Disheartened, Cinder pulled her attention away.
Nearing the end of the gauntlet, she tried to take in the rest of her surroundings. Lively chatter and laughter and the chaotic clinking of glasses. The aroma of food struck her like a cloud of steam released from a covered pot. Her mouth filled with saliva. Onions and garlic and braised meat and something peppery that stung her eyes—
Her stomach howled at her. Light-headedness crept over her brain like a fog. She hadn’t eaten in over a day, and even that meal had been unsatisfying.
She gulped hard and tried to focus, surveying the room. To her right, enormous windows looked over a lake, bordered on each side by the curved wings of the white palace, like an enormous protective swan. The lake continued as far as she could see. The floor of the room jutted out like a balcony over the water. Although it made for an uninterrupted view, Cinder couldn’t deny a feeling of dread curdling in her stomach. There was no rail to keep a person from falling off the edge.
The swell of conversation started to die out, but it was not until Cinder had breached the line of soldiers that she saw the audience to her left.
The orange light flickered in Cinder’s vision and didn’t go off, no matter where she looked. There were a lot of glamours here.
At the center was Levana, seated upon a massive white throne, the back of which was ornamented with the phases of the moon. She was wearing an elaborate red wedding gown.
Cinder’s retina display began to pick up the queen’s underlying features. It was like being at the ball again, the first time she’d laid eyes on the queen and had realized it might be possible for her optobionics to see beneath the glamour. But it wasn’t an easy task. Her cyborg eyes were in conflict with her own brain and the queen’s manipulation, and her mind couldn’t figure out what it was seeing. The result was a stream of confused data, blurred colors, fragmented lines trying to piece together what was real and what was an illusion.
It was distracting, and already giving her a headache. Cinder blinked the data away.
Five tiers of seats arced around the throne, a crescent of onlookers surrounding Cinder on every side except the one that dropped off to the lake. The Lunar court. Women wore large hats shaped like peacocks and one man had a purring snow leopard draped over his shoulders; dresses were made of gold chains and rubies, platform shoes had beta fish swimming in their heels, skin had been painted metallic silver, eyelashes dotted with rhinestones and fish scales …
Cinder had to squint against the dazzle of it all. Glamour, glamour, glamour.
A chair was pushed back. Cinder’s heart jumped.
The bridegroom stood beside Levana’s throne, wearing a white silk shirt with a red sash. Kai.
“What is this?” he said, his tone somewhere between horrified and relieved.
“This,” said Queen Levana, her eyes full of mirth, “is our entertainment for the evening. Consider it my wedding gift to you.” Beaming, she traced a knuckle down the side of Kai’s face. “Husband.”
Kai ducked away from her touch, redness climbing into his cheeks. Cinder knew it wasn’t embarrassment or bashfulness, though. That was all fury. She could feel it in how the air crackled around him.
Levana twirled a fingernail through the air. “Tonight’s proceedings will be broadcast live, so my people can witness and join in the celebrations of this most glorious day. And also so they may know the fate of the impostor who dares to call herself queen.”
Ignoring her, Cinder examined the ceiling. There were no cameras that she could see, but she knew Levana had a way of creating surveillance devices that were practically invisible.
Given that the queen wasn’t wearing a veil, it was safe to assume any video footage would be focused on their “entertainment.” Levana wanted the people to see Cinder’s execution. She wanted them to lose hope for their revolution.
Levana raised her arms. “Let us begin the feast.”
A line of uniformed servants traipsed single file from behind a curtain. The first knelt at the queen’s feet and whisked a dome off a tray, holding it above his head. The queen’s smirk grew as she selected a large, pink prawn and pulled the flesh between her teeth.
Another servant knelt before Kai, while the others surrounded the room and dropped to their knees before the audience, revealing trays of orange fish eggs and steamed oyster shells, braised tenderloin strips and stuffed peppers. Cinder realized that Kai was not the only Earthen in the room after all. She recognized his adviser, Konn Torin, seated in the second row, and the American president and the African prime minister and the Australian governor-general and … She stopped looking. They were all there, just as Levana had wanted.