Chapter Twenty Three
The Crescent Bell Palace
Jenna and Celestina were in the Dahlia Palace getting ready to dive. It was a beautiful sunny day on the Slipseed Sea with lazy clouds, like moving mountains, drifting across the sky.
“I’ve never done this,” Celestina complained. “Aside from the spray from a sea rover or a quick dive in a pool, I have never done deep sea diving.”
None of this was news to Jenna. Celestina had been saying these same things on repeat, either hoping that no one would require her to drop all the way down into the ocean, or that someone sweet would hold her hand for the transformation from landlubber to mermaid. She was such a beauty queen and so nervous about the whole thing that Jenna offered to braid her hair and let her come with her when Favel showed her the final stages of construction on the palace he’d promised her.
Jenna should have been more excited than Celestina, but she had a feeling that the emotions were switched. Celestina was having all the emotions at once over the idea of going under the surface to get a preview of Jenna’s new palace.
“What was it like when you went to Favel’s mansion?” she asked Jenna.
“It was dark.”
“Hmm…” She was fluttering like a butterfly.
“Look, I did a lot of diving on my home planet,” Jenna went on to explain. “This will be better than that. The water will be warmer, the water will be clearer, the sites will be more interesting, and not a single creature in the Slipseed Ocean wants you to drown. You’ll be perfectly safe.”
Celestina did not look convinced. “I know it’s more dangerous to play around in outer space than to fall into the ocean, but I was honestly less uptight before I did a space walk than now. There was so much more gear to protect me. The space suit was like getting into a car that shrunk to fit me. What we’re doing here feels like we’ll be dropped into a hostile environment with only our bathing suits.”
Jenna grabbed a hair brush and an elastic and stood behind Celestina. “We’re not going far enough for the temperature of the water to change. Favel said my new palace is almost directly underneath where we are right now. So, we’re just going to take facemasks and oxygen tanks. It will be a breeze and if you’re uncomfortable, you can swim back up here.”
Celestina was still not convinced when Jenna adjusted their facemasks and gave Celestina instructions on how to breathe once they were underwater.
Favel was waiting for them just under the water when they splashed in. The water was so blue, it was difficult to see him if he stayed still. He was almost invisible with the blue of his skin fading into the blue of the sea. He beckoned for them to follow him and went on ahead with a swirl of white suction cups.
Jenna held onto Celestina’s hand to stop her from losing her nerve and together, they turned to follow Favel through the crystal clear water.
Jenna’s first glance at the palace shocked her. All of the palaces had a theme and all of them kept to the theme rather nicely. The Dahlia Palace was like a terracotta planter on the outside with beautiful dark pink dahlias growing all around it. In some places, the dahlias did not grow well and so there were representations of the flower in sculptures surrounding the building. Inside, the walls were painted that same vibrant magenta with all the moldings and pillars being a stark white. Jenna loved it in that it was feminine and she would never have had the courage to design an indoor concept that was that bold.
She had privately suffered quite a lot with the idea of giving it up to Fallcet. He would never appreciate the pink walls. He wanted it because he wanted it to seem like he was taking over from Jenna when she left the quorum and the eight palaces. At least, when she suggested that that was the reason, he did not deny it. When she suggested that it might be because he was a little pervert who got his jollies sleeping in her bed after she left it, he denied it emphatically, though she didn’t believe him. Truthfully, either reason was a little gross.
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Favel had spoken modestly of the new palace he would build for her, so she believed that it would be fairly similar to the other palaces. After all, he said it would be. However, the Crescent Bell Palace was nothing like the other palaces. It was the softest gray color with a rainbow sheen like the whole thing had been built from mother of pearl. Though it was not vulgar in its size, it was clearly produced with greater care than the other palaces had been.
Favel led them down to the front entryway, which was a beautiful line of arches every guest would have to walk under in order to make their way to the front door. Jenna could envision ivy and roses growing over them, making the walkway like a fairytale.
As they swam, Ixy explained the signs Favel made so that Jenna understood the tour he was conducting.
He led them to the front door, which had not yet been added. Favel explained through Ixy that none of the doors or windows would be added until the palace was raised to the surface and had the opportunity to dry out.
They swam inside and Favel took them around to see the front halls designed for greeting guests, the dining room, council rooms, guest rooms, the kitchen, and the baths. Favel had added a much fancier room for bathing than anything that was in the eight palaces. The room was nothing short of a spa. He explained that if there wasn’t a pool in the building, everyone would think that their relationship wasn’t real. There had to be a place for him to be comfortable, like it was his home too.
Jenna loved the room, but since she couldn’t say anything to Ixy with the oxygen tube in her mouth, she made a heart symbol with her fingers and placed it over her chest. It seemed that Favel understood and led her into her bedroom.
It was a far grander space than she had in the Dahlia Palace and she thought that had been opulent.
This was twice as large, with a bigger bed up on a platform.
He motioned for her and Celestina to go over and hold onto the pillars that would make up the four poster bed. Ixy had to shout in her ear three times to get her arms and legs around the posts and Jenna couldn’t question why. There were doorways that led to her dressing room and another bathroom and she wanted to see them. Why was she supposed to hang onto a pillar?
Celestina was faster on the uptake and held onto hers dutifully while Favel had to demonstrate how Jenna should hang onto it three times before she did as she was shown.
Once she held on appropriately, the whole palace started to move.
Finally, Jenna understood that Favel had brought them down to show her what it looked like underwater before it was brought surfside. The water slipped around them as the palace moved until it swished away from them like the sinking of the Titanic played backwards.
When enough of the water had gone that Jenna felt safe, she pulled her breathing apparatus out of her mouth. “This is beautiful, Favel. Why didn’t you tell me today was moving day?”
“Today is not moving day,” he said sternly. “Moving day is when you leave the Dahlia Palace and move into the Crescent Bell Palace. That’s not today. There is so much left to do! As I said, we have to dry the place out, hook up the electricity, hang the doors, hook up the plumbing, and about a hundred other things. Didn’t Ixy explain it all to you as I was motioning it?”
“Well, Ixy?” Jenna asked. She hadn’t explained a tenth of that.
“I’m gonna be honest,” the PA said coarsely in Jenna’s ear. “My Octavian is not so good, and the program I’m using to translate his motions only got about half of them. He was so excited he moved around too fast for the program to see everything he was signing. It’s like he’s talking at fifty miles an hour and I’m only getting every other word.”
For once, Jenna believed Ixy’s explanation. “That checks out,” Jenna said, letting Ixy off the hook.
Except there was one thing Jenna didn’t see about the palace when it was underwater. The whole place sparkled in the sunlight in a way none of the other palaces did.
“This is breathtaking, Favel,” she said, plunking her bottom next to him on the stone tile.
“I was going to call it the Diamond Palace, but I was outvoted. We’re supposed to avoid any mention or idea that this palace is superior to the others.”
“Of course it is. The other palaces are the Stone Palace, the Salt Palace…”
Celestina interrupted. “Speak for yourselves. Mine is the Sun Palace and the walls are lined in real gold.”
Jenna glanced at Favel for confirmation.
“I wasn’t the only Octavian who married a human. The recipient of the Sun Palace was the last one.”
“Yes,” Celestina said. “Except it wasn’t built for a woman. It was built for a man, because men are like the sun and women are like the moon.”
Favel rolled his eyes. “Adamis men might be like the sun, shining all the time, while moons are more like women because of the thing that must not be named. But Octavians,” Favel stressed, “are like wind. The color of whatever they touch.”
Celestina flipped her wet braid. “You make me want to marry an Octavian.”
He shook his mantle like he didn’t believe her, but he said, “I’ll set you up.”