Cassie
The palace halls were chillier than ever before.
I sensed it in the manner in which the air shifted around me, heavy and oppressive, as though walls themselves were shutting out.
The bright torches that marched once along the stone corridors were now dim and smoky, a feeble source of illumination to pierce through the gloom that had fallen upon all.
I cradled my baby against me, the yielding weight of him against my chest the sole heat. I went slowly, but no one looked my way any longer.
They would look once, quickly, their heads lowered or their faces bent to something other than me. Whispered conversations were cut short as I approached, the words dying off like spider silk.
The handmaids I encountered in the corridors, who had previously smiled stiffly at me or waved shyly
