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Evemere City
Reilyn
Halafarin was a kingdom picking up the pieces of the overturned rulership against a beautiful coastal backdrop. To the east, the sea separated its neighboring kingdom. At the same time, a network of lakes, rivers, and bridges led into cobbled pathways, all winding into the capital city, Evemere city, where the palace’s spires twisted into the air.
I imagined the palace’s points as claws, trying to drag the palace away from its inhabitants. But that was just my bitterness. In truth, the spires stood proudly as though they tried to mirror the points on its king’s crown that he would wear that night. I stared at the sharpened points in the sky, imagining impaling the king’s head on one. The thought made me smile as I crossed a bridge separating the water domain from the land. Selkies, sirens, and mermaids resided across the large rivers and lakes, all leading back into the sea. Selkies were wanderers. They came and went as they pleased, but the sirens and mermaids were territorial. I bore a scar down my back from a nasty experience with one a couple of years ago.
The town I walked through was rife with magic. The magic was thick, permeating the air so much I could almost taste it. Foreign magic brushed against mine, curious in its search but recoiled when I reached for it. Eyes flitted to my face, searching for recognition. When the magic owners felt my grab for their magic, not maliciously, only curious, the way theirs reached for me—they retreated. I strolled through the town, a simple traveller with a sack of belongings looking for an inn to stay the night in. I never considered myself intimidating, but my magic possessed a presence I couldn’t fully diminish. No matter howpretty I smiled at the townspeople passing me, my magic spoke for me.
Silks and satin draped every woman in sight with jewels hanging from their earlobes and adorned fingers wrapped around their partner’s arm. Bracelets jingled with movement, and heavy coin purses swung from belts fastened around waists.
Shop fronts boasted high-priced bolts of fabric, dressed glimmering in the afternoon light. Bakeries were piled high with silver stands that displayed cakes and pastries that reminded me I hadn’t eaten since I left the sanctuary. I ducked into one bakery and tried not to faint at the number on the price list. Were these pastries sprinkled with gold dust?
I bought one anyway. One pastry could have filled half of my wardrobe with new dresses back at the sanctuary. No wonder the king didn’t want to give up his throne if his subjects could afford such luxuries.
But this was a mission, and I was provided with enough coins to blend in when needed. If I desired anything else… I smiled, ducking my head, and walked into the streets. Obtaining provisions wasn’t going to be a problem if the need arose. Despite leaving the lakes behind, a natural extension of the sea, I approached an old, curving bridge that arched over a river below. For a moment, I leaned on the side of the bridge and watched. Below, long row boats sailed on, headed by a man who pushed a paddle into the water. The smack and sway of the small current were almost lulling if not for the constant buzz of chatter. The streets were packed, people coming and going, holding bags and boxes.
A woman dragged a young girl behind her, the girl complaining about her feet hurting in tiny shoes. I darted acurious glance down at the girl’s dainty slippers, the heels teetering dangerously on the cobbled road.
In the boats, women in large-skirted dresses lounged back, their husbands holding parasols to shield them from the sun. I nudged my magic towards them, to the lake itself, and found more power winding through the water. I grinned to myself. Evemere was my rightful city. Magic lived and thrived there, unlike the Nightshade Coven, forced to hide and scatter into a crack in a mountain, attempting to hone our magic and be a unit as one while remaining undetected.
What made us so different from these magic-wielders?
A woman complained of the heat on one of the boats that rowed below the bridge. Curiously, I wandered to the other side of the bridge and watched them emerge. The woman’s ears were daintily pointed at the tips, and she spun a mini tornado of water next to her in the boat. It was tiny, barely the length of the index finger she twirled above it, but the speed sprayed water onto her face. As the man rowed the boat, he created a shadow behind him to shade the woman. She smiled up at him, her curved lips promising wonders of the evening beyond the simple rowboat.
I stepped away from the bridge.
Two women passed me by. One possessed magic to curtain herself, a cloaking sort of power, the ability to gather the very being of something or someone and blink it in and out of sight. I soaked up the magic, siphoning off the energy without taking too much of her magic itself, and flashed out of sight. I trailed the women without detection. The people were so used to letting their magic roam free that they didn’t know when a small slice had been devoured.
I imagined myself on a throne, wearing a crown, ruling over my kingdom, letting magic drape itself over every wall and streetlight, and letting it be rife but honed. Free but pointed. Nothing of the unruly, wild sort of reach. However, that’s what allowed me to eavesdrop.
“He will be there,” one woman said. I walked a little closer. She looked in her forties, not much older than Opaline. The sight of her made me think of the High Priestess and her belief in me.
“He never attends his parties,” the other chirped.
“He will tonight. He’s on the look for a queen consort. He’s ruled for seven years. Surely, it’s time for him to find companionship. A lonely king makes for a bad one. Soon enough, we’ll see a dark time from King Araki. I’m sure unless he can find company for his heart. We need a strong unit for Halafarin.”
I snorted, cringing when they both looked back and found thin air. I expected the woman whose magic I siphoned off to detect me, tucked under the blanket of her possessed invisibility, but she only looked around as much as her friend.
They turned back to each other, continuing. “This will be a night for Halafarin’s history. King Araki must find a wife, and soon. And, quite frankly, I hope it’s not the Hollin girl. She’s dreadfully vain. Conceited.”
“Better her than the Farn madam. She’s insufferable. She’s more likely to stab herself with her tiara than wear it properly. Did you not see her in the stables last week? She fell off her horse! Clumsy girl.”
“I only wish the King love. And if not love, then ambition, for his Queen consort.”
“Ambition for Halafarin.”
“Ambition for Halafarin,” I whispered to myself. I sneaked out from the veil I hid under, startling the women. I could be that ambition, although not in the way they envisioned. The ball was my best chance to get close to King Araki.
“Excuse me,” I muttered and rushed past them, gazing up at the palace in the distance. It looked so lonely up there, above the rest of the town. My mouth tipped into a grin as I thought of what I would do.
Reclaim my throne, help the Nightshade Coven come out of hiding, and bring ambition to Halafarin—a queen to replace a tyrant king.
I went into the next dress store I saw, finding a seamstress laden with lengths of velvet and gossamer. The seamstress glanced up when I let my coin purse drop onto the table with her sewing supplies. Money no longer mattered. What mattered was something that would get me into that ball. I will succeed by the end of the evening.
To Dance with the King
Reilyn
