Page 120 of Under the Iron Sky

He followed Ramapheal all the way to the throne room, where most of the inner circle were waiting.

Tensions had been high all morning. Ramapheal was growing increasingly tired of their failed attempts to get into the Astro Temple, and the matter hadn’t been helped by the fairies that’d been caught fleeing from Illieck after paying for a vision from a Seer who told them they would die if they didn’t abandon their posts. A practice the Ancient One himself had outlawed years ago—and planned to remind everyone of today.

With a wave of his hand, the metal plates at the top of Ramapheal’s headpiece slipped down into a helmet. Ikarus held out an arm, ready to phase their master above for today’s executions, but the Ancient One stepped toward Kaladin instead. “The twins will take me above,” he said in a voice like cold death. “You will go transport the prisoners.”

Ikarus bowed his head, trying his best to ignore the churning in his stomach. The Ancient One was not pleased with him, then. He’d have to change that. Quick.

“As you wish,” he replied coolly, working to keep his face impassive as the room emptied one by one. Not an easy feat, especially given the way Morana had glared at him until the moment one of the twins had phased her away. She was clearly far from done with him or the human. Ikarus added her name onto his pile of problems, and made a note to keep a closer eye on her.

The last thing he needed right now was her breathing down his neck.

It took several deep breaths to quiet the screaming in his head enough to be able to phase to the holding cells built beneath a checkpoint where today’s accused were being detained. Once there, he wasted no time stalking down several sets of stone stairs that led to the dungeons.

He started with the closest cell, more cave-like than the one in his castle. One look from Ikarus and the two guards stationed on either side of the iron door peeled away.

“Hello, son of Cadoc,” a voice as old as the stones themselves said as he stepped inside.

Ikarus blinked at the shadowed corner, to where an elderly woman shrouded in a thick black cloak was slowly taking shape, gold eyes cutting through the darkness like two yellow stars.

The woman stood suddenly, stones shifting beneath her. “I saw that you would come for me.”

“You saw that, but not when you were going to be captured so you might escape?”

She cocked her head, old bones cracking. “Sight does not work like that. I see only what I am meant to see, not what I want to. You know that, son of the great seer. Son of the dead seer. Your mother was the best of us all, and even she did not see what was to happen to her.”

She took a step toward him, the chains around her wrists that bound her to the wall clacking together loudly. “Ikarus, she named you. After the eternal dreamer. The Ethereal who had so many dreams of holding the suns in his hands, he stared at them until they blinded him. I wonder what she would have thought of your path. If she saw it herself before death came for her too.” She tipped her head back, a maniacal sort of laughter spilling from her rotting mouth.

One of the guards banged on the iron door. “Stop your riddles, you poisonous witch!”

Ikarus held up a hand. “It’s fine. She’ll be dead in an hour. Her words mean nothing.”

“Oh, but words mean everything, Demon. They are the most powerful thing in this world. The bricks on which all worlds are built—but arranged the wrong way, they can tear down even the strongest peoples.”

“And you’re going to win us this war with a few words, are you?”

The old woman smiled, revealing rows of rotting brown teeth. “I saved the lives of twelve fairies the other night, when I told them they would die if they entered the Astro Temple.”

“Well, you were wrong about that one, weren’t you?” Ikarus nodded toward the stone wall of the cell next door. “They only fled because of what you told them, and now they’re going to suffocate because of your vision.”

“Was I wrong? Or did I merely spin the truth knowing that it would put me here, in your path, right where I intended to be.”

The cold starkness in her tone made Ikarus stiffen. He looked over a shoulder to the guard. “How long has she been like this?”

“She was fine when she was brought in last night,” the guard answered. “But she had another vision this morning, the lads on shift reckoned it turned her mind to soup.”

Ikarus studied the woman again. Her skin was gray and spotted with age, literally hanging off her bones as though eager for its place in the ground. “Take the others above,” he said without taking his eyes off her. “I’ll bring her in a moment.”

The guards did as he instructed without complaint, likely eager to get out of her way if she’d been spewing this shit all morning.

“All right. You got me alone like you wanted,” Ikarus said when the guards and all the prisoners vanished up the steps. “What do you want?”

The old woman erupted into laughter again. “You are as smart as your mother said you would be. Are you sure you do not have the gift? You are half Ethereal, after all.”

“Not all Ethereals are seers,” Ikarus countered.

“But all seers are Ethereals.” She leaned forward, sniffing him. “It seems not, shame. Although it is for the best—I cannot imagine the others would take kindly to you, considering your mother is the reason the Ancient One decreed all with the gift are to live in the palace, forced to give our dreams to him each morning. The blind are much easier to puppet, are they not?”

“Can’t say I blame him, considering the mess you’ve caused with one vision.”