Her Cinder Throne (Completed)

Chapter 6

The palace compound was almost a city within itself. Locked away from the rest of Soma behind tall white stone walls, the buildings were all built in similar opulent styles. They were separated into courtyards, each one used for different purposes. The magnolia courtyard held the buildings used for the engineers of the city, and they were painted in the sky blue of the clan. The cherry courtyard was where the hired chefs lived and where the food was prepared and stored. It carried on from there, little sections where the people who worked in the palace compound could carry out their work in efficiency.

Cole stared at it all with eyes threatening to burst from her skull as Pim led her down the pathways that wound through them. Sparkstone lanterns lit up every square inch of the compound, and Sparkstones tied to wires threaded across the open air walkways, looking like stars come to earth. It truly did feel like walking through the sun, and Cole could scarcely believe such a place existed.

Men and women walked through the compound, unbothered by the late hour, trailing the smells of delicate flowers and earthy woods as they laughed and conversed. The men sported their fashionably short hair under leather hats with wide brims, and the women pinked their cheeks with rose water to look as if they were ever blushing in the presence of their handsome companions.

Soft string music floated through the air seemingly from nowhere, and the scent of fresh bread and flowers made the stuffy air of the summer night feel bearable. Cole had never experienced anything like this, and she felt like she had stepped back into Avallen. These were not humans walking around her in the colors of orchids and blood, but instead faeries and mystical beings that did not belong in the wretched city that Cole knew.

Pim led her to the bamboo courtyard, where all the buildings were painted a fresh spring green. This was the royal courtyard, and where the actual palace stood. It was near the wall, a towering building made of white stone, visible from the river down in the city. Its massive walls were lit with Sparkstone sconces so that it seemed to glow, and its banners embroidered with the royal crest were clearly visible.

"We'll head into the servants' quarters to meet with Mistress first," Pim said, skirting away from the palace and heading to a row of buildings painted with the spring green and which lay low and long a few hundred feet away.

Inside the low building, the grandeur faded to a level that wouldn't be out of place in a servant's quarters. While everything was neat and in good repair, there was no longer bright colors and embroidery and garden-like scents. Each room had a purpose, and men and women dressed in similar robes bustled in and out as their jobs dictated. No one paid much attention to Cole and Pim beyond brief curious glances at Cole and her filthy and strange appearance. Otherwise, they ignored the two as they walked through the hallways and in to another building where rows of beds, stacked two tall, filled the large open room. At the end, another room was sectioned off with a wall and door, and this was where Pim took Cole.

He knocked, and a woman's voice bid them to enter. Pim let Cole in to the warm room, where the smell of cedar wood floated softly in the air. A desk sat right in front of the door, with the bed and lounging chairs set further into the room. At the desk, an old woman sat peering at papers through a beryl stone. She was small and made of soft wrinkles that folded with grace and wisdom on her face and hands. Her eyes, cloudy blue, traced the magnified words through the beryl stone, and she waited until she had finished her sentence before she glanced up.

"I take it that we have Cole Glassad before us," the woman said, and waved them to stand in front of her as she flipped her papers over and rested her hands on top.

"Yes, I found her just where you said, Mistress," Pim said, smiling and gesturing at Cole as if she was some amazing prize that anyone would be proud to look at. Instead, she felt dirty and horribly underdressed in her male clothing. Mistress wore her plain woolen shift with the dignity of a queen, and it made Cole shift uncomfortably in her trousers and tunic.