I could feel their eyes running over me, over every inch of my gown and every braid of my intricately bound hair. If I had managed to eat anything at all that day, I’m sure I would have thrown it up then and there. But I hadn’t eaten, no matter how Ulfrid pressed me to have a bite of bread or a sip of tea, and so I didn’t disgrace myself. Instead, I put my chin up and walked into the ballroom, doing my best not to gawk like a bumpkin at the marble columns like cold, white trees four times the height of a man, and the floor inlaid with jasper and malachite. The Merchants’ Ball was held in the Winter Palace, which had been built by Milun the First. The current royal family lived across the broad Jyllite Square in the unimaginatively named New Palace. The Winter Palace was used for public ceremonies, housing foreign dignitaries, and the Merchants’ Ball. Amalia’s father, King Prilian, was in residence, though gossip said he would not make an appearance at the ball, considering it a vulgar custom.
