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“We’re already playing, my Lord.” Ora bowed. “We’re with Galen den’ Mora.”
“Splendid,” Niklas said with a grin. “Make sure you sing that song for Her Majesty.”
“It would be our pleasure.” Ora flourished their hand.
Niklas disappeared into the tittering crowd, people giving him a wide berth. The crowd dispersed as the horn players returned.
Ora’s face lit up looking at me. “Our little duet will be fun!”
“I can’t perform in front of the Queen!” I sputtered. “You can sing the song on your own, can’t you?”
“No, no, no,” they said. “It’s no good as a solo. You must! Please?”
“I-I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said. “I almost passed out doing it in front of ten people.”
Ora chuckled. “If you close your eyes, it doesn’t matter if it’s ten or a thousand.”
“A thousand?”
They settled their hand on my arm. “It’s a masquerade. No one will even see your face.”
“Oh, jumping juvlecks.” I gulped. “I need to find Grae.”
Ora pointed over my shoulder, and I twisted to find a figure at the far end of the plaza. Grae clung to the shadows of the alley, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. I knew even withhis face shadowed in his hood that his dark eyes were staring straight into mine.
I stood, taking a step toward him; his arms fell to his side, and he turned back down the alley. My stomach dropped to my feet. Would he never speak to me again?
I thought about heading in the direction of that cloaked figure, but I knew Grae wouldn’t want me to follow him. He’d heard me sing... Maybe he didn’t like it? I shook my head, scolding myself for entertaining these thoughts. He needed time, just as Sadie said. My hands clenched in my pockets. How much time did he need?
My mind still whirling, I broke off from Ora to explore the lower east end of Taigoska by myself. The busy markets gave way to quiet older dwellings, beautiful stone architecture, and plaques describing important historical sites.
I stopped at a mosaic of a Wolf with a giant silver serpent in its maw. The inscription below it readKing Joakim Enghdall III, Slayer of the Ebarvens. This was Queen Ingrid’s ancestor—the one credited with ridding Taigoska of the snow snakes. But ebarvens still existed in Taigos, like in the crater outside Hengreave, just pushed to the corners of the kingdom. Still, the humans lit candles upon the altar below his mosaic, a prayer for continued protection. This was the legacy of the Wolves,mylegacy, but the world was still filled with monsters, Sawyn being one of them.
I stepped into the carved archway of a human temple. Like so many things in Taigoska, the temple was a hidden gem. There was no shrine to the Goddess of Knowledge; instead there were books. The library had towering rows of leather tomes, ladders lining either side, and rows of desks for people to sit and study. The ceilings weren’t vaulted and the space wasn’t grand, but there was something cozy and lived-in about the worn cushions and the dusty shelves. Stained-glass windows cast spectrums of sacred light around the dim room.
My fingers skimmed the rows, following them to a little nook with a carved crown placard. The shelves were filled with history books, royal lineages, and census scrolls. My eyes landed on the gold lettering down the spine of a burgundy book:The Sleeping Queen.
Dizzy, I grabbed the book off the shelf. Of course there would be books written about my mother. She was royalty, one of the most famous figures in all Aotreas. Everyone knew the story of how my father broke her sleeping curse with a kiss. There were songs and plays and children’s bedtime stories about the two of them. Still, to stumble across a book about my family... With Briar gone, it felt harder than ever to be reminded of their absence.
I took the book over to one of the rickety desks tucked in the corner and sat. I flipped through the yellowing pages, my eyes scanning the detailed borders and drawings surrounding the blocks of text. My eyes snagged on a sentence, and I read it over again:
Sameir Marriel, third child and second son of Their Majesties, King and Queen Marriel.
I flipped over to the next page, but there was no more detail about my father. I read it again. Third child? I never knew my father had any siblings. I knew my mother’s side of the family had been killed by Sawyn, along with the rest of the Gold Wolf pack. I also knew my father’s parents had passed away before the night of my birth, but siblings? With a sigh, I shoved back from the desk and returned to the nook of royal books. Scanning, I found a book of Olmdere royal lineages:Wyn dese Olmdelaire—the kings of Olmdere.
I set the heavy leather-bound tome on top of my mother’s story and began flipping toward the end. I got to the last chapter of recent descendants and found the family tree. My stomachlurched when I saw two names above Sameir with an X next to them: Leanna, and below, Sahandr. I had an aunt and uncle that I had never known about.
I turned the page, fingers tracing Leanna’s name:
Born under a waning moon, Leanna Marriel, the first child of King and Queen Marriel, was betrothed to Prince Luo of Valta upon her birth. The crimson-haired princess was an accomplished singer and painter. She died of a sudden illness, along with her younger brother, at the age of fifteen.
I turned to Sahandr’s page:
Born under a new moon, Sahandr Marriel, the first son and crown prince of Olmdere. He was strong, with excellent sparring and hunting skills. He died of a sudden illness, along with his elder sister, at the age of eight.
Whereas my aunt and uncle’s pages were little more than a paragraph, my father’s biography took up two whole pages. He was born one year after the death of his siblings. They called him a surprise and blessing. His pages detailed the days and moons of his many accomplishments, his coronation, and his wedding to my mother. And at the very end of the page was the announcement of the birth of his only child, Briar. I don’t know why it still stung to see her name there alone.
But it did.
