The Deepest Blue(95)

“You’ll want robes. You can’t walk through the city today like that. Not on Coronation Day. There are extras at the end of the dock.”

Both Mayara and Roe thanked him as Garnah began to complain that she didn’t want robes, her dress was delightful, he was rude, and couldn’t he do something about those damn endless bells? Coming up beside her, Mayara shepherded Garnah past the official.

“Mark down that it’s the queen’s ship,” Roe suggested to him.

Looking relieved, he made notes in his ledger. “It’s a difficult day,” the man said. “It’s important to heed the rules on difficult days.”

Garnah made a snorting sound, and Mayara heard her grumbling about “small people with small minds clinging to their minutiae” as they hurried down the dock.

“Please don’t cause trouble,” Mayara whispered to her. “We can’t draw attention to ourselves.”

It was important that no one stopped them before they reached the queen. The quicker they did this, the better. Especially if the queen was Lanei.

Stepping off the dock, Mayara saw a heap of white fabric on a cart. She drew three robes out of the pile. They were more like cloaks, designed to wrap around whatever you wore, with a simple ribbon at the neck to tie them on. As they dressed, Mayara noticed that unless they were in uniform like the harbor official, everyone wore similar white robes.

Mourning robes.

Her village didn’t keep with that tradition, but the city did.

“It’s to symbolize that we’re all the same,” Roe explained. “We’ve felt a loss, yet we still live. We’re sharing our pain. It’s meant to be comforting. Like the bells.”

“I am not comforted,” Garnah said. “And my pain is no one else’s business.”

“Think of it as wearing a disguise,” Mayara offered. In the robes, they’d blend in. She thought the Silent Ones who knew them from Akena were all on Olaku Island, but it was best not to take unnecessary risks. “Come on. If Lanei is still at the grove, we might be able to talk to her alone. If it is Lanei.”

They followed the official’s directions, turning left down a shell-encrusted path along the shore. It was only a few minutes before they saw it.

The grove lay cradled in the bones of a leviathan. A rib cage, polished by the wind, protected it from the sea. Just beyond the bones, waves slammed against the shore, and just behind it was the soaring spire of the tallest tower of the palace. The tower was doorless, and the windows were so high that Mayara saw them only as smudges on the iridescent shell wall.

“No guards,” Garnah noted.

“Is that a bad sign?” Roe asked.

“The grove is sacred,” Mayara said. “It shouldn’t need to be guarded.” She’d heard stories about the coronation grove since she was a kid. Every country had one: a special place where a woman of power could bond with all the spirits linked to their land. Entering it when one wasn’t an heir ready to take the reins of power was . . . tacky, at best.

Most likely, they’d enter the grove, find an heir at her post, and have to answer a slew of potentially embarrassing or incriminating why-are-you-here questions. That’s the best case. In the best case, a trained heir was the new queen, and Lanei had never made it to Yena.

“That’s stupid,” Garnah said. “Of course sacred spaces should be guarded. You have an unwarranted faith in people’s ability to respect what’s important.” She lifted her ruffled skirts to climb over a chunk of rock.

“Without a queen, we all die,” Roe said. “It’s fear, not respect.”

“So that’s why no guards,” Mayara said, hoping she was right. There was something eerie about the emptiness of the path to the grove. Behind them the city was filled with white-robed men, women, and children, mourning the death of the old queen and rejoicing the ascension of the new. Every bell had been ringing nonstop, an endless proclamation of the fact that the world had changed again and they’d survived. Or at least survived so far, she thought.

“Still think it’s shortsighted,” Garnah said. “You can’t post a few guards for a place this important?”

“It always has an heir stationed here,” Roe argued. “She can call on spirits to defend the grove against whoever wants to disrespect it.”

“You people trust in tradition too much,” Garnah said. “You realize if Belene cared less about tradition and more about—”

Roe cut her off. “Stop.”

She rushed forward, down the final curve of the path and in between two vertical ribs. Mayara wondered what she’d seen and felt her stomach lurch. It couldn’t be good. She felt as if she was beginning to forget what a good surprise felt like. Yes, she’d seen Kelo and had confirmation that he wasn’t dead, but she’d also been parted from him again ridiculously quickly.

Mayara and Garnah followed after, coming into the grove behind Roe.

Inside the bones, there was a circle of blue stones with cracks that ran like veins through them, with smooth obsidian in the middle.

A body lay facedown in the center.

“It’s an heir,” Roe said flatly.

Mayara saw the uniform. She’s right.

Blood pooled, rich red against the black stone. No one else was in the stone circle. “Did spirits kill her?” Mayara asked. I can’t believe I’m hoping for that.