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One of the documents, she recognized. That was her hand print on it from when she had saved it from the Collector. The Solstice Oath, the new treaty with the allied lords of Tenebra. But the other…
“Is this what I think it is?” she asked.
“The Equinox Oath,” Uncle Argyros answered. “The very paper signed in blood and magic by our Queens, the Mage King of Tenebra, and your ancestor, the Changing Queen.”
Cassia folded her hands in front of her and leaned forward to study the seals on the treaty. The Queens’ glyph of Hespera pulsed red beside the Mage King’s glowing golden emblem. The Changing Queen’s seal was a gleaming green ivy leaf. Cassia could tell there was still magic in them after all these centuries, little mysterious whispers she couldn’t fully grasp.
“You may touch,” Uncle Argyros said.
“Oh, surely I shouldn’t!”
“It is very well protected with spells,” he reassured her, adding, “I think we can make an exception for the Changing Queen’s direct descendant.”
She reached out one finger and touched the ivy. She gasped at the strength of the aura she sensed in that tiny sign of her distant ancestor. She could almost understand it, like a familiar voice just out of earshot. She listened harder, but it was still too far away.
With a finger on her ancestor’s pulse, Cassia reached out and fitted her hand to the mark she had left on the Solstice Oath.
She withdrew her hands, only to reach into her pocket for the Changing Queen’s ivy pendant. The power in the wooden disk was so much stronger to Cassia now that her senses were awakening. It was a hawk’s cry, a louder echo of the seal on the treaty.
She slipped it over her head and tucked it under her robes to rest hidden beneath her medallion of office. “Perhaps it’s not impossible after all.”
Uncle Argyros smiled, as if she had just given him the right answer to a challenging question.
22
Nights Until
NOTIAN WINTER SOLSTICE
34 Ourania, 1597 IS
CIRCLE OF QUEENS
Lio’s worst nightmare was coming true in the rooftop garden of House Annassa. The bowers of white roses promised Sanctuary, but he couldn’t keep his Grace hidden away here. Every step they took through the eternal blooms carried them toward their fears.
Their Trial circle and the Ashes walked in silence with them, Knight’s and Tilili’s paws padding softly. But somehow, Solia’s gilded sandals seemed loud on the glittering black marble floor. Her ambitions were clear tonight. In her golden wrap dress, she looked like a queen already.
She cast a wondering glance around her. “I had heard that House Annassa is the Queens’ only palace.”
“Yes,” Cassia said, “their home is open to their people.”
Solia watched red water fall into the basin of a fountain. “And they have no throne room save this garden?”
“They are too powerful to need thrones,” Cassia replied.
“I can see that,” Solia murmured.
The Queens sat hand-in-hand amid silk cushions on the raised section of floor that served as their sofa. Queen Alea’s white hair pooled long and thick around her, intertwining with Queen Soteira’s countless centuries of braids. The first Graces were divine love incarnate.
All Lio could think was, Goddess, let Cassia and me survive long enough to enjoy even a taste of what they have. The Ashes’ formal introduction to the Queens passed him by in a blur.
Cassia took his hand, bringing him back to reality. If only he could hold her in his protection as easily as her small hand fit in his.
“Annassa,” Cassia addressed the Queens by their honorific, “it is with great joy that I bring before you my sister, Solia.”
“It is an honor, Annassa,” Solia said. “Her Imperial Majesty asked me to convey her admiration.”
Queen Soteira replied to this greeting from the ruler of her mortal homeland. “How glad we are that you have been under her wing.”
