Chapter Thirty-Four Adela #2
I turn to her, and I wonder if she’s so used to being untouchable in her role that she is oblivious to danger. After all, no one would ever threaten a high priestess. It’d be like threatening the goddess she serves directly, and no one would risk the Huntress’s ire.
I suppress the rage, hiding it behind a smile, just like Kian taught me to. “Of course.” My voice is poisoned honey, but she is so excited by the possibilities of her twisted dreams being realized that she doesn’t hear the threat in it.
I gesture to the crowd behind her and then to the crypt surrounding us. There are novitiates from every order standing to be matched, and only a handful of skulls.
“If you drop the barrier, we can match more of these,” I say. “Drop the barrier so Cecelia and I can test and prep them as we go. Why wait?”
There’s a short flicker of Sarai’s intuition. A deep part of her knows she shouldn’t trust me just after she’s made me kill my lover, but her greed wins out. With a few movements of her hands, she drops the barriers to the skulls. The moment she does, I let my raw, monstrous rage burst forth.
How dare she.
How dare.
“I am not your little bird. I am not your anything.”
“Of course you are.” Either Sarai is the bravest person I have ever met or the stupidest. “You are a member of the Order of the Huntress, and I am the high priestess. You are mine to command.”
“You could be the great goddess herself, and I’d still tell you to go fuck yourself.
” My throat is so raw that I’m surprised I don’t breathe fire like Enkidus.
“You want me to reshape the way things have been? To bring down the systems the orders have promised to uphold?” I direct the magic.
“I am a ruinous creature. And I will destroy you.”
I point at her and her unicorn skull dissolves into a pile of ashes.
All of the opals and diamonds and pearls gone along with it.
Sarai simply stands there, gaping. She has a small, pointed face.
Pretty, with smooth, freckled skin and a little upturned nose.
She looks so vulnerable without the unicorn skull.
I do not wait for her response. I turn to the other servants of the Huntress, the Pupil, and the Spinner. Nearly all of the Huntress order step back. They hold up their hands to protect their faces from the blaze of me.
It does not save them.
Everyone who steps away loses their creature skull. Gems and bones and gold fall into piles of ash at their feet.
My father steps forward, solid and true. Cecelia has moved next to him and watches carefully. I can practically see her taking notes in her head as if she were writing about this period of keeper history. I hope she will delight future scholars with the drama of her storytelling.
There are members of the other orders who are not afraid of me. They stand firm, unflinching in the face of my destruction. In front of them is Ulric. He steps forward, raising a hand to my cheek. His eyes are wet with tears. “Are you okay?”
I look down at Kian’s body at my feet.
I am not certain I will ever be okay again.
“How can we help?” he asks.
I take in the people who surround me and my fallen love, who bear witness to my pain and anger and destruction and do not flinch from me.
Most of them are strangers, but a few I am glad to call friends, or allies.
Svena, Sister Ihi, the trio of gytrash-matched priests, and of course, Ulric.
I am still aflame, but they are not afraid.
“If you trust me, I could use your help.”
“Of course,” Ulric replies immediately. Around him, others nod. “What do you need?”
“Half of you, go out into the community and find those who do good. People you trust. If they agree, bring them here. Quickly. They will be matched with creatures and trained to do magic. And once the crisis and chaos of this all is passed, we will revisit their bonds.”
“And the other half?” Cecelia asks.
I point to the bare-faced order members with ashes at their feet. “Keep those ones out of my way.”
They do.
People of all kinds come down to the crypt. Novitiates. Servants. Teachers. Smugglers. One by one, they step forward, brave despite their obvious fear.
With Ulric and Cecelia beside me, I begin to match them. From the altar, and then from the walls. I check with each of the skulls first. “Help me,” I say to the old bones, “and when we are done with our work, I promise to release you back to the valley if that’s what you wish.”
Some refuse. And those I set aside. They have given eons to this world. I will ask them for no more. But those that agree, I match.
I begin with Cecelia. She removes her plain mask and instantly pairs with a kelpie. Then Dad with a gryphon. Svena matches with one of the oldest and strongest dragons.
Linden is there, the stumps of his arms tightly bandaged. He steps forward, hopeful.
I ignore him and turn to a young man beside him.
“I do not actually want to be a priest,” a young novitiate wearing pink says, shuffling his feet.
“Then you don’t have to be one,” I reply. “No one has to serve a goddess, human or creature. There are no unwilling participants in this. This will be a pairing of equals, or no pairing at all.”
After about an hour, I have matched fifty or so people. There are some who came to learn more but choose to remain unmatched, and I’m glad of it. This is not a path for everyone.
No path is.
But I am grateful for those who have trusted me. I look down at Kian’s body. Him, especially.
I hope I have not betrayed that trust.
“What do we do next?” Cecelia asks, gently touching the kelpie skull on her face.
“The skulls will guide you,” I assure her.
“But basically, go out into the city. Help where you can. Prepare everyone for the changes that are to come. The world will be remade, and that could cause uncertainty. But the great goddess still protects us. We still worship and revere her. She still blesses us.”
When we are done, Ulric and a few others usher the wicked, now barefaced order members back up the stairs. I don’t know where they’re being taken, nor do I care.
I am finally alone.
I kneel down to Kian, grateful. I take off the phoenix skull, my skin still golden with flames that reflect off the ceiling of skulls. I set her aside and lie down beside Kian’s body, holding his hand. I close my eyes, and cry.