Scene One: A Lie Under the Door
Perspective: Ren
The shadow returned before the healer put out the lamp.
It came beneath the door as a narrow stain beside the guard's boots. The guard shifted his weight. His shadow moved with him.
The narrow part did not.
I watched it reach the first tile inside the room.
Then I lied to it.
"Captain Halden should inspect the white rose at the east end of the lower beds."
The healer paused with one hand around the lamp's glass.
"Why?"
"The person who worked there cut it wrong. The stem will show which hand they used."
That was almost convincing. It helped that I knew enough about roses to lie specifically.
The darkness beneath the door held still.
"Does the rose require treatment tonight?" the healer asked.
"No."
"Then neither do your theories."
The lamp went out. For a moment, the line under the door remained darker than the passage beyond it.
Then it withdrew.
I lay back without moving my right arm. Four fingers rested beneath the linen. The fifth occupied space.
"You should sleep," the healer said.
"I am asleep."
"You talk less when you are asleep."
I closed my eyes.
The white rose was real. It stood at the far end of the lower beds, beside the wall where morning light reached last. There was nothing wrong with its cuts because I had not cut it yet.
If it was still there at dawn, I had frightened a patch of darkness.
If it was gone, something inside a guarded Academy was listening to me.
Neither possibility improved my sleep.
Scene Two: The King's Answer
Perspective: Princess Roxxy
King Aurelius read Halden's report without asking his daughter to sit.
The Academy ledger lay open across one arm of the throne. The palace list rested beneath it. Roxxy stood below the steps with the stoppered vial in one hand. She kept the other away from the loose fastening at her wrist.
Only two lamps remained lit. Beyond the doors, a messenger waited to carry another set of figures from the Barrier mages.
Aurelius turned one page back.
"The steward saw a gardener."
"He saw someone at a distance."
"Someone who knew the work."
"Yes."
"And Valerius?"
"Lied about why he chose Ren."
"The clerk contradicted him."
"He changed his answer when challenged."
"Better."
She hated it when correction sounded like praise.
"What did Ren say about the ledger?"
"That it was convenient. When I said it was convenient for him, he said no."
"Did he claim the alibi?"
"No."
"Did he reject it?"
"No."
Aurelius closed the ledger.
"So he knows it is false."
"Or wants me to think he does."
Aurelius looked up. "Better."
Aurelius held out a hand. Roxxy climbed one step and gave him the ash vial.
"I watched him destroy the root. It called him Gardener. He refused to deny killing Dorothy."
"Did the thing call him Ren?"
"No."
"Then record what happened. Not what you want it to mean."
Her hand moved toward the loose strap. She pressed it flat against her thigh instead.
"The root followed us to the gate. It was connected to his hand. He severed it before crossing."
"Useful."
"He may have kept it from entering the palace."
"He believed he did."
Roxxy said nothing.
Aurelius turned the vial. Grey residue slid along the glass.
"Pell?"
"Still supporting the central array. The western crack widened twice, then stopped. They will not promise the morning."
"Then plan for it to fail. Do not reopen the gate for the abandoned property. The swords are cheaper than another expedition."
"And the reserve core?"
"Remains where it is useful."
"What do you want done with Ren?"
"Can he walk?"
"The healer has not tested him."
"Ask."
"And if he can?"
"Return him to the lower roses."
This time her hand found the fastening.
"You believe he is the Gardener."
"I believe someone spent effort proving he was not." Aurelius leaned back. "Arrest him publicly, and that person learns the record failed. Do not correct the ledger. Put him where it says he was and watch who comes to keep the story intact."
"As bait."
"If that word helps you."
"He is injured."
"Then he will look convincing."
Roxxy pulled the strap tight enough to hurt.
"If the healer refuses, wait," Aurelius said. "He is useless to us dead."
"He has a name."
"Yes."
She reached for the ledgers.
"Take Halden. Not Valerius. Do not tell the steward what you are watching for." Aurelius set the vial beside the ledger. "And do not arrest the first person who approaches Ren. Follow them."
Roxxy bowed though there was no court left to watch.
Scene Three: What the Garden Kept
Perspective: Ren
The healer let me stand after sunrise.
I crossed the room. The wall became my destination halfway there, but I reached it without falling, which the healer refused to count as a victory.
Roxxy waited at the door with Halden and both guards. Halden had borrowed a short Academy blade. It sat too high on his belt.
"We need him in the lower gardens," Roxxy said.
"No," the healer said.
"My father ordered it."
"No."
I was beginning to enjoy the conversation.
Roxxy noticed. "Can he be moved safely?"
"For five minutes. His arm stays bound, and we turn back if the cuff changes."
"I was hoping for eight," I said.
"You can hope while walking."
The healer wound a broad strip of cloth around my chest and secured my right arm against it.
We went out through the service passage.
White ribbons had appeared on the kitchen doors during the night. Someone had tucked dried lavender beneath the knot nearest the courtyard. Two kitchen servants moved aside when they saw the guards around me. One touched the ribbon.
Neither looked at my face.
The lower rose beds lay beyond the gravel path, bordered by low stones I had reset often enough to resent each one personally. The steward waited at the upper path until Halden asked him to leave.
Roxxy watched him go.
"He is frightened of Halden."
"Halden asks follow up questions."
"So do I."
"You bring more guards."
The east end of the bed came into view.
The white rose was gone.
A dark gap broke the line of bushes beside the wall. Loose soil mounded around a fresh hole. Whoever had removed the plant had taken the root ball and pressed the surrounding earth flat.
I stopped.
The healer kept one hand near my shoulder.
"What was there?" Roxxy asked.
"A white rose."
"When did you last see it?"
"Yesterday morning."
Halden crouched beside the hole. He touched the soil, then rubbed it between his fingers.
"This was lifted after the beds were watered."
"Yes."
Roxxy looked at me. "You told the healer about it last night."
"I did."
"You said the stem would show which hand the gardener used."
"It would not."
Nobody spoke.
The healer's hand left my shoulder.
That was worse than being struck.
"You invented evidence," Roxxy said.
"I mentioned evidence to something listening beneath my door. There is a difference."
"To the rose?"
"To the shadow that did not belong to either guard."
Halden stood. "You saw it again?"
"Yes."
"And told no one." Roxxy's voice had become very even.
"You had left."
"There were two guards and a healer in the room."
"One of the guards supplied the shadow."
Both men stiffened behind her.
"I did not say he supplied it willingly."
That did not help them.
Roxxy looked at the empty place in the row.
"You did not know what would come here."
"I expected someone to remove a plant."
"You hoped."
The word landed.
I had no guarantee. I had done it anyway.
I turned toward the rest of the bed.
The work was neat. Spent blooms had been removed. Water darkened the soil close to the stems instead of lying uselessly over the leaves. Along the stones, loose earth had been pressed back with the side of a boot.
Someone had copied me well enough to convince a man who had watched me work for two years.
Not well enough to convince the roses.
I lowered myself beside the first bush. The healer caught my shoulder before my knees reached the path and guided me the remaining distance without comment.
The cuts along the outer row all leaned toward the nearest buds. Clean cuts. Wrong angle.
"What?" Roxxy asked.
"Whoever cut these used their left hand."
"The steward saw them raise the left," Halden said.
"Raising it proves they knew he was watching." I traced one cut with my finger. "A cut should lean away from the bud. These all lean in the same mistake a right-handed person makes when they switch hands and do not turn the wrist far enough."
Halden checked the ground between the bushes. "No prints."
"They never changed sides."
Roxxy studied the row. "They were imitating you."
"Me yesterday. Right hand hidden. Left one visible."
The sling held my little finger against my ribs. I could see the linen holding it there. I felt nothing below the first joint.
Halden walked the border of the bed. "Who knew the condition of your arm before the expedition?"
"Not the steward."
"That was not the question."
"No," I said. "It was not."
Luna knew the hand. She knew the Academy existed and that I had to return somewhere ordinary.
She did not know these beds. She had never watched me clear a path or turn a blade around a bud.
Unless that was another thing I had been wrong about.
Roxxy crouched opposite me, armor settling against the stones.
"Was it the same person?" she asked. "The one who worked here and the one who heard you last night?"
"I don't know."
"What do you think?"
"One person knew how I worked. One knew how I was hurt. One could reach a guarded passage without opening the door."
"That could be one person."
"It could be three."
"You usually make your answers smaller."
"I am trying something new."
The healer touched my shoulder.
I sat on the edge of the path.
"My father read the report," Roxxy said.
There were many unpleasant ways for that sentence to continue.
"He wants the ledger left as it is. Valerius and the steward are not to know what Halden found."
"He wants to see who trusts the lie."
"Yes. He also wants you back in these beds when the healer permits it. Under observation."
"How considerate."
"He is using you as bait."
"That is less considerate."
Beyond the wall, someone carried a tray through the kitchen doorway beneath the white ribbons.
Aurelius had finally acted. Not with soldiers in every street. He had found a lie around me and decided to leave it alive.
Roxxy folded her arms.
"I will not help you invent evidence again."
"Good. I need you to leave this evidence alone."
"You drew someone into the Academy grounds without knowing what they would do."
"I gave them a rose."
"You gave them a target."
I looked toward the service doors and the strips of white cloth tied there by people who thought Dorothy had loved them.
"What does the king expect me to do?" I asked.
"Work. Or appear to. Long enough for whoever built your alibi to decide whether they still need it."
"And what do you expect?"
"The truth would be refreshing."
"I expect whoever comes next not to walk into drawn swords."
"Halden's orders are to follow, not arrest."
"That is almost reassuring."
Roxxy waited.
A stranger had copied my habits and worked left-handed because someone knew I could no longer use the right. Then a listening shadow had uprooted a rose to erase a clue that did not exist.
Luna would have checked whether I could still feel the hand before worrying about what a steward remembered.
Whoever built the alibi had begun with the steward.
"I'll do it," I said.
The healer's hand returned to my shoulder.
"When you permit it," I added.
"Tomorrow," the healer said.
"Today," Roxxy said.
"No."
They looked at each other.
"Tomorrow," Roxxy said.
The concession cost her enough that I did not smile.
I pointed to the fresh hole.
"Leave that open. Tell no one the rose was missing."
"Why?"
"Because whoever pulled it up thinks it mattered."
Roxxy followed my gaze to the empty place.
"And tomorrow?"
"Put me beside it."
"You think they will come back?"
"They already did."