Prison of Eldan

Part 13: The Adoptions

Emily

I watched the children run around happily and smiled. They deserved this night, and many more like it. It's a shame they have to go back to the orphanage.

Do they? Rachel asked, her green eyes sparkling. Do they have to go back?

It was a good question. Well, I suppose we could adopt them, but do we have enough space for them to live in? Technically, we're only Sophie's ladies-in-waiting. We probably don't have enough power to make whoever is in charge of the palace now adopt a bunch of kids.

Whoever is in charge of the palace now? Don't you mean Sophie? No one but us knows she's in the Prison of Eldan. We could ask her to let us adopt our friends, just like she adopted us. And then who could say no? Rachel had a good point.

Let's do it! I replied.

Isabelle ran up to me and started saying something in hand-speak. It took me a minute to understand what she meant, because the idea seemed so preposterous.

"Poison? Are you sure?"

Yes! she signed. He had fool's berry and spotted redcap!

"Can you show me where it is?" I asked her.

Follow me! But sign when you want to speak so that people don't overhear you.

Okay, I signed. Satisfied that I had listened to her, Isabella led me down one street after the next, leading me to the herbalist with poison wares.

Wait here, I told her when I could see him.

"Hello," I said cheerfully as I approached his booth. "Fancy seeing you here tonight!"

"Who are you?" he asked suspiciously.

"Oh, just a fellow loyal citizen," I replied.

He relaxed. "What's the word on the streets?" he asked in a conversational tone, low enough that passers-by couldn't make out the words.

"I work for the golden birds, how would I know?" We were, of course, speaking in the resistance's code. This was the man Sophie had recruited to kill the queen when the time came. "I heard the clocks were set forward, though."

He leaned forwards eagerly. "By how much? I would hate for my business to be behind the times."

"A whole month, if you can believe it!"

"A whole month? My, this time change was unexpected!"

"You heard the Oracular Pig, right?" I whispered, no longer speaking in code. "No one was expecting this, but your job is to be ready. I hope you are."

The herbalist nodded once, slowly, and then again with more authority. "I will be. Do you have an address you would like your order delivered to?" We were back to speaking in code.

"The palace," I told him before walking to another merchant's booth to continue the charade that I was shopping.

What did you say to him? Isabella signed as she ran up to me. Did you tell him not to sell poisons any more?

Of course, Bels. But there's only so much I can do, so I just told him that he could get in trouble if someone used his wares to kill.

That's all? She looked disappointed. She had told me that someone was selling deadly poison so that I would stop them, and I hated to tell her that I had, in fact, done quite the opposite. She couldn't know about the resistance unless Sophie specifically said so.