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Nodora sat up straighter.“Brilliant.”
“Why didn’t that even occur to any of the scholarly circles?” Xandra asked.
“Because of their little minds,” Kia answered. “They don’t allow for ideas like using the Torch against the Anthrians.”
“Lio,” Lyros warned, “we don’t have to tell you how dangerous this might be.”
“Our wards are ready,” Mak said. “If this could help us get my sister back, there’s not a moment to lose.”
“We should try it now.” Cassia gestured toward the main house. “Kassandra’s still here. Go ask her.”
“I’ll be right back.” Lio rose from the coffee table. He was about to step, when something arrested his senses and made him pause. He strode toward the door of the library.
“You aren’t going to walk through the gardens, are you?” Mak demanded. “Step over there already.”
Lio held up a hand. “Wait.”
He went out into the entry hall. The silk box was waiting on the table under his Ritual tapestry.
He went to it and made to pick it up. His gaze drifted up to the silk tapestry Kassandra had made for him in honor of his first Ritual. As always, the fine, intricate designs she had woven, painted, and embroidered there befuddled and beguiled his eyes. As soon as he looked at one, it seemed to transform before him, or direct his attention elsewhere.
This time, he found his gaze drawn to a shape on the far left of the tapestry, a tall, golden tower that rose above the small figures of people. Bas reliefs decorated its circumference, and its many-colored windows gleamed. Lio had always taken it for a grand monument, perhaps an architectural wonder he would behold on a diplomatic journey. He peered at it more closely now. It was a pillar of solid gold decorated with filigree and precious gems. He lifted his gaze to the top of it, where a light, like a Summit Beacon or the sun, cast its rays upon the entire tapestry.
Lio shook his head and carried the Akron’s Torch into the library.
He could already sense several layers of his Trial brothers’ power enclosing the sitting area. Cassia stood ready with the warded bag containing Chrysanthos’s box. A hush fell over them all as Lio set the silk box down on the coffee table and opened it to let the Torch’s light spill across the library.
“How do we use it?” Cassia asked Lio.
“I am feeling my way, to tell you the truth.” He braced himself.
He fastened his hand around the Torch’s handle once more, and that sensation of foreign, but exhilarating power shot through him. His friends jumped. Carefully, he lifted the Torch and held it out to Cassia.
She withdrew the Dexion’s treasure from the bag. Mak kept a hand on her shoulder, the dark beginnings of a ward at his fingertips. She grasped Chrysanthos’s box firmly in both hands and held it over the Torch’s light.
They all waited.
In the silence, there came a click.
“It’s open!” Cassia cried.
Mak held the bag out. “Give it here, quickly.”
She shook her head. “I think it’s all right. It’s not even hot to the touch.”
Lio put a hand on the box, and a rush of power traveled from it, through him, to the Torch. He shuddered. “I can feel their connection, to be sure, but I don’t think it’s dangerous.”
Nodora rubbed her arms. “Would it be all right to put the Torch away now?”
Lio nodded and secured it once more within the container Kassandra had crafted for it. Cassia sat down with the Dexion’s box before her, and everyone huddled around.
She lifted the lid. Lio peered inside.
“Papers!” she exclaimed with satisfaction.
“Perfect,” Lio said.
“Not an artifact?” Mak shook his head.
