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Nedra and I used the east entrance—there was little fanfare at that gate, just an iron archway with the date of the Gardens’ creation curling over the top.

“I’ve heard about this place,” Nedra said, strolling beside me. “It’s smaller than I imagined, not quite the escape from the city I thought it would be.”

We reached a high point in the path, and Nedra paused, looking out over the city. In the distance, the bay glittered with lights from boats docked at the harbor, and just beyond them, the quarantine hospital’s clockface glowed like a second moon.

Nedra pointed north, to the governor’s palace. “All that house for one person?” she asked.

I laughed. “It’s not just a house. It’s the political center of Lunar Island, where laws are made and court is held. Thereis, of course, a wing for the governor to live in, and there’s also a tower for the Emperor when he’s on the island.” I pointed to a flag mounted atop a large turret. “That means he’s in residence now,” I said, “which is actually kind of surprising. I would have thought he’d leave right after the governor’s inauguration.”

Nedra’s eyes glittered as she stared at the shining building. The glass windows were cut to reflect light, giving the castle a soft, ethereal glow.

“My nanny used to tell me stories about that place,” I said, leaning in closer. “It’shaunted.”

“Is that so, Grey?” Nedra arched an eyebrow at me.

My lips burst into a spontaneous grin, and it wasn’t until Nedra noticed that she realized she’d shortened my name.

“Sorry, Greggori,” she amended quickly. Her cheeks blushed furiously.

“No, I like it. You can call me Grey.” I could tell it embarrassed her, so I dropped my voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It’s haunted,” I said. “The castle.”

“Oh, obviously,” Nedra said, arching an eyebrow at me.

I nodded with authority. “Mm,” I said. “Well, Bennum Wellebournewasthe first resident.”

“Really?” The playfulness in her voice was gone.

“Yeah. The old part, where the Emperor is now.” I pointed again. “Wellebourne built that for himself when he played at being king. After the battle, Emperor Aurellious turned his home into a prison. He was there for months before his execution.”

“No wonder people think it’s haunted,” Nedra said. I followed her gaze to the Emperor’s tower, imagining what it must have been like for Bennum Wellebourne to rot away in the dank cell. He had once been the greatest hero of our colony, helping those around him survive the first year Lunar Island was settled. He’d been elected the first governor; he had been the most revered man on all of Lunar Island.

But that, of course, was before the rebellion. Before Bennum Wellebourne raised the dead and turned the corpses into an army—one that he used to attack his own people.

Nedra shivered, but she refused my coat when I offered it to her. As we continued up the path, changing our conversation to more pleasant topics, I kept looking back to the castle, its windows like eyes watching our every move.

NINE

Nedra

Master ostrum’s privatelaboratory smelled of earth and rats.

I had wondered what the door behind his desk hid, but when Master Ostrum showed me the small room, I had not been expecting a full lab carved directly into the earth, the walls exposing natural rock. If not for the raised hardwood floor and the shelving units displaying medical equipment, it would have felt like entering a cave.

I had to step up to get into the laboratory, making the roof feel even lower. I jumped at a scratching noise nearby, turning to find cages holding half a dozen rats.

Master Ostrum gestured to a chair, and I sat down, unable to rip my gaze away from the jar in the center of the table between us.

“Is that an—” I started.

“An eye, yes.” When I didn’t answer, he added, “It’s not that unusual for a medical alchemist to study specimens.”

“Human,” I said.

It hadn’t been a question, but Master Ostrum answered me regardless. “Yes.”

“Infected.”

He didn’t answer me this time. I reached for the jar, picking it up and holding it to the dim light of the oil lamp overhead. The eye inside bobbed and floated in the preservation fluid. The liquid was pale yellowish-green, casting the red-veined eye in a sickly hue, but there was an acid-green film over the colored iris that I knew wasn’t a side effectof the preservation fluid. I turned the jar in my hand, coaxing the eye around. The film wrapped around the entire ball, adding delicate green tentacles that mingled with the extruding veins dangling at the end.