Page 46 of House of Dusk
“Why?”
Sephre hadn’t planned to ask that. The reason shouldn’t matter. The Serpent had nearly destroyed the world, once. There was no answer Nilos could give that would sway her. But apparently she was too curious for her own good.
“The world needs the Serpent,” said Nilos. “The same way it needs the moon, and the sun, and the sea. Things are unbalanced. Tilting into chaos. You can’t just remove one of the first gods and not expect something else to try to take its place.”
“And that’s your excuse? For murder?”
“I didn’t kill that shepherd,” he said. “Like you, I was too late. Someone else found him first. A power that doesn’t want the Serpent to return.”
“He died of snakebite,” she protested.
“No,” he said. “He was killed by a skotos in the guise of a serpent. Because someone wants you—and your order—to believe that the Serpent is behind this evil.”
She didn’t want to believe him. But unlike the baby, the corpses still had their marks. So perhaps he wasn’t to blame, not for that. And then there were the words of the skotos that had attacked her.To stop return.It made no sense to her then. It made no sense now.
“I don’t trust you,” she said.
He smiled then, a slice of white teeth. “Nor should you. My goals are not yours. But even so, you’d do well to listen to my warning. The skotoi hunt those who are marked. Their master does not want the Serpent to return.”
“Their masteristhe Serpent.”
“Not any longer. They’ve found a new lord. And he will do anything it takes to prevent me from claiming the fragments. As you’ve seen. They would have killed the child. And...” He watched her closely, letting the words hang between them.
She found herself brushing a hand over her arm, tracing the freckles that spattered her skin. She didn’t feel as if she had a fragment of a broken god of death inside her, but then, how would she know? The skotos at Stara Bron had hunted her. As had that skotos-serpent, in the shelter last night.
“They can sense it, just as I do,” said Nilos. “I could awaken it now. Claim it. Set you free.”
For a moment it sent her heart leaping. It was this alien thing, this taint that had corrupted her. Lured her into enlisting. Led her to that island. Made her a part of that horror. It wasn’t her fault.
But that was too easy an answer. Like excusing a man who beat his child because he was drunk. She’d made her choices freely.
And there was no way she was letting this man put his hands on her. Even if she believed that he wasn’t to blame for the deaths, that didn’t mean she was going to help him restore an ancient death god that had been destroyed for very good reasons.
“No.” The flames snapped from her palms, a warning.
But he only nodded, as if he’d been expecting the answer. “Very well. But know that it makes you a target. They will come for you, Sephre.”
She bared her teeth, the fire coiling so bright it was nearly white. “I should burn you to ash.”
“No,” he said, with infuriating calm. “You’re going to let me go. Because you know I’m not your enemy.”
“You drugged me!”
“You needed the sleep,” he replied, glibly. “And I saved your life. You owe me.”
She bit down, stifling a growl. He had begun to back away from her, slowly, pace by pace. “Wait,” she called. “Come back with me to Stara Bron. If this is true, the agia needs to know.”
This could have something to do with Halimede’s oath. With the whatever-it-was that Halimede had sworn to keep hidden, to prevent a second cataclysm. With her suggestion that the Ember King’s true story was not the one scribed so neatly in ink.
“Alas, I must decline,” said Nilos. “I’d prefer to avoid being roasted like a spitted hare. Besides, I’m not the one with the answers you need.” Another step. He was nearly to the edge of the hilltop. “You need to find the Faithless Maiden.”
Faithless? Sephre knew of the FaithfulMaiden, of course. She’d gone to war for her, after all. Was he speaking of the same woman? “That’s it?” she demanded. “Riddles and nonsense? That’s all you can give me?”
He winked. “Sorry. No time for anything more just now.”
Insufferable man. She lifted her hands, yellow flames snapping from her fingers. “Who is the Faithless Maiden?”
“Youshould know better than I,” he answered, with a strange twist to his lips.
