Chapter Forty-Five Lor
After my birthday celebration, Nadir surprises everyone by telling us we won’t be returning to Nerissa’s in the Eighth. Instead, he’s arranged lodging closer to the palace in the Twenty-Third District. Not only will it be more convenient, but he’s worried about Gabriel knowing our location. It isn’t that Nadir doesn’t trust Gabriel to keep his word, but we all understand he might not have a choice, and we’ve pushed almost to the limit of his timeline.
Aphelion has become a seething mass of people arriving from other parts of Ouranos, drawn to the city for the festivities. Throughout the twenty-four districts, there is entertainment and merriment. Acrobats performing in the streets, and musicians stringing notes around every corner. Food stalls and wine stands pop up everywhere, sustenance flowing as fireworks fill the night sky, and people dance until the sun comes up.
If we weren’t about to embark on what is sure to be an increasingly dangerous task, I might find joy in this.
Of course, very few understand this is all a ruse. Under the smokescreen of celebration is the salient fact that Atlas has no interest in bonding to Apricia.
Gabriel’s warnings still ring in my head. He’s supposed to be looking for me, and he’s running out of time. I don’t blame him for choosing himself over me either. I understand what it’s like to be trapped between difficult choices, and we all do what we must to survive.
Nerissa sits in the middle of a spread of books all over the living room floor of our new flat. She’s been reading nonstop, trying to learn more about the arks.
“Whatever Cloris told you seems partly true,” Nerissa says. Her long brown hair is tied up in a messy bun with a pencil stuck in it. Tristan sits next to her with his legs crossed, also flipping through pages.
I don’t miss the way she keeps laying a hand on my brother’s arm to ask him to pass her a book, and I certainly don’t miss the look in his eyes every time he steals a glance her way. I think he’s trying to be subtle, but he’s failing miserably.
Nadir catches my eye, and we share a knowing smile at Tristan’s expense.
It would bring me so much joy to see my brother find someone he could fall in love with.
“It says here that at the Beginning of Days, when the Artefacts were formed, other objects of power were also created,” Nerissa reads. “Each was intended to pair with an Artefact and could be used both to amplify and channel the magic of its realm.”
“That has never been a part of the origin stories of Ouranos,” Nadir says.
Nerissa shakes her head. “Because it seems like they were purposely hidden.”
“What do you mean?” Nadir asks. “Why?”
“From what I can tell, Zerra’s priestesses were actually created to retrieve them from each realm. When they tortured and killed in her name, they were trying to get their hands on the arks.”
Nadir folds his hands under his chin. “For Zerra?”
“So one might assume,” Nerissa answers. “It was all so long ago, but I suppose when the rulers realized she was after them, they hid them away well enough that they were mostly forgotten.”
“Is there anything that says where they might be now?” I ask.
“Nothing that is clear,” Nerissa says. “There are passing references to small rectangular objects, each carved with a woman bearing its corresponding Artefact.”
“An ark is like a chest or a box, right?” I ask.
“Yes, or sometimes a coffin.”
That answer sets the hairs standing on the back of my neck.
“So they’re big?”
“No. I think they are fairly small. More like an art piece you’d keep on a shelf. The way the books talk about carrying them would suggest they’re manageable. I suppose in the case of some of the larger and more unwieldy Artefacts, they were useful in channeling their power. They were created from a material mined in the Beltza Mountains.”
“What material?” Nadir asks.
“That I don’t know. But it also held magical properties.”
“Anything else?” Nadir asks with a frown. I suspect it’s taking everything in his power not to run home to find out what he can about The Aurora’s ark.
Nerissa shakes her head. “Eventually, the histories just stop mentioning them at all. Like everyone collectively forgot.”
“What about what Cloris said about the land reacting? Are all these incidents connected?”
Nerissa nods. “I think she might have been telling the truth about that.”
She holds up a book. A standard text on the history of Ouranos. Even I recognize it with my limited reading experience.
“This is the story we all know about the Beginning of Days. The one in which Zerra brought all the rulers together and bestowed the gift of magic and the Artefacts she’d created on each of them.”
“Right?” Nadir asks, leaning forward and clasping his hands between his knees.
“Well, I found this,” Nerissa says, holding up another book. “It talks of an alternate history. This suggests that what we know as the story of the creation of the Second Age of Ouranos isn’t entirely the truth.
“Zerra didn’t create the magic, she just became a caretaker.”
“What do you mean?” I ask.
“Magic was always here, but before the Beginning of Days, it—for a lack of a better way to describe it—began to spill over. The land could no longer contain it, and that’s when it was granted to Ouranos’s human inhabitants before they were ascended to High Fae.”
“Granted by who?”
Nerissa’s finger slides along the page. “Some higher authority. The author doesn’t seem clear on who or what actually made the Artefacts.”
“If that’s true, then why do we give the credit to Zerra?” Nadir asks.
“Perhaps it was just propaganda to make her seem more powerful and used to lure in followers,” Nerissa says. “The author does seem to think the Artefacts are more sentient than we normally give them credit for.”
“So they’re alive?” Tristan asks, and Nerissa shrugs.
“That’s why they talk to you,” Nadir says.
I nod. It had always been unnerving to understand how much they knew each time I spoke with them. “Maybe.”
“That doesn’t answer why they talk to Lor, though,” Tristan says.
Nadir’s gaze falls to me as though he’s trying to see through me. He shakes his head.
“I know.”
“Do you think it matters?” I ask. “Maybe it has something to do with my grandmother.”
“Perhaps,” Nadir says. “I think, for now, it’s just important we get to the Mirror and figure out what it has for you. If it’s the ark, then the next question will be what we do with it. If it falls into Cloris’s hands, what could she do with it?”
I shake my head. There’s something about this knowledge that’s bothering me. It feels like there’s a thread I’m missing, but it’s written behind a thick sheet of fogged glass.
Whatever the case, Nadir is right. We need to focus on the task at hand. One step at a time. One revelation at a time. Just like when we were in The Aurora, I sense there are still many parts of this story yet to be told.
A moment later, the back door to the house bangs open, and Mael and Etienne stride into the room.
“We received a note from Hylene,” Mael says. “She talked to Willow, and it isn’t good news.”
Mael hands the note to Nadir, who scans the missive as we all watch.
“What is it?” I ask after a moment.
“Hylene has confirmed the presentation will take place in the palace courtyard tomorrow morning as planned,” Nadir says. “But there will be a party for the VIP guests inside the throne room.”
“No,” I reply. “But that was our chance.”
“It says the party was supposed to take place in one of the back gardens, but they moved it inside at the last minute because they’re expecting rain tomorrow.”
“So what do we do?” I ask.
“We need a diversion,” Etienne says. “Something to draw everyone away.”
“What would be big enough to convince them all to leave? And even then, the guards will be trained to stay put,” Mael counters. “They know not to abandon their posts.”
“So we do away with the guards,” Nadir says. “And create a big enough disturbance to call the guests and the majority of the palace soldiers to the front, where everyone else will already be gathered.”
“The throne room is suspended over a cliff,” Amya says, her expression thoughtful. “What if part of it were to, say… collapse? I know the layout well enough. We could destroy the southern window without touching the Mirror. Everyone would be climbing over one another to escape.”
Everyone seems to consider this idea, but I say, “No. We aren’t killing off a bunch of innocent people who are there attending the bonding.”
Nadir pins me with a glare. “Those people aren’t innocent, Lor. They all stood by and watched you compete in those Trials, cheering for every moment of your suffering. They’re complicit in how Atlas treats the low fae, and while a handful might object in theory, none of them have ever lifted a finger to join the resistance.”
“And you have?” Tristan asks Nadir. While the two of them are starting to warm up to one another, it’s clear there’s a divide yet to cross.
“I’ve never claimed to be better than them,” Nadir growls. “But I’m the one who wants to help your sister, so right now, mine is the worthier cause. Agree?”
Tristan grunts but nods his head.
“That still doesn’t mean they deserve to be murdered in cold blood,” I say.
“Do you have a better idea then, Heart Queen?”
“Not yet,” I say. “I’m thinking.”
“We drug the guards’ food and water,” Mael says, and before I can object to that, he raises a hand to silence me. “Just enough to knock them out, not to kill them. Okay?”
I close my mouth and nod. Okay. I can live with that.
“Do you think Willow can access the guards’ kitchen?” Etienne asks. “I have something she can use. It won’t affect everyone, but if we hit them at breakfast, it should knock out enough at the right time.”
“What about your magic?” I ask Etienne. “Could you shift us inside? Or get in and poison the food yourself?”
He shakes his head. “There are safeguards against that,” he says. “Otherwise, anyone with similar magic could slip in and out. It would be too dangerous without wards in place. Every stronghold in Ouranos is protected similarly.”
I knew that would be too easy.
“What else does the letter say?” Tristan asks.
Nadir continues reading, and I notice his shoulders tense.
“Father is here,” he says to Amya before he looks at me.
“What is he doing here?” she asks, echoing everyone’s confusion. “Atlas invited him? I thought we were all banished.”
“Are they working together?” I ask. Cloris spilled our secrets to both kings. Have they found some common ground?
Nadir shakes his head. “If they are, then Father must plan to double-cross him. If we know Atlas wants to bond with you, then how would my father use you? He’s not going to share you.”
“Father can’t bond to Lor,” Amya says.
“No,” Nadir replies. “Not only because it’s impossible but because I’d destroy him.”
“Is it possible for Atlas to bond to Lor now?” Tristan asks. “What with the whole mate thing?”
Nadir shakes his head, a wicked grin sliding onto his face.
“No, he cannot.”
I’m not sure why that answer surprises me so much, but it makes sense. The Mirror refused to allow me to become queen of Aphelion, because it claimed I had another destiny to fulfill, but what if it was about more than being the heir to Heart?
“Your father,” I say, grabbing Nadir’s arm as a flash of clarity finally coalesces in my head. Ever since Cloris mentioned the arks, it’s been nagging me.
“What?” he asks.
“He’s looking for the ark too.”
Our gazes meet, and his head shakes imperceptibly.
“What are you talking about?”
“Our last night in the Keep when I was talking to Vale. He said he’d been tasked with searching for an object of great power. He called it an ark.”
The entire room goes silent enough to hear a pin tumble to the ground.
Nadir groans and rubs his face. “You’re sure that’s what he said?”
I nod. “I dismissed it at the time because I was so sure he was going to tell me about the Crown. And then with everything else that’s happened, I forgot about it.”
“Fuck,” Nadir says.
“This is bad,” Amya adds.
“So now what?” Tristan asks. “Does this change anything?”
“No,” I say. “If the Aurora King is also after it, then it’s more imperative than ever we don’t let it fall into the wrong hands.”
I can tell Nadir wants to object.
You know I’m right, I say to Nadir, who glowers with all the subtlety of a hive of killer bees.
This just got more dangerous.
It was always dangerous. We don’t have another choice.
Everyone in the room is looking at us during our silent exchange.
“That is so weird,” Mael says.
Nadir exhales a resigned sigh. “Fine. The plan is the same. We get in, we talk to the Mirror, and we get out without either king getting his hands on Lor.”
I nod, though I don’t like any of this. The Aurora King’s presence makes this all feel a lot more precarious, but who knows what kind of catastrophe awaits if Rion gets the ark?
Nadir tosses the letter on the table in front of him, and I go to pick it up, scanning the words he’s already confirmed.
“Drugging the guards helps us only if we can lure everyone from the throne room,” Nadir says, returning to the details of our plan. This has to be our focus. “And we require at least a few minutes. I’m not sure how long Lor is going to need with the Mirror.”
“There are rumors the low fae resistance is planning something tomorrow,” Etienne says, his arms folded across his chest, from where he leans in the corner, as quiet as a shadow.
“Can we use that?” Nadir asks.
Etienne shakes his head. “I’m not sure, but it seems a risky thing to rely on. What if the rumors have been planted to direct attention from somewhere else? They might hit a completely different part of the city. We’d need to confirm.”
Nadir looks at me and purses his lips.
“Lor, if this isn’t the diversion we need, then we have to consider Amya’s plan.”
I rub a hand down my face. “Fine. But only as a last resort.”
He dips his chin. “Then let’s go pay a visit to Erevan.”
We all share a look around the room. We know this is a long shot. Our chances of dying or getting caught are nearly a hundred percent.
But we’re out of time, and this is the only choice we have.