Chapter 10
CHAPTER TEN
Ireread the crumpled letter that had been left for me by Solomon Imai. It had been waiting for me upon my return to Never Keep all those weeks ago. I’d crushed it in my fist in rage, my failure a bitter taste in my mouth and my concern for Everest leaving me broken.
The stars have told me of your failure.
I have left for The Enclave to consult with them on these dire circumstance.
Remain at Never Keep until my return.
That was it. All I’d been given for my efforts.
And now I was abandoned here, unsure when or if the Cardinal Reaper was going to come back.
I’d fallen into a mindless routine, following the Grand Maester’s orders and working to assist in the instruction of the new wave of warriors that had arrived here.
But with every day that passed, my failure weighed heavier on me.
Thoughts of Everest’s choice plagued me.
She’d turned from me, the trust between us had fractured and I had no idea how to restore it.
It made me doubt my faith in Solomon, but those doubts could never be voiced.
Had I really betrayed Everest in his name?
I’d been trying to protect her. Now she was in the hands of her father and it was only a matter of time before news of the Void reached us.
I should have been excited at the prospect of my land’s potential victory, but I was riddled with doubts.
She’d seemed so shattered when she’d walked into her father’s arms, like she had no other choice in it.
He would fiercely protect her now that he could use her, but she didn’t belong beside a man who had done nothing but bully and berate her all her life.
So yes, perhaps we would win the war, but I was starting to realise Everest meant more to me than that.
It was a blasphemous thought; the war had always been a priority, but I hadn’t been handed a sword to fight in it in the end. No, I was here. Confused by my fate and what the stars had planned for me. Because all I really felt was lost.
A flurry of movement in the Reapers’ Quarters made me look up from the letter and I stuffed it back in my pocket – the place it had lived ever since I’d found it.
“He’s back,” Reaper Lily said, seeming worried and Reaper Jaspin frowned, leaning close to her to speak in a whisper but I could still catch his words. My heart thundered. There was only one Fae they could be referring to. The man I had been waiting for all these weeks. He had retuned at long last.
“Then we must do what we can to please him.”
“All Reapers will assemble in the Astral Sanctuary immediately,” Solomon’s voice boomed out through the Reapers’ Quarters, carried to us by magic, the sound setting my nerves on edge.
Relief found me though. He might have answers now, a direction for me to follow.
Perhaps he would send me after Everest again, which in truth was all I really wanted.
I’d even considered slipping away in the night, taking a boat and heading for Cascada alone.
But my gut had kept me here, reassuring me that Solomon would have a plan upon his return.
He’d been conversing with the stars all this time.
He had to know the right action to take or he would not have come.
For the first time in weeks, I moved with energy in my step, sweeping along with the other Reapers.
I hadn’t made much effort to befriend them.
In my past life, friends had come easily to me, but it was impossible to know who to trust among them.
Which of my fellow acolytes had been recruited to the mass of Reapers who’d been working to summon that terrible monster into this world and which of them remained innocent to their devious work?
So I kept to myself – finding the solitude grating and missing Everest all the more fiercely.
Somehow, the longer I spent here, the more it felt like the path of a Reaper didn’t belong to me.
But today I might just find purpose again.
We hurried into the Heliacal Courtyard where snowflakes where swirling down from the grey sky, landing lightly upon the gold-cloaked shoulders of my comrades.
The shine had quickly worn off of my status.
My attempts to speak casually with the training neophytes were met with murmurs of fear, muttered prayers and confused glances.
I wasn’t one of them anymore, but I didn’t feel like a Reaper either. So where did I belong?
The Astral Sanctuary was dark except for the glimmer of everflames that ringed the stone room, casting eery, flickering shadows on the statues of the zodiac deities.
Solomon was waiting there, standing tall at the far end of the chamber, his back to us and his head bowed as if in prayer.
We gathered behind him, me taking a position at the front of the group, anxious to meet his gaze and find reassurance waiting for me there.
I’d been longing for this moment; I’d had nightly dreams about it and waking deliberations of it too.
He’d confided in me, made me his most trusted confidant and I couldn’t wait to discuss Everest with him and how best to protect her.
When the door closed with a firm thud, he turned, casting a silencing shield around the space and settling his penetrating gaze upon us all.
I lifted my chin, hoping his eyes would turn my way, but they didn’t.
A knot tied in my stomach.
Something was wrong.
“I have spent many days consulting with the stars,” he announced. “And they have answered a number of riddles for me. For weeks here at Never Keep, I must admit I spent much time working to uncover a terrible secret that had been kept from me.”
Murmurs of concern broke out around me.
My pulse quickened, hope filling me at the realisation that he was finally about to punish those who had summoned that monster. Between the power of the loyal Reapers and the Cardinal, they could likely destroy it this very hour too.
“It troubled me deeply what I found here, the knowledge of an ancient creature summoned to the precipice of our world.”
The murmurs grew, fear ripening the air and I sensed bloodshed was coming for those who had defected.
Solomon raised a single finger to silence his flock.
“But the stars have assured me I was a fool all along. I should have trusted you, my faithful Reapers, to act in the name of the almighty sky. It was my own ill-guided doubts that turned my gaze from the path of truth.”
A frown burrowed into my brow, those words riling up a storm in my heart. I wanted to shout in defiance of them, but forced my tongue to remain still and take stock of what he was saying.
He went on and it was impossible not to notice the excited glimmer in the eyes of the Reapers around me.
Those I’d tailed for weeks, eavesdropping on them whenever I could, sneaking after them at all hours of the night.
The Fae who should have been dropping to their knees and begging for forgiveness for their heinous crimes but were being praised instead.
“You have been doing the stars’ work and I have come to you now to apologise for my own folly. I did not see the gift you had brought us before. But I see it now. My eyes are wide open, dear Reapers. And the whispers of our beloved stars have told me what we must do next.”
“Praise be!” Reaper Lily cried, lowering to her knees with a choked sob.
Jaspin fell to his knees too and one by one they followed like dominoes, the traitors among us who had allowed neophytes and acolytes alike to be butchered by that vile monster.
I looked to Solomon, one of the few still remaining on his feet as the rest of the Reapers bowed, whether they were guilty or not, but no matter how hard I glared at the Cardinal Reaper, he didn’t look back.
“The stars have named the creature Caelum and have directed me to be its master – an honour I will bear the weight of. I will ensure I act in the best interests of The Waning Lands.”
“No,” I blurted, stepping forward and causing all eyes to dart my way. Including Solomon’s.
“No?” he inquired, raising a single eyebrow. “And who are you to defy the word of the stars?”
He looked at me as if he barely knew me, and his gaze was a knife to my throat, telling me to back down. My pulse rose in my throat, trying to quiet my words and I fast remembered who I was talking to.
“I only mean that… are you sure, Cardinal Reaper?” I backtracked, seeing the wrath in his eyes. Perhaps he just wanted me to play along, then the real plan would be revealed later.
A hiss of whispers broke out, accusing eyes carving lines into my flesh. Questioning our leader was as good as questioning the stars themselves.
“Of course I am sure,” he said in a hard tone that allowed for no dispute. “I am their divine ear. Their pious listener. They have told me of their desires, do you dare go against their wishes?”
“Of course not.” I bowed my head, then forced my knees to bend, dropping to the cold flagstones to join the rest of the Reapers. It felt like an act of platitude instead of subservience.
None of this was right.
Surely Solomon had some greater plan here? This was a ploy to draw out those who had defied him. He would tell me of it as soon as this was done.
“Caelum has been gifted to us to restore balance in The Waning Lands. It is a powerful weapon capable of great things, greater even than the Void itself.”
Ice crawled through my veins, my muscles bunching tight at what I feared he was about to declare.
“The stars have told me plainly what must be done,” he said firmly. “The Void must be brought to me, then I will ask the stars what action I should take with it.”
“Her,” I ground out through my teeth.
“What was that?” Solomon’s voice tremored through my bones.
I looked up, jaw tight and heart thrashing. “Her, not it.”
“The girl is a vessel, nothing more. And she will be my vessel soon enough.”
I was on my feet before I knew it, lunging at Solomon only to find my legs bound by vines of his making and I went crashing to my knees.
He stepped toward me and leaned down, speaking in my ear, a breath of a whisper but it was the sharpest threat I had ever heard.
“Fall in line, Hadlin. Or you will bear the weight of your sins.”
I sneered at the flagstone beneath me, head bowed and irritation flaring through my skin at how quickly he had forgotten my name. It was an insult to all he’d asked of me.
“I tried to bring her here,” I growled. “I did everything you requested.”
“Some people will always be triers, but I value doers among my ranks.” He stood up straight, his vines snaking up my arms, around my waist and forcing my back to bend even further. He addressed the room, stepping past me and leaving me there to contemplate his dismissal.
“I hear Caelum is unsatiated. He craves the blood of war and the taste of carnage. We must offer it to him in the form of our sinners. All of you, gather the wrongdoers of the Keep, any neophytes who have crimes to their names.” A flurry of motion sounded as the Reapers hurried to exit the room until I felt sure only Solomon and I remained.
“What’s your true plan?” I called as his footsteps tracked away from me toward the exit.
“This is my true plan, Hadlin,” he growled. “Be thankful that I feel merciful this day. One more word against me or the stars’ wishes and I shall let Caelum feast upon your worthless bones.”
With that, he left me there, my muscles bunching against his binds and a bellow of frustration escaping me. I’d done everything he’d asked and this was how he repaid me?
Everest’s distrust of him had been well placed after all.
He might have still been acting in the name of the stars, but what if it called for her death?
What if he handed her to the monster under their instruction?
If she was ever put in danger, so help me, I would dissent.
For there was no world in which I would allow that fate to pass.