Black background with gold swirls and text and the red and gold cover of The Book of Gold on the right. Text reads: The Rose Palace was a confection of a building, the intricate facade soaring to the sky, the stone carved with lifelike flowers and vines. Its gutters dripped gargoyles shaped like fantastical creatures of legends, and the turrets were topped with golden spires. The windows glowed with more stained glass than a temple. It couldn’t have looked more out of place in Amberes if it tried. The site it occupied had once been a medieval trade hall, before old King Carlos took Amberes with cannon and sword and claimed the largest building in the city for his new home. He rebuilt it and renamed it. Why ‘roses’ was anyone’s guess. As a trade hall it had been open to all, and traces of that structure still remained. Half had been kept as civic offices, courts and barracks, while deeper behind the walls, the private quarters now housed the king and his entourage. It had to be a security nightmare.
This week's #BookQW is Building. In The Book of Gold, the Rose Palace sits in the heart of Amberes, the seat of royal power in the city. The Book of Gold is out now lnk.to/thebookofgold #TheBookofGold #FeralGods #renaissancefantasy #writersofbluesky #Romancelandia #booksky @hodderscape.bsky.social
