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“The night of the ball, in the kitchens.” He pointed to my scar. “The slave looked shocked, like she recognized you.”

Emilia.My stomach pitted.

“Did you interrogate her?”

“I questioned her. Without force.”

My lips pursed. “And she told you?”

“She did not, but her colleagues had looser lips. Ispoke with them too, and bit by bit, I pieced together that Emilia had worked for the Falks. Had been very loyal to Queen Revna.” He swallowed. “You’ll remember that I, too, knew your mother. I recognized the hairpin Princess Saga gave you that had once been Queen Revna’s.”

“I remember,” I breathed, replaying the night of the Courting Festival’s opening ball in my head.

“The night you wore that hairpin, you struck me as familiar. Only later did I realize I’d been recalling your mother. Not so much in your looks, but in the way you hold yourself. And after I spoke to the other slaves, I eventually remembered the human, Emilia, too. She’d worked in the nursery, and Queen Revna always proclaimed her to be the best nanny.”

“You deduced who I was from that?” I frowned.

“No, but then you wed Prince Vale and the Drassil tree blessed your union. That it even spoke to you was remarkable. Few know this because there are many stories of the Drassils speaking to epic heroes, but they’ve only ever spoken to those of noble blood. That narrowed your identity further. That was enough for me to believe I might be right in my hunch.” He paused. “Even as my suspicions grew, I had no idea which twin you might be. How did you learn?”

I pointed to the scar. “Emilia and the palace.”

“The palace?”

“I can enter the hidden part of the palace. It speaks to me.”

But only when it wants to,I didn’t add.

Lord Riis’s eyes crinkled at the corners. “A spymaster’s dream.”

“I suppose so.” Another question tipped my tongue, one I’d tried hard not to consider, but if anyone would have the answer, it would be Lord Riis.

Perhaps it won’t be so bad, and he can pull me out of my torment.

“I have another question.”

“Anything, Princess Neve.” He cocked his head. “Or shall I call you Isolde now?”

“No,” I said.

Though that was the name I was born with, and my slave master had given me the name Neve, I wasn’t ready to claim Isolde yet. It didn’t feel right.

“Very well.” He inclined his head. “You were asking?”

“It is said that King Magnus had everyone in House Falk and House Skau killed.” I chose my words deliberately, knowing Prince Calder still lived in the dungeons—that the king had allowed the rumor to spread and instead tortured his birth father by keeping him locked up for decades. “I’m assuming bodies were found and verified? So why do people believe I am dead?”

The Lord of Tongues paled and cleared his throat. “Because after the fighting in Avaldenn ended, soldiers found the bodies of two young girls, toddlers, in the same tower where you and your sister slept. They were burned.”

“Burned?”

“Not on purpose. You can’t tell now, but King Magnus hurled fire at Frostveil, burning large portions of it. No one could know for sure if they were you andThyra, but no other toddlers lived in that section of the palace.”

“They could have been brought in, though,” I said. “They had to be because Thyra escaped too.”

The moment the words were out of my mouth, I regretted them. Lord Riis had promised to keep my secret, but he’d said nothing of a sister. If she lived, I might have just put a target on her back.

Lord Riis blinked. “You’re sure?”

“That’s what Emilia told me, though I’m not sure if my twin lives.” I swallowed thickly. “A part of me wonders if someone put the toddlers there as decoys.”