Sitting up, she saw Hamon was already awake and standing by the balcony. Smiling, she crossed to him and wrapped her arms around his waist. “They’re singing for you,” Hamon said.
“For us,” she corrected.
“And themselves. They’re happy to be alive, thanks to you.”
Out in the trees, she saw the people of Mittriel were already celebrating: on the bridges, men and women were dancing. Children were racing over the branches, pulling ribbons behind them. Already brilliant-colored ribbons were tangled in the trees, looking like nests made of rainbows, and she saw spirits plucking them off and playing with them in the air.
She walked out farther onto the balcony, and the music wrapped around her. It soared—sopranos mixing with baritones in a glorious chorus that rose above the laughing children and the dancers’ drums. And then she saw them: the canopy singers, hundreds of them, perched at the very top of her city.
They must have all come.Or at least more than she’d ever seen. Most canopy singers were loners. She’d never heard of them gathering like this.
One of the singers, a woman with hair that floated around her face like dandelion fluff, rode a zipline toward the palace. She waved to the queen and shouted words that Daleina couldn’t quite hear. Quickly, Daleina signaled to her guards to let her come. And then she reached out to an ermine air spirit to carry her from the zipline to Daleina’s balcony.
I hope this doesn’t scare her. But she seems to want to talk to me.
The singer was laughing as the spirit deposited her on the balcony. Her cheeks were flushed. “And now I’ve met a second queen!” she said happily.
“Thank you for the beautiful music,” Daleina said, wondering whom she’d met before. Naelin? Fara?
“Oh, we had to sing for you. So you’ll have happiness!” She beamed at Daleina. “My brother chose well twice! Ven’s my brother. I came to ask you: The singers have heard rumors, they’re composing songs... Are they true? Did he go into the untamed lands? And did he live?”
This was Ven’s sister! Daleina had forgotten she was a canopy singer, if she’d even known that. Ven didn’t talk much about family or his childhood. “I’m so pleased to meet you.” She wanted to ask her a hundred questions about Ven: what was he like as a child, did she know any embarrassing stories about him, had he been born with a sword in his hand? But the singer’s questions were more important. “Yes, he did. And yes, he lives with Queen Naelin in the untamed lands... which I suppose we can’t call ‘untamed’ anymore, at least not their part of it.” Vast stretches of untamed lands still existed, of course—no one knew how far they stretched—but Renthia itself had grown.
Ven’s sister clapped her hands. “Oh, the stories he must have for me! Thank you!” She then stepped forward with arms out, as if to hug Daleina, then suddenly remembered this was the queen and dropped into a curtsy.
Laughing, Daleina hugged her anyway.
She then called to the air spirit to carry Ven’s sister back to the treetops. Daleina heard her singing as she flew. “It’s nice to have good news to share,” Daleina said to Hamon.
Hamon held out his hand. “Shall we give them all more good news? Are you ready to marry?”
Looking down at her nightgown, Daleina laughed again. “Not quite.” She then shooed him out of the room and called to the palace caretakers to help her prepare.
She wore a dress of silken lace that felt as if she were wearing clouds, and for jewelry, she asked the spirits to decorate her in flowers. Vines wreathed her arms, with just-bloomed sprays of pink blossoms on her wrists. Around her throat, she wore the necklace her family had given her when she became queen: wood carved in the shape of leaves. Her crown was woven branches with white flowers, in remembrance of those lost.
Once she was dressed, Belsowik opened her chamber doors, and her parents and her sister rushed in. She embraced all three of them. “Oh, my baby girl,” her father said. “You grew up.”
“We’re so proud of you,” her mother said. She kissed Daleina on each cheek.
“Are you ready?” Daddy asked.
Am I?
Daleina remembered she’d once asked Queen Fara if she’d been ready when she became queen. But how could anyone be truly ready, when you never knew what path your life would take? “I’m happy,” she told him.
It wasn’t an answer to his question, but was perhaps even better.
She then looped her arm around Arin’s and followed her parents and Belsowik out the door of her chambers. “Areyouhappy?” Daleina asked Arin as they walked toward the Sunrise Room.
“Yes, I think I am,” Arin said, a faint blush staining her cheeks. “You’ll have to come visit as soon as you can. Mama and Daddy will be coming back with me after your wedding. They want to meet Cajara. And I want to show them Semo.”
“You should ask them to move there with you so you won’t be alone,” Daleina encouraged. She knew her parents would visit Aratay, and Arin needed them more.
Arin smiled. “I’m not alone. But I think... maybe I will.”
And then they reached the Sunrise Room, and the palace guards flung the doors open. Morning sun streamed through the windows, lighting the room so that it glowed amber. Hamon waited for her by the open window.
The wedding itself was only for family... but all of Aratay bore witness.
