The Herbwitch's Apprentice Ireen Chau (best life changing books txt) 📖

“He’s rather fit for a prince,” Elowyn whispered loudly. “My grandmother told me all royals are fat and lazy.”

I was still somewhat flustered when Ash emerged, this time fully dressed and with a faint blush on his cheeks. Elowyn and I explained to him how Lana needed manbane to complete her antidote.

The look on his face mirrored Rowena’s. “I’m not letting either of you go in there,” Ash said. “It’s much too dangerous.”

I frowned and Elowyn crossed her arms. It seemed that both of us were tired of being told no.

“I look like a completely different person and Elowyn will be invisible,” I said. “Is that enough for you?”

32

It was enough. We found ourselves outside the duchess’s suite. The hallway was quiet, barely illuminated by a few candles from the sconces along the wall.

I craned my neck over Ash’s shoulder. Elowyn crouched behind me.

“Where is everyone?” I whispered. The lack of servants felt odd. Surely somebody was recruited to guard the duchess’s suite after I was caught.

“Asleep, perhaps.” He sounded doubtful. “I don’t know how we’re supposed to get in.”

“I can go,” Elowyn said. She dangled a small vial of clear liquid on a cord around her neck. Her invisibility tonic.

“Can you pick locks too?” Ash reached over and wriggled the doorknob. “There’s no way—”

The door opened.

“What are they playing at?” I said, suspicious.

I turned to Elowyn, but she was nowhere to be seen. A soft touch at my elbow made me jump. She had ingested the tonic.

“I’ll see if anyone is in there,” she whispered.

“Be careful,” I said.

Ash and I watched as the door opened slightly. A few seconds later, there was another touch at my elbow. “It’s empty.”

“It’s probably a trap,” I said, frowning as I recalled the last time I snuck into the duchess’s suite.

“Trap or not, this is as good an opportunity we’ll get,” Ash said with a sigh. “Elowyn, can you keep watch out here and alert us if someone comes in?”

“Okay. I’ll knock on the walls like this.” A short rhythm sounded from the wall beside him.

He nodded, and we slipped into the suite. It was dark and silent, like the hallway. I peered under the furniture to check if Misty was hiding, waiting to pounce.

When I confirmed the absence of the accursed animal, I exhaled. “Okay. We’re looking for places she would store poison.” I recalled the manbane I had extracted from Queen Cordelia’s goblet. “It should be a dark red, like blood, with streaks of indigo.”

We set to work. Ash flipped over the cushions of the seats and I searched the other half of the room, clutching my crystal. There was nothing in the cabinets or drawers but baubles and perfume. Poofs of pink and baby blue and lilac littered the air, but no scarlet. There was one jar that emitted maroon fumes, but it was a treatment for foot fungus. I put it back immediately.

“It’s likely in her bedroom,” Ash said, replacing the top of a storage ottoman. “She’d keep something like that close to her.”

We approached the door that led into the duchess’s personal chambers. I pushed it open. The hinges were silent. I peeked inside, grateful for velvet draperies drawn over the windows on the opposite wall. Someone had cleaned up the havoc I wreaked at the vanity.

I set to work on the armoire, feeling the base and the sides for any hint of a secret compartment. The wood was smooth all the way around. I even tried rifling through the ridiculous quantity of gowns stuffed inside it, but there was nothing but lace and silk and beading.

Ash didn’t seem to be faring any better underneath the bed frame. He emerged, hair and clothing rumpled. “Nothing. Nothing at all. It’s like she doesn’t keep anything in here,” he said. He sneezed. “Except dust.”

I tried my best to shut the armoire. “We could check the lavatory,” I said, leaning against the doors. It was unlikely the duchess hid poison in her chamber pot, but at this point I was desperate.

Ash’s face softened. “Calm down, Amarante. We still have time.”

I shook my head. “We need the antidote before Queen Cordelia gets worse.”

“She is a strong woman,” he said offering a half-hearted smile. I held back my tears. The situation never felt more helpless.

“Not strong enough to survive manbane,” I said.

“I gave her the potion you gave me at the Witch Market.”

I thought back to our encounter. “You knew that was me?”

“I figured it out eventually,” he said, smiling.

“Ah.”

“Plus, it was the same potion you said would help before you got arrested. I figured I give it a shot. She’s doing better. We’ve bought ourselves time.”

“My aunt made it,” I said, feeling a little warmer. Ash had trusted me enough to give his mother Lana’s general antidote. I took a breath, reenergized. “Let’s hurry.” I traversed the room and was about to turn the knob when I heard a rhythmic knock.

The door of the suite opened.

“Have you got your gown, Narcissa?”

“Yes, Mother.”

“Good. You must look your best tomorrow night.”

My heart leapt out of my throat as I exchanged a panicked glance with Ash. They were back.

Ash gestured frantically to the bottom of the bed, but I shook my head. The bed frame was too elevated to be a good hiding place. I opened the armoire. The lower half had just enough room for one person to lay in comfortably.

Or in our case, as I found out very soon, for two people to lay in uncomfortably. I hardly wedged myself inside before Ash threw himself on top of me, shutting the doors in the process. We were plunged into darkness, save for the tiniest sliver of light in the gap between the doors.

Duchess Wilhelmina and Narcissa’s conversation became muffled. I strained to listen, but I was more or less immobilized by Ash’s overbearing weight. He had pinned my braid down with his elbow. I winced and reached to pull it out, but found that there was