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“Rychel took the grail to the Valtain,” I said slowly. “She was trying to undo what had been done to the Valtain children by the Siabra.”
My uncle looked stupefied. “By the Three, and I thought there couldn’t be anyone denser than your brother.”
I scowled. “Rychel isn’t stupid. She’s extremely clever. And she...cares.”
“Cares? Bah! So she gave the Valtain exactly what they wanted? She betrayed her people? Doesn’t sound like the cleverest girl to me.” But his voice was a little milder.
“Well, perhaps she was right,” I said, grasping at straws. “Perhaps they’ll help her use it to... somehow cure the children.”
My uncle tilted his head skeptically. “You’ve seen the children, have you not?”
“I have. Why? Have you?”
“I’m aware of what they are reported to have become. Of what exists in Meridium, yes.” He gave a dark laugh. “But if your Rychel thinks the Valtain will help her fix those children, she is bound to be terribly disappointed.”
My heart sank. “Why?”
“Because it was the Valtain who were responsible for their creation in the first place.”
My eyes widened. “That’s not possible. What kind of people would do that to their own children?”
“Oh, not the Valtain as a whole. But their ruler? The fae monster who has ruled for millennia?”
My head was spinning. “Are you talking about the man my mother ran from?”
He looked at me steadily. “I am talking about your true father, yes. Gorlois le Fay. King of the fae. All of them. Since before there were Valtain or Siabra.”
I swallowed. “That’s not possible. Is it...? He’d have to be so old... And besides, none of this makes sense. Draven’s father used the grail against the Valtain. He did that to the children. It was a terrible, terrible mistake.”
“The children’s souls were removed.”
“What?”
“Their souls. Their essences. What makes us... us.”
“Yes, I know what a soul is,” I snapped. “I’ve been to the temple.”
My uncle’s eyes twinkled briefly. “Of course you do. And did you learn in the temple the considerable power that a soul has?”
“A power that can be taken?” I asked.
“Ah, now you’re catching up. The Emperor of the Siabra, Lucius Venator.” So strange to hear someone else say Draven’s father’s name. “He was tricked into using the grail for something it should never have been used for.”
“And who stood to benefit?” I said coldly.
“Nowthatis the key question. I suppose the one who has the grail now. The one who has been seeking it all these years.”
The one who must have lured Rychel away with false promises and false hope.
“My father,” I said quietly.
Caspar Starweaver nodded. “The grail was used to take power that should never have been taken.”
“The power of the souls of innocent children,” I said, hardly registering the horror of the words. “But Gorlois lost the grail. It was missing. Draven found it, somehow. He brought it back to the Siabra. It should have stayed there.”
“It should have indeed.”
“You didn’t factor in Rychel and her tenacity, did you?”
