I got slowly to my feet and put my forearms on the table, leaning heavily against it. Aaron and Javier were both looking at me with the kind of studied impassivity that people get when they think you’re about to start raving about whippoorwills stealing your toenails.
“Can you tell us what exactly happened?” Aaron asked, very carefully.
It had occurred to me that the two of them could be very usefulin tracking down the source of the apple, regardless of whether it was from the mirror or not. Someone had to be giving it to Snow, right?
Or else she’s walking into the mirror and getting it herself.
In which case, maybe they’d seethathappen and… well… I’d deal with that if and when it came up.
But why would there be apples in the mirror? There are no apple groves here to reflect. The nearest orchards are back in Four Saints. Though I suppose there might be a barrel down in the cellars…
It occurred to me that Aaron and Javier had been staring at me for a rather long time and that I should probably say something. I shoved all thoughts of mirrors down and hoped they’d put the pause down to my illness. “Right,” I said. “I’m afraid this was self-inflicted…”
I recounted the whole saga, minus the mirrors. At one point Javier fetched me a cup of water from the jug I kept to water the snake and the chicken. Other than that, they just listened.
“And… uh… that’s where we’re at,” I finished, somewhat anticlimactically.
Aaron said, with marvelous patience, “Are you telling me that you poisoned yourself, then rushed down here in order to save a pet chicken?”
“He’s not a pet. He’s more of a colleague.”
“That’s what you said about the snake.”
“And I’d rush down here to save her, too.” I pulled the dressing gown tighter around myself. “Look, the important thing is that someone is sneaking poisoned apples to Snow.”
“Not quite,” Javier said, in his deep, solemn voice. “The important thing is that someone is sneaking poisoned apples to Snowand she is eating them. Willingly.” He looked from my face to Aaron’s. “Whoever is doing this, they have clearly convinced her that it is in her own best interests to eat poison.”
I nodded glumly. “I can’t think that she hasn’t connected the apple to the illness. She’s notthatyoung.”
“Could someone have convinced her that the apple is curing her?” Aaron asked.
“Maybe? I don’t know. Or it could be like people eating arsenic, and she thinks it’s building an immunity to something?” I spread my hands helplessly.
“There must besomereason,” Aaron said.
“Even if there is, I can’t just ask her, since I’m definitely not in her good graces right now. Which reminds me, I have to finish my letter to the king, and Saints know what I’m going to say…”
“I can assist you with that,” Javier said unexpectedly. “Tomorrow.” He no longer had the whippoorwill-and-toenails look, but he seemed to have moved toyou cannot be trusted to care for yourself,which, under the circumstances, I couldn’t argue with.
“We’ll help you,” Aaron said. “There are only so many times of the day when someone is not watching Snow. We can ask around and watch ourselves.”
I nodded. “That would be ahugehelp.” I started to say more and caught myself in a jaw-cracking yawn. The exhaustion of the day, both physical and emotional, seemed to crash over me all at once. “And… I think I should go lie down.”
My guards helped me back up to my room. I halfway wondered if they were going to tuck me into bed, too, but they stopped at the doorway. “Send a page when you require my help with the letter,” Javier said. I promised that I would.
I crossed the room, fell down on the bed, and was instantly asleep. Sometime in the night, I woke up long enough to take off my shoes, but that was all.
CHAPTER 15
Morning came on like an unearned hangover. I opened my eyes, closed them again, put my arm over my forehead, and moaned softly.
“Everything’ll look easier after a cup of tea,” said the maid.
I cracked one eye open again and saw the mass of devouring hair. Was tea preferable to death? Possibly. As a scholar, I was obligated to research the matter. I grunted something.
Tea, fortunately, did not seem to enrage the apple the way dinner had. I drank two cups and decided that since I was alive, I might as well stay that way.
I guiltily asked the maid to have the bath filled, then soaked myself in it until the odor of dried sweat was gone. Even surrounded by the smell of lavender, I couldn’t stop thinking about the apple.Howwas Snow getting a mirror-apple? Even if someone was leaving it out for her, why was she eating it? After the night I’d spent, I wasn’t sure that I was ever going to eatfoodagain, let alone strange apples.
