47. Chapter 47
“What do you want me to do with her?” Sury asked as he still held his own dagger next to Ariadne.
Ora flickered her gaze to me then spoke. “She doesn’t go anywhere.” She turned back to Addis. “Guest or not, as Princess Ophelia said, she’s committed crimes against not only our family and Gria, but also the giants. She is officially my prisoner.”
“Where do we put her?” Uriah asked.
“She stays right here.” Ora didn’t miss a beat. “She’s been out of the royal line of sight for too long. She stays where I can see her.” She turned her head and sneered in Ariadne’s direction. “Peiro. Find chains. Let’s ensure she stays put.”
“Yes, dog,” Ariadne purred. “Go fetch some binding to keep this helpless woman bound to her chair.”
Peiro left and soon returned with a set of shackles and chains to match. Sury and Uriah made quick work of binding Ariadne to a chair and dragged her to a corner.
As Sury checked the chains, Peiro stepped toward me and reached for my hand, giving it a light squeeze.
“I’ll make sure she’s secure. Sooner we finish all this, the sooner we can go back to our meadow.
” He smirked, followed by his wink that did funny things to my stomach.
I smiled back and squeezed his hand in return.
His hand leaving mine felt too soon, and I hated Ariadne even more realizing that her presence still took something away from me, even when Peiro was simply guarding her.
I shook against the irrational thoughts and rounded back to my seat.
I looked over to where Peiro was now posted against the wall, his face unreadable, as Ariadne prattled away about nonsense.
“That was some scary shit. Remind me to never piss you off,” Uriah whispered beside me.
I chuckled. “You sound like Sury.”
Sury shrugged. “Well, it’s true.”
Ora elbowed him in the side and smiled at me. “I don’t know, I kind of like Phe embracing her strength—you know, minus the scary parts and all.”
We resumed our talks about the tales of Graevick from Addis’s point of view as a Follower. I didn’t know what the truth was between the Followers’ version or the High Seven’s, but one thing was certain from the two: our magic was broken.
This was why Gria had relied on the hierarchy of powerful Wielders to lead the realm, only for greed to take its place over time.
Because of Ariadne and her influence within the Temple, we never learned how our magic had been shattered, only that it was the will of the giants.
But as Addis explained, in parts of the journal, the name Sedgwic was written over and over.
The name sounded so distant and foreign, but also like I knew exactly who it was. My brain rattled as I tried to point out where I might have heard it before.
My frustration grew the more we relied on Addis to translate bits of the journal to us.
According to Deric, there were six original circles gifted to us from the giants.
But because this Sedgwic person was greedy like Graevick, somehow he accomplished the feat of breaking this coveted conduit in the form of a stone—releasing the last gift, or curse, of magic from the giants.
The same magic the High Seven Temple had coined the illicitus.
I had to know how the magic within myself was linked to the Ancient One…linked to Peiro. “The thing that was released when the stone and magic shattered—do the keys control it as well?”
Addis shrugged a shoulder. “Perhaps. It would make sense, since it was born from them.”
I resisted the urge to look over to Peiro as a new fear unlocked: that someone who Wielded the death half of the illicitus could control the beast within him, but so could someone who has this key.
“Is that what they’re after?” I thought back to Peiro’s story of his king searching for a relic of power.
Could it have been tied to these keys the entire time?
“We know from the knowledge given to us that kings and queens have been chasing after parts of this story for a long time. What if that’s why they were after me?
If the key can’t be found, could I be used in its stead? ”
“Could that be why every Death Wielder rumored to have existed was put to death? So they couldn’t be used to control the Ancient One?” Sury asked, then turned to Ora. “Then why Life Wielders, too?”
“Perhaps because they were viewed just as dangerous in the wrong hands?” Fyom added softly, scratching against his white beard.
“We’re putting a lot of stock in this journal,” Uriah said skeptically, eyeing Addis like she’d offended him. “Why is Deric’s word even considered? How do you know that what he is telling is even true?”
Addis straightened in her chair and looked at her son softly.
“Deric Endromeon was a devout believer in the giants, but we also know he existed in the time of the High Tribunal of the Graevicka, those who ruled before the royal line was established. He was credited for many things in his time, so we choose to believe what he wrote in his journal is also true. Plus, he was the one who wrote down the prophecy…”
My eyes locked on Ora’s. High Tribunal? That was the time before the Original War. Was the breaking of these keys also the start of the war that broke our realm? I blinked against the dizzying feeling of uncovering how deeply connected our line has been to this since its dawn.
Addis continued, “He searched for ways to reunite the keys to bring back someone or something, and truly believed they could be reconnected once someone with like power came to rise. Could perhaps even fix what had been broken.”
I dismissed a whisper heard from the corner of the room as I clenched my eyes shut at the impossible task of it all.
There are people full of evil looking for a rock to control power that didn’t belong to them.
They even wanted their hands on the Ancient One—the power to bring nations to their knees.
We had only seen Peiro at a portion of his power—once in that meadow months ago, and again in Fernwick—but what radiated off of him in those moments was beyond comprehension.
If it was used to its full potential? I didn’t want to think about it.
Just when the thought of Peiro crossed my mind, he howled in pain. I found my feet in a heartbeat and raced to where he was on all fours, clenching his jaw in pain.
“Peiro!” His skin felt hot underneath my touch, even through his tunic. The fabric was pulled tight against his muscle as he strained against something I couldn’t see. “Where are you hurt?”
Peiro instantly relaxed and shifted to sit on his feet. My heart dropped seeing his eyes had turned brighter than just moments before, both now completely silver. “I’m fine,” he gruffed and stood abruptly, leaving me still kneeling on the floor.
I gritted my teeth and stood before Ariadne. “What did you do?” I was getting very annoyed that I couldn’t end her right here and now.
Aridane waved her bound fingers against the cuffs and chains that held her tightly. “I didn’t do anything. Tell her, Peiro,” she called to him. “Tell Phe I didn’t do anything.”
“Don’t you dare speak his name like he belongs to you.” My hands grew hot with Firus. I could send a wave of heat through the chains wrapped around her, couldn’t I?
“Phe.” Peiro grunted through the word. “She did nothing.”
I tilted my head to him, trying to read his blank features as he refused to look at me again.
I stormed back to the table, everyone refocusing their attention on the conversation at hand. “What if it really can’t be found?” Ora whispered. “What then?”
“Oh,” Ariadne cooed from the corner. “He knows exactly where it is.” My head swiveled toward her. I wanted to smack the smugness off her face.
“What do you mean?” Fyom barked, his defensive tone clearly setting Addis on edge. “If these keys have been gone for centuries, how would Dokvalon know where?”
“Because, my dear Scholar,” Addis scoffed, “his predecessors never stopped looking. Did they?” She glanced at Peiro with a look that I wanted to scratch off her skin.
There was no way she could know about him. Did she? Another fear rippled through me. Peiro didn’t acknowledge her but kept his eyes trained on me. His body looked oddly tense and he stood closer to Ariadne.
“If he hasn’t sent his minions yet, you can beat him to it.” She twirled the ring on her finger with her thumb as she spoke.
“Where?” Sury asked.
Ariadne tsked in his direction. “I’d rather show you.”
Uriah scoffed. “Lady, I don’t know who you are, nor do I give a rat’s ass, but even I can say I don’t trust a syllable from your mouth.”
“Well, that’s not very nice,” Aridane pouted. “Fine, I’ll make you a deal. I show you where the King of Dokvalon is willing to start his next search for the key, for a full pardon.”
“I beg your pardon?” Ora was borderline hostile.
“You’re not daft,” Ariadne mocked.
“You must have large balls to talk to the queen like that,” Sury scoffed.
Ora looked at me, then spoke again. “You show us where we can search for these keys and then we’ll negotiate the terms of your miserable existence.”
“Are you sure you can trust her?” I asked.
Ariadne tsked again, muttering to herself, causing my nerves to tingle.
Uriah must have felt my shift because he laid a gentle hand on my shoulder to steady me back to sitting.
“If your sister believes me, why can’t you?
” Ariadne looked at Peiro. “Go ahead, tell them you know what I’m talking about. ”
Fuck. For her to know that Peiro knew the location, she had to have known who he was all along. Ariadne’s cruel smile confirmed everything and turned my vision even darker.
Peiro’s eyes quickly shifted to mine as he said, “I know the place that she speaks of.” He swallowed hard and looked away. Sadness crept as I watched that thing take a deeper hold on him.