Chapter 51 #2
Iris’ sobs grew louder, and Aeliana hugged her tighter.
The faithful maidservant had been forced to kill her bondmate.
It didn’t matter that he’d been branded.
She’d had to look him in the eye while she’d shoved a dagger in his chest. She’d had to watch the man she loved die by her own hand.
It was a cruel trick, like something the sprites would have done.
Aeliana turned to glare at the Seer, who still hunched in her chair. “You said it would be good!”
Lady Merinnia’s hands went to her ears and she moaned louder, hunching farther.
“Aeliana,” Nori warned.
“How is this good?” Aeliana stood, but the acolytes came forward, blocking her path.
A few brought food and drink for the Seer, applying ministrations that were likely ritualistic after every visit.
“Why did you tell us it would be good?” Aeliana cried out again as the other acolytes dragged them back down the path around the circumference of the room. Gaeren and Velden hefted Holm’s body between them, each clearly enhancing their strength to hold a man of his size.
It left Aeliana sick to see the man she’d loved and respected jostled about like a sack of potatoes.
She turned Iris away so the other woman wouldn’t have to witness the consequences of her actions, and Iris cradled her hand against her chest, her cries holding not just the sorrow of her actions but the pain of her broken bond.
When Holm was practically dragged through to the room where the elders and guards waited, a new round of chaos ensued.
Each of the Vendarans was shackled once more with the same seaweed-like rope that had been used before.
Nori cried out in their defense, begging her parents to have mercy and to recognize the loss they’d just experienced.
“Loss?” Elder Algaen, asked, gesturing at Iris’ bloody hands. “Tell me, how did he die?”
Nori hesitated, her eyes seeking out Aeliana.
“We had an enemy in our midst, and we were unaware,” Aeliana said. “Iris protected both our people and yours with her actions.”
Iris broke out into sobs again, making the elders hesitate.
“What was their judgment?” Elder Perla asked.
Nori shook her head. “I wasn’t shown their judgment.”
A strange hope flashed in her mother’s eyes, and a grim smile crossed Elder Algaen’s face. “What did the rest of you see?” he asked.
Silence filled the room until Velden broke it. “I was under the impression that was meant to be a private affair. I don’t believe we’re under any obligation to share our visions with you, unless you would like to share the visions you saw when you came in return?” He raised his eyebrows.
Elder Algaen narrowed his eyes. “Then how are we to know if your judgment was guilt or innocence?”
“I think it’s clear that Holm was the only one guilty in our party,” Aeliana said, hating the way the words sounded like a lie.
He hadn’t been guilty by choice. “Lady Merinnia said the outcome would be good. Do you not trust her word in this?” That statement tasted even more bitter.
She would never trust the Seer, even if she was forced to trust the woman’s visions the same way she’d seen the sprite’s predictions come true.
“Of course we trust her,” Elder Mishkel said. “It’s you we don’t trust.”
The glares around the room only intensified, no one ready to concede to the other group.
“It’s late,” the head acolyte said. “We respectfully ask that you withdraw from the sanctuary and carry on your discussion elsewhere. Your needs have been met in the only way we know how. We can no longer aid you. It is time for you to move on.”
The elders and guards inclined their heads, and the heat of the argument was set aside, like water boiling in the background until the meat was ready for the stew.
They allowed the acolytes to usher them all back to the first cavern, where their boats remained tied up to the rocky staircase. A numbness enveloped Aeliana so that she didn’t even realize she’d boarded the boat until Cyrus reached back to squeeze her hand, pulling her from her dazed shock.
“You’re bleeding.” Cyrus opened her hand, revealing a cut on her palm.
She frowned at it, then tried pulling energy from her starlock to heal it. Whether her energy was too depleted or her somatic skills too muted, her efforts failed. Instead, she tore fabric from the hem of her shirt, wrapping it around her palm.
“It will all work out,” he whispered. “Not today. But eventually.”
She nodded mutely even though he couldn’t see as he faced forward and grabbed an oar.
“Did you at least get the information you sought?” he asked.
“I discovered part of the curse. I don’t think I heard enough to be able to break it. Did you get it all?”
At first he said nothing, attempting to paddle until they were forced to crouch and be pulled by the Sayhleens. “I didn’t see the curse,” he whispered. “I’m sorry. I tried to make it my focus. But she found a deeper question in my mind. One that had a stronger hold. I’m so sorry.”
She couldn’t be mad at him, and yet she didn’t know how to forgive him.
This was what they’d come for. But now, because the Seer was too good at seeing, they’d all seen different things that had been weighing on them.
She was likely the only one who had seen the curse, but it had been cut off by Iris killing Holm.
She buried her face in her palms as she bent over beneath the low ceiling, allowing the awkward posture to hide the sorrow that finally surfaced.
Holm had been a gentle giant, one she trusted implicitly more than many others in their party.
How could he have been betraying them? And yet no one was immune to Mayvus’ magic.
Aeliana’s own mother had been branded and unable to resist her sister’s control. Perhaps that was what the curse meant by “a love, born of blood, doomed to wither by unfounded contempt.”
Sylmar had warned them that anyone could be affected, but for some reason they’d all thought they’d be safe. They’d all thought they would know if one of their own had been turned.
And that was when it hit her.
If Holm had been serving Mayvus, his deepest desire from the Seer would have been to see what Mayvus wanted to see.
Which meant Mayvus had likely heard the curse.
Had she heard as much as Aeliana? Had she heard more?
Or was there something else she’d sought?
Perhaps the key to immortality through the winex’s eggs?
Regardless, they had to assume that by seeing Lady Merinnia, they’d given Mayvus exactly what she’d wanted.