On the night we arrived, it was pitch-dark, but I didn’t look at the palace anyway. I couldn’t focus on our surroundings.
I had no idea it was this bad.
“This is terrible,” I whisper.
“Yes, Miss Tessa.”
I study the glistening water, then look over my shoulder at Rocco. “Where are the bridges? Aren’t there supposed to be bridges?”
“Rian said the connections to Fairde were destroyed by cannon fire.” He points. “I believe those structures are all that remain.”
I look along the coastline until I see what he means, and there, near some empty docks, stands the beginning of a bridge, just as charred and crumpled as everything else.
Then I think of all we’ve seen so far of the rebuilding efforts. Plenty of bricks, plenty of wood. Lots of paint and tile.
But no steel.
And down there, in the citadel surrounding the palace, there’s little motion at all. All of the crowds have been on the roads up here, away from the palace.
I frown. Like I told Olive, I don’t trust Rian at all.
But I agree with Rocco. I don’t think he lied either.
I sigh. “Let’s keep going.”
Despite what it looked like from above, when we reach the palace, there are guards—and a lot of them. After Rian’s casual crew on theDawn Chaser, I somewhat expect the guards to be ragtag and roughshod, similar to the rebel army that Lochlan was able to assemble in the Wilds. But these men and women are armed and liveried in red and black, and while their weapons and armor bear the marks of hard-fought battles, they look ready to fight some more.
There seem to be a hundred of them, too. None of them look friendly. I can feel every eye on us as we crunch across rubble-strewn cobblestones toward the palace. Much like when we were walking along the road, I know they recognize the colors of Rocco’s uniform, and they probably knowexactlywho I am.
Until this moment, I hadn’t really considered facing Rian as an adversary—which is a bit ridiculous, since I’ve been envisioning his death for days.
“This is a lot of guards,” I whisper to Rocco. “Are you worried?”
“No sense in being worried,” he says. “I can’t fight them all. If they want us dead, we will be.”
My heart kicks into double time. “Well, that’s fun.”
“You have something he wants, Miss Tessa.”
Do I, though? I swallow my panic and swipe my hands on my skirts. My back feels damp under the pack. “What should I say to the guards?”
“I’ll announce you when we reach the main gate.”
When we draw close, the stained-glass windows glitter vibrantly, as if someone captured the fire of the sun inside the building. There’s a small circle in front of the palace where carriages could wait, but none are here—a sharp contrast to the bustling activity at the palace in Kandala, where carriages and wagons are always coming and going, day or night.
A guard steps down from the gate to stop us, and his eyes flick over me, but I watch him size up Rocco. “State your business.”
“I present Tessa Cade, adviser and apothecary to the king of Kandala,” says Rocco. “Here to visit with King Galen Redstone, if he is receiving callers.”
“I’ll see if he is.”
The guard turns away and gives an order to someone else. We’re left to wait, the palace looming above us. If it’s anything like Kandala, there will probably be attendants and footmen or someone like Quint who will fetch us, and we’ll have to endure a sitting room, or tea, or an hour of pleasantries before Rian deigns to acknowledge our presence.
I consider how I wouldn’t even look at him when he visited the house. The way I sat in the sand and gazed at the sea, leaving Rocco to deal with everything. Maybe Rian will make us stand out here in the sun for an hour, just to be spiteful.
We’re closer to the water, and the scent of fish and salt water fills my nose. I stare out toward the distant harbor and wonder if we could have rowed our little boat here, how long that would have taken.
But as I stare, I recognize one of the ships tethered against the longest dock, because the damage to the sails and the hull is unmistakable.
