Page 218 of A Vow of Embers

Night had begun to fall around us. I assumed my sisters had fallen asleep early due to the emotional exhaustion of what we had experienced.

“I said that you were the reason that the magic returned,” Io said softly. “But maybe I was wrong.”

“At least you’ve started to see reason,” I said lightly.

“Maybe there’s an evil, a great darkness, that is coming. And light has been created to combat it.” Her words made me breathe a bit faster, my heart thumping. I remembered the words that I’d heard after my first nightmare that had said exactly the same thing.

Darkness is coming.

“What are you saying?” I asked.

“Magic is returning to fight off that evil. There is a reason that everything has happened the way that it did. There’s a reason you’re here now and reasons for what you will have to do in the days ahead. I’m just afraid that it’s going to cost you everything.”

I nodded. Deep down, that was my fear, too.

She slipped her hand into mine. I held on to her tightly as we headed into the darkness together.

Chapter Seventy-One

It was my first day in the temple, my first time training, my first sparring match. Antiope had told me to fight Artemisia, and she was the highest-ranked acolyte. I knew I would have to disguise my skill because royalty wasn’t welcome. I couldn’t risk being kicked out.

We fought with staves. She sensed that I was holding back and it infuriated her. She tried to goad me into making a mistake. I was attempting to hold my own without giving away my background. I would accidentally and instinctually meet her strike and then do something like step out of bounds to give her a point.

She grew angrier and angrier. I let her sweep my feet out from under me and fell in a way that would lessen the impact. Something else she was aware of.

Artemisia threw her staff to the ground and leapt on top of me. She pulled out a hidden knife and pressed it to my throat.

“What are you playing at?” she demanded. Her blade nicked my skin and I felt blood dripping.

Then her tunic slipped slightly and I saw something just above her left breast.

A reddish-brown tattoo.

Just like I’d seen on the enemy in Lycia.

Whoever had attacked Lycia, Artemisia was one of them.

I awoke with a start. Xander was gone. My guess was that he had woken up and returned to his horse as his sister had predicted. I roused my adelphia and told them about the dream I’d just had.

“We need to question Artemisia,” I said. “I think she might be able to tell us who did this.”

“I can’t imagine her giving us any information,” Zalira said.

“Maybe we could get Antiope to help,” Io suggested, and Suri nodded.

As did I. It was a good idea. “We should go straight to the temple when we get back to Troas.”

But when we returned to Troas, the entire city was in an uproar.

Guards rode out to meet Xander. I jumped from the cart to see what was happening. “My prince, we were attacked,” one of the guards told him.

“Why weren’t the gates closed?” Xander demanded.

“They were. The attack came from within. The weapons quarter was destroyed. Every weapon, every arrow, every shield, all gone. Thousands of Ilionians in that district were killed. And the ground was covered in red dirt.”

By the goddess. I sucked in a deep breath. It hadn’t just been in Lycia. Troas had been attacked, too.

“Did they take the metal?” Xander asked.

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