Harriet shrugged. “Wouldn’t you? The whole place fell apart when he left. He’d been in charge of everyone’s meals, the work schedules, lessons for the young ones, cleaning, stopping fights, fetching healers… It was a mess for a while. They tried to make me do it all, but I acted like I was going to run off after him instead, so they hired a few more farmhands and figured it out. Imagine that. Four people had to be hired to do all the work Yves was doing. I wouldn’t be an oldest Cooper kid if you paid me.”
Charon thought of Yves as he’d been when he first came to the House of Onyx. He’d finished his chores during his probationary period so quickly that Laurent had thought he’d paid someone else to do it, and then he’d spent the rest of his time scouring the city for theaters, cafés, and gardens. He’d thrilled at the thought of being a man of leisure, and had quickly set himself up as the resident spoiled brat of the House of Onyx. Charon wondered if Yves had ever had a moment when he could truly be a child. It was, he realized with an unpleasant jolt, something they had in common.
Harriet clapped her hands, startling Charon out of his reverie. “I know. I’ll find Yves myself. It’ll scare the shit out of him. Do you want to come?” When she winked at Charon, he could see Yves in the wicked twinkle in her eyes. “Give me a hand over the hedge, in any case. We’ll go around the side.”
“It may not be safe,” Charon said. Harriet didn’t act like someone trying to gather news of Yves for her aunt. She seemed to be exactly who she was—a rare, unguarded person who genuinely liked Yves. He wasn’t sure it would be wise to let her slip into a maze full of nobles, particularly when one could be responsible for a young boy’s murder. “It’s a public maze, so there may be pickpockets waiting to take advantage.”
“Oh, that’s almost quaint.” Harriet wrapped an arm around Charon’s. “Yvessaidyou were nice. That’s good. He needed a few friends in the city.” She walked alongside Charon as they rounded the corner, stopping at the side entrance to the maze. “Is there a trick to it?”
“Not that I know of,” Charon said.
“Right.” Harriet rubbed her hands together and bent to tie her skirts in a knot. “You try it the normal way, and I’ll do it my way. Shout if you see him.”
Harriet proceeded to climb onto the top of the hedge with a chorus of snapping twigs and rustling leaves. Charon heard a thump and a giggle as she collapsed on the other side, then another rustle of bushes as she climbed another hedge.
Charon took the left path, which led down a hodgepodge of brick and hedge. He listened for Harriet, who was gleefully breaking all the rules of hedge mazes everywhere by barreling through it.
“Hisst!”
Charon stopped short as a piece of the hedge lifted up like a window, scattering leaves onto the path. A pale hand popped out and gestured frantically.
“Hisst!”
“Yves?” Charon ducked down to stare into the hedge. Yves looked up at him from a small tunnel built into the hedge. He was dressed in white, which was streaked with green fromthe hedges, and he looked like he’d just run off with the royal treasury.
“Get in here,” Yves whispered. “Quick, before someone sees you.” He shimmied backward through the tunnel.
“It’s a little small for me,” Charon said.
“That’s your fault for being built like a hot, sleeveless wall, Charon.” Yves disappeared into the tunnel, and Charon tried to gently climb inside. The tunnel was supported by wood, with green paint that stretched past the hedge leaves to blend in better. It squeezed him uncomfortably as he moved, and when the flap closed behind him, he was left in pitch darkness. He shuffled forward until he reached the other side, which opened up into a shady pavilion shielded on all sides by high hedges. Yves sprawled on a pillow in the middle of it all, with a basket of fruit and glazed scones next to him.
“I found this place a few years ago,” he whispered, gesturing for Charon to join him. Charon sat on the other side of the basket, and Yves fished out a scone. “I think the queen used to come here with her lovers, but I’m the only one who knows about it anymore. I saved you the honey and cinnamon one.”
Charon couldn’t imagine the old queen shimmying through a small tunnel for some peace and quiet, but Yves’ talent for gossip was reliable. “Shouldn’t you be outside?”
“Yes, but this’ll thin out the ones who don’t want to put in the work, and it’ll give Sabre’s people time to seek out the nobles we invited.” Yves popped a grape in his mouth. “He dressed up his spies like courtesans, but they’re all too serious to pass as them.”
“You may want to come out regardless. Your cousin is in the hedge maze, and if the noble who killed that boy is here, that could mean trouble.”
Yves nearly choked on the grape. Charon thumped Yves’ back, and Yves grabbed Charon’s arm with both hands to brace himself.
“Harriet’s here? In the maze?”
Charon couldn’t see Yves’ face well enough in the dark to read his expression. “Yes.”
“She’s going to scare them more than the swans,” Yves said. “I need to find her.”
“You aren’t worried that she could be in danger?”
“Oh, not Harriet. She’s been a farmer her whole life. She could probably throwyouif she wanted to.”
“She seems to like you,” Charon said.
“She has to be, if she’s made it all the way to Duciel. She’s like Pearl; they hate cities. They make them feel boxed in.” Yves flashed a smile. “I feel that way about the country, so we understand each other.”
“She was climbing over hedges when I lost sight of her,” Charon said, and Yves covered his mouth with both hands to hide a laugh.
“I should stop her before she breaks an ankle,” Yves said. He covered the basket and dusted off his outfit. “Help sneak me out?”
