Palace of Lies Read Online Free Page B

a common one at that. How could a princess marry him? He talks like a peasant and he thinks like a peasant and he acts like a peasant, and putting him in courtier’s clothing doesn’t change that . . .
    The truth was, even in his formal waistcoat, Harper still looked like a peasant. He just looked like one who happened to be wearing a courtier’s clothing. He had even more freckles than Lydia, and his hair stuck up in a cowlick at the back of his head. And he’d pushed up his sleeves as if he were a common laborer in a cotton workshirt. Didn’t he know how easy it was to crush the pile of velvet?
    Can’t you focus instead on how much they adore each other? I asked myself.
    â€œIt will be wonderful to have a wedding here in Suala,” I said. I decided to tease a bit. “Is that why you were so insistent on going to Jed and Ella’s wedding? To get ideas?”
    â€œI would have wanted to go, regardless,” Cecilia said. “They’re my friends.”
    She clapped her hand over her mouth, as if she’d suddenly realized that that could have been viewed as insulting. Ella and Jed were my friends too, and I wasn’t going.
    â€œAnyhow, don’t tell anyone else our secret. It’s just between us.” Cecilia seemed to be hoping I hadn’t noticed her gaffe. She angled Harper toward the mirror, as if to let him admire himself. “Doesn’t Harper look handsome tonight?”
    I nodded, even though it seemed that Cecilia and Harper were now too busy gazing at each other in the mirror to notice. This was not the time to say, I’ll miss you when you’re in Fridesia, or , Are you sure you have to go? Can’t you change your mind?
    â€œWell, everyone should get an eyeful of me now if they want it, because I won’t wear anything like this on the road to Fridesia,” Harper said. “Five whole weeks with no monkey suits!”
    â€œYou will take your harp with you, though, won’t you?” I asked, to head off any debate about his attire once he reached the Fridesian court.
    â€œOf course he will. Ella asked him to play at her wedding,”Cecilia answered for him. “She loves his new style of music!”
    Cecilia and Harper acted as though Harper had been tortured because his mother forced him to take music lessons his entire childhood. But his mother had just been appointed music master for the palace.
    Is she someone I could trust after Cecilia and Harper leave? I wondered.
    I barely knew the woman.
    â€œEveryone loves Harper’s music,” I murmured, for politeness. But my gaze wandered back toward the great crowd of dancers.
    One, two, three, four, five, six, seven . . .
    This time I really was certain that all of the princesses were accounted for: eleven whirling out on the dance floor, only Cecilia and me standing off to the side. The crowns of the eleven dancing princesses glittered more brightly than ever. It struck me that there was something odd about how dramatically all those crowns glowed, as if the ballroom was lit by something more than candlelight reflected by dozens of mirrors.
    At the same time, I heard the panicked scream from across the room: “Fire!”

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    â€œLet’s get you two out of here, then I’ll help put the fire out,” Harper said, grabbing both Cecilia and me by the arm.
    I realized he was showing more chivalry than the actual, true royal courtiers I saw abandoning their dance partners and scurrying for the nearest door.
    Harper tugged on my arm, but I stood firm, watching the flames. They were reflected so many times in all the mirrors that it was easy to be dazzled by them, and hard to see where they had begun. But all of the draperies along the north wall were ablaze now. The tapestries along the east wall were starting to sizzle and burn too.
    Did a dozen candles slip and fall from the sconces on separate walls all at the same time? I wondered. In such