Palace of Lies Read Online Free PDF Page A

a way that each one of the candles just happened to land on flammable fabric?
    It was a ludicrous thought. It was impossible.
    â€œThe fire’s been set!” I hissed. “Somebody started those fires. They’re still starting them!”
    Even as I spoke, the first of the south-wall draperies went up in flame too.
    The three of us were standing by the west wall—the only one still untouched by flame.
    â€œQuick—the secret passages!” I cried.
    Now I tugged on Cecilia’s and Harper’s arms—and the two of them resisted.
    â€œYou don’t hide inside a wall when a fire breaks out!” Cecilia protested. “You go outside! Where it’s safe!”
    â€œI don’t think it’s safe outside right now,” I argued. “I think that’s where they want us to go!”
    I didn’t think I needed to spell out who they were—the unknown, unseen people starting the fires, the source of the hidden danger I’d known was there all along.
    Only, now it had burst out into the open.
    Cecilia and Harper were both still staring at me blankly. Oh—they hadn’t heard me over the crackling flames and the screaming crowd. Even in the midst of a fire, I’d automatically used my carefully modulated bell-like, palace-approved voice.
    Panicked dancers swarmed past us; the dance floor was now engulfed in smoke. The smoke was like something alive: hunching, stretching, advancing, retreating . . . Even if the flames at the bottom of the draperies and tapestries were beaten back, the smoke bearing down on the crowd could still win. The smoke spun, trailing behind dancers frantically fleeing the dance floor, and for an instant I had a clear view of one of the girls in the shiny golden crowns. It was asister-princess with dark hair, one in an aquamarine dress—Rosemary? Fidelia? I wasn’t close enough to see a face; in the panic and smoke and fear, I couldn’t remember who had been wearing which dress.
    I have to get her out through the secret passages too , I thought, actually stepping toward the flames and smoke.
    The smoke swirled; my next glimpse showed two men sidling up beside Rosemary/Fidelia and putting arms around her shoulders.
    Oh good, somebody else is taking care of her , I thought. So I don’t have to worry.
    Except that, in the next instant, the princess in the aquamarine dress crumpled to the floor, and the two men moved away as though that was what they’d intended all along.
    If thirteen princesses die in a tragic palace fire, what then? I wondered. Who would dare to question it? Who would risk offending whatever ruler replaces us?
    I was still clutching Cecilia’s and Harper’s arms. Something pounded in my heart, a feeling too intense for the palace. Even if I failed at everything else—even if I myself died—I had to save Cecilia and Harper. They were so innocent, so good, so out of place in this palace of smoke and mirrors.
    A surge of strength flowed through me, and I shoved Cecilia and Harper toward the wall.
    â€œGo!” I screamed, all modulation gone from my voice now.
    All three of us slammed into the stone wall—had webeen running too fast? I let go of the other two just long enough to run my fingers along a familiar crack in the stone, to spring a release that almost nobody else knew about. A door in the stone appeared, the opening just wide enough to squeeze through.
    I glanced back quickly. The smoke had grown in the past few moments; now it rose like another wall behind us. But I was grateful for it now. Since I couldn’t see anybody clearly through the smoke, surely that meant that nobody could see me.
    I shoved first Cecilia, then Harper through the opening to the secret passages.
    â€œSave Cecilia!” I screamed in Harper’s ear. “Go down two flights of stairs, there’s a way out to the street . . .”
    I was relieved that there was no hint of smoke