Sam was right. She'd been selfish just thinking of her mother and herself. If they didn't do something than all these people would die.

She needed to tell him right away. There was no waiting until after she found her mother. Natalie took a deep breath, struggling to reach across to her other arm, shoving the soldier back long enough to tap the silver cuff on her wrist three times.

Come on, Sam.

A long moment passed, during which the soldiers slumped lower, and Natalie grunted in annoyance, not wanting to drop him like a sack of bricks on the stone floor. He was a creep, but it didn't mean she wanted to be the one responsible for breaking his skull.

Footsteps from behind her made her jerk upright, nearly dropping the soldier. Luckily it was Sam who came around the corner. When he first spotted her and the Jake the soldier his face went all over with fury, and it would have almost been amusing if Natalie wasn't about to collapse under the deadweight of the guard.

"Help me with him," she hissed. "He's crushing me."

"Oh." Sam's eyes went wide with understanding. "I thought you were—Oh." He rushed forward, pulling the unconscious man off her. He let him slump to the ground with a little less care than he perhaps should have, and Jake the soldier hit the ground with a thud.

Sam looked abashed. "I saw the bracelet. He didn't hurt you, did he?"

"No. He was in no condition."

"You guys didn't...uh," Sam ran his fingers through his hair, eyes searching her face. Was he blushing? "You know...kiss?"

In any other circumstance she would have enjoyed the look on his face immensely, but now wasn't exactly the time. "No, look, Sam, we're in deep trouble."

He looked alarmed. "What? What did he say? Did he know what she's planning?"

She glanced both ways down the hallway. Probably here wasn't the best place to talk. Maybe they could go to the middle of the marketplace where it was so noisy there was no way anyone would overheard what they were talking about. Would that be better? Damnit, she was bad at this spy stuff.

Natalie opened her mouth, about to say as much, when there was the shuffle of a footsteps and someone shrieked in a high, echoing voice, "You bitch!"

She spun around just on time to see a flurry of black skirts and blond hair, and then someone crashed into her, smacking Natalie's in the face and shoulders. She hit the ground a second later, and the impact knocked the wind out of her, making her wheeze and gasp for air.

It was the woman from the kitchen, the serving girl who had been glaring at her while she talked to the soldier. She tore at Natalie's face and hair, and there was a sharp pain in her left cheek, and then the back of her neck. Something clinked onto the floor beside her.

The necklace.

Sam must have collected himself enough from the shock, because a moment later he was looming over them, pulling the serving girl off of Natalie, who scrambled up, heart in her throat. The hallway was so dark, she couldn't see the necklace, where was it?

For one panicked moment she scrambled over the floor, her hands grasping nothing, and then something on the ground beside the wall glittered. There!

She snatched it up with a cry of triumph, just on time to look up and make eye contact with the serving girl, who's blue eyes had gone round as she stared at Natalie and then down at the necklace.

"What—" Sam started to say, and then he gave a startled cry as the girl jerked herself out of his arms and bolted down the hallway, toward the kitchens.

"Shit!" Natalie shoved the pendant on the broken chain into the top of her bra, and Sam flushed. It would have been funny if the hairs on the back of her neck weren't standing up as alarm prickled through her. "She saw it. She saw the necklace and she knew what it was."

Sam frowned. "Are you sure?"

"Positive." She bit the inside of her cheek hard, wincing. "Sam, my mom is locked in a tower up there, he said the east tower. And they're planning on poisoning the water supply tonight. The queen is going to release a toxin from the east tower to poison the water."

Sam's face went slack with shock, but he recovered himself quickly. That was good, because the next moment they both jerked upright at the sound of drumming footsteps in the hallway. Natalie's pulse kicked into a gallop.

"She's told them about the necklace. They'll be looking for us."

Sam looked torn for a moment, and then he sighed. "Get to the east tower and get your mother. I'll bring the others and meet you up there."

"Thanks." Natalie didn't wait for him to respond, she turned and tore up the hallway, in the direction the soldier had pointed. The others could deal with the queen now that they knew what she was planning.

It was time to find her mother.

The sound of footsteps from the other end of the hallway was getting closer, though maybe it was just the echoing hallways that made it seem that way. Whatever it was, it was motivation enough for Natalie. She ran faster than she ever had before, feet pounding the stone floor, breath ragged in her lungs. It occurred to her that she didn't really know where she was going, she was just following a very vague set of instructions given to her by a soldier half out of his mind with magic. But she had little other choice.

Thankfully the hallway didn't branch off again, and finally ended in a set of winding stone stairs that seemed to go up and up and up, forever. It didn't take long for Natalie to find herself completely winded and dripping in sweat. She badly wanted to stop and rest at one of the small slitted windows, to let the cool air from outside bath her face. But she couldn't afford to stop. She didn't have time.

Finally the stairs gave way to another long hallway, this one branching out into two. There were more windows set in the stone walls, and she paused at the first one she came to, letting out a shaky breath at the dizzying drop below. She was definitely up higher than she had ever been.

Out the window she could see part of the black stone palace, could see the other peeks and towers that stretched up beneath her. None of them were as high as she was though. So this had to be where the queen was planning on releasing the toxin. The wind was wistling through the narrow passageway, whipping her hair across her face, making the flags outside on the nearest tower flap ominously, the sound like thunderous wings in the still night.

Mixing with the whistle of the wind though, was a noise that chilled her even more, the sound of low, male voices from somewhere up ahead.

She stayed where she was. There were guards. Of course there were guards. What had she been thinking? What had Sam been thinking?

Natalie squared her shoulders, glaring down at the dropoff out the window. He'd been thinking what she'd been telling him all along, that she could handle herself. There had to be a way to distract them, or...to get them to leave their posts just long enough so she could get past, or even steal the keys.

She glanced down at herself, suddenly grateful she had thought to swipe the ugly apron from the hook in the kitchen. Quickly, she yanked the necklace out of her pocket and shoved it into the top of her bra, then shrugged out of the silky jacket. She hesitated for a moment before jamming it through the narrow window, sending out a silent apology to Kira as she watched the jacket flutter its way down onto the top of the nearest tower, where it lay open, its empty arms spread askew. The sight was disturbing on first glance, like someone had fallen out the window, not an empty bit of laundry. Natalie swallowed hard and pulled her head back in, before tying the apron around her neck and waste. Then she took a deep breath and plunged forward, into the dark corridor.

This was insane. It would never work.

It had to work. She had no other plan.

She rounded the corner, finding herself smack dab in the middle of a kind of sad barracks. It was one tiny room, with a rickety wooden table and a dirty, blackened hearth where a coal fire smoldered. There were two soldiers sitting at a rough wooden table. It looked as though they'd been in the middle of a poker game. They were sitting back in their chairs now, cards fanned on the table, both of them staring at the third man, who was wearing a long dagger in his belt, and who had red shoulder decals on his jacket. The captain maybe, Natalie thought.

The captain, if that's who he was, was standing in front of a long oval mirror. For one brief, confused second, Natalie saw that it wasn't reflecting him, but a round-faced girl with perfectly hair-sprayed golden curls.

The girl's lips were moving, and her voice, high and demanding, was coming from somewhere behind the mirror. "I still don't know why my father replaced me with that damn librarian. I could have got the job done."

"Well you father didn't seem to think so." The guard was only half paying attention to her, glancing over at his poker playing fellow guards, maybe insuring they didn't cheat.

Natalie was frozen, half obscured in the doorway. It hadn't taken her long to recognize the girl in the mirror. Mallory, from school. Mallory, who's father owned Worthhill, who's logo appeared on all the soldiers. Mallory of the blond hair and expensive shoes.

She pressed one hand over her mouth, suddenly flooded with anger. How many people had been watching her over on the other side? Mallory, the librarian, random people in trucks. How long had people been following her for?

Mentally she shook herself. She didn't have time for this. She had to get her mother out of here.