Chapter : Prologue

This was supposed to be a peaceful protest.

It’s the only reason we came. Da kept insisting, “You owe it to your mother, Callyn. The queen should know the will of her people.”

Maybe I do owe it to her. Maybe Mother would want me and Nora to be here. I reach up and rub the pendant that hangs over my heart the way I do anytime I think of her.

This was only supposed to be a gathering of like-minded people who opposed the king’s magic. Safe. Small. Da wanted Nora and me to come because he said it was important to make a good showing so the queen would listen. He even tried to convince Master Ellis to come, along with his son Jax, my best friend. Their blacksmith forge was too busy to leave, though—and travel is difficult for Jax on his crutches. But now that we’re all packed along the cobblestone roadway leading to the Crystal Palace, I don’t know if any of us needed to come at all. There are hundreds of people here. Maybe thousands.

Most are armed.

All are shouting.

Nora squeezes my hand. “Those people have swords,” she says, and her voice is nearly lost under the cacophony.

I follow her gaze. A lot of people have swords. And axes, and arrows, and hammers. I see bricks in a few hands. Anything you could reasonably consider a weapon. Guards stand in front of the gate, trying to talk people down, but there are only a dozen of them and a huge press of people straining at the steel bars. Behind the guards is a short stretch of shining cobblestones that end at the base of the steps leading up to the palace. The summer sun fills the air with heat, and the smell of so many sweating bodies pressed together is oppressive. It’s doing nothing good for anyone’s temper.

A shouting man tries to push through the crowd, and Nora stumbles into me, squealing when he stomps on her foot. He’s got a dagger in his hand, and it comes dangerously close to my sister’s eye. I jerk her out of the way.

“She’s just a child!” I snap at him.

He gives me a rude gesture over his shoulder.

So peaceful. I scowl. Nora is only twelve. She shouldn’t be here. I’m not entirely sure that I should be. I set my shoulders. “Da.”

He’s not even paying attention. He’s chanting with the crowd. Bring us the queen! Bring us the queen!

“Da!” I shout over the noise. “Da, we need to get Nora out of here.”

He doesn’t look at me. “Queen Lia Mara will have to listen, Callyn. There are so many of us here. The queen must know: we’re doing this for her.”

Nora clutches my arm. This is her first time seeing the Crystal Palace, and on any other day she’d be staring up at the massive glistening structure with her mouth hanging open. She’d be asking if I thought we had a chance to see the queen, or if the street vendors in the Crystal City make better meat pies than what we sell in the bakery.

Right now she’s burrowing into my side, edging away from a man who has a hand on the trigger of a crossbow.

“Da,” I say again. “Da, please—”

My voice is swallowed by sudden noise. A massive cheer goes up among the people, and at first, I’m not sure what’s happened. I think perhaps the shouting really has made a difference, and I stare up at that gleaming staircase, wondering if the queen will appear at the top.

No. The crowd has broken through the gates. I see a guard lift a sword—and just as quickly, he disappears under the sudden crush of the crowd. Without warning, we’re jostled forward, and Nora and I have no choice but to move or be trampled ourselves.

I keep hold of my sister’s hand, and she clings to mine. I lose sight of Da almost immediately, and I cry out. “Da! Da!”

“Move, girl!” shouts a man to my left, and I take an elbow to the ribs. I stumble into Nora and we nearly fall. Luckily the crowd is so dense that we all but bounce off another woman. We’re carried forward with the mob. Weapons glint in the sunlight. I hear a few screams in the crowd as others must be pulled under, but it’s a quick burst of sound, and then it’s gone.

My heart is pounding so hard that I can’t breathe. My hand has gone slick, but I keep a tight grip on Nora’s hand. I can’t lose my sister. I can’t.

I don’t feel the steps, but we’re moving upward. I can’t see anything but the bright sunlight overhead, the mountains beyond the palace cutting a line through the sky. Glass shatters, and it seems to keep shattering. More screams ring out. The massive doors to the palace have been destroyed, leaving a gaping hole for everyone to stream through.

Bring us the queen! Bring us the queen!

The shouts are so loud, and they seem to come from every direction. My feet crunch on broken glass, and I realize we’re about to be swept inside the palace.

No. My heart stutters and rebels. I don’t want this. I’m not here to be a part of an attack on the royal family.

For an instant, I don’t know what to do. Nora is crying now. Something must have hit her in the face, because blood is streaming from her nose.

There. To my right, a woman falls, leaving a gap in the surge of people. Bits of glass glint along the stone walkway leading to the doors. I give Nora’s arm a firm tug, and we stumble out of the crush of people just as another cheer goes up inside the palace.

“They’ve found the king and queen!” a man yells. The cheering grows louder.

“What’s happening?” Nora gasps between sobs. “What are they going to do?”

People are still surging past us. I’ve completely lost track of my father. “I don’t know.” I touch a hand to my pendant, pressing the warm steel into my skin. I wish Mother were here now. I consider the steps, the rapid stream of people, and I’m glad Jax didn’t join us.

Soldiers are rushing up the stairs now, swords drawn, and I drag my sister farther away. Some of the protestors have turned to fight, and the clash of steel against steel makes my ears ring. Mother would have been right at home in the midst of a battle, but I’m only at home in the bakery. I’ve never wanted to be a soldier.

A man takes a sword right through his belly. He coughs blood onto the walkway.

I slap a hand over Nora’s eyes, but she grabs at my hand and tries to see, her mouth wide with horror.

A man speaks from the shadows by the doorway. “She’s a child! Get her out of here.”

I can’t tell if he’s a soldier or a protestor. There’s too much noise, too much fighting. But he’s not in the melee, so he must not be a soldier.

“I’m trying!” I shout back.

“Go down the side stairs!” he yells, just as a soldier spots us.

I suck in a breath, but I have no time to react. A blade is swinging in our direction. Nora screams, and I shift to cover her with my body. I brace for the impact.

It never comes. Just a screech of steel as sword meets sword. I catch a glimpse of black armor, a flash of red hair.

“Go!” the man shouts.

I drag Nora. We run, half stumbling down the stone steps. The cheering in the castle has grown louder, carrying over the sounds of fighting. Screams sound from every direction. Suddenly, we’re not the only ones running down the stairs.

“Magic!” a woman shouts. “The king’s going to use his—”

Thunder cracks behind us, so loud that I nearly stumble again. I turn to see a blast of light flare through every window of the palace, brighter than the sun, like a million bolts of lightning all at once.

All sounds of fighting cease. There’s a pulse of sudden, absolute silence—and then screaming. A man is on fire, stumbling out of the doorway of the palace. Then another. And a third. The soldiers at the top of the steps have stopped fighting, and they’re staring in horror.

So am I.

Nora tugs at my hand. “Where’s Da?” Her voice is high and panicked. “What happened to Da?”

I don’t know. I don’t know.

A woman shrieks from the top of the steps. “He killed them all,” she cries. “The king’s magic killed them all!”

More guards are beginning to arrive. Panic still fills my chest, but I’m aware enough to know that things won’t go well for anyone left here.

“Come on,” I say to Nora. I drag her toward the streets, and we slip into the city just as guards begin lining up to block the fallen gate.

I want to run, but guards might be looking for protestors now, so I hold tight to Nora’s shaking hand and head toward a tavern, walking sedately. I keep my eyes locked ahead and focus on breathing. On moving forward. Everyone else is rushing toward the palace, so no one pays us any mind.

The sun is so bright and warm, and it seems like a cruel joke, as if the sun has no right to shine. My chest feels hollow.

Eventually, Nora stops crying, and she looks up at me. “Was that true?” she whispers, and the horror in her voice echoes what I feel in my heart. “Did the king’s magic kill them all?”

“I don’t know,” I say.

But I press a hand over that pendant, because I do know. I saw that flash of light. I heard those screams. I saw the flames.

The king’s magic once stole my mother.

And now it’s stolen my father, too.