Chapter 16
Damia
Ssssss…why are we outssside? Barb hisses in a grumpy tone as she burrows deeper beneath my collar.
Because we’re going on a trip, I reply, tightening the saddle bags around my horse.
Why?...It’sss niccce and warm inssside.
You’ll be fine in there, I say, tapping my shoulder where her head is resting. I’m the one who’s braving the elements.
“You’re really trying to sneak away tonight?”
The shadows part beside me, and Corrin appears. I manage not to jump, congratulating myself on getting used to his sudden appearances. I notice he’s dressed in a traveling cloak. For some reason, that detail sends a strange spark of hope through me.
“I’m not sneaking,” I say, circling my horse to check the saddle. “The captain gave me a mission. I’m following through. You’d know that if you’d ever done an honest day’s work in your life.”
Corrin crosses his arms. “Didn’t you hear Sandale when he said it would take a few days to even get in touch with his contact? It could be a week before they make any progress.”
“There are other ways to get a message to Sophos—ones that don’t involve some poor rebel in Qimorna putting themselves at risk. But I need to go to Godom to do it.”
“Alright then,” Corrin disappears into shadow again for a moment. I blink and he’s back, this time holding a pack in his hand.
“What do you think you’re doing?” I ask. My heart stutters a little, no doubt because his vanishing and reappearing act is making me jumpy.
“I’m coming with you, of course. His Highness might want most of his soldiers around to protect the princess, but I’m a free agent.”
“What makes you think you’d be of any use to me?” I say, internally wincing at the harshness of my voice. That’s new. Normally, I don’t give a shit who I offend.
“Oh, I could be very useful to you, Damia. You just have to let me,” Corrin says, smiling wickedly in the dim lamplight.
“Besides,” his smile drops, “I need to return to Hallowbane. Last I heard, the cleavers were gone, but they left a few clerics behind, and I need to work out how much damage they did to my city.”
My stomach twists. “There it is,” I say as I mount my horse. “I knew there’d be some ulterior motive. It didn’t take long, did it? Now you’re back to worrying about yourself, when the rest of us are trying to prevent a war.”
His face hardens, though he still looks up at me with bright eyes.
“One of these days, my dear Damia, I’m going to start taking it personally how little faith you have in me.”
I freeze under his gaze, unable to look away. Words tumble from my mouth before I recognize them.
“The question is, why haven’t you already?”
He swallows and my eyes are drawn to the muscles moving in his throat.
“You know why,” he says, his voice rough as gravel.
I finally look away, out into the night, wanting to say a dozen things but finding I can’t get my mouth to move.
“Hallowbane isn’t just some shithole city,” Corrin says, his voice deliberately casual.
“It’s the biggest port and urban hub in the south that isn’t totally controlled by the Temple.
That makes it strategically important. If war is coming, the princess will want someone other than Caledon’s lackeys in charge there. That’s where I come in.”
It’s not bad logic. And he wouldn’t be a terrible traveling companion, even if he has his infuriating moments.
I wanted this mission—the chance to cut the knees out from under the Temple or just execute one of their best soldiers if it turns out he’s lying.
But I wasn’t looking forward to doing it alone.
Places like Godom remind me too much of other things…
things I like to think I’ve left behind.
My horse stamps at the ground, eager to get moving—and at the same time a little hiss sounds beneath my ear.
Yesss…let the human come…he’sss nicccce.
I knew I shouldn’t have let Corrin feed Barb earlier.
“I suppose you aren’t completely useless in a fight,” I sigh, tilting my head at Corrin. He grins.
“Such high praise. Does that mean I can accompany you?”
“Go fetch your horse,” I say, fighting my smile. “And no more jumping out of shadows. It creeps me out.”
His laughter rises into the night as he heads toward the stables.
Morgana
“What’s that?” Leon points to a stretch of hills on one of the maps Harman’s brought with him.
They’re marked all over with scribbled notes, corresponding to reports from various spies and contacts across Rhasborne.
My brother is certainly thorough, and it convinces me I’ve made the right choice sending him to Elmere.
I squint at the note beside it. “Vineyards,” I say, flicking through parchment to find a note I remember reading. “That part of Rhasborne is wine country.”
“Well, my father did like a drink,” Leon says, his tone half joking.
“So much so that he’d hide a super-powerful, divine artifact there just so he’d have an excuse to stop in and buy a few bottles?” I ask doubtfully.
Leon sighs. “I’m just trying to find a pattern.
There must be a connection we’re missing—a hint at where they could have hid the seal.
I remember my father talking about Trova having good valleys for wine once or twice.
Maybe that was their cover story: they could claim they were taking the scenic route, visiting some of the wineries on their way back to Filusia. I’d believe it.”
We’re both clutching at straws. Anything to help us narrow it down. As I stare desperately at the parchment, I notice a faint X drawn in one of the valleys between the hills.
“What does that mean?” I murmur, half to myself, pulling out another map to see if it’s repeated there. “Look,” I say, tapping a note written in the margins. “The valleys have a cave system. That could be a good place to hide something, right?”
“Or lose something,” Leon says. “If it runs under that entire area, it’ll be more of a maze than the Wirstone Mountains.”
There’s a river that runs through the valleys, making the land lush and fertile. I absently trace it with my finger, coming to rest beside its name: the river Siga.
Something itches at the back of my mind.
“Siga…where have I heard that before?” I’m mostly asking myself, but I send it across the mooring anyway.
“It doesn’t mean anything to me,” he replies.
I frown. Rhasborne is new territory to me, so I don’t know why I’d know the name. Unless maybe I stumbled across it in one of my books at Gallawing? But it seems unlikely I’d remember it if I did.
“Maybe the river is named after something or someone else?” Leon suggests. “Lots of place names are.”
I rise from the table, sticking my head into one of the boarding rooms where Tira, Mal, and Lafia are talking and laughing together.
“Lafia,” I say. “Does the name Siga mean anything to you?”
Small lines appear between the girl’s brows as she thinks. “Yes…Siga was a goddess. An old one.”
I blink at her. She’s our fount of religious knowledge, and I’d been hoping for a bit more.
“Is that it?” I say.
“Sorry,” Lafia bites her lip. “I can’t remember what she did. No one worships her now. There’s lots of gods like that who’ve fallen out of popularity. We only remember them at all because they’re mentioned in some old tract or something.”
It comes to me then.
“Lafia, you’re a genius,” I gasp, then close the door without another word, hurrying back to Leon.
“The codex,” I say breathlessly. “Siga was mentioned in the codex. Before I read the prophecy about me, I read a bunch of others, and there’s one involving her.” I clap my hand to my head, struggling to clear my mind. “Oh, why can’t I remember what it said?”
“Because minutes after you read it, you were yanked out of the house by a dangerous spell, and then spent the next three weeks imprisoned and tortured?” Leon suggests mildly.
“Yes, but still…” I huff. “We have to find out what the prophecy said. What’s the likelihood there’s some big divine secret about this river that doesn’t involve Ethira’s seal?”
“There’s a good chance what you read is still there, in your memory somewhere,” Leon points out. “And when does your memory like to throw up strange things you thought you’d forgotten?” he asks, crossing his arms and looking smug.
“In your dreams,” I say excitedly. “You think you can help me find it?”
“It’s not the excuse I’d normally use to get you into bed,” he says with a smile. “But let’s give it a go.”
It’s amazing how quickly I find myself sitting on the bed in the safehouse in Kestis. My dream has recreated it perfectly. Everything is just as it was all those weeks ago, down to the faint sound of voices from the other room.
The difference now is Leon is beside me, watching me carefully.
“Are you alright?” he asks.
“Yes,” I say with a shiver. “It just feels weird, hearing them.” I nod to the sound drifting in through the door. “In a few minutes, they’ll all be dead.”
Leon crouches beside me, putting a hand on my arm. “They’re already gone, Ana,” he gently reminds me. “There’s nothing you can do to help them now, except by finding out what we can to stop Caledon.”
I nod, looking down to the codex in my lap. “What should I do?”
“Focus on the memory. I brought you here, but I can only help you so much. You’ll have to find the details I don’t know on your own.”
I nod, take a deep breath, and pull the codex open.
Words swirl in front of me—a jumble of text I can’t read, my memory refusing to give me any specifics.
I flick through the pages, passing the prophecy about myself, which I remember only too well.
I frown, trying hard to keep our one clue firm in my mind.
There. More text starts to settle into place in front of me. Swirling handwriting forms a few lines that look like they were written in a hurry:
Filusia’s hand will shield the traveler’s blessing, though not from Siga’s falling tears.
“I have it,” I murmur, reading the words over and over, repeating them to Leon to make sure I won’t forget them again.
“The traveler’s blessing certainly sounds like another name for the seal, doesn’t it?” Leon points out. “The mages called it the Traveler’s Mark.”
“Yes,” I agree. “But what’s Filusia’s hand?”
“They call the crown prince the Hand of the King sometimes,” Leon says. “That would make my father—”
“The Hand of Filusia,” I say. “And he shielded it. By hiding the seal, he was protecting it.”
“Which leaves Siga’s falling tears,” Leon says. “And if Siga is a river, my guess is her falling tears are—”
“A waterfall,” I say, reaching the answer just before he says it.
“That’s it. Somewhere along that river there’s a waterfall, and your father hid the seal nearby.
It makes sense. In the legends, Ethira was at odds with Mariste, the goddess of the seas and aquari.
That’s why the seal’s magic is dampened by water.
Hiding it in a waterfall would make it harder to detect its power. ”
Leon looks down at the codex. “I guess we should we be thanking old Atolus the seer right now.”
“Thank Caledon,” I say triumphantly. “If he hadn’t baited us with the codex, we’d never have known where to start looking for the artifact. He just handed us our lead.”