Page 28 of Wingless Crow: Part 1

Brebie carried in a tray with food and calmly placed it on the table by the fireplace.

“Of course it’s alive,” she said, looking at me like I was a complete idiot. “A dead one wouldn’t be able to make those curtains for you, would it?”

“Are all of these bugs alive and moving?” I scowled at the golden beetles. There were at least a dozen of them on the curtains. They appeared motionless, but when I looked closely, I could see their little heads moving as they crawled ever so slowly along the fabric.

“Firrianbeetles eat crystal dust and spin silk that our kingdom is famous for all through Nerifir and beyond. Look at it.” Brebie lifted the edge of the curtain. The fabric shimmered in her hand, trapping the scarce daylight between its folds and breaking it into tiny rainbows. “Magic can be woven into it, creating the most wondrous of cloth. If done correctly, one can even look into gorgonian eyes through our spider silk and not be turned to stone.”

Spidersilk that was made bybeetles. Just another thing about this world that made no sense.

Yet if I were to stay here, I had to find a way to understand it all.

“What is a gorgonian?” I asked.

“Not what, butwho. It’s another kind of fae. They live in the Below and can turn people to stone with their look.”

I regarded the curtains with a new appreciation.

“What is such an extraordinary silk doing on my window?”

She shrugged. “Where else should it be? The beetles still need to add another layer for this cloth to be ready. It may as well hang here until they’re done. The beetles get enough fresh air, sunlight, and crystal dust in the palace. A perfect place for them to be. Once they’re done with this batch, we’ll take this silk down and start them on a new one.” Since I continued to eye the bugs suspiciously, she added, “Don’t worry, they don’t usually get too close to people.” She picked up the one that I’d shaken off and gently placed it back on the curtain. “They prefer to stay on the cloth, unless people are clumsy enough to dislodge them from the silk.” She shook her head disapprovingly. “Let’s close the window now. It’s chilly out there.”

“Is it always this cold and gloomy in Sky Kingdom?” I asked as she closed the window and turned the little silver handle to lock the two halves together. “I haven’t seen any real sunlight here yet.”

Brebie had said Sky Kingdom was above the clouds, but it appeared it sat firmly right inside one, shrouding it in gray miserable mist.

She touched a crystal on the wall, and suddenly its glow grew. All the crystals shone brightly, illuminating the room.

“How did you do that?” I patted the wall and stroked the crystals, causing no change in their light whatsoever.

“Sky fae magic.”

Right. Voron had explained that to me earlier today.

“If light is your power, then why is it so dark outside?” I gestured at the gray skies in the window.

“It’s early spring. Cold is to be expected. Besides, King Tiane is a busy man. A lot of worries must be weighing down on him to think about the weather.”

“What does the king have to do with the weather?”

She looked at me like I was a clueless child. “The Sky King controls the clouds, honey. His moods affect the weather in our kingdom and beyond.”

“His moods? Really? Like he has to be happy for the sun to come out?”

“Well, we haven’t had a whole day of sun in ages. It’s not easy to run a kingdom, you know. Worries always cloud His Majesty’s mind, I imagine. But maybe your arrival will cheer him up? Speaking of which, we need to get you ready for the ball.”

Grabbing me by my arm, she dragged me to the chair by the fireplace.

“Why don’t you sit here, honey, and eat your lunch while I get things ready?”

“What things?” I examined the food on the plates, paying far less attention to it than before. If Voron wanted my obedience, I believed, he had many means at his disposal to get it without resorting to adding magical substances to my salads and sandwiches. He possessed a great power, magical and otherwise, and I had little choice but to cooperate.

Brebie placed a quilted blanket over the silk coverlet on the bed.

“We will need to get it just right,” she said. “You’ll be presented to the king tonight, Sparrow. Your entire future depends on what he thinks about you.”

I twisted a tiny spoon from the tray in my hands. “Talk about being pressured.”

“The pressure is on all of us, honey.” She arranged a battery of bottles, jugs, and small containers on the lid of the trunk by the bed. “We’ll need to rub some fragrant oils on your skin, add some shimmer and body paint. We’ll have to do your hair, get you dressed… Oh, there are simply not enough hours in the day for all of this.”

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