by Lucy Tempest
The last thing her mother gave her, and it was gold to boot. Both a keepsake and maybe something she could sell or trade for a better situation. I knew that feeling. The only thing my mother had left me was a ring that had once belonged to her mother. I’d sold it at my lowest point, in a winter where food was hard to scavenge and no one was hiring. I’d do anything to get it back.
But given the situation, I wasn’t about to pat her on the back and say something stupid, like, “I can relate.”
I went with a question instead. “Can I ask how you ended up out here and the lamp in there?”
The temperature around us dropped a hundred degrees. Literally.
The sudden, severe chill slammed my arms to my sides and knocked my knees together as my breath curled out of my mouth in thick, smoke-like vapor.
A shudder shook me. “Guess I can’t.”
She snapped out of her intense trance, shaking her head, turning off the cold just like that. “I apologize. It’s a bit hard to reel in my power sometimes, especially when I’m a little upset.”
“A little?” A tremor wracked me at the sudden switch in temperature. “What happens when you’re angry, then? A snowstorm?”
“A snow what?”
I stared at her before looking in the distance again, noticing the bustling signs of life that peeked over the wall. If I remembered The Known World’s map correctly, and if snow was unheard of here, then I was farther away from Ericura than I thought. Probably on the far end of Folkshore. Much farther than Bonnie had planned to travel.
“Where’s Bonnie?” I asked again, dread for my friend booming in my heart.
She dodged my question. “Can you retrieve the lamp for me or not?”
“Depends. On where it is, who has it, and how long I’d have to map out the place I’m sneaking into.”
“Oh, you won’t be sneaking in anywhere. You’re going through the main gate.”
I frowned, side-eyeing the city. “How?”
A red blast shot out of her cane and knocked me back a few feet. As I stumbled to catch myself before I fell flat on my back, light zipped around me in fast spirals. It grew ever faster and brighter until I felt it might unravel me.
Instead, it only seemed to unfurl and remake me, and all that I wore. Right before my stunned eyes, bursts of golden sparks metamorphosed every aspect of me.
My hair grew a whole two feet. My old, worn boots molded themselves into shiny, metallic shoes, my undershirt and pants spun into a gold taffeta dress with a pleated, flared skirt and shimmering gossamer sleeves, and my tunic flapped out into a flowing, white, woolen cloak.
Speechless and panting, I skimmed trembling hands over the curled ends of the glossy hair that was no longer mine, up to the thin braids that held it up. Alarm hit me full force as I ghosted my fingertips over my face, dreading finding it someone else’s, too. I sagged in relief when I felt my own familiar features.
As I looked down on the palms of my hands, however, I found flecks of powder, smudges of gold eye shadow and red lipstick coming off on them; hands that were now soft, clean, and manicured, with bejeweled rings of silver and bronze adorning smooth fingers below a set of perfect, cream-painted nails. I couldn’t remember the last time I had long nails, or a palm that wasn’t as rough as splintered wood.
Not even my most fanciful dreams could have imagined any of that. It all went far beyond what I’d pictured when I’d heard of magic, which was always malevolent and practiced by hunchbacked crones as they sang curses over cauldrons, aiming to ruin people’s lives.
But Nariman was no crone with a spellbook. As scared as I was in this unknown land, I didn’t feel cursed as I reverently smoothed my fingertips over the silky feel of my skirt, the quality and softness unlike anything I had ever touched before. What added to my awe was that this had all been spun from the rags I’d been wearing.
“What…?” I gazed at her, breathless. “How did you do this?”
Nariman smiled smugly, hands pressed under her chin, cane tucked under her arm, admiring her work. “I think we’ve established that I have a way with magic.”
“Uh-huh,” I huffed, feeling my hair again, not only far longer than I could ever grow it, but far smoother and cleaner. And it curled! “So…so what do you need me for? Can’t you just, you know?” I snapped my fingers at the walls of Sunstone. “And get back that gold lantern?”
“Lamp. And darling, I’m talented, not all-powerful,” she said sadly. “And a city that spectacular was built by and is maintained with some pretty powerful magic. The same magic that banished me.”
Sounds of movement burst across the dunes, fracturing the silence of the night enveloping us. I snapped my head around and saw a caravan of carriages rushing in the distance toward the gates of the city, dragged on wooden wheels by galloping horses with lanterns swinging on their sides, swathing them in fiery light.
Nariman waved her cane and a large cloth bag materialized, which she foisted on me. She then put an arm around my shoulders and shoved me forwards in the caravan’s direction.
“There’s your way in. Hop onto the last carriage.”
I reflexively hugged the bag as I dug my heels into the sand. “Wait!”
“What now?”
Sweat popped out of every pore. The tension in my gut felt like my organs had shrunk and squeezed against my spine to take refuge there. “I… I still don’t get what I’m supposed to do. Or why I should even do it.”
That was a good question. Aside from the threat of being turned into a homely ice sculpture with a two-hour lifespan in this desert, what was my reason for playing along? Banished or not, she had a far better chance of getting her grandmother’s clunky ornament than I did.
Nariman’s maroon brows flattened into a subtle frown of impatience. “Bonnie, you said her name was, right?”
I edged away from her, wrapping my arms around the bag as if it were a shield. “Yes.”
She advanced on me menacingly, cupped my cheek, her dangerously sharp thumbnail just a hairsbreadth away from my eye. “Bonnie, such a sweet, caring girl. It would be a shame to have her lovely face torn like a canvas.”
Everything stopped for a good second. The contraction of my insides, the crescendo of my pulse in my chest, stomach, and ears, and the wind whispering across the land all fell silent as I vividly pictured her imagery.
“W-what did you do to her?” I finally rasped.
“Nothing. Yet.”
“Where is she?” If she was somewhere near, I could find her, then maybe I—
Nariman’s next words smothered my feverish, unformed hopes. “Arbore, a kingdom not too far from your pitiful island, but a ways away from here. Quite a lovely vacation spot for those needing to escape the summer heat, but its forests are full of the most peculiar creatures. Though she only has to deal with one for now.”
Despite the heartbeats clanging in my chest, I heard her ominous threat loud and clear. “Did you throw her in a cage with that creature? Is that what you’re getting at?”
“Goodness, no,” she said, feigning offense. “In the duchy of Rosemead, the king of the beasts lives in a hilltop fortress. But you see, the people there are always trying to find ways to appease it. I heard they were looking for a better sacrifice to offer it than a slaughtered sheep. Like a slaughtered girl, or a live one it can rip apart itself.” She locked eyes with me, smirking. “A stranger to the land would fill the bill perfectly.”
A loud hiccup jostled my heart. “Please, please don’t let them—”
“I won’t, if things go smoothly.” Nariman tightened her hold on my face, digging her nails into my nape. The pain sank the horror of the situation deeper in my mind. “It’s simple, really. Get me the lamp, and I’ll give you your friend and her father back in one piece. Deal?”
“Y-yes.”
Her grin bared her teeth the same way a predator would flash its fangs. “Good.”
The caravan was nearing us. In the last carriage, I saw the silhouette o
f a girl against the lit interior.
Nariman waved her cane again, and a sealed silver envelope materialized. She extended it to me. “You better run if you want to get in.”
I didn’t waste a second. I snatched the envelope, slung the heavy bag on my back, and sprinted down the dune toward the caravan.
The fine clothes I’d been mesmerized by only minutes ago turned out to be a horrible disadvantage. The glittering shoes had no traction, and the billowing bottom of my skirt slipped under them a few times. To avoid rolling head over heels down the dune and sinking into that sea of sand, I hitched my skirt up. I ran so fast the smooth soles of my shoes barely touched the ground to slide or slip. I kept getting closer to the last carriage, until with a final burst of desperate speed, I jumped onto its back.
The girl inside hadn’t moved since I’d first spotted her. Panting and wheezing, my arms shook hard as I knocked on the door expecting her to open it for me, or at least turn towards me. But nothing got me any reaction.
Before the carriage’s violent jolting could knock me off, I managed to open the door and swung myself inside. Huffing and puffing, chest burning and legs almost buckling beneath me, I finally staggered in—and it hit me.
The girl wasn’t a girl, but a paper mannequin that created a convincing silhouette. Must be Nariman’s ploy for me to sneak in with the travelers. As soon as I entered, it collapsed, dropping the pink silk scarf it wore as hair and a handful of heavy jewelry to the floor of the carriage.
Stumbling forward, I picked everything up. Even if Nariman hadn’t left those things with the dummy stand-in for me, as a thief, I wasn’t about to leave those pretty valuables lying around unclaimed.
I stuffed the scarf in the bag, slipped on the gold armbands, anklet, and sapphire ring. Then I rested back against the side of the jostling carriage to regain my breath. I watched Nariman growing smaller from the back window, until the carriage darted through the open gates and into the brightly-lit city.
Briefly blinded by the sudden brilliance, I lost sight of her in the distance. When the burn in my eyes faded, she was gone and Sunstone was all I could see.
It was truly a dazzling sight to behold. One that would be painful to look upon in the midday sun. It sure lived up to its name. Everything seemed to be made of sun-infused materials; polished metal, reflective stone or marble and perhaps crystal. In the far-reaching illumination that lit up the night, it was—for lack of another word—magical.
We were now speeding through a bustling marketplace that sprawled below multi-floored compounds with spiraling steps on their sides. Overlooking it, a scattering of more elaborate houses and a few breathtaking mansions sat on the plateau-like shelves of the mountain towering above the city. Everything gleamed.
Perched on the mountaintop was the crown jewel of the land. A magnificent palace that outshone everything else, with wide towers capped with onion-shaped domes, silver spires that pierced the sky, and parapets with spade-shaped castellations in alternating shades of pewter, bronze and gold.
Entranced by the view, my every muscle went slack and I dropped the letter I’d been clutching in my hand. The seal broke on impact with the wooden floor, and a thick card fell out of the silver parchment envelope.
I stooped down to pick it up, scanning it as I did.
On cream paper, fancy handwriting in gold ink declared:
You have been summoned to Sunstone Palace to compete as one of fifty eligible young women of status, in our search for the future Queen of Cahraman.
Chapter Five
The card dangled from my numb left hand. The words I’d just read, so formal, so imperative, so unbelievable, reverberated louder in my mind with each passing second. My right hand went again to touch the dress that had materialized around me out of thin air. It still felt real. It wasn’t an illusion or a vivid dream. I hadn’t slipped and hit my head in the woods.
I’d slipped into what was practically another world. A distant, foreign land that I had been taught did not exist anymore, a place only Bonnie’s thirst for adventure could believe in.
The enormity of it all finally hit me hard, overwhelming me, and all I could do was stare out the window as the carriage slowed down to navigate through busy streets, feeling as if I was not inside my body.
Outside, swarthy, bearded guards with red sashes around their waists and curved swords at their hips, patrolled the city on horseback. Merchants hawked products I couldn’t even guess at from intricate, vibrantly painted wooden stalls to a crowd in thin, colorful clothes. Lines that looked like the web of a giant spider hung overhead, holding endless little blinking, bobbing lights that looked like fireflies, with massive lanterns at the corner of each intersection blasting light everywhere.
From the level of illumination, it felt like late afternoon. But it had been nighttime when I’d woken up, and if this place followed similar rules to Ericura, then it was probably close to midnight now as the crowds were thinning and people were leaving the market in beelines and cart trails.
We approached what looked like a train station. I made the educated guess because I could see tracks emerging from it and snaking around the city and up the mountain, diverging at different levels and heading in various directions.
So, were trains here powered by steam like in Ericura, or magic? I wouldn’t be surprised if it was the latter, after everything I’d seen, and with the tracks glowing as if made from a phosphorescent metal. The brightest one led straight up to the palace.
Sunstone Palace, it had to be. That was where I was supposed to go.
The carriage stopped behind a line of others by the station. I saw my coachman hop off his seat then come around. The moment he opened the door for me I almost screamed.
It was another dummy. A mannequin animated by Nariman’s magic. The sight of its featureless face made panic surge out of my gut.
I forced myself to swallow the shriek, and choked out, “Do you—uh, do you talk?”
It shook its head and offered me a papery hand. As it helped me out, my legs wobbled beneath me, and the envelope and something else fell off my lap to the gravel floor.
At first, I thought it was a baby’s tiara, but at a closer look it appeared to be a bracelet or an armband made of white gold and set with a large blue opal below its pointed peak.
My coachman carried my bag and a trunk out of the carriage and led me to the platform where a crowd of girls had also disembarked with their chaperones. As far as I could tell, their ages ranged from fifteen to twenty-one, their hair and skin tones in varying textures and colors, all probably from the different regions depicted in Folkshore’s map. Each had a silver envelope identical to mine. Some clutched it in their hands, some were rereading the card and others had it tucked under their arms. These were the girls I was meant to be one of, and it seemed we were all being taken to the royal palace.
It was very much like the legends and folktales I’d heard as a child. Or it would have been if it didn’t involve the witch of the tale forcing me to go to the ball rather than the helpful fairy helping me get there. And the threat of my only friends being sacrificed to a woodland beast did not spell happily ever after.
As I approached the last girl in the queue on unsteady feet, I took out my card. I’d only read until “Queen of Cahraman” the first time and couldn’t go further.
Now I read on.
You have been summoned to Sunstone Palace to compete as one of fifty eligible young women of status, in our search for the future Queen of Cahraman.
Over the course of a month, you will undergo tests, trials, and investigations in an effort to win the hand of Crown Prince Cyaxares of the House of Shamash.
Eliminations will occur in three stages by a panel of royally appointed judges. The five who remain at the end of the month will be tested by the prince himself.
I stopped reading again as I processed the words. A prince. And he was holding some kind of elaborate competition, gathering girls from all known corners of this wo
rld—save for mine—to find a bride. These girls were all here in the hope of becoming a princess and future queen. And supposedly, so was I.
Dread surged within me again. Nariman had said nothing about dealing with anyone, let alone getting into a competition that lasted a month. I needed to be in and out of that palace tonight!
But what if I couldn’t? A palace that size could not be searched thoroughly in a few hours. The Dufreyne’s mansion—now a cottage by comparison—had taken me a whole morning and part of the afternoon to scour. It seemed Nariman meant for me to enter this competition. Was I also supposed to stick around for a whole month, as they thinned out the herd every week, so I could sneak about the palace to search for that damned lamp?
This was far more than I’d bargained for. Not that I’d had time or mind to even think what I’d been getting myself into when I’d agreed to help Nariman.
Agreed? I’d been blackmailed then literally shoved into this.
Did Nariman not consider that I could be eliminated on the first day? Or, even in the first hour?
What was I thinking? Of course, she knew I wouldn’t really enter the competition. This was just a pretext to enter the palace. Once inside, I would disappear and hide. With forty-nine more important girls to take note of, the judges would consider that one candidate failed to arrive. And while they were occupied with their tests, I’d search until I found that lamp, then I’d slip out to meet Nariman. I’d exchange it for Bonnie and her father and a portal back home to Aubenaire.
Shaking off the nerves, feeling a bit steadier now that I’d reached that conclusion, I continued reading:
You will be required to participate in:
Etiquette tests
Character evaluations
Skill exhibitions
Formal dinners
Diplomatic meetings
Any dishonorable activities will result in your immediate expulsion from the competition and the disgrace of your house.
