Palace of Silver by Hannah West

Author:Hannah West
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2020-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-TWO

GLISETTE

WE both froze. The visitor knocked again, more urgently.

“The cupboard,” Sev whispered, pointing to a door in the kitchen. I stood and tread carefully over creaky boards, looking back at him for reassurance before wedging myself in among jars and depleted flour sacks.

Through the crack, I watched Sev lift an axe from high pegs on the wall. His grip flexed around it as he strode across the room and opened the cottage door just wide enough to look outside.

“Oh,” he said, swinging it wider.

“Three knocks,” a woman said. “Didn’t you know it was me?” She had an Erdemese accent. She removed the hood of her cloak, revealing onyx hair and stunning features. Her complexion was a warm brown rather than the medium olive of most Perispi people.

“You can’t be too careful.” Sev ushered her inside and replaced the axe on the pegs. He seemed to trust her, but without an invitation, I didn’t dare emerge. “What are you doing here?” he asked. “You didn’t come in the cold just to bring that, did you?” He indicated a laden sack in her hand.

She shook her head. A jewel sparkled in her nose. “No, I’m here on business.”

“Sit down,” Sev said. “Have some ale for warmth.”

“Yannis’s ale? No, thank you,” she laughed. I had to work a little harder to understand our common tongue through her accent. Thankfully, she sat facing me, which allowed me to read her lips.

“I came to tell you that the Uprising plans to question you about the princess’s whereabouts,” the stranger said. “You need to flee.”

“I don’t know anything—”

She put up a hand. “I don’t care what you know. I only care that you and your family are safe. The Uprising knows the queen used you. They’re very protective of the princess, and they will torture you if they think it will help them find her. They consider you an elicromancer sympathizer, just like your father. Maybe you could give them enough to stay valuable and alive. But it’s a trap. Once you give something to the Uprising, there’s no going back. You’re loyal to them or you’re dead.”

Elicromancer sympathizer. Uprising.

My exhausted mind managed to make the connection: this had to be the same group who had killed Mother and Father.

But King Myron had told us that the anti-elicromancer rebels had been swiftly tracked down and executed. He said he personally oversaw their executions.

Were there others? How big was the Uprising? What had Sev’s father done to earn their ire?

“They are more powerful than you know,” the stranger went on. “And they have eyes and ears in places you would never expect. Your family needs to flee as soon as possible.”

“Who are they, Lucrez?” Sev asked. “Is it Rasmus Orturio? It was his brothers the king executed after…”

Sev trailed off, and I knew why: to spare me the mention of my parents’ deaths, the details that had been scrubbed, neatly packaged, and dispatched across the sea so that my brother and sisters and I might have closure. I had never asked for the names of the rebels; they hadn’t mattered.

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