(Daciana POV)
The black feather in Tala’s palm looked small enough to blow away, yet it carried enough poison to split the lower house in two.
Rieka stood between two guards with her wrists held tight, her face pale with anger, fear, and the terrible pain of being doubted.
Every servant in the corridor watched me, waiting to see whether the queen in servant brown would protect one of their own.
I looked at the feather, then at Rieka, and remembered Ashina crying in Blackfang with the same kind of perfect timing.
Trust had nearly killed me before.
But suspicion could kill the innocent just as easily.
“Take the chains off her,” I said, and the corridor filled with shocked whispers before the guards could move.
Conri stepped forward, his face unreadable, but he did not stop me, which
