“I don’t know.” Heart pounding with terror and hope. The alupi should be bleeding out but he seems merely injured.Seems. “Rotting gods. We need to get him back to Domus Telimus.”
Eidhin gazes at the dead soldier. Closes his eyes. “Siollan was here for his Septimii, too. No different to me.”
“He was different because he had no option. Youdo.”
“Do I?” Eidhin finally looks at me. “You want me to come with you? How would me fighting beneath someone like Decimus be any better than this?”
“It wouldn’t be. Which is why I’m not asking you to. Gods, I intend to make sure Decimus sees justice and there is only one way that can happen.” I leave no doubt how serious I am about the last, that seething ice in my stomach back and focusing me again. “Your father has taken care of my going back, anyway; the Senate will think I’m a traitor soon enough. He probably thought it would force me to go with you. But there is another path.”
Eidhin frowns. “Which is?”
“We let this battle run its course without us, and use the enemy of our enemy to try and end the war.” I exhale. Can barely believe I’m saying it aloud, but this is the only way. “I think this whole conflict was started to disrupt the plans of the Concurrence, somehow. Princeps Exesius was working with someone.Cedingto them, along with the other two Princeps. It had to have been the man Veridius told us about. Ka. Not some unknowable force, Eidhin. Aperson. And a person can be negotiated with.”
Eidhin looks at me. “A person who wants to cause another Cataclysm, and kill you,” he eventually says disbelievingly. Clearly choosing, at least for now, to disregard what I said about the Princeps’s ceding in favour of my more pressing madness.
“But who for some reason didn’t want this war.” It’s the only thing that makes sense. The only thing that fits with everything I know. “And is now short a Princeps.”
Silence.
“I know it sounds insane, but think about it,” I urge grimly. “I have a combination of things that none of these Quartii have. A family with a long Military tradition. A name big enough within the Senate to legitimise a claim. Popular support from Octavii and Septimii. Strong ties to Governance. I’m young, yes, but the pretenders have already thrown out tradition in order to favour strength as the only qualification, so, gods—if I can really threaten them, there’s a good chance I can get at least some to fall in line without bloodshed! And given what we know about Ka, a real threat is something he might just be able to provide.” I lick my lips. “I know it’s desperate but wearedesperate, Eidhin. Ka won’t trust me. Probably will still aim to kill me, once I’ve served his purpose. But if he truly needs a return to stability for some reason—and given everything I’ve learned, I have to believe that he does—then I may actually be his best option. And that makes him ours.”
Eidhin runs a hand through his hair. Looking lost. “So to be clear: you want to go to the man who intends to destroy the world. Strike a deal to help him. Free my people. Become Princeps of Military. Bring an end to the civil war.”
“It’s ambitious,” I allow.
He grunts. “Andthenwe stop him?”
“No, then we let him kill everyone.”
He glares. “Just making certain,” he mutters to my sarcasm. “And if all thisman wants is for the Cataclysm to occur, and you—perhaps our only hope of preventing it—present yourself to him for a nice easy killing?”
“Then the inevitable just happens sooner, because we’re all dying anyway right now. Dying because greedy men wantmore. If you go out there, you will die. If I stay near Decimus, I will die. Perhaps not today, or tomorrow, but soon. And it will be fornothing.” I clench my fist. “Redivius. Decimus. Religion, Governance, Military, the Anguis. They’re burning the world, Eidhin, and they’re not stopping. If we let them, if all the good people end up dead, what’s even left worth saving?”
Eidhin gazes at the body across from us. Diago whines in pain, but is still, somehow, standing.
“Alright. Alright,” he says softly. Disbelievingly. “If this works, we rescue my people. If it doesn’t, then … well. I suppose everyone dies and it does not matter. So how do we make contact with him?”
I sigh. Let the metal mask form again.
“I stop hiding.”
LXXVIII
MY FOOTSTEPS ARE SWALLOWED AS I HURRY ALONGthe vast, gold-lit colonnade crowned by the luminous pyramid ahead. The Sanctum has been a shell. Eerily, utterly empty. No sign of movement at all since the Overseers closed the massive obsidian gates behind me.
No hint as to whether the quiet is Ka’s doing, or Kiya’s. I pour more speed into my stride. Every moment she gives me is of value.
The triangular tunnel entrance across to Ka’s pyramid soon looms ahead. Soundless and dark, but this time it feels different. Hollow. Cautious fear dictates a pausing at its edge, a peering into its shadows, but I can see no silhouettes. No lurking forms attached high to the inwardly sloping walls.
I clench my hands into sticky, stinging fists, ensuring the blood from the cuts I made a few minutes ago is still flowing. Then I step into the darkness.
Nothing happens.
It takes me five minutes of anxious walking to cross. Every footstep echoes. My eyes strain, but aside from the distant triangle of golden light that marks the opening to the other side, I can see nothing of my surrounds. I keep to the middle of the path. Quick but careful. My alertness comes to nothing.
And then I am through, and out, blinking, into the radiance of the Pyramid of Ka.
The stairway stretches upward before me, each step lit with a fuzzing, thrumming line of gold. A thousand of them, at least, and the only door I can see is at the top. The very ground emanates heat, vibrates unsettlingly beneath my feet.
