realizes how little I know. It is impossible to read her, but that tiny change in her flat expression does more to confirm her claim than any words she could utter.

If this is Lady Calmi, who is the young woman the Prince carries in his leather binding, along with the portraits of Kel, Queen Usas and me?

My stomach hurts. Pressure builds in my head. My limbs want to give up. I battle their desire to succumb.

"How are your arms? Have you lost feeling yet?"

"They are tingling."

"Your body fights the poison. Still, we should not delay if you want to live through this."

"The soldier and the maid saw you enter. If I die, you will be arrested within the hour."

The prickling intensifies to a painful sting as though my arms and legs are buried in snow. For an instant they burn, and then numbness creeps in. My shoulders and head slump. I'm about to keel over when she catches me and lowers me onto the divan.

"Stay calm. It is unpleasant, I know. Now, tell me, why has Prince Jakut arrived with his uncle? Why did he not send news he was alive? Why has he refused to speak with me?"

I struggle to focus on the ceiling. Delicately painted birds with blue wingtips decorate a circle in the center. I can smell her citrus perfume and coriander on her breath. The numbness spreads up my neck, but my heart feels as though it's beating double-time and my mind races.

Perhaps she is not afraid of being arrested. Or she is confident any accusations against her will be dropped. Or she is bluffing and will not let me die no matter what.

Three possibilities. But I cannot gamble without knowing the first thing about her. Eyes open, fixed on the ceiling, I dip into her mind; skim the airy, insubstantial surface. I hope to find something recent that will reveal her true nature; but quickly, so she does not guess what I have done.

She walks through an enchanting passage of crisscrossed crescent arches. Arches which start on her level and end higher up, joining to the vertical network of turrets, palace apartment and courtyards. Plants hang like long arms from overhead balconies. A buttressed glass room blocks the fading light, and a twisting stairway starts two levels up, and keeps climbing higher than the eye can see.

Footsteps patter and echo. A nearby bird takes flight.

Calmi turns.

The woman running towards her shouts, "News of the Prince!"

She falters, lifts a trembling hand to push back her long hair. "Is he dead?" Her voice is steady but the fear is there, hidden inside her.

"He has just arrived at the palace, My Lady. The Queen greets him as we speak."

Enough. Calmi has chosen a fast-working poison, and I may only have minutes before it shuts down my organs. It is not much, but at least I know she fears the Prince's death as much as I fear Kel's. I move to the edge of her mind to slip back out.