“I… I…” Felaf stammered at my back.
Shocked outbursts continued from the observing crowd.
“She is still a Chosen,” an advisor timidly beseeched Maryn. “Your future queen! This is not the precedent you want to set.”
The whip thudded into the sand. “I cannot,” Felaf lamented. She fell to her knees beside me, head bowed.
Maryn remained speechless. Crimson drenched her stony face. She stood, casting a threatening glare down at us. At Rahzlyn.
Then she turned and exited. The courtyard exhaled a collective breath. Her reprieve was sure to be short-lived, for in her parting stare, her eyes promised retribution.
Chapter 28
Rahzlyn
“If that wasn’tthe most foolish thing I’ve ever seen in my life,” Letti reprimanded whilst wrapping a fresh cloth around the full length of my arm, “then I don’t know what is. You’re lucky she let you go.”
We sat on the edge of a bed draped in soft black fabric. The moody, opulent space was grander than any room I’d encountered. The royal chambers consisted of a suite of rooms for sleeping, dressing, studying, and bathing.
My chambers.
So many souls had passed through here. Had slept in this very bed. Stars, I hoped the bedding had been changed since the previous princess—Cyrene, I believed—died.
“A man was being beaten like an animal,” I stated simply. “Why would I not do something?”
“Your word is not law.”
“Even if I’m a Chosen?” I asked, still unable to stomach that reality. I hissed from Letti’s forcefulness as she tightened the cloth. For someone of such a petite stature, she was awfully robust.
“Look at your eyes in that mirror,” she snapped, referring to the tall mirror propped across from us. When I didn’t listen, her fingers gripped my chin and yanked.
“Ow—”
“Look. They are not yet the color of the topaz. You may be a Chosen, but you wield no power.”
“But look how she treats Raithe, Felaf, and even Gregorios,” I countered, swatting Letti’s hand away. “Everyone is beneath her.”
“As our reigning sovereign, she can do as she pleases. She may not have power with the other courts, but in this palace and queendom, her word is law.”
“That is all the power she has though: words. And she uses them to harm those who serve her?” I frowned, vividly recalling how she’d forced Felaf tobeatRaithe. The man was many things, but no one deserved such depraved cruelty. “Would she subject Gregorios to her punishment? He hid my presence too.”
“Gregorios knows how to appeal to Maryn’s good side. You must learn to do so as well, if you wish to endure here.” Letti studied me with a scowling, speculative glare. “You do intend to try, don’t you? Or are you what Raithe claims you to be?”
I looked away, settling on the tray of untouched roasted potatoes, colorful vegetables, flatbread and olives. I’d lost my appetite somewhere between learning I wasn’t of Geminian descent and realizing there was a clock ticking on my ability to prove myself a queen.
“I’m not,” I said. “And if I am the future queen, then threatening to beat me was a bold move.”
“It’s clear she doesn’t believe you will succeed in your trial and therefore does not fear retaliation from you. You do not have the same education as your predecessors, nor do you seem adept at following the rules. She likely let you go without repercussionsbecause she has other ideas brewing to punish you. If there is one thing she cannot tolerate, it’s insubordination.”
Another sharp tug as she tied a cloth around my back. “She doesn’t scare me,” I muttered, staring off at a leafy plant with strangely sprouted stems. Maryn reminded me a bit of Allory. “She pisses me off.”
“Then you really are a fool.”
I didn’t contradict her. With nothing else to do as she finished dressing my wounds, I marveled with reluctance at the lavish space around us. The tile flooring lent a coolness to the room, offset by bursts of rust-colored stone running throughout the chamber and up the black marbled walls, where it met with the warmer peppered granite cresting the arched ceilings. Candlelight danced from the chandeliers carved of bronze overhead. Rich vermillion drapery, pillows, cushions, and rugs scattered throughout the room—fabrics and patterns I’d never seen in Gemini.
Artwork of scorpions hung on the walls. Heavy crimson curtains framed the floor-to-ceiling arched windows opposite the plush, massive bed. The bed sat atop a square dais, raised by several steps, with a narrow stream of water flowing around it. “Where does this water go?” I wondered as I dipped my toe into it.
“Right back to the pipes. They draw water from the aquifer beneath this skyland.”
