One shows scarlet-haired people adorned in orange and red, flames on their uniforms, the fabric of their clothes twisting and sparse beneath leather straps and sandals. The background shows a cracked desert, the blinding sun beating down in startling gold thread, vines wrapping in a frame around the whole scene.
The one beside that shows men in satin tunics of teal, burgundy, and brown, and women in wrapping bands of the same brilliant satin, their black hair and dark complexions making them blend into the background of shadowed red, yellow, and brown trees.
The next shows women in pleated ivory dresses, and men with bundled fabric wrapping inX’s over their torsos. Snowfields cascade all around, the hazy, gray sky threatening more snow upon the scene.
And the last one—fields of flowers billow behind people in airy dresses of subdued colors, rose and eggshell and lavender.
The Seasons. The parts of Spring I’ve seen have been shrouded in war and the Decay, but this tapestry shows what Spring should be. The aged quality to the threads, the worn texture at the edges, makes me think these tapestries must be centuries old.
My breath catches with hope.
The four tapestries on my left show the remaining kingdoms. Cordell, with its green and gold and fields of lavender; Yakim, with its brown and brass and gears; Ventralli, with its eclectic styles and colorful buildings; and Paisly, with its . . .
Mountains.
Nessa skips down to the tapestry depicting Paisly and points up, bouncing. “You showed us the tapestry you found before we left for Ventralli. I know Ceridwen has it still, but I think I remember it enough. This is similar, isn’t it?”
I stop before it, my mouth yanking open.
“Not just similar,” I say. “Those arethemountains.”
And they are. The exact same circle of mountains that I saw on the tapestry we found in Putnam gazes down at me—a ring of gray stones peaking sharply. But instead of a ball of magic stitched in the center, people stand within the ring, dressed in long, heavy robes of maroon and black withswirls of gold thread making intricate patterns up the bell sleeves. The high collars shoot around their ebony hair, the strands twisted into knots against their dark scalps.
“Paisly?” I ask. The tapestry showed thePaiselMountains?
Or was it just a clue to lead us to the key?
I dive at the Paislian tapestry and run my hand over the thread. The dense fabric hangs from a clasp high up the wall, and most of the tapestry I can’t reach. But I analyze the edges, searching where I can, lifting the bottom of the tapestry. Nothing sits in the wall behind it, no pockets dip from the material.
As far as I can tell, there is nothing specifically related to the Order in this tapestry.
“It can’t be a coincidence.” I turn to Nessa. “Can it?”
She shrugs, her face falling ever so slightly. “Maybe this was wrong? Maybe those aren’t the mountains.”
I back up, staring at the tapestry again. Theyarethe same mountains, though.
“Are we supposed to go to Paisly?” I wonder aloud.
Dendera scoffs, “Snow, I hope not.”
But that’s all I can connect from this. The Putnam tapestry led us here. Didn’t it? Maybe we’ll find something else if we search Ventralli’s museums or guilds. Maybe this is just a weird coincidence.
My wondering stops dead as someone clears their throat at the door to the room. It’s the steward from earlier, hands behind his back, chin lifted.
“The king requests your presence,” he announces, and swings back out the door, easing away at a fast clip so he’s halfway down the hall before I even process what he said.
I snap my hands into fists and dive after him.
Dendera catches my arm. “Should we talk about this? We need to—”
“No,” I tell her, tone even. “The key isn’t here. I need time to figure out what to do next, and lingering around isn’t going to help. Besides, I need to meet with Jesse too. He certainly can’t make this any worse.”
But I don’t know what the Ventrallan king might want. Maybe hewillfind a way to make this worse.
We all follow the steward, leaving the Paislian tapestry behind.
UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE
