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I bowed to the Empress, struck by how bared I felt without the limbs of my tree to wrap myself around, my song shaded by its lush branches. Sucking in a breath, I exhaled a melody that rang from the hollow pit of my stomach, reaching up my lungs and escaping my throat, filling the empty air with music.

I sang low at first, a crescendo of notes cresting around the awestruck courtiers. Music was the very air I breathed. It was in the rustle of leaves, the whizz of the breeze, the burble of the murmurs surrounding me. The world’s sounds sank into me and morphed in my soul, shared outside my body in a sorrowful ballad.

It was a tale of a lone, flightless bird. One in search of a home.

When I fell into the diminuendo, the silence was quickly replaced by applause, dozens of smiles reflecting at me from the audience. Despite the oddity that they were so thrilled by my pain-filled performance, the praise lifted my breasts, feathers ruffling along my body. The previous chilling coldness was replaced with warmth.

“You are beyond a mere marvel, Splendor.” The Empress joined in the clapping of her courtiers. “My husband will be pleased.”

Dropping my chin, I peered up at her through pale feathered lashes. “Thank you.”

A long bony finger pointed just behind me. “Guards, take the splendor to the Emperor.”

“As you wish,” they said in unison, coming to either side of me.

With that, they escorted me past the throne, moving to the left corner of the room. The paint was chipping and faded,depicting a stormy sea filled with frothy waves and broken bits of boats. The guard pressed an armored hand to the only flag floating above the fray, one with the Sacer crest stamped atop it in gilded paint. As the hidden door swung open with a long creek, I almost could have sworn I saw tiny lavender and mauve feathers scattered across the sea.

two

. . .

The Emperor satbehind a long mahogany desk filled with papers and baubles. Three glass bottles of varying sizes were set in a pod with small intricately painted boats in each one. Two pale green eyes, the shade of budding leaves, peered at me above a skull laden sail.

The chair scraped against the wood as the Emperor sat back and took me in. “Welcome to the Divine Palace, Splendor.”

His thin lips lifted into a smirk, gaze trailing over my tail feathers that had wrapped themselves around my torso, camouflaging into the plumage adorning my breasts. The vein on his forehead ticked, dark brown brows becoming two stiff lines when he looked slightly past me. I knew right away when he’d noticed and my feathers rustled in response, chest pinching tight.

“So it’s true…” He tapped his chin thoughtfully. “You’re wingless.”

I bowed my head, both to answer his question and hide my shame. Tiny pricks tapped at the back of my eyes, but I held the tears at bay. It did not bother me much that I had no wings. How could you miss something you’d never had to begin with? Butsomething about when others looked at me, that pitying stare, as if solving a puzzle as to what I lacked,thatwas what burned behind my eyes.

“How remarkable… Would you grace me with a song?” The Emperor’s rich silk tone glided over me, like a calm breeze over the leaves of my fig tree. My tail unfurled before brushing back and forth over the wooden planks of the floor, the uneven edges reminding me of bark.

Of safety.

He clasped his hands together. He didn’t look old enough to have ruled for a century, aside from the waxen hue of his fingers, thick veins protruding around his wrists and running up beneath the sleeves of his midnight velvet coat. Beads of sweat were raised on his palms. “You must have made an impression on the Empress. She was not thrilled that I sent these two in search of your rare majesty, but here you are, more than I could have hoped for.”

Reverence painted his face and that hollow lacking that had carved its way into my chest was replaced with pride.

I lifted my chin, reaching my palm across the desk, tentatively. “What kind of song do you wish for?”

“Life has been unkind to me these last few turnings. I’m afraid it has weighed on my spirits.” His hand quivered as he placed a moist palm gently atop my own. “Renew my spirits with your rarest ballad.”

I swallowed thickly. Staring up at me, those leaf-laden eyes held so much hope. The Emperor appeared more like a young boy than a middle-aged ruler with such acclaim. So delicately human. I knew what he wanted,truly wanted. It wasn’t just any passing tune or melody to assuage his woes.

A wordless whisper caressed the shell of my ear.

This Emperor—this man—was dying. He’d sent his guards in search of my kind, finding only me, presumably the last of them.And while I had no wings to call my own, I did have the one thing all splendors did: my canthymn.

“Of course.”

Once upon a time I believed my soul’s song would bring my family back to me. That maybe they would hear it and come searching. If our canthymn was so magical, couldn’t it summon my fellow splendors back from wherever they’d migrated to?

When our tail plumes came in and our hearts felt a secondary beat, that was when our canthymn came. At least that’s what the nymphs had explained to me. There was a low pulse, a sacred rhythm that carried a song that defied Death. But with each canthymn, that rapping softened, and softened, and softened, until after seven times it eventually hushed.

Forever silent.

I barely knew the ruler before me but he stared at me imploringly, a desperate man. It was hard to believe he’d held so much power for so long within the world. Who was I to deny him this and dismiss him into Death’s cold embrace?