Shadow and Bone

Grisha might not approve.”
“Why?”
Genya sighed and sat down on one of the carved chairs.
“Because I’m the Queen’s pet. Because they don’t consider
what I do valuable. A lot of reasons.”
I considered what the other reasons might be and if they had
something to do with the King. I thought of the liveried
servants standing at every doorway in the Grand Palace, all of
them dressed in white and gold. What must it be like for
Genya, isolated from her own kind but not a true member of
the court?
“It’s funny,” I said after a while. “I always thought that
being beautiful would make life so much easier.”
“Oh it does,” Genya said, and laughed. I couldn’t help but
laugh, too.
We were interrupted by a knock on the door, and the
seamstress soon had us occupied with fittings and
measurements. When she had finished and was gathering up
her muslin and pins, Genya whispered, “It isn’t too late, you
know. You could still—”
But I cut her off. “Blue,” I said firmly, though my stomach
clenched again.
The seamstress left, and we turned our attention to dinner.
The food was less alien than I’d expected, the kind of food
we’d eaten on feast days at Keramzin: sweet pea porridge,
quail roasted in honey, and fresh figs. I found I was hungrier
than I’d ever been and had to resist picking up my plate to lick
it.
Genya maintained a steady stream of chatter during dinner,
mostly about Grisha gossip. I didn’t know any of the people
she was talking about, but I was grateful not to have to make
conversation, so I nodded and smiled when necessary. When
the last servants left, taking our dinner dishes with them, I
couldn’t suppress a yawn, and Genya rose.
“I’ll come get you for breakfast in the morning. It will take
a while for you to learn your way around. The Little Palace