Celaena dropped the bloodstained, shattered staff and stepped away from Cain. She limped slowly away, breathing ragged, wounds still leaking. The rest of the world seemed to have frozen.

And then Nehemia broke the ice. By fainting.

Immediately, her bodyguards rushed to her side. Celaena moved to do the same, but collapsed. And Dorian, as if released from a spell, dashed for her, throwing himself to the ground beside her. And Celaena started to laugh softly to herself.

Dorian stepped back to assess her condition. Even from where Lysandra stood in the crowd, it was all too easy to see the patchwork of cuts and bruises on her face and arms.

Cain, face stony with fury, stood behind, blood seeping through the fingers that he was pressing to his side. Damn him. He could suffer.

Dorian had apparently reached the same conclusion. With a dismissive glance at Cain, he turned to his father.

"She needs a healer." The king said nothing. Did nothing.

"You, boy." The prince snapped at a page. "Fetch a healer – as fast as you can!"

He carefully, gently wrapped his arms around Celaena and glanced up towards the woman who'd given out the wine, who stood beside Duke Perrington. She had to be Lady Kaltain, his lady pet. Everyone who knew anything about the court and fashions had heard of her.

Well, the prince had clearly worked out Celaena had been poisoned. That was a start. And Kaltain's attachment to Perrington made her motives seem quite simple. After all, Cain was Perrington's champion.

But that glance cost the prince.

With his back turned, he didn't see the flicker of a nod from the king.

And he didn't notice the flash of sunlight on steel as Cain drew his dagger.

Lysandra froze. Too far away to stop him, the crowd too loud for her warning cry to reach the assassin.

But Chaol saw. And Chaol was right there.

And as Cain raised the dagger to strike Celaena in the back, the Captain of the Guard leapt between them and plunged his sword up through Cain's ribs. And right into his heart.

Blood erupted everywhere. It showered Chaol's arms, his head, his clothes. And the reek that followed on the wind that brought Cain's grunt of pain to her ears made Lysandra gag. Death and decay and rot.

Cain crumpled to the ground. His limbs twisted awkwardly but he made no attempt to move them. His eyes stared up into the sky, but he didn't blink. His jacket lay open at the collar, but his chest did not rise or fall.

And never would again.

Chaol's sword clattered to the ground. He dropped to his knees beside the corpse, but didn't touch it. He stared at his blood-soaked hands.

Celaena had gone utterly still, and Dorian was looking on with shock.

"What have I done?" Came Chaol's quiet words.

Two guards helped him up and led him away.

The crowds resumed filing out onto the streets as he disappeared into the glass castle.

The assassin was shaking.

She trembled so violently that her wounds leaked further. Lysandra was passing with the remnants of the crowd. She'd hung back in the hopes of speaking to the assassin but that was looking unlikely. Dorian still held her, and she mumbled into his tunic.

"He shouldn't have killed him… Now he- he…" She let out a shuddering gasp of breath. "She saved me," she said, burying her face further into his chest, "Dorian, she took the poison out of me. She – she… oh, gods, I don't even know what happened."

Dorian stared down at her, confusion in his eyes, as the council around them watched closely.

And then he kissed her hair and carried her towards the castle.

And Lysandra followed the crowd from the palace grounds, knowing Celaena was in safe hands.

She was just passing through the gates when she noticed a raven-haired young woman being dragged into the castle prisons.