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palace on the other side. These walls looked too pretty to hold off a real attack. “There’s a wall all the way round, you Fretting Franza,” he teased. “And all sorts of mage work you’re not seeing. You think they’d let Their Majesties and His Highness anywhere near a place that wasn’t protected, ground to crown?”

    I wanted to ask him that, if this was true, why were we here, but we had come to another gate, guarded again by men of the King’s Own. My skin was starting to itch. I was no expert on palace matters, unlike my brother Nilo. He was a palace courier and knew all sorts of things about royalty. Still, as I remembered it, the Palace Guard was supposed to protect the monarchs’ homes, the King’s Own their persons. If that was so, why did I see no red-and-tan uniforms on the walls? Everyone who stood up there wore blue and silver.

    This time our guards from the King’s Own had to come forward, and Lord Gershom had to show his signet ring. I did not like the look of these guards at all. Even the darkest-skinned of them was ashen. Some of them had sweat marks on their pretty tunics. Some of them had hands that shook as they held their weapons.

    I looked at Tunstall, who was already eyeing me. He scratched his scruffy beard. I nodded. Something very bad had taken place here.

    As our two guides went ahead with the packhorses to lead us on the road that climbed away from the main gate, I promised myself I would never pack my bit of spelled mirror away again. I was very curious to know if the men who’d just let us enter were magicked like our guides not to talk about whatever had frightened them so badly.

    We did not gallop, but we went at a good trot, always uphill, always curving left through trees. These were a bit wilder than the ones by the road below, a proper setting for streams that formed little waterfalls over heaps of rocks. I caught glimpses of a large building atop the high ground. First I saw a long hall open on one side with outside pillars to support the upper story. Next came balconies that stood out from a wall, draped with flowering vines.

    Then we came into view of the sea. I had to admire it as it shone there, gold in the afternoon sun. Straight below us lay stone heights, and then a stone wall where a handful of men from the King’s Own stood guard. Below the wall were more stone cliffs. If there was a beach, I did not see it.

    Brace yourselves
, Pounce said from behind my ear. Tunstall looked our way, so he’d heard. Neither Lord Gershom nor the mage so much as twitched. They had not overheard.

    “For what,
hestaka
?” Tunstall asked Pounce. It meant “wise one” in Tunstall’s original Hurdik.

    Pounce always got full of himself when Tunstall called him that, but not this time.
You’ll see
, he replied.

    The Summer Palace appeared through the trees on my left, a long building with another open corridor on this side. There were balconies and turrets that must have been pretty white stone once. Now soot streaks marred everything. Part of this wing had collapsed into the cellars. Some of the remains stood open to the air. Others sported a single shutter, or half-burned ones. Tatters of burned draperies and furniture had been thrust from the windows to lie haphazard below. A chill ran clean down my spine and up into my skull. This was fearful business.

    Achoo whimpered and scrabbled against the ties that held her to the packhorse. Something was frightening her.

    “Would you release her?” I called to the men of the King’s Own. “She needs to get down.” The younger one rode to Achoo’s horse to do as I asked while I looked around.

    Between the palace and our road were gardens. Mayhap they’d been pretty, too, but not now. Bodies lay among the flowers. Here were the missing Palace Guards, as well as men of the King’s Own, and the Black God knew how many servants, all burned, sword hacked, or stabbed.

    Lord Gershom swore. “Tunstall?”

    Tunstall rode up