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She took a deep breath. “They’re not quite awake yet, but once they fully come to me, I’ll have three affinities. I will be a Silvicultrix.”
The sudden silence told her that the ancient Hesperines around her, who had witnessed and wielded the wonders of the divine, were in awe.
“Sil-vi-cul-trix?” Zoe sounded out the complicated word. “What’s that?”
“A Silvicultrix has a very old kind of nature magic from Tenebra called Lustra magic,” Cassia explained. “It gives me three different kinds of power: plant magic, beast magic, and soothsaying.”
“Plant magic!” Zoe’s face lit up. “Just like you wanted so you can make your garden grow better! Does beast magic mean you can talk to my goats?”
“I hope so.” Cassia stroked one of Midnight Moonbeam’s little horns, and the black-and-white goat bleated. Not to be left out, Zoe’s brown-and-white kid, Rainbow Aurora, squirmed closer to demand affection, too.
“What’s soothsaying?” Bosko asked.
“It means I can influence people with my words,” Cassia told him. “I must be very responsible about it, because it’s not right to make someone act against their Will.”
In words the children of Orthros could understand, Cassia explained how she had discovered the truth of her magic. She spoke of how the spirits of her ancestors had appeared to her in Btana Ayal, the ruined city in the Maaqul Desert where the fabric of reality was torn. She brought her matriarchs into the Ritual circle with her.
The elders were as riveted as the sucklings by her account of the forgotten city, all that remained of a lost civilization ruled by the powerful, benevolent Diviner Queen. Judging by Kia’s face, there would be an explosion among Orthros’s scholars before the night was through, as Cassia’s revelations altered their understanding of world history.
When Cassia came to the end of her tale, Uncle Argyros gave a wondering laugh. “Now I understand why you reminded us of the Changing Queen when you arrived.”
Cassia felt her eyes widen. “I did?”
“Yes,” Uncle Argyros said. “Apollon and I remarked on it to each other at the time. You have a certain presence about you.”
“Not to mention her freckles.” Apollon smiled.
They had seen Tenebra’s greatest queen in the tyrant king’s bastard who had arrived on their doorstep in need of Sanctuary?
Well, when she thought of everything she had done to secretly steer the kingdom and protect her Hesperines, she supposed the resemblance was not impossible.
Cassia glanced down at her freckled hands. “You saw her in me before I did.”
“But we met her sixteen hundred years ago,” Apollon said. “After all this time, we never suspected you were her direct descendant.”
Cassia wondered at the twists of destiny that had brought her into this family, whose history was as ancient as her mysterious ancestor. “I have so many questions about her. About all the Lustra mages you might have met. You know everyone in Orthros. Are there any Hesperines who have my affinities?”
Her Grace-father shook his head. “In all our centuries, we have never known one of the Changing Queen’s people to accept Hespera’s Gift of immortality.”
Cassia’s mouth dropped open. “You mean I’m the only one? In sixteen hundred years?”
“Do not fear,” Rudhira said.
Cassia was sure there would be times of fear on the path to mastering her magic. But this moment, when she was surrounded by her Hesperines, was not one of them.
MAGIC LESSONS
Cassia fluffed the pillows on Solia’s bed one more time. “Are you certain you have everything you need?”
Her sister gave her a wry smile, her gaze drifting around the room where Cassia was getting her settled. “Only four chambers and a private courtyard. I am disappointed. I insist on twice as many tassels on the silk cushions and three more baskets of luxury soap.”
Cassia chuckled and gave Solia a hug. “I want you to have the best of everything.”
“I know. I’ve always wanted that for you, too.” She held Cassia for a moment before pulling back. “But I’ve been sleeping in a barracks for five years, and I was always on the road as a mercenary before that. You’ll find my needs are basic.”
“Well, you will simply have to endure me spoiling you a little.”
“We don’t have much time for spoiling, I’m afraid,” Solia said, gentle but firm. “When is my audience with the Queens? Nothing was said of it tonight, not even by the Blood-Red Prince or Princess Xandra.”
