The Crown of Gilded Bones (Blood and..

“For once, that bitch spoke the truth,” Casteel replied,
and there wasn’t a single thing about what he called her
that offended me. Analia was a bitch. “Those Temples are
made of shadowstone, a material that was mined in the
Shadowlands and transported over to this realm ages ago
by the gods, depositing some of it in the Elysium Peaks.”
I hadn’t known that.
Then again, I hadn’t realized the Shadowlands even
existed until recently. But it was just odd to me that the
Ascended would change so much of the true history of the
gods, and yet leave the Temples as they were. Maybe that
was a line they wouldn’t cross.
Either way, thoughts of shadowstone and ancient
Temples fell to the wayside as we cleared the trees, and the
back of the palace came into view.
We could see down into the city from our vantage point,
homes and businesses staggered over the hills and valleys
and in between the canals. The Evaemon Palace was built
into the hillside, the gleaming black structure a formidable
sight with numerous windows lining the towers and along
the lower floors. But something immediately stood out.
No walls surrounded the palace, none along the back
nor the front courtyard that led to the Temple. Several
ebony pillars connected a catwalk from the palace to the
Temple and surrounded most of the palace, now patrolled by
Guards of the Crown. It struck me then that there hadn’t
been any walls around the estate in Saion’s Cove, either.
Several Crown Guards, adorned in white and gold, stood
under the archway and by doors a shade darker than the
mare I sat astride as we rode through.
I couldn’t believe how open the palace was. In every city
of Solis where a Royal was seated, their homes were
guarded by walls nearly half the size of the Rise that
protected the city. No one could even come close to the
castles or any of the Royal keeps or manors as there were
always vast courtyards separating the home from the inner