Page 224 of Blade of the Nightking

We darted into a dim hallway beyond. At this hour, the night's entertainments were long over, leaving the pleasure house quiet and nearly deserted. Somewhere deeper within the building, water ran and dishes clattered as servants cleaned away the remnants of the night and prepared for the day ahead.

We slipped past the kitchens, through a doorway, and into an alley.

Immediately, a wave of humid air engulfed me, dense and heavy with moisture. Every breath felt damp in my lungs. Moisture gathered against my skin, and within moments the silks wrapped around me began to cling to my body.

The walls rose close on either side of us, unlike any stone I'd ever seen. Their rough surfaces were streaked with ivory, soft pink, and deep rust, pitted with countless tiny holes and ridges. Shells lay embedded within the rock itself—some no larger than my fingernail, others the size of my palm.

The light was strange, too. An otherworldly blue-green glow rippled across the ground beneath my feet, dancing over the colorful walls.

I glanced upward—and stopped short.

Far above the city, an immense silvery expanse undulated in constant motion.

"Is that..."

“Yes,” Rìan clipped, dragging me forward. “Now keep moving.”

We were underwater.

The alley opened onto a broad street, and suddenly the city stretched out before us. Coral towers rose in every direction, some soaring dozens of storeys overhead, others linked by sweeping bridges and graceful archways. Great formations of ivory, pink, crimson, and white twisted through the city, while shells larger than wagons had been woven into the architecture itself, forming balconies, curved roofs, and shaded alcoves.

Marine plants grew everywhere. Long trails of emerald and violet vegetation spilled from windows and balconies, climbed the walls, and draped from the archways overhead. The fronds swayed constantly, drifting back and forth in a slow, hypnotic rhythm.

I jumped as a school of silver fish darted between two market stalls and swept across the street ahead of us, dozens of flashing bodies moving in perfect unison. I tracked them until they reached the edge of the city, where a faint distortion curved through the air, almost invisible against the vast blue expanse beyond it. They slipped through the barrier without slowing and vanished into the open ocean beyond.

Whatever magic made all of this possible, I was looking at it.

"Eidra." Rìan's irate voice cut through my fascination with the city.

I blinked and realized he'd already put several paces between us.

"Oh."

I hurried after him through the street. We passed two women carrying baskets, and they fell silent at once, their conversation dying as they watched us go by. A merchant paused over the wares he was arranging. Ahead, a male outside a nearby shop glared openly at us before leaning toward his companion to whisper something beneath his breath.

"Why are they staring at us?" I murmured, adjusting the veil covering my mouth. We were drawing far too much attention.

A muscle feathered in his temple as his gaze swept the street, briefly skimming the faces turned our way. He swore beneath his breath. "It used to be common," he murmured, almost to himself. "Illyrans. Pelagans. People moving freely between the Courts. Nobody ever looked twice." He glanced at another group watching us from across the street and lengthened his stride. "Clearly that's changed."

"I don't understand—” Then I did.

Rich bronze. Deep brown. Warm umber.

Not a single pale face.

Everyone in Pelaga had dark skin.

My veil concealed most of my face, but there was no disguising Rìan. He was so fair he almost seemed to glow.

A male across the street barked something at us, gesturing angrily in our direction as heads turned all around him. Rìan didn’t so much as glance his way.

"This is not good." His hand flexed once at his side, hovering near the blades strapped to his belt.

For the first time since I'd met him, Rìan looked uncertain—and dismayed. As though he was only now beginning to grasp how much things had changed while he'd been imprisoned within the Veil.

A strange pang of pity stirred within me. He'd finally returned to the world he'd spent centuries longing for, only to find it was now a stranger to him.

A woman caught a young boy by the shoulders, murmured something urgent, and motioned him down the street. He bolted at once, disappearing from sight. I watched him go, suddenly uneasy.