“What happens to us if we pull out of Xalbia?” asked a female Nemean candidate.
“You enter into basic servitude,” Vesper told her, dispassionate. “At that point, the Sovereigns will again make your power latent.” She paused, sweeping her gaze over every candidate. “You can choose to bow out here and now. You don’t have to try for a place in the Order. But if you do leave, don’t come back looking for another chance—there’s no room for quitters in the Tapestry.”
When no one expressed an interest in bowing out, Talon turned to Keyes and flicked a look from him to the barrel. Obligingly, the Marshall lifted it and then made his way toward the nearest candidate.
“Each of you take an apple, but no one bite into it just yet,” Ajax ordered.
I watched as Keyes carried the barrel from person to person, allowing them each to snatch a piece of fruit.
“The Sayer isn’t going to get through this,” an unfamiliar voice stated from somewhere behind me.
“I strongly disagree,” said Khalida. “She’s got more to lose than anybody here.”
Just then, Keyes appeared in front of me. I reached into the barrel, took an apple, and studied it closely. Aside from the gold coating, it looked like a normal apple.Feltlike a normal apple. Even smelled like one.
I wasn’t certain that I had anylatent power, but eating the apple surely wouldn’t do me any harm. Right?
Actually, I couldn’t say. I’d never heard of humans being givenichorbefore. There was a chance that my system would regurgitate it.
My scalp prickling with the awareness that I was being watched, I automatically looked up. Talon stood with his feet planted, his arms folded, and his eyes on me.
My pulse spiked and my gut did an excited little twist. Which was not fair. Because there was no sexual interest in his gaze, only a sense of detached curiosity.
Ignoring how my system so enthusiastically responded to the sight of him, I returned my focus to Keyes just as he set down the empty barrel.
“Eat,” Ajax called out. “Leave only the core.”
I bit into my apple and, oh God, it tasteddivine.Fresh. Juicy. Sweet. Addictive.
I chewed and chewed, but then paused … because the taste changed. Turned sour. Dry.Rotten.And all-out disgusting.
I balked, my belly rolling.
NowI understood what the buckets were for.
“You don’t have to eat it all,” said Ajax, speaking to no one in particular. “You can quit. You can spit out the food. But then you won’t become one of us.”
Which wouldn’t bother me. But being in the hands of the Sovereignswould. So I kept chewing. Balked again. Resumed chewing. The piece of apple went down hard and sat like lead in my stomach.
I stared down at the fruit in my hand, hesitating.
Don’t think about it, don’t think about it, just eat.
I sank my teeth into it again. The burst of divine sensation came first but, like before, it quickly turned repulsive. It didn’t taste of decaying fruit this time, though. It tasted like rancid meat.
Forcing myself to ignore the churning in my stomach, I chewed. I went somewhere else in my head, thinking about my mother; remembering her smile, her laugh, her smell.
And I ate.
I thought about my father. About his beautiful sketches, his rugged face, his terrible jokes.
And I ate.
I thought about my fellow acolytes; mentally went step-by-step through some of our rituals.
And I ate.
A retching sound cut into my thoughts. My stomach tightened. There was another retch, and then the splatter of liquid hitting metal.
