Esther’s POV
The first poison arrow struck at dawn.
I’d been on my way back from the hospital wing, still bleary from another night of research, when a guard came stumbling through the main doors with black veins crawling up his neck. The poison smelled metallic, like burned iron, and his breathing already rasped as two comrades half-carried him inside.
“What happened?” I asked, rushing forward.
“Ambush at the outer patrol,” one of the guards gasped. “Rogues. Poison arrows.” He eased his partner to the floor, eyes wild. “It’s spreading fast—”
“Get him to the infirmary,” I ordered. “Move!”
The corridors filled with shouts. More guards stumbled in behind the first, each bearing the same ugly black streaks along their veins. Someone cried that the palace doctors were overwhelmed, that n
