Chapter 13 #2
I trailed off. Mother arched her brow, a wide, satisfied smirk on her face, and I cocked my head. I’d walked away from the horse. I glanced over my shoulder to the mare and laughed.
‘Now.’ I turned back to Mother, laughing with relief as her fingers played with a necklace. Not just a necklace, my knees almost buckled as the crimson shone in the crackling firelight, revealing a ruby ring she’d chained around her throat. ‘Give your old mother a kiss.’
I lifted her up, smothering her still-smooth cheeks, loving the sound of her laughter. As I placed her down, I swiped away the tears coursing down my face.
‘But… how…’ I laughed again. ‘How did you know about the ruby?’
She linked her arm with mine and led me to the log where the rebels sat, the fabric removed from their faces, and a large hare sizzled over the flames.
‘I was on my way back to Asmar long before I heard about your wedding.’ She grabbed my chin and narrowed her gaze. ‘I’m assuming I must have missed your letter on my travels?’
I opened and closed my mouth. I’d had every intention of writing.
Of course I had. But there had been so much to deal with.
Romero, the mines, The Alliance, fucking Danté and then there was Sorrow herself.
I shivered at the memory of her bleeding eyes.
At the thought of losing her when I’d only just found her.
A letter to Mother had always been on my list. I’d even got a piece of parchment ready and prepared some ink, but…
She let go of my chin, rolling her eyes.
‘I thought so. We heard the empress had her armada aimed at Asmar. You knew I was staying with Roshan, my cousin?’ I nodded, accepting some meat with a curt thanks.
‘He’s always had a fascination with the old Gods and over the years, he’s made some wonderful connections with other academics all across the world.
A year ago, he received a worrying letter from a professor of ancient theology in Yepana. ’
‘She’s got Musa too. We were imprisoned together.’
Mother shook her head. She looked across the flames to where another rebel sat. Their pale lips curled as they glanced across to me, before turning away. My eyes bore into their face as a spark of familiarity twisted uncomfortably within.
‘Musa’s a good man. He and your father…’ She glanced over to the red-haired rebel who’d just sneered before turning her attention back to me.
I fought to concentrate on Mother as an image flashed through my mind.
Too quick, too fleeting to fully grasp. ‘This professor was concerned about the empress. She’s destroyed libraries, torn down statues, raided universities and museums. Even the sacred temples aren’t beyond her touch. ’
‘She’s doing it here.’ I thought of the destruction in the palace, my chest constricting at the thought of telling Mother what she’d done. ‘It’s as though she’s trying to eradicate every last trace of us.’
‘That’s what she wants you to think?’
My brows furrowed.
‘The professor was brought before her, threatened with one of those tattoos unless she spilled everything she knew about Vyrus and Evella. This professor had a particular interest in the myths surrounding Vyrus and the Gods’ hearts.
She always maintained the Heart of Vyrus wasn’t a myth.
She’d analysed a ruby shard in the Grand Gallery of Yepana, the ruby the empress now has.
’ Mother shook her head, twisting her own ring.
‘Had it examined by the finest gemologists on Eusis. They all concurred that it wasn’t an ordinary ruby.
That it… reacted when placed next to a shard of Vyrium.
‘The professor thought it could be used, perhaps to free diafols from the curse, or maybe assist any emergent, who doesn’t wish to be blessed.
They created a way of testing it – embedding it into the skin of an animal – and learnt they held sway over its mind.
Why it behaved that way? Well, that she couldn’t say for certain.
The professor did, however, know that… that your father possessed a matching fragment. ’
I ran my fingers through my hair. Did Mother truly have a fragment of the vengeful God’s heart around her neck? Or, more likely, one of the ancient relics from the Southern lands? And if the empress knew? If her desire to discover this ruby had led her to destroy my palace?
‘Does the empress know?’ I nodded in the direction of the ring.
She lifted it to her eyeline, her gaze softening.
‘This was my engagement ring. It’s rather small.
Smaller than the piece your empress has.
Raul, he was quite the romantic.’ She halted for a second, her gaze flicking over to the red-haired rebel, who was now signing to the man next to them.
I narrowed my eyes, an image of Father signing in a shadowy corridor, my desperation to understand the swift, harsh signals that flew between two figures.
‘He told me it was only fitting I wore the heart of a God while I owned the heart of a king.’ Her smile faded.
I closed my eyes, my chest clenching at the memory of the destruction the empress had wrought on our home. On me. My brother. ‘The animals they tested Vyrium on?’ I swallowed. Mother dragged in a tattered breath.
‘They died, quickly.’
A lump lodged in my throat. Mother grasped my clenched fist tightly. ‘She’s experimented, though. Crushed up the Sacred Shields of Evella. Created an alloy she calls Evellum—’
‘Evellum?’ So, she was the source of that too. Mother nodded.
‘She’s added it to the Vyrium. The tattoos. It’s had… mixed results.’
I darted over to one of the fallen guards and emptied their pockets, desperate to locate a pair of the cuffs that freed me from her will. I went to the next, and the next, cursing to find not one had brought any Evellum with them.
‘She forced me to wear the cuffs in… in my dungeon.’ I looked to Mother, her forehead scrunched as I explained how Evellum impeded the effects of the tattoo.
‘When we’ve got you… settled, we’ll find something. Something to keep you safe. But for now,’ she tugged her ruby, ‘I get to control you.’
Mother’s eyes darkened. ‘We think she intends to find as many fragments as she can.’