by Shannon Hale
For Ava & Shauna
And all golden friends
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-one
Chapter Twenty-two
Chapter Twenty-three
Chapter Twenty-four
Chapter Twenty-five
Chapter Twenty-six
Chapter Twenty-seven
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Also by Shannon Hale
Chapter One
The god of creation broke me from stone
The mountain’s the only ma I’ve known
My pa is the blue sky sheltering me
So stone I am and sky I’ll be
Miri woke to the rustle of a feather-stuffed quilt. She stretched, her muscles humming. Warm yellow light poured through the glass windows, filling the chamber with morning. For a moment she was not sure why her breath felt ticklish in her chest, as if she were at chapel and trying to hold in a laugh. Then she remembered. She was going home.
“Today,” said Miri, her voice creaky with sleep.
Her roommates were awake too. A year ago, six Mount Eskel girls had come to Asland, Danland’s capital city, for their friend Britta’s marriage to Prince Steffan. Now four remained at the palace.
Esa dressed slowly, expertly using her right hand to pull her dress over her lame arm. Frid tore off her night things and stuffed her broad shoulders into a travel dress. Gerti, the youngest, just sat on the edge of her bed, her feet dangling.
“Today,” said Gerti, and the word was both mournful and glad.
Their bags were already packed and fat with presents for their families. With her allowance as a lady of the princess, Miri had purchased a set of chapel clothes, paper and ink, and chocolates for her sister, Marda. For Pa she had boots, honeyed nuts, and a new mallet. For the village school, an entire box of precious books.
Palace servants offered to carry their bags, leaving the four girls free to hold hands as they walked through the grand corridors, perhaps for the last time.
“It’s kind of like home now,” Gerti said. A servant was carrying her lute, and Miri thought Gerti looked small and vulnerable without the instrument strapped in its usual place over her chest. “It’s strange, isn’t it? How we’re leaving home to go home?”
“The boys at the forge tried to make me swear I’d come back.” Frid laughed. “Asland is all right for a visit, but I’m a Mount Eskel girl.”
“I think I’ll visit again, one day,” said Esa. As they passed the infirmary, she waved to the palace physicians who had spent the past months training her in their science.
Miri did not admit to the girls that she was already planning to return next spring. After all, even her pa and her sister did not know yet. But she and Peder had agreed that there was too much to do and learn in Asland to say farewell forever.
Miri took in a deep breath, memorizing the smells of the palace—sunlight warming the oil and lemon polish, the lavender soap used on the linens, and the hard scent she associated with metal. Miri smiled. But at the moment, she yearned for linder dust, warm goats, the wind against the autumn grasses. All the welcome smells of home.
“First thing when we get to Mount Eskel,” Frid said, “I’m going to throw a rock into the Great Crevasse.”
“A big rock, no doubt,” said Esa.
“As big a rock as I can lift. Ha! I can’t wait.”
Frid marched first out the doors and into the palace courtyard. Miri was last but hesitated only a moment before passing into the sunlight.
The traders’ wagons were loaded with food and other supplies to sell to the families on Mount Eskel. One empty wagon waited for the girls. Peder was sharing the bench with the driver.
Beyond the palace gates, beyond the sea of green park, the colorful buildings of Asland rose like a range of mountains. Autumn had softened the heat of summer, but the buildings were painted bright—red, yellow, blue, white, rust, green—as if in the capital spring was endless, always blooming, never cold.
The princess Britta, Miri’s best friend, was waiting to see them off, standing beside her new husband, Prince Steffan. Britta lifted a hand to wave at Miri but wiped a tear instead. Her cheeks were bright red as always, that merry feature contrasting with her wet brown eyes.
Though they had spent every day of the past week together and already said good-bye in a hundred ways, Miri hugged Britta again. Britta’s back shuddered with a small sob.
“Remember, Britta—” Miri started, trying to think of something funny to dull the sadness, but a man’s voice interrupted.
“Miri Larendaughter?”
Miri turned. A royal guard in a shiny silver breastplate and tall fur hat was striding across the courtyard.
“I’m Miri.”
“The king requests your presence,” he said.
Miri laughed nervously. “Right now? We’re just leaving.”
“The king requests your presence,” the royal guard said again.
“What is this about?” asked Steffan. He stiffened to his full height, and his manner reminded Miri that a boy who grows up in a palace probably never truly relaxes.
The guard bowed, noticing the prince for the first time. “I don’t know, Your Highness, but the king has also sent for you.”
Britta hooked Miri’s arm. “Fine, we’ll see what’s going on and be back in a few minutes.”
“You’ll wait for me?” Miri asked Enrik, their wagon driver.
He lifted his thin nose and sniffed, as if he could tell the time of day by smell. “If we want to reach the first camp before night, we have to go now.”
Miri’s middle felt yanked.
“On horse back you can easily catch up to a caravan of wagons,” said Britta.
“That’s right,” said Steffan. “Even if my father delays you for a couple of hours, I could get you to the camp by tonight.”
Peder jumped down from the wagon. “Then I’ll stay with you.”
The sun behind him, Peder’s curly hair looked pale gold. This past year’s apprenticeship with a stone carver had broadened his shoulders. His face and arms were brown from the summer, and to Miri, he looked as handsome as morning.
“But what if …” Miri cleared her throat. “What if I’m delayed longer?”
“All the more reason I should stay.”
“You promised your pa you’d be home after a year. If you aren’t on the first wagon, he’ll be—”
“Grumpier than a hungry billy goat,” finished Esa, Peder’s sister.
“I don’t want him mad at us, not now,” said Miri. As soon as she and Peder got home to Mount Eskel, they were going to ask their parents to approve their betrothal.
Peder scowled, but he did not disagree.
“I’ll find out what’s happening,” said Miri, “and then I’ll catch up on a fast horse, like Britta said.”
“I don’t know about that,” Peder said, “I have never actually seen you ride a fast horse.”
“Steffan can strap me to the horse’s rump like a sack of wheat.”
Peder smiled. “These lowlanders sure know how to have fun.”
Miri leaned in to hug him farewe
ll, but Peder stopped her with a kiss.
Frid, Esa, and Gerti exclaimed and hooted. Miri’s and Peder’s affection for each other was not a secret, but they’d never announced their intentions to become betrothed and certainly never kissed in front of others. Miri’s face burned forge-fire hot, but feeling stubborn, she put her arms around his neck and kissed him back.
“See you tonight,” he said, still holding her.
She let go and felt colder without his arms. The cold creeped into her heart and pinched there, a sharp, unexpected loneliness.
She scolded herself for being silly. After all, surely she would see him by end of day.
Peder and the girls sat in the wagon backward, their faces turned toward Miri. She watched until their wagon had passed through the gate and disappeared into the streets of Asland.
“Now, if you please,” said the royal guard.
As they made their way to the royal breakfast chamber, Miri’s sadness simmered into anger, her hands tightening into fists. She prepared herself to be bold and speak frankly with the king about her sudden summons. But then she entered the chamber and breathed in the icy, tense mood. With the king sat all thirty-two delegates, an elected noble and a commoner from each province in the kingdom. Three priests of the creator god stood along the wall in their brown tunics and white caps. Everyone wore equally grave expressions. The queen’s gaze found Miri, and her smile seemed relieved.
“Your Highness,” Britta said after the guard formally announced them, “Lady Miri was about to return to Mount Eskel when your summons prevented her.”
“And is my summons not good enough anymore?” The king’s beard shook as his chin trembled. “Does the wish of the king mean nothing?”
Britta blushed, her entire face turning as red as her mottled cheeks. For the first time that morning, Miri thought to be afraid.
“Father—” Steffan began.
The king waved his hand dismissively and gestured to the chief delegate, a thin man with a small, pointed beard.
“Early this morning, traders sailed from the commonwealth of Eris with news,” said the chief delegate. “The kingdom of Stora has invaded Eris. The battle lasted only three days. Eris surrendered.”
Steffan leaned forward to grip a chair back. Britta reached out for Miri’s hand. Stora was the largest kingdom on the continent. Miri imagined its vast army pouring into tiny Eris like all the sands of a beach trying to fill a single jar. And Eris bordered Danland.
“Danland can no longer take for granted our longstanding peace with Stora,” the chief delegate continued. “We must secure an unbreakable alliance. Stora’s King Fader is a widower. The delegation has decided to offer King Fader a royal daughter of Danland as a bride.”
“Ironic, isn’t it?” said the king, clattering plates as he reached for a bread basket. “Commoners clamor for revolution and the end of royal rule. But the moment the neighbors start loading their muskets, everyone runs to the king crying, ‘Save us!’ I have half a mind to let Stora invade and slaughter a province or two before coming to their aid.”
“But you won’t, sire,” said the queen.
“Of course I won’t,” he barked back.
The queen nodded and sipped her tea. She was a pale woman with dark hair and strong features whose beauty seemed excessive whenever she uncurled a rare smile.
“An alliance through marriage is often strongest,” said the chief delegate. “We have been neglectful of making such a union in the past because the queen bore no daughters.”
Queen Sabet dropped her teacup onto the saucer with a loud clank. The king placed a hand on her arm.
“The highest-ranking royal girls are His Majesty’s cousins,” said the chief delegate. “They live in a territory known as Lesser Alva. Three girls. King Fader of Stora will have his pick of them for a bride, if he agrees to our offer.”
“I wonder if the girls will have any say in the matter,” Steffan said, speaking the question on Miri’s mind.
“Royalty has its obligations,” said the chief delegate.
Steffan nodded, and Miri noticed his shoulders slump slightly.
“Living in Lesser Alva, I suspect the girls are not very, shall we say, refined,” said the chief delegate. “The priests of the creator god have called for a princess academy to prepare them, and the delegation approved it. We require this girl to go be their tutor.” He gestured toward Miri without looking at her.
Miri choked. “Me? But I … I can’t … I’m going …”
The king turned to his wife. “She can barely speak. Are you certain?”
“I am,” said the queen, her gaze on her spilled tea.
“Yes, of course, she is the best choice,” he said.
“I’ve completed only one year of study at the Queen’s Castle,” said Miri. “It takes four years to become a tutor.”
“Make her one, Bjorn,” said the queen.
The king waved his napkin. “Chief, sign some paper that makes Miri a tutor.”
“Yes, Your Majesty,” said the chief delegate.
Miri looked at Britta, Steffan, the delegates, searching for someone who thought this idea was as ridiculous as she did. “But why me? There are lots of real tutors—”
“According to our traditions and the dictates of the priests, a tutor for a princess academy must be a princess academy graduate herself,” said the chief delegate.
“A more experienced tutor—” Miri started.
“I don’t know anyone else,” said the queen. “I know you. Please.”
“You don’t need to say ‘please,’” the king roared. “You tell her to go, and she will go.”
“I have no choice?” asked Miri.
The king shifted in his seat and glared at the chief delegate from under his thick eyebrows.
“She does have a choice,” the chief delegate said reluctantly.
Miri opened her mouth to decline so she could hurry and catch up with Peder, but she paused. Would the king be angry and forbid Steffan from escorting her to the camp? No other trader wagons would trek to Mount Eskel until next spring. How could she catch up without the king’s permission?
Lesser Alva. She’d read about the outer territory, but at the moment all she could remember was one word: “swamp.” The queen and king were ordering her to a swamp to be a teacher to his cousins? She’d been in Asland for a year, and with every letter home, she’d promised Marda and Pa she would return in the fall.
She felt Britta step closer, her shoulder touching Miri’s, a faint warmth of encouragement.
“I need to think about it,” Miri said.
The chief delegate took a breath to shout, but the king lifted his hand.
“Give her a little time,” he grumbled into his beard. “She deserves that much.”
The chief delegate pulled Steffan and the king into renewed talk about Stora.
Miri’s breath felt tight, as if the walls were pressing in, squeezing. The king’s voice begin to sound tinny and high-pitched, as far away as an echo. Miri opened the door and slipped out.
Chapter Two
I spy a dull stone
Smartly hidden in scree
Now small and unknown
Soon polished you will be
Carved into a throne
In a castle by the sea
Miri’s legs shook, and she imagined she would feel stronger if she just ran. She could run down the corridor, through the courtyard, and into the streets of Asland. Run somehow fast enough to catch up with the wagons. Maybe just run all the way home.
Before she even took a step, the breakfast chamber door opened. Miri expected to see Britta, but it was Katar, Mount Eskel’s first delegate to the court in Asland. She was a little older than Miri and a lot taller, with hair so red it seemed angry.
“I don’t want—” Miri broke off. She hid her quivering chin with a hand.
“Oh stop it,” said Katar. “They’re not asking you to cut off your head.”
Miri nodded, staying s
ilent to keep the sob in her chest from unsticking.
“Danland needs the stronger alliance a marriage with Stora’s king would give us,” Katar said. “If Stora invades and defeats Danland’s army, then all the changes we worked for—commoner delegates, justice and equality for all Danlanders—all of it will be just undone.”
Miri nodded again. Katar was right, and yet the loneliness that had pricked her heart when the wagons rolled away without her was spreading outward, chilling her legs and arms.
Katar rubbed her own arms. “It’s important, Miri. It’s really important. Go, and don’t mess it up.”
Now Miri felt sick as well as sad.
“There’s something else you should know.” Katar sighed. “Even though Mount Eskel was made a province, the king still owns all the land. Well, now the chief delegate is encouraging the king to sell his rights to the land to merchants in order to replenish the royal treasury.”
“Sell? He couldn’t—”
“He could,” said Katar. “Merchants would pay the king well for the rights to mine and sell linder. They would move up to Mount Eskel and oversee the quarry.”
“Then the Eskelites would work for the merchants, not for ourselves,” said Miri.
“Exactly. And the merchants could bring up new workers and fire the villagers, set wages lower than what our people are making now, and really do whatever they please.”
“Mount Eskel wouldn’t be a town anymore,” said Miri. “It would just be a mine. You can’t let them.”
“I explained that there’s no other means of survival on Mount Eskel besides quarrying, so if the merchants fired any Eskelites, we’d have to leave our homes. But the king imagines the Eskelites would be grateful for the chance to move to the lowlands, where surely they’d all be much happier.”
Miri felt tired. They’d fought so hard to improve life on the mountain, and then fought to get commoners in the delegation and improve life in the kingdom, but there was always another fight.
“Miri,” said Katar, “you need—”
“I know,” Miri said. “I know. But right now I need to be alone.”
She walked away.
First Miri went back to the chamber where she and the other Mount Eskel girls had slept for the past year. The wardrobes were empty, doors ajar. All her things were packed and bouncing around in the back of a wagon on its way to Mount Eskel. All she had was the hawk Peder had carved for her out of linder stone, a familiar weight in her pocket.