Chapter 21
Chapter
Twenty-One
Selene and Petrina rowed all night, their small rowboat slicing through gentle waves, following the compass’s arm via moonlight alone. Then, dawn broke and the Trayterre Isles emerged from the mist like giants with towering cliffs, crowned by dark-green forests.
Near the coast, they navigated around submerged boulders worn smooth by the tides until, finally, the rowboat barged up against a rocky shoreline.
A veil of early morning fog curled around the jagged peaks above, and thin streams of mist fell over the edges like ghostly tendrils reaching for the sea.
“We should drag the boat into the trees,” Petrina said. “In case Thorne searches this way for us.”
Selene was certain he wouldn’t. After all, why would they choose uninhabited islands over the mainland they could have reached hours ago?
Okos, as Selene understood it, was a bustling city within the Tineian Empire.
There, they could get messages out. They could find shelter.
And with the empire’s superior military presence, they could have protection against the pirates who would dare stir up trouble in their search for two escaped women.
Instead, they chose the small islands with little to no human life. They would brave the elements for as long as necessary…
Or until Selene found the people she was looking for.
The women dragged the rowboat inland, serenaded by the echoing bird calls that pierced the stillness.
“This place feels old,” Petrina said, shivering.
More than old. Ancient. Untouched by time.
“Come on,” Selene said. “We need to find fresh water.”
Petrina nodded, and the two of them strode around winding, bent, and gnarled trees. Careful of the roots twisting out of the earth, which was a mix of packed earth and white sand.
They walked the uneven terrain for some time before Selene heard the distant roar of a waterfall. She hurried her steps, mouth dry, skin grimy. Already imagining how she would plunge into its clear pool—
An invisible barrier sucked around her limbs, pushing, pulling… Selene tripped past it, and her ears popped.
Disembodied voices, mere whispers on the wind, came at her from all sides.
Mother.
Mother.
Mother.
She stopped dead in her tracks, struggling to stay upright as the ground wavered.
Petrina, unhindered, walked with ease, scanning her from top to bottom. “What’s with you?”
Home now. She’s home now.
Selene’s breath lodged in her throat. “You don’t hear that?”
Petrina shook her head but approached with her gaze more assessing. “What do you hear?”
Birds taking flight. The wind sighing through the upper canopy of trees. Croaking frogs.
A waterfall.
“Nothing,” Selene said with a shake of her head. “I just need water. And rest.”
Petrina’s answering nod was slow, and the pinch of her brows didn’t ease. “This place feels wrong.”
Not wrong. Familiar. An experience she had only one other time—on the dais inside the Ethereal Mountain.
“Probably just the forest shadows,” Selene said. “We’ll feel better once we’re in daylight again.”
Petrina glanced skyward, where the light was more muted. “You’re probably right.”
Selene led the way again, following the sound of crashing water to its end. A bright clearing appeared ahead, and they bounded into the unhindered sunlight, smiles unleashed, frozen in awe.
Water tumbled down from a high cliff into a pool, and a mist rose from where it crashed. An ethereal glow shimmered over lush green ferns and moss-covered stones. The air itself tasted of earth and water, and the ground yielded beneath every step, soft and damp.
Wordlessly, the girls stripped to their skin and dove into the pool.
While her first act was to wash and drink from the waterfall, Selene eventually relaxed enough to take it all in. Snakes coiled on rocks, absorbing the heat. Tiny silver fish swam in schools below, weaving in and out of a…was that a statue?
Selene sank underwater and swam lower through the crystal-clear water.
The statue lay on its side, half-buried and covered in moss.
Silt hid half the face of the immortalized woman, draped in a robe of smooth stone that flowed like water.
Carved into the fabric at every seam were dragonflies—dozens of them, flying upward from her hem toward her heart.
One, larger than the rest, sat over her sternum with wings made of gold-veined crystal.
Within a single blink of the eye, Selene stood inside the temple that no longer stands, a beautiful woman welcoming Selene with a smile. “Hello, Mother.”
Selene shot to the surface and dragged in a harsh breath, swiping water from her eyes. She readied herself for Petrina’s questions, but found the assassin climbing atop a low ledge behind the shimmer of falling water. Petrina ran fingers across deep cracks in the cliff wall, then over—
“These are symbols,” Petrina said, her voice a distant echo.
Selene swam beneath the waterfall for a closer look.
Petrina studied curved lines and shapes with careful fingertips. “Impossible,” she whispered.
“What’s impossible?” Selene asked, gripping the ledge.
Petrina blinked over her shoulder, then swept a piercing glance around. “What is this place, Selene? Why did you choose this island?”
Selene wished she could sink like a stone. Instead, she swam away from the ledge toward the waterfall.
“You stupid…,” Petrina began, her head shaking. “You’re as bad as Alexandra.”
The comparison struck like a spear to the chest, and Selene gave a hard kick under the water, bouncing her higher. “You—”
“Shut up,” Petrina snarled. “That bitch was obsessed with these symbols. I have eyes. I know what they are. Did you honestly think you could get one over on me? Why are we here?”
Selene’s mind swam, both awakened yet clouded by information that was too murky to decipher. She recognized the symbols, though she couldn’t read them, nor had she expected to find them. Similar markings were inside the Ethereal Mountain. Words—stories—carved by ancient wisdom centuries ago.
But they were just etchings in stone. They didn’t speak to her. These hadn’t been her stories to tell. They didn’t feel alive or spark memory.
Not like the statue at the bottom of the pool, or in the words riding the wind. The earth itself called to her through its roots and the rustle of leaves, and there was a part of her soul unraveling at its presence.
Waking up.
Selene made her way to the clothes she’d laid out to dry, now slightly damp.
Petrina appeared, water weeping from her tan skin, just as Selene pulled her shirt over her head. “Don’t think for a second I’m letting this go. I know you’re one of them.”
She froze mid-reach for her boots. “One of who?”
Petrina’s hands went to her bare hips. “I was all over that mountain with Alexandra. I’ve seen the symbols. I’ve heard the translations.” She took another step closer. “The people with one blue eye and one brown. Alexandra wants what you and Augustus have: eternal life.”
Selene sank back. All this time, she thought she was the one holding back a lot of information, but it turned out that Petrina was holding back more. “What else do you know?”
“I know that the Drynopian people vanished, and I know Alexandra was half-mad about a prophecy on a wall with her likeness on it. She thought Xavlin would gift her with eternal life.”
Icy dread coiled in her stomach. “Xavlin?”
The god-eater. The Vimyrian god who nearly erased all of existence in his efforts to gain power.
“Yes, you stupid bitch,” Petrina said, snatching her own clothes up. “I want nothing to do with this. I’m leaving.” She shoved her legs into her pants. “Don’t for one second think I won’t leave you behind.”
Before long, Petrina was stomping through the forest, swatting at low-hanging branches, muttering curses under her breath.
Selene ran after her, heart racing. “I didn’t know Xavlin was connected to any of this. I swear it.”
“But you knew about this place. Don’t deny it.”
She reached Petrina’s side and matched her pace.
“I think you might know more than me, to be honest. I didn’t know the people had a name until just now, and I don’t know why they vanished.
I don’t know why Augustus and I were left behind.
” She took Petrina by the elbow and stopped her.
“I can’t explain it, but…I need answers. Wouldn’t you?”
Petrina let loose a thin breath. “I know what it’s like to have no idea who your people are, who your family is. I admit I’m curious, but they left a helpless baby behind for a bit of coin. Whoever they are, they’re not worth knowing, no matter their name or circumstance.”
Selene heard the pain in Petrina’s words, but also the resolve. The woman would always look forward. Never back.
Selene didn’t have that luxury. “When we were last in the mountain, I had this…memory—I don’t know what else to call it. I chose to split off from these people. I chose Augustus over them.”
“Then there must be a damn good reason why.”
If only that were all. Now that she knew Xavlin was connected, Selene might agree to drop this and move on. But to what? A lifetime of questions and feelings she can’t name?
“I’ll go,” Selene said, “if you can tell me why the island speaks to me. It seems…happy I’m here.”
Petrina drew back. “What?”
“Do you know why I’m sensing the souls of unborn children back in Praevia?”
“No.” Petrina swallowed deeply. “Maybe you’re imagining things.”
“I need answers, and I don’t know of anywhere else to get them. Do you?”
Petrina appeared to shore up, eventually shaking her head, then starting off again. “This path you’re on drove Alexandra half-mad, and we both know that she was already mad to begin with. I can’t go through this again.”
“You would really leave me stranded here?” she asked, her voice cracking, tears pricking hot behind her eyes.
After all they’d been through, Petrina would desert her? What if Selene really was alone on this island and had no way to leave?