The Queen's Secret (The Queen's Secret #2) - Melissa de la Cruz Page 0,28
windows,” Rhema says. “One of the cooks told me that she worked in the kitchens there as a girl. She said that in the great hall of Violla Ruza, some of the windows have actual colored glass. Can you believe it? And there’s a rose on each one, with three circles around them.”
She was talking about the Renovian royal seal. Cal knew it well.
“The three circles symbolize eternity,” he tells her.
“Shame it’s not four. Four kingdoms and so on.”
Cal picks up the pace. He doesn’t want to think about the four kingdoms right now. They just remind him of dynasty and duty, and all the things keeping him and Lilac apart.
Lilac. It was in the palace of Violla Ruza that Cal first saw her in princess guise, rather than her other identity of country maiden Shadow. He’ll never forget the day he was ushered into Queen Lilianna’s receiving chamber, so ornate and intimidating. Giant doors with gold scroll handles, like something in a storybook. A high arched ceiling and tall windows. The queen sat on her throne, and next to her was the mysterious princess that few members of the public had ever seen. Lilac was impossible to recognize as Shadow: She wore a silvery white wig that resembled a giant cake, and a feathery white mask obscured most of her face. Cal didn’t recognize her that day.
Sometimes he thinks he doesn’t recognize her now.
The gates open for Cal: He and his assassins are expected, so Hansen’s messenger must have arrived. Cal’s humble apprentices, as he predicted, aren’t permitted onto the palace grounds. They’re hustled off to the stable block, and Jander, at least, seems relieved. They’ll sleep tonight with a roof over their heads, after eating a supper they haven’t had to kill or cook themselves. Cal’s not sure how long they’re expected to stay in the capital, but their horses certainly need a rest.
Jander and Rhema lead the horses to the stables, and Cal is directed to the palace. He asks for time to clean up before his audience with the queen, but her captain of the guard is insistent: Her Majesty wants to see Caledon Holt right away, the moment he arrives in the palace grounds. Here Cal is conscious of his grubbiness, of the dirt crusted on his boots and in every crevice of his face, in a way that he never is in Mont. Maybe he cares less in another country. But Renovia is his homeland, and Lilianna is his queen. Before he was Lilac’s right hand, he was the Queen’s Assassin of Renovia, taking the place of his famous father.
His late father. What would Cordyn Holt say if he knew the kind of life that Cal lived now, as the secret pet of another man’s wife? What would his father say about Cal’s failure to stamp out the Aphrasian rebellion or find the Deian Scrolls?
It’s strange to be back here inside the palace, entering its impressive entrance hall with the walls covered by portraits of the kings and queens of Renovia. Cal glances to his right, where the portraits of King Esban, Lilac’s father, and Queen Lilianna, painted when she was a young woman, hang side by side.
He’s startled to see that the small portrait of Lilac as a baby has been replaced with one of Lilac on her wedding day, in her crown and other finery, beaming with regal happiness. He almost stumbles at the sight. It’s as if Lilac were in the room with him, but not the Lilac that Cal knows. In this portrait she’s Hansen’s happy bride, ascending to the joint thrones as though it were the thing she wants most in the world.
Perhaps she does, he thinks. Perhaps her life as Shadow was always just a dream, a play. In the hall here she’s surrounded by portraits of her storied ancestors, all the way back to cruel King Phras with his pointed beard and narrowed eyes. The legacy of the Dellafiores is power, not love.
Not love with a lowborn assassin, that’s for sure.
Guards lead him up the sweeping staircase and open doors after doors: The corridors in this palace feel endless, bright with the light from tapers. The flames reflect off the gold detailing along the floor and ceiling. It’s a beautiful place, Cal thinks, and he’s not surprised that Lilac finds the castle in Mont to be so dreary and uncomfortable by comparison.
The final set of doors swings open to an apartment that’s well-lit and all white, even