CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
One maiden turned to ten, turned to hundreds. And in secret, the lowly messenger god fathered an army of half-breeds.
—Fabia’s Fables, “People of the Stars.”
Breath whooshed from my chest as the casting severed, cutting off Tiberius’s last words. I eased myself to the ground, the energy from casting at this distance hitting me like a stone wall. Unease twisted its way into my gut. What else had happened? And who was he with? Could it be Bayne?
Conflicting emotions warred at the thought. A desperate need to see him, to make sure he was alright… Grief at the death of a future he deemed impossible… Anger at his disbelief…
His marriage to the queen…
My eyelids fell shut as I refocused on the stone, and I slowed my breathing.Think. What would matter the most? I tapped the rock, knocking with my knuckle in various places as I twisted and pulled on its edges, searching for any opening.
“I am—” I began again as the stone door slid open.
“Out of time,” Xenelpha finished from across the room. “You may return tomorrow.”
Rays of middaysunshine gilded the tops of the conical trees surrounding the ice village. Children chased after one another while men and women returned from hunts with massive stags and plump, aquatic creatures I’d never seen before. There was so much life among the Guardians of the Dead.
I had one week to figure out how to open the damn stone container before we needed to leave after their celebration of the equinox,Maadon.
Two massive, tusked beasts stomped through the center avenue, one with a basket-like saddle on its back, where a handful of warriors sat, many waving to the gathering crowd. The second was flanked by four amatohk riders on either side and pulled a caged sled behind it.
I rushed through the crowd, coming face-to-face with the massive, shaggy creature, blocking its path in the road. A young man stood atop the first beast, staring down beneath his mask of bones and nodding in respect to Xenelpha as she approached. Ronan appeared at my side a moment later.
The warrior gently tapped the side of the beast’s head with the base of his spear. The creature slowly got to its knees, lowering its head and swinging its long trunk, and the young man slid down its outstretched leg. He stepped forward to Xenelpha and dropped to his knees, placing his armored head against the frozen ground.
“Thank you for your journey,” Xenelpha said, taking the clawed hand of the warrior and lifting him to his feet. “Our visitors,” she motioned toward me, and I bowed my head towardthe young man as I stepped forward. “Lyvia, Ronan, and Vienah of Sultira. My nephew, Kai, Guardian of the Rhashtai in the east. He’s brought the rest of your party.”
“With your permission, I’ll take responsibility for the group now.” My eyes darted to the bodies in the cage behind the second beast. Bound and unmoving.
“Your responsibility,” she confirmed. I moved to step past Kai, and he held an arm out.
“Two others,” he said, voice thickly accented, tilting his head as he examined me beneath the large skull on his head, “escaped in our initial encounter. We’ve sent scouts into the woods and have been unable to locate their tracks.”
“Nor will you,” I replied, keeping my voice respectful, yet firm. His dark eyes blinked behind his mask, and I stepped past him to what remained of our group from the lake, bound and bloody.
“I would like to request a separate lodging, one safe and comfortable, for Carina Ravindra, Princess of Lotrennia.”
The men and women within earshot peered curiously in the cage, eyeing the female.
Xenelpha surveyed the unconscious princess for a heartbeat and gave me a knowing look. She nodded to me, the massive skull dipping as she did so.
“Only the best for afreeprincess,” she murmured.
Afreeprincess.The debt I racked up with Xenelpha began to feel heavy, as she fulfilled yet another favor I had asked. Carina was not bound by an air oath.
The elven princess blinked as the celosia powder drew her from her slumber, and she took in the icy, yet warm, chamberXenelpha procured for her. White furs draped the wooden cot she lay on, and her Ravindra eyes held a thousand questions as they scanned me.
She eyed my wrist, no doubt taking note of the absence of the rubelline cuff. I glanced down at the red glow peeking beneath her torn sleeve. She opened her mouth, and I held up my hand, “We found the bone.”
Her emerald eyes widened as I relayed all that had transpired, and I straightened as I held her gaze.
“I need you to listen very closely to this next part. I will get this cuff taken off,” I said, motioning to her wrist, “And we will return to Lotrennia with the Advetis Bone. But I am done playing your queen’s games. My allegiance is not to her, or even to Lotrennia. But analliancewith Lotrennia, an alliance withyou…”
Carina straightened in her cot, swallowing the uncertainty building in her gaze.
“I will ally with you, Carina.”
