Her lips trembled. “You made us look bad in front of the royal family. Because of you, our workers are going to be looked down on for years. We don’t want you here anymore.” The words hit me like blows and the tears streaming down her cheeks were enough to undo my own. I made them look bad in front of the royal family? The way she said that, it was if I was not a part of the royal family.

My legs shook. I knew what would come next. If I didn’t have a job, I would be sent away. Sent to be a slave for one of the other families, most likely.

Slave. The word ran through my mind, stinging me like a thousand tiny ants. “Simmy, did you . . . know this was going to happen?”

She shook her head. “Go, run away, Lark. Get away from here before things get worse.”

I stepped back. “Simmy, look after yourself, and your two girls.”

Nodding, she covered her face with her hands. “I’m so sorry. Your mam, she wouldn’t want this.”

No, I didn’t think my mother would want this at all. But what choice did I have? There was no job in our family that would require less skill with the earth than that of a Planter. To sprout seedlings was something anyone here could do. Anyone except me.

The forest floor flew under my feet as I ran back to my home. As I climbed the ladder steps grown into the tree’s side, I looked up. Movement in my bedroom window. Pressing myself against the tree trunk I listened for the telltale sign that it was an Ender. The occasional creak of leather was the only thing that would give them away. I hung there, fingertips burning as I breathed in the scent of the redwood against my face.

“Damn it, Lark, where are you?” Coal’s voice burst out and I didn’t hesitate.

“I’m here,” I scrambled up the last twenty feet and all but fell into my apartment. “I’m here.”

He scooped me up into his arms and crushed me to his chest. “My girl, they can’t send you away.”

I tightened my arms on him, knowing that as a guard, he would have the latest gossip. “What have you heard?”

“They kicked you out of the Planters for supposedly embarrassing them last night. If anything, they should be proud of you! But that isn’t the worst of it. Someone started a rumor that the king is going to ask you to go and serve under our cousin, Fiametta. As a maid.”

I pressed my forehead against his chest and fought to breathe normally. Fiametta, was queen of the fire elementals. From what I’d heard, she was a royal bitch that made Cassava look like a powder puff. “A rumor?”

“Go to your father, ask him to his face.” Coal held me out so he could look me in the eye. “You are no one’s slave, Larkspur. You are a princess, your father can’t send you away for giving him good advice.”

I stared into his eyes and brushed a hand against his jawline. “And if he sends me away?”

His eyes never left mine. “One step at a time.”

He helped me dress, because my hands shook so badly we both could see I wouldn’t have gotten the corset tied up without his help. Again, I wore one of my mother’s gowns, something to remind him of his love for her, if not for me.

“Wear the necklace again.” Coal slipped it around my neck and did the clasp.

I looked at myself in the mirror. The dress was the one I knew my mother had worn on the day my father had first seen her, the day she told me he fell in love with her. A corset top, and long flowing skirt that was slashed so that glimpses of my legs could be seen as I moved. All done in a pale pink that highlighted my sun-kissed skin, and set off my long blonde waves.

“You look beautiful. Now go, and convince your father.” He gave me a gentle shove. “I don’t want to lose you.”

The walk to the Spiral was surreal. People wouldn’t look at me; they wouldn’t even make eye contact. Like I was already banished, a ghost about to be sent away on a flicker of flame and a billow of smoke.

At the entrance to the Spiral, two Enders stood guard. Ash and the head of the order, Granite, who had been around in my mother’s time. His eyes widened, lips parting in what could only be disbelief. He took two steps forward and raised a hand as if to touch my cheek. “Ulani?”

I grabbed his hand and held it between mine. “Granite, I want to speak with my father. Now.” Under my skin a flicker of heat danced up through my veins and seemed to weight my words.

“Of course, Princess.”

Ash snorted. “So she can have another shot at the queen? No. You will see your father when he calls for you. You’re lucky you aren’t clapped in chains, little cuckoo.”

This time it was my eyes that widened. “What are you talking about?”

“You attacked the queen, we all heard you screaming at her. You’re lucky you didn’t do anything more than scratch her.”

Shaking my head, I noticed we were drawing a crowd. “I didn’t touch her! She invited me to speak with her, you took me there, Ash.”

He frowned at me, his eyes clouding. “Don’t try to pull me into your lies. I did not take you to the queen. You should be banished for this, sent as far away as your father can.”

My jaw dropped and someone threw a rock that bounced off my shoulder.

“Go away! Useless!”

I don’t know who shouted it first, but the cry was taken up within seconds, a war chant that cut at me.

“Useless, useless, useless!”

Another rock was thrown, this one clipping my ear. I crouched and held one arm over my head.