Page 53 of House of Dusk
. . . could slay death itself, and break the cycle of . . .
. . . yet his mark lingers on my skin even now . . .
A paltry handful of clues, but enough to set her pulse jittering. Was this it? The writer spoke of slaying death. Was it a reference to the Ember King? The Faithful Maiden had given her lover that power, when she gave him the means to craft the dagger Letheko. But the woman who left this account had clearly been an ashdancer. She spoke of vows, of being called sister.
Sephre’s chest was a prison, locking her breath tight. She had no word for what she was feeling. Kinship? Was that it? For so long she had felt alone in her grief and shame. But here, in these tattered pages, she saw it reflected. A woman who had come to Stara Bron with some terrible weight on her soul.
She skimmed onward, fingers trembling so badly she tore one of the pages. Theremustbe more. Every blotch of mold and bleary line of text taunted her, until she flipped to the last page in desperation.
It was almost completely illegible, only a few scattered words winking out like stars in the deep of night.
. . . Cerydon...request . . .
. . . blade...hidden . . . only agia...claim it . . .
. . . will ensure...never . . . again . . .
. . . faithless...no more . . .
A light scuff of approaching footsteps made her jump. Instinctively, she tucked the small codex into her sleeve, just as Brother Dolon appeared at the end of the shelf. He hovered there, averting his eyes from the shelves that held the secrets of the man he had once been. “Did you find what you were looking for, sister?”
Her heart thudded. Foolish to let the ancient, mold-riddled text turn her into some sort of sneak-thief. But even more foolish to ignore the truth simply because she didn’t care for the messenger.
“Most of these old codexes are unreadable,” she answered, hoping he wouldn’t notice the evasion. She didn’t want to lie to Dolon. But the words in the codex—scattered and shattered as they were—had done nothing to cast doubt on Nilos’s accusations. Instead, they had given shape and form to Halimede’s ghosts. To the oath sworn all those years ago by Agia Cerydon, and passed on to each of the agias after them.
A woman who called herself faithless had come here, to Stara Bron. She had taken the Embrace, cleansing herself of some deep shame. But before the flames took her past, she had given her agia a blade to keep hidden, so it could never be used again. It must be Letheko.
And now King Hierax’s son was on his way to Stara Bron, guided by the words of a prophecy, to claim it.
She needed to speak with Halimede.Fates, let her wake. I need her more than ever.
“I’d best get back to the garden,” she said, starting to move past Dolon. “Thank you, brother.”
He held up an arm, staying her. “Of course, sister. But the garden will need to wait. Sister Beroe has called an assembly.”
Wonderful. The last thing she needed right now was another tedious summations meeting, especially one led by “Acting Agia” Beroe.
But summations was always early in the morning, directly after dawn prayer. Not late in the afternoon, with the sun slanting toward dusk. And she could think of no other reason to gather all the ashdancers except—
“It’s the royal party,” said Dolon. “They’ve arrived.”
CHAPTER 15
YENERIS
At least this time they both had proper disguises. Yeneris had insisted on it, once she’d heard Sinoe’s plan. It had taken some digging in the princess’s wardrobe to find something suitably plain. And still more effort to convince her to leave behind her trinkets.
“I don’t see why I couldn’t wear my amber earrings,” said Sinoe. “You can’t even see them when I have my hair down. They’re good luck. And they bring out the color of my eyes.”
Yeneris scanned the street ahead, then glanced back to check that no one was following. The only people she saw were clustered around the open front of a taverna, passing a large wine cup around as they played some sort of dice game. “You can’t walk through the city as if it’s the palace. Youdorealize just one of those earrings is worth three years’ wages to most people?”
Sinoe sighed. “Spoilsport.”
“And your eyes are fine as they are,” she added.More than fine. Maybe too fine.Yeneris tensed as two young men stumbled out of the taverna, laughing. One of them tugged on his friend’s sleeve, nodding appreciatively toward Sinoe. They changed course.
“Two beautiful ladies like you shouldn’t be—” The man yelped as Yeneris’s dagger appeared under his chin.
“Shouldn’t be bothered by random men with no respect for personal boundaries?” She forced him back a step. He had been reaching for Sinoe’s arm.
