Luckily he’s already looked away to drop a kiss on his daughter’s forehead. “Come along, Sinna. I should get a few hours of sleep myself before the generals expect me on the fields.”
That must mean the king hasn’t been to bed yet, and it’s nearly dawn. I wonder what he’s been occupied with all night. It’s definitely not my place to ask, but considering everything that’s happened in Syhl Shallow these last few weeks, I’m definitely curious.
“Oh, and Princess Nora?” he says, just before turning away.
My sister startles, but I can tell she’s delighted that the king has addressed herdirectly. She all but quivers with excitement. “Your Majesty?”
“Tycho was right. Therearesweetcakes in the kitchen. Right now, they’re probably still hot.”
If it were up to me, I also wouldn’t mind a few more hours of sleep, but my sister was just tempted with hot sweetcakes by the king himself. She’s all but bouncing along beside me as we stride down the still-unfamiliar palace hallways, passing the occasional guard or servant.
“The king is so different from what I expected,” she’s saying, and she’s making absolutely no effort to keep her voice down, like we’re back in our bakery in Briarlock and not in the middle of the Crystal Palace. “I knew Queen Lia Mara would be beautiful, but people always say King Grey is horrible. I thought he would be ugly and old with warts everywhere—”
“Nora! Do you even know how to whisper?”
She lowers her voice. “Well.Ithought he would have greasy hair and beady eyes, but he’s really quite handsome, don’t you think?”
“I suppose.” I run a finger over Mother’s pendant. The kingishandsome. Quite striking, really, with those dark eyes and dark hair. In a way, it feels like a betrayal to admit it. The rumors in Syhl Shallow always painted him as a terrible man who controlled a horrible magic—magic that killed my father and hundreds of other people when they attacked the castle in an attempt to slaughter the royal family. Like my sister, I spent a long time imagining the king to be ugly and twisted, as if his outward appearance would be the sum of all the stories told about him.
When I first saw him in battle in Briarlock, I was startled to find that the king wasn’t old and ugly at all. He’s tall and carries himself with the bearing of a soldier, and he can’t be more than twenty-five or so. If I’d crossed paths with him on the street, I would have taken him for a doting young father, possibly on leave from the army. If he’d come into the bakery, I would have been blushing at him like a fool.
But I’ve seen the king in blood-spattered armor, with one arrow through his shoulder and another through his thigh. I’ve seen him use magic to burn through his enemies to protect his family.
Just like he once did to my father.
I have to rub at my pendant again. I feel certain I made the right choice in coming here.
But sometimes I’m worried that I made the wrong one.
Nora is peering at me. “Are you still afraid of him, Cally-cal?”
I glance at her in surprise. My sister isn’t usually so direct—or so insightful. But during that battle in the woods, one of the soldiers put his sword right through Nora’s chest. The same magic that killed our father saved my sister’s life. That changed something in both of us.
“A little,” I admit.
But it’s more than a little. It’s so hard to reconcile that someone who’s caused so much fear throughout Syhl Shallow was making me blush and telling my little sister where to find warm sweetcakes. I can’t make it all fit inside my head.
I let go of the pendant, and it hangs heavy over my heart. Lord Alek once told me it was Iishellasan steel. He guessed that it was warded against magic.
But a week ago, when Nora was nearly killed, stars filled my vision. I felt sparks in my chest. Everyone thinks the queen’s magic saved my sister, but . . . ?I wonder if it wasmine. I wonder if my mother knew her pendant would somehowgive memagic.
That’s too terrifying to think about.
But I remember pressing a knife to my finger, watching blood well up. I remember feeling the stars and sparks again, and seeing the wound close effortlessly.
I need to stop thinking about this.
The palace halls are quiet, the stone floor cold against my bare feet.
Nora huffs at my silence. “Well,I’mnot afraid of him anymore. He and the queen have been very kind.”
“Yes, they have.”
“His magic saved my life.”
Also true. “I know.”
She hesitates. “I think Da was wrong, Cal.” She looks at me. “He shouldn’t . . . ?he shouldn’t have been here. He shouldn’t have been part of the Uprising.”
