Chapter 29
Twenty-Nine
Iwas clapped in irons around my wrists and ankles, and a sudden dread filled me as the Wardens led me to Commander Tiberon’s office. They chained me to the chair, as though I were a wild, dangerous person who might go off on a murderous rampage at any moment.
I wondered how I might escape. If the killer wanted to blame me, they should stop now. Perhaps they’d be able to have some self-control. But my mind still reeled, unsure what to think.
Sacred Mother was dead.
Apparently, immortality could not save one’s soul. But who had done it?
I shifted in the seat, trying to decide what to do. If I called for Airen, he would come. That, I was certain of. The Hollow Ones now had the freedom to move as they pleased.
Unfortunately, so did the demons.
The demons.
Then this might not be a coincidence, might not be a murder, but a result of them being loose. Maybe Sacred Mother’s death was their fault.
The door opened and closed behind me.
I couldn’t turn around without causing myself pain because the shackles were too tight. I waited for Commander Tiberon to appear. Instead, it was Verena who walked around the desk.
She stood there a moment, staring at me, her mouth turned down, disappointment creasing her brow. She placed her fingertips on the desk, gave a slight shake of her head, then sat down.
“Verena,” I breathed. Then paused, studying her again.
Her black hair flowed down her shoulders.
A new style I hadn’t seen before. It fell in sleek waves, gathering on her shoulders, giving her a queenly look.
She had changed, too, no longer wearing the dress of the dancers, but the same garb Rift Mother had worn.
Heavy robes of deep purple with gold threads at the cuffs.
It made her look older and well-respected.
My chest went tight, and my pulse ticked up.
Verena met my eyes. “Gazelle, you disappeared. You should have stayed away.”
This, I agreed with. “The killer is back,” I said simply.
“The killer never left,” she contradicted.
She was calm, almost cold, and my fears rose. I didn’t want to think it, but was it possible?
“Sacred Mother is dead,” I went on. “Surprising because she’d named herself Rift Mother. She’d taken over this palace and, I admit, I didn’t like her. I thought her cruel, but I didn’t kill her.”
Verena tilted her head, fingers tapping the desk.
“Yes, she was cruel to you. But she was cruel to all of us. Forcing us to dance, bleeding us, pushing us past our limits. You know, as punishment, she’d lock us in the dark and make us skip meals.
The younger ones were frightened, and it showed in their performance.
At times, I thought Sacred Mother would make the Wardens whip us.
She liked fear; she liked blood. She liked to look at others and make them feel small.
It was almost as if she fed on it. We endured for weeks, but something had to be done, and quickly. ”
“You killed her,” I said, simply stating the fact. “But how? She claimed immortality.”
“Not with my own hands.” Verena’s mouth curved up. “I’m only a dancer, but while you were vanishing into the dark every night, I was reading. There are books in the Hall of Records they don’t mean for us to find.”
I went cold. “What did you do?”
“I found an old book, not in the Hall of Records, but here. Hidden, forgotten under the stones. It explained how to call up something far stronger than the demons that wait in the rift. But the demons are mindless animals, out for blood. This was a devil, willing to make a bargain.” Her eyes had gone distant.
“One night before the full moon, when the rift was at its weakest, I went down and summoned a devil. Made a deal with it.”
All the air went out of my body. No wonder the murders had been so brutal. But would a devil be clever enough to add the words? The symbol written in blood?
“A devil? Verena, they are treacherous. They aren’t trustworthy; they’ll trap and trick you.”
Verena balled her hands into fists. “We are too soft here. We sit and wait for change, but we never take action.”
“This devil you made a deal with killed Rift Mother. The Vestal in the kitchen. The Warden at my door. And now, Sacred Mother.”
“They had to be eliminated.” Verena’s voice was so calm and controlled it frightened me.
I closed my eyes, thinking back. “This started five years ago, when I became Lead Dancer, didn’t it?”
“Finally, you’re starting to understand. That’s when I began to look for something else. For a reason, a purpose other than fading into the background.”
We were the same. The truth sat heavy on my shoulders, and I knew if Verena had become the Lead Dancer instead of me, I would have done the same. I would have searched for something more, for a purpose.
My shoulders sagged, the shackles pinched, and a sense of panic came over me.
Verena was my longest friend, my ally, and I hated that being the Lead Dancer was what defined us.
And when I thought we were past that competitiveness, she’d still been searching.
I returned my gaze to her and realized she was calm, too calm.
But the way she sat rigid, the uncertainty behind her eyes gave me a sense that she was coming apart, fraying at the edges.
Something had frightened her, and it wasn’t my return.
“It isn’t obeying you anymore,” I said, grasping blindly for truth. “Is it? The devil is doing what it wants, now that it’s free.”
Her fists tightened, and just for a moment, the calm slipped.
She stared at the wood of the desk. “It was meant to be three. The first to open the seat of Rift Mother, the one who suspected me and the one who found me with the ancient book. That was the bargain. Then Sacred Mother came, and she had to be removed too. Since I changed the terms of the bargain, it’s getting hard to hold.
It does things I don’t ask, and the only way to be rid of it is to close the rift. Shut it, seal it out, end this.”
“Verena, if I’d known not being Lead Dancer would drive you to make a deal with a devil—”
“Don’t say you would have given me your place.”
I swallowed hard. “If I don’t dance, the demons will come in. That’s what we were taught to believe, but there’s a new way now. A new dance.”
Verena’s eyes narrowed. “I am Rift Mother now. There is no new dance, no new traditions. You keep trying to change things, making tiny mistakes that make everything worse. If you want to return, you’d do well to dance the traditional dance, seal the rift the way we were trained, and shut that thing out. ”
There had been no vote. There wasn’t time. Sacred Mother’s body was fresh, and the council of old families had to convene first.
“It isn’t that simple.” I leaned as far forward as the chains would allow. “The night of the full moon, when I danced a new dance, and they shot an arrow into my shoulder, Chi stepped in to finish the rite, and it didn’t work. You told me yourself.”
Verena’s lips turned down, and anger flashed.
“It isn’t skill, Verena. It’s blood. The rite answers to one bloodline and only one.
Mine. The Lead Dancer was never chosen for being the best. She was chosen for being the last of a line.
You see, Sacred Mother was an ancestor. The dance kept her alive by stealing the dancers’ souls to feed her immortality.
Only her bloodline can seal the rift, at least the traditional way we’ve always done it, because it’s a corrupted dance.
While it seals out the demons, it does so much more.
Have you ever wondered why there aren’t any living Lead Dancers?
They all died, sacrificing themselves to keep Sacred Mother alive.
Now she’s gone, as she should have been long ago.
I can’t dance the lead anymore, not like that.
The rift can’t be shut the old way, not by you, not by me alone. ”
Verena shook her head, and her face closed.
She gave a short laugh. “Of course,” she said, shaking her head.
“Of course it can only be you. Of course, you’re the special one, and everything in this city revolves around you.
I am Rift Mother now; the Sacred Palace belongs to me, as do the dancers, and I have a duty to these people.
To prove that I can put back the demons, close the rift, and seal off this devil before things get worse.
The full moon is three weeks away. You will dance and close the rift and end this.
And if you don’t, you will be executed for murdering them all. ”
I felt as though I’d been physically violated. She’d threatened me with death. I felt our friendship dissolve in my hands like salt in water.
“Please, Verena. Think. Wouldn’t it be easier if you burned that book, broke the bargain with the devil? Do it for the good of the city. The demons are already loose, the worst that could happen already has.”
She stood, smoothing down her robes. Lifting her chin, she walked away. “Rest,” she called. “You’ll dance for me soon enough.”
I listened for the swing of the door and the soft smack of it shutting.
It never came.
When I twisted around as far as the shackles would let me, the room behind me was empty.
Odd. Then the doorknob turned. Fear crept up my spine as it swung open.
But it was only Betta in the doorway, carrying a steaming cup of tea. The herbal scent floated to me, peppermint and lavender, something meant to calm the senses.
“The council convenes at the end of the week,” she said, setting the tea where I could reach it. “They’ll make a decision about what happened here and give instructions on how to investigate Sacred Mother’s murder. I assume they’ll also name a new Rift Mother.”
“Verena said—” I stopped. Clearly, Verena had lied.
Betta waited. She did not prompt me to finish, only looked at me with that expression. The one from the graveside. That wasn’t suspicion, more like pity.
I swallowed.
A hand squeezed my shoulder, and then I was alone again.
I dropped my head, not caring that the chains bit into me. I let the tears flow, grieving for my lost friend.