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“I was not asking you to volunteer.”

“Oh, but when it comes to you, I’m just so eager,” she taunted. “Who were those girls?”

Not having anticipated that query, I blinked and then glanced out a window, at nothing in particular. “Fox mavens of the western dell.”

“Like keepers?”

“In a manner of speaking, though I have rarely encountered them, as they operate within their own boundaries where most fox holes thrive. Mista foxes are precious, and even more so to them. It is an unspoken pledge to watch over the animals, protecting them from ambitious poachers and predators.”

“Not quite the paragons of Autumn hospitality, are they?”

“They are sensitive to their job. However self-proclaimed, it is sacred to them. When it comes to their territory, they cannot be blamed for suspecting even the most innocent-looking Mista soul, though I should hardly drop you into that category.”

“Would you like to know all about my innocence?”

At this juncture, her sass should not have caught me off guard. Her mouth twitched, drawing my eyes to her lips as I searched for the inclination to deceive. The texture of such deception was palpable, so that I might reach out and snatch it.

I hooked my fingers around the hilt of my right sword. “You had a stick key into the citadel.”

“It was a replica, actually.”

“How did you procure it?”

“Seduced a locksmith’s apprentice.”

“And you used this replica to infiltrate the castle.”

She pushed word off her tongue. “Yes.”

I wrenched my gaze from her mouth. “Tell me why.”

“For a cure.”

Beyond all reckoning, such a reason had been the furthest one from my mind. I had been prepared to refute and filter through every response, sifting for the truth, but this...this had not been a motivation that I’d considered, the sort restricted to fragile souls cursed by illness.

Perhaps she sought a means to change herself from timber to flesh. If a remedy existed, I had no knowledge of the Royals possessing one, nor of the Court Physician creating one. If anything, she would have a greater chance locating help in Winter, the land of scientists and physicians.

She must have perceived my train of thought. “No, it’s not for my woodskin.”

“What, then? An antidote to your unfortunate attitude?”

“A cure for someone who matters to me.”

“Ah, the lie begins to simmer. Forgive me if I fail to believe your intentions that selfless.”

“You don’t even know me.”

“An honest citizen would have beseeched Her Majesty for assistance instead of skulking behind the throne’s back.” When she made an ugly face and glared at the wall, I said, “Be silent all you wish, but you shall answer to your sovereign, if not to me.”

“Nicu’s running off isn’t my fault, by the way. I was leaving when we crossed paths; it was a coincidence, an accident, whatever. I didn’t expect him to follow me home—and okay, I didn’t discourage him from joining me, so I’ll own up to that, but he has his reasons. It’s not fair to him, being cooped up.”

“Being protected,” I countered.

“No one is ever protected. Even the people who hold you dear can hurt you without meaning to—” she swallowed her rant.

I found little reward in the way her voice had thinned.

She had broken into the castle in order to steal from it, and she’d allowed Nicu to enlist in some escapade, giving no credence to treason or respect for the Crown. All the while, her moods tossed about from huffiness to sauciness. Yet I sensed a mingling of fear and sorrow beneath the exterior, emotions on the precipice of loss.