Chapter 47
RAINIER
“Rain, wake up,” Em said, her hand freezing cold on my bare shoulder.
Rolling over, I blinked up at her. She hadn’t slept, that much was clear, and her hair tumbled in soft waves around her face. Rubbing sleep from my eyes, I sat up—and was struck by the noxious scent of draíbea. Every horrific thing which had happened to me in Folterra came back in force.
In one swift motion, I flipped her onto the bed and pinned her beneath me. “Why do you smell like that?” I asked, and she closed her eyes. Turning her head to the side, she stretched her neck to show me her tattoo. Not breathing, almost to the point of pain, I brushed her golden strands from her skin. Flowers trailed up her neck, drawn with precision, and my anxiety subsided.
The shifter who had stolen her face was dead, stabbed through the neck by Em herself—but not before nearly killing my best friend. Still, the memories lurked in my subconscious. Being pulled from a deep sleep to the scent of my nightmares had brought up things I would have rather not remembered
“I’m sorry,” she whispered, reaching between us and tugging at the shirt she wore— my shirt. Revealing her shoulder, I could see the dark ink twining around the freckles on skin I knew better than my own. My heart still threatened to beat out of my chest, but I was able to relax.
“Did you smoke draíbea to help you sleep?” I asked, praying to the gods she wouldn’t start using the plant regularly. Despite its calming properties and medicinal uses, I didn’t think I could bear smelling it on her.
“I didn’t smoke,” she said, as she gently tugged my hand from her upper arm. Stunned, I let go.
“Did I hurt you?” I asked, sick with worry that I might have done what I had been fearful of when I’d avoided her all those weeks.
“No. I’m fine.” I pursed my lips, and she sighed. “Rain, really. I promise I’m fine. I’m sorry I smell like it. Malva was using it in the temple.”
Our bedchamber was cold, and I pulled the blanket over my shoulders. When she reached for my hand and rubbed a soothing thumb over my knuckles, I loosened a breath.
“You went to the temple without me?”
She frowned and began braiding her hair. “Just to help—” At my expression, her words died in her throat, and the frown furrowing her brow turned into a wretched glare until I forced neutrality onto my face. “I didn’t try to use my divinity without you, if that’s what you’re scowling about. I didn’t end up helping at all, actually. But I don’t know if we have time for me to explain everything to you at the moment. Get dressed.”
“Why don’t you try,” I said, as I rose from the bed. It was still dark out, the Shika constellation clearly visible from our eastward facing window.
She followed me to the dressing room and told me of her visit with the goddess. Em’s voice trembled with excitement or fear—I couldn’t tell which—as she spoke of Rhia and Iemis and the love they’d once shared. Despite her haste, I didn’t rush, listening to each word she said as I dressed.
“Why does she think he’s trying to wake Iemis?” I asked finally, as she took a moment to collect herself. Panting, she caught her breath after rushing to get her story out. “I had hoped he didn’t survive Irses’ attack.”
“The man just won’t die, it seems. Rhia thinks Iemis is the god the Supreme plans to ask for favor from. Rain, what do you remember learning about the antler god? The only god I prayed to growing up was Aonara—because of Lucia. I’m afraid my education is lacking.”
“Well, Iemis was supposed to have died, and with the murder of all the forestborn, it was assumed his magick would never grace mortals again,” I said, frowning. “I suppose if he’s entombed, that still holds true. But how can the Supreme break into the tomb that has been sealed by...” I trailed off. “You’re sure it was six gods who sealed his tomb?”
“I’m sure. They all had golden blood,” she responded, passing my boots to me.
Huffing a breath, I raised my brows before kneeling to tie my laces. “I suppose it doesn’t matter. If six different gods locked him in an obsidian casket, how can the Supreme break that seal?”
“That’s why I woke you.” Em didn’t bother changing, which was a shame considering that rancid scent, but I was appeased by her wearing my shirt tucked into her trousers. She had pinned her long braid into a tidy knot, and I was grateful for the vision of her tattoo the hairstyle afforded me. “We need to go to the dormitory to check on?—”
“The novices?” I asked, fastening her cloak around her shoulders. “I’m sure they’re asleep at this time of night.”
“Rhia thinks they’re dead. She?—”
“Thinks or knows? She is a goddess, is she not?”
“I don’t know, Rain!” Em snapped. “Would you let me speak without interrupting me for just a moment?” I thinned my lips, knowing I’d deserved her irritation. Lifting my hands in surrender, I didn’t say a word. The corner of her mouth twitched as she continued. “Rhia doesn’t want to risk revealing herself, for fear of what they might do. But she saw through the eyes of one of her harrowers.”
She tilted her chin the slightest bit, expectantly waiting for my input.
“I wasn’t aware that was possible.”
“I wasn’t aware that many things were possible until recently. One of the babies has her gift. Declan’s child. She wasn’t sure exactly what she was hearing, nor did she know where they were, but they’ve been taken.”
“How?” I demanded. “Perhaps more importantly, why?”
“I imagine when we were distracted with the walls falling down and our enemy infiltrating the city. I...” She trailed off, chewing on her lips, and that sticky despair nearly overpowered the scent of the draíbea. “We need to go find out. I need to see if...if I’ve failed them once more.”
There wasn’t anything I could say to soothe her, so instead I caressed the bond between us. If she had failed, so had I. Em wasn’t used to holding so many lives in her hands. The weight of our duty and the manner in which losses would gnaw on the weakest parts of us was all new to her. Truthfully, it was new to me as well.
I had never wanted to wage endless war like my father, and my first responsibility as king had been to do just that. There had always been some small level of disassociation involved when my personal soldiers died in battle—but, in becoming king, it had become even more difficult.
Even having prepared for it my entire life, it was no small task. To weigh the lives of each soldier in my army alongside the people they sought to protect was unfair. I wondered if Em would ever be truly capable. Despite our best efforts, people would slip through the cracks of our best defenses. If I allowed each loss to take pieces of me, without the protection of an armored heart, I wouldn’t be capable of taking care of anyone.
But I couldn’t blame her for feeling so fully.
“As for why,” she said, quiet and thoughtful as she glanced out the window. “I have suspicions. I think at this point, it’s clear that Declan was Tannyl and Larke’s son, not Dryul’s.”
“A safe guess,” I murmured.
“Rhia named his ancestor the Warden of the Font. I don’t know what that means, but she said it would require sacrifice. Perhaps...I don’t know. We know they wanted Nor. What if...”
She trailed off, swallowing hard and refusing to make eye contact.
“You think he might sacrifice them? But Iemis’s magick was life and growth. Why would he—” My mouth dropped open, and I stopped speaking, realization dawning. “It’s just divinity. It isn’t magick. It’s just divinity of a different sort.”
Em finally looked at me, turning suddenly. Her hands shook as they grasped mine.
“We have to stop him,” she said, grip bruising. I wasn’t sure if it was lack of sleep or a trick of the light, but her skin seemed faintly blurry, as if hidden behind hazy shadow. Perhaps it was neither because the moment I focused on her, it disappeared. With a grave expression and a quiet voice, she continued. “I saw the destruction the antler god wrought. If the Supreme gains his favor, we will not survive. He will kill us all.”
Em wept over the body of a novice. She tucked the woman’s cornsilk hair behind her ear, whispering her apologies across the eternal lands. When we’d arrived and I couldn’t hear a single heartbeat behind the wide open door, I had wanted to go in alone. The smell of rotten meat told me more than enough. But Em had rushed past. There was a person’s silhouette beside the fireplace, bare paint surrounded by a halo of blood spray. My stomach turned knowing someone had stood there as the novice’s throat had been slit.
Em reared back, gagging, as she stumbled to her feet. “Maggots,” she croaked, and my eyes were drawn to the nasty wriggling pests already making a home in the woman’s flesh.
“Fuck,” I said, turning away. Another body lay on the ground in the sitting room, and I walked down the hall.
“How many were living here?” I asked Em, picking my way over broken furniture and decor. The women hadn’t managed to fully furnish the dormitory yet, but they’d been turning this place into a home. It made me sick to see it destroyed. Located on the eastern side of the city, I wouldn’t have dreamed they’d have been targeted by the Supreme after witnessing all the damage in the Wend.
“Four novices, I think,” Em said. “And three children.” She stepped toward the other body.
I walked down the hall to the bedrooms, wondering how the Supreme planned to use the children to wake Iemis. I refused to entertain the idea that the man would sacrifice them. If Declan’s children were truly descended from Aesiron the Stag, that meant they were descendants of the antler god himself. If the Supreme was stupid enough to sacrifice them, I was certain the only favor Iemis would grant him was a swift death.
But what other reason would he take the children? Would they be considered the god’s bane? Or the Supreme’s bane?
Curled on her bed beneath the blankets, I found a third novice. I didn’t lift the blanket to see where the blood came from, and I shut the door behind me as I left the room. There was no sign of any of the children anywhere in the dormitory. I was grateful for that, considering no heartbeats called out to me.
“I didn’t find the children or the fourth novice,” I said, coming back out to find Em’s tear-streaked face staring at me from the doorway. It was nearly dawn, and the lightening sky behind her painted her in muted blues.
“We have to save them, Rain. It’s my fault all the novices are dead?—”
I opened my mouth to interrupt her, to tell her it wasn’t her fault, that none of it was. But she quickly shook her head, and my words dried up. Stepping toward her, I opened my arms, wanting to hold her against me. I wanted to take her burden and her sorrow and all of that guilt. But when her lower lip trembled, and she curved into herself, I stopped my advance. She didn’t want to cry—probably out of fear that she’d never be able to stop.
“I can’t let their children die too,” she said, pulling her cloak tighter around her body.
“Do you think that’s what he intends? To kill them?”
“I don’t know what else he’d want them for.” She made a face, repulsed by what she was about to say. “Maybe he intends to use their bones.”
I led her out into the dawn, wanting to escape the heavy weight of death inside.
“They took one of the novices, probably to care for the children. It kills me to fucking say this, but I imagine they’d have just cut an arm off and left them here to bleed to death before choosing to travel with three children if all they needed was a bone.”
Em was quiet, lowering herself to sit on the steps. I settled beside her, exhausted and confused. If what Rhia had shown Em was true, I couldn’t understand why the Supreme would choose Iemis to ask for favor. What could he possibly use the antler god’s divinity for?
“They say he created the Alsors,” I murmured. “And that he is the reason Varmeer floated free from Vesta.”
Em wrapped her arm around my bicep and rested her head on my shoulder. “There was a forest where Lamera is now,” she whispered. “I saw it in her memories. The trees were so tall. Wide enough that some of the forestborn had carved homes into them. Iemis and Rhia lived in one—amongst the mortals. Can you imagine? Curling up within a tree during a summer storm?” She drew quiet, breaths slowing. “I’m so tired, Rain.”
“I know, dear heart.” I kissed her head, wrapping my arm around her and pulling her close. “I wish we had time to rest.”
Her spine stiffened, and she pulled away. “But we don’t. You’re right. We need to inform Cal of what happened, and then leave for Lamera. We might already be out of time.”
“While you inform Cal, I’ll find out where Nereza’s army is. If they haven’t left the Aesiron, we can assume the Supreme is going to the font alone. We might be able to find our way into the city without notice.”
She only blinked at me. “You’re willing to just...sneak into Lamera and risk endangering me?”
I shrugged, giving her a grim smile. “I’ve come to accept that with us, there is only danger. I belong at your back, defending you from the worst of it.”
The line between her brows deepened for only a second before those perfect lips curved into a soft smile. She nodded, her cheeks gone faintly rosy. “All right then. Let’s go.”