Chapter 8: The PalaceDay 6, There, last day on the river.
It was twilight.
Fletcher stood facing the green wall of thorns, the sun at his back. The air was heady with the rich fragrances of the thousands of roses that made the wall red and pink and orange and white and yellow and reds so dark they were black. He could see here and there, half-hidden by leaves and roses, skeletons of those who had tried to get past the wall and failed. Above the wall he saw some of the Palace towers, and above them, fireworks exploded into falling stars of green, yellow, blue, and purple. Roses, pink, white, red, bloomed in the sky. He glanced behind to see Owen and Goro, waiting and watching.
Owen had intercepted him earlier, before breakfast, back at the boat docks at the last stone-and-wood cottages f
