She Dreamed Her Empire Would Burn, So She Set Out to Break Four Collars novel · Chapter 1 of 24
Chapter 1: Her Dream
Nimeriel sees the capital burn and Ru save her, then wakes to find the dream's wound already on his temple.
The white towers of the Imperial Palace were on fire, and Princess Nimeriel could not stop running toward them.
Ash fell on the Heartgarden.
Behind the burning wall, the World Tree stood bare for the first time in a thousand years.
Her gown was torn to the knee and black with soot.
She stumbled through the east gallery, past statues cracked in half and elves lying where they had fallen.
"Father," she whispered.
Nobody answered.
A blast shook the whole palace, and the ceiling above her split down the middle.
She looked up and saw the marble slab come loose.
Then an arm locked around her waist and hauled her backward.
The slab hit the floor where she had been standing and burst into stone.
"Careful," a rough voice said in her ear.
She knew that voice.
"Ru?"
He pushed her behind him without turning around.
His fox ears were flat against his red hair, and blood ran from a gash on his left temple down into his torn leather armor.
His collar was gone.
The pale wooden ring she had seen on his throat every day for three years lay in two pieces at his feet.
Behind him, in the smoke, three more men were walking toward her.
A white wolf with a sword.
A panther with gold eyes.
A bear as broad as a door.
Their collars lay broken on the floor too.
"Princess," Ru said, very quietly, "run."
She woke with her hand over her mouth.
Her bedroom was dark and cool and whole.
Moonlight lay across the white sheets, and no smoke had come in through the windows.
She sat up, alarmed by her pounding heart.
Her tea had gone cold on the table, and the clock on the wall said it was nearly dawn.
It was the eleventh time she had dreamed of the fire.
But this time she had seen their faces.
She knew every one of them.
Ruadan Emberlain stood outside her door, because he always did.
She had called him Ru since the day he was assigned to guard her.
The wolf was Ashgar, the champion of the Pit, who fought for the nobles on festival days.
The panther was Iven, who played the harp at the Chancellor's table.
The bear was Brannoch, who ran the palace forge and made the collars.
All four were bound beastkin, held in wooden collars by the Binding of the World Tree.
All four were servants of her house.
And in her dream, all four had walked out of the smoke as free men.
She dressed without ringing for her maid.
When she opened the door, Ru straightened from the wall and bowed his head.
"Early, Princess."
"I couldn't sleep."
"You never can, before a heal day."
He said it lightly, but she looked at him properly for the first time in weeks.
On the left side of his forehead, just under the red hair, a thin scab ran from his temple toward his ear.
It was the exact cut from her dream.
"What happened to your head?" she asked.
His ears flicked once.
"Walked into a door."
"Which door?"
"A hard one."
He didn't look at her when he said it.
She followed him down the stair to the lower hall, where a young guard sat on the bottom step holding a bloody hand.
The guard started to stand, and she waved him down.
"Let me see."
She pressed her palms around the cut and let the warmth in her chest run out through her fingers.
It was easy.
It had always been easy.
The skin closed, and the guard stared at his hand and thanked her three times.
Behind her, Ru sat down heavily on the stair and set his hands on his knees.
They were shaking.
"Ru?"
"Skipped lunch," he said. "I'm fine."
She frowned at him, and the guard laughed nervously, and then a soft voice spoke from the landing above.
"Highness, you're up before the sun again."
Chancellor Veridian Lorathen came down the steps in his grey robes with a folded shawl over his arm.
He had taught her to read, and he had taught her the names of the stars.
He draped the shawl over her shoulders.
"You have the look of someone who dreamed badly," he said kindly.
"How did you know?"
"A teacher knows." He held out a small blue glass vial. "The physician made this for you last night. It will keep the Tree's dreams from troubling you. Drink it before bed, and by the Festival you'll be rested."
"The Tree's dreams?"
"Nothing to fear, child. Just old magic being fussy."
His smile was warm.
She took the vial and thanked him.
He asked whether she needed anything else from the Registry or the guard rolls.
She said no.
When he had gone, she stood very still.
She had not told him one word about the dreams.
She turned the vial over in her fingers, pulled the stopper, and poured the contents into the pot of ferns by the window.
Ru watched her do it and said nothing.
"Four of them," she said. "You, Ashgar, Iven, Brannoch."
His amber eyes went hard and sharp.
"What about us?"
"I dreamed your collars were broken," she said. "And the palace was burning."
He was silent for a long time.
Then he touched the scab on his temple.
"So did I," he said.
She straightened her shoulders.
"Then I'm not waiting for it to happen. I'm going to find the other three."
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