Rapunzel spread three of Hedwig's spell books across the table in the castle library. She had come to Rosenwald to find what was poisoning the Dark Forest and destroy it. The answer sat in front of her, and she could not read it. The pages that named the forest's sickness were written in cipher. Her godmother had raised her, locked her in a tower for six years once she reached twelve years of age, taught her plants and poisons, then left her this one locked door. She traced the strange marks with her finger. Twined letters. Numbers that were not numbers. She had tried for six nights. The ink told her nothing. The door opened. Prince Valentin stepped in, a candle in one hand, no servant behind him. The crown prince of Rosenwald, son of Snow White, moved like a man who went where he pleased. He had told the court openly that the Order's witch hunts went too far. His mother called him her most diplomatic headache. Rapunzel trusted that honesty more than anyone else's in this castle. "You've been down here every night," Valentin said. He set the candle beside her books. "My wife keeps a lamp lit for you. She worries." "I can't read it." Rapunzel turned a page toward him. "The parts that matter are in a cipher. Hedwig raised me, and she still kept secrets from me." Valentin leaned over the marks. His smile faded. "That isn't a scholar's code. A witch made this. For another witch." "I know." Rapunzel closed the book. Her hands stayed on the cover. "I think only a witch can break it. One who knows these old hands." Valentin straightened. He understood at once. "You want to bring a witch into this. My mother would never allow it. If the Order learned you consulted one, they'd sentence the witch to death. They might start asking why a princess reads these books so well." "Then your mother can't know. The Order can't know." Rapunzel met his eyes. "The forest gets worse every week. People die while I stare at marks I can't read. I need someone who trades in secrets like these." Valentin was quiet. He rubbed the edge of the table. She waited for him to refuse, to tell her this was madness. "There is one who deals with desperate witches," he said at last. "A small man. He was exiled from this kingdom a century ago, over a deal gone sour with a dead queen. He came back anyway. He collects magic the way others collect coin." Valentin looked at her hard. "He never gives anything for free. And if we go to him, I never told you his name." "Then tell me where to find him." Valentin picked up his candle. "Tomorrow. Before dawn, before the guards change. Bring nothing the Order could trace." He left her with the books and the dark. For the first time in six nights, Rapunzel felt the locked door begin to give. She did not yet know the price of opening it.

Before dawn, Rapunzel sent for her own guards. Four men of Nachtburg came in silence, their blue-violet capes damp with mist, the moon-and-eagle crest on their chests catching the lamplight. She told them where she meant to go. Their captain frowned. "The dealer lives near the cursed wood, Princess. No one who trades with him comes back whole." Rapunzel held up a cloth-wrapped book. "People die while I wait. Tell no one. Not the queen, not the court." The captain bowed and did not argue again. They rode out the castle gate and down the country road. A weathered sign swung on rusted chains where the fields gave way to shadow. Dark Forest ahead. Black spruces loomed beyond it, their boughs heavy and still. The cottage sat two miles short of the tree line, its stone walls choked with moss and old vines. Rapunzel told the guards to wait by the horses. She climbed the cracked steps alone and knocked. The door opened to a small man no higher than her waist. He had sharp ears, a hooked nose, and leather straps crossed over a plain tunic. His pale eyes moved from her crown to her gown to the guards behind her. "A princess," he said flatly. "At my door. That is new." He did not bow. He stepped back to let her in. Inside, shelves bent under jars, mirrors, and knotted charms. Rapunzel unwrapped the book and set it on his table. "I need these pages read. They're written in a witch's cipher. Only a witch can break it. They say you trade in such things." He turned a page with one finger. His face gave nothing. "I can read it." He slid the book shut. "But I never read for free. You know this, or you would not have come at dawn." He folded his small hands. "Name your price, or hear mine." "I brought silver," she said. "Jewels. A ring of my mother's." "I have rooms of silver." He waved it away. "I want something no one else can give." His eyes fixed on her. "They say the Princess of Nachtburg weeps tears that heal any wound. Witch's tears. I want one. One vial. Filled by your own hand." Rapunzel went cold. In Rosenwald, healing tears could be proof of witch blood. The Order killed for less. One vial in his hands could end her. "Those tears could name me a witch," she said. "You'd hold my death in a bottle." "Yes." He pushed an empty vial across the table. "That is the trade. The cipher for the tear. Refuse, and walk out knowing nothing." She thought of the forest rotting, of the people already dead. Her hand closed around the vial. She pressed her thumb to her eye, forced the grief up, and let one tear fall into the glass. It glowed faintly. He took it and began to read. The locked door had opened. She had handed her enemy the one thing that could destroy her.