Chapter 503 - The Siege Begins (End)

The palace was still. Not silent—too many cracked windows let the wind moan through arrow-slits, too many guttering lamps hissed as the last of their oil fought the night—but motionless, the way a felled stag still twitches though its heart has stopped. Gold-leaf cornices dulled under smoke film; frescos of serpent-crowned kings peered through grime like ghosts ashamed to be seen. The once-polished floor, a mosaic of lapis and ivory swirls, lay under a skin of fine ash, the pattern visible only where boot soles had recently disturbed it.