«It was Muriella!» she said breathlessly over her shoulder to Jessamy as they ran toward the gardens.

«I know», Jessamy gasped, and seized the arm of a guard as they came abreast of him, pausing only long enough to bark out a single command.

«Go to the queen's solar», she ordered, «and arrest Lady Muriella!»

They had seen the location in the garden where Marie had been reading her letter. At the path to the arbor, Alyce split off in that direction, leaving Jessamy to continue on toward the castle's fishpond.

As Alyce approached, she saw the rumpled blur of her sister's peacock-colored gown, stark against the creamy stone of the bench beneath the arbor, and the tumble of her loose hair veiling her face. With a little cry, she ran to Marie's side and swept the hair aside, but the blue eyes were open and empty, the fair face already waxy pale. Sobbing, Alyce gathered her sister to her breast and held her, weeping for her loss — for Marie's loss — for all the tomorrows that now would never be.

But urgency soon drew her from her own grief, to see what help she might render to Jessamy, for she knew, from the brief images she had read from Brigetta, that the tragedy did not stop here. With a little sob, she gently shifted her sister onto clean grass and scrambled to her feet, dashing off the way Jessamy had gone — and found her beside the fishpond in the kitchen yard, weeping as she cradled the lifeless Isan in her arms. Young Prince Brion was hugging a very frightened and wide-eyed Krispin, who at least did not appear to be too affected other than being very shocked. Jessamy's cries had brought several kitchen servants into the doorway to investigate the source of the distress.

«Alyce — oh, thank God!» Jessamy sobbed, looking up. 'Take Krispin inside at once and make him vomit! Give him the whites of half a dozen eggs, and then a great deal of water with plenty of salt in it».

«But I didn't eat any! I spat it out!» Krispin insisted, as Brion began dragging him toward the kitchen and Alyce hesitated uncertainly.

«Is Isan?»

«Yes, he's dead!» Jessamy cried. «And God knows what I shall tell his mother. He had nearly twice as much as the others. Dear God, how did we not see this coming?»

Suddenly very weary, Alyce started to sink down numbly beside Jessamy, but the older woman seized her roughly by the shoulder and gave her a shake.

«Don't you dare!» she whispered vehemently. «Go and tend to Krispin. There's nothing to be done here. Save your passion for the living!»

Half-dazed with shock, Alyce straightened and followed after Brion and Krispin, pushing past the servants in the doorway. In the bustling kitchen beyond, preparations were underway for the evening meal.

Forcing herself to focus, Alyce herded the two boys ahead of her until she spotted a basket of eggs. She seized a large cup as she changed course in that direction, nodding toward the nearest pair of kitchen maids.

«You», she said to the younger one, «fetch us some fresh water — at once! And you», she said to the second, «separate the whites from half a dozen of those eggs and put them in this cup. Brion, bring Krispin over here!»

«But I didn't eat any of the marchpane!» Krispin protested.

«We must make sure», Alyce replied. «Hurry!» she added aside to the white-faced servant, who was breaking eggs and tipping the yolks back and forth between the two halves of each, letting the whites drain into the cup Alyce held. «My sister is dead. By now, so is Lady Brigetta. And Isan».

The boys' faces drained of color, and anger flashed in young Brion's gray eyes.

«Who did this terrible thing?» the crown prince demanded.

«I don't know», Alyce replied. «I think it was Lady Muriella».

«But, why?» Krispin wanted to know, tears spilling down his cheeks.

«I don't know». Alyce took the cup, now half-filled with egg-whites, and put it into his hands. «Now, drink this — all of it!»

«No. It's slimy. It'll make me puke».

«That's the whole point. Drink it!»

At the same time, Prince Brion gave his shoulder a shake and repeated, «Drink it, Krispin».

The younger boy braced himself and drank, forcing himself to gag down the contents of the cup in three large swallows. When he had finished, Alyce refilled the cup from an ewer the younger servant had brought, added a generous measure of salt and stirred it with a finger, and ordered the boy to drain that, too — and then a second cup. As he labored to finish the second draught, making a face, she pulled an empty basin closer, nodding for Brion to hold it under Krispin's chin.

«Revolting, wasn't it?» Alyce murmured, cupping the back of Krispin's head with her hand. «Believe me, I do understand. Now open your mouth».

Too startled to resist, Krispin obeyed, only to have Alyce poke two fingers down his throat, at the same time pressing his head over the empty basin.

The result was immediate and spectacular. When Krispin had finished retching, Brion dutifully holding the basin and looking scared, one of the kitchen maids brought him a clean towel, another offering one to Alyce.

«Will he be all right, my lady?» the girl asked.

«I think so», Alyce replied numbly. «It doesn't appear that he actually got a dose of the poison, but I couldn't risk not doing everything I know to do. It was in some marchpane, but he said he spat out what he tried».

One of the women was inspecting the contents of the basin while Brion helped Krispin wipe his mouth and Alyce washed her hands in another basin a young kitchen maid had brought.

«Marchpane, y'say?» the woman said, shaking her head. «Well, I don't see no trace of that, my lady. I doubt he'd had anything since this morning».

«For which, God be praised!» Alyce murmured, drying her hands.

Welcome relief flooded through her like a physical wave, and she leaned heavily on the vast kitchen table. But this momentary respite quickly gave way to recollection of less favorable outcomes: images of her sister lying dead in the garden, and the innocent Brigetta stricken in the queen's chamber — and Isan, who had eaten more of the tainted marchpane than any of the others, likewise dead. A sob welled up in her throat, but she mastered it and laid her arms around the shoulders of Krispin and the prince.

«That was well done, gentlemen», she murmured, hugging both of them close. «You were very brave».

«What about Isan?» Brion asked hesitantly. «Is he really?..»

«I'm afraid he is, your Highness», she replied.

«I want to see him!» Krispin said boldly.

«There is nothing you can do for him now», she said. «But your lady mother will be frantic to know that you are safe!»

«Wrath is cruel, and anger is outrageous, but who is able to stand before envy?»[20]

The prince's mother was, indeed, frantic, but not alone for worry over her son. Watching white-faced and silent as men from the castle guard wrapped the body of the unfortunate Brigetta in a cloak to carry it from the room, the queen jumped to her feet as Alyce came in with Prince Brion and Krispin. In the room beyond, Jessamy was trying to comfort Lady Megory Fitzmartin, the mother of Isan, who was holding her dead son in her arms and keening, rocking him back and forth. Lord Seisyll Arilan stood just inside the door, apparently enlisted to carry the dead boy back to his mother.

Seisyll turned as Alyce entered with the two boys, and the queen tearfully held out her arms to her son. Brion ran to her, burying his face against her waist, starting to cry at last as his mother shed more tears of sheer relief.

Krispin held back at first, then pressed past Seisyll into the room beyond and stared at the dead Isan as his mother silently embraced him. Meanwhile, in the queen's chamber, her other ladies were staring at Alyce, Vera and Zoë among them, their eyes begging her to say that none of this was real. All had been weeping.