The Alcazar (The Cerulean Duology #2) - Amy Ewing Page 0,60

field, a bucket of water in one hand.

“Mother,” she wanted to call, but her lips wouldn’t move.

Sera was shocked to see how vacant and dark her eyes were. She had never seen her mother look so empty or so sad. Her purple mother paused and turned, staring at the obelisk with a furrowed brow, but then someone called out, “Kandra!” and she roused herself and kept walking, leaving Sera with an aching heart. There was another crackle and the image faded until only the walls of the washroom remained. Sera blinked and found tears in her eyes.

She looked down at the moonstone lying innocently in her palm. It was all connected, she thought. Leela was right. If she had visions of Sera on the planet and now Sera was having visions of the City . . . perhaps whatever moonstone was left in the City was finally coming alive again. It just took a Cerulean coming to the planet to waken its power.

The High Priestess would be able to explain all of this, Sera was sure of it. The one person who could not be asked. Sera could not understand what the High Priestess gained in keeping them attached to this planet for so long, but she was certain of one thing. It was more important than ever that she get to the tether.

Even if she had to break it again, and do it right this time. The City was meant to move.

She stood and wrapped herself in a big fluffy towel, then froze. Her purple mother had been at the birthing houses. Leela had said a birthing season had begun. Sera had not put it together at first, but . . . that meant her purple mother had been blessed to bear another daughter. She leaned against the wall, her blood rushing in her ears, her magic churning in her veins. Had she been forgotten so quickly? But she recalled the look on her purple mother’s face and something strong and sure inside her said No. Her purple mother would never forget her.

But did her purple mother know she was alive, like Leela did? If they were friends now—strange as that thought was—wouldn’t Leela have told her?

There was a light tap on the door. “Are you all done, miss?” the serving girl asked timidly.

“Yes, I’m coming,” Sera said, pulling herself together.

The girl led her to an opulent stateroom with a large bed, gilt-framed paintings on the walls, and a velvet-covered love seat beneath a sizable porthole. She brushed Sera’s hair until it shone, pinning up one side with a comb decorated with tiny blue mussel shells and dressing her in soft lavender silk that draped across her chest and left one shoulder bare, clasped at her other shoulder with a heavy brooch fashioned in the shape of a dragonfly. She tried to put a pair of golden sandals on Sera’s feet but she flat-out refused. Cerulean did not wear shoes.

The servant led her to an even more opulent dining room, ushering her inside and closing the door. A huge oak table with an exquisite candelabra in its center was set for four. Instead of a porthole, there was a long rectangular window covered with delicate latticework. The walls were painted in muted mauve and maroon stripes, the chairs upholstered in burgundy and gold. A large oil painting of a haughty woman with a black dog at her side dominated the wall opposite the window.

Leo was the only one in the room, dressed in clothes similar to those he’d worn on the journey from Arbaz, though the shirt was pale blue and not cut quite so revealingly; the sash that cinched at his waist was a rich indigo and decorated with tiny crystals like stars. His eyes were lined in kohl and his curls fell loose, a crown of soft white scallop shells nestled among them. When he saw her, his whole face lit up. Sera felt an odd lurch in her chest.

“Oh, thank god,” he said, hurrying over to her. “This whole day has been surreal, hasn’t it? For a second, I worried my grandmother might have locked you up too.”

“Do you think she would do that?”

“No,” Leo said. “She’s just . . . she’s pretty intimidating. But she’s agreed to help us get to Braxos.”

Sera’s heart leaped. “Oh, Leo!” she exclaimed. “That’s wonderful.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “And for now she’s taking us to Culinnon.”

“But—but what about Agnes?”

“Her people will find Agnes,” Leo said. He seemed so sure, but Sera