“I’m cold,” she said.
Taryel tightened his arms around her, and together they fell through the sky, spinning into the darkness.
CHAPTER 34
Lord D’Luc arrived late that morning, and the sickening knot in Ru’s stomach returned. Lyr waited outside in the hall, as he always had. Hugon dismissed the King's Guard, and Ru tried not to look at him, but her gaze caught his for a fleeting moment — less than a breath of time — and the pain of it was crushing.
Lyr was gone, and an emptiness gazed back.
“Forget about him,” Lord D’Luc said lightly, steering them in a different direction than usual. They were headed away from the cavern, and he had instructed her to wear boots and to bring an overcoat and mittens. “There’s no point clinging to that which is gone.”
Ru’s throat burned from the effort of holding her emotions in check. She wished for Taryel, wished that they were still tangled together in her bed.
“Where are we going?” she asked, more to distract herself than out of actual curiosity. She felt the oppression of loss slipping over her again, and she gnawed her lip.Don’t let him see you breaking,she urged herself.Be strong.
“We’re going outside,” said Hugon. He held up his gloves, fur-lined leather.
She didn’t push him. His lips were tightly drawn, his eyes darting, as if unhappy thoughts pulled him out of the present moment and kept him moving with brisk steps through the palace. When at last they came to the garden, Ru was too warm from the walk, and the burst of cold air on her face was a relief.
It had snowed in the night. Ru hadn’t noticed; she had been so caught up in Taryel. Soft white powder crunched under their boots. Caps of snow perched on rounded topiary. A light snow still fell, though the flakes were so light that they drifted in swirls of wind, seemingly never quite reaching the ground.
Lord D’Luc bent to scoop up a handful of snow, molding it into a sphere.
The garden was expansive. Ru had thought at first, in the heavy grey, that they were in a very large courtyard. But now she saw that they were outside the palace entirely, and that if she squinted, when the wind shifted, she could see a sliver of the sea to the south.
“These are the pleasure gardens,” Hugon said, continuing onward.
Ru had been to the palace once before in winter when she was very little. Simon had wanted to play chase in the garden.Thisgarden, she realized. The snow had been fresh, like today. But instead of a wide blanket of white, little walkways had been carved into the powder by the shovels of servants, rising early to clear the garden’s many paths.
But that had been what felt like a long time ago, back when the palace was free and joyful and full of light. Now, the palace had become something like Inda or Ranto or Nell, elegant yet empty. A remnant of a thing that had once been vital.
Ru and Lord D’Luc continued through the snow, tufts of white kicking up as they went.
“As much as I love a pleasure garden,” Ru said, “I have to ask the obvious question.”
“Why have I taken you out into the snow rather than to the cavern?”
The thought of that damp place, the dripping stalactites, filled Ru with sick dread. “Yes,” she said. “Lady Bellenet said…”
“That two weeks remain,” he interrupted. “I know.”
She trailed in his wake. Snowflakes landed on her eyelashes, melting on her cheeks. She pulled on her gloves, glad to have brought them. The kingdom’s imminent fate seemed almost unbelievable now. A horrible joke in the wake of Lyr’s loss. She said, absently, “Two weeks until a new Destruction.”
Hugon glanced sideways at her. “Until you fulfill your destiny.” As if these were two different things.
“If by destiny, you mean finally submitting to what you believe is Festra’s will. Killing everyone.”
“If that’s how you’d like to think of it.”
She stumbled, her foot catching on an uneven surface, and he caught her elbow easily, stopping her fall. They stood glaring at one another. Ru was annoyed by how well the snow suited him, how the gold in his hair softened against it. His cheeks and nose were pink in the cold.
“What if you have it all wrong?” she asked, careful not to give herself away, knowing that her visit to the temple must remain a secret. “What if Festra was appalled by the things you’ve done? By what you plan to do?”
He regarded Ru with an expression that hovered somewhere between confusion and awe. “Do you mean to tell me you believe in Festra now?”
She paused. “No, but…”
He laughed once, a sad huff of an exhale. “It doesn’t matter anyway.”
