Page 23 of Where Shadows Bloom

“The countryside?” exclaimed a girl, leaning forward onto the card table. “How curious! So how does a little country bumpkin find herselfhere?”

“W-we are seeking My Ladyship’s mother,” Lope intervened. “She is la Condesa de Bouchillon. We suspect she came here recently.”

The lady with the sapphire-studded coiffure gave her head a very small shake. “I’ve never heard of her.”

“And she would have,” volunteered the man who’d been kissing her. He gave her a reverent look as he said, “Emilia remembers everyone.”

The possibility had started to take root in my heart—that Mother reallyhadn’tarrived. She’d never made it here. My heart felt like it had floated outside my chest, like I was no longer in my body at all. Each breath was slow, crawling its way in and out of my lungs.

Lope bent close, a loose lock of her hair tickling my ear. “Should we leave?” she asked.

I wanted to. I wanted to be a child and curl up and hide. I wanted this to be like that day at the market, when I hadlost Mother for only a few minutes before she had found me, scooping me up in an embrace while I collapsed into a puddle of tears.

Just breathe, I told myself. I clung to Lope’s hand. I felt the steady, plush carpet beneath my shoes. Inhaled the sweet perfume and the sour sting of smoke in the air. All these years I had wished to jump inside a fairy tale, and all around me was a world just like those illustrated in my storybooks. A room sparkling with diamonds and gold. Music I’d never heard before, beauty I’d never seen. Glamorous people, laughing and carefree.

To uncover the truth, I had to become one of them.

Imagining what a confident, fearless noblewoman would do, I boldly took a chair from another table and placed myself beside Señora Emilia. Without even looking, I could feel Lope standing behind me, watching over me, just in case.

“Forgive my eagerness,” I said to the scarlet-haired lady. “If it’s true you know everyone at court... I take it you know the best gossip, then?”

Emilia set down her hand of cards with a loud slap. She showed me a wide grin. “Oh, thank thegods. I was hoping you’d ask. The past few weeks have been absolutely mad. And you’re completely new here? Searching for your mother, too? Come, come, tell me everything.” Her bracelets jingled as she raised a hand in the air, snapping her fingers. “More wine for the table!”

Emilia turned back to me with her green eyes alight. “What is your name, my pet?”

“Ofelia de Bouchillon, señora.” Over my shoulder, I smiled at Lope, who curtsied as I introduced her as “My knight, la Caballera Lope de la Rosa.”

Emilia smiled at the two of us. “Enchantée—or, judging by your accent, encantada.Your family must come from the south, like mine.” Emilia glanced from where I sat to Lope, standing behind me. “Well, if you were looking for gossip, you’ve come to the right place at just the right time. Only a few days ago, we had a strange little miracle unfold at the palace.”

My brows furrowed. “A miracle?”

“A mystery!” said the man with ribbons in his hair.

Emilia shot him a quick glare, as if annoyed she’d been interrupted. “Yes, indeed, a mystery. You see, it was very recent; it’s the talk of the court. A new room, a newhall, appeared in the palace overnight.”

“A... an entire hall, my lady?” Lope asked.

“An entire hall,” said Emilia, her eyes only upon me. “There were no workers, no sounds of construction, no announcements that it would come to be or that it was planned.... We all woke up and found a strange black-and-golden door in the west wing of the palace.”

I leaned forward, as enraptured as if I were reading a novel. “And what lies behind that door?”

Emilia’s grin sparkled in the candlelight. “No one knows. The king won’t allow anyone in. He says it’s still in progress. It’s so strange; we can see from the edifice of the palace that it is truly a room and not just a door with an empty wall. But whatever’s behind that door... none of us knows. No matter how we beg and plead with His Majesty.” Emilia pointed her fan at a young girl in green. “You should have seen how Camille was batting her eyes, asking for a chance to look upon this new divine miracle the gods had given the king....”

Camille huffed. “He just said the hall wasn’t open to the public yet. Now they’ve got guards watching over it day and night.”

“Do you really think there’s just... scaffolding and dust in there?” Lope asked me softly.

I echoed her question, since I knew she did not wish to say it aloud.

Emilia shrugged. “Who knows. The gods gave the king this beautiful palace, every inch of it, the ballroom, the gardens, the canal, the rooms, the theater, all of it, from floor to painted ceiling.”

A young man smiled and touched Emilia’s arm. “Gifts are much better when anticipation is built, you know. I’m sure the king is going to dazzle us with something grand in a few months’ time.”

Camille leaned forward in her seat. “I will mention onething—when the king spoke of the room, he called it ‘the Hall of Illusions.’”

“How intriguing!” said Emilia.

I wondered what sort of illusions could be inside—how such a thing could be captured and put into a room. But something else confused me. “Why would a gift from the gods need renovations?”

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