Silence fell heavy atop simmering resentment.
“Now, please, enter the castle, Western court. Enjoy and be merry, all!” the crier finished, as though the outburst had never existed.
The mass split into two groups—nobles marching forward along the bridge, slowly filing into two lines, and commoners who were held back by the guards surrounding the crier’s stage. Vi rolled her shoulders and adjusted the long, feathered coat that covered them.
With every step, she retreated further into her mask; by the time she arrived at the Imperial soldiers holding scrolls of names, she was no longer the woman who had been wasting away in a prison or a cat burglar stealing garments. She was Vi Solaris, crown princess to an Empire lost.
“Name,” the soldier demanded.
“Marla Le’Dan.” Vi worked to add a thick Western accent over the name.
“Marla… Le’Dan.” The soldier checked his scrolls and then leaned over, murmuring something to the woman behind him. He turned back to Vi. “I don’t seem to have your name.”
“Excuse me? I am of the Le’Dan family. How can you not have my name? Do you know who my family even is,Southerner?”
“I don’t have your name on the lis—”
“Then find another list,” Vi insisted. “Or perhaps this should be proof enough.” She held out her right hand, the ruby catching not only the soldier’s eye but the eyes of the other Western nobles around her.
The soldier looked back to the woman he’d deferred to before. She stepped forward and inspected Vi’s ring. “Let her though.”
“Thank you.” Vi gave a huff she hoped conveyed that the transgression against her noble person would not be forgotten.
She fell into step with the stream of people passing through the glistening royal stables that flanked the wide entry, toward the grand doors of the castle. Vi glanced over her shoulder; the Imperial soldiers were already focused on the next people. No one around her seemed to be paying her any attention.
Vi made her way to the edge of the crowd and stepped back into the shadow of one of the stables before slipping behind a low wall unseen.
Hurriedly, she shrugged off her coat and pulled pins from her braids, allowing them to fall into a much simpler style. She ripped at the flowing skirt she wore over a clinging dress, casting it aside with the coat and incinerating it with a burst of magic. She yanked the ring from her finger, tucking it into a hidden pocket of her dress as she slipped back into the crowd without anyone so much as giving her a glance.
Smoothing over her dress once more, sufficiently satisfied with her altered appearance, Vi stepped into the great hall of the Western castle.
Her feet came to a stop as Vi let out a soft gasp. It was more magnificent than she could’ve imagined. The architect’s sketches and blueprints Elecia had sent hadn’t done the castle justice. Columns supported wooden rafters that soared high enough for gigantic iron chandeliers to hang unimpeded. At the far end of the room was the throne area—a place Vi could barely see over the heads of those gathered.
Stained glass along the upper walls picked up the glow of a thousand tiny flames, burning magically in the chandeliers and otherwise empty glass bulbs throughout the room. Vi took a step, placing her hand lightly on a column. This was her family’s home. She ached at the thought and part of her—the part that shared blood with the Ci’Dan family—wanted to weep for all they’d lost despite all she herself had gained.
“There you are,” a male voice said from behind her. “I knew you said you were thinking of getting a feel for the attitude of the crowds, princess, but I didn’t think this was what you had in mind.”
Vi startled, realizing he was speaking to her. Even from behind, he’d mistaken her for Fiera.
The man was a Westerner, through and through. He had short-cropped black hair and muscular shoulders that framed a barrel chest. His clothing was twice as fine as the average person’s. But what made his identity as plain as the nose on his face was the thick chain around his neck—cast in gold and weighted by a diamond that could make even a Solaris blush.
Vi was face to face with Richard Ci’Dan.
“You’ll never believe what’s happened. I came down early myself because I was told my cousin Marla was here. Foolish Imperials, they know nothing, or they’d know Marla is—”
“I think you have the wrong person,” Vi said softly.
Richard stopped himself mid-sentence and stared at her. He blinked several times, tilting his head, before taking a step forward to get a better look. He searched her face with a gaze as tender as it was knowing before that same expression became distant and inquisitive.
“You’reher, aren’t you?” he said finally.
“And just who do you think I am?”
“The traveler the princess foretold.”
Chapter Six
“She foretold… me?”Vi leveraged all her royal training to keep her surprise in check.
