Palace of Lies Read Online Free PDF

in the secret passageway. Flames and smoke rose, didn’t they? Wouldn’t Cecilia and Harper be safe climbing downward?
    â€œOh yes, through the torture chamber,” Cecilia shouted. “I remember now! I know the exact door!”
    â€œThen go straight on to Fridesia,” I commanded. “Leave immediately! There’s something going on here, some danger none of us knew about. . . . Save yourselves!”
    It was terrible that sending them to the land of our former enemies seemed the best way to save their lives.
    â€œTell Ella and Jed!” I added, taking a step back. “Get their advice! Let them help you figure everything out . . .”
    I began easing the door shut between meand Cecilia and Harper. Harper’s face went pale behind his freckles, and Cecilia’s eyes grew wide, as if it were just now occurring to both of them that I didn’t intend to escape through the secret passageway with them.
    â€œDesmia!” Cecilia screamed. “You come too!”
    â€œI’ll meet you in Fridesia!” I screamed back, still shoving on the stone door. “It’ll be safer if we travel separately! In disguise!”
    Stone met stone with a subtle click; the door to the secret passages was hidden once more.
    Harper will care most about getting Cecilia to safety, I told herself. And Cecilia will want to make sure that Harper stays out of danger. . . .
    My heart twisted as I turned to face the smoke again. I couldn’t have said if it was because of fear or hope or just the longing to have somebody, someday, love me the way Harper and Cecilia loved each other. Could the other two possibly believe that I would meet them in Fridesia? Could they believe it enough that they’d manage to save their own lives?
    The other princesses , I reminded myself. They need to be rescued, too . . .
    The smoke was so thick now that it was impossible to see more than a foot or two in any direction. My eyes stinging, I hunched over, because the smoke seemed to thin a bit lower down. Was that the glint of a golden crown off through the tendrils of smoke? Was that a girl in an aquamarine dress still lying on the floor?
    You knew there was still danger, I chided myself. Even I hadn’t known to fear fire, but at least I’d known to be on guard. You should have warned the others; you should have told them a ball is always more than just giggling and dressing up and dancing. You let them stay too innocent and now you owe it to them to save them . . .
    It was undignified and unroyal to crawl—not to mention, incredibly difficult in a ball gown. But I dropped to my knees anyway. I took a deep breath and held it, then lumbered forward even though the smoke hid my destination from view. I bumped into something that might have been the fluffy layers of an aquamarine dress covering an unconscious princess.
    Not dead, I told myself. Surely not dead yet.  . . . Surely those two men didn’t actually kill her. . . .
    I grappled for ankles or wrists, hands or feet—something to pull on, anyway. I could check for a pulse later, when the unknown princess and I were both safe. A shoe came off in my hands and I wasted time staring at it stupidly for a moment, noticing the arch of the heel, the golden filigree meant to loop daintily from ankle to toe.
    â€œWe’ll take care of her, princess,” a man’s voice said from behind me. “We’ll take care of you both.”
    How did he know I was a princess from behind, in all this smoke? I wondered.
    Then I remembered my own crown, still glistening on my head.
    I’d been an idiot. In a ballroom where people were settingdrapes and tapestry on fire and going around knocking princesses unconscious—or dead—I should have taken my crown off first thing, disguised my identity before taking a single step in any direction.
    I spun to face my supposed rescuer—or