Page 39 of A Fate Unwoven
caged creature of all.”
SEVENTEEN
LENA
The imperial palace was the most beautiful cage Lena had ever seen.
The city itself was incredible (at least, themainpart of the city—the lower city reminded Lena of a slightly more polished version of Deyecia), all wide streets and stone buildings, growing larger and more extravagant the deeper into the city they rode. But nothing she’d seen on their journey through Novobyrg’s streets had been as breathtaking asthis.
It was magnificent, and as the carriage she’d spent the last few days in rolled up to ivory iron gates surrounding a neatly manicured garden, Lena found she couldn’t take her eyes off it. The palace was at least three stories tall, and the stone walls had been painted a soft, almost dusk-colored blue that matched the steadily darkening sky above. Pillars, topped with small needle spires, were as white as freshly fallen snow and delicately accented in silver. They framed intricately fretworked windows and grand, arched doorways. Two domineering towers flanked each end of the building, topped with larger spires thesame shade as the night sky. But it was the central spire of the palace that had Lena craning her head, squinting against the slowly rising sun to take in the silver symbol that had been erected on top.
A single diamond with a line through it, surrounded by a V-shaped symbol.
Even from this distance, Lena recognized the symbol of the empire’s matron goddess. The goddess whose power now ran through her veins. The sight of it was no doubt supposed to inspire awe in any approaching the palace, a reminder of how the Ehmar family rose to power. But to Lena, it was just another reminder of the cage she was trying to escape.
“Welcome to the imperial palace,” the prince said. “I know it can be quite intimidating at first, but I do hope one day you will come to see it as your home.”
Never.
Lena gritted her teeth, holding back the word, and was more than grateful when Maia leaned forward in her seat and let out a small breath. “It’sbeautiful.”
Dimas had assured Lena, who had spent the first part of their journey fussing over Maia’s head wound, that the younger girl would receive the best medical care the empire had to offer once they reached the palace. A fresh start, he’d said. One where Maia wouldn’t have to worry about the severe cold making her fragile lungs worse.
Maia had softened toward the prince at that, her anger turning briefly to hope. Hope that now shined in her wide eyes as she took in the splendor of the palace before them.
“I’m pleased you think so,” Dimas said, a small, content smile pulling at his lips.
He’d been quiet throughout their journey, only speaking to point out various sights as they got closer to the city, the most impressive being a large stone monument built to honor the founders of the first clan to worship Næbya. The stone had been chiseled into thesilhouette of a tall, long-haired woman, her head tilted up to the sky, and Lena had to work extra hard to mask her fury at the reverence lacing the prince’s tone. She’d spent most of the journey slowly lowering her guard in the hopes the prince would think he was getting through to her without raising suspicion. Itseemedto be working, but Lena had felt the faint echoes of Dimas’s emotions over the course of their journey, and there were times when he’d look at her as if he could feel hers, too.
She’d done a good job of keeping them in check so far. But as the great palace of Novobyrg drew closer, Lena’s fingernails dug half-moons into her palms to try and distract herself from the growing panic in her chest.
“Do you like it, Lenora?” The prince’s voice sounded distant, as if he were speaking to her underwater.
Lena swallowed. Forced herself to speak. “I’ve never seen anything like it.”
It was the truth. She’d heard stories about the imperial palace—had even told a few herself—but none of them had prepared her for its grandeur. Everything seemed brighter, somehow, as if the gray taint that always seemed present in the Wilds had been cut through with light. Perhaps it was the fact that it was warmer the closer they got to the eastern edges of the empire; as they’d traveled, the land itself had grown lusher, the sky clearer, until the touch of winter could only be felt in the bite of the wind and the early-morning frost.
Now, as the carriage passed through the ivory palace gates and the courtyard, Lena marveled at the variety of colors outside her window. Lush green hedges had been trimmed into neat rectangles, and the path itself was lined with beds of blue, purple, and white flowers Lena had never seen.
She’d heard that Næbya’s blessings made the lands here more beautiful. That the Fateweaver’s boons meant life could grow here in ways it couldn’t in the Wilds and the Frozen Wastes. The knowledgeturned her marvel to disgust, and Lena looked away before the emotion grew too strong to contain.
“We’ll take the servants’ entrance,” Dimas said, and by the tone in his voice, he didn’t seem to have noticed Lena’s reaction to the gardens. Yet the smile he’d worn when Maia had complimented the palace had been replaced with a slight frown, and Lena again thought she sensed the slightest flicker of apprehension from the prince as he continued. “It’s best we keep your arrival on a need-to-know basis for now. Once we discuss our next steps with the church, we can plan an official announcement to the city; the sooner the people know you’re here, the better.”
Lena shifted in her seat and tried not to let her unease show. Fooling the prince into believing she was on his side was one thing, but an entire city?
From his place by Dimas’s side, Milos narrowed his eyes. “Is that wise, Your Highness? Given your Fateweaver’s …uniquebackground?”
The glare Lena gave in response softened slightly at the sight of the nasty-looking scratches along his neck. Milos had given no indication that he knew she’d been in the forest when the creature had attacked him and his fellow hunters—that she’d had the opportunity to save them and had chosen to save herself instead.
She slumped back in her seat. The death of those hunters had done nothing to ease the old ache of her mother’s loss or to make up for the countless travesties inflicted on the people of the Wilds, just like they’d done nothing to prevent her from ending up as the empire’s prisoner.
No,her magic seemed to sing.Not a prisoner. Not yet.
Somewhere beneath the gilded palace and its manicured grounds was the key to her freedom. All Lena had to do was find it.
“The people don’t need to know the specifics around Lenora’s origins,” Dimas was saying, pulling her from her thoughts. “They just need to know their goddess has not forsaken them.”
“I understand that, Your Highness, but she has received no training. Revealing her to the public so early seems like an unnecessary risk. We should take the time to—”
