Page 42 of House of Dusk
Sinoe scoffed. “I’m actually capable of figuring some things out on my own, you know. The Fates didn’t tell me that man’s daughter was being born. I overheard his watch commander. I have eyes. And ears. And I know that the Bassarans don’t call skotoi by that name. They call them ghouls. Yes?”
Yeneris nodded. Pointless to lie now. But Sinoe might not know all of it. There were plenty of Helissoni with Bassaran heritage. Trade had brought some, and others had fled north after the cataclysm shattered the isles. She could still salvage this.
“And then there’s Ambassador Opotysi’s son Hura. His father is Bassaran. He’s the one who told me about the salt.”
“Salt?”
“How Bassarans always take salt from the cellar with their left hand. Something to do with the queen who founded the city holding an olive bough in one hand and salt in the other? Is that right?”
Ah. If she survived, she’d have to let Mikat know. Such small things to betray her. A pinch of salt. A single word.
Sinoe tossed another handful of crumbs, then held out the rest to Yeneris. “Here, try it. It’s very soothing. Just watch out for that big orange one, he’s always trying to steal everyone else’s supper.”
Yeneris took the crust. It was good to have something to busy her hands.
“I don’t blame you for keeping it quiet,” said Sinoe. “I haven’t told anyone. You’ve done your job. And you’ve kept my secrets. It’s only fair I keep yours.”
“You’re not worried I might mean you harm?”
Sinoe’s eyes were dark pools, drinking her in. “No. I don’t believe you will.”
“Because of a vision?”
“Because you like me, even if I infuriate you sometimes.” She cocked her head. “Are youtryingto do an impression of the carp? If so, I think you need to open your lips just a bit wider.”
Yeneris slammed her mouth closed. What should she say now? How much more did Sinoe know? Clearly she didn’t believe Yeneris’s story of chasing a phantom intruder. Maybe she ought to speak bluntly, as the princess did.
“You still haven’t told me what you were really doing,” Sinoe said. “Was it the Faithful Maiden?”
“Yes,” admitted Yeneris. “I wanted to see her.” The truth, but not the whole truth.
“I understand she’s a holy figure to your people as well as mine,” said Sinoe. “But you call her something else, don’t you?”
Carefully now. Sinoe was too confident; it made it too easy to believe there was trust between them. “The Bassarans call herkore.”
“Will you tell me more?” Sinoe asked. “We can talk here. No one will hear you over the fountains.”
How had Sinoe had learned that trick? Who else had she needed to whisper secrets with? Yeneris’s stomach tightened. Could she do this? Should she?
She thought of her younger self, asking her mother why they couldn’t just tell Hierax the true story. She took a breath, and began. “They say that she was a priestess of the House of Midnight. Dedicated to the Scarab, with the dark earth in her bones. Flowers bloomed from her footsteps and her breath was sweet as wine.”
Yeneris tore her crust of bread, scattering the last crumbs to the fish. “The world loved her, and she loved the world, and all its creatures. But others were not accepting. One day a man—a king, in fact—was traveling through her forest, and came across a serpent in his path. Fearing the creature, he slew it. But the serpent was no ordinary beast. It was one of the children of Chaos, the first and greatest of the gods, and in slaying such a great and holy creature, the king unleashed the cataclysm. As the mountains smoked and the islands broke, the kore begged the great Scarab to heal the world. The god-beast of the earth answered her call, and told her what she must do. And so the kore gave herself to the mountain, body and soul, and only then did the destruction cease.”
“Is that why her bones haven’t fallen to ash?” asked Sinoe. “Because her spirit is trapped in this world?”
“Not trapped. It was her choice to bind herself to the earth.”
“So if shewerereborn, it would be a bad thing.”
“A very bad thing. And...”
She bit the inside of her lip. Sinoe waited.
“Bassarans don’t actually believe our spiritsarereborn, not the way you do. We’re all part of something greater. When we die, when we walk the labyrinth, we leave behind the things that separate us from others. Hatreds and fears. When we’re able, we rejoin the...we call it kos, the world soul. The kos births new souls and sends them back to the world. So they do carry the past within them, but...in smaller fragments, mixed together...” Yeneris stumbled. Why couldn’t she find the right words? But Sinoe was nodding.
“Like compost.”
Yeneris laughed. “Yes. I suppose.”
