Page 33 of A Legacy of the Light

“That makes sense. I think we’re friends? He said he wants us to be, anyway. Seems like a weird concept to me, to be friends with a prince,” I say.

“Try not to think of him that way. It makes things easier. He’s just a male. A very handsome one, but a male nonetheless,” she shrugs.

I can’t help but laugh. She has a point, but I don’t want to think of him that way if I can help it.

“What’s the plan for today?” I ask her, moving her away from the topic of me and Tavish. She practically skips down the last part of the corridor to my door before opening it and rushing inside, clearly excited for some girl time.

“I thought I could show you around first, then we can find you a dress for the ball. I know just the place. Not many of the stuck-up courtiers go there, so you’ll get a dress that’s totally different.”

I try not to roll my eyes as she continues. Dress shopping isn’t something I particularly enjoy.

“Then, depending on the time, I thought we could head down to the loch and grab some lunch. How does that sound?”

Her words come out so fast in her excitement that I have to really pay attention to what she’s saying.

“Sounds great, Reyne. I’m glad you could come with me today. Thank you for being my guide,” I tell her, going to the bedroom to take a coat from the wardrobe.

I choose a deep green trench that comes down to my knees, and slip my arms into it.

“I told you it’s no trouble, so stop thanking me.”

Going back into the living room, I pull my braid out from the back of the jacket and fasten the buttons down the front.

“That coat brings out the green of your eyes,” Reyne comments, and I smile in thanks.

We leave and head back out into the empty hallway. I pay more attention this time as Reyne leads me to the round room at the center of the palace. I think I remember all the turns, and confirm it with her, just to be sure.

It’s not that complicated, in fairness, but when Tavish took me to the balcony, I didn’t pay much attention to where I was going. I was too busy trying to take everything in.

Reyne and I now go down the wide corridor that leads into the marble ballroom.

“Normally I go out the back door into the city, but I figure since it’s your first visit, we’ll go down through the courtyard. We’ll come back through the kitchens, so you know your way if you ever want to go into the city by yourself, as the main gates aren’t always open.”

Our footsteps echo in the massive room as we head to the doors at the very end, which Tavish told me yesterday lead out into the courtyard. Like yesterday, there are Seelie scattered throughout the hall, they watch us closely. Unlike yesterday, they openly glare at us, and Reyne glides through the room with her chin held high, seemingly unaware—or not giving a shit—about the hostility from the courtiers, especially the female ones.

“You get used to it,” Reyne says, sensing my bubbling question, as she reaches the heavy wooden doors. They have similar carvings to the doors on the balcony. Together we open them, and the sun blinds us for a moment so we shield our eyes and step out into the brisk morning.

Chapter 10

The courtyard in front of the palace is as large as the room we’ve just left, if not bigger. The gardens wrap around to the left beyond my sight, and a few couples stroll arm in arm. To the right, the tall stone wall surrounding the grounds meets the edge of the building with a small wrought-iron gate that I suspect leads down to the edge of the lake.

Guards clad in the now familiar silver armor are posted every few feet on top of the wall, facing the lands beyond. Reyne and I walk down the gravel pathway that leads to golden gates that extend beyond the walls’ reach, again heavily guarded.

As we continue, the path splits off to the left and right to take visitors into the gardens, guided by the same golden lampposts that line the streets of Elfayne.

The path to the left leads through neatly maintained hip-high hedges, with roses in every color scattered throughout. At the center of the hedges is a fountain of a naked woman lifting her hands to the sky, water shooting from them and cascading back down her curvy body into the pool at her feet. The path to the right leads to a beautiful glass gazebo surrounded by a neat lawn. I can see stone benches inside and what looks to be a telescope.

I turn around to get a view of the palace. The building, made in the same pale stone as the rest of the city, reaches so far up I have to crane my neck to see all the way to the top. The windows on the ground floor are the tallest—the same height as the wooden doors we just exited. Each end of the building has a turret that’s tipped in gold and glints in the sunlight. The rest of the roof, as far as I can see, is slated in dark gray. Another tower peeks over the top of the building to the far right, which appears to stand alone.

Behind the massive building sits the wall of the mountain, soaring high into the sky, topped by snow. As I gawk at the grandeur, I realize Reyne is talking to me.

“. . . and the tower you can see is the barracks where the palace guards sleep. The stables, training grounds, and the exit to the city from the kitchens is round that way, too. We’ll come back through that gate, that’s the one that’s open most of the time.”

“Sorry, Reyne, I missed some of that,” I admit to her.

She laughs and tells me not to worry, she understood why my mouth was on the floor. I turn back around and we continue walking to the gates.

“Is the palace built into the mountain?” I ask her as we near the entrance to the grounds.