Chapter 16
Dear Amma,
I took your bangles out today to look at them in the sunlight.
I can read your journals out in the open, as the Empress hasn’t banned reading books (yet).
But since the Citadel has banned us owning jewelry, I’ve had to hide yours.
Sometimes I loop them on my wrist and stroke them, pretending it’s your arm I’m touching.
—Letter from Yaseema Nazir to Mahira Nazir, written in Mahira Nazir’s journal
Yaseema
You don’t know what things lurk in the dark.
I ran until I couldn’t anymore, my feet pressing into the soft earth with such urgency I hadn’t bothered to take in the rest of my surroundings.
Eventually the sun had completely set and I ended up in a small clearing, surrounded by wide trees with curling, twisted branches.
I leaned against one and tilted my head up, looking again at the night sky.
The image of the fae male standing there, covered in black blood, ready to gut me next was burned into my mind. Though he had gone to great efforts to save me, I imagine that it was because of the near desperation I’d seen on his face when he saw the bracelet on my wrist.
I unclasped Queen Azari’s haath phool, unthreading the rings connected to it from my fingers, and put it in my satchel. The fae knew what it was, and I didn’t need any more attention than what I already had by being human.
He didn’t seem to react to my mother’s bangles, so I left those on my arm, glad to at least be able to wear those still.
My spectacles were sprayed with black ichor—splattered from when the fae had stabbed it—and I took them off to clean them with the sleeve of my blouse.
My hair and clothes at least had begun to dry, and I combed my fingers through my untamable curls in an attempt to look more presentable.
I may have been attacked by a wolf the size of a horse, but I didn’t have to look like it.
After a few more minutes of walking through the forest in a more measured pace, the trees thinned out and lights appeared in the distance. I expected a small settlement, but my breath froze in my chest when I saw the full extent of what was here.
Before me was a palace made of glass and vines and wrought gold. It was as if it rose from the very River itself.
It was an enormous building, with domed glass ceilings and golden spires reaching up toward the stars.
Multiple waterfalls cascaded down the front of the palace, culminating in a stream that flowed toward the Basrol River through the forest. Alongside the waterfalls grew curling vines winding their way up golden towers with white flowers everywhere.
The smell of them lit up the air, rich and sweet.
Jasmine.
I’d never seen a building that intertwined with water and nature yet still look so thoroughly like a palace.
The River Palace.
That was what the silver-haired fae had called it. It certainly was that.
The entrance to the River Palace was a glass bridge over a small moat that fed into the stream the waterfalls flowed into.
Torches lit the area, and the glass sparkled like diamonds with the light of the flames.
All along the perimeter of the palace, silent guards stood with long sabers—even though they didn’t look like they needed to use them given how big they were.
The guards themselves were almost as tall as the fae male I’d met in the forest, though they donned a shirt. They had silver-armored breastplates stamped with a crystal emblem and helmets that shielded their eyes from view.
I stopped short when I realized some of them even had tails.
As I stood in front of the palace, it occurred to me I didn’t have a plan.
I thought that when I arrived in Peristan, I could use my magic to locate the crown, or at least any clues that might lead me to it.
But now I wasn’t so sure I could use my magic out in the open.
After seeing what the silver-haired fae could do, it didn’t seem safe to exhibit a type of magic that might be different from theirs.
I certainly couldn’t conjure vines from the earth or make water flow from golden palaces.
I chewed the inside of my lip, debating if I should attempt to speak to the guards.
Would they allow a human inside their walls? My fingers itched to use my magic, to give me the nudge I needed, the direction I had to go.
But I couldn’t risk them seeing me use it, not when I didn’t know what it would mean here. I needed access to archives or a library so that I could research Queen Azari’s crown and find out where it was.
According to my mother’s journal, whoever possessed her crown, could bring down the wall.
And if I could do that, I could bring life magic back to Astola and complete what my mother had tried to do ten years ago.
I could save my nani and cousin from execution by the Citadel.
I could give Astola the hope it needed.
My eyes fluttered closed, my resolve sharpened. I exhaled heavily and shored up my shoulders, walking toward the palace.
The one thing I knew was research, and my only chance at finding the crown was using the skills and clues at my disposal.
If I had access to where the fae kept their knowledge, I could find anything.
My magic could help me source anything as long as I had the right clues. And I could feel it clamoring to get out of me, even now.
And what other choice did I have? I couldn’t really live in the woods, not with monsters like the halmasti lurking about. And certainly not when there were fae like the silver-haired one who seemed just as vicious.
The glass bridge was busy with fae moving in and out of the palace, some with carts and large cloth shopping bags, others with nothing on them at all—not even clothing.
In hindsight, the shirtless male fae in the forest wasn’t that bad.
Most of the fae looked like humans—just taller and bigger, with pointy ears.
As I approached the entrance of the River Palace, a hooded figure bumped into me and sent me sprawling in front of the guards. A murmured “sorry” was all I heard before the figure melted into the crowds in front of the palace.
I stared after them, then checked that my mother’s bangles were still on my wrist. I breathed a sigh of relief when I felt their firm weight.
Rolling to my feet, I continued walking to the front gate. As I did so, two guards crossed their enormous spears, barring me from entry.
“State your business,” one of them growled.
I was close, but I still couldn’t see their faces for their silver helmets.
Their tails I could see in great detail, however, and they were slightly bushy, like a mongoose’s. I looked away from the tail flicking back and forth in my general direction so I didn’t stare too long and look suspicious. The guards waited expectantly.
But before I could speak, a female fae in front of me tripped and fell into the dirt, the bundle of whatever she was carrying spilling to the ground.
“Are you all right?” I crouched down and helped her gather her brown paper parcels. They weren’t heavy, and I glanced inside them to discover they were filled with herbs. Coriander, mustard leaves, mint, and fenugreek all poked out of one large packet.
“Are you headed to the kitchens?” I asked quietly, an idea forming. I tamped down my excitement and tried to keep a neutral face.
“Yes—thank you for your help.” She scooped up a bundle of mint leaves that had rolled into the dirt and dusted them off. “I was supposed to put these in the larder earlier when I got back from the bazaar, but I forgot them in the cart.”
I stood with her and offered her a friendly smile.
“I haven’t seen you at the palace before.” Her eyes seemed to take in my bedraggled appearance, lingering on my spectacles and then the tops of my ears. “You’re human.”
She said it as if I might not know that fact, and angled her head, staring at me.
I cleared my throat. “Yes. I’m new at the palace.”
My hands attempted to smooth out my wrinkled skirt, which had so far been through a river, a magical border wall, attacked by a giant wolf and sat on by a seven-foot-tall shirtless fae warrior.
I grimaced at the state of my appearance and hastily patted down my unkempt hair and pushed my spectacles up.
“I had a long journey traveling here, but I’m working in the kitchens too.
” I swallowed the lie, looking back at her unblinking.
At the Citadel there was always a turnover of staff in the kitchens, with new hires coming in every week.
It was grueling work, and most of all, it was usually easy to disappear into a job like that.
“Are you the new scullery girl? For the feast?” The fae girl’s face lit up. She reminded me of Safiyya, but without my cousin’s constant scowl.
She seemed confident and sweet, with glossy dark skin and hair that was stick straight and fell past her shoulders.
“Yes.” I answered without pause.
She turned and addressed the guards with practiced ease. “She’s with me in the kitchens.”
Then she swept through the entrance with her parcels and I followed her through the palace gates without glancing at the guards armor-clad guards.
The courtyard past the gates was busier than outside the castle, with a small bazaar set up selling wares and people bustling around . I’d seen no cars or trucks here yet, nor guns. Perhaps they had other methods of transport and weaponry and they just didn’t need them.
Or maybe the wall they erected also shut out human technology.
“I’m Ramishah,” said the girl, and I realized she was chatting to me as I was staring at the inside of the palace courtyard. “Feel free to call me Mishah.”
Though she was shorter than the other fae, she walked so swiftly through the courtyard that I had to scramble to keep up with her.
Her thick hair shimmered behind her and she had the same unnatural air that the male in the forest did. I wondered if this is what all peris looked like—endlessly beautiful and graceful. I tried to check for a tail but didn’t see anything poking out from her tan robes.