The Jewel by Ewing Amy

Author:Ewing,Amy
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperTeen

UNCORRECTED E-PROOF—NOT FOR SALE

HarperCollins Publishers

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Fourteen

MY PULSE IS RACING AS I HURRY DOWN THE HALLWAY that ends at the ballroom.

I want to explore a little more of this palace on my own, decide for myself where to go and what to see. Several maids are cleaning the windows that look out onto the garden, and I flit past the doors, pausing in between them to make sure I’m not seen.

I pass a sunroom, keeping the sculpture gallery between me and the main foyer. An unpleasant smell tells me I’ve reached the Duke’s smoking room. Hearing the low murmur of voices and the heavy tread of boots, I duck into a small study, peeking through a crack in the door to watch a pair of Regimentals pass by, heading toward the library. I wait, listening to make sure they’re gone, and my gaze falls on a tiny portrait of the Duchess in an oval frame, propped up on a rolltop desk.

An image comes of its own volition and I reach out a finger, gently touching a spot on the Duchess’s cheek.

Once to see it as it is. Twice to see it in your mind. Thrice to bend it to your will.

Cracks of hideous green spread across her skin, replacing the light caramel color. I’ve never done Color so specifically before. Whether I like the doctor’s appointments or not, they’re certainly improving my Augury skills. I grin—now the Duchess looks as ugly as she acts.

I know it’s risky, but I decide to leave it as a little token of me among all this opulence.

I slip back out into the hall, passing the library and turning left, then right. I sneak past the main dining room and find myself in a hallway I’ve never seen before. Made entirely of glass, it’s a promenade that connects the main palace to the east wing.

At first, the east wing seems like the rest of this place. But as I move deeper into it, it becomes almost plain. The halls are painted, not papered, and the colors are dull, muted beiges and mauves. The pictures that hang on the walls are blurred landscapes in simple frames.

I keep walking east, alert, looking for any door that leads to the outside. The silence is making me jittery—my own footsteps sound too loud.

“—still don’t think it’s fair.”

An unexpected girl’s voice makes me jump.

“I know, Mary, but there isn’t anything you can do about it,” a different girl answers.

I can’t tell where the voices are coming from. I look for a place to hide, trying a door to my left, but it’s locked. So is the one on the right.

“The mute is two years younger than me. I should have been chosen as the surrogate lady-in-waiting.”

The mute. She’s talking about Annabelle.

I hurry back down the hall, trying every door, but they’re all stubbornly locked.

“Maybe it won’t work out with this surrogate,” the second girl says. “The Electress’s one is dead. And a few others, too, already. The Duchess won’t use the same lady-in-waiting twice.

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