Princess of the Midnight Ball - Jessica Day George [67]
Before any of them could push off, however, the King Under Stone came stalking out of the palace, his pale face horrible with rage. Just behind him was the man who had nearly sat on Galen.
“Halt,” the king shouted. “Halt! Intruder!” In one hand he held a goblet and in the other a wilted sprig of nightshade. Lifting the incriminating items high, the king said, “The lips of a human male have touched this goblet! Nightshade has been brought into my home! Where is he?”
Galen felt frantically in his pockets and under his lapel. The basil was still there, but the nightshade was gone; only the pin remained.
Terrible black eyes raked over Galen, passed on, and then came back. Despite the cloak, the King Under Stone could see him, Galen was certain. A long finger pointed, the king’s pale lips twisted around words that keened and chattered in Galen’s ears. Dimly Galen heard the princesses screaming, felt a cold wind rush over him.
The world went dark, and in that darkness Galen clearly heard the voice of the King Under Stone: “You will die ere the moon grows full again.”
Riot
Galen awakened to the sound of heavy knocking on the door to the princesses’ sitting room. Groggy, he picked himself up off the floor and stumbled to the door, not comprehending when the palace guard who had been knocking looked through him, puzzled, and called out for Princess Rose.
“What’s this?” Maria the head maid came out of one of the bedrooms, hair mussed and gown creased. “What’s the to-do, Captain?” She stepped past Galen as if he weren’t even there.
Belatedly Galen realized that he was still wearing the invisibility cloak. He would have to sneak down the hall and slip out of it in his room. He didn’t want to just reappear in front of the servants, or the princesses.
The events of the last night jolted through Galen’s brain. The King Under Stone had seen him. Galen would be dead before the next full moon, which was in roughly three days. And Rose … Galen had been asleep in the middle of the gold-patterned carpet. If the princesses had returned, they would have stumbled over him.
If the princesses had returned.
Ignoring the hurried whispers of the maid and the guard, Galen ran to the door of Rose’s bedroom and peered in. The beds were neatly made, and one of their other maids was still slumped on a sofa in the corner. There was no sign of any of the princesses. Galen stepped into the room, whipped off his cloak, and came running back out with a shout.
“The princesses are gone!”
Maria and the guard stared at him in astonishment.
Galen ran to one of the other bedrooms and threw open the door. There he saw another maid, this one just starting to wake, and another row of unoccupied beds. “The princesses are gone!”
“What?” Now understanding dawned, and Maria and the guard joined him in searching the rooms. There were four maids and no princesses.
“They’ve been taken hostage,” the guard said, crossing himself. “The mob must have broken in.”
“What mob?” Galen stared at him.
“The townsfolk are rioting,” the guard said.
It suddenly dawned on Galen that this must be what the man had come to the princesses’ rooms to report.
“They’re demanding that Fraulein Anne be hung, and the Interdict lifted.” The guard looked around uncomfortably. “All this talk of witchcraft, and the princesses killing those foreign princes … well, and not being able to bury their dead or receive the sacred rites …”
But Galen shook his head, casting this information aside. None of that mattered now. The King Under Stone had Rose, and he would never let her or her sisters leave his realm again.
“I must speak to the king,” Galen said urgently, rushing out of the sitting room with the other two at his heels.
Bishop Angier was with King Gregor, of course. So were the prime minister and the rest of the king’s councillors, including Bishop Schelker, his brow furrowed and his eyes on Angier.
Puzzlement showed on King Gregor’s face when Galen walked