Chapter 36 — The Missing Page
Sierra waited three days before she asked, because she wanted to be able to do it without her voice doing anything.
She chose the hour after midnight, and the healers' stillroom, and the one person in the valley who had been in the birthing room five years ago.
"Sit down," she said. "This isn't a summons. It's a question, and you're allowed to be wrong about the answer."
The royal healer sat, slowly. She was seventy-eight and had delivered three generations of Thornes, and she had been watching the queen for a week with the particular unhappiness of an old woman who knows something is coming.
"You want to talk about the girl," she said.
"I want to talk about the room." Sierra kept her hands flat on the table. "Tell me the night. Everything. Not what you
