The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

you looked, strips surrounding the graceful, sweeping
structures, or covering the roofs of smaller, shorter
buildings. Throughout the city, Temples shimmered,
reflecting the afternoon sun. My throat dried as my gaze
settled on the west end of the city, where a massive
structure made of shiny black stone sat upon a raised hill,
the wings of the building ending in circular porticos.
Numerous domed-glass ceilings and spires shone brightly in
the sun as the center wing flowed into a Temple constructed
of the same midnight stone as the ones in Solis. Kneeling
along the Temple’s steeple were stone soldiers, their sable
heads bowed as they held shields to their chests and swords
stretched out, the stone blades streaks of black against the
sky.
Stunned, I dragged my gaze from what I could only
imagine was the palace and looked out over Evaemon. My
nostrils burned, along with my eyes, as I soaked in what I
had once believed had fallen.
Where Saion’s Cove was nearly the size of Solis’s
capital, Evaemon was triple the size, stretching on as far as I
could see to the west and to the east, where specks of white
grazed in open pastures. Past the heavily wooded area that
followed the Mountains of Nyktos, and in the face of that
mountain, were eleven statues taller than the Atheneum in
Masadonia. Each figure held a lit torch in his or her
outstretched arm, the flames burning as bright as the
setting sun. When I asked who the eleventh statue was, I
learned that it was Nyktos’s Constort.
They were the gods—all of them—watching over the city
or standing guard.
I couldn’t even begin to imagine how those statues had
been built to that size and raised onto the mountain. Or
even how those torches were lit—how they remained
burning.
“Beautiful, isn’t it?” Casteel didn’t need to ask. It was
the most beautiful city I’d ever seen. “Nearly all of the