Thanks for continuing to read my story!

Thank you to crawfordphantomluvr, Mominator124, Badpixie06, PhantomBove, Phantomgirl24, peanutpup, FleshofMidnight, WolfShadow1, Crol6425, Pensez-a-Erik, and EvaLark for reviewing my last chapter! I so so so appreciate it :) And thank you to everyone who's reviewed previous chapters as well!

Updates may not be as frequent now as I have just moved into an apartment with my boyfriend (yay!) and we are getting things settled. I will do my best, though!

Christine

Chapter 24

The Culprit

The image of the dead Echo was like a brightly-colored painting hanging on the wall of my mind. Its brushstrokes were meticulously detailed, and every time I looked at it, something new seemed to appear to me, to reveal itself, as I hadn't noticed it before. I didn't want it there. I found it ugly, gauche, and rude. But it was nailed in place. It wouldn't budge - and the worst part was that it was the main exhibit of my mental eye. It drowned out everything else.

The taste-tester's death had sickened me to my stomach, but it had happened in the middle of existing anxiety. It had been terrible, but I'd forgotten about it quickly.

This death, though not quite nauseating, was staying with me.

I wasn't entirely certain why, though I suspect it had to do with the fact that it had been entirely, completely unexpected. Echo Hall, Erik, singing lessons - these things were supposed to be safe. To see a man with his throat slit open had turned the world on its side once more - like the universe mocked me for settling into a peace.

Reza and Erik played with the violin-wielding automaton on the floor of my bedroom in Nadir's house, as I sat on the armchair, legs curled up to my chest, paper resting on a book against my knees. I drew. I'd been drawing since noon - and I had been working on the same picture, adding details to it, then putting it down, then picking it up again

A recreation of the dead Echo.

As if drawing it would siphon the mental image onto the page and make it stick there.

But now it had been hours. Hours. So many that the sky was purpling and my stomach was protesting its hunger. I'd skipped lunch.

Obvious reasons.

My stomach's growls were apparently so loud that they caught Erik's attention. He was lying down on his side atop the carpeted floor, propped up by his elbow. He turned his attention to me and tilted his head. "Are you in need of dinner, Christine?"

I shook my head. I tapped my pen against the paper.

"A light snack, perhaps?" he offered.

"No."

He shrugged and turned back to the toy, which was currently being activated by Reza's clapping hands. The boy was practically bouncing where he sat cross-legged next to Erik. I pursed my lips, staring at the page. I'd already added every detail I could remember, but the memory simply wouldn't go away.

Frustrated, I let out a sharp huff of air and put the drawing on the table next to me. Erik had already seen what I'd been drawing, but if he had any opinions on it, he kept them to himself. He acted as though I'd been drawing a field of daisies.

I was glad he was here.

I was glad he didn't have an execution tonight - that he'd finished executing the Violet Dawn members. Yesterday evening had been the last of it. I was surprised to find out how few there were - half a dozen, including Amir, plus the servant girl. But tonight he was free; tonight, there was no need for him to go away.

Nadir had allowed him to be here, so long as he worked on his plans. And he did. I'd watched him. He'd sat in this very chair and worked while I made morbid art on my bed or the floor. He was only breaking now because Reza wanted to play - and the moment the chair was free, I nabbed it.

He was watching me now as I wrapped my arms around my legs. "What's on your mind?" he asked, and glanced at Reza. "Besides the obvious, of course."

"Just the obvious," I murmured.

He continued looking at me, and though he was unmoving, there was understanding in his gaze. He didn't have to say anything. I already knew what was happening downstairs.

The killer, he'd told me, would be found. Nadir had been spending all evening questioning each and every Echo who came into his study.

I'd never thought to question exactly how the Echoes worked, but it was today that I learned regardless.

The Echoes are each allocated a specific section of the Palace. They shift positions weekly.

Every day, at a certain time in the evening - one by one - the Echoes come to Nadir through the trap door in his floor to report in whispered tones or written notes what they've heard.

They get five minutes each.

There are twenty Echoes in total, so they do this over the course of a few hours. Nadir sits in his study and waits for them to arrive - no servants are allowed into the room during this time; the door is kept locked. Should the trap door be open, this means that another is currently through the door, and the Echo will wait in hiding until that visitor disappears.

There are rooms throughout the Hall, with hidden doorknobs and unseen inhabitants, where the Echoes sleep and replenish themselves. Apparently, these men never leave the Hall at all, never talk to another soul - their lives are within the walls of the palace, and their only company the words no one knows they can hear. One particular Echo does regularly leave and return through Nadir's study late at night - a courier of sorts - who ensures that the rest of the Daroga's spies have plenty of food, water, and clean rooms.

I couldn't imagine it - that life.

Never leaving the darkened halls.

Never speaking to another soul, except one man for five minutes a day in a very formal setting.

Truly, it seemed enough to make a man go mad.

Parvana arrived in the doorway.

Erik stood and picked up Reza off the floor, putting him to a standing position as well. "All right," Erik said, "it's time for bed."

Reza groaned.

"I know," agreed Erik, "it's not as much fun as this. But you stay up any longer and your father won't let me come here anymore. He'll say I'm bad for your health, making you stay up late. Do you want that?"

Reza's face fell. "No."

"Then go with Parvana to sleep." He picked up Reza's toy and handed it to the nanny. He nodded at her gently, and she nodded back. She took Reza's hand and led him away.

"Goodnight Erik," called Reza as he left the room. "Goodnight, Christine!"

"Goodnight, Reza," I said from the chair.

"Goodnight." Erik watched, as I did, the door close softly behind them. He turned to me then. "You really should eat something."

"I'm not hungry." My stomach gurgled.

He smirked. "Your internal organs seem to disagree."

I didn't respond to that. Instead, I looked down. My internal organs were doing flips even while they asked for food. "Is it really true?"

"Is what true?"

"That the dead Echo is the one who caught Amir and the rest of the Violet Dawn?"

"Yes." Erik sat on my bed. "It's true." His gaze went to the door and I studied him. The more I got to know him, the more I realized that the flippant attitude he often exuded was actually just exhaustion. He was tired. All of the time. And yet, he had seemingly boundless energy. I wondered what it was like to be in his mind. I wished others would take the time to wonder, too.

But, instead, he faced enemies on all sides. Constantly.

"I have a question," I whispered.

"I may have an answer, depending."

"If the Violet Dawn has been targeting you, why has no attempt been made on you."

He smiled ruefully. "Oh, attempts have been made, but they never get far. The Shah keeps my chambers very well-guarded, and I've apparently been extraordinarily lucky when it comes to the kitchen staff not wishing me dead." He brought his eyes to me. "Though, I asked Nadir what he learned from the Echo - specifically, why the Violet Dawn chose to now target you in the poisoning rather than me. Even if there was a belief that I could detect poisons, why not still try? Well..." He stretched his legs out in front of him. He could reach the ground from the bed easily, while my toes barely touched the floor from the same mattress. "Apparently, the belief in my supernatural abilities is so strong, that they not only believed I would detect the poison, but who poisoned it. The reason for the poisoning of your tea was twofold - if I didn't test your tea, then you would be put out of your misery. If I did test your tea, then it would mean I care about what happens to you and thus have a weakness, making Amir a bit of a sacrificial lamb."

He leaned back so that he was lying down on the bed, his legs still hanging off the side and his feet flat on the floor. He put his arm over his eyes.

"What they didn't count on," he continued, "was that the sorcerous dragon they've plotted to slay would find and kill all of them at once - though they were correct about him caring about Christine's well-being."

I paused for a moment. "Kristine with a K?"

He paused for two. "No."

I eventually relented and asked for something small for dinner - just so that I didn't absolutely hate myself for starving in the middle of the night. Erik went with me downstairs to the dining room, where Nazneen prepared the both of us stew. Aside from the dinner with the Shah, I'd never seen him eat before.

"I only eat at night," he explained. "I've never had an appetite. If I could, I'd choose never to eat."

Indeed, when he ate, it was very small bites.

When our bowls were nearly empty, Nadir came into the dining room.

His face was grim.

He didn't even greet us properly before he sat down to speak.

"One of the Echoes came forth," he said lowly, "with a suicide letter and knife. He claims to have been going back to his rooms to eat something and found him there. He picked the items up next to the body, sometime before you found him lying there." He took a deep breath. "Tonight, I will have to put that man to death."

I blanched. "Why?"

"He tampered with another Echo - intentionally went near him." Nadir's frown deepened. "They are not supposed to do that."

"But he was dead," I said. "I would have done the same thing-"

"And that's why you aren't one of my trusted spies," he countered. "Besides, I highly doubt it was a suicide. I believe that the Echo who came forth killed the other."

Erik leaned back in his chair. "That's quite possible."

"It's extremely possible." Nadir adjusted his glasses. "You saw the frightened expression on the man's face. And you should have read the suicide letter - quite contrived. Claiming that he was in love with the female servant you killed, and that it pushed him over the edge to have his actions lead to her death."

At the words you killed, Erik winced lightly beside me.

"And, to add to that, the Echo who came forth has, in the past, begged me to let him spy on you, and has expressed veiled negative sentiments against you, always quite bold about it; but he was an excellent spy, so I put it down to mere nervousness regarding the Angel of Death. He's always followed orders, but this?" He shook his head. "I believe he could be a last remaining member of the Violet Dawn, and so killed the Echo who outed his companions."

Erik was silent, and so was I. That could mean...that could mean that there were more members of the Violet Dawn that weren't caught. That could mean I was still in danger. Erik was still in danger.

"The moment this Echo is dead, Echo Hall will be safe again."

"Now, hold on," said Erik, leaning forward, "are you certain that this man definitely killed the other? Did he confess to it?"

"No. But I am certain."

"But why would he forge a suicide letter, bloody a knife, just to present them to you? Wouldn't the wise thing have been to leave the items there so no one tied him to any of it?"

"Perhaps he brought them forward to show he didn't do it," Nadir suggested, "making it even more suspicious."

"But there's a chance that it wasn't him?"

"No. I am sure he killed him." He stood. "And the moment I take his life, the Violet Dawn will be gone. Erik, you can now continue passing through Echo Hall as normal."

"But-"

"I will not repeat myself again." Nadir's eyes flashed - I'd never seen him lose his calm, and though I doubted he'd yell, that fiery expression in his gaze jolted me. "Echo Hall is now safe. The killer is caught. Goodnight."

He left the room, stiff as the tension that hung in the air.

A terrible unease was growing in my stomach - the same unease that I could see in Erik's eyes.

Nadir - careful, calculating, quiet, and collected Nadir - was being rather abrupt. Rather impulsive.

He seemed in a bit of a rush to make Echo Hall appear safe again.

He seemed in a bit of a rush to frame someone for the murder.