Page 221 of A Vow of Embers

Sure enough, Theano was sitting on the dais when we entered, her veil firmly in place as she waited in her place of honor. As if sparring matches would begin at any moment.

“Princess Thalia and Suri. So nice of you to finally join me. I wondered who would find me. I should have guessed that it would be you.”

Chapter Seventy-Two

Then Theano added, “It’s a pity you weren’t here earlier.”

Because she wanted us to die, too?

She was going to answer for this. Given that she was still alive and unharmed, she had to have been involved. I would see her face as I made her confess to what she had done. I went over to the dais with my xiphos drawn, grabbed her veil, and tore it off.

And despite the fact that I knew she had been the temple’s leader for at least fifty years, a young woman not much older than me stared back.

“Who are you?” I demanded.

“Some call me Theano. They used to call me by another name.” She reminded me of Chryseis. She had golden-blond hair and green eyes. She was a beautiful woman but I saw nothing but darkness in her face. It was like gazing into a soulless void.

“What other name?” I demanded, pointing my sword at her.

She seemed to be relishing this moment. I had often wondered what facial expressions she was making behind her veil but I discovered that I didn’t like seeing them.

After a very long pause, she finally leaned forward and said, “Lysimache.”

She grinned, as if she knew something I didn’t. She expected that her name would be meaningless to me.

But I knew it because I had told my sisters to search for it in books. The princess of Ilion who had restarted the temple after the Great War.

Kysandra’s sister.

That was impossible. She would have to be over a thousand years old.

“You know who I am. Interesting. I thought I had destroyed all the books that mentioned my name.”

This was why she had worn the veil. To hide that she didn’t age. “How are you still alive?”

She reached into her pouch and pulled out something and let it fall to the floor. It made a slight hissing sound and at first I thought it was red dirt.

But it was green dust.

“The last part of the eye. I have been slowly ingesting tiny amounts for years to keep myself young. The eye is meant to give life and it gave me mine. I would also use shards of it to give the priestesses and acolytes the strength of men. After you’ve seen your own sister raped and murdered in front of you, it becomes important to you to protect other women.”

The eye was gone.

This was how my quest ended.

In a quiet, deflated defeat.

“I see this wasn’t the news you were hoping for,” Theano—no, Lysimache said. She sounded delighted. I didn’t understand her. Why did she revel in other people’s suffering? Why did she make the women of the temple strong only to let them be murdered?

She was responsible, I just didn’t know how yet.

“Did you do this?” I gestured around me.

“Kill everyone? No. I would have preferred she not do it, but who am I to argue with such an impressive plan?”

She? “Artemisia is responsible.”

Lysimache’s eyebrows raised slightly, as if impressed. “Very good. Perhaps you were a better student than I gave you credit for.”

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