Chapter 26 The Foaming Mouth

I kicked the iron door of the dungeon level and the sound was like a thunderclap in the small stone hall. I gripped the torch in my hand so tight the wood groaned. The orange light jumped off the gray walls and made the shadows of the guards look like monsters.

The two men by the door did not look at me. They stared at the floor and moved their spears out of my way fast. They could feel the cold wind coming off my skin. They knew I was mad. They knew about the red bag at the gate and the head in the dirt. I walked past them and my boots made a loud thud-thud-thud on the wet floor.

I stopped in front of the last cell. The bars were thick and covered in orange rust. Inside, Seraphina sat on a pile of yellow hay that was damp and dirty. Her red dress was torn at the shoulder and her hair was a messy ball of knots. She did not look like a Queen anymore. She looked like a trapped rat.

"Wake up, snake," I said.

My voice was low and hard like a rock. Seraphina did not move at first. She stayed very still, then she slowly lifted her head. A mean smile grew on her face when she saw me. Her eyes were red and she looked like she had not slept at all.

"The maid is back," Seraphina said. Her voice was scratchy and thin. "Did you come to bring me my breakfast? Or did you come to ask for help because the land is dying under your feet?"

"I came to ask you how much Torian paid you," I barked. I reached out and grabbed the cold bars with both hands. "You talked to the Iron-Tooth Pack. You told them Valerius was off the throne. You told them the borders were open. Is that why one of my men is dead?"

Seraphina let out a loud, sharp laugh. She stood up and walked toward me. She moved like her bones hurt. She stopped when her nose was only an inch from the bars. She smelled like sour milk and sweat.

"Torian is a wolf who knows when the meat is soft," she whispered. She poked a long fingernail through the bars and tried to touch my iron crown. "He does not need me to tell him that a Rogue girl is a bad ruler. He can smell the weakness from across the river. He knows you are a fake."

"I am the Regent Queen," I hissed. I felt the white light of my wolf starting to burn under my skin. "And you are a prisoner. Tell me who else is talking to the North. Name the men who helped you leak the secrets."

Seraphina laughed again, and the sound made my ears ring. She looked over my shoulder at the guards, then back at me. She leaned in so close I could see the cracks in her dry lips.

"You think you won because you have a chair and a hat?" she mocked. She shook her head and her messy hair flew around. "The nobles hate you, Elena. The men who owned this land for a hundred years will not bow to a girl from the dirt. They call you the Rogue whore when you are not in the room."

"I do not care what they call me," I told her.

"You should care," Seraphina said. Her eyes went wide and crazy. "The Old Ways are not dead. The pureblood families are meeting in the dark. They are talking about a coup. They are planning to rip that crown off your head and throw your bastard son into the Abyssal Mist."

I reached through the bars and grabbed the front of her red dress. I yanked her forward until her face hit the iron with a loud clank.

"Give me the names!" I roared. The torch in my other hand flared up with a big blue flame. "Tell me who is planning the coup! If you give me the names, I will let you live in a cell with a bed. If you don't, I will give you to the Rogues for their dinner."

Seraphina gasped for air. She gripped my wrists with her thin hands. Her skin was very cold. She looked like she was going to speak. Her mouth opened and her tongue moved, but no words came out.

"Tell me!" I commanded.

A weird look came over her face. Her eyes rolled back into her head until I could only see the whites. She let out a small, wet gurgle. Her body went stiff in my hands, and she started to shake like a leaf in a storm.

"Seraphina?" I asked. I let go of her dress.

She fell backward onto the stone floor. Her head hit the wall with a wet thud. She didn't get up. She started to kick her legs and scratch at her own neck. Then, a thick white foam started to bubble out of the corners of her mouth.

"Healer!" I yelled at the guards. "Open the door! Get the healer down here now!"

The guards fumbled with the keys. Their hands were shaking so hard they dropped the ring twice. I shoved one of them aside and grabbed the keys myself. I found the big one and turned it in the lock. The door swung open and I ran inside the cell.

Seraphina was on her back. The white foam was all over her chin and her neck. It looked like soap bubbles, but it smelled like bitter almonds and death. Her eyes were fixed on the ceiling. She was trying to breathe, but her throat was making a scary clicking sound.

"Who did this to you?" I asked. I knelt in the dirt next to her and grabbed her hand. "Seraphina! Give me a name!"

She looked at me for one second. She tried to lift her arm, but it fell back down. Her mouth moved one last time, but only more foam came out. Her body gave one big jump, and then she went totally still.

She was dead.

I stayed on my knees for a long time. I looked at the dead woman and then I looked at the small wooden water bowl in the corner of the cell. It was half empty. I walked over to it and sniffed the water. It had no smell, but I knew what was in it.

"Neurotoxin," I whispered.

Someone had put a slow poison in her water days ago. Someone knew I was coming down here to talk to her. Someone wanted to make sure she never told me the names of the men in the dark.

I stood up and walked out of the cell. I felt a cold fire burning in my gut. My own palace was full of killers. My own people were hiding a coup right under my nose.

"Lock the dungeon!" I shouted at the guards. I pointed at the dead body. "Do not touch her! Do not move that bowl!"

I ran toward the stairs. I did not stop to breathe. I burst through the doors and came back into the main hallway of the palace. The servants were cleaning the floors and the nobles were walking to the dining room. They all looked at me with big, fake smiles.

I saw Lord Cydian standing near the stairs. He was talking to two members of the High Council. They were laughing and holding small cups of tea. When they saw me, they stopped laughing and bowed their heads.

"Is something wrong, My Queen?" Cydian asked. He looked at the dirt on my hands and the sweat on my face.

I did not answer him. I looked at Silas, who was walking down the hall toward me with a long list in his hand. He looked happy, like he was having a good day.

"The prisoners are all quiet, Elena," Silas said as he reached me.

"Seraphina is dead," I said.

The hall went dead silent. Silas stopped moving. The nobles dropped their tea cups.

"She was poisoned," I told the whole room. I made my voice as loud as a bell. "Someone in this house is a traitor. Someone killed her to hide a coup."

I looked at the High Council men. I looked at their fancy clothes and their soft hands.

"Lock the palace gates!" I roared. "No one leaves this castle! Not a noble, not a servant, and not a guard! I am going to find the killer, and when I do, I am going to show you how a Rogue handles a rat!"