Page 38

TIYUNG

THE PALATIAL ROAD, YUSAN

I t’s morning, and we’re in the indoor market in Trove, but Hana doesn’t speak to me much. Actually, come to think of it, I don’t think she’s said anything at all. I handed her the cloak I wanted and the breakfast sandwich I needed, and she paid for them without a word.

We stop in the messenger house one last time. We’re so close to Qali that my mother could have gotten my letter and responded within a day. I hold my breath as the man behind the counter checks, but once again, there’s nothing for me. There’s nothing for Hana, either. She doesn’t seem surprised.

We get back onto the Coastal Road. Once again, we’re being pelted with rain, but this ride feels different. Hana seems like she’s in another realm. She looks and speaks to me as much as she did after we escaped Idle Prison. When I was not much more than her ward.

The rift started last night, but I’m not sure what caused it.

Perhaps this is just how she is. Maybe after so much loss in poison school, she had to figure out a way to shut off her feelings before a goodbye.

Or maybe I simply don’t mean anything to her.

The sting of that and the drops of rain hit my cheeks.

Maybe I’m a fool for thinking it had been real friendship.

I sigh and adjust my new cloak.

We ride for bells in silence. Hana focuses on the road.

I think about what needs to be done. As soon as I get to the palace, I have to persuade my father to remove the bounties.

I’ll explain how I escaped from the prison with the help of one of Mikail’s spies and one of Euyn’s loyal palace guards.

I will also tell him about Ailor and warn him that the Weian ships are coming.

I will claim that I didn’t contact him until now because I didn’t want to risk the messages getting intercepted.

Instead, I rode down from my hiding spot as soon as I found out he was king.

My stomach turns, and I slouch. It all vaguely makes sense without mentioning Hana or Nayo, but Seok doesn’t settle for surface answers.

I gulp. I am many things, but I’m not stronger or cleverer than my father.

But this time I have to be. He cannot know she’s alive.

He’ll hunt her to the ends of the Outer Lands.

It’s late afternoon when we come to a crossroads. This is the turn off for the Palatial Road. Hana slows her horse, and I do the same.

“Be well, Tiyung,” she says. Her posture is stiff, her manner cold.

I had been thinking about what to say, how I wanted to thank her for all she’s done for me, but something feels so strange about all of this that what I say is, “Be well, Hana.”

She looks relieved and nods to me.

I pull my horse onto the Palatial Road—the three-mile-long stretch of nothingness.

The road is paved, but there’s not a tree, a plant, or a blade of grass to the sides.

Nothing is allowed to grow near the palace because even weeds could hide attackers.

They burned this entire section and carted in a thin layer of salted sand hundreds of years ago.

The closest greenery is Westward Forest, miles to the other side of Qali.

Hana continues down the Coastal Road without looking back.

I tell myself it’s for the best. She cared about me, or she wouldn’t have saved me so many times.

Certainly, she wouldn’t have risked her own life.

But then I’m struck by another thought: What if her end goal was to deliver me here all along?

To whom, though? Definitely not Seok.

What if I’m about to be captured or killed? What if there is also a bounty on me?

I shake my head, raindrops streaming down my hair, and I try to calm my racing heart.

No, I’m being paranoid. My thoughts are spiraling, and I have to stop.

There is no bounty on me because everyone, including my father, believes I died.

I clear the rain from my face as I stare up at the gray sky.

I didn’t make it out of the tenth hell just to fall apart now.

With a sigh, I gather myself, sit up straight, and adjust my shoulders. I shaved in Trove, and I’m as presentable as I can be, given this ride.

I spur my horse and summon some bravery. I am still Seok’s son, and he is now the king of Yusan. I will not cower or hesitate.

Still, I swallow hard as I ride closer to the white palace. The archers on the walls all train their arrows on me. And that lake ripples gently with rain.

I shudder.

My father has added king’s guard at the land end of the bridge. I expect that the men will be from Gain and they will know me. But as I ride up, I don’t see any familiar faces among the ten soldiers.

“Halt,” one man says. He’s in his late thirties—a lifer in the king’s guard. “Who goes there?”

“I am Tiyung. Count… King Seok’s son and heir,” I say.

I grit my teeth to stop myself from wincing. I’d practiced saying King Seok many times only to still fail.

Murmurs echo around me. I wait as the soldiers defer to the man who spoke. He must be their captain. He gestures, and a runner goes sprinting down the bridge to the palace. I casually sit atop my horse as if this whole procedure is tediously boring. It’s what other princes would do.

Rain falls steadily. The men don’t speak to me, and I sit with my chin raised as if I am above their chatter. I avoid looking at that lake.

Eventually, the runner returns. He whispers to the captain, who nods and then gestures with his arm.

“Sire,” he says with a bow.

The soldiers all part to allow my horse to cross. They lower their heads as I pass.

The second my horse steps foot on the bridge, I shake with a violent chill.

It feels like invisible hands grip me, squeezing my neck and chest, yet it’s nothing more than fear.

But this fear is reasonable. Last time I was this close to the lake, I thought the palace guards were going to throw me in and feed me to the iku—the monsters swimming under the surface.

I was then locked in the sunless dungeon beneath the lake.

I can still feel those doors closing overhead.

I can’t help memories rising to the surface and bringing fear along with them, but I continue. Bravery isn’t the absence of fear; it’s persevering despite it.

But something is wrong here. The entire palace feels off. The way the guards blocked access to the bridge was strange, but it also feels as if Qali itself dislikes a usurper on the throne.

My back muscles are tight, my spine pulling me to turn around. Yet I have to press on. For Sora, for the others.

In front of the palace stands one figure. Bile rises in my throat, but I force it back down. This was the point—to see my father. I make myself sit upright and try to will the tremors to stop.

As I get closer though, I realize it’s not my father but my mother. She waits under the raised gate with her hands clasped.

My chest swells, and my heart drums with joy. All the negative feelings and baseless suspicions vanish. It’s been a while since I’ve seen my mother. As usual, she looks beautiful, her long blond hair in a braid down her left side.

She wears a ruby-and-gold crown atop her head—the crown of the queens. I wonder what my father wears, because it can’t be the Immortal Crown. I suppose I’ll find out soon enough.

Once I’m within a few yards of her, I dismount from my horse, and a stable boy takes the reins.

“Mother.” I open my arms as I walk to her.

She waits under the portcullis and then embraces me, kissing the side of my face.

She has that familiar scent of lilacs and vanilla, but there’s an off note, too—sweat, maybe.

As she hugs me, I can feel her tremble as she whispers in my ear.

“You must leave this place now. Wait for a message in Tamneki.”