Chapter 53
Araes jolted upright and took in his surroundings before the throbbing in his head forced him back to the silken pillow. Had his brain been jostled around his skull? His body felt heavier than sand as he tried once more to sit up straight.
“I’d try not to move too much if I were you,” a deep male voice said. White, golden sun beamed in through a line of floor-to-ceiling windows on Araes’s left. The man seated in a massive armchair beside him uncrossed his leg and rose from the seat.
No, not a man.
An immortal. Altair, Patron of Day. God of the Southern Realm. Araes shielded his eyes as they adjusted.
“Where am I? Where’s the queen?” Panic stained his vision red. Unlit sconces lined the gilded walls, decorated in ornate patterns and glyphs, and a woven cerulean rug stretched across shining wooden floors.
“She’s safe. You’re lucky she summoned me when she did. That cavern wasn’t going to hold out for much longer.” Altair retrieved a crystal water glass from the bedside table and handed it to Araes. “Drink.”
Araes sipped slowly, letting the cool liquid soothe the burn from his throat. The god, with wrinkled brow, waited for the lieutenant to drain the glass before refilling it from a matching sparkling pitcher.
“Why were you down there, Lieutenant?” Altair asked, sitting at the end of the bed. The golden band across his dark bicep shimmered with rippling power.
“How long have I been asleep?” Araes asked, avoiding the god’s prodding turquoise eyes.
“When you answer my question, I shall answer yours,” he said, fixing a button on his white linen tunic.
Araes shifted. Seeing this immortal sitting beside him dressed so casually was disarming to say the least. Altair was known for his lavish style, always draped with precious stones and golden jewelry. Now he wore a plain tunic and trousers.
“We were searching for something that might aid in our search for missing Venian children.” Araes bit his tongue before disclosing more.
“You mean the prism key.” Altair raised a brow and crossed his arms over his chest.
“How…how did you know?”
“I’ve known of its location since my Arrival, Lieutenant. It’s made of light just as I am, but I’ve hoped it’d stay hidden. That key is powerful. More powerful than you can even imagine. Why was my sister looking for it?”
Araes weighed his options. He didn’t trust any of the other immortals, save for maybe Polaris, but if Vorthal truly was attempting to return…they’d need as many allies as they could get.
“You can trust me, Araes. I know my siblings can be…meddlesome, but if Tethys was searching for the key then I must know why.” Altair’s face was stern, but the slight waver in his voice gave him away. He was afraid.
“Until I know Tethys is safe and you tell me where we are, I cannot disclose more.” Araes glanced at his hands. The burns along his palms were chapped and scabbed. and the bruises staining his wrists had faded into deep purple and blue blotches.
“Once you’ve regained your strength, I will take you to her. To answer your question, you’ve been unconscious nearly two weeks since I found you. I brought you here directly—to Aquilae. I’ll admit, the healers weren’t hopeful you’d wake up at all. You’re lucky I have the best in the continent.”
Two weeks?! They were supposed to be back in Venia by now. Araes straightened against the headboard.
“Take me to her. We’ve wasted too much time, my king. I must send word to Venia.”
Altair nodded and retrieved a scroll from the nightstand. With a furrowed brow, he passed it to the lieutenant.
“I haven’t told her yet. One of Ophis’s shades reported seeing my sister traveling toward Aquilae, so he sent word directly to me. I’ve assured the council she’s safe, healing from her injuries sustained during the attack here with me,” he said. Araes unfurled the parchment and his pulse stopped.
The western rebels have broken through our walls. Venia burns.
It hadn’t just been the manor they’d set aflame, Araes realized. He immediately thought of his mother and sister. They were far enough from the city that hopefully the cabin remained safe.
“We must return to the city as soon as possible,” Araes said, trying a third time to rise from bed. Although still weak and sluggish, he swung his feet from under the sheets and planted them on the cool wooden floor. The morning sunlight warmed his skin as he braced himself against the nightstand.
“I’m not sure that’s a good idea, given my sister’s condition. She hasn’t woken up yet, and although she’s healing, her injuries were…extensive,” Altair replied, a stroke of sadness reflected in his eyes. “Besides, you’d be returning to ruin.”
“You mean to tell me the city has entirely fallen? No, I won’t accept that.
” Araes paced to the windows slowly, careful to test the weight of his body on each foot before taking a step.
Unlike Venia’s cliffside coast, Aquilae melted into the ocean gradually in a long strip of white sand.
The glistening swells over the horizon gave life to the southern sea as if it were one writhing, wriggling thing, but what should’ve felt peaceful or serene only sent chills through Araes’s core.
“I’m afraid it is. It wasn’t just Ophis who sent a scroll. Otto activated the Aquilaean allied forces just last night to provide aid. I haven’t yet deployed them,” Altair said, twisting a turquoise ring around his index finger. The god joined Araes by the windows and threw him a solemn glance.
“Why not? If Venia requests aid, is it not your duty to provide it, my king?” Araes clenched his fists, thinking of all the innocence spilled and lives stolen.
He was at least a few hundred miles from his home, yet the crackle of burning buildings and screams of the dying roared through him like raging rapids.
The rebels would hit the lowborn the hardest. Serpens stood between the western border and Antares. They were defenseless.
“I need to ensure I’m aiding the right side, Lieutenant. That’s why I haven’t yet sent them.” Altair’s words brought a rage up Araes’s throat. The bastard truly thought Venian’s the wrong side of this war?
“It doesn’t matter which side is the correct side, as you say. We’ll all be fighting a common enemy if Tethys doesn’t wake up,” he hissed, red blurring the corners of his eyes. The words dissipated in the curtain of tension between the males before Araes realized his slip up.
“What do you mean a common enemy?” Altair prodded, watching the soldier with unflinching focus. Araes met the immortal’s eyes. He’d said too much, but the gravity of their situation needed to be known.
“If you know of the prism key’s power, then I assume you already know,” he offered the bluff, praying Altair couldn’t see through it. The immortal took in a breath, watching the lieutenant scrutinize his every movement.
“You mean the fifth primordial, Vorthal. Yes, I’m aware of the histories.” Altair’s response was disarmingly casual, as if the hidden passages of the Theogony weren’t kept secret over the course of millennia. “All of my siblings know the truth of the realms’ creation.”
“All but Tethys, you mean,” Araes said, treading uncomfortably close to unveiling the truth of their hand.
“There are children going missing in Venia—lowborn children. Our investigation into their disappearances led us here: to the key, to Vorthal, and now to Aquilae, it would seem. But why keep the truth from her?”
Altair bit his lip and said nothing.
Instead, he laced his hands behind his back and padded to the windows. The sea below swirled and bent in his direction, as if the god’s presence itself controlled its behavior.
“My king, Tethys has placed her trust in your hands, just as I have, but she must know why. If there’s more to the Theogony, she needs to know.
Vorthal intends on returning to the realms, we’ll all be dead if we can’t prevent that from happening.
” Araes, cautious, but steady in his resolve, met Altair’s side.
“Some things are better left to fade with time, Lieutenant,” was all the god offered in response.
Araes stiffened, watching Altair’s collected demeanor alter to one of stern apprehension.
“If Vorthal truly does intend on breaking out of the Rift, and these Venian disappearances are linked to his return as you suspect, then my sister’s fate is already sealed.”