Page 117 of A Vow of Embers

“This one takes longer to kill a person,” she said with a wave of her hand, dismissing my concerns. “If the healers don’t want people to take things from their vault, they shouldn’t leave it open. Don’t worry, I also have the antidote, and as long as I give it to him before ten minutes is up, he’ll be fine.”

“Why does it take so long to finish someone?”

She gave me a strange look. “So that the poisoner has enough time to get away. It does act immediately, though. It’s meant to torture its victim. You know you’re going to die but you’re too weak to do anything about it.”

I was glad that I hadn’t grown up in a palace like this, where that kind of knowledge was necessary for survival.

“I don’t feel anything,” I told her.

“My limbs are heavy. And they’re burning,” Xander said. “And it keeps getting stronger. My tongue feels like it’s on fire.”

“It has a really potent taste,” she told me. “Poisoners usually have to disguise it by hiding it in something like honey.”

“If you’d put it in honey, it’d be easy enough to get Princess Thalia to take it,” he said, his words sounding a bit blurred.

Princess Thalia? That felt very formal from someone who had held me all night. Was he trying to hide things from Io? Did he not know how perceptive his sister was?

She handed him a vial. “Drink this. The whole thing.”

He lifted the vial to his lips and grimaced when he tasted it, but he downed the entire vial.

“You’ll be fine,” she told him. “So poison doesn’t affect both of you. It seems to be external injuries only. Not that that’s a good thing, but at least we have a better idea of what we’re working with.”

This was all so strange. Nothing had been normal since I’d stepped foot in this goddess-forsaken nation.

He stood up, apparently feeling like himself again. He didn’t meet my eyes but turned toward me and said, “I need you to wait here for me. Don’t leave the room until I come back.”

“All right,” I agreed. Maybe we would talk when he returned and figure out what was happening between us. I felt very confused.

Xander left without another word.

He had just told me last night that he wouldn’t leave me again. My chest ached at how quickly he had broken that promise.

“He is going to do a lot of yelling today,” Io said with a shake of her head. “Those particular passageways were sealed during my father’s reign.”

“Where do they lead?”

Now she was also avoiding my gaze and didn’t answer my question directly. “There are secret passageways all over the palace and most of them go down to the lower levels.”

“Lower levels?” I repeated.

“The palace is built on top of a cliff and there are many deep levels with storage rooms and caverns. Some go down below the ocean. It was meant to be a place of last refuge for the people of Ilion in case we were ever attacked again. A safehold. There are traps, and the underwater levels can be quickly flooded if an invading army tries to access them. Only the royal family knows how to locate the exit tunnels.”

It struck me as eerie to know that I stood atop all of that and hadn’t had any idea.

“Do you want the antidote?” she asked, holding up a vial.

“I’m fine. No effects whatsoever.” I hadn’t been poisoned.

“Your ten minutes have passed,” she said with a nod, satisfied that her experiment had worked so well. “Now I’m going to have to spend the entire day doing research. Maybe there’s a mention of something similar in the book I stole.”

“Have you already started reading it?”

“I have. So far it’s just recipes and treatments for common illnesses and injuries. I’m learning a lot but nothing that’s particularly useful yet.” She took our dirty bandages and put them into a basket to be laundered. “I might also stop by the infirmary and see if they’ve heard of an affliction like yours without revealing your situation. Because if word got back to my stepmother that she could kill one of you and take out the other, you’d be dead before tomorrow morning.”

“Do you think she sent those attackers last night?”

Io’s face was grim. “Without a doubt, but we can’t make an accusation like that without proof. We won’t let her win because you still have a great mission to fulfill.”