Chapter 18 #2
Beyond the gardens, narrow rivers wove through the landscape for a bit like silver threads, connecting ponds so clear they reflected the sky as if they were mirrors. All of them stretched to the same place far in the distance—a sea so blue I couldn’t tell where it ended and where the sky began.
The Eternal Water. It was the sea at the end of Verenthia that Rune had told me about.
The palace itself sprawled behind me, white stone and gilded rooftops, with banners hanging on the sides that rippled lazily in the breeze. In the distance, I could just make out the people moving about the fields and the gardens, and from here they looked as small as ants.
Farther still, the outer wall of the court rose like a crown against the horizon. It didn’t look half as terrifying and as massive from here as it had from close up that day Rune and I made it to the gates.
My God, it was beautiful. It was terrifying .
And for the first time since I arrived in this realm, I realized just how far I really was from everything I once called home.
I asked him where Rune was.
The look in his eyes changed immediately when he asked why.
Maybe that’s why I said, to thank him for saving my life, of course. Not a single word more. Not yet. Not until I actually spoke to Rune.
“He’s around here somewhere. I’ll find him for you,” Lyall said, and whether he looked suspicious or not I couldn’t tell. He was very good at hiding what he was thinking and feeling beyond the initial reaction when he was caught by surprise.
Either way, he left, and even though I didn’t believe him when he said he’d find Rune, it didn’t really matter.
I was here now, in the queen’s palace, and I wasn’t dead.
Instead, I was in this fantasy room, and the sun would set soon, and then I could go looking for him myself.
I’d find him even if I had to search every inch of this place until I did.
I’d find him no matter how long it took.
And the thought of seeing him again made my heart pound in my chest when I was all alone, feeling like I was wearing another skin altogether.
So much. The colors, the textures, the scents—it was all so much, and I eagerly let it distract me for a bit in hopes of getting myself together.
The faint smell of fresh peaches lingered in the air, and then it became heavier when I went closer to the windows and the bookshelves—old parchment and ink unlike anything I’d ever smelled before. Even libraries back home didn’t smell quite so delicious.
The curtains and drapes pulled to the sides were gauzy and fine, basically weightless between my fingers when I touched them. The shelves were so full of books and scrolls, worn leather bindings, thick volumes, all full of stories I couldn’t wait to study thoroughly when I got the chance.
A beautiful archway led to the bathroom hall—yes, it was most definitely a hall .
It was long, too, as long as the room, and it ended with a gorgeous balcony, the railing higher, almost up to my chest, the sky beyond a perfect blue.
If you sat at the end of the enormous tub, you could see all of it perfectly.
Then there was a knock on the door.
At first, I wasn’t sure what the hell to do about it. I just froze there on the threshold of the bathroom hall and I stared at the doors.
Another knock.
I could not make a single sound if you stabbed me right now. Just too strange, this whole thing.
Then… “May we come in, Miss Nilah?”
A voice. A woman’s voice.
No idea how I managed a weak yes, and I thought for sure they wouldn’t hear it, but the door opened anyway, and three fae women came inside. Stopped in a row in front of the door. Curtsied in front of me with their heads bowed.
“Good day, Miss Nilah. I am Pippa, and these are my sisters, Poppy and Pera.”
I blinked slowly, waited another minute, analyzed their flawless, glowing skins, their golden blonde hair tied at the base of their necks in a bun, wrapped up in a white mesh.
They all wore identical dresses with aprons tied in the front—uniforms. White and with threads of silver, big pockets in the front, and a single golden crown sown right over their hearts.
“It’s, um…nice to meet you,” I said. “Can I help you with something?”
The women straightened their shoulders, looked up at the same time with wide golden eyes.
So similar yet very different as well. Their jawlines, the shape of their lips.
“We’re here to help you , Miss. Her Highness appointed us your chambermaids, and we will be at your service in the time you spend at the palace. ”
One more deep bow of their heads.
Fuck me sideways. They were serious.
I cleared my throat. “Thanks so much, ladies, really. I’m flattered, but I think I’ll be just fine on my own.”
The first of them looked up—Pippa. “I’m afraid it’s not a choice, Miss Nilah. It’s an order by the queen.”
Order, she said, and I instinctively wanted to be pissed off.
“I don’t need chambermaids, ladies. Really, I?—”
“Oh, don’t you worry about a thing, Miss Nilah. Allow us to accommodate you.” And suddenly the three of them were coming toward me.
Two—Poppy and Pera—were holding something in their hands, one a basket, the other a red velvet bag that seemed pretty full.
Then Pippa was right there in front of me, just an inch or two taller.
Her smile was genuine as she looked me over, then slowly brought her hands up to push my hair behind my shoulders.
So damn awkward in my own skin, and it took all I had not to move away.
“Nilah,” I said. “Nilah’s fine.”
“A bath is in order. A honey treatment for your hair and face—and hands, too. I’m sure your feet would benefit as well.” She looked down at my boots with arched brows.
“No, no, I—” don’t need treatments, I wanted to say, but this woman meant business because she didn’t even let me finish.
“Lots of lotus milk—your skin is dehydrated, I’m afraid.” And she turned to her sisters. “Go, Pera. Bring me the milk while we clean Miss Nilah.”
“It’s Nilah— just Nilah,” I insisted, but somehow, I found myself in front of the tub, and Pippa was behind me, pulling the jacket from my shoulders, and the other—Poppy—was untying the laces of my boots.
What the hell is happening…
Meanwhile, Pera was already out the door, but the golden faucet at the other end of the tub turned itself on, and water poured from it, a heavy flow.
“Really, I can do that myself,” I tried to insist, but the women didn’t even bother to answer me.
That’s how I found myself completely naked a minute in, the tub half filled, the water steaming, and the women held me by the arms like I was this fragile little thing until I stepped inside.
Definitely one of the strangest days of my life.