Chapter Four
Shocking everyone, I don’t die.
I don’t die.
I can’t stop shaking. I’m clutching the amulet so tightly it cuts into the skin of my palm, but it doesn’t feel even a little warm. For a heartbeat, when I first put my hand on it, the gemstone blazed hot, and I closed my eyes and prepared to die.
But then—miraculously—it cooled.
We wait … and wait … and wait, for ten minutes that feel like ten hours. I stand frozen, still expecting to die horribly any second. Unable to keep from looking at the charred remains of a blameless young girl.
We’re not meant to touch the possessions of the gods.
“Now, we begin,” the Air Touched says, fiercely triumphant.
But I don’t know what that means. Should I drop the amulet? If I do, will I die the next time I touch it?
Slowly, I open my fingers.
I try to open them.
They won’t budge. My hand is locked in place, holding the amulet, and I can’t move my fingers.
“Air Touched, what do I do?”
The sorcerer, taking in the situation with a quick glance, reaches out to me, but a radiant white light surrounds my hand and knocks everyone near me back a pace, until I’m standing alone, staring at my glowing hand.
I’m shaking so hard, I expect my knees to give out at any moment, because this surely means that I’m about to catch fire. I thought it was over, thought I was safe, and—
A voice like a cascade of temple bells rings inside my mind, drowning out my frenzied terror. A wave of light, heat, and energy crests through me.
You are safe, child.
“I … What?” I stare wildly around, whipping my head from right to left. “Who said that?”
A feeling of gentle amusement brushes the inside of my mind.
I am She. Artemisen. You hold my amulet, the first to do so and live in many long years.
I fall to my knees, careful to take the box with me, afraid to take my hand or the amulet out of it. “I’m sorry! I’m not worthy, but they made me do it,” I babble, feeling hot tears falling down my cheeks.
Hush. And tell this vicious king and the rest of these people this story. But mind you, remember it well.
Before I can say or ask anything else, the goddess is putting the words in my mind and channeling them with my voice. I don’t understand how, let alone why, but I learn quickly that when a goddess wants you to do something, you don’t question it.
You certainly don’t refuse.
“The … the goddess Artemisen says,” I begin in a near whisper, trying to pretend my courage is greater than my fear.
Louder, child.
“The goddess Artemisen bids me tell you this,” I say, raising my voice to carry throughout the room, but it’s not my voice that comes out.
It’s Hers.
“People of Altarra, you have tried for nine and ninety years to free me from my sister’s cruel captivity.
If you fail to reach me before the calendar reaches one hundred years, at the summer solstice precisely, my imprisonment will become permanent and the people of Altarra will suffer for eternity. ”
The sorcerer slowly sinks to her knees, and the rest of the room follows her. Only the king and Prince Kaelen remain standing, both staring at me in shocked disbelief.
I want to say something, but Artemisen has other ideas. She uses my voice to continue.
“When all was nearly lost, I stole a handful of moments to ensure that only a rescuer with a pure heart and undeniable inner strength could retrieve the keys to my prison. This would keep any with evil intent from destroying them.”
“But Lil,” I rasp out against the goddess’s takeover of my mouth.
Regretfully, the child would never have been strong enough, she says in my mind, and I realize I can hate both a goddess and a king.
You threw her away, I think as fiercely as I can, since she won’t let me speak again.
The Air Touched half raises her hand and interrupts my inner debate. “But the amulet … Isn’t that the key?”
“It is one key, sorcerer. The ultimate key. But in order to use it and release me from captivity, you must find two more. I hid them to prevent my sister’s evil creations from finding them, but her armies have ranged far since then.”
“The Fell,” the king says, but he flinches when Artemisen looks at him through my eyes. The Fell comprise Corvynne’s horrible army—creatures made when the goddess crossed humans with predatory animals.
“The Zhagarn,” the prince says, naming the officers bound to Corvynne who lead the Fell. I/we turn to face him, but Kaelen doesn’t flinch. He actually takes a step toward me. “Soli? Are you all right?”
I can almost feel the goddess’s interest snap to the prince.
Tell him you are well, little one.
I try to speak and feel a rush of relief when my voice works. “I’m … fine? I’m not harmed,” I amend, not sure “fine” describes anything I’m currently feeling.
He studies my face and then nods. “We need to find two more keys, my lady? Where are they?”
The goddess speaks with my voice again. “One hides in the Boundaries and the other in the Scholars’ Temple. Both are now either guarded by unspeakable evil or almost impossible to retrieve. But find them you must.”
“And then we can free you?” Kaelen asks.
“In time. For now, we must restore balance to nature or snow will not fall in Altarra this winter. I cannot change that as I am now, but I will grow stronger as you find the keys and attach them to my amulet.”
“Then tell us exactly where to find them,” the sorcerer says, flinching as if I/we would strike her dead for daring to ask a question.
For all I know, I/we might.
I feel the goddess’s presence inside me falter. “I cannot see exactly where the keys hide, but when you find the first, my strength will increase. I will try to guide you to the next. Hurry, though. Hurry!”
The amulet only allows me to reach out to you briefly and at significant cost, Soli, the goddess’s voice says in my mind. I’ve overreached for now. Search inside yourself for the tools you’ll need to find me.
“But—”
And trust no one.
The light and heat and energy filling me drain away like rain down a spout, and I collapse, barely catching myself from smashing my face into the floor.
The king slowly walks toward me but stops six paces away.
“Was that truly the goddess?” he demands.
I’m gasping for breath, huddled on the floor, my hand still clenched around the amulet. I want to snap at him, but I have no idea what to say. Do I have the temerity to say that a goddess just spoke … through me?
Who else could it have been, though?
I force my breathing to steady, then look up at him. “She said it was,” I say, which doesn’t make much sense, but he nods.
“I commend you for your courage, girl,” he says slowly, but I can see and hear his reluctance to commend a nobody for anything.
He turns to the Air Touched. “What now? Do you know anything about these keys?”
Probably too much to expect that he’d thank her. Or me, for that matter. I’m the one who risked a fiery death, after all. And had a goddess inside me.
The sorcerer shakes her head, shock still stamped on her face. “Keys? No. I—Maybe. There were references to keys, but we … I took them to be jumbled hints about the amulet.”
“Why? Why would the goddess play games like this with the people trying to rescue her?” I mumble.
“If only we understood the ways of goddesses.” Kaelen crouches down next to me, his face grim. “Are you harmed?”
“No?” I blink and take an inventory of my mental and physical health. I feel … fine? Better than fine. The overwhelming presence of the goddess is gone, but a slight resonance of her energy remains inside me.
Holding me up.
It keeps me from jumping up and running, screaming, away from this room, these people, and the knowledge of what’s in front of me.
“If the snows don’t fall, the drought will worsen. People will starve. So, what do we do now?” Pallan demands.
I start to ask the king how he could possibly think I have any idea what to do next, but then I realize he was talking to the sorcerer.
“Now, we put together the company and send them to the Boundaries. Then to the Scholar’s Temple and on to Corvynne’s domain.
” She holds up her hands and lets them fall.
“Crossing Altarra will take time. They’ll need to avoid the Zhagarn and Fell as well as the usual bands of thieves and cutthroats.
The icy cold of winter will arrive sooner than we may like, even without the snow. ”
I can’t stay silent anymore. “I … I’m sorry, but are we all going to act like it’s perfectly normal that a goddess just talked to us through me, an indentured servant?”
“Apparently, goddesses don’t care about class distinctions,” Kaelen says. He holds out his hand, and I stare at it uncomprehendingly until he gently grasps my arm and helps me to my feet.
I want to lean against him—against someone, anyone, to keep me upright on legs that feel liquid with shock. But of course, I don’t. Servants don’t seek comfort from princes. “I just don’t know what to do now.”
“Goddesses have done this before. There is precedent in the secret histories in our Guild archives. And we’ll explain the plan, Soli,” the sorcerer begins, but I interrupt her.
“Sure. That would be wonderful. But maybe, before that, you can tell me what to do with this amulet. Do I let go of it now? Will that mean I risk death the next time I touch it? Do I keep it in hand for the foreseeable future? Do I wear it? Do I—”
“Cease your babble, girl,” the king thunders. “Why am I constantly plagued by women?”
I’m trying to decide if I should let go of the amulet and curtsy—or throw it at him—when a dry feminine voice sounds from behind me.
“Why, indeed, my husband? Though perhaps you would be less beleaguered if it had occurred to you to send for me when a goddess was making pronouncements in our throne room.”
It’s the queen.
I really, really wish I could sink into that curtsy now. Queen Isabella is known to be a stickler for etiquette, and the ice in her voice only underscores the fury in her words.
At my side, Kaelen offers a deep bow. “Majesty.”