Ruinsong by Julia Ember

Author:Julia Ember [Ember, Julia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

CHAPTER 16

REMI

I WAIT IN A straight-backed, satin chair, my wrists tied to the golden armrests, as a group of servants lay a long dining table for the queen. Clearly, no one intends for me to eat. The servants ignore me as they work, and no one sets my place. My mouth waters as they bring out an elaborate spread of suckling pig, stuffed dates, and delicate pastries that smell of apricot and strawberry jam. After going days with nothing to eat, the dinner roll I managed to scarf down did little to sate my appetite.

But at least I am clean. After the justicar finished with me, two guards took me from his opulent torture chamber to a small bathhouse below. They hosed me down, scrubbed my face, and stuffed me into a pale blue dress that matches the curtains here in the dining room. The humiliation should have been intolerable, but Ren’s numbing spell must have worked its way into my soul as well. After everything that has happened in the last few weeks, I barely registered the indignity.

The guards were only obeying orders. They aren’t the ones responsible for my treatment. I flex my wrists against the ropes that bind my hands. If the queen intends to kill me, I’m not going to die quietly.

The servants finish arranging the table and file out through the room’s rear door. An elderly butler dressed in an elegant three-piece suit opens the room’s curtains and stands behind the chair opposite me. I tilt my face up, basking in the ray of sunlight that filters through the window. The dining room overlooks a walled garden, filled with white and pink roses, scarlet lobelia, and cheerful winter jasmine.

Distantly, I remember this room. It was once an office for the old queen’s minister of education. Lord Hureux was a jovial man, and a friend of Papa’s, who always kept a jar full of sweets on his mahogany desk. I remember sitting in a chair beside the window like this, at another time, sucking on a peppermint and watching for Cadence in the garden below as Papa discussed business.

When Queen Elene took the throne, all of the old queen’s top ministers were executed without trial, quietly meeting their deaths within the palace walls so the people wouldn’t see. Some died in the winter garden we are overlooking. I shudder, picturing Lord Hureux’s head rolling across the cobblestone path. My parents fled from Cannis to our country estate early on, keeping us away from the executions and roundups.

I hadn’t understood at the time. I was angry that we were abandoning Cannis to live in seclusion at the estate. Now I know that their speedy decision probably saved us.

The doors leading into the hall fly open. A footman stands to the side and bows as Queen Elene sweeps in. I’ve never seen her up close before, and I’m not quite prepared for what I see.

Everyone talks about Queen Elene as if she is hideous, a monster in form as well as deeds, but the woman in front of me is stunning.

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