The Heiress Carrying Chapter 95 - 96: The Third Move

Chapter 95: Chapter 96: The Third Move

Elara’s POV

The arrests were moving fast.

Every day, more people were taken. From the lower districts, from the streets, from the markets where they had been buying bread and selling vegetables and living their ordinary lives. The council was unified on this in a way they were rarely unified on anything. The Rendered were responsible. The crackdown must continue. Any hesitation from the queen was weakness she could not afford right now.

I sat in those etings and nodded and signed what needed to be signed.

And privately, persistently, I could not shake the feeling that we were punishing the wrong people.

"The evidence is clear, Your Majesty." Petrov’s voice was smooth, reasonable. He had been saying the sa thing for days now, in different words, with different emphases, but always the sa conclusion. "The Rendered have proven themselves capable of accessing the palace. Their leader has been openly inciting violence against the crown. The connection is obvious."

I looked at him across the table. "The connection is obvious," I repeated.

"The girl was found in your dressing room. In your private chambers. Soone with knowledge of the palace’s layout, its guard rotations, its blind spots." He spread his hands. "The Rendered have demonstrated that knowledge. We saw it with the warehouse. We saw it with the threats left in your rooms. The pattern is clear."

"And if we’re holding the wrong people?"

Petrov was quiet for a mont. "Then we release them. After we’ve confird their innocence. But we cannot afford to do nothing while we investigate."

That was the argunt. That was always the argunt. We could not afford to do nothing. The people were frightened. The crown had to be seen acting. The Rendered were the obvious suspects, and even if they were not the right suspects, they were the ones we had.

I sat at the head of the table and listened and said nothing.

Because I had no proof. Just the feeling. And the particular neatness of it that had been bothering

since the morning the chambermaid was found. How convenient. How precisely tid. How perfectly calibrated to destroy the movent and give the council a target all at once.

The council pre-emptions had not stopped.

Another session. Another asure I had been privately considering appearing in soone else’s na before I could raise it myself. This ti it was sothing smaller. A staffing decision. A minor administrative matter. Nothing that would change the course of the kingdom.

But its smallness made it worse, not better.

Because whoever was feeding information outward was not cherry-picking significant things. They were feeding everything. Systematically. With a consistency that suggested routine rather than opportunism.

This was not a leak. This was soone who had made a decision and was executing it deliberately.

I sat at my desk that evening and forced myself to think about who had access. Real access. Not just to the palace but to . My thoughts. My conversations. My private chambers. The specific texture of my daily routine.

The list was short.

I did not let myself reach the end of it. Not yet. Not tonight.

Lena ca in with tea. She set the tray on the table, poured the cup, placed it on the desk beside . Everything was as it should be.

"Thank you," I said.

She nodded. She turned to leave.

"Lena."

She stopped. Turned back. "Yes?"

I looked at her for a mont. At her face, her hands, the way she was standing. She looked tired. More tired than she should have been. There were shadows under her eyes that had not been there before.

"The council etings," I said. "Do you ever hear anyone talking about them? Beforehand? The servants, the guards, anyone?"

She frowned. "What do you an?"

"Petrov raised a asure today that I had been considering for weeks. I hadn’t ntioned it to anyone. Not in council, not in private. But he brought it forward like it was his own idea." I paused. "It’s not the first ti."

Lena was quiet for a mont. "You think soone is listening to you?"

"I think soone is reporting on . Soone with access to my chambers, my conversations, my thoughts." I looked at her. "Soone close."

"That’s..." She shook her head. "That’s a serious accusation, Elara."

"I know."

"Do you have any idea who?"

I looked at her for a long mont. The list was short. She was on it. Everyone on it was soone I trusted. Soone I had known for years. Soone who had been with

through everything.

"Not yet," I said. "But I’m going to find out."

Corvus ca to

the next evening.

He looked tired. More tired than I had ever seen him. His coat was rumpled, his face drawn, his eyes shadowed. He had been working around the clock, following leads, questioning witnesses, trying to piece together what had happened to the chambermaid.

"Your Majesty," he said. "May I speak with you privately?"

I dismissed the servants. Closed the door. Sat at my desk and waited.

He did not sit. He stood in the center of the room, his hands clasped behind his back, his face set in the particular stillness he wore when he was about to say sothing he knew I did not want to hear.

"The forensics on the chambermaid," he said. "The tiline. The access required."

I waited.

"The initial estimate was that she was killed soti between the evening al and the morning, when the ladies found her. That window was wide. Too wide to be useful." He paused. "But we’ve refined it. Based on the body temperature, the state of the room, the position of the body."

"And?"

"And the window is narrower than we thought. Much narrower." He t my eyes. "She was killed in the early morning. After the guards changed shifts. After the corridor was cleared. Within a specific window of ti that was very short."

I felt sothing cold move through . "How short?"

"Fifteen minutes. Maybe less."

Fifteen minutes. In a palace that was supposed to be secure. In a corridor that was supposed to be watched. In a room that was supposed to be locked.

"The list of people who could have been in that corridor, with that access, at that specific ti," Corvus said. "It’s very small."

He did not tell

who was on it. Not yet. He needed to verify. Needed to check the records, the logs, the statents from the guards. Needed to be certain before he brought

a na.

But sothing in his face when he left told

he already had a suspicion.

And sothing in my chest told

I did too.