I am careful not to react too much, lest Constantine realize how much I’ve overheard. My emotions stay even, but my mind whirls at the news. Tanapeg and Carreal, states bordering the Federation’s territorial limits. The same states whose rebel leaders had been punished in Newage.

Independence.

No doubt Constantine will order troops there, may send General Caitoman out to crush the unrest. But an outright declaration of independence?

That means the Premier didn’t have enough troops to quell the beginnings of their rebellion. It means the Federation might be spread too thin, and this negligence has cost Constantine the advantage of absolute control.

How deep do these cracks in the Federation run? Where do they go?

The questions sit heavy on my chest as we go, taking root there.

The rest of the city has been covered entirely in scarlet banners and strings of golden lights. Food carts line the streets, the aroma of their sizzling meats and breads sending my stomach grumbling. I look on as children chase one another through the streets, laughing, pointing, and waving at the Premier’s caravan parading toward the central palace. As sundown approaches, pink light casts a warm glow across the entire city. The distinctive glass domes that top so many Karensan buildings catch the warm hues of the light. The angle of the glass is designed in such a way that the tops of these buildings look bathed in bloody light.

It is such a contrast to Mara’s black-and-white architecture or Basea’s lush greenery. My heart trembles at the sight.

By the time the sun sets, we have reached the end of Cardinia’s main thoroughfare, where the central palace looms. General Caitoman rides on horseback in front of his patrols, leading our procession forward. Here, I see the beginnings of a vast sculpture garden with installations taken from every conquered region inside the Federation. The hollow steel husks of the Early Ones’ ancient flying machines. Bones of old buildings, mangled steel and stone, jutting up into the sky. Pieces of domes and straight white columns taken from some old ruling house.

But then there are the newer pieces: a stone statue of a beautiful woman taken from Danbury; the carved arch of what was once an enormous door, taken from the halls of Saleia’s governor; a collection of matching busts that used to line the front steps leading up to Tanapeg’s Senate Hill, depicting each of that former nation’s leaders before Karensa came.

There must be hundreds of these sculptures, all artfully placed in this garden and surrounded by blooming flowers. The pieces then continue on down the middle of the main thoroughfare leading both ways from the palace, for as far as the eye can see.

Constantine turns to me as I stare at the structures we pass. I preserve beauty when I see it, he tells me casually through our bond, as if this is a valid reason for all the stolen pieces here.

I grit my teeth and look away from him. These are haunted tombs.