As I stepped through the doorway, a slippery softness clung to my skin like I was walking through a bubble. The air was unexpectedly crisp, and if I closed my eyes, I might imagine I was on the beach instead of hundreds of feet below. Silk lanterns were strung up along the path, casting their luminous glow all around. We walked past rows of honey-colored stone houses with sweeping roofs of lapis and agate, glowing coral springing up between them, as vivid as wildflowers.

The Sea Immortals were pale, their skin a light yellow, perhaps because the sun could not reach this place. Their dark hair was braided and coiled around their heads, both men and women alike, and the eyes that turned to us in curious speculation were ringed in shades of blue. Shimmering cloaks of dragon yarn were draped around their bodies, falling to their ankles like sheets of starlight.

At the center of this glittering jewel of a city rose the Bright Pearl Palace—shaped like a magnificent shell, its conical spires stretching out like the rays of the sun. Pearls of white, rose, and black studded the golden walls, and verdant seaweed towered as tall as trees, their fronds undulating in a graceful rhythm.

The guard led us into the palace, through a long corridor that seemed to curve once around the grounds before opening into a grand hall. Amber pillars climbed from the floor to the ceiling, encircled by strands of jade beads. Exquisite carpets of blue and emerald silk were strewn across the floor, woven with swirling patterns in silver, evoking images of the waves above. The immortals were magnificently attired, their robes shimmering with threads of gold, shining jewels plaited into their hair. They formed two lines that led to the dais at the far end, where a woman sat upon a throne of crimson coral, its delicate branches flaring wide. Queen Suihe, as regal and forbidding as when I had last seen her at Liwei’s banquet.

“Kneel, foreheads to the ground,” the guard ordered brusquely. “Greet Her Majesty before you dare look upon her.”

I tempered a flash of annoyance as I dropped to my knees, performing an obeisance. Prudence was advisable when one was a stranger to the court.

“Rise.” A command, yet the queen’s rich tones cloaked it in an invitation.

This close to the dais, Queen Suihe’s aura rushed over me—formidable and aloof, her power grasped at the ready like a spring coiled taut. Her violet robe pooled by her feet, banded around her waist by a rope of sapphires. An exquisite headdress rested on her black hair, wrought of jade leaves and turquoise flowers, a short fringe of coral beads falling over her brow. Her face possessed the soft curves of an apricot, though devoid of its warm blush.