Chapter Fourteen
Meeting at Court
Five times as tall as an angel and carved from a single massive calipas shell, the gates of the Imperial Palace Compound were certainly a sight to behold, but Lucaät had passed through them many a time and barely gave them a second look. The guards nodded respectfully as he passed. He glanced longingly at the portal by the gates, but it was strictly off limits to all but the most trusted of courtiers. Instead, he was obliged to choose the long, covered footpath that wound through the gardens toward the Imperial Offices.
Among the greenery, gardeners in large straw hats shaped hedges with staccato bursts of energy, and sang flowers to abundant life. Insects chimed in the lazy afternoon heat. Lucaät’s step crunch-crunched on the gravel while he fanned his
