Chapter 40 #2
“Hold on,” I screamed to Oz as the podium rose from the earth, spiraling upwards before it lunged into the air.
In the place of the podium now stood a stone column, carved intricately with the roots and vines that made up the majority of the house.
“I wish we could see what was happening up there,” Iona said as she made her way beside me.
“Me, too. It seems he’s safe, though.”
We hadn’t heard any screams or calls for help. It was possible Oz had lost his voice from shock, but if I knew him in the way I thought I did, I’d bet he was smiling at the thrill of it all.
A moment later, the column began its descent, spiraling down back toward us.
“Did you get anything?” Iona yelled as Oz came into sight.
His smile beamed at her, “I did. Not sure it’ll help the two of you with your… situation.”
Ah, yes, her fake marriage. One crisis at a time.
“What is it?” I asked as he stepped down after the podium had recentered on its original spot.
“A book of some sort.” Oz held up a leather tome, white, gold, and black swirling along its spine.
“What a strange binding,” Iona said as she looked over at it. “An Index on Athandel and Sylvania.” Her gaze flicked to Oz questioning before it met mine.
“I’ve never heard of either of those places,” I said.
“Neither have I. Only this is for certain, they are not in Eldara.” Iona confirmed, her complexion growing paler by the second.
“Perhaps they’re on one of the islands to the far east. Few have travelled that way.” Oz said.
“The last expedition to take place beyond the Azure Sea was Eleaz Teak, member of the Court of Reflection. That was three thousand two hundred and seventy-six years ago.” I said.
Both Iona and Oz’s mouths hung open, each appearing more confused than the other.
“And how, may I ask, do you know that?” She questioned as she took a step closer to me. She was examining me like a doctor does their patient, but I remained unsure what she’d find. Other than someone who is clearly losing their mind.
“Brida must have mentioned it at some point,” I said as I took a step forward toward the podium. “How do I do this?” I looked to Oz for any advice.
“Place your palms face down, and open your mind. The binding will find what’s bound to you, at least what’s in here and bound to you in some way.
” His smile was faint. It didn’t take a mastermind to know he spoke of Lil.
All he remembered was that Lil had been part of our cohort until she had been called away, and I had longed for her every moment since.
“Anything else?” I took my final step onto the podium. The stone was colder than I expected. It felt like it had never been touched by the sun, as if it had never retained heat. Perhaps it hadn’t.
“Will it,” Oz said, and I closed my eyes.
I pictured Lil and her golden hair and soft skin.
The rose color of her lips, the look of pleasure she would have whenever she’d take a bite of something new.
I pictured Brida, my best friend, the one who knew the answer to every question I had.
The one who could calm my frayed nerves, walk me back from the edge.
The one who had been there for me, and I her, every step of our lives save for the past weeks.
It had been agony without her. Without both of them.
But there had been something. Addie knew something that had caused Alvar to halt the weddings, and whatever information she had, it had to also be here. I knew it was. It just had to be.
The podium trembled, my hands clutching to the sides of the top. If this was about to spring upward, I wasn’t about to fall off and die in the process. But unlike Oz’s experience, the trembling grew fiercer. The pebbles that lay strewn across the dirt floor scattered like fish in water.
My eyes locked with Oz’s when we heard the first crack, like lightning sounding through the storm. I looked to my feet and saw that the base of the podium where I stood had split. And underneath it was something waiting to be discovered.
The shaking ceased, and I let go of the podium, my knuckles having gone white. Lowering myself to the floor, I moved the stone and found a small, ancient-looking book.
“Be careful,” Iona warned, and I heeded her advice. The book was delicate. Far more fragile than any book I’d ever held or seen.
Nodding, I removed it from the cutout and attempted to undo the clasp on its front. The latch appeared simple. A turn and it would open. Except with each turn, it didn’t budge.
“It’s possible it’s broken, it’s old.” Oz moved closer to where I sat.
“I don’t believe so.” Iona lowered herself to look at it. “This is sealed by magic. There are runes engraved, just there.”
I had to squint, but she was right. They were the thinnest lines I’d ever seen, and perhaps it was her Fae vision that made them clearer to her, but I could barely make them out.
“Good catch.” Oz brushed his hip into hers, and her face flushed at the contact.
Boom indeed.
“We’ll have to look at it later, but we need to get out of here,” Iona said, looking between us.
The ascent was silent as each of us pondered what our experience had been, what we’d been given, or what we hadn’t. I have a familial connection to this house. That is all. I repeated to myself, over and over, until I almost believed it.
“Stay here. I’ll take a look and make sure no one is there.”
Oz returned a moment later and gestured us forward. “I hope your trip to the Eternal House was alright.” He said to Iona, as if the house was a personal reflection of him.
“Other than the assault, yeah.” She turned to face him, “It wasn’t too bad.”
I tried not to gag as we made it to the door. With any luck, we would make it back to the House of Shadows, and no one would have realized we had left the festivities early.
“Thank you for doing this for us.” I placed my hand on Oz’s shoulder and gave it a squeeze as we successfully exited the Eternal House.
Part of me wondered if this would be the last time I would walk through this door.
If there were any way, I would venture into the bind and uncover more of its secrets.
“We’re brothers, Kadian. I know you would do the same for me.” Oz pulled me into a hug, wrapping his arms so tight around me that the air rushed out of my lungs.
“I love you too.” I laughed as I said it. I had never had a brother. A sister by blood, Brida, my sister by choice, and now Oz. My family was growing, and I needed to know how to get the remaining members back. Brida, my friend, my sister, the tether to my soul. And Lil, my friend, my…
“Kadian, we need to be going.” Iona broke off my train of thought as she gave a light squeeze to Oz’s forearm. “Take a look at that book, and we’ll try to do the same for this one. Perhaps together, we’ll come up with some answers.”
“You can bet on it, wildfire.”
“Wildfire?” Iona’s eyebrows raised in contemplation, “We’ll see.” She turned on her heel and made her way down the hall.
“See you in the morning,” I said as I turned to follow.
The halls were deserted, everyone still at the Center Court, and Iona and I for the first time spoke amicably as we made our way back to the House of Shadows.
“How did you manage to see the runes on this? I can barely make them out.” I held up the book before placing it in a pocket hidden in my shirt close to my chest.
“They looked familiar. I think…” She paused as she turned to face me. “I think they were similar to ones on some of the papers Addie had in her room.”
“What?”
“I’ve been going through the few papers that I kept, and I noticed Addie had been taking notes in multiple languages. In addition to being disorganized, it turns out she may also be a linguist. But you see,” Iona turned to resume our walking, “the thing is, I too specialize in languages.”
“You do?” The shock in my voice was hidden poorly as she leveled me with a classic stare.
“Yes. You wondered what my job is in the House of Shadows and for the Court of Shadows—I am the official transcriber of documents.”
“That seems like a big job for a new inductee.” I ran a hand through my hair, trying to make sense of it all.
“It is, but it’s something that has been in the works for some time. While the Courting does leave certain things up to chance, if you hail from a prominent family, the courts often know what they’re getting. And vice versa.”
“Vice versa?”
“Yes. My father knew that Iri, who was the last person to hold my post, was aging out of the job. She’s twenty thousand years old, and according to her ‘has spent enough time looking at bloody documents,’.”
Twenty thousand years. My brain couldn’t comprehend someone being that old. Surely Tura was much younger than that.
“My father knew they would need to fill the post and that I had an aptitude for language. I saw the language of the ancient Fae as a child, and I believe that those runes may be the language from which all others evolved. The only issue is that I have yet to find a codex, or any way to understand it.”
“So we find the codex, and we find what’s inside?”
“Exactly,” she said. “Now, whether Addie knew exactly what she was dealing with remains a mystery, but it is intriguing. And what’s more intriguing is who else knew she was working on such matters. And did they know before the weddings?”
“Find the codex. That’s the first step.”
Iona smiled as we arrived at the atrium of the House of Shadows. “Codex first, then everything else will fall into place. Now,” she pulled at her clothes, readying herself for a battle. “Let’s see if she decides to let us inside tonight.”