Chapter 31
B ending my legs in front of me, I rest my elbows on my thighs, my gaze fixed on the intricate patterns woven into the carpet. “So, I guess you weren’t doing all of this for me, then?”
Dae chuckles, a dry, humorless sound. “Not entirely.”
“Fuck,” I breathe, the weight of Lixi’s words crashing down on me. “A billion piskies. Enslaved.”
“More.” Dae’s voice is grim.
My head pounds. Almost in time to a drum beat. “What do you want me to do?”
Dae leans against the door, crossing one ankle over the other, his posture relaxed despite the tension in the air. “Nothing. That’s all we’re asking for. Do nothing. Stay here. Drink, have fun.”
“Fuck,” I say again, my mind reeling. “Do they kill them? The shadow-hounds. Do they kill the piskies?”
Dae raises an eyebrow. “Does it matter?”
“I’m on the wrong side of this, aren’t I?”
“Yeah, you’re on the wrong side.”
“How can you stand to be near me? My dad killed your dad. The people I’m supposed to die for are enslaving your friends.” I keep finding reasons to say it out loud—my death was not a prophecy, it was a curse, one shaped by Dad—maybe if I say it aloud, it’ll stop chafing so much.
“I love you. And you’re not them. You’re nothing like them.”
“Why didn’t you tell me before? Why now?”
“I couldn’t trust you. I still don’t know if I can. But…I don’t know.”
“What changed your mind?”
Sliding down the wall, Dae sits himself on the carpet in front of me. “Do you remember the second time we met?”
“Yeah. That bit of forest near the playground at school.”
“Right. Do you remember what happened right before? This girl was getting picked on. A couple of other girls were shoving her, and then they grabbed her glasses and threw them on the floor.One girl went to step on them. You flew into a rage. Came barrelling across the playground like a bull. You charged into the girl’s waist, knocking her to the ground, and then, I do not know how, must have been through sheer force of will, you fought all three girls until they were running off crying. You saved that girl’s glasses and tried to give them back to her, but by that point, she was freaked out too, and she ran off.”
“Yeah. I remember that now. I hated that school.”
“Right, and then you came into the forest to cry.”
“Okay?”
Dae clears his throat. “I was there to kill you.”
“Oh.”
“I don’t know. I was a kid. And Dad was dead. And your dad had done it. And I thought, I don’t know what I thought. But everyone was asking me questions. This was before Delhi came and helped me out, but before that, people were asking what I wanted the funeral to look like and what to do about this court and that region.
“And I thought maybe, well, Father said he wouldn’t steal you, and then he got killed, so I thought if I killed you… I don’t know, Elly. I hated you. I’d only met you once, and watched you a few times here and there, but I hated you.”
“It’s okay. It was a long time ago, we were kids. Besides, I’m not dead, am I? No harm done.”
“Right. Anyway, I got there, all ready to do it, and then I saw that. I guess what I’m saying is, if there’s one thing I know about you, it’s that seeing your father kill a bunch of people to get what he wants is going to piss you off enough to make you switch sides.”
“And seeing what’s through that door alone wouldn’t?”
Dae shrugs. “I couldn’t risk it.”
My eyes narrow. I look down the corridor, counting the doors. It doesn’t make sense. Dad already knows about Callacombe. He’s already enslaved it. What’s Dae trying to protect? “There are seven doors here,” I say, my voice laced with suspicion.
Dae looks up, his eyes meeting mine. “Yeah. There are.”
“Seven doors for seven circles. Callacombe is a circle, isn’t it?”
Dae picks at some loose fabric on the floor, avoiding my gaze. “Other than piskie dust, the piskies are defenceless. We tried to hide them, but eventually, some trader spoke to some other trader, and that was that, Callacombe was exposed. Before anyone could even blink, Ellyllon had taken over Callacombe and positioned its soldiers there. A hundred-year war ensued?—’’
“Dad told me the hundred-year war started because Hell had been kidnapping women.”
Dae rolls his eyes. “I find it so funny that any time Arcadia wants to make a point or win some argument, they talk about women. The women in Arcadia look miserable. Whatever, that’s not the point. The real war was a battle over Callacombe’s freedom. One Hell lost when your father stepped on the battlefield and released a pulse with the power of the heart that levelled half their soldiers. They’ve been looking for a way around that little trick for centuries.” He gives me a long look. I’m the way. Weaken the heart, weaken Dad.
“So, the sacrifice replenishes Ellyllon, which replenishes his power? And no sacrifice weakens him?” Dae nods. “How old is Dad?”
Dae shrugs. “If Aberith, or worse, the Heavenly Flock in Arcadia, ever find out they’ve already got a foothold in Hell, that Callacombe is Hell, then they’re only a hop, skip, and a jump away from taking over the rest of the realm.”
“Dae?”
“Yes, love?”
I take a deep breath, a new sense of purpose filling me. “I think I have a plan.”