The walk back to the palace is brief. I keep a brisk pace, propelled by anticipation of what Sigvard and Benno found out. I'm also trying to get away from Leopold. If he tries to start a conversation with me one more time, I'm going to scream. Or maybe I'll just ask Uncle Rothbart if their stay at the palace can be shortened.

The guard slips away once we reach the courtyard. One minute, his shadow walks beside us, the next, it has melted into the ground.

"I'm afraid I must join my family in the Guest Wing," Prince Leopold says. "But I hope to see you tonight, at dinner." He takes my hand and plants a light kiss on it.

"Of course," I say. As long as I'm not confined to my room for vomiting.

Leopold's eyes cast a glance above me, straightening his posture. Benno stands behind me, arms folded over his chest. They're in an unnamed standoff, though Leopold doesn't look like he'll stand a chance against Benno. After a weird pause, our new guest strolls away, disappearing inside the palace.

"How did you survive an hour around him?" Benno asks.

"Beats me," I say. "What did you find out?"

"The first book wasn't the most helpful," Sigvard says. We begin to walk through the courtyard, toward the manicured lawn under the king's office, where Benno and I escaped just a week ago. "Thanks for finding that other one. Turns out, Attsed is derived from a natural plant. In small quantities, it serves as a painkiller. However, large doses shut down the internal organs over the course of several hours, leading to the shut down of the brain, heart, and lungs."

"How much of the poison is needed to kill a human?"

"The process takes about six hours if five grams are ingested. That's for a person of average weight and height. Of course, there are a number of factors that make that number vary between persons."

"It'd be kind of hard to get that much poison into one chocolate," I say.

"It also has a really bad taste," Benno adds. "Even if they managed to get it in there, a smart person wouldn't risk someone noticing the taste."

"How does one even add powder to pre-made chocolates?" Sigvard questions.

"Maybe by adding a chocolate coating with the powder mixed in?" I say.

"No, that would just create a paste." Sigvard shakes his head. "It's not possible. There's no way the poison could've been in the chocolates. Unless they cut out the centers and filled them with the poison. But once again, the taste would probably be noticeable."

"Sounds like a pretty severe oversight of the Royal Court," I murmur.

"You're not kidding. And it gets worse. With this particular painkiller, the victim wouldn't probably feel pain initially when the poison is ingested. At that dose, the nerve endings are one of the first things to shut down. In fact, a person might feel better after ingesting the poison. It's a relatively painless way to die."

"So Mother wouldn't have been in pain after dinner," I say.

"Exactly. But she would be growing weaker as the poison shuts down her brain."

We round the corner of the house, passing under a manicured hedge to enter the back courtyard. Details surrounding the poison flow through my head, like the fountain on the terraced steps.

"Then how else could she have been poisoned?" The answer comes as soon as I pose the question. My head snaps to Sigvard. "The tea?"

"Yup. If not the chocolates, the only other options are her dinner, her drink at dinner, or the tea. The dinner is ruled out since there's no guarantee that the poisoned plate would be set in front of her, unless the chef and the server were in cahoots together. Even still, she wouldn't have a headache after dinner. It couldn't be in her drink. I'm pretty sure the glasses were empty when we entered the room. Someone probably would've noticed if the poison were slipped into her glass partway through the meal. And once again, she wouldn't have a headache after dinner. That leaves the tea, which she drank before going to bed."

"Someone could add five grams to her tea pretty easily," I say.

"And the poison dissolves well in hot liquids," Benno says.

"The honey obscured any bad taste from the tea," Sigvard continues. "Mother was tired and not feeling well anyway, so she probably wouldn't pay too much attention to the tea."

I think for a moment. "Remember when Evlyn said she went into Mother's bathroom to get her a hot water bottle? Anyone could've passed by the room during that time and slipped something into the tea. Based on what she said, it was laying out in the open."

"I'm thinking that our killer might be more obvious than that," Sigvard says.

I pause. The chiming droplets of fountain water wash over my thoughts, providing me with a new perspective. "As in...Evlyn?"

"Think about it: she seemed awfully nervous when we came to see her. She's the one who prepared the tea and gave it to Mother. And she conveniently found the poison in Odeia's pillowcase."

"But Evlyn wouldn't..."

I stop. I don't think Evlyn would do such a thing, but then again, how well do I truly know her?

"As a maid in the castle, she could probably also sneak into Odeia's room and steal the comb, which she used to purchase the poison. If someone found her in there, she could pretend to be straightening up the room or something."

"True..."

Sigvard, always the sibling of brilliance, has once again put together puzzle pieces I didn't know existed. Of course it makes sense, everything that he says makes sense—at least in his own head. Yet things still didn't line up for me. "But why? She has less of a motive than Odeia."

"Right now," Sigvard says. "But then again, what do we know about the palace maids? She could have some deep grudge held against our mother or our family. Or maybe she didn't like Odeia for some reason and wanted to be rid of her. She retired soon after the incident, maybe she was just staying on in the palace to ensure Odeia doesn't get the crown."

I sigh. "Let's suppose all you say is true. How does that connect to our father's murder?"

There's a beat, then two, then I lose count.

"That's where things fall apart for me, too," Sigvard says slowly.

"I mean, if she wanted to get rid of the king, why wouldn't she stay on as a maid in the palace to complete the job?"

"Maybe the king found out new information regarding the murder," Benno says. "He could've found out information about Attsed, just like us, and then deduced that Evlyn was the true killer of Queen Diane. Maybe he confronted her, and she decided to poison him before anything more was revealed."

"It's possible," I agree.

"And the festival was the perfect time to get rid of the king, since it's open to all citizens in the kingdom."

"Is there a record of all the attendees?"

"No," Sigvard says. "I already checked."

Indignance flares inside me. "What? When? Why didn't you tell me?"

"You were in your lessons," Sigvard says. "I was bored, thought of it, and checked. Excuse me, your majesty, for forgetting to inform you."

I roll my eyes. "Don't forget again."

"Maybe if we ask a few servants and guards around the palace, they'll be able to tell us if Evlyn was here that day," Benno suggests.

"We'd better work on that," I say.

"But first, we'd better go in for dinner," Benno says. The sun glows orange and casts shadows on the stone we stand on. He's right, we don't want to be late again.