When I part ways with the woman, I turn to find Hammond watching me from across the room. The Second Sentinel smiles softly, the kind of smile I imagine my father would give me in that moment. “How are you holding up, Lady Shirene?”

“As well as I can be,” I reply.

“You are doing very well.”

“Thank you,” I say. “I wish I had your confidence.”

A shuffle of movement at the door, followed by the slam of it banging against the stone wall, makes me jump. Sentinel Renna stands in the doorway, her expression flooded with alarm.

She doesn’t need to say a word. Hammond and I cross the room, joining Renna in the hallway. One of the more practiced healers is beside her, a basket of healing herbs and tonics gripped tightly in her left hand.

“Come,” Renna says. “Hurry.”

We wind through the hallways of the palace. Maids and other palace workers duck out of our way, sensing the urgency in our steps. We pass the generals’ quarters, whizzing by a pair of girls who must be daughters of someone on the king’s war council. As thanks for their service, generals and their families are given living spaces here in the palace, the same way sentinels are.

Only we are not allowed to have families, I think bitterly, remembering the young mother’s question from earlier. It was the hardest part of volunteering myself to be selected as a sentinel. Seth and I talked for hours, but we both knew the incredible honor it would be to serve the city so intently. I can serve as long as I want, and we’ll have our family when we are both a little older.

“Renna, what’s this about?” Hammond asks as we continue to climb staircase after staircase to the higher levels.

“Not yet,” she replies curtly. Then she adds, “The king has called for us.”

The rules don’t allow for Leonodai to fly while inside the palace, though there are emergency exits built into the walls in case of a fire or other disaster. My legs burn, but it isn’t my first or last time climbing from the lower levels to the royal family’s quarters below the Glass Tower.

At long last, we pass the guards on either side of the one staircase that provides access to the royals’ wing. Normally, they’d have stopped the healer, but when flanked by three sentinels, anyone would be let by.

Catching my breath, I trail behind the others as Renna turns left toward the queen’s quarters. The scent in the air changes from the honey warmth of the palace candles to the light smell of jasmine, the queen’s favorite. A handmaiden dressed in pale purple and pinks nods to Renna as we approach, and we’re let in without being announced.

The queen sits on the bed with her head in her hands, sobbing.