I'm sharing again from A Dance of Water and Air, which will be out on Monday! Yay! In this snippet, at the end of his long journey, Edmund has his first look at Aither's castle, which will be his home now that he's meant to marry Queen Hollis.
It looked like a painting, and so different from home he almost ached looking at it. The castle towered above the capital city, shooting up from the rock of the mountains, white towers gleaming in the moonlight as they reached toward the sky. As the carriage rattled through the empty nighttime streets, stone buildings silent and dark around them, Edmund kept his eyes on the bright white of the castle, seized by a sudden burst of fear as reality came crashing down upon him. This was to be his home? For how long? Forever? Could he stay here, so far from everything he loved, indefinitely?