“The King thinks it would be unnecessary to bother them,” Kennet explained.

Ridley sighed and folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t mean to speak out of place, but with these limits, the King is greatly hampering our investigation. I’m not completely sure what you’re expecting us to do here.”

Kennet shrugged his shoulders. “I’m not really sure, either.”

“Is this the exit?” Tove tapped the blueprints on the bridge that led from the palace to the dry land. “This is the only way to get out of the palace, right? And it’s got guards at the end that we had to speak to before we could enter.”

“How could the Queen get by without the guards noticing her?” I asked, drawing the same conclusion as Tove.

“That is the only direct way,” Kennet allowed. “But there are doors all over that lead right out to the lake. If she walked out, or anyone walked out with her, the guards would’ve spotted her, and they made no mention of it in the reports.”

“But she could have swum away?” Bain asked.

Abruptly, Tove straightened up. “Can I have a moment alone to consult with the others?” he asked Kennet.

“Um, yeah, yes, of course.” He fumbled for a moment, then smiled at him. “Take all the time you need.”

Kennet took long, fast strides toward the door, his bare feet slapping on the cold marble tiles and echoing through the bubble. None of us said anything until he’d gone, leaving us in a somewhat strained silence.

“What are you thinking?” Bain set aside the file and looked up at Tove with a mixture of affection and concern.

“There seem to be three clear options.” Tove leaned back against the table and crossed one foot over the other. “One, someone kidnapped the Queen, somehow bypassing the guards and all the people in the palace. Two, she snuck out that night and decided to run away. Or three, which seems the most likely to me, is that the King killed her and disposed of her body somewhere nearby.”

“You can’t accuse the King,” Bain said quickly, while both Ridley and I stood in silence, processing what Tove had said.

It really wasn’t that surprising, and honestly, I’d been thinking of it myself. Based on everything Kennet had told us, it sounded like the King was feigning grief to stonewall our investigation. Combine that with his marriage to a lonely child bride, and contrast his indifference at the meeting with his overt distress at her disappearance, like he was overcompensating, and something didn’t add up.

“No, of course not.” Tove shook his head. “If the King did kill her, there’s nothing we can do about it. If we were to say anything, it would only start a war between our kingdoms. The only ones who could lobby accusations without the risk of treason would be the Prince or maybe Marksinna Lisbet.”

“But if King Mikko did kill her, why call us here?” I asked, deciding to play devil’s advocate in all of this. “He’d already gotten away with it. Why draw more suspicion on himself?”

“You know why,” Ridley said, making me look back at him. “Konstantin Black.”

“What would he have to do with this?” I asked.

“The King has to blame his missing wife on someone, and with everything Konstantin has been up to lately, he would make an excellent scapegoat,” Ridley said. “And of course, there is the chance that Konstantin is actually the one behind the Queen’s disappearance.”

“Who?” Tove asked.

“The Kanin traitor,” Bain reminded him. “He’s been kidnapping Kanin changelings.”

Tove grimaced. “Right. Sorry. I’m bad with names.”

“You really think Konstantin had something to do with this?” I asked Ridley and shook my head. “It doesn’t make sense. It’s a totally different MO.”

“I’m not saying he did it. There’s no evidence supporting he has anything to do with this,” Ridley said. “But everyone’s a bit jumpier with him and Bent Stum running around, especially since we don’t really know why they’re doing any of this.”

“A Queen is a big leap from changeling, though,” Tove reasoned. “Especially the Queen of another tribe.”

“Bent Stum is Omte and he’s been going after Kanin,” I argued. “Maybe their plan is to hit all the tribes. The Skojare don’t have changelings, so maybe this is his way of attacking them.”

Bain and Tove exchanged a look. Bain pursed his lips, then shifted his weight from one foot to the other.

“That traitor guy probably has nothing to with this.” Tove put his hand on Bain’s arm, and he seemed to relax a bit.

“Tove is right, and number three is the most likely choice,” Ridley said. “But if the King did kill her, or even if she ran away, there’s probably not a lot we can do. So while we’re here, we might as well go on the assumption that someone kidnapped her. It’s the only way we can actually help.”

“Even if she was kidnapped, what can we do?” I asked. “We’ve read over the guards’ report, and there’s nothing there.”

“There was something I saw in the file.” Bain turned around and grabbed it, flipping through it quickly. “It caught my eye, then Tove asked Kennet to leave, and I forgot for a moment, but … yep. Here it is. The Queen had gone down to the pool area to swim, and she’d discarded her robe, which they found at the side of the pool. And in the blue satin of her fabric, they found a solitary black hair.”