The Rose Society
Marie Lu
THE ROSE SOCIETY
A Young Elites Novel
Contents
Adelina Amouteru
City-State of Merroutas: The Sealands
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Raffaele Laurent Bessette
Adelina Amouteru
Teren Santoro
Adelina Amouteru
Raffaele Laurent Bessette
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Teren Santoro
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Raffaele Laurent Bessette
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Raffaele Laurent Bessette
Adelina Amouteru
Raffaele Laurent Bessette
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Maeve Jacqueline Kelly Corrigan
Raffaele Laurent Bessette
Adelina Amouteru
Teren Santoro
Adelina Amouteru
Maeve Jacqueline Kelly Corrigan
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Adelina Amouteru
Follow Penguin
MARIE LU
is the author of the
New York Times
bestselling Legend series and
The Young Elites
. She graduated from the University of Southern California and jumped into the video game industry, working for Disney Interactive Studios as a Flash artist. Now a full-time writer, she spends her spare time reading, drawing, playing
Assassin’s Creed
, and getting stuck in traffic. She lives in Los Angeles, California (see above: traffic), with one husband, one Chihuahua mix, and two Pembroke Welsh corgis.
Visit Marie at
www.marielu.org
www.theyoungelites.com
AUTHOR PHOTO: PAUL GREGORY
Also by Marie Lu
THE YOUNG ELITES
LEGEND
PRODIGY
CHAMPION
For Cassie, sisters always, no matter what
Adelina Amouteru
When I was a little girl, my mother would spend long afternoons telling me old folktales. I remember one story particularly well.
Once upon a time, a greedy prince fell in love with a wicked girl.
The prince had far more than he needed, but it was never enough. When he grew ill, he visited the Kingdom of the Great Ocean, where the Underworld meets the living world, to bargain with Moritas, the goddess of Death, for more life. When she refused, he stole her immortal gold and fled to the surface.
In revenge, Moritas sent her daughter Caldora, the angel of Fury, to retrieve him. Caldora materialized out of the sea foam on a warm, stormy night, clad in nothing but silver silk, an achingly beautiful phantom in the mist. The prince ran
to the shore to greet her. She smiled at him and touched his cheek.
“What will you give me in return for my affection?” she asked. “Are you willing to part with your kingdom, your army, and your jewels?”
The prince, blinded by her beauty and eager to boast, nodded. “Anything you want,” he replied. “I am the greatest man in the world. Even the gods are no match for me.”
So he gave her his kingdom, his army, and his jewels. She accepted his offerings with a smile, only to reveal her true angel form—skeletal, finned, monstrous. Then she burned his kingdom to the ground and pulled him below the sea into the Underworld, where her mother, Moritas, was patiently waiting. The prince tried once again to bargain with the goddess, but it was too late. In exchange for the gold he’d stolen, Moritas devoured his soul.
I think of this story now, as I stand with my sister on the deck of a trading ship, looking toward the shore where the city-state of Merroutas rises out of the morning mist.
Someday, when I am nothing but dust and wind, what tale will they tell about me?
Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.
CITY-STATE OF MERROUTAS
The Sealands
They were the flash of light in a stormy sky, the fleeting darkness before dawn. Never have they existed before, nor shall they ever exist again.
—Unknown source on the Young Elites
Adelina Amouteru
“I think he might be here.”
I’m startled from my thoughts by my sister Violetta’s voice. “Hmm?” I murmur, looping my arm through hers as we wind our way through a crowded street.
Violetta purses her lips in a familiar expression of concern. She can tell I’m distracted, but I’m grateful she decides to let it go. “I said, I think he might be here. In the main square.”
It is early evening on the longest day of the year. We are lost in the thick of a celebration in the city-state of Merroutas, the wealthy, bustling crossroads between Kenettra and the Tamouran Empire. The sun has nearly dipped below the horizon, and the three moons hang low and plump, ripe golden orbs suspended over the water. Merroutas is alight with festivities for the Midsummer Feast of Creation, the
start of a month of fasting. Violetta and I wander through the throngs of revelers, lost amid the celebration’s rainbow of colors. Both of us are dressed in Tamouran silks tonight, our hair wrapped up and our fingers adorned with bronze rings. People draped in jasmine garlands are everywhere, packed into the narrow alleys and spilling out into the squares, dancing in long lines around domed palaces and bathing temples. We walk past waterways swollen with cargo-laden boats and buildings carved in gold and silver with thousands of repeating circles and squares. Ornate tapestries hang from balconies in the smoky air. Soldiers pass us by in small clusters, wearing billowing silks instead of heavy armor, a moon-and-crown emblem stitched onto their sleeves. They’re not the Inquisition Axis, but no doubt they’ve heard news of Teren’s orders from across the sea to find us. We steer clear of the soldiers.