Stormsong by C. L. Polk

Author:C. L. Polk [Polk, C. L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

* * *

Avia had taken me off the dance floor with every courtesy, but I felt as if she had slapped my face and stalked off. I’d been a fool to think I could keep the truth from her. Yesterday I had been troubled, but still worthy. Now I was left trembling and alone in a crowd. I couldn’t stand here much longer. Someone would speak to me of trivialities, or ask me to dance, and then I would have to smile and chat and no, no, I couldn’t possibly.

I left the ballroom by the balcony doors, moving down the concrete stairs to the glasshouse, which glowed softly in the moonlight. The unlocked door slid aside at my touch, the casters grinding in the shocking, bone-deep cold to exhale warm air that smelled of rich earth, thriving greenery, and clean running water. I slid the door closed and let the damp warmth seep into me, so different from the stuffy, body-smelling heat of the ballroom.

From far away, the orchestra sounded another introduction to a dance. I picked out the steps along the winding path, caressing the large, waxy leaves of plants that had sailed across the Ayers Ocean to rest in this tiny patch of unreal summer shielded from Aeland’s snow and frost.

Alone and away from curious stares. I could bite my lip, and did, focusing on the warm dull pain it gave freely. I could bow my head and wrap my arms around my middle. I could shake and tremble, sick at Avia’s parting words. It would all come out tomorrow afternoon. Aeland would march toward the end as its citizens rose up in just fury, throwing over the order that had brought the Amaranthines who watched and waited to see what we did next, how we proved ourselves worthy of their mercy.

Would the Amaranthines have mercy for blood in the streets? Would they have mercy for the mob, that creature of violent mind and devastating purpose? I doubted they would. And then the merciless storms following the end of the Hundred Families would destroy whoever was left standing. If Avia revealed the truth, Aeland wouldn’t survive the year.

I couldn’t allow Avia to print that story. But how could I dissuade her? She had come clad in the suit of her dead comrade, her dear friend. Avia knew what Nick had been murdered for knowing. She could bring the whole card-tower down with the flick of a touch, and she was angry enough with me to do it. I imagined her vowing retribution as she knotted her white silk tie and promised her reflection that justice would come to Kingston.

And it should. It should. All the secrets she uncovered, the ones I tried so desperately to keep—they protected the people responsible from suffering any consequences. Oh, the First Ring was in prison, but that was to save Constantina’s neck. Father might go to the hangman, but he would die for a tenth of the things he had done to Aeland.

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