22. Raithe
Raithe
I raised my black Scorpion banner from beneath Cobalt’s saddle as we descended upon the palace skyland. The royal guards on patrol recognized me at once and lowered their bows and arrows, allowing us to land near the stables.
Leaving Cobalt in the stable hand’s care, I gathered Rahzlyn in my arms and dashed across the grounds into the palace. Dawn crept beyond the sprawling stone architecture, signifying the changing of the guards.
I raced up the main staircase to the observatory. The doors unlocked in my presence. Gregorios sat at his desk, running his fingers through a tome. He couldn’t read, so there was no need for light, but Letti always made sure the room was lit with varying sconces and candles.
“I have her.” I rushed to his side. “The Black Rose. Her name is Roselyn Ariti, but she goes by Rahzlyn.”
“Raithe,” the seer said without looking up. I guided his hand to Rahzlyn’s arm. Most of the bleeding had stopped, while some still continued to ooze from the newly formed glyphs.
He stood abruptly, having registered the markings for what they were. “Set her on the chaise. Find Felaf while I prepare for Blood Healing.”
I did as he instructed, setting her down carefully. “Her heartbeat is weak,” I said. Weak compared to its ferocity only hours ago. “Also be careful. Most of it has been brushed off, but there’s remnants of a sedative tonic along her skin.”
“Vervain?”
“Lots of it.” I shoved my hands deep into my pant pockets and parceled Rahzlyn’s leg chain from her costume and the two bracelets from Serpentine. “I discovered something whilst in Gemini where I found her. I think it has magical properties that can dull a guardian’s abilities.”
“Such a thing—”
“Shouldn’t be possible, I know. And yet I felt the power of it myself.
My abilities were restored to full capacity as soon as I removed it.
Here.” I retrieved a spare cloth from his desk and wrapped the bracelets into it.
“Do not touch them with your skin directly. I thought they would be safest in your hands, where you can study them.”
Blind as he was, he had access to boundless resources both in his mind and in his observatory.
“Felaf,” Gregorios reminded me, pocketing the bracelets.
I raced through the quiet halls, the sleeping palace exactly as I’d left it.
Maryn would awaken soon, and when she did, there would be a full-blown inquiry followed by retribution for my unexplained absence.
I wasn’t sure what all Gregorios had told her, but given the urgent secrecy of my mission, I imagined very little.
That didn’t matter now. What mattered was ensuring Rahzlyn’s survival. Any answers surrounding our burning questions could only come if she lived.
Felaf rose from her bed with alarm as I crossed the threshold of her chamber. She rubbed at her eyes through the darkness, quickly adjusting to it. “What the fuck, Raithe? Where have you been?”
“No time to explain,” I said, not allowing myself more than a second to note her surprisingly sparse living chamber. Since Hector’s death, all of his things had been cleared out. It seemed Felaf hadn’t bothered to replenish it beyond the necessities. “Gregorios needs us.”
After granting her the courtesy of at least changing from her sleeping garments, I stood with Felaf beside Rahzlyn’s sprawled, naked body.
“I don’t understand what’s happening.” Felaf shook her head with a puzzled brow. “She and Cyrene make two Chosen princesses in a given astrological year. This can’t be right.”
“It is,” Gregorios assured on his knees at Rahzlyn’s side with a washcloth and basin of bloodied water. He must have washed her limbs of the dried blood and whatever remaining glitter stuck to her from Serpentine.
A body was a body—yet I still bashfully looked away.
“Shouldn’t we follow protocol and take her down to Gertah?” Felaf asked regarding the palace’s physician, who had a whole bed station set up for those consecrated by Scorpio.
“No time. Begin.”
We each sliced a blade across our palms. I hovered my hand above Rahzlyn’s legs, allowing my blood to ooze into her newly formed gashes.
Felaf did the same with Rahzlyn’s torso and chest, Gregorios her arms and neck.
We cut even deeper for more blood. The seer then let his blood drip between her parted lips.
Lips that had attempted to seduce me as part of an apostate scheme.
“This has to be a mistake,” I blurted.
Felaf whipped her head at me. “You’re the one who brought her here. There’s no denying what’s happening to her, so why—”
“Because she’s an apostate.”
Felaf gripped my shoulder with her uncut hand, demanding I look her in the eyes. “That is a bold and dangerous claim. What aren’t you telling me?”
“Whatever you discovered about her can wait, Raithe,” Gregorios urged.
It couldn’t. “I found her in a compromising situation. She bears the same brand as Helene and the apostate we captured weeks ago. Look at her feet for yourself.”
She did, too curious to ignore my declaration. Her face fell. “Well, shit.”
“I told you. She’s one of them.”
“We don’t know for sure if that’s what it means. Right now, it’s just a correlation—”
“I know it is.” I faced Gregorios. “I found a whole Geminian syndicate of them. And she was there, in the midst of a plot to steal the Geminian king’s talisman.”
“Raithe,” Gregorios warned as he lifted the throw blanket off the back of the chaise and draped it over Rahzlyn’s body. The Blood Healing was finished, and now it turned into a waiting game. “That’s enough for now.”
This was too important to hide from them. They both needed to know who we were dealing with. “That has to be why your dream sent me to her.”
“Because, it turns out, she’s our next princess,” Gregorios clarified. “And future queen who may break our curse.”
I shook my head. “She’s the key to the apostai, not our savior.”
“Wait, what dream?” Felaf questioned. “Geminian king? What are you talking about?”
I ran a hand over my face, realizing this meant we would need to trust Felaf with all of Gregorios’s truth. I’d spoken too quickly in my haste to reveal Rahzlyn’s true nature.
Felaf spotted my hesitancy, and I could have sworn she saddened in response. “What do you two know that I don’t?”
“Gregorios?” I prompted, deferring to him. It was his secret to share, not mine. If what came next required us using Rahzlyn to get to the apostai, or breaking the Treaty again, I didn’t believe Felaf was ready—or willing—to go along with it.
“Come, Felaf.” Gregorios gestured in his direction. Warily, she approached him. He blindly sought out her wounded palm. After pushing the cloth there away, he brought her wrist to his mouth.
Blood Sight.
Enough for him to determine if he could, in fact, trust her with the truth.
As Gregorios drank, the milkiness in his eyes gave way to a swirling haze of deep indigo, cerulean blue, and pearlescent white.
To normal eyes, the sight was mystifying.
But guardians could see the cosmos with remarkable clarity.
Blood Sight was a gift that required tapping into the Astrals’ power that came from the stars themselves.
Gregorios heaved, wrenching himself from Felaf’s hand.
He took a moment to settle his breath. “Alright, Felaf,” he rasped, dabbing his mouth with the back of his wrist. “But what I am about to tell you is going to change everything. And then, Raithe, you will detail all that has transpired during your ventures.”
I made a mental note to ensure I left out how… close Rahzlyn and I had gotten when she mistook me for a king. Though if Gregorios used Blood Sight on me, he would see her seduction attempts. There was nothing done on my part to encourage such treasonous behavior.
But he would see, perhaps, that I had indulged her a tad longer than necessary.
“Not a word of this is to be spoken to the queen regent until I say so. Is that understood?” Gregorios beseeched Felaf.
“Understood,” she said reluctantly, reducing my confidence in the madness of the situation.
“In the meantime,” he continued, “we cannot assume anything until she wakes. Let us hear her side first. Narrowing our minds to one possibility will prevent us from seeing all. For now, we must wait and pray to Scorpio that we were not too late.”