How had she missed this? Shae stared at her lady-in-waiting. The disdain was oozing from every pore of her body as she stared up at them defiantly.

Felix let go of her hand as he flexed both of his. He huffed. "Brilliant. She's one of them."

Ornice chuckled darkly. "One of those who do not believe you deserve the throne upon which you sit? Definitely. It's nothing personal. No one should reign supreme over the other kingdoms."

Frustration etched lines in Felix's face as he stared up at the ceiling. "Why does everyone always conveniently forget that I never wanted to be High King? I was perfectly content as the Prince of Ler. This is more responsibility than anyone could ever want, and I can personally vouch for the fact that it should be no one's dream." He met the woman's eyes. "I did not choose this. Goddess Dhim told me I had to for the sake of the world. Had the Dark Disciple not killed the previous High King and his family, it would not have been necessary."

"They should have left the throne empty!" Ornice snapped, leaning forward, her face transformed by anger. "Each kingdom should be its own sovereign."

"Yes, because that worked so well in the past," Felix said sardonically.

"Usurper!"

Shae halted her instinct to take a step back from the vitriolic woman. She did not want to appear weak, and she was here to get answers. "If you want Felix gone... Why did you attack me? My death would do nothing for your cause."

Leaning back in her seat again, the other woman's face relaxed as she chuckled. "It is not only my cause. This is so much greater than an unwillingness to accept the Usurper as our sovereign. We are many who disagree with the state of the world, and we seek to right it."

A trickle of unease made its way down Shae's back. Something wasn't right here. "You never answered my question."

Felix must have shared her apprehension because he tensed by her side. "Who's we?"

A smile that was a little too wide spread across the former lady-in-waiting's usually pretty face, transforming her into someone Shae no longer recognised. "Wouldn't you like to know?" she taunted.

"I'm not playing games." Felix glared at the woman. "Who are you working with? Is your husband involved?"

She scoffed. "That fool? No, he knows nothing. I married him to gain access to the Royal Castle. I was told they needed me here, and he was an easy way to reach my goal. The old man was only too happy to get a pretty new wife after his old one died so tragically."

"Hold on." The unease grew into a ball in the pit of Shae's stomach as she watched the feline grin on Ornice's face. "Did you kill Councillor Drycken's previous wife?"

"Not personally." Ornice turned her head slightly to look up at her, looking so pleased it made her stomach turn. "But they saw to it that she passed on. Just a small amount of poison every day for some time, and she died from what everyone assumed was a poor heart."

"Who are you taking orders from?" Felix snapped, his patience running thin.

"Tsk tsk, such a temper." Ornice chuckled. "You will gain nothing with such tactics."

Flexing his hands again, he took a few steps back and drew a deep breath before turning back to their prisoner. "Why attack Shae?" he asked, his voice tempered. "How does that help you?"

"It's not about her," Ornice said dismissively, rolling her eyes.

"Then why do you keep trying to kill me?"

The woman grunted. "It should have been done weeks ago, but I will admit... I am not a trained assassin, and I've had to do my best. I came close, though. That Orc's Blood poison nearly did the job."

"But why are you trying to kill Shae?" Felix interjected when no further explanation came.

A shrill laugh escaped the woman, and her blue eyes were wild as she leaned forward again to stare insolently up at him. "She's nothing but a means to an end. We want her."

He frowned. "You just said you didn't."

"Not the queen!" Ornice cackled. "Her. Your other woman. The sorceress."

Even as Felix let out a surprised laugh, the words stung Shae. He said there was nothing between them, and she had to believe that. But it still hurt to hear someone refer to him as having another woman.

"Sorceress Isobel?" she said, confirming what she already knew.

Ornice nodded. "We need her."

"Why?"

"No no no," Ornice replied in a sing-song voice. "I cannot tell you that."

Staring at her former lady-in-waiting, Shae looked into blue eyes of cold intensity. A chilly tendril trailed down her spine, making her shudder. Fighting the urge to run, she asked, "So why attack me?"

A grin spread over the woman's face. "To make him summon her. We can't find her. Been looking for months."

Why were they looking for the sorceress? None of the groups that opposed Felix's rule stood to gain anything from access to the sorceress, and if they wanted to speak to any sorcerer, there was always at least one in Messina.

"We hoped the king would summon her after the attack on the roads," Ornice continued, her eyes burning with an icy fire. "When that failed, we thought the death of his wife might bring her back here."

Felix shook his head, his eyebrows raised in disbelief. "This is madness. I couldn't summon Isobel even if I wanted to."

"Why not?" Ornice's eyes flew back to him and she sat up straighter in the chair.

"I don't know where she is."

"Lies!" She strained against her bindings. "We have seen the letters from her!"

"She writes me occasionally," he agreed. "But I don't write her back because she never tells me where she is."

Silence stretched out between them as Ornice took in his words before she relaxed and leaned back. "Not to worry. If she learns of the attacks on your wife, she will come. Or if the next one succeeds where I have failed."

"What do you want with Isobel?"

Shae wanted to know, too. The sorceress might have been her unwitting rival for years, but the truth was she had nothing against her. Whenever they met, the other woman was perfectly pleasant, and they got along well. If Shae had not been fighting so hard to pretend she did not care about a love affair that had never existed, they might have been friends.

"She will come when she hears her lover is a widower," Ornice muttered to herself.

"No." Felix crossed his arms over his chest. "She won't come. Your plan is bound to fail."

"Of course she will!" The former lady-in-waiting spat. "Why would she not come to your aid?"

"You first. Why do you need her?"

With a sound that could only be described as a growl, Ornice snapped, "She is one half of the key!"

"What?" Felix stared down at her, and Shae shared his bewilderment. "What does that mean?"

"That's all I know. Tell me why you don't believe she will come."

It was becoming clear that Ornice was quite far down the hierarchy of whatever group she was a part of. The more she spoke, the more questions they had. They needed to find out which group she belonged to, and find more members to question. This woman was doing nothing but following orders blindly.

Felix leaned close to her, and she automatically moved a little closer, craving his warmth in the cold dungeon. "I don't think she will give us much," he said with a downward drop at the corners of his mouth. "I'm questioning how much she knows."

"I had the same thought," she admitted.

"What are you whispering about?" Ornice hissed. "Are you going to tell me where the sorceress is?"

"She's not coming." Felix straightened as he addressed the bound woman. "Who sent you here? This is more organised than I have ever seen any of the vocal dissenters before."

"Your lover will come," Ornice said, and Shae wasn't sure if she was trying to convince herself or Felix. "She has to."

Felix looked as if he wanted to shout that Isobel wasn't his lover, but whatever promise the sorceress had extracted from him held his tongue. His loyalty was commendable, even if it made her skin itch with jealousy. It was difficult to imagine that level of friendship, but she had to admit that it could be a failing on her part since she had never had a truly close friend. As a princess, she had been kept away from most, as if she needed to be protected from the world, and later she had kept herself apart in fear of being hurt.

"Have the dissenters organised across kingdoms?" Felix continued his questions. "How many are there? Are there more hiding in the castle?"

The woman before them grinned. "We are many. More than you can imagine."

"In the castle or overall?"

"Both!"

Felix glanced at Shae, meeting her eyes, and she wondered if he felt the icy touch of fear as much as she did. If there were more like her in the castle, they could never feel truly safe. She tamped down the instant urge to seek out Mio. If his nurses were part of this, there had been plenty of opportunities for them to harm him before now, and they never had. But who could they trust?

Boreas, who had huddled in a dark corner of the room until now, stepped forward, almost making Shae jump. She'd completely forgotten about his presence. He had been so quiet. His face was unusually sombre as he nodded towards the prisoner and pulled a dagger out of a hidden sheath underneath his tunic. "May I take a stab at it?"

Raising an eyebrow, Felix followed the movement of the dagger as the Spymaster twirled it in his hand. "Are you asking to take a literal stab?" he asked apprehensively.

The other man lifted his shoulders in a shrug. "I will see where the interrogation takes me. If there are more like her in the castle, we need to know. It's important for everyone's safety." He gave them both a meaningful look. "You may not want to be here for this."

Shae's stomach lurched. The former lady-in-waiting seemed to have a similar reaction as she pulled back in her seat slightly. This didn't feel right. While she had no warm feelings for the other woman, to actually allow someone to be tortured? She shook her head. That was too far.

"We cannot sink to their level," she said, her voice stronger than she expected when fighting against nausea. "There must be another way to make her talk."

"She's the enemy." Boreas frowned, appearing unable to understand her hesitation. "We must do what we need to protect the High King."

"Not like this." Shae crossed her arms over her chest and raised her chin. "For all we know, she's lying, and this is all the work of one disgruntled person."

"Something I would find out if Her Majesty would let me question her," Boreas pointed out.

She turned to Felix, who had remained quiet during the exchange. "Felix. You cannot allow him to do this. Yes, she tried to kill me... but she's still a human being."

He opened his mouth to say something, then caught sight of something behind her, and his eyes widened. She whipped around to see a hooded figure enter the room with the King's Guards having made no attempt to stop them. The new arrival stopped just inside the door and lifted their arms to pull back the hood, revealing a beautiful woman with long silver-blond hair.

Ornice cackled with glee behind them. "Sorceress Isobel!"

~~~~~~