If this was the case, she didn’t want to watch. She was about to retreat into her room when Dax hoisted himself up and over his balcony, hung from the balustrade for several heartbeats, then dropped to the earth below.
Roa stopped breathing. She waited a moment, then stepped out onto her own balcony to see him striding off toward the north end of the gardens.
Where are you going?
Intending to find out, she kicked off her slippers and climbed over her own balcony. Like Dax, she let herself hang for a moment, closed her eyes, and let go.
The ground rushed up to meet her. Pain spiked in her ankles, making her wince. Quickly, Roa glanced up to the balcony level, but there was no one to see her. Her guards would still be in the hall, watching the doors to her room.
Hiking up the hem of her dress, Roa ran after the king.
These were the former dragon queen’s gardens and theysmelled like the scrublands. Roa breathed in the scent of jacaranda and date palms as she followed from a safe distance.
But Dax, clearly confident no one was following him, didn’t look back. After all, it was only him and Roa in the royal quarters, and therefore, its gardens.
When he stepped off the path and waded into a patch of tall esparto grass, Roa darted after him, stopping behind a eucalyptus tree when he paused in front of the garden wall. From her hiding place, Roa watched him press both hands to the cracked, yellowing plaster.
He pushed.
The wall moved.
Roa’s mouth fell open.
It wasn’t a wall, but a door. In the widening crack beyond, Roa saw only darkness. When Dax disappeared inside, the wall moved back, shutting him in and Roa out.
She dropped the hem of her dress. Roa walked through the hibiscus bushes, their leaves gently brushing against her skin. She touched the wall, tracing the very fine line she never would have seen if she’d been walking by.
A hidden door.
A hopeful feeling flooded her.
To ensure Dax wouldn’t hear her, Roa waited several heartbeats, then several more. Finally, she pushed the door open.
It was damp and dark inside and Roa had to keep one hand on the wall to know where she was going. She’d lost all sight of Dax, but it didn’t matter. She cared less about where he was headed and more about where this passage led.
But instead of headingoutof the palace, it seemed to godeeper in, and then up. She climbed two sets of stairs, then ran right into a door.
She sucked in a breath. Fearing it might be locked, she reached for the knob. But when she turned it, the door clicked open. Roa swung it in toward her.
Instead of opening into sunlight, it opened onto... fabric.
Roa touched the tangled, colored threads of the back of a tapestry. Stepping closer, she listened. But no sound came from the other side. So, holding her breath, Roa pushed the tapestry aside and stepped into the room beyond.
Bright sunlight splashed across the mosaicked floor and lit up the motes of dust floating through the air.
It was a library.
The room was musty and warm and the shelves were full of scrolls and old tomes, some recently bound, others fraying with age. When the shelf space ran out, chests were filled and stacked on top.
The shelves twisted and coiled, like a complicated labyrinth, drawing Roa in.
But if someone was here...
When she stopped to listen, she heard nothing but silence.
Roa looked back to the tapestry she’d emerged from. It was a woven image of the mythical goddess Iskari and her twin, Namsara. Iskari was rendered in dark blues with a moon on her chest; Namsara was woven in gold with a sun. There were other tapestries too, full of the imagery of the old stories. Of Kozu and the sacred flame. Of healing flowers and heroes that took their name from Namsara.
Roa walked along the curving wall. But as far as she could see, there were just more tapestries. The sunlight came from a glass dome in the roof above. And when she finally found a door thatwasn’thidden, it was locked.
