Crown of Coral and Pearl

“This is Prince Talin,” Ebb murmured next to me, and I glanced over at her with wide eyes.

Oh gods, was Talin my fiancé? Had he come disguised as an emissary, just so he could see his future bride for himself? Did Governor Kristos know? Did Mother? No, that was impossible. She would have had some kind of fit if she’d believed she was in the presence of royalty.

Then I remembered the circumstances of our first meeting and flushed so hard, I was sure he would be able to read my thoughts.

“I’m King Xyrus’s second son,” he clarified. “Prince Ceren, my older brother, awaits you at New Castle.”

I should have felt relief, but a strange sense of disappointment washed over me instead. I realized I was staring at him and dropped my gaze again. If he knew who I was, he showed no sign of it, but that didn’t mean he wouldn’t come to realize it eventually. Talin was supposed to be an emissary I never saw again, not my future husband’s brother.

I didn’t notice he’d kept hold of my hand until he dropped it and the warmth of his touch disappeared. He turned to Osius. “Please, get our future queen to the castle. She’s clearly overwhelmed and exhausted from her journey.”

I curtsied again, not daring to look at him, and followed Ebb back to the coach. “I don’t understand,” I murmured as I sat down.

“I’m sorry,” Ebb said. “I ought to have explained everything. This is all my fault.”

“It’s all right, Ebb. But please, could you explain it to me now?”

“Prince Talin is Prince Ceren’s half brother and the commander of the king’s guard. He lives here, at Old Castle. His mother was sent here from Varenia, like you.”

The last Varenian bride was Talin’s mother? “And the crown prince?”

“Was born to an Ilarean queen, milady. Prince Ceren will explain everything when we arrive. I promise.”

I leaned back against the cushions, my mind racing with unanswered questions. What had happened to Ceren’s mother that Talin was born to another woman? Was Talin’s mother the king’s mistress? The thought was horrifying. All this time, we’d been sending our women to Ilara, with no idea of what was really happening to them. What were our elders thinking?

For the past few days, I’d been so overwhelmed by exhaustion and sickness that I hadn’t had much room left to spare for nerves or even grief. But now I wished more than anything that I was back in our house with Zadie, singing songs with made-up words that drove our mother out of the house, muttering in annoyance. I could face anything with my sister and would do anything for her, but I didn’t feel brave now. I felt sick and tired and very, very frightened.

We finally came to a halt when the waxing moon was already high in the sky. I climbed out of the carriage facing west, toward home. Then I turned around.

I found myself staring at a wall of darkness, far blacker than the sky itself, which was studded with stars. I looked up, and up, and up, until my neck was craned so far my head was nearly touching my spine. Finally, I saw sky again. What in Thalos’s name was I looking at?

Ebb took my arm and led me forward. “Welcome to New Castle.”

I staggered back a step. “What?” I asked, my voice barely more than a whisper.

Captain Osius appeared on my other side and took my free arm. “We leave the horses here, milady. I’m afraid it’s a bit of a climb to the top of Mount Ayris. If you’re too tired, we can wait until sunrise. There’s an inn at the bottom of the castle. I could send word to the king.”

“No,” I said, not wanting to put this off any longer. “I’ll climb. It will be nice to stretch my legs after the long journey.”

Several men in Ilarean livery appeared from somewhere in the base of the mountain and took the horses. Others handed torches to the guards, who surrounded me. Now that I could see better, it started to make sense. The mountain was the castle. Or the castle was the mountain. Sami had once described mountains as giant waves made of stone, but I saw nothing here that reminded me of the ocean. As my mind adjusted to what I was seeing, I noticed narrow slits in the sheer face of the mountain. Windows. Faint lights glowed behind some of them.

There were stairs carved into the very stone, which we began to climb in a line, one by one. Someone had fastened a rope to the cliff’s face with giant metal spikes, and I used the rope to haul myself up when my leg muscles started to burn. I’d always considered myself strong, but I could barely breathe, my chest heaving against the bodice of my gown as I struggled to fill my lungs. I wanted to tear the dress open and kick my worthless slippers over the side of the mountain, but I didn’t have the energy. Ebb was breathing hard as well, but she didn’t complain.

“How much farther is it?” I wheezed when it felt like we’d been climbing for hours. The stone stairs were jagged and uneven in height, forcing me to pay attention to every step. The wind blew my already faint words away so fast I was afraid Ebb wouldn’t hear.

“Halfway,” she called over her shoulder.

My knees buckled at the reply, and I would have fallen backward if not for Grig’s hand in the small of my back. “Easy does it, milady. We can call a halt if you need to rest.”

I shook my head. “I’m fine. Just a bit dizzy.”

“We all have a hard time at the beginning. You’ll get better at it.”

Twice more I faltered, and Grig’s hand was there to steady me. When I was queen, I would see to it that Grig got some sort of promotion.

Finally, when my muscles were shaky with fatigue, the stairs leveled off and I found myself on a wide platform. “Who built this?” I asked Grig. He at least had the decency to appear winded.

“The entrance to the castle is the mouth of a cavern. Princess Ilara’s brother, King Maldon, built the walls.”

An iron door as tall as five men standing on top of one another loomed above us. A guard called out, and a smaller door swung in, admitting the guards one by one.

The cavern inside was massive. The ceilings soared so high above us, I half expected to see clouds. But someone had polished the stone ceiling until it was as smooth as the inside of a seashell, then painted it with elaborate scenes in reds and blues, cream and gold. There were multiple fireplaces along the sides of the hall and lanterns hanging from the ceiling high above.

Beneath my feet, the floor was made from the same dark gray stone as the mountain, and its polished surface helped reflect the glow of light from above. At the far end of the room—if one could even call it such—sat a throne carved from the dark stone. It was tall and wide enough for two men, the stone cut and polished in a way that made the facets shine like black jewels. I had imagined a throne before, but it was nothing like this thing jutting from the floor, as dark and imposing as the mountain itself.

It was also empty.

I turned to Ebb. “Where is the king?”

“We’ll meet him in his chambers, once you’ve had a bath and a chance to change.”

I’d never been so excited about the prospect of bathing in my life. I followed Ebb across the room to one of the many corridors that split off from it, taking care with my steps, as the floor was slippery and my shoes provided hardly any traction.

As soon as we entered the corridor, I realized how dark it was in the castle. Yes, it was nighttime, but I hadn’t spotted a single window yet. The ones I’d seen from outside must be for lookouts. Here, the only light came from a few flameless torches, the ends wrapped in what appeared to be some kind of algae. It glowed pale blue, like a maiden’s hair jellyfish.

“What is it?” I asked, pausing to get a closer look. The light was as bright as blue flame, but there was no heat.

“Lunar moss, from the forest,” Ebb said. “It glows when the moon is up. It works best on a night like tonight, when the moon is almost full. Servants harvest it once a month for the torches.”

“And when there is no moon?” I asked.

“We use a fungus called foxfire, but it doesn’t give off quite as much light as the lunar moss.”

I shuddered at the thought of even less light. “What about the daytime? Aren’t there windows?”

“In the places with adequate ventilation, like the great hall, there are fires. No windows, I’m afraid. It does tend to get a bit darker as you go farther into the mountain, but your eyes will adjust.”

Without fire, it wasn’t just dark; it was cold. The heat of my exertion during the climb had left me, so I wrapped my arms around myself and followed Ebb.

“Ah, here we are.” She paused in front of a door where a guard stood watch. He opened it silently at our approach and stepped aside to let us enter.

Inside was another smaller corridor with several doors leading off from it. She turned down another hall. “Here are your chambers.”