Page 19 of House of Dusk
“Enough, sister.” Halimede was starting to look irritated, but Sephre could not stop herself.
“You gave Brother Dolon the Embrace,” she accused. “Why him, and not me?”
The agia regarded her coolly. “That is not your concern. And you should know better than to ask.”
The reprimand stung. As it should. She was being mulish, childish.
“You swore to honor me as your agia,” Halimede reminded her, not unkindly. “To follow the rules of this order.”
True. All true. The more fool her for doing so. Had she learned nothing from the last time she made herself someone else’s tool? Trusted someone else to command her?
But Halimede was not Hierax. Sephre drew a steadying breath. “I’m sorry, Agia. I was out of line.” She bent her head, both in contrition, and to avoid the agia’s piercing and far-too-sharp gaze.
“I accept your apology.” Halimede sighed. “And I see your struggles, sister. I recognize the burden you carry.”
But you will not let me set it down.Sephre caught the thought before it could show on her face. Instead she asked, wearily, “What now? Will you send word to the king?”
“No.”
Given that she’d just been chastised for impertinence, Sephre ought to have held her tongue. “Why not? Why risk making Hierax our enemy? Wouldn’t it be better to have him as an ally?” The king might be a vainglorious ass, but he did have a highly trained and competent army. If the skotoi truly had returned—and if there were worse to come—the ashdancers could only do so much. As Beroe said, there were simply not enough of them.
The agia folded her lips tight, her expression turned inward. Sephre tried again. “There’s something else going on, isn’t there? Some reason you don’t trust Hierax.”
“If only it were so simple as that.” Halimede’s shoulders drooped, making her seem suddenly small and tired and worn. There were dark blotches under her eyes. Why hadn’t Sephre noticed them earlier?Because you were too caught up in your own concerns, that’s why.
“Please, Agia,” she said. “You said you needed me. If that was true, then tell me what I can do. Tell me what you’re afraid of.”
Halimede did not answer immediately. She stared into her cupped hands. A single spark of blue kindled there, unwavering. “I swore an oath to the agia before me, on the day he named me his heir. The same oath he swore to the agia before him, and she to her predecessor, and so on. Back to Cerydon.”
Sephre shook her head, not recognizing the name.
“Cerydon was agia three centuries ago. They led Stara Bron through the terror and unrest of the cataclysm.”
So they would have been alive at the same time as Heraklion. Maybe even known him. “What was the oath?”
The blue flame flickered. “To keep something safe. Something entrusted to Cerydon all those years ago.”
“Safe from what?”
“From the Ember King. Lest we bring about a second cataclysm.”
“But the Ember King was a hero,” Sephre blurted out. “Heendedthe cataclysm.”
Halimede lifted her gaze. “According to the official histories, yes.”
Sephre opened her lips, but found she had no protest. The official histories called her a hero, too. She had ended a war, too.
“What’s the truth, then?” she asked. “What really happened?”
“The truth.” Halimede gave a wry snort. “Is there any truth, other than what we see, here, in the moment? The past burns to ash and the future is beyond our sight.”
“Very poetic,” said Sephre. “But it doesn’t answer the question.”
Halimede pursed her lips. “I’ve told you all I can. If there were more details, they did not survive the retellings.”
“Do you know what it is? The thing we need to keep safe?”
Blue flames sparked in Halimede’s eyes. “Yes. Butthatis something I swore not to speak of to anyone but the ashdancer who will be agia after me.”
