Adeline glanced around the glowing dial, with its frame of identical archways; she wasn’t even sure where she’dfindKai. Little though she wanted to spend a sweltering morning in current company, the gardens seemed as sure a start as any. With little other choice, she beamed at Lyra, expecting andperhapseven relishing the answering death glare.
“A whole morning spent soaking up the sun with my favourite cousin? How could I refuse?”
Lyra’s groan was deafening.
???
Eleni’s court was larger than her mother’s had been, and all the more intimate for its size. It was made up not of the wealthiest courtiers or the most prestigious bloodlines, but of dozens of Vanjir relatives spanning multiple generations. Several of the women Adeline met were a few branches removed from the family tree, but the roots were there; the widow of an uncle twice removed, Eleni’s grand-aunt by marriage, a distant niece whose claim to the family court was so complicated that Adeline lost track about five minutes into the explanation and could not bring herself to ask for a repeat.
Some of them seemed to remember her from the childhood summer she’d spent here. Some of them she recalled, too.Allof them, moody cousin excluded, were warm and open.
And very,verycurious.
Curious about Adeline, about Eisalaan, even about Kai, apparently having caught on that she might have some intimate insight to share—but most especially, about her mother.
Eleni held the ladies of the court at a polite arm’s length as they took their turn about the gardens, but whether this was for her own benefit or Adeline’s was anyone’s guess. She was, after all, just as curious as the rest of them, even if she was more adept at expressing it subtly.
Still, Adeline could feel her Aunt’s eyes flitting around her, light as the butterflies that danced amid the nycta bushes, though not nearly as timid. When Adeline caught her stare for the fourth or fifth time, the Empress simply smiled, unabashed, and said, “Your father loved these gardens in his youth.”
They had wandered beneath a row of wooden arbours, a canopy of sweet-smelling flowers above them, and its tendrils weaving a cool, green tunnel on all sides. The shade was a welcome reprieve, especially when the tunnel caught a breeze that cooled Adeline’s sticky neck and cleared her stuffy head. She tilted her head back at the small relief, eyes closed, even as she met the mention of her father with a soft smile.
“I know,” she said. “He talked about them. Made them sound like magic.”
“Theyaremagic,” Eleni said, at once playful and indignant. “They must be; this is where my brother won the Silver Queen’s heart.”
Adeline’s foot caught in the hem of her skirt, and she staggered, catching at the nearest arbour for balance. She was too busy gaping to accept the hand Eleni offered to her, and clung instead to the wooden beam as she stared.
“Mymothercame to Dhalias?”
Eleni waved away a short huff of laughter. “Oh yes. Did you never wonder how we became acquainted?”
Adeline frowned. “You visited the Silver Court so many times, I suppose I just assumed …”
Eleni shook her head, then tilted it toward the end of the tunnel, beckoning Adeline onward. She followed, trying not to grimace when they emerged into the climbing sunlight, and her face immediately prickled with fresh sweat. Wisps of curls were already sticking to her forehead by the time they’d crossed to the grass to a tall, gated hedge.
“After your parents met in Eisalaan, your mother spent several weeks in our home, being formally courted by your father.” Eleni laid her hand flat on the gate, a soft twinkle lighting her eye. “He hadthismade in her honour.”
And, with something of a flourish, she pulled the lock aside and pushed the gate open. Adeline followed her into the small enclosure—then stopped in her tracks, heart seizing and soaring all at once, buoyed by the cool, fragrant air that washed over her.
“This,agameni, is the Silver Meadow.”
It was, at first glance, a winter garden. Tall tufts of baby’s breath parted with their every step, and the inner hedges spilt cloudy blossoms like an endless snowfall. Everything shimmered beneath the cloudless summer sun, and Adeline could almost believe the baby’s breath was cold beneath her trailing fingertips.
“Is this …frost?”
Eleni nodded. Her smile twisted for a moment, then loosened with her usual warmth.
“Yes. Your mother loved it so much she had it preserved; had a Wielder shipped in from her own court to freeze it all.” Eleni laughed then, pressing her palms together like someone confessing a minor sin to the Daughters. “I admit, I wasnotbest pleased at first. Eisalaan is Eisalaan, butDhalias?Dhalias iscolourandlightandlifeand the change of the seasons.”
She sighed, then dropped her hands and reached, tentatively, for Adeline, pushing a slightly damp curl behind her ear.
“I am glad now, Adeleni, to have this piece of her. To share this with you. These are the very same plants that flowered when your mother walked this garden, and I’m grateful we have this moment of her life, forever frozen in time.”
Adeline stiffened. Her throat had closed, her eyes suddenly as hot as the rest of her. Eleni’s own eyes flew wide, then narrowed on a wince.
“I’m sorry,agameni—”
“No.” Adeline shook her head. “No, it’s good. It’scrap, but it’s … good. To think about her. To hear about her. It’s like—”
