Chapter eleven is back up. I added a few details to the scene in the throne room. The following paragraph is chief among them. I felt like a queen who could bring stone to life (or at least an imitation of it) would surround herself with such creatures.


"I was also slightly horrified to note that there were a number of stone sculptures scattered throughout. I noticed the butterflies first. They dotted one wall near the queen, fluttering their gray wings. Snakes slithered down every balustrade, though these thankfully were motionless. There were even a few people, one of which was moving about in a frightful mimicry of the throng surrounding me. And perhaps most striking of all, a great horned owl kept careful watch over the entire court. It was perched on the throne of the queen herself, turning its expressionless head this way and that."