Chapter 23
“Clara?”
Fuck. Our eyes lock, and I know Elorin sees right through my illusion—if it’s still there at all. Her mouth falls open slightly.
I suck in a breath, frozen. Why, out of everyone, would it be her? The one person among the Majors here who can recognize me without issue.
Do I kill her? I don’t want to. But leaving her alive is a risk. Though, if she tells anyone I was here, it hardly matters if I’m already gone. I have the Chariot. I can be quick, but I can’t leave Kaelis…A thousand thoughts race at once, and I don’t have time to judge them all, so I just act.
“Go back into your room and tell yourself this was all a dream.” There’s a heavy note of warning in my voice.
“You sure you can allow that? Now that I’ve seen you?” She tilts her head to the side, as though reading my mind. That is what her card allows, but not the innate skill as the High Priestess.
This woman is dangerous. Her doll-like appearance and rainbow hair aren’t particularly threatening. But they’re a porcelain veneer for the true iron beneath.
“I know your style,” she continues. “You don’t like vulnerability. Which is why I suspected you’d come.”
“You did?”
She nods. Her eyes scan the other doors. I think of using the distraction to my advantage. But her focus is back on me before I can make up my mind.
“As soon as Naethor came and said the Hierophant would be headed to Eclipse City soon, I had a feeling you’d find your way here, especially since you know Silas.”
“Knew,” I correct bitterly. “Silas is dead. Ravin killed him.”
She staggers slightly, as though the news is a physical blow. Elorin glances away, worrying her lower lip between her teeth. “We’re all just fucking toys to him, aren’t we?” she mutters.
“To be discarded as he pleases,” I finish.
Her attention swings back to me. “We all know why the Hierophant is being moved to Eclipse City, there’s only one explanation: to hunt you. Which is why you’re here to kill him, aren’t you?”
“Obviously.” The word slips out with ease. There is her innate ability in action. People feel safe enough around her to say whatever is on their mind without hesitation. I need to be extra cautious. But how can I be with magic whittling away at my guards?
“What if I tell you there’s a way that you can get what you want without getting blood on your hands and raising more questions?”
“I’d say you’re being idealistic or attempting to distract me.”
She sighs and glances around once more. “Come inside, will you?” Instead of heading for her room, she leads me by the hand to the Hierophant’s door. With a soft knock as the only warning, she opens it.
A wizened gentleman sits at a long table pressed against the wall beneath a window. His white hair slips off his shoulders as he turns. I notice the skin on his hands is paper-thin as he sets down a brush. Books frame him on either side. Inking supplies are plentiful and tidy.
He surprises me with the strength of his stare, especially compared to the slight hunch of his shoulders. The Hierophant runs a hand over his neatly trimmed beard, studying me like a scholar. “Hello, Wheel. I was wondering when you’d come in.”
Even knowing his innate power, seeing his magical sixth sense in action is impressive. I stand a bit taller, no longer trying to hide my face. Little point in it now.
“It’s just like we suspected; she’s come to kill you, Alphos.” Elorin glances to me as she crosses to sit on the edge of his bed.
He shifts his chair and, with both feet on the ground and hands on his knees, asks, “Is it true, have you come to kill me?”
It’s not Elorin’s magic that makes denial feel pointless. “Yes.”
“Did you have a card in mind to do it with? The Five of Swords? Your favorite?” He speaks low, voice weathered slightly with age but still strong. “Or would you be a bit more creative on my behalf?”
“Five of Swords was the extent of my plan. Other cards if needed, of course,” I admit.
He nods as if he’s a professor and I answered a question correctly in class. “I would assume you know I’m not keen to allow you to do that.”
“I figured as much.” This conversation is bordering on the surreal. So calm and even. As if all of this is perfectly normal. I glance between him and Elorin. “I suppose I’m wondering why you both aren’t attacking me, knowing this?”
“You really are dense sometimes, Clara,” Elorin says softly. “Did it occur to you at any point that you might have a friend here?”
“I’d hardly call us friends.” Not enemies. Not hostile. Friendly, maybe…But certainly not friends.
“An ally, then,” she remedies.
“Can I call you that?”
She tilts her head. “Enemies of enemies make for good friends—or allies, if you prefer.”
“You hate the king, too?” I glance between them so it’s clear I’m asking them both.
“I thought that much was obvious.” While it’s true Elorin never seemed keen to go to Fate Hearth, I didn’t think she was at the point of being ready to take action against our sovereign.
“While I admire King Naethor’s desire for order and honor of tradition”—the Hierophant isn’t endearing himself to me with that admission—“his approach in many areas leaves much to be desired.”
“Lukewarm criticism hardly inspires confidence that you’ll rise to the level of what I need from you.” I lock eyes with him. “If you assumed I was here to kill you, then you know what I need.”
“My silence.” He doesn’t mince words. “My lies when Ravin brings me to Eclipse City.” I nod. “You have my word, it will be done. If you are discovered, it will not be from me.”
I shift, regarding him warily. “Why would I believe it’s that easy?”
“The alternative is you killing me.”
“The alternative is you running to Naethor the second I turn my back and handing him Oricalis’s most wanted.”
He chuckles and shakes his head. “You really are a skeptical one.”
“Rightfully so.”
Alphos leans back in his chair, stroking his beard again. “Tell me, what’s your intention, if I don’t turn you in when I ultimately would have the ability to do it?”
I open my mouth, hesitate, and say finally, “I’m making a new world for myself…and my sister.” The second part is far softer than the first. A quiet confession that is still surreal to say out loud. “If King Naethor finds me, he’ll kill me. Ravin already tried.”
“And failed. A feat, when faced with Death itself.”
I stand a bit taller, prouder than I expected at that remark.
“My whole life, they’ve destroyed everything.
I’ve watched as Oricalis took and took with no repercussions, one thing after another.
Every sanctuary I’ve ever had, every love I’ve ever known, tainted or destroyed.
I will have no home for myself and those I love unless it’s one I can carve from the clutches of destiny. ”
“And what about us?” Alphos gestures to himself and Elorin. “Where do we fit into this new world of yours?”
“I don’t follow.”
A slight, knowing smile. “That was a good answer.”
Oh. “Do you think I’d keep Majors captive as he has?”
“I told you she wasn’t like that,” Elorin says. How much did Elorin tell him about me? Tell all of them? I thought she hardly paid attention to me last year. But her keen eyes missed little.
“Power can easily change the hearts and minds of mortals,” Alphos says gravely to Elorin.
I speak instead: “This won’t change me. My whole life I have resented Oricalis. I won’t suddenly become them.”
Both their eyes return to me, and then to each other one more time. Elorin gives a slight nod. Alphos a soft sigh.
“I’ll give you your time,” he finally says.
Relief tries to course through me. But I’m too cautious to let it overtake my better sense. “How can I trust you? If Ravin or the king finds me, they’ll know what you did, and they’ll kill you for it.”
“They will probably make me wish they killed me.” He’s so calm about it, and there’s a searing urge to correct him—to tell him exactly what they can do, because I’ve seen it written in the scars that line my sister.
“How can I trust you to endure that?”
“Because I think whatever world you have in mind will be better than this one. And I would rather throw my lot in with you,” he says simply.
I fold my arms. “Fine. If not that, then I’m dead either way, no?
Either you kill me now or I take the gamble and risk dying at the king’s hand.
At least this way I’ve a better chance at a world I can be free in—a world all future Majors can be free in. ”
Risking everything for freedom is something I am very familiar with.
“It’s worth it to have allies,” Elorin chimes in. “Especially ones in Fate Hearth. You can count on us, Clara. We want the same things as you. None of us like being kept here.”
I think of the Worldkeepers, another group of people telling me to trust them when I’ve no reason to. How can I trust people I hardly know when so much is at stake?
But I don’t have time to debate this. Time is running out. I’m shuffling my options like cards.
“All right,” I finally land on. I’ll throw my lot in with them, for better or worse.
Elorin stands. “Good. Let’s get you out of here before the other Majors wake.”
Alphos stands as well, offering me his hand. “I look forward to working with you.”
Forcing myself to take it, I say, “Likewise.” Though I’m not sure if it’s true.
Elorin leads me out, closing the door behind us. I pause for just a second on the other side. Still unsure of the gamble I’ve made.
“It’ll be all right,” she says with a note of gentle encouragement. “Alphos has been almost like a father to me since I came here. He’s a good man; you can trust him.”
Maybe his age means he has nothing to lose. Maybe that’s why he’s not afraid of throwing in his lot with me. Still, he seemed spry enough to have at least one good decade left…Why risk throwing it away?
“We all hate Naethor,” she whispers as we start toward the stairs, as if my thought were so loud she heard it. “Few more than Judgment. I can get him aligned with your cause, too.”
Maybe luck is still on my side, to have this much help. “Judgment is the one reviving the king if there’s a successful attempt on his life, right?”
She nods.
“Why are you doing this?” I ask as Elorin comes to a halt at the top of the stairs that will lead me back down and out. In the distance is the soft chime of a clock. Thirty minutes have passed. I should start my way back.
“I saw inside your mind.”
Five words and my body turns to ice. “You…you said you’d never do that without permission.”
“Only once, and I got only a notion of who you are in your heart. I did not peer into memories or prod deeper than searching for your guiding truth—to know that, at your core, you truly aspire to win freedom for all Arcanists.” She meets my eyes, unwavering.
“I looked inside Naethor’s, too. And you are our best option. ”
Something about the way she’s staring at me has my throat going dry. I swallow hard. “Well, I’ll try to live up to that.”
She nods, and I start down the stairs, the sentiment continuing to ring in my ears. I’m their best option? All I can think of is burning the world down for my sister. Of vengeance. Of a home I’m not sure I’ll ever see—or even be able to build.
Damn it, I want to live up to their expectations and be the person they need, that this broken world needs. Don’t waver, I tell myself, part scolding. What you want and what they want are the same.
“One more thing.” Elorin’s soft voice halts my steps. I look back at her. “Be careful with your Major. I’ve learned a lot more about all the Majors since coming here, and the Wheel is…volatile.”
“I know,” I say dryly, thinking of Bristara.
Still, she continues pressing her warning. “The Wheel is halfway to the World, a smaller version in its own right.”
“I assure you it’s not,” I nearly cut her off. “If I had that power, nothing would be as it is.”
“Fate has a will of its own,” she says. “If you spin the Wheel, you can’t always decide where it lands, only suggest. It is your intention against fate’s.”
“Hardly seems like a fair fight.” I try to speak with confidence, but it falls flat.
“If anyone has the force of will, I think it’s you. Just make sure your intent is clear when you use it, but know you ultimately cannot decide the outcome, or how it comes to pass.”
“Thank you for the explanation,” I say, and mean it. She nods and turns, returning to her room.
I leave as well, feet light and thoughts heavy. The knights don’t stop me on the way out. Even though the halls are slightly busier, the laundry room is empty. The old woman stirring her cauldrons is gone, so I don’t even bother with too much secrecy as I slip back into the servants’ passages.
Kaelis isn’t there waiting as he said he would be. The moment I come to a stop, I hear the distant chime of clocks throughout the castle.
The hour he gave me has expired.
Where is he? My mind is immediately playing out everything that might have gone wrong.
The Page of Wands rises from my deck, and I snatch it from midair. I worry its edges, debating, waiting for one more minute to see if he comes around one of the nearby corners. But he doesn’t.
This card can’t take me to him…but it can show me the right direction toward a particular place, and I know where Kaelis was going.
“Take me to the king’s apartments,” I whisper to the card as I hold out my palm, casting it.