Chapter 81 Kidan
KIDAN
Every student, house heir and heiress, as well as Mot Zebeya gathered to watch Kidan Adane retrieve one of the prized Last Sage artifacts.
They surrounded her house, an unyielding mass of bodies, faces hard with anger, with awe, with jealousy.
The Dirt Diggers had protested on her behalf, calling the entire proceeding lawless and cruel.
But Dean Faris had presented her reasonings to the Mot Zebeya Courts.
“As you recall, this isn’t the first time Kidan broke one of our laws.
She was given an official warning and signed a house release form.
In the event she was found breaking any of our laws, Adane House would be stripped from her and given to Uxlay as it wishes. ”
There weren’t enough curses in the world to quell the rage Kidan felt. Though she had been given a chance to clean her face and look somewhat presentable, the grime under her nails and the darkness under her eyes told everyone where she’d been. Humiliation threatened to choke her.
She understood why Dean Faris invited as many souls to the event as possible. To restore their belief in the balance of power and curb their anxieties, they had to partake in the historical moment.
The dean would take possession of the artifact, and Adane House would lose its status as a Founding House, no longer able to cast its own laws.
A public stripping.
It would quell the protests and restore some semblance of order.
Kidan’s teeth rang when she saw the eagerness of Ajtaf and Makary Houses. They’d always wanted Adane to fall.
Susenyos stood crowded by Sicions. He’d been cleaned up as well, but she could see the lingering effects of prolonged assault in the way he swayed. Black ink was all over his fingers. He’d been writing something. He caught her eye and nodded softly.
Iniko and Taj had arrived. Alert in the crowd, waiting for instruction. But whatever they could do, inside Uxlay, the dean was the most powerful.
Finally, her sister was brought forward. The curl in June’s braids had become lifeless, falling limp around her frightened brown face. Their eyes met, June’s filled with grief, Kidan’s whirling with anger.
The dean had promised to revive June as a vampire and allow them to leave Uxlay peacefully. But Kidan would rather eat glass than stay in this place for another second anyway.
Taking June and Susenyos and going somewhere far, far away was the only thing she wanted.
“You will have one minute before this agreement expires,” Dean Faris said, studying Adane House’s crumbling state.
Kidan turned her attention to the uncleaned gutters. The two of them were positioned the same way they’d been the first day the dean had brought her here.
“Do you ever wonder,” Kidan said under her breath, making sure only the dean heard, “how I was finally able to inherit my mother’s will? I saw what you did. I know everything.”
Dean Faris knitted her fingers, the only sign of anger betrayed in how tightly they squeezed. A small victory that doused her fury.
“Proceed, Kidan.”
Kidan gave a humorless, bitter smile.
She crossed the short porch and eased the giant door aside, walking inside her house for the last time.
She held her breath out of fear, waiting for her hand to cramp with pain, but there was no black rot.
The law affecting Susenyos was no longer in effect.
It targeted Kidan now. Down the straight hallway the fireplace was dead, taking the warmth of the house with it.
“Show me the house law,” she ordered.
Golden thread formed in the palm of her hand.
If Kidan Adane endangers Adane House, the house shall in turn steal something of equal value to her.
She swallowed the lump lodged in her throat. Every instinct in her bones was telling her to leave it as is—her ancestors, her parents, the very house.
But she had no choice. She had to break the law. The term “Adane House” referred to the mask artifact, which meant that endangering the artifact would endanger the bloodline of Adane House, Kidan and June.
Maybe her mother knew this would happen one day. Foresaw her daughters being held hostage in the quest for these artifacts.
Kidan inhaled. Then, as Susenyos once did, she endangered the house.
“I wish to give the mask artifact inside this house to Dean Faris.”
With each step Dean Faris took inside the house, the law convulsed in on itself, breaking apart like a puzzle before disappearing entirely.
Kidan felt the wave wash over her, over the dean and her Sicions, and ripple outward, hunting for the thing Kidan valued most to extinguish it from this world. A price to pay.
Her tear-filled eyes shot to the hallway, to look outside where June was. Had she collapsed? Kidan tried to run to her, but the Sicions stopped her.
“Don’t lose focus,” the dean ordered roughly. “Set the law that will reveal the artifact.”
A tornado of flames roared to life around Kidan, the house magnifying her emotions once again.
She recited the three criteria of lawmaking in her mind.
A house law can only magnify, duplicate, or destroy what already exists within its given boundaries.
A law must always be bound to a circumstance.
A house law cannot be changed without being broken.
Not once shifting her icy glare from the dean, Kidan spoke. “If I clap my hands, the mask artifact in this house will appear before me.”
The new law wrote itself on her palm.
Then, for the second time, Kidan broke a law.
She clapped her hands.
A sudden and complete darkness descended on her, making the dean and the Sicions fade. Kidan gasped, looking around at the vast emptiness.
Then something hard and ancient settled in her hands, glowing with a dazzling light. She squinted her eyes, trying to adjust to the pocket of the sun that made her palms buzz.
The mask artifact was carved of rich brown wood, the whirling designs of gold and white shimmering around its eyes. Kidan had touched many artifacts and objects over the years, but none had ever felt crafted for her hands. The smooth edge of the surface was like water, the cut precise and elegant.
The goddess portrait in Yos’s artifact room flashed before her eyes. This mask was its exact replica except for one thing. The goddess’s mask had a crack to it.
That hum returned, the one she heard from the Lasi bowl, a woman singing. But there was no amalgamation of symbols here. While the bowl felt ancient and otherworldly, the mask felt familiar.
Kidan’s finger pulsed as she imagined the crack going from its forehead to the straight nose. She could almost see it, her eyes shining.
The mask was beautiful whole, yes, but it would be extraordinary if it broke.
The strange thought called to her, to apply pressure and see what would happen. Kidan’s fingers grabbed both edges and pressed downward, expecting ironlike resistance. Samson had tried fire, earth, and brute strength to break these treasures and had failed at every turn.
What are you doing?
Kidan didn’t know, but her hands did. They always communicated what her mind could never understand, always speaking a language of their own, acting without her permission.
Circle. Square. Triangle.
Break.
A writing began to appear along the bridge of the nose, and she squinted trying to read. There was something important here.
Professor Andreyas snatched the object out of her hands. Just as the message moved toward her palms—
“No!”
After all she had gone through to get that mask, it boiled her blood to surrender it so easily. She half thought of snatching it from the cold professor’s hand, because she could have sworn something had happened. The mask was speaking to her. As if she could break it.
Kidan’s heart skipped a beat, wondering if she was imagining it. She stared at her palms. Was it the house? Her armor? Had the answer to breaking the artifacts been… her?
Impossible.
The professor didn’t shift his unnerving gaze. The dean and the Sicions began to walk out, but he lingered. In a slash of movement, he was before Kidan, grabbing her jaw. His eyes were cut of a timeless mahogany tree.
“Are you here?” he asked.
Her entire neck could hardly move though he’d only grabbed her chin. She’d always suspected the professor was stronger than most vampires, but she knew it now. His strength was unbending, complete.
She strained to move her lips. “What… are… you… talking… about?”
“Andreyas,” the dean called, a frown in her tone.
The professor moved back, adjusted his sleeves, and walked away with one last lingering look, his braided hair swaying.
Dean Faris nodded at the Sicions who retrieved the artifact and exited. “Uxlay thanks you for your sacrifice.”
It was that last word that jolted Kidan from her thought.
“Sacrifice.”
June.