people, ringing bells and announcing that the carnival would present one more
performance, several more performances, until all the citizens of Sanctuary had
the opportunity to glimpse the carnival’s wonders. And the secret. Of course,
the secret. Still, no one even hinted at the secret’s nature.
Wess pulled her cloak closer. She knew the nature of the secret; she only hoped
the secret would see his friends and be ready for whatever they could do.
The sun touched the high wall around the palace grounds. Soon it would be dark.
Trumpets and cymbals: Wess looked towards the Processional gates, but a moment
later realized that all the citizens around her were straining for a view of the
palace entrance. The enormous doors swung open and a phalanx of guards marched
out, followed
by a group of nobles wearing jewels and cloth of gold. They strode across the
hard-packed ground. The young man at the head of the group, who wore a gold
coronet, acknowledged his people’s shouts and cries as if they all were
accolades – which, Wess thought, they were not. But above the mutters and
complaints, the loudest cry was, ‘The prince! Long live the prince!’
The phalanx marched straight from the palace to the new-built platform. Anyone
shortsighted enough to sit in that path had to snatch up their things and hurry
out of the way. The route cleared as swiftly as water parting around a stone.
Wess stood impulsively, about to sprint across the parade route to try once more
to speak to the prince.
‘Sit down!’
‘Out of the way!’
Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301