Chapter 50 #3
‘Possibly, but it’s unlikely,’ Kyor replies.
‘Especially now I know that all my father does is lie.’ He draws in a low breath.
‘I believed him wholeheartedly when he spoke about what had happened with the Issen, when he said that Uzra died here protecting him.’ Kyor waves in Uzra’s direction.
‘But he clearly lied. And kept lying. He said the Issen were barbarians, but having been to this place, he knows none of that is true.’
‘So what you’re thinking is…?’ Benny prompts.
‘What if it’s all utter bullshit? What if this Crystal of Aemnoy isn’t to restore balance at all, but just gives him more power?
I mean, it’s not impossible, is it? Rose saw them on the move.
They’re certainly not being stopped, not dying.
So whatever the crystal does … ending Rottings isn’t it. And that means I’ve been played.’
‘So this crystal thing,’ Caz says, sitting up, her focus clicking into place. ‘Where did they find it?’
‘In the Eastern Isles.’ Kyor’s eyes track notably down as he speaks, and I can’t blame him. I can feel the fury blooming in Benny, but Caz doesn’t give it time to erupt.
‘Do you know why they were searching there for it? How they even knew it existed, for that matter?’
He shakes his head. ‘Old letters, tomes, prophecies… I don’t know exactly. Sacred texts, perhaps, if the priestesses are involved?’
‘Well, where else could they have got them from?’ Caz asks.
I can hear one person talking, then the next, but my mind is too busy whirring to take it all in.
Too many threads, Fen murmurs. Be careful you do not lose yourself in them.
I fear it’s too late for that, I say ruefully, my mind still spinning.
Like Kyor said, he’s given us more puzzle pieces, but until we know what the full picture is, it’s impossible to know how they fit together.
I try to break it down. Korvane has known of the Rottings for decades, and rather than trying to eliminate them, he’s bound Kyor to never speak of them, ignored them and simply placed a few patrols.
Instead, Korvane has focused his energy on seeking some sort of crystal – which Kyor also couldn’t speak of before so knowledge of the crystal must have also been part of his vow – and has been deliberately perpetuating the war with the Issen.
He had the choice to end it, but instead he prolonged the fighting.
Inflamed it, even, by betraying Magnus and conspiring to kill Magnus’s wife and daughter while they slept.
A chill runs down my spine. My mother. If he’d succeeded, I wouldn’t be alive. Wouldn’t be here.
Or maybe I would. After all, I’m a child of prophecy.
Maybe Kyor is right. Maybe I do need to find out what the Last Prophecy says.
My brain tumbles over it all. The Rottings, the Myrkr, the blade I carry…
‘Rose.’ Caz is the one who finally notes my silence. ‘What is it? What are you thinking?’
‘I’m not sure exactly,’ I respond truthfully. ‘I’m just trying to take it all in. I can’t help feeling that maybe it’s all linked.’
‘What do you mean, all linked?’
‘The priestesses didn’t want Kyor to stop the Rottings, right?
And we know the Rottings are linked to the Myrkr, given the way they appeared beside it, perhaps controlled by it?
And Kyor, you said the Rottings must be controlled by something to stop them ravaging Wrohelm, right? Well, why would a person do that?’
‘Because,’ Thessa murmurs, ‘the person or persons controlling them are in Wrohelm.’
I swallow hard. ‘Exactly. And we know Mila has one of the blades, right? The blades that bind, kill, or free, which someone tried to steal from me. It just feels like there are too many connections for any of it to be coincidence.’
I wait for someone to disagree, but they don’t.
‘You think Mila is involved in controlling the Rottings?’ Kyor asks.
I lick my lips. ‘Maybe. I know it’s crazy, but maybe?
There’s a reason she didn’t want you to win.
Didn’t want you to end the threat. And the others I saw in the cave – Evelina, Noleen – they were taken by the priestesses.
I myself saw Ruben’s mother being carted into the temple just before she passed. ’
Just saying his name hurts. I look at Benny, and he looks back at me, and for a beat we are united in our grief, feeling Ruben’s warmth.
Then Benny looks away and down, taking a shuddering breath. He squares his shoulders. ‘I’ve got to agree. The High Priestess has appeared way too much in this for it to be a coincidence.’
‘Fuck,’ Kyor utters.
Caz is frowning. ‘And those blades. They’re linked to that first Retterheld, to the three Sannings way back when, but they were also gifted as deadly weapons only a few hundred years ago at another Retterheld.’
‘Gifted by Etta, like it was time they came back into play?’ Benny suggests.
My insides coil into a tight knot.
‘I think I still may be missing a few important details,’ Uzra says apologetically, frowning as he looks between us.
‘Don’t worry, I can catch you up afterwards.’
It’s Loch who makes the offer to help. Loch who, less than a moon ago, couldn’t even hold a single coherent conversation. In some ways, we’ve come so damn far on this journey, and in others, it feels like we’ve barely begun.
‘Thank you,’ Uzra replies.
‘Mila’s blade…’ Caz says quietly. ‘Can we assume that, like you, she doesn’t know which one she’s got? There was nothing in the diagrams I found that differentiated them. They were truly identical.’
‘So if you wanted a particular one, you’d have to have all three?’ Benny questions.
Caz nods slowly, but it’s Uzra who speaks next.
‘The High Priestess is Morathkian, right? Would she not also have access to someone with shading power?’ Uzra asks. ‘That was the power of the person who broke into your room, was it not?’
I nod.
If what we’re all suggesting is right, then Mila doesn’t just want my dagger; she needs it to make sure she’s got the right one, which means the shade might still be hiding in Isthyr, waiting for the right time to strike. I pat it on my hip, reassuring myself it’s still there.
Caz looks at me, eyes soft with sympathy. ‘And I hate to throw this into the mix, Rose, but what if the prophecy is somehow linked to it too?’
‘The prophecy?’ Benny questions, looking from Caz to me. ‘What prophecy?’
‘Rose is apparently in some Torailian prophecy,’ Caz explains briefly.
Thessa frowns. ‘A prophecy? I do not know this term.’
‘A prophecy is… It’s when people talk about something that’s going to happen in the future,’ Caz explains.
‘How do they know?’ Thessa asks, her forehead crinkling.
‘Well, that’s kind of the point,’ I say. ‘People who prophesise are meant to be able to see into the future. You don’t have any Sanning prophecies?’
‘No,’ she says. ‘We deal with the past and the present. That is more than enough.’
It’s funny how much that comment lightens me, if only for a moment.
‘It’s about the Child of Four and the Great War,’ Caz continues. ‘And now that we know about her heritage – she’s a quarter of all four peoples – well, the Myrkr’s comment makes sense.’
Benny is frowning now, his lips pushed together in a thin line. ‘What did the Myrkr call you when you killed him, Rose? The same as Oel, right? Child of one, two, three, four?’
‘He said it the other way around – Child of Four first – but yes, essentially.’ My pulse kicks up a notch as I ruminate aloud. ‘Child of Four, we know – that’s my four bloodlines. Child of three, that has to be my siblings. But I’m not sure about daughter of one or two.’
‘Crap!’ Caz’s voice lifts a whole octave higher. ‘I don’t know how I didn’t think of it before. Winners of the Retterheld aren’t always called the gifted. Sometimes they’re called the Child of Etta. “Child of one” probably refers to your being a child of one Goddess – Etta.’
‘The daughter of two could simply be your parents,’ adds Thessa. The fact that she’s the one who mentions my parents – such direct kin – reminds me that I still haven’t spoken to her about what Magnus said. But now is almost certainly not the best time to raise our likely being cousins.
So I really am the child of one, two, three, and four. Which is making it feel even more likely that whatever’s in that prophecy, it’s talking about me.
‘So what do we do with this?’ Caz asks.
I shake my head. ‘I don’t know.’
‘I think we need to kill Mila,’ Kyor says in an icy tone that chills the air. ‘Take her dagger before she can take yours.’
I wince. It’s exactly what our enemies are trying to do.
‘And then,’ he says, eyes flashing, ‘we get the dagger from Galreck. If my father or Mila want it, then it’s a sure sign we don’t want them to get it.’
‘Are you so sure they’re still working together?’ I ask, hoping that this grand conspiracy is purely that – a conspiracy, not fact. Not certainty.
Kyor frowns. ‘They’re fucking, I know that much. But … I can’t be sure. She put the bind on me out of his sight. I don’t know whether that was necessary or merely opportunistic.’
‘Either way, we need to learn more about the Crystal of Aemnoy,’ Caz states, her mind already on the next research project. ‘We need to know what it is, what it’s supposed to do, and maybe how to use it.’
I take a breath. ‘This doesn’t change anything about my immediate plans. I still need to get through the Veil,’ I say, looking at Kyor.
He nods. ‘And you need to hear that prophecy.’