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Back The Night and Its Moon
Chapters (64)
  1. Front Cover
  2. Title Page
  3. Copyright
  4. Contents
  6. Pronunciation Guide
  7. Prologue
  8. Part One
  9. One
  10. Two
  11. Three
  12. Four
  13. Five
  14. Six
  15. Seven
  16. Eight
  17. Nine
  18. Ten
  19. Eleven
  20. Twelve
  21. Thirteen
  22. Part Two
  23. Fourteen
  24. Fifteen
  25. Sixteen
  26. Seventeen
  27. Eighteen
  28. Nineteen
  29. Twenty
  30. Twenty-One
  31. Twenty-Two
  32. Twenty-Three
  33. Part Three
  34. Twenty-Four
  35. Twenty-Five
  36. Twenty-Six
  37. Twenty-Seven
  38. Twenty-Eight
  39. Twenty-Nine
  40. Thirty
  41. Thirty-One
  42. Thirty-Two
  43. Thirty-Three
  44. Thirty-Four
  45. Thirty-Five
  46. Part Four
  47. Thirty-Six
  48. Thirty-Seven
  49. Thirty-Eight
  50. Thirty-Nine
  51. Forty
  52. Forty-One
  53. Forty-Two
  54. Forty-Three
  55. Forty-Four
  56. Forty-Five
  57. Forty-Six
  58. Forty-Seven
  59. Epilogue
  60. Excerpt from The Sun and Its Shade
  61. The Night and Its Moon Playlist
  62. Acknowledgments
  63. About the Author
  64. Back Cover

If the walls surrounding the city itself hadn’t been protective enough, this cream-colored citadel was a solid stronghold, built to the teeth with fortifications. The beige stones had been rounded for uniformity, lending a bricklike appearance to the vast, thick walls and towers that covered Aubade’s center. While the reev had been cold and gray, the coastal city offered warm, earthy tones to the megalith, forged from the earth, clay, and rocks of its climate. As Priory was on a lip of the coast, the three travelers had been able to see the castle from a far-off angle, appreciating its size and shape from miles away. It had taken on a familiar, animal frame from a distance. Amaris found herself able to discern precisely what shape it was as they drew nearer.

Now that she was nearly upon it, four primary towers, countless windows in height, jutted from the angles of a rectangular backside, but a long, secondary rectangle with a curved front angled its way forward, as if the castle had been created to resemble the head of a horse. The snoutlike portion of the castle seemed composed of at least five levels. From Priory’s coast, she’d gathered that there was another structure at the back of the castle looming over its cliffs. While she couldn’t be sure, something circular seemed to frame the back of the castle, as if the beast was wearing a halo atop its head. She smiled to herself at the idea of the bird’s-eye view of the ruddy-cream, horse-faced, halo-wearing angelic fortress of Queen Moirai and its crowned prince. The southern kingdom sat within a horse’s head. It was strange what idle thoughts brought one comfort in uncertain times.

There was something oddly comforting about the expanse before her, as if she found some small relief in knowing how easy it would be to slip away in a fortress this large, hiding in the castle for days or weeks or twenty years without ever being found. She and Nox had found ways to hide in Farleigh, and it had been a thimble compared to this megalith. Surely, she’d find safety in the expanse of its custard walls.

The constabulary, having completed their primary task, were held up not by security upon arrival at the castle, but rather the castle’s servants halted them. The reevers may as well have been grimy street urchins at their door. The guests would certainly need to bathe, they insisted, before they could be ushered in to see Queen Moirai.

They were right. Suddenly self-conscious, Amaris became acutely aware of the grime and filth that clung to her and her friends.