Chapter 14
Fourteen
A Palace of Wonders and Fears
I sat at my vanity while Wairen watched me braid my hair.
They had taken interest in the task, and while I had never had an audience before, I found I didn’t mind the dryad’s presence.
If anything, it was a blessing that Puko had taken to Wairen’s company, or perhaps the other way around, because while his head feathers were being stroked by the tree fae, the silly bird wouldn’t be getting in my way.
What I could have done without at that moment was the burning sensation on my back as I sat rigid, trusting the garment I now wore to protect my secret.
The problem wasn’t that any magic within me was sealed but that witches had sealed it.
A witch had sealed it before I was found, and Mila had resealed it during our failed attempt to undo it when I was a child.
And though Thain was in the room with me now, relaxed and unreadable as ever, I still couldn’t shake the tone in which he’d spoken of the witches.
It had been foolish to allow myself to forget even for a moment that I carried these marks on my back.
Thain leaned against the wall, going over what I was expected to know in the presence of a king. His lifetime of court etiquette shoved into an hour of mind-numbing lecture.
“It figures the first time you have something to speak at length on, it’s a subject of as little interest as possible.” My fingers worked swiftly, tucking the last bits of hair into place on my left side.
Even in the mirror, I saw the lines of his mouth slant up to one side.
“And since you’ll be the youngest in almost every situation you find yourself in, you’ll want to make sure you bow exactly as low as the person you are introduced to.” Thain scratched his chin.
“Unless it’s royalty, in which case I make sure to bow lower,” I added.
“The other courts have other rules, but we’ll bother with them when the time comes. For tonight, I think you’re ready.” Thain nodded.
“As ready as I can be.” My calloused right hand twitched. “I don’t suppose an axe at my hip is proper court attire?”
“We’ll all be right there with you.” Thain cleared his throat. “Besides, Baeleon is easy to please. You’ll be the most interesting thing in the room, and he lives to be entertained.”
“I wish I wasn’t.” I sighed and stood. Wairen now turned their attention fully to the raven.
“Would you rather be looked down upon by the humans again?” Thain asked.
“No,” I murmured.
“I know it’s hard for you to believe there are people out there who want to meet you, but I promise there are.
” Thain looked handsome in his court attire, but he was obviously uncomfortable outside his road-worn tunics.
I glanced in the mirror. The person looking back at me was unrecognizable.
A few days of food and people willing to talk to me had done quite a bit to the lines of my face.
If only the shadows of grief didn’t cling so hard, I wouldn’t even know it was me standing there in fine clothes about to enter such a grand place as a palace.
Thain pushed his weight off the wall and offered me his hand.
“I promised you a welcome. Let’s go have it, then.
” Thain kept a steady pace. I was glad for the Autumn Court clothing, because fewer eyes lingered now that I didn’t look so out of place.
We crossed several bridges, and a wet maple leaf managed to fall right on my forehead while we were walking, but otherwise we had a silent trip to the grotto.
“Looks like we’re the last to show up.” Thain nodded toward a bench where Schula sat and Eberon paced in front of her. When the golden fae spotted us, he stopped in his tracks then stomped toward Thain.
“About time you showed up! You can’t just waltz in to the king’s own parlor whenever you feel like it.
” Eberon ran both hands through his fiery locks, messing up someone’s hard work putting them in order.
“Do you know how hard it was to quell his impatience? To get him to wait until tonight? The court is in an uproar in there right now, waiting to see her.”
“We arrived when we arrived, and Baeleon will not die for not having a new bauble to display,” Thain said quietly. Eberon’s mouth snapped shut, and a fierce blast of warmth hit me as his fist ignited then extinguished like a candle.
“You’re right.” He resumed pacing and fidgeting with the obsidian ring on his thumb. “I’m sorry. Wren, I’m sorry.”
“We aren’t even late,” Schula chided. “If it would make you feel better, Eb, we can go inside and wait where the staff can fret over us.”
“You said the palace was inside the grotto?” I nudged the subject away from the courtiers and to where I was about to be paraded.
The grotto opened up only yards from us.
A cavern mouth that was surprisingly clean and polished.
A lazy arm of water swept through it, and the only access further in was a golden bridge.
The ballroom floor and decorations lay just beyond the bridge, and even now several guests were being entertained there.
“Beyond the mouth of the cavern there, around the bend.” Eberon stopped his pacing and approached me, straightening my shirt and inspecting me.
“She’s fine, Eberon,” Thain snapped, moving Eberon’s hand from fussing at a piece of thread on my shoulder.
“Let’s just go inside if you’re going to mother hen us.” Schula stood and brushed off her brown leggings. She wore a yellow shirt in a similar style to mine, and her long white hair was loose, with bits of silver somehow fastened in a scattered pattern of round charms.
“Right, sorry.” Eberon cleared his throat. “Yes, let’s go.”
The air in Thanantholl always had a slight crispness to it.
It was the land of a never-ending season, after all.
The grotto, however, breathed a chill into my skin as we crossed the gilded bridge.
It was wide enough to trot six horses at once.
The embellished stones underfoot were carved to look like a bed of leaves.
The water under us carried leaves away silently. On the other side of the bridge, the floor came into view.
Past the dance floor and around a bend, the slick cave wall opened to a breathtaking facade.
Shiny white stone, cut into gold-embellished bricks, walled the back of the cave off.
A door two stories tall was left half open and heavily guarded.
The white wall held balconies, windows, and columns.
Red and gold banners hung from several places, displaying a maple leaf and a crown.
“This is the Autumn Palace,” Eberon said. “The wall is ten feet thick. This is the only way in or out. The remainder of the interior is carved from within the cave and surrounded by the cliffs around Thanantholl.”
“I’ve only seen one palace, when I went to Sulls.
It’s where the sultana lives. This . . .
this is beautiful. It makes the jewel of the plains, Sulls, look like one of the mountain villages.
” A calming breath was almost not enough as the magic in me danced and cried to leap out of me.
The urge was so strong it was painful. Schula looked at me sideways, a knowing sadness in her eyes.
“I felt the same way when I first came here.” Schula put a hand on my back, rubbing along the seal under my clothes, soothing it. I sighed in relief.
“The king resides here,” Eberon explained. “But there is one room large enough to hold the Autumn Throne and host an event. That is the part of the palace we will see today.”
As we came closer to the door, Eberon walked ahead and spoke to one of the guards. After a brief exchange, we were waved inside.
“It seems dangerous to have only one exit,” I said as we walked down the polished halls.
Thain thought for a moment. “We haven’t had war between the courts in centuries. Disputes? Constantly. But most war here happens in the Unclaimed Wyldes.”
Eberon added, “Most wouldn’t dare attack a king in his own city. The magics of the Wyldes have a way of working with those who care for the land. Even the very rocks can surprise you, if they like you.”
Now, that’s a frightening concept.
“That’s the throne room, at the end of the hall.” Schula pointed to a set of golden doors with mother-of-pearl inlays that looked like willow trees.
“Just breathe, we’re here with you,” Thain whispered in my ear as we approached. A pair of guards crossed an arm over their chest in unison, fists hitting their left shoulder. Then they swung the doors open.
“Hells take me,” I hissed, and Schula’s hand firmly guided me in the room.
“Announcing the triquetram of Lord Thainalan the Ravager, Lord Eberon, and Lady Schula!” I hadn’t seen the herald, and I nearly jumped out of my skin as he shouted. “Accompanying the youth Wren of the Southern Mountains!”
You could hear a pin drop in the cavernous hall. That, and probably my heart racing and echoing off the walls.
“Come in, friends. Please, join me.” At the end of the long room stood an ancient-looking throne.
The round dais held only the throne and two guards; below it was a lower dais that surrounded the first. The floor below that was more polished stone.
Red carpet made a path from the door to the dais, which was the only portion of the floor not covered in a huge mob of fae socialites in extravagant clothes and jewels.
I nearly fainted.
Eberon tugged my elbow forward. “Welcome to the Autumn Palace.”