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The ivy pendant, which was even now in Alkaios’s hand, had been Solia’s legacy. She had bequeathed Cassia the hidden passages inside Solorum. She had instructed Cassia it was the “women’s secret” of the Tenebran royal line, and so it must remain. The hush into which Cassia had spoken Ebah’s name prevailed upon her heart, and she would not break that silence.
“Lords of Tenebra!” Master Gorgos pointed to Cassia. “You see before you the first of us to fall to the Hesperines’ influence. Clearly their wiles and insidious magic have robbed Lady Cassia of her senses. They have implanted in her mind their perverted vision of her past and made her believe it.”
“That is an insult and an injustice to Lady Cassia,” Lio said. “You ought to give her strength of Will far greater credit, if you cannot bring yourself to trust our intentions.”
Mak stared Master Gorgos down. “One of the Hesperines who saved her life that night was a Master Steward of the Stand. Do we appear to need ‘wiles’ to achieve our goals?”
Lyros cast a staying glance upon Mak and Lio. “Our Hesperines errant risk their lives to uphold the Equinox Oath. None of us would ever taint their sacred purpose by lying about it.”
“See here,” Perita spoke up, “I’ll swear before Kyria there’s no foul magic at work on my lady.”
She proceeded to make her oath of truth before the goddess, then recited her grandmother’s recipes for discovering whether malign spells were at work. “I used every single one on my lady to be certain the Hesperines haven’t harmed her.”
“This hedge witchery is not enough to satisfy Anthros,” Master Gorgos replied.
The Semna drew herself up. “You call Kyria’s own beneficent plants witchcraft?”
Lord Severin skewered Master Gorgos with a gaze. “Can you cast a revealing spell and prove otherwise?”
“Well,” the mage puffed, “that is, with all the thick layers of Hesperine spells about, such a test would be inconclusive in any case…”
“But not beyond your skills, of course!” Lord Severin replied, the mockery obvious in his voice. “Shall we take the lady before your brothers from Cordium so they may wave their hands over her?”
“Nonsense,” Master Gorgos said, “I need no Cordian mage to prove me right.”
“I can cast revealing spells,” Eudias spoke up.
Attention returned to him, as if most had forgotten he was there.
Cassia had not, and while she placed her trust in her Sanctuary ward, she also trusted the apprentice’s intentions. “I will gladly submit to any test to which you put me, Apprentice Eudias. I would appreciate your help reassuring everyone.”
“I can,” Eudias repeated, “but I shall not. For what my confidence is worth, I trust you, Basilis, and so too should your countrymen.”
“Your trust is worth a great deal to me,” Cassia said. “Know that you have mine in return.”
He looked away, clearly uncertain how to respond to such a declaration. “My order has meddled in Tenebra’s affairs enough. You should put no more faith in our revealing spells or anything else.”
“I agree with the apprentice,” said Lord Gaius. “Let us not give the uninvited guests a chance to discredit our songbird and prevent Tenebra from treating with Orthros, as is the purpose of this Summit.”
Lord Adrogan grimaced. “I think you’d all best surface from your nostalgia for a queen who never was and think about the reality of rebellion. If there’s a lesson in Solia’s death, it’s that revolts against Lucis end well for no one.”
“Revolt?” Cassia poured outrage into her voice. “Who has said anything about revolt? I see no rebels here, only the protectors of Tenebra, who will not stand by while any man violates his oaths to his people. We must have recourse to the law, not break it.”
Benedict laid his notebook on the table before him. “Aye. Rebellion was the mistake my father made. Violence will accomplish nothing except bringing innocent lives to harm. Here is a cautionary tale, my lords. I lived through it, but I did not understand what it meant until the Hesperines shed light on it for me.”
Cassia looked from the journal to him. “Your notes on the Summit?”
“No. My detailed account of the Siege of Sovereigns, which I have researched in the libraries of Orthros, complete with sketches of the catapults.” He opened the leather cover on a drawing.
Cassia bent over the page with him. “This is what you have used Kassandra’s drawing tools for.”
“I needed an engineer’s drawing tools to reproduce the diagrams from Hephaestion’s written descriptions. So I could be sure.”
Lyros rounded the table. “Sir Benedict, may I?”
Benedict turned the journal so Lyros could see it.
Lyros studied the drawings. “Incredible. As many times as I’ve read the descriptions, I could only imagine what they looked like. Sir Benedict, your work deserves to be studied in its own right. Thanks to you, we are the first people to see Hephaestion’s inventions in over sixteen hundred years.”
