9. Sybilla
Chapter 9
Sybilla
R ynall Toth.
Before the Corridors existed, there had been two kingdoms split down the center of the realm, each with its own King.
Brennax, which had been ruled by the Darvanda dynasty. And Phynx, which had been ruled by the Toths. Without the fall of Phynx, the realm of Henosis would never have been—the Enchantresses would never have selected new rulers to replace the failing political system, and the realm would never have been divided into five Corridors.
None of the Toths had survived. Or so I’d thought.
“Does she always stand there with her mouth agape?” Rynall glanced at Darvanda before raising his silver brows in my direction. The room somehow got hotter.
“No,” Darvanda said.
I shook my head. “Rynall Toth ? The Prince of Phynx? And you are here? With him? ” I hadn’t meant to let the contempt slip into my tone.
It didn’t make sense.
“Oh, that Rynall Toth. People get us confused all the time.” Ryn’s sarcasm was paired with a charismatic smile.
There was more to the history of my land than I could have ever imagined.
“Have we broken her? She looks ill.”
“Not yet,” Darvanda ground out, which caused my head to snap in his direction. “ That was a joke.”
“It’s hard to tell with you,” I breathed out before turning back to Rynall.
I scanned the Prince’s face; it was much the same as I’d seen in history-book portraits and statues. Portraits and statues that I’d kept for…commemorative reasons. Taking a deep breath, I allowed my mind to slink into his momentarily, looking for anything threatening.
Was he a prisoner here?
A cool wave of amusement skated up my neck and caused me to gasp. His thoughts were mostly of my appearance, and a lick of his surprise slid down my body that made me physically shiver. “If you’re going to slip into my mind, I can make this far more amusing for us. I have a very vivid imagination.”
My back straightened at the realization that Rynall knew what I’d been doing. “How...?”
Darvanda cut in, “You’re not as subtle as you think. Most Source-wielders, if taught, can feel the attempt of unrefined Reverist magic—those of us strong enough can block it entirely.”
That was why Krait’s thoughts were off-limits to me. That prick was blocking me out.
Heat rose in my cheeks, and I placed a hand across my neck, attempting to hide the flush that had grown there.
“Reverist magic?”
Krait sighed. “It’s where your mind-intruding power comes from.”
Fenris had told me that Elsedora, while immortal, had never inherited any Source magic, so her thoughts and feelings came to me more easily. I made a mental note to try to suppress my power in this land. If I could help it. No one else needed to know about my abilities.
“I’m sorry for the intrusion. I won’t dream of it again.”
Rynall chuckled. “Oh, I will.”
My cheeks grew even hotter. I didn’t think I’d ever met a man this forward. Maybe Fen, but he had eyes only for Asterie.
“Enough,” Krait said, giving him a warning look. “Ryn will show you around and to where you can bathe— alone. ” Darvanda pointed a finger at Rynall.
The silver-haired Prince lifted an eyebrow at that, and I couldn’t help but laugh in a girlish pitch, which I wanted to swallow immediately. “Are you assigning the last Prince of my ancestors’ homeland, a legend to my people...to be my caretaker?”
Rynall was biting his lower lip, but Darvanda was unamused as he said, “Yes.” He glanced at Ryn again. “No complications.”
“I heard you the first time,” Rynall called after Krait as the King ascended the steps. “Don’t worry, you get used to his moods. And quit looking at me all starry-eyed. Truly, it’s an honor to meet you, Queen Sybilla—we’ll be friends in no time. After all, we have worlds in common.”
Ryn offered me his arm to lead me through the halls of Umber House. The same tilework as outside was prominent inside, and the brown-speckled terrazzo stone floor kept the space cool despite the heat outside. Even the halls of the estate were cozy. Warm-toned, thick curtains hung around every window and large wooden beams ran the length of the ceilings.
“So, if you are a Toth, what is your Source power?” That seemed the simplest question, though I bubbled over with eagerness to ask him more. The Order had long stripped magic out of our history, and meeting him in the flesh was an opportunity to uncover tendrils of my land’s roots.
Ryn smiled and answered, “Moonlight—my twin sister, Freya, and I both.”
Not much was known about what had happened to the Princess of Phynx all those centuries ago.
“You have a sister?”
“Had,” he corrected, and a subtle pained expression crossed his features.
“I’m so sorry,” I offered, and he squeezed my arm.
“It was a long time ago.”
Ryn looked no older than thirty with a strong jawline, crystal-blue eyes and sleeves pushed up over thick biceps. I’d always had a weakness for strong arms.
“My friend Asterie is also of the night sky,” I noted lamely, unable to come up with anything more intelligent to say after his disclosed tragedy.
The corner of his mouth turned up slightly in thought as we approached another curved hall. He explained, “The house has four quadrants on each level, and the halls form one giant loop.”
I was surprised to find each space he led me through as enchanting as the last. Wooden bookshelves adorned the walls, along with portraits of men and women I didn’t recognize. Above each doorway, there was a wooden carving of the rattling-serpent crest of the Sahlms.
We were on the fifth level, having just passed several windows with views of the main canal, when we passed a plain closed wooden door on our left.
If I was judging the space appropriately, it was about where the bell tower I’d seen from the exterior would be, yet the door looked as though it led to nothing more than a broom closet.
“Is that the bell tower entry?” I asked
“It is—but it’s Krait’s private study. None of us are allowed in there. I’d advise, if you’d like to keep your fingers intact, that you don’t even touch the knob. He’s likely laid traps with Shadows.”
“Noted.” What the King might keep in his personal study intrigued me. “I have to ask. You’re here with the enemy of your fallen kingdom...”
“Is that a question, Princess?”
I blushed, too enamored with him to be offended by the demotion. After all, if he’d stayed, I would not be sitting on a throne. A lump grew in my throat. “It doesn’t make any sense.”
Ryn shook his head and patted my arm as we stepped past Krait’s study. “You know, some stories are mine to tell, and some are only partly mine. Come back and ask me after you piece together some parts that aren’t mine.”
He gave me a wink and held out his hand to let me walk first down the main staircase. “I’ll show you where your bedchamber and the baths are so you can get cleaned up before you leave with El. If you drink with her, keep your wits about you and don’t try to keep pace with her. She’s a wild one.”
My chamber was a decent size, a double bed with an abundance of pillows on one side and a vanity on the other. It was decorated simply with a few paintings of the red rock mountains. I was thankful not to be held in a cell. So far, Darvanda had kept his word that he wouldn’t harm me, however, there was no guarantee I’d be treated as royalty.
Ryn explained on our way down that the bathwater in Umber House, and bathhouses around the city, was filtered through sand, and the gray water was used to water the greenhouse crops. No waste in the desert.
He left me at the door, and I entered, alone , to a divine space. Three exquisitely tiled pools of crystal-blue water sat side by side, large enough for ten people each.
After stripping out of my travel-worn clothes, I soaked in the pool for so long that my hands had become pruned. The dust and grime washed away with lukewarm water and lilac-scented soap. After drying and wrapping myself in the robe that’d been left for me, I padded up the cool tile steps to my bedchamber.
After a few minutes, Elsedora came into the room like a hurricane.
“There you are. Sit!” she commanded.
She spent an hour ironing out every one of my curls with a pronged contraption that she heated over a candle. I was uncomfortable with it so close to my face, but the more I moved, the more likely she was to catch me with the edge of it.
“Put this on.” She handed me an emerald silk dress that felt far too light. “It will suit your eyes.”
“ This is not a dress.”
Elsedora chuckled. “Trust me. As we get into the heat of summer, you’ll be thankful for the lack of modesty here.”
Offering her a mock glare, I took the dress behind a changing partition. Slipping off the robe, I pulled the slick green fabric over my head. I was thankful for the extra fabric that wrapped around the bodice but not for the back being left open.
Long ribbons hung from the sides, and the sleeves would need to be tied. I stepped out from behind the partition, trying to hold the dress together. “What exactly do I do with all of these?”
“Let me,” Elsedora said and stepped up behind me. With surer fingers, she crossed the extra fabric over my shoulders and then around my waist before tying it there. “This is the fashion right now, so many ties...It’s rather fun to be unwrapped like a present, though.”
A laugh burst out of me. I couldn’t imagine King Darvan-dick taking his time with a woman enough to ‘unwrap her like a present.’
It also seemed as though nothing, not even the Shadow-wielding King, could tame the wild gust of Elsedora’s winds. She was like a beautiful tornado that could sweep through and dismantle even one’s thickest defensive walls.
While she was Fenris’ sister, she had grown up here, apart from him. I admired her independent streak.
“Does your King like the gifts you offer?”
“Who?” Elsedora asked as though the question was outlandish. “Krait?”
“I assumed...”
Elsie threw her head back with a snorted laugh. “Oh, how I wished as a girl. Practically threw myself at him on my eighteenth birthday, and he was mortified.”
“It was wrong of me to assume.”
“I will deny I ever told you this, but I once had a portrait of him hanging on my wall as a girl.”
“No!” I gasped out.
“Yes. Such a girlish dream—the Brennac Prince whisking me away. The infatuation took years to squash. And many, many sexual encounters with other people—it’s funny now.”
I couldn’t judge her. The man was lethally attractive. I’d give him that.
“You’ve spent many years together—it never changed for him?”
“No. After Freya, his heart is too wounded to have eyes for anyone else. But Krait is a loyal friend. Once he chooses you, little will deter him from being there when you need him. He and Ryn have been a constant in my life since I left the North Corridor.”
It was odd to think of the growling, grunting King as anything more than a sadistic prick. That he might be loved by anyone was intriguing, and it was clear from the adoration in her emotions that she did love her King.
“Princess Freya?”
“Yes. Rynall’s sister. I urge you never to say her name in front of Krait unless you want a catastrophic Shadow tantrum. She was beheaded centuries ago—it was a tragedy. The people of Brennax loved her. Krait loved her.”
I filed that all away—the last Prince of Phynx was here. Krait had loved his sister. She’d been beheaded.
The very word sent shivers down my spine. What could the Princess have done to deserve such a fate? Or had she deserved it at all? My heart sank for Ryn.
In my mother’s case, it hadn’t taken more than hearsay. For female royals, their position on a throne was always a precarious one.
But Krait had destroyed her city and killed her family...aside from Ryn.
Something wasn’t adding up.
“Was it hard for you—leaving your land?”
Elsedora contemplated that for a moment before she shook her head. “No, at the time I thought there was nothing left for me there. But I do miss the Hussa Mountains, the crisp air, the frost melting away after a long winter.”
I extended a hand to squeeze her shoulder and said, “Soon you can travel back there whenever you please. The wards are down, and an Egress will be built.”
Elsedora smirked. “Like the wards ever stopped me. There are some things that are nostalgic not because of the places themselves but because of the people that once filled them.”
From discussions with Asterie, I knew Elsedora’s parents had been killed during the Great Wars—that they’d harbored Source-wielders and had been punished for that crime.
She interrupted my thoughts by asking, “Ready to break some rules?”
“As I’ll ever be.” I had a feeling that Elsedora wouldn’t allow Darvanda’s skepticism to change any plans she’d made for her evening.
My hair was too slick and soft to tie back with the Luz-blue ribbon, so instead, I wrapped it around my wrist as a bracelet and followed her out of the bedchamber.