I cleared my throat. “Yes. I’m new at the palace.”
My hands attempted to smooth out my wrinkled skirt, which had so far been through a river, a magical border wall, attacked by a giant wolf and sat on by a seven-foot-tall shirtless fae warrior. I grimaced at the state of my appearance and hastily patted down my unkempt hair and pushed my spectacles up. “I had a long journey traveling here, but I’m working in the kitchens too.” I swallowed the lie, looking back at her unblinking. At the Citadel there was always a turnover of staff in the kitchens, with new hires coming in every week. It was grueling work, and most of all, it was usually easy to disappear into a job like that.
“Are you the new scullery girl? For the feast?” The fae girl’s face lit up. She reminded me of Safiyya, but without my cousin’s constant scowl.
She seemed confident and sweet, with glossy dark skin and hair that was stick straight and fell past her shoulders.
“Yes.” I answered without pause.
She turned and addressed the guards with practiced ease. “She’s with me in the kitchens.”
Then she swept through the entrance with her parcels and I followed her through the palace gates without glancing at the guards armor-clad guards.
The courtyard past the gates was busier than outside the castle, with a small bazaar set up selling wares and people bustling around . I’d seen no cars or trucks here yet, nor guns. Perhaps they had other methods of transport and weaponry and they just didn’t need them.
Or maybe the wall they erected also shut out human technology.
“I’m Ramishah,” said the girl, and I realized she was chatting to me as I was staring at the inside of the palace courtyard. “Feel free to call me Mishah.”
Though she was shorter than the other fae, she walked so swiftly through the courtyard that I had to scramble to keep up with her.
Her thick hair shimmered behind her and she had the same unnatural air that the male in the forest did. I wondered if this is what all peris looked like—endlessly beautiful and graceful. I tried to check for a tail but didn’t see anything poking out from her tan robes.
“Yaseema,” I replied as I hurried alongside her. I didn’t see any point in using a made-up name here. It’s not as if they would know me, and I didn’t think I’d be so good at pretending that I would remember to answer to another name.
“What part of River are you from?” she asked, rearranging the packages and taking a discreet look at my skirt and waistcoat, as if she couldn’t imagine where I would be from wearing the clothes I was.
I had no idea how to answer her. I knew nothing about Peristan’s geography.
“I lived with a fae family not far from here,” I said noncommittally, hoping that was enough to satisfy her curiousity. “Where are you from?”
“Herabad. Close to the low mountains.”
I nodded and filed the information away:Herabad. Mountains.
We were weaving through the halls of the palace now, and I was struggling to process everything. Tapestries depicting great battles I’d never heard of or seen lined the walls, andcreaturesran past us with either tails or horns or both. One person who definitely looked like she was half human, half snow leopard, swished past us with a look of disdain at Ramishah.
Ramishah caught me staring and laughed.
“I reacted as you did when I saw some of the peris from other courts for the first time.”
I looked at her with surprise, mostly because I didn’t realize she wouldn’t be exposed to all this where she came from.
She met my eyes and nodded. “I know, even in the mountains! But I’m from a sheltered village. It was very important for my family when I came to the palace. My family needed the work.” She glanced at me as if she wanted to say,you look like you need it too.
I obliged and inclined my head. I knew I looked half starved, splattered with halmasti blood and dragged through the mud, my hair not even fit for a bird’s nest. “Things have been tough,” I said, and realized that it was not a lie.
Theyhadbeen. My family was starving, my people executed for daring to want better for their children. Tough was an understatement. But I didn’t want to remark on the near starvation, considering that food seemed to be abundant here.
She was nodding in any case and so I figured general comments were safe. “It’s been hard all over River since the Salt Court takeover. And now, with the rebels attacking more frequently, they’ve put blockades up on supply routes, looted the Viceroy’s caravans, and even tried to attack the palace.” She lowered her voice,“They say it was them responsible for that horrible attack today that killed two guards.”
I frowned at each new piece of information, wondering if the halmasti in the woods was the attack she was talking about. Had that creature killed two guards? I thought of the fae from the woods.
I’m not a guard, just here to hunt the beast.
He had saved my life, but I wasn’t sure that qualified him yet as someone whose words I could trust.
We finally reached the kitchens, which I could tell from the smell. The scent of fresh grilled bread, heady spices, and even a large pot of chai bubbled over on the stove top when we reached it.
