"
But you are crazy.___ know._ She lifted a small box from the basket. __o you know how I know?__carlet didn't answer.__ecause the palace walls have been bleeding for years, and no one else sees it._ She shrugged, as if this were a perfectly normal thing to say. __o one believes me, but in some corridors, the blood has gotten so thick there's nowhere safe to step. When I have to pass through those places, I leave a trail of bloody footprints for the rest of the day, and then I worry that the queen's soldiers will follow the scent and eat me up while I'm sleeping. Some nights I don't sleep very well._ Her voice dropped to a haunted whisper, her eyes taking on a brittle luminescence. __ut if the blood was real, the servants would clean it up. Don't you think?