The first city had been walled, then had outgrown the walls, so a second set had been built, then a third, until there were five sets of high white walls and a main road spiraling up the hill between them to the palace.
The white stone glowed against the brown earth, but it was a chilly glow, like moonlight on snow. Marra felt very small compared to that immense white city, very small and insignificant, and yet she had the feeling that the effect was deliberate, as if the city was designed to make visitors feel insignificant in comparison.
Perhaps it makes it safer against invasion, she thought. But it does not seem like a friendly place.
The carriage passed through the gates, under portcullises edged like saws. Marra pulled the lap quilt more tightly around herself, as if the cold were seeping in. Then came the long, winding way up to the palace, through streets that wrapped in a circle, over and over, as if they were climbing the body of a coiled eel. There were eels in the river near the convent and sometimes people tithed them to the nuns. Marra had eaten a great many eels. She suspected that this one would stick in her throat if she tried.
At the palace, hardly anyone waited to meet them. Marra’d had a vague notion that there should have been a great show of pomp and royal favor and she had been braced to withstand it. When it failed to materialize, she felt off balance. “Not many people,” she murmured.
“We are being put in our place,” said the queen calmly. “We are here as Kania’s family, not as royal envoys, and so we are being reminded that we are poor relations.”
“What do we do?”
“We ignore it.” And she proceeded to alight from the carriage as if she were the queen of this kingdom, not a poor relation at all.
Two footmen in livery flanked a woman who reminded Marra of the Sister Apothecary. “She’s gone into labor,” said the midwife bluntly. “Your majesty. It’ll be hours yet, but it’s been hours already, and the first time’s always hard.”
“Take me to her.”
The palace was a blaze of color and hallways and tapestries. Marra was swept along in her mother’s wake, following the midwife. She had also expected to go to a room and perhaps be able to rest or eat, but it seemed there was no time.
Am I going to be there? Am I actually going to see it?
Well, perhaps she was.
The midwife opened a door and there it was, a bedroom the size of a great hall, with a fireplace at one end. Whatever the failings of their reception, the Northern Kingdom did not stint the midwives for their princess. It looked like half an army had encamped in the room, and in the middle of it, in a bed like a battlefield, was the dim brown circle of Kania’s face.
“You look radiant,” said the queen, taking her daughter’s hands. Marra lurked behind her shoulder, unsure what to say.
Kania did not look radiant. She looked exhausted and wan and her eyes were dark wells in her face. “Mother,” she said, clutching the queen’s hands. “Mother.” She closed her eyes and swallowed. It sounded like a click in her throat.
“It will be over soon,” promised the queen. “It hurts, but then it’s over.”
“I don’t care how much it hurts,” said Kania hoarsely. “I want this child out of me. Now.”
“That’s every woman, when the time comes,” said the queen. She stooped and kissed Kania’s forehead. “Soon enough. I promise.” She rose. “I’ll get you something to drink,” she said, and turned to demand tea of the ladies-in-waiting.
Marra looked after her mother nervously, then back to Kania. She had not seen any woman deliver before and she did not know what to expect, but the knowledge of Kania’s hatred was tucked up under her heart. Would her sister even want to see her here?
“Marra?” whispered Kania.
“I’m here,” she said, taking her sister’s hand. “I’m here.”
“You’re here,” Kania repeated. She looked past Marra’s shoulder. “Where is Mother?”
“She went to get a drink for you,” said Marra. “She’ll be back soon.”
“No time, then,” said Kania softly. She beckoned Marra closer, until her lips were nearly beside Marra’s ear.
“Kania…？”
“Listen,” hissed Kania. “Listen! If I die, don’t let her marry you off to the prince. Run away. Ruin yourself. Whatever it takes. Don’t let her drag you into this hell along with us.”
Marra blinked. Kania clutched at her shoulder and might have said something more, but a contraction ripped through her and she shrieked, her swollen body bucking on the bed.