She looked at the candle in her hand, the flame dancing at the end of it, and she wondered if this was in fact another dream. That she hadn’t snuck out to explore the world, but instead was trapped trying to understand it in her sleep.
A cool breeze blew across her skin, and she sighed at the sensation. She was awake, she was sure of it.
She turned from the gazebo and found another building. It contained smaller self-contained rooms, each similar in size to what she now lived in. Perhaps they were for the tutors or staff; so many girls would need people to watch over them.
Lis walked along their length, counting five doors. More tutors than she had now, it seemed. She turned the handle of the last room and pushed her way in. Strange shadows filled the small space as faces stared at her from the walls. She dropped the candle in surprise, and it rolled along the floor, the flame still burning and making the shadows shift.
She stepped into the room and retrieved the candle. Looking around for where the base might be, she held it tight in her hand and raised it up to the nearest face.
Like the temple, these images were carved in the wall. As though someone would step from the stone. Unlike the temple, they were only faces. There were no gods here. She ran her hand over one, smooth and cool beneath her fingers. When she raised the candle to it, it appeared to be a young face. She stepped back and found that the faces covered every wall. There were hundreds of them, covering every inch, and for a moment Lis wondered if there were more here somewhere, not only in this room.
Some were younger and some were older, but every girl depicted in the stone was younger than Lis. Were they hidden princesses—were they the ones who had succeeded? She doubted it, for there wouldn’t be so many empresses. Were these the ones who had failed, killed to enable the best of these girls to become what she was selected for?
The idea made Lis shiver as she wondered what may have happened to them. Each face was set on a flat stone, and she noticed a small mark at the corner of one of the carvings. She ran her fingertip over the small indentation, but it was a symbol she wasn’t familiar with.
Holding the candle closer to each one, Lis worked her way around the room. Every face had a symbol of some sort. Some were similar to others, some different, and she wondered who would be able to tell her what they meant. Tutor Nizen, who had known the histories, had been executed for his affair with the former hidden princess; but he must have learnt what he had known from someone else.
Lis walked back out into the cool night air, relieved to be away from all the staring faces. It was as though the ghosts of these children still remained. She pushed into the next room, but it was narrower than she expected, containing a bed and table as the others had. She went to pull the door shut when she noticed something on the wall. An image had been painted on the stone in black; it might be ink, but she wasn’t sure. It was a girl, and there was a sparkle about her eyes. A talented artist, Lis thought as she moved the candle around the ink to look at the brushstrokes.
Then she focused on the girl’s face and stepped back, holding the candle out before her. It wasn’t right, she thought. It was different from the other faces she had seen carved from the stone. She wished she could see more. The candle flickered as the little flame shone brighter, and Lis bit her lip.
It was an image of her. Maybe the girl she had seen in her dreams was someone who looked like her rather than was her, and this image was made after she had grown to look even more like Lis.
She ran a hand over her cheek and nose. But this looked so much like her, it reminded her of a portrait her sister had painted before they had known their lives would change, when she’d had Peng and her future had seemed set quite differently.
Chapter 15
Remi had been on the wall all day, looking over the Palace Isle. There were walls, paths and gardens he had never seen in his life. He wondered what else may be hidden away within this place he had thought he knew so well. He had assumed too much about the buildings he didn’t enter. That they were places of work or homes of servants. But once he was on the wall, he realised there were places that didn’t appear to have seen life in a long time.
There were overgrown gardens, falling buildings, spaces void of life. Now, as he looked over these spaces in the dark, he wondered if they had been kept vacant, and whether his father would be willing to share that reason, if he knew it himself. For there were some buildings he was sure had not been lived in for hundreds of years.
Which also meant there were many more places the magics could be hiding that he hadn’t thought to search. He would take the hunter the next day, and they would ensure they covered every inch of this island. There was a whole compound in this corner of the island that appeared to be nothing but overgrown garden.
He had found similarly abandoned spaces, but he had returned to look over this one. It was as though he couldn’t quite focus on it even though it was there, and he wondered if the magics had something to do with that.
As he watched over it now in the dark, it seemed almost as though it absorbed any light, and he could see nothing but black from his vantage point on the wall. He had thought he had seen a small light at one point, but when he blinked it was gone. Was his mind playing tricks on him?
He couldn’t find the magics, and there was no sign or hint of their magic from here. They were either well-hidden or had not returned to the Palace Isle as he had thought. But what were they planning? If they were as determined to destroy Lis as they had said, he was sure they would return soon.
Would the world be so very different when he was Emperor and she his empress? Would she have the say she wanted? Would she be the advisor his mother was to his father? She certainly had a better understanding of some of the world than he did. But beneath it all, Lis was magic. And yet he might be as well.
He shook the idea away and made his way along the wall, looking out at the ocean on one side and the city on the other. When he reached the watch house at the corner of the wall, he found he longed for the darkness again. Without a word to the watchmen in the tower, he nodded once and headed down the steps towards the base of the wall.
When he emerged in the narrow alleyway, he realised that on the other side of the strong, high wall before him was the compound he had seen. He sniffed at the air, but there was nothing. The wall was certainly higher than he’d imagined, and he knew there was no way over it. It couldn’t have only been a garden. Surely at some point, a compound so large would have contained buildings and people. He didn’t know his Empire as well as he’d thought.
Too much had changed in the world in too little time, and then it had changed again. Traditions had been lost to new ones, despite the importance his mother placed on them. They were the traditions of today, but they might not last. Remi knew Lis would be the last hidden princess. And whether she survived this or not, the next empress would be chosen very differently. He only wondered if he would survive to be a part of that process; and if he didn’t, who might be Emperor?
The crown had been passed down through the family for so many generations, the idea of anyone taking it or usurping the throne was unheard of. Perhaps it would mean the end of the Empire if they didn’t find a way to stop these magics.
Remi headed back towards his little palace and lamented the loss of the residence. Now would be the time to stand on his balcony and look over the world. But his father hadn’t even considered rebuilding—not yet. If his brother had survived, he would have looked into the possibility and whether it was the right time. Remi was still too much of a hunter at heart. He wasn’t the right man for the tasks expected of him.
A single candle burned in the middle of the table when he entered the palace. Mu-Phi was curled asleep on the small cot in the corner. The coals burned low, but there was some heat in the water as he poured it into a cup before climbing into bed. Unaware of just how late it was, he slipped easily into sleep.
Remi stood in the middle of a courtyard. The sun was hot on his skin, and
small veiled girls ran around him. Hidden princesses. He looked up at the great wall of the Palace Isle to find no one there. They all ran around and squealed and then, when a woman in white appeared at a black gate, they lined up quietly in single file. As the woman nodded, they started to move through the gate, but they murmured amongst themselves and she shushed them.
Another girl stood off to the side; she hadn’t joined the line. The other children turned back and looked at her as they moved through. The woman in white motioned towards her, but she turned away. Remi thought she was crying. He stepped forward, and she sank down to the ground.
‘You must follow your sisters,’ the woman said, her voice kind but firm.
She shook her head. ‘I’m not worthy of this.’
‘You were selected for a reason,’ the woman said, looking around. Then she dropped down by the child, her voice soft. ‘There is something very special about you. You are much stronger than you realise. You must find the strength or no matter your power, you will be lost.’
‘Sister,’ a firmer voice snapped from behind Remi, and he turned to see an older woman dressed just as the first.
‘She needs some encouragement,’ the first woman said to the older one.
‘It is not our place to encourage; it is to teach. If she is worthy of the prince, she will endure all the tests.’
The younger woman nodded and hurried off.
The older one stepped forward, and Remi had to move to avoid her walking into him. Either he was hidden himself or he was dreaming. But given that no one had lived here for so long, he was sure it was a dream. Although it felt very real.
‘You are special,’ the older woman said. ‘All of you are special in some way. It is why you were chosen. But you must harness your gifts, find your confidence, or another will triumph.’
The little girl nodded. Remi wondered just how old these children were and what kind of pressure they were placed under to meet the expectations of the crown prince and the Empire.
‘I have dreamt of another prince,’ the little girl said, wiping at her eyes. ‘What if I am not meant for this one?’
The woman studied the child, and Remi wondered what she could mean.
‘How do you know it was another prince?’ she asked.
‘I just knew,’ the child answered. Despite the uncertainty in her voice, she looked the woman square in the eye. ‘He had something very special.’
‘Did he?’ the woman asked, taking another step forward.
She nodded.
‘Did he know he was special?’
The little girl shook her head. ‘I had to show him, but he did not thank me for it.’
‘Not everyone is willing to embrace their destiny.’
‘I am,’ the girl whispered. ‘I know it is not here.’
The woman softened. ‘There may be a future for you that we cannot control.’
‘I understand,’ she said, and she turned toward the gate, the woman guiding her without touching her. As they reached the black gate, the child looked back as though right at him, and then she was gone.
Remi woke in a sweat and sat up pulling at his clothes. The candle had been extinguished, so he sat in the dark. He wasn’t sure where Mu-Phi was, and he longed for the morning light.
He knew it had only been a dream, possibly brought on by his long hours staring into that empty compound. Although the black gate was strange, for all the gates within the Palace Isle were red. In fact, he struggled to remember anything within the island that would have resembled it. There might have been a symbol on it, but he wasn’t sure. And he was almost certain that despite it being a dream, the child had known he was there.
He pulled his shoes on in the dark, then raced back out of his little palace and along the narrow streets. There was no one around. Although he heard the occasional voice carried on the wind, he knew it was a soldier or the like. He wound his way along different paths until he was certain he was lost. He looked up and along the wall, trying to work his way to the far corner of the island. He wasn’t far from it, but he couldn’t find a way in.
Then he turned a corner to find himself surrounded by high walls. He moved along the wall, regretting that he had not brought a lantern, when the world lit up softly around him. He stopped and stared at the flames dancing across his hand. He swallowed down the sick feeling building in his stomach.
Lis had been right—he was something different.
A gate stood before him, grand but old. No markings were etched on it or hung above it, and Remi wondered if he had found the compound he’d been searching for. He tried the gate, but it wouldn’t open. Shaking his head with frustration, he followed the wall and tried to ignore the light in his hand. Another gate appeared before him, slightly ajar.
When he pushed his way in, he realised he stood in the courtyard he had dreamed of. It was bigger than he’d expected. He marched across to the place he had seen the child. There was no sense of anyone here, nor any magic. Where she had squatted against the wall, a small flower pushed between the stones. What had the child thought was her future? Or what had she thought she couldn’t offer the prince she’d been hidden away for?
The gate squeaked at the far end of the courtyard, and he was on his feet moving quickly towards it. Despite his uncertainties, he held his hand up to it. It was clearly black, although faded. There was no mark or symbol on it, and he wondered if it had been removed or covered over. He held his hand up to the wood, willing to see what had been there, when a pattern started to form. Silver symbols pushed their way to the surface. He stepped back as the world went dark around him.
He shook his hand, trying to get the flame back, when he noticed a light behind him. Someone was in this part of the compound. Despite the darkness, he moved forward quickly. Large buildings loomed over him like shadows as the ground crunched beneath his feet. He stopped. There was someone sitting against a building, and he moved quickly toward it.
Something caught in his throat, as though this was the child from his dream. There was something similar in the way she sat against the wall, something sad. As he grew closer, he realised it was a woman rather than a child, and with another step he recognised Lis. He stopped, watching her for a moment as she wiped her hand across her cheek. She held a candle in her hand. How had she found this place?
He stepped into the light of the candle, and she immediately blew it out.
‘Please don’t hide,’ he said softly, wondering if she would be able to tell him what he was.
The candle flickered to life again, and she was on her feet. ‘Why are you here?’ she asked, wiping again at her face. He stepped forward.
Why was she crying? ‘Why are you?’ he retorted, his voice harsher than he intended.
‘I dreamt of a black gate,’ she murmured, ‘and hidden princesses. What is this place?’
He shrugged. ‘What happened in the dream?’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ she said, making to walk past him. ‘We should go.’
‘What did you find?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘You need to talk to me at some point.’
‘I don’t understand what I found,’ she said, standing beside him and facing the opposite direction. He felt her sadness and confusion wash over him.
‘Why can I sense you?’ he asked suddenly, and she looked up at him. ‘Why are you sad?’
She took his hand, surprising him, and led him back to the building she had been sitting against. She indicated a door with a tip of her head. He entered, then stopped as the candlelight made the faces shift before him.
‘What is this?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Who are they?’
‘I think they were hidden princesses.’
He held his hand up to the nearest face and peered at it closely, then at the next before he realised he had made fire dance across his skin again. He glanced towards Lis, but she just stared at the faces. His eye caught a mark on one of the plaques. ‘Do
you know what his means?’
He looked when she didn’t answer, and she shook her head.
‘There is something else,’ she said.
He followed her out of the room and into the neighbouring one. It was a simple room with a cot, a desk, and when he turned, he caught the image of a woman on the wall. Holding up his hand, he recognised her for Lis.
‘How?’
She shook her head and sniffed. ‘I’m scared,’ she murmured.
‘Tell me of the dream.’
‘Why?’
Remi took a deep breath and held out his hand, palm up. The fire moved around to sit in his palm and flicker like the candle flame. ‘Because I have had a similar dream, of a veiled girl who dreamt of a prince.’
Lis studied him closely. ‘Did you see the black gate?’
He nodded and then stepped forward. ‘Bring the candle,’ he said, racing ahead of her back towards the gate.
Chapter 16
The high priestess opened her eyes and looked over the others bent in meditation before her. She breathed out slowly. The vision she had experienced was unsettling. It contained information she hadn’t been aware of, and she wasn’t clear if it was something that had happened or was to come. She filled her lungs with the calming air that surrounded her, taking in the vibes produced by the other priestesses in meditation and the magic that hummed through the walls of the temple.
She needed to be sure, and the only way for her to be sure was to visit with the hidden princess. There was no way, given the current circumstances, that the princess would come to her. She was likely keen to get out of her little palace, but her wariness and the recent attacks would not help.
The high priestess would have to go to her, and she would need to go today. The empress had not summoned her of late either, and it was time she put herself forward in her new position.
She had visited and assisted with the hidden princess before; she would be able to do that again. She had heard that the healer never left her side, which could be a problem, for she may not be willing to talk in front of him.
The Magics of Rei-Een Box Set Page 39
