Page 34 of Of Stars and Lightning (Sun and Shadows #1)

Twenty Six

TO GRIEVE

AFTER THE DINNER—if it could even be called that—Sol went to her small room and sobbed. She buried herself beneath the duvets and mourned the easy life she had taken for granted.

She let herself wallow in self-pity for twenty minutes exactly.

Just twenty.

Then, she sat up in her bed, wiped her tears, and sank herself into a freezing bath while she formulated a plan. She couldn't let the prospects die. Their death would be on her hands, even if it was by proxy. There had to be a way, a loophole.

Nina assured her they would search for one, and Sol believed her. But she also knew she and Cas had a good possibility of making it to the end, and their lives were her court’s only true concerns.

Sol shuddered at the thought.

If she and Cas survived, the options were for one of them to yield, or for them to fight. She wanted to think he would yield, but she also had a sense the man was unpredictable.

The day after the feast fiasco was calm. Sol spent it isolated, only coming out of her room for nuts and berries Phil assured her were safe. She thanked the boy and begged him and Jonah to stay safe, only catching glimpses of the other prospects between escapades.

It was on the third day, in the middle of wondering if she should go hunt for squirrels instead of settling for eating rabbit food, something tapped on her window.

Her hand gripped the side of the table where she sat. The window was behind her—dodging whatever it was seemed futile.

Grabbing a vase in front of her, she threw it back at the window before diving to the ground. If a Jinn had found her, if somehow they had the ability to fly now—

She reached for another makeshift weapon, then actually looked at the window. She shivered with relief.

“Penny! Oh gods.” Sol crawled and pushed it open. “How are you—”

Penny grinned at her. “Fantastic aim, Princess!” She glanced over at the shattered vase. “Shame the vase had to suffer, though.”

“How are you here?” Sol looked around frantically. The girl was floating.

“My air dancer friend is helping.” Penny grinned, pointing to the ground below.

Sol looked over the window’s edge to find Phil sitting on the grass with his hands above his head. Sensing her, he waved.

“Penny, you need to leave. If anyone finds out you’re here, I’m sure it won’t end well.”

“They won’t. There are no guards, the King is dumb, and I was stealthy. The tunnels run directly beneath this Villa,” She reached into her pocket and revealed a folded parchment. “From Ninanette. She is truly a ball of nerves without you.”

Sol smiled slightly and took the letter. “Tell her we are alright.”

“We saw the names of those who passed a few days ago,” Penny said softly. “The next trial should come soon.”

Sol sighed, “I’m so stupid. I shouldn’t have interfered in this.”

Penny shrugged, swaying with the gust of wind beneath her. “A lot of people think the opposite. They are just too afraid to say it.”

“I don't know what I'm meant to be doing here. I know what I want to do, but I have no way to execute it.”

Penny sighed. “Survive. Tell us your plan once you formulate one and we will help from the shadows.”

Sol smirked at the girl’s simple suggestion. “I thought your uncle was the Shadow Guider.”

She laughed. “Us Unsettled have to learn our own tricks—magic free.”

“You need to return home, Penny,” Sol said, glancing below and eyeing the dangerous distance to the ground. “You’ll force me to tell on you to your Uncle.”

“Oh, please don’t!” Penny whined with a palm to her forehead. “He is worse than my mother sometimes. He’d never forgive me for using the tunnels.”

By the sound of it, Sol could bargain he wouldn’t. She pursed her lips, bracing herself for the girl’s response. “Tunnels?”

Penny blinked her lilac eyes at her. “Have you not seen them?”

SOL HAD TO see the things for herself. Before Penny agreed to return to the Castle, she gave Sol a brief explanation of Rimemere’s subterranean connections.

The land had always been uniquely curious.

Aside from it harboring the temples and therefore greatly concentrated magic, it had a naturally occurring web of caves and corridors beneath it.

Alix had mentioned Nina was in charge of charting the tunnels during their journey, but Sol hadn’t stopped to process what it meant.

As they lived their lives above ground, an entirely different one could be unfolding beneath it.

Penny had assured the tunnels are regularly monitored for this reason, and Jeriyah, as High Scribe, protected them with simple enchantments. For now, the only legal activity within them was merchandise transport.

As Penny had descended into the overgrown grass beside Phil, Sol asked where they were located within the God’s Villa. The girl only laughed and disappeared into the trees.

So, Sol acquired her task for the afternoon: find them.

Perhaps they could be useful in her quest to get the prospects to safety. And if they were deserted, who would know, right?

Connecting the different sections of the Villa was a daunting spiral staircase, one that had almost driven her into madness when she had first scouted for her room. As she began her descent, it again gave her that unsteady feeling, each step calculated, the repetitive motion calming.

First she stopped on the fourth floor.

Was it likely the entrance to subterranean tunnels was on the fourth floor?

No.

But she had seen more surprising things during the last few weeks that caused a sigh to slip and her feet to step onto the level anyway with tentative expectations.

The floor beneath hers was lovely. It was decorated in vibrant greens with mustard yellows and vines draping from golden chandeliers.

The carpet was a mossy green, but in an appealing way that blended with the decorative foliage around the hollow, circular loft.

Across where she stood, on the other side of the staircase, Sol made out small fountains.

She wandered toward them, gently running her hands over the cool water once she reached the first one.

“Princess Yarrow.”

Sol jumped, instantly reaching for a knife in her belt she did not have.

She swore to herself she would find some sort of weapon in this wretched place since she was devoid of magic.

But not even a blunt fork was able to be unaccounted for after meals.

She pushed herself against the wall beside the fountain, earning a low laugh from the man before her.

She could instantly tell he was an Earth Caller. His green eyes, a mirror to Nina’s, fit in with the decor around him as if he had walked out of the wallpaper itself. His brown ringlets fell around his cheekbones, and a hint of a beard softened the angles of his jaw.

What he wore made Sol do a subtle double take. A leather bodysuit reinforced with what looked eerily like reptilian scales.

The man smiled. “I don't believe we've had the chance to formally meet.” He outstretched a hand. “It has been an eventful couple of days.”

Sol returned a small smile to seem polite and loosely grasped his hand in what she figured would be a handshake. But he flipped her grip and planted a kiss to her knuckles instead.

It was likely customary to greet a woman of status this way, but gods did it make Sol want to bolt from the interaction. “I—uh. Nice to meet you,” she said, withdrawing her hand to her side.

“My name is Ezra. I am the heir of the Polimande lands.” Ezra leaned against the railing behind him, the only thing preventing a tumble from the level to the foyer below. “I’ve done nothing but prepare for this opportunity since I Settled.”

“You—you’ve done nothing but wait for the opportunity to marry into Rimemere royalty?”

“To rule beside a glorious Yarrow.” He traced her with glowing eyes.

Instead of listening to every fiber of her being that warned her to run, she gave herself a mental shove.

Queenly. Act Queenly.

Raising her chin slightly, she dipped her fingers into the water. “I thought I was no more than a myth until recently.”

“Ah, but the South never lost hope that Queen Irene left us an Heir.” Again, his gaze roved her from head to toe. “And such a beautiful one, too.” Yeah, no.

“Well, Ezra, lovely to meet you.” Sol gave him the sweetest smile she could muster, the kind she would give the Yavenharrow sailors after they had too much liquor and she needed them to pay their tab and leave. “But I must leave. I have a… someone waiting for me.”

Not waiting for a response, she began her way back to the stairs. Mercifully, Ezra stayed where he was, examining her from a distance. “Prince Xanthos, I presume?”

Sol paused at the beginning of the steps and met his gaze. Although it was a lie, she would rather the man think she was in fact going to meet the one person they all seemed to fear. “Yes.”

“I’d be careful, Princess.” Ezra pushed off the railing. “Xanthos and Yarrows tend to attract chaos when together.”

As Sol continued her descent, she said, “I’ll keep that in mind.”

She tried to shake the bizarre encounter as she explored the other floors but was ultimately too distracted to truly take in the Villa’s raw beauty. It seemed like each floor corresponded to a god, the notion finally clicking as Sol reached the bottom.

Hers seemed to be the one mostly absent of elemental memorabilia.

The fourth floor appeared to represent Flora, with its greens and plant life.

The third was loudly Emberdon with crimson walls, black furniture, and golden accents reminiscent of a flame.

The second floor was serene and bright, with lovely baby-blue hues and a large fountain with mementos of Aquarene carved into its stone.

Finally, the main floor where Sol now stood was constructed of muted beiges, down to the sandstone pillars that stretched all the way to the very top of the place.

Although there was no clear indication the floor belonged to Winderlyn’s memory, the paintings of clouds and symbols for air etched around the walls were enough for Sol to make the assumption.

She craned her head all the way up. That left the fifth floor to be Warren’s.

Of course it did.

Sol scowled at the door to her room, tiny in the distance, and continued her way around the main floor.

The dining area where the spiral of despair had started was empty, the large rectangular table bare aside from a bowl of fruit.

The eating schedule was consistent and hopelessly out of line with Sol’s own appetite, so she snagged an apple as she continued into the depths of the Villa.

She hadn't truly ventured around the area, mostly out of defiance for the reason she was there to begin with.

Just as she made a turn into the next hallway, she paused.

It would have been easy to miss had the engraving not been a personal beacon to her.

A few steps before the corner to the next room, the corridor forked to her left into what seemed like a pointless, rectangular extension that only had a mirror at eye level and an unremarkable plant beneath it.

Sol stepped into the peculiar space, only an arm’s length in all directions, then looked down at what had called her to it.

The main floor of the Villa was constructed of a muted, beige tile; the ones beneath her feet no different. However, carved on a singular one, as if with liquid gold itself, was a six-pointed star.

Sol plopped down on the floor beside it, touching her necklace which bore the same shape.

“What are you?” She traced the peaks of the stars along the tile with her fingers—the tile clicked.

It sank into the ground slightly with a soft sound, then an echo had Sol turn to the wall behind her.

The outline of a door etched into the wallpaper.

She smiled.

Found you.

A slick coat of adrenaline tugged at her chest as she crawled to it and pushed, covering her face with a forearm when the moment awoke a film of dust. As if pulled by phantom hands, a large panel of the wall fell away into itself, sliding out of view to reveal darkness.

And stairs.

“Oh, I don’t think so,” she muttered.

It was unwise to explore the nook. In all those books she and Mina enjoyed so much, the characters who pursued unwise decisions never survived.

Sol frowned at the looming stairs, dropping into the depths of the Villa without a single shred of light in sight. If only she had a weapon.

She peered up at the mirror.

It shattered quite easily. Clamping her mouth shut to keep from groaning, she held her elbow as the pieces clattered to the ground. She remained frozen for a moment, listening for footsteps or anyone that may want to come investigate the noise.

Luckily, the Villa remained silent.

Sol picked the most menacing and dynamic-looking shard and slipped it into her hand before entering the hole in the wall.