Jenna held out her hands. “I don’t know what the mages are planning, but the sooner Enzo and I are married, the stronger both kingdoms become. The bigger the threat to the mages. And Riiga.” She pursed her lips and sat back. I waited for her to spill whatever she wasn’t telling me. She folded her arms and huffed. “I tried to convince them to have the wedding sooner, to lure the mages here before they could regroup. Enzo didn’t like using me as bait.”
I tilted my head and looked up. “Well, actually, that’s not a bad—”
She threw a cushion at my head and we laughed. “Stop it. You know I tried to convince Marko and Enzo that it was a perfect scenario. Neither of them would listen, and Cora insisted she needed more time to plan. Though Enzo might be persuaded to change his mind.”
I burst out laughing, a sound that surprised me as much as Jenna. “I’m sorry,” I said, waving my hands to fend off another pillow attack. “Enzo’s getting antsy, is he?”
Jenna rolled her eyes but blushed bright red to the roots of her hair. “Shut up.” But she was smiling, too.
I lounged against the back of the sofa, my lungs getting lighter the more I laughed. She tried to keep back her smile. “I’m sorry. I’m done,” I said, then took a deep breath. “Marko is gone for now—though I’m sorry to be the one to say it,” I added when Jenna’s shoulders dropped. “So do we use you as bait? Do we use the Medallion and go after the Mages’ Library even though we don’t have the Turian key? Or know where it is…”
She adjusted her skirt and tucked her feet up onto the cushion. “What do you know of the Medallion? Could it get us to the library?”
I pulled the Medallion from beneath my shirt and held it flat in my palm, as though that would enable me to understand it better. “It’s connected to the land’s magic. Edda told me that ever since Kais came and enchanted the Ice Deserts, the land has been striving to regain its balance. But that balance wasn’t always helpful to me or to Hálendi.”
Jenna frowned. “That makes sense. I’ve been studying as well.” I snorted, because of course she had. She continued like she hadn’t heard me. “I wanted to know the difference between the mage’s artifacts and mine. Turns out, all artifacts must be crafted by a land mage and be free of any imperfection. The mage chooses the material, and the land mage crafts it in such a way that the artifact resonates with what it’s made from.”
I stared at the ceiling. “Resonate? Like…like it catches the sound of the magic and carries it between the artifact and the mage?”
“Exactly. But the difference between our artifacts and theirs is that theirs required a sacrifice—one with a lot of blood—to crack their magic reserves open and create a direct connection between their magic and the artifact.”
I tilted my head back. Jenna and I had magic. We had artifacts. We were exactly like the mages, unless you understood what Jenna had learned. How could we help people—especially Turians—trust us?
“Did you find anything more on the Medallion being a key to the Black Library?” I asked.
She shook her head and slouched back. The seamstresses really might kill me after they saw what a mess her dress had become. “I’ve searched, but nothing yet.”
“And the Black Library itself? Should we go after it?” I’d forgotten how good it felt to do something. Coming here—as impulsive as it’d been—reminded me.
“Marko urged us to wait. He said going after the library blind, without knowing where the mages are and without all the pieces, would only expose us and endanger Turia. And Hálendi.”
My eyes darted away from hers. She’d added Hálendi as an afterthought. How had everything changed in the course of a few months? Leading troops at North Watch was supposed to be my chance to prove myself. Instead, I’d been hurled off a cliff.
“Hey,” Jenna said softly. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean—”
I gently shrugged her hand from my shoulder. “Don’t read my emotions right now, Jen. I’m tired and I don’t have the energy to filter or process or even understand what I’m feeling. So unless you’re going to illuminate my feelings for me, don’t. Please,” I added softly. If Jenna pitied me, if she thought I couldn’t do this, I wasn’t sure I’d ever recover.
She clasped her hands in her lap. “Ren, what’s happened to you? You are the most confident person I’ve ever known.”
“You lived most of your life within the walls of one castle, so that’s not saying much.” I snorted, and she laughed, nudging my shoulder.
“I’m saying you used to trust yourself.”
I rested my elbow on my knee, my temple settling against my palm. A thousand responses went through my head, all the times the Medallion flashed hot and cold, the dismissive glances from courtiers and councilors alike. “I’m trying.”
Jenna nodded and stood, moving the chair away from the door while casting me a pointed look. “Get ready, then come eat. You’ll feel better with some food in you.”
I laughed as she left, glad that at least one person on this cursed Plateau knew me. I leaned back against the sofa when the door clicked shut, my laughter fading into silence.
Whoever had ambushed Marko was either very smart, or very stupid. We’d have to play this game carefully to keep the fragile balance of the Plateau intact.
Chiara
A cool breeze ruffled the dry leaves above me, rustling them like bones. The autumn rains would hit the capital soon. The earth was being prepared for winter. Clipped back. Turned over.
Shadows danced in patches over the bench I sat on, Jenna’s unopened book by my side. Still blank. I’d meant to start filling the pages, but every time I held a pen over them, I couldn’t write.
I watched the main gate instead. The people coming and going. The busyness distracted me from the solemnity indoors. How quiet everyone was, even the servants. They didn’t know what had happened, only that something was drastically wrong.
It had been three days. Three days since Luc spoke the words that haunted my every footstep.
Cynthia would leave with reinforcements today. And I could do nothing.
I’d once longed for free time, hours to spend how I wished. But now, most of my tutors had been temporarily dismissed, so my days stretched endlessly. Trapped in a place with too many reminders.
I didn’t know why Enzo and Ren insisted on the secrecy. I mean, I understood it, the idea behind it. But I also understood that news—especially bad news—always spread, no matter how hard you tried to conceal it. Would the Plateau really descend into chaos like Ren thought?
The roofs of the city’s taller buildings peeked over the top of the wall. The only home I’d ever known felt cold today despite the sunshine. My father was missing, and they were dispatching guards with a traitor’s daughter?
I knew why Enzo couldn’t go—he was next in line if the worst happened. My mother was too gentle for a mission like this, too distraught; Mari too young. Jenna…I didn’t think Enzo would let her go on her own. Ren was king of his own country with his own troubles.
Everyone was too something to go.
Everyone except me.
“Good afternoon, Princess,” a falsely sweet voice added to the jarring din at the gate.
How did she always find me when I didn’t want to be found? I sighed and turned. It wasn’t just Cynthia, though. Her arm was looped through Ren’s. Because of course she’d find a way to flaunt him in front of me.
“Cynthia.” I didn’t have the energy today for platitudes, to play her games. I avoided Ren’s gaze altogether.
“Princess Chiara, you look pale. Is anything the matter?” she asked. Her concern was a thinly veiled attempt to get more gossip. Which I wouldn’t be indulging. How much had she been told about the men she would get into Riiga? I hoped not a lot—she’d turn traitor the moment someone offered her something shiny.
Ren stayed si
lent, his arm rigid in Cynthia’s.
“What could be wrong on a beautiful day like today?” I addressed them both, but my mind stayed latched on the gate. I didn’t care if Ren saw the puffiness around my eyes from crying all night—only at night, when no one could see. But I didn’t have the patience for him to turn his charm on me. Not now.
Cynthia glared at me and released her grip on Ren’s arm. “Maybe you need better entertainment.” She snatched my book from the bench.
I lunged for it, but Cynthia danced back, holding it out of reach as a page fluttered to the ground. My hands clenched into fists.
“Reading about pirates again?” She giggled, no doubt remembering how she’d held that over me for weeks.
Her voice rang out over the gardens, drawing the eye of a few gardeners. Ren’s lips tipped up and he looked at me with something even worse than the flirtatious grin he gave everyone—he looked at me like he looked at Mari.
Cynthia’s laugh faded. She studied the book’s cover, then flipped it open.
I stood and held out my hand. “Return my book, please.”
Cynthia frowned. “It’s blank.”
I glared at her. “I am aware of that, yes.”
Faster than I thought possible, Ren snatched the book from her. He snapped it closed, fumbling it when he saw the cover. But he recovered and stepped away from Cynthia, handing it to me. “I love a good adventure,” he said with a wink.
“I’m sure you do,” I murmured as I picked up the fallen page. My cheeks heated and I sucked in a breath. I hadn’t meant to say the words out loud. But Ren wasn’t angry; he choked out a surprised laugh, one even louder than Cynthia’s.
I pursed my lips against the smile trying to form at the sound of his laugh and tucked the loose page inside the cover. I’d have to see if Master Romo could help me repair the book.
When Ren had recovered, he turned to Cynthia. “I believe your party is leaving soon, is it not? You’d be remiss not to check that the servants have stowed everything properly for your journey.”
She opened and closed her mouth like a fish. I almost laughed. There wasn’t a good way to agree with him and stay. I’d wanted her to leave two days ago. Enzo had assured me they’d use the time well, preparing the men and supplies to give them the best chance to find our father.
But at least Cynthia was doing something. I was stuck here. Useless.
“You are quite right, Your Majesty,” she acquiesced with a deep curtsy—deep enough to show off the neckline of her dress. I rolled my eyes, which Ren caught. He snorted. Cynthia jerked her head up, her cheeks slightly pink, and glared at me. “Until next time.”
She didn’t bid me farewell, but she had missed her mark if she thought I’d be upset because of it.
When she was out of hearing, Ren settled himself on the bench. “That girl is a leech.”
The corner of my lips threatened to curve up. He was a better judge of character than I gave him credit for. I took a step back, not sure whether I should return to my place on the bench or leave him be. For the two days he’d been here, he always had a noble or council member following him. Did he want to be left alone? But then he tipped his head to the space on the bench beside him.
I turned the book so the cover lay against my stomach and took my time settling my skirts, making sure to stay at the very edge of the bench so we didn’t touch. Not that I didn’t want to sit right next to him, but every time he flirted with someone, I couldn’t help but wonder what he was hiding. I wasn’t going to be part of any game—I’d had enough of that. Though if he kept looking at me like a sister and referring to me as “family,” I guess I wouldn’t have to worry much about flirting anyway.
“Any change?” I asked when he didn’t break the silence.
“No. Luc is already gone. His men will leave with Cynthia within the hour. The letter your brother sent might get to Vera tonight if the messengers don’t encounter any delays.”
At the gate, a group of merchants laughed, their wagons empty, their business complete. Returning to a world much wider than the walls of the palace. A world my father was lost in.
“Will Enzo tell the council?”
Ren shook his head slowly. “He said Lord Hallen’s betrayal is too new to trust them with this.”
Why, then, would they trust Hallen’s daughter? Was I the only one who saw this flaw in their plan?
I waited to see if he would tell me more, explain his bleak look when he mentioned councils and betrayals. He didn’t. Instead, he said after a long pause, “How are you?”
I stared at my skirt, tracing a seam. It was one of the skirts I’d packed for Riiga. “I wanted to go with my father.” Ren didn’t move. From what Jenna had said about him, it didn’t surprise me that he was a good listener. “I was packed and ready. Asked to accompany him.” I swallowed hard. “He refused. I backed down.” I always backed down. I clasped my hands and stared straight ahead. “I can’t help but wonder—if I’d gone, could I have made a difference?”
Ren sighed deep and long, but I cut him off. “I know I’m not like you or Jenna. But maybe I would have noticed something amiss. Been able to raise a warning.”
I couldn’t look at Ren, but from the corner of my eye, I saw him rubbing his leg. “I…” He hesitated, then switched whatever he’d been about to say. “Whoever did this orchestrated it perfectly.”
I’d been dismissed again, and a tiny part of me folded in on itself. I’d expected different from him. More.
A long silence stretched between us. “So that’s it?” I said quietly. “The king of Turia is missing and we keep it a secret?”
“It’s not as simple as—”
“Yes, it is. He’s my father. We need to find him. If it was your—” I broke off at Ren’s sharp inhale. Cavolo, I’d forgotten. I squeezed my eyes shut and rubbed them, then shifted to face him. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly. “I shouldn’t have said that.”
Ren put his hands on his knees and pushed himself to stand. His face, so expressive and alive when flirting with Cynthia, was now gray and closed off. “I should go. I’ve business to attend to.”
His boots crunched on the gravel as he walked away, hands deep in his pockets, head bent. I hadn’t meant to add more weight to the burdens he already carried. I sighed and stared up at the patches of blue through the leaves turning from green to gold. I didn’t want to lose my father like Jenna and Ren had lost theirs. I wouldn’t.
My father had been the rock of our family, of our kingdom. He shouldered our problems, our tears.
My problems. My tears.
I furiously wiped my cheeks and settled the book on my lap again. I’d thought to write notes or memories in it, but something about the book—the reverence Jenna had shown when she gave it to me—left me unsure I had anything worth recording.
I pulled the page that had fallen from where I’d tucked it, silently cursing Cynthia for mishandling my gift. But the page was yellow and brittle—much older than the rest of the book. And it wasn’t blank.
I carefully unfolded the page, holding its edges. Two lines—a circle within a circle. The space between had been shaded by an expert hand. In tiny, looping script at the bottom, a single word: Turia.
Jenna had told me about this, about what the mages sought when they’d stormed the palace and forced us to hide in the secret compartment behind the drawing room fireplace. This was a picture of a key to the Black Library, where all the learning and artifacts of the ancient mages had been banished to keep magic from spreading once again.
Jenna had pulled this page from a book about Graymere—I didn’t think she’d ever admitted that to Master Romo, and I wouldn’t be the one to tell him what she’d done. Had she meant to give this to me? Or just forgotten it was tucked within the book?
I sighed and began to refold the page, but faint words written on
the back of the illustration smudged under my fingers:
Three keys to find the library black:
one in snow, the heart of attack.
Another within the heart,
and surrounding it, too,
a ring of flax, of brown and blue.
And then, in script I could barely make out, the words vineyards that touch the sky.
The library black? Koranth’s black eyes flashed in my memory. A tiny fire lit within me. I scanned the words again. Three keys? Vineyards that touch the sky? This was more than a simple poem. It seemed like…a clue.
* * *
My back ached from the past three days of sitting on hard chairs and leaning over the wooden table by the library’s largest window. I usually opted for the cushions in the window seat, but for my research, I needed a table, somewhere to spread out.
Master Romo had left a tray at lunchtime, but it lay mostly untouched. He was probably the only one who realized I’d been here so long. Dark emotions filled the corners of every room in the palace; the very air tightened around me the longer we waited with no word.
Even here, in the library, the mages had left their mark. New curtains and furniture, half-empty shelves as the scribes mended what Brownlok had destroyed. And yet with my work spread out around me, the weight in the palace wasn’t so crushing.
Enzo and Jenna stayed busy with wedding plans—their union more important than ever. Ren, I assumed, was dealing with his own kingdom’s troubles.
My mother wouldn’t leave her chambers. She’d been sitting in the same chair, unmoving, without hope. We’d said she had a slight illness—nothing rest wouldn’t cure but enough to keep rumors from starting.
My schedule was a fraction of what it once was, and I begged off the rest of my studies, saying I didn’t feel well. My tutor assumed I must have caught something from my mother. Only my guard tracked where I went, watching in the background—she was new, but loyal to me.
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