Chapter 3

My ears were ringing, and before I could react they had already dragged me into the hall.

“There are five spiced cakes. They stand for the five blessings: long life, wealth, health, virtue, and a peaceful death.”

“You brought only four. Are you trying to curse me with incomplete fortune?”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw the food box, only four cakes inside, and cold shot through my whole body.

“Your Highness, this servant made five cakes, and five were what I carried in.”

“Now one is suddenly gone, and this servant does not know why……”

The room went silent all at once,

and a woman's voice came from behind me:

“Do you mean to say the prince hid one himself, to falsely accuse you?”

It was the Queen!

My heart plunged,

and the young prince threw himself into her arms, crying that he had been wronged.

The Queen's voice was ice-cold:

“Someone break this servant's mouth.”

Hands seized my hair and hauled me up,

but when the young prince saw my face, his brow suddenly creased:

“Why is it you?”

I looked at his face, and my mind flew back three years,

to a day when a child had been punished for some mistake and gone hungry the whole day.

My sister and I felt sorry for him, so we slipped him a few pieces of flatbread,

and never guessed that child was the young prince!

“Mother, give her a chance to explain.”

The Queen gave a slight nod.

I seized that thread of hope,

and hurried to tell the whole strange business, exactly as it happened, of the spiced cakes vanishing out of nowhere.

The Queen's and the young prince's eyes grew wider and wider,

“Is this true?”

I nodded desperately,

and the young prince clutched at the Queen's sleeve, nervous:

“Mother, can there really be things in the world that vanish out of nowhere?”

“Then one day, will you vanish too?”

His voice broke into tears,

and the Queen soothed him again and again:

“It's most likely a lie these servants made up to cover their own thieving.”

But the young prince would not stop crying,

and the Queen's eyes turned on me, cold as ice:

“Someone set up a steamer.”

“I'll let the matter of your earlier thieving pass.”

“Now you'll steam the cakes right here, and not one of them is to go missing!”

“If the cakes vanish again and frighten the prince, I'll have you thrown into the Office of Discipline to make an example of you!”

A shudder ran through me,

and as Osric had the servants set out the steaming gear, he murmured close to my ear:

“Miss Rowena, I'm warning you, don't try any tricks!”

“Once you're inside the Office of Discipline, they'll most likely torture you within an inch of your life and turn you into a living stump. You'll neither be able to live nor die!”

The young prince kept sniffling,

and my hands, shaping the cakes, would not stop trembling.

Sift the flour, knead the dough, form the shapes,

then into the pot. The young prince counted them himself, five in all.

First time the lid came off, five.

Second time the lid came off, five.

The young prince laughed through his tears:

“The cakes didn't vanish! So Mother won't suddenly vanish either!”

For the last opening, the young prince thought it was fun and clamored to lift the lid for me himself!

I was terrified:

“The steam is scalding. If it should harm Your Highness……”

The Queen arched a brow:

“A man who cannot sweep one room, how can he sweep the whole realm?”

“If he can't even lift a lid, how will my son one day help the Abbott govern this land?”

With the Queen's encouragement, the young prince lifted the lid with his own hands.

My heart leapt straight into my throat,

the steam cleared away,

and the young prince suddenly went wide-eyed, his voice frantic:

“The cakes……one's gone again!”

“Mother, will you vanish out of nowhere one day too, like the cakes……”

“I'm so scared……”

The Queen slammed her hand on the table and rose:

“Insolent wench! You know full well my son is frightened, and still you dare play these tricks to scare him on purpose!”

I knocked my head to the floor over and over:

“Every move this servant made was right under Your Majesty's eyes. I truly did not tamper with anything!”

But the Queen gave a cold snort:

“No tampering? Then it's witchcraft!”

“Someone drag this demon out and burn her!”

The words had barely left her mouth before hands hauled me up,

but just as they lifted me, out of the corner of my eye I glimpsed the cakes in the steamer,

and in that instant it hit me like a bolt of lightning!

I threw every last ounce of strength into tearing free of the eunuchs,

then lunged at the steamer,

put the lid back on, and lifted it off again.

Over and over I did it,

until the Queen was beside herself:

“Wretched wench! What trick are you trying to pull now?”

Slowly I raised my head, my voice steady:

“Your Majesty, this servant now knows why the cakes vanish out of nowhere.”

“I beg Your Majesty to give this servant one more chance to steam the cakes!”

“If they vanish again this time, you may put my whole family to death!”