Chapter 27 #3
“I’ve heard that Nerio is on her way to Altanus. I will seek to be emancipated, as should you. Even as a queen, Viridis still has ties to you. It would be best to sever them.”
That was news to him. Nerio was never where one wanted or expected her.
“How did you hear of Nerio’s arrival?” Theron asked.
Especially when he’d not heard a single rumour of the elusive high priestess’ arrival in his kingdom. Had he known, he would have welcomed her with a lavish feast.
“She wrote back to me, of course,” Epicasta replied with a petty glint in her eye. “Did she not reply to your own letters, Your Majesty?”
“Clearly not,” he muttered.
“Come along, I’ll tell you what the dualists told me. There’s also someone who wishes to see you,” Epicasta said, gesturing for them to follow her through winding, soaring corridors covered in winking blue lights.
What in the Loom illuminated this place?
“So, what excuse did they give for god-napping Knowledge’s statue? And why have none of them come to greet us themselves?” Theron harrumphed.
Some welcome they’d received. No gifts, no proper audience, no trace of attendants or refreshments. A less generous monarch could easily mistake this as an insult.
“They weren’t certain you would hear them out.” Epicasta shrugged.
“And they thought you more trustworthy?”
“My fated is the avatar and one of their own. I have every reason to protect them as they have protected me. Whereas you have authorized hunts against them, however begrudgingly. Don’t take it personally.” She raised a challenging brow.
Everything about her grated on his nerves. She was lucky she belonged to the avatar.
“And the statue?”
She paused. “They claim they were saving Knowledge from having her statue corrupted.”
“Corrupted how?”
Was it even possible to corrupt a divine statue? Destroy one, certainly, but corrupt?
“They claim Orithyia planned to replace the obsidian eyes within it with onyx. They claim she is the High Priestess of Lies.”
Aurora gasped. “What? How is that possible?”
Theron would love it if such a thing were true. She’d be deposed in a heartbeat. Suspicion would fall on Viridis and Flora and everything else that wraith had ever touched. But a coup that perfect simply didn’t exist.
“Do they have proof?” he asked.
“None, save the testimony of Head Priestess Dia.” Epicasta ushered them into a new room.
It was cavernous in size and lit with strange orbs that radiated a warm, pale-yellow light—and filled with piles of ancient artefacts.
The very same he’d seen in the hoard beneath the temple of Knowledge in Boreas.
Aurora gasped, this time in delight.
“I knew it! I just knew it! No wonder the museum here had so many artefacts! They were the ancient hoard all along!”
“Aurora, wait!” Theron called, to absolutely no avail. She raced towards the artefacts, cooing over each one. He glared at Epicasta. “That was a dirty trick.”
She shrugged.
“Hyllus said it was her tip to him that led the dualists to lay claim to all of these in the first place. Better here than in Orithyia’s hands.”
His wife really was far too trusting.
“You truly believe that?”
“I do.”
“And you believe the dualists? That Orithyia is the High Priestess of Lies? That she meant to corrupt Knowledge’s statue by replacing the eyes?”
Her expression gave nothing away.
“I only know what they told me. They said your cousin was supposed to be tracking down where the onyx was being sourced. They also said that the intent matters when carving a statue of the goddess. If you carve one for Knowledge, but place the eyes of Lies within, the statue is corrupted in favour of the sinister goddess. Don’t ask more, I found that part of the explanation tiresome and philosophical. ” She waved her hand dismissively.
“I didn’t ask what you knew. I asked what you believed,” he said, waving back at Aurora as she waved at him, excitedly showing an artefact to Hyllus, who was dutifully listening.
“Then I would say I believe her.” Epicasta nodded at an elderly woman shuffling through the paths carved between piles of artefacts.
“Dia,” Theron gasped, racing over to her. He held her shoulders, his gaze roaming her face. The same creases, the same tightly styled white hair, the same canny eyes. No new injuries he could see. “How have you fared?”
“I have been terribly abused,” she said, smiling.
Theron turned censorious looks at Epicasta, who raised her hands in apparent surrender and sighed.
“As far as I can tell, the head priestess has been cursed. What she speaks and what she means are at complete odds. The dualists had hoped that Hyllus might be able to tell them more, since their priestesses have not been able to lift it.”
The dualists had priestesses? A headache threatened. Merciful Triad, why not? Why shouldn’t more impossible things crop into existence today?
Hyllus walked towards Dia and bowed.
“It is an honour to meet you, Head Priestess. If you will allow me to look at your thread?”
“Never,” she said, though her tone and expression said the exact opposite.
Theron had thought Dia mad. But if it were a curse, as Batea had implied, did that mean his cousin had been telling the truth all along? Lady Ino had definitely proved traitorous, as Batea indicated, but no link had been found between her and Orithyia or the spire.
“The curse is divine in nature,” Hyllus said in a strange monotone.
“Which deity?” Theron asked.
Hyllus cocked his head.
“The threads are black and white. And thick. Powerful. I’m not strong enough to lift it.”
“What does that mean?” Aurora asked.
Hyllus turned his sparkling eyes to her.
“The curse draws its power from Lies.”
“Orithyia,” Theron growled. “She used it to prevent you from speaking truth. You tried to tell me, but I thought you mad. I’m sorry, Dia.”
“I will never forgive you, my king,” Dia said, patting his hand. “Is she your enemy?” Dia asked, her eyes sparkling when they lit on Aurora.
Theron shook his head, frustrated with himself. If he’d but listened, truly listened, instead of leaping to conclusions, he might have put it all together.
“Dia, please meet my wife and fated, Queen Aurora of Aureum.”
“I’m going to be sick, Your Majesty,” Dia said, doing her best to bow to Aurora.
“I’m sorry that we’re meeting under these circumstances, Head Priestess,” Aurora said, taking the woman’s hands in hers.
“It is truly the worst day of my life. He was always so eager to wed.”
Aurora laughed.
“You will have to tell me all the stories you know of him as a boy.” She winked at the head priestess.
“I have so few stories to share,” Dia chuckled. “Are you also a fool?” she asked, picking up one of the artefacts.
“You mean a scholar? Yes! Or well, I was before I came back in time. You see, three thousand years from now, I came here and found this.” Aurora showed Dia her artefact.
“It helped me travel back through time. The museum the dualists create displaying these artefacts is the reason I was able to come here and warn people about Drakon.”
“A calendar?” Dia asked.
“That’s what everyone assumed, but it calls to my magic.”
Dia raised a brow at Theron, as if asking if his wife was truly sane.
“She speaks the truth, Dia. I witnessed her turn back the time of an entire building as it was collapsing around her. When she was done, it was as if it were a newly erected structure.”
“Come, I have nothing for you,” Dia said, crooking her finger at Aurora.
As Theron and Epicasta followed the two chatty scholars through the hoard, Epicasta continued.
“From what Dia was able to tell me, I understand she began to suspect something was amiss when many of her trusted clerics were suddenly sent far from the capital and replaced by new clerics from Viridis. One of those clerics died trying to get evidence of Orithyia’s plot into your hands.
I hear her body was found in the inner palace. ”
Theron cursed.
“It was. She died holding an onyx bead.”
“When Dia discovered what was afoot, Orithyia tried to end her life. It was a minor miracle she reached you in time, but it seems Orithyia had already planned ahead, replacing the gemstone in Dia’s ring. And she believes she wasn’t the only one.”
“Any proof?” Theron asked.
Epicasta shook her head.
“Even if you smashed all their rings, what do you think Orithyia would say? If I were her, I’d simply claim the place was infested with dualists and rally the clerics to my cause. Any who opposed would conveniently become a target.”
As would he. He sighed.
“Then this was a spectacular waste of my time. All I’ve received are accusations without any kind of proof I can bring before Nerio or Myrina.”
“Well, there is one bit of proof she wouldn’t be able to deny so easily.”
“Enlighten me,” Theron bit out.
“Smash the eyes of Lies before she consecrates them and places them inside the statue in Altanus. She handled the whole process herself, did she not? Even if she claims she was duped by dualists once more, eventually, someone involved in the long, convoluted process of acquiring those gemstones is going to decide they won’t be her scapegoat. ”
It wasn’t the worst plan he’d heard. But if the dualists were wrong? If Dia was wrong? Then he’d be lucky to keep his crown after destroying the eyes of a goddess.
“We would be hard-pressed to return to Altanus before she does so.” A day or so and those eyes would already be inside the statue, their opportunity lost to them.
“Then I suggest we make haste.”
“We? I never agreed to bring you back,” he scoffed.
“Good thing you’re not the only monarch in Aureum then, isn’t it? Besides, you owe me for that ridiculous offer you made my husband. Me, a citizen of Aureum? Don’t insult me.” She rolled her eyes.
Theron bit back a smile. He’d known she would see through it and despise him for it.
“It’s not a bad offer. Once you’re emancipated, it’s not like you’ll have anywhere to go.”
“Once I’m emancipated, I plan to take my throne,” she declared.
“With what army?” He shook his head. Had her mind gone soft since last they’d met?