The Prisoner of Limnos (Penric and Desdemona, #6)

by Lois McMaster Bujold

No. As they gained more information, they would find a route through. Somehow. Step by step. She couldn’t work miracles, but she knew she could work work.

“Way I figure, once a drop is enough to kill you, any more you add makes no difference.”

“Oh.” Idrene’s smile grew crooked. “I know the answer for that one. It worked quite well for Florina. And your father. And Ikos’s father, too.” Nikys raised her face. “You do? What?” She tapped Nikys’s forehead in a gesture not quite a blessing. And said, in a voice as arid as Nikys had ever heard from her, “Die first.”