Blood Song: The First Book of Lharmell Read Free Page A

seventeen next autumn – nearly a year away, but not long enough as far as I was concerned. For all I knew, Renata had already sent the letters out. Advertising her daughter. I shivered, and not from the cold. I dreaded another’s hands on me. They would find out what I was. They would be able to feel it through my skin, the monster that tormented me, that had dark hungers and urges I didn’t understand. Or the hunger would give me away, the fits that left me gasping and writhing on the floor. Fortunately they remained unwitnessed, but it was only a matter of time.
    But what if rather than marrying some prince, I had another destiny, one that lay to the north? I had to find out why I was being called there.
    ‘I hear it’s warm in the north,’ I said. ‘You could escape the winter. Go swimming. Pick berries.’
    Lilith was silent, but I could see her thinking about it. She hated winter in Amentia.
    ‘Wouldn’t that be nicer than being cooped up in this gloomy old castle for three or four months? It’s going to be a hard winter, you know. Don’t you feel you’ll just go mad here?’
    Lilith groaned. ‘Oh, all right! I’ll go, I’ll go.’
    I gave a yip of delight and clutched her arm.
    ‘Watch the tea! Why are you so excited?’
    My whole body was zinging. The north! I knew it was unreasonable to be reacting this way and I tried to rein in my enthusiasm. ‘Well, I’m going with you, of course. I’m sick of the cold, too.’
    Lilith gave me a questioning look, but didn’t say anything.
    I should have been ashamed of my lies, but all I felt was the most intense exhilaration. We were going to the north.
    ––
    Mother was ecstatic when we told her the news. She was poring over the latest figures from the treasury when I yanked Lilith into her chamber.
    ‘We’re going!’ I cried.
    She was ecstatic, I was ecstatic, but the bride-to-be looked positively miserable.
    ‘I’m not even out of mourning,’ she complained. ‘It’s unseemly.’
    ‘Mourning is for peasants,’ Renata proclaimed, and called in her lady-in-waiting. ‘Eugenia, summon the tailor, the dressmaker – Wakefield, not that second-rate one – milliner, corsetière, shoemaker, coach-maker, perfumier, and cosmetician. And the hairdresser.’ The woman bobbed and went to leave. ‘And take those dreadful papers away,’ Renata called, pointing to the accounts. ‘Tell the treasurer I’m not to be bothered with them any more.’
    ‘Mother!’ Lilith was aghast. ‘Won’t all that be terribly expensive?’
    ‘Do you think we’re going to turn up at the House of Pergamon dressed in sackcloth and ashes with our begging bowls out?’
    Soon the nine most prestigious couturiers in the queendom were gathered in Renata’s quarters. She lined them up and lectured them like they were about to go into battle. ‘We’re going to need travelling clothes. The people must see our procession through the cities, and it’s got to look good. We need to raise morale. Then we’ll need more clothes for when we reach Pergamia; lighter, more summery ones, and these ones have to look very good. Then we’re going to need more for our stay at the palace, and these ones have to look stunning . Plus there’s the trousseau for Lilith.’
    ‘I’m not even betrothed yet,’ Lilith protested.
    ‘As good as, darling. Do you want a Pergamian tailor designing your wedding dress? No, we’ll get it made here.’
    ‘Don’t you think it’s a little presumptuous that I show up at this stranger’s palace with my wedding clothes?’
    ‘No, it’s expected. I know best, Lilith.’
    I felt myself grow anxious. How long was this all going to take? I had thought we would just pack up and leave.
    Renata turned back to the assembled craftspeople. ‘Now, this is the most important part: this isn’t Varlint we’re going to, it’s Pergamia. We need to look rich. So rich that we’re not even aware of how many pots of gold we have lying around. Those mousey clothes that