The king sent for the rose before he sent for me.
This was sensible. The rose could travel without arguing with the healer.
Roxxy had left with both notes less than an hour earlier. Halden returned before noon carrying two sealed orders and the expression of a man who had already tried to object to one of them.
The first order put the replacement rose in his hands.
The second put me in a carriage.
"He can sit," the healer said. "He cannot stand before a throne."
Halden folded the order along its original crease. "His Majesty did not specify standing."
"He also did not specify how much blood he wants on the floor."
"I believe the usual preference is none."
The healer considered him. "That was almost a joke."
"It was a request."
The healer tightened the bindings across my chest and allowed the trip only if I remained seated. Halden gave no promise on behalf of the king. That was why Roxxy trusted him.
Halden carried the rose out first. The root ball left a dark smear across the tiles.
I followed under my own power until the service door. The carriage waited beyond it with one guard on the box and another holding the door. No chains. No public display.
The restraints had become polite.
White cloth marked nearly every doorway between the Academy and the palace. Through the carriage lattice, I saw a woman knot a strip around the handle of a baker's cart. Two children were placing lavender in the gutter beneath a painted board bearing Dorothy's name.
At the next crossing, a royal crier stood on a fountain ledge.
"Saint Dorothy gave the last of her sacred strength to reinforce the western Barrier. While she labored to preserve Oakhaven, the murderer calling himself the Gardener of Rot struck her down."
People stopped in the road to listen.
"By her sacrifice and the labor of the crown's mages, the Barrier endured through the night. At sunset, the palace will receive the city's flowers in her memory."
Someone near the fountain began to pray.
A flower seller emptied a bucket of white carnations onto the fountain rim. A woman who had been arguing over their price a moment earlier helped arrange them. The crier repeated the line about sacrifice. By then, no one was listening for proof.
Dorothy had left the plaza as ash. By noon, Aurelius had given her back as a martyr.
The crier started again before our carriage turned the corner.
The palace gates stood open for the flower carts. Guards checked the drivers and lifted the cloths covering each load. White blossoms filled baskets meant for bread, laundry, and coal. Most were not roses. Grief was less particular than gardeners.
Halden met me inside the Gate Room. He still wore the borrowed Academy blade. The replacement rose sat on a handcart beside him, its sacking dark with water.
"Did it confess?" I asked.
"No."
"Give it time."
He did not find that helpful, but the corner of his mouth considered it.
We crossed the same receiving platform where the root fragment had turned to ash. The stains between the stones were gone. New mortar filled the gaps.
The throne room smelled of lavender and wet soil.
There was no court. Aurelius sat beneath the high windows with the Academy ledger open on a narrow table. The two notes lay beside it, held flat by the stoppered vial of ash. The replacement rose stood in a copper basin at the end of the table.
Roxxy waited to his right. Her gauntlets were fastened properly.
The healer had come with us and stopped before the first step.
"Twenty minutes," the healer said.
Aurelius looked at me, then at the bound arm.
"Sit."
Halden placed a chair where the king could see me. I lowered myself into it without help. The last inch took longer than the rest.
Aurelius touched the morning note with one finger.
"My daughter says the cuts on this plant were made today."
"They were."
"How certain are you?"
"The sap was fresh. The cut surfaces had not dried."
"Which hand made them?"
"I can tell you the cuts were correct. Not which hand held the blade."
Aurelius turned to Roxxy.
"He told me the same," she said.
The king turned the note around, though it was too far away for me to read.
"The first writer knew your right hand was wrapped before you entered the Gate Room."
"Yes."
"The debt between you and the grounds worker was common knowledge."
"Yes."
"Your manner of clearing soil was common knowledge."
"To anyone who had watched me work."
"But the hand was not."
"No."
Aurelius waited.
I let him.
Roxxy spoke first. "Ren knows someone capable of carrying another person through shadows. I believe she was the person seen at the plaza. He did not confirm it."
"Did he deny it?" Aurelius asked.
"No."
Aurelius turned back to me.
"Did she wrap your arm?"
I kept my left hand on my knee.
The healer shifted behind me. Cloth moved against cloth. Nothing more.
"Ren," Aurelius said.
"Yes, Your Majesty."
"Did she wrap your arm?"
"I will not answer that."
He accepted the refusal more easily than Roxxy ever had. That made it worse.
"Does she know the Academy gardens?"
"Not from me."
"Could she have written the notes?"
"I don't know."
"Could she have moved the shadow?"
"I don't know that either."
Aurelius leaned back.
"One person knows the injury. Another knows the work. A third may move through guarded passages. Or one person has been less honest with you than you have been with us."
It was not a question, so I did not improve it with an answer.
He slid a sheet of heavy paper from beneath the ledger.
The royal seal was already pressed into red wax at the bottom. The writing above it matched the proclamation I had heard in the street.
"You made her death useful," I said.
Roxxy's head turned toward me.
Aurelius did not look at the page. "Dorothy made herself useful for a very long time."
"She took years from the man she healed."
The sentence left before caution could catch it.
Halden remained by the door. The healer stopped moving.
Roxxy stared at me.
Aurelius asked, "You saw this?"
"Yes."
"How?"
I had reached the edge of the truth I could give without placing the Lens in his hands.
"I saw what left him."
"And you decided to kill her."
"I decided she would not take another person."
Aurelius rested both hands on the table.
"You decided for everyone in the plaza."
The beggar's voice returned.
Murderer.
"Yes."
Roxxy's hand moved to the fastening at her wrist. It was already tight.
"Did you know?" she asked her father.
"I knew Dorothy's work had a cost. I did not know what Ren claims to have seen."
She turned to me. "I asked what you saw."
"And I refused."
"Why tell us now?"
I looked at the sealed proclamation. "Because he has already told the city what happened."
"This changes my report."
"It adds an accusation," Aurelius said. "Record it as one."
Roxxy's fingers left the strap.
It was more than I had given her before, but it was still not proof.
Aurelius pushed the sealed proclamation toward the edge of the table.
"You cannot prove any of it."
"No."
"Then the city has your version and mine."
"Only yours has criers."
"Correct."
Roxxy faced him. "What are your orders?"
"The Academy record remains unchanged. The steward's account remains his own. The grounds worker returns to her duties. Her statement is complete; no one questions her again without Captain Halden present."
Roxxy's shoulders lowered a fraction.
"And Ren?"
"Released from visible custody when the healer returns him to the Academy."
Halden looked at the king. "Visible custody?"
"You will follow him."
"I cannot do that without support."
"Choose it."
Roxxy stepped closer to the table. "The shadow reached into the garden while we were watching."
"And withdrew when you interrupted it. Confinement teaches us nothing more."
"You are using him to reach the woman from the plaza."
"I am using what he has chosen to tell us."
Aurelius looked at me again.
"If anyone who arranged your alibi believes you are free, they may approach. If you lead us nowhere, you return to your roses. Either result costs less than a cell."
The healer came around my chair and pressed two fingers against my neck.
"Time."
Aurelius nodded once.
Halden collected the notes and took charge of the replacement rose. Roxxy took the proclamation but left the ash vial beside the ledger.
The healer did not let me walk back to the Gate Room. Halden found a carrying chair and assigned two guards without being asked. Roxxy followed us as far as the palace doors.
Outside, the flower carts were still arriving.
"No guards at your room," she said.
"Your father was clear."
"He is rarely unclear."
Halden went ahead to arrange the carriage. If he had already chosen who would follow me, I could not identify them.
Roxxy held the sealed proclamation against her side.
"If you know where she is, do not go there."
"I was not planning to."
"Then warn her not to come to you."
The palace steps were crowded with servants carrying baskets. Beyond them, the open gates offered a clean view of the street.
"No," I said.
Roxxy's grip tightened on the paper. "No, you will not warn her?"
"No, I cannot."
She studied me for a moment, then stepped aside so the chair could pass.
The carriage waiting at the bottom of the steps had no guard inside. Halden did not climb onto the box. Nobody in armor followed when we rolled through the gates.
Luna had been told to leave if soldiers entered the street.
I had never told her what to do if they stayed out of sight.
The lion was waiting.