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I catch her meaning. “I am not summoning him.” Just the thought makes me shudder.
Lucretia shrugs. “Then you will not have your answer to that question until it comes to pass.” She veers around, approaching me. “You are far too worried about the past, my queen. You should focus on your future.” From this proximity, the yellow in her irises gives way to a ring of red around her pupil.
“What does that look like?”
“As Queen for All? My Highness, the possibilities are endless for you. The power contained in Ulysede will spread, healing the lands of its impurities.”
“What about the blood curse?”
“Gifted by Malachi.” She dips her head once. “It has already begun, has it not? Outside these gates, where the land suffers, does it not show signs of new life?”
“The grass,” I whisper. Is that what’s happening?
“An unfortunate scar upon the land when Ulysede was sealed, but my masters will repair what damage they have caused.”
If the nymphs can fix broken land … “And the rift? Will that close?”
“I am afraid even my masters’ connection to this world cannot reverse some damage. And some, they would not wish to fix.” Lucretia moves along the wall, skimming the engraving with her fingertips. It’s as if she can’t stay still.
“What is all that scripture on the wall for? What does it do?”
“Not much anymore. The fates have caused great havoc since my masters were here last.”
“What was it for?”
“For finding answers. I will show you when the time is right.”
“Aren’t you supposed to answer all of my questions?”
“You are not asking the right ones.” Lucretia strolls past Jarek, reaching up to toy with one of his braids. “I would very much like to keep this one for a while.”
His body stiffens. I see nothing but murder in his gaze as it meets hers.
I grit my teeth with frustration. Okay, fine. She wants the right questions? “What happens if I don’t open the nymphaeum door, don’t release the nymphs?”
Lucretia freezes, his braid slipping from her fingertips. “Whatever do you mean, Your Highness?” Her head cocks; she looks genuinely confused.
“Exactly what I said. What if Zander and I don’t take the stone on Hudem and the nymphs remain wherever they are?”
Realization dawns on her face. “That is what you believe must happen?”
“Isn’t it?”
“Though, of course, I suppose it is not your fault. Even Malachi was misinformed once, with disastrous results. Though I thought they would have figured it out, as Malachi since has. But these wielders and their assumptions …” She tsks.
Wariness slips down my spine as I steal a look toward Gesine to find her eyes squeezed shut. “What are you saying, Lucretia?”
She closes in on me, studying my features intently. “That it is already begun, Your Highness. It began the moment you unsealed the door to Ulysede.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
ROMERIA
I’ve already unsealed the door.
I feel the blood drain from my face as I replay her words in my head. “No, that’s … not possible.”
“And yet it is. You have done what you came here to do.”
“That’s what Malachi meant? That I open Ulysede?” My words are hoarse, barely audible, as I search through my memories and the words I clung to for weeks while locked up in my wallpapered prison. “But Sofie said to retrieve a stone.” Which seemed straightforward until I saw the nymphaeum. Then it was a matter of interpreting words.
And that’s how I interpreted it.
But it’s also what Wendeline thought would have to happen for a key caster to open the door.
“Retrieve a stone. I do not know this Sofie or what tales she spun to coerce you. She might not even understand it herself. She is a wielder of the elements, yes? Treacherous creatures, they are.” Lucretia glares at Gesine. “If I were to make assumptions, I would assume she told you what she thought you needed to hear. That’s what they do,” she purrs. “But your kingdom is set in stone, and you did retrieve it from its sleep, did you not? Or rather, you claimed it with a crown upon your head.”
My mind works furiously, but nothing adds up. “She said it was guarded by soldiers.” Soldiers of a sort were her exact words. “And surrounded by a garden. There’s no garden out there!” I throw a hand haphazardly toward the stairs. “The land outside the gates is dead!”
“Dead now, yes. But once, long ago, the path to this kingdom was lush with an entrance fit for a queen. You should have seen it. You will see it. And as for Ulysede’s guards”—she glides toward me, smiling as she leans in—“do not assume that which you can’t see isn’t all around you, watching.”
I shudder at the feel of her breath against my ear, still not willing to accept her words as truth. “Malachi wanted me to open the nymphaeum in Cirilea, just like he had Farren try.”
