Chapter One

Idalia

Present Day

Each time I see a dead body in the street, I want to burn Baelliles to the ground. And when another pile of emaciated corpses is hauled off to the Burial Ground, I remember the first pair of lifeless eyes I ever saw. My mother’s.

I don’t remember their color. Twelve years with her should’ve been enough time for me to savor such details, but time has a funny way of making us forget. Many memories of the dead elude my mind to make room for the living. Only two memories of my mother are forever preserved in my mind. The first is the sound of her ethereal voice as she sang to me each night. The second is her ashen face pressed against the marble.

Once, when I was young and full of adolescent self-regard, I asked my father which of my mother’s attributes I possessed. I desperately wanted to know. Were her eyes an endless brown like mine? Did she detest cold weather, too? I quickly learned that I should only ask him such questions if I were prepared to hear him rage about our war with the South Kingdom.

“They killed her! My precious Revna,” he’d fume of his Queen. “Murdered her in cold blood! The Braders are nothing more than ruby-covered snakes. They ensnare you with their charms and coax you with their deceit, and once you are close enough, they swallow you whole!”

Then after his rant, he’d call for his advisers and discuss possible attack strategies against Baelliles, even though our people know he’ll never strike first.

Verdana suffers. Verdana is weak.

Our army shields the river and sends scouts on suicide missions to find a way to break our enemy’s defenses. Still the people whisper. Still they chant. They crave Baelliles’ destruction, and no one craves it more than I.

“Lady Idalia, you must go to the oratory at once,” Nurse Lydia exclaims as she flies into my room.

I jerk upright in my bed, clutching the sheets over my bare breasts.

“Lady and Shield, Lydia! The moon is still out! What brings you to my chambers this early?”

She clicks her tongue, unfazed by my frustration, and pulls at the covers. “His Majesty insists upon seeing you. Immediately. He has important news. I don’t know any details beyond that.”

I groan and reach for my stolen bedding. Lydia easily thwarts my attempt. She balls more of the sheets into her fists and shakes her head.

“The King has ordered me to retrieve you. The message is urgent, so you should meet him with equal urgency! Would you really have me return to him empty-handed?”

“Inform him that I’m much too tired to venture as far as the oratory. Explain that I require a full night’s rest before receiving important news. Trust that he’ll be less than surprised to know I say so.”