Page 70 of House of Dusk
“Our priority is the kore,” Mikat said. “See if you can encourage Sinoe to visit again. Preferably without her father. Use her doubts. If she suspects that Lacheron has corrupted her visions, she will be easier to manipulate. And she may be the key to unlock our future.”
You are no one’s tool.Her own words to Sinoe haunted her, made her stomach twist with guilt. The hooks in her skin tugged again, sharper now.
“What about the bodies? The ghouls? The Heron is plotting something.”
“Concerning, yes,” said Mikat. “But if some new cataclysm is about to fall, then it’s all the more reason to reclaim the kore. To restore her and ensure our people have a home. A refuge.”
Of course.
“It is curious, though,” said Mikat, “how they control the sibyl’s visions. They can direct her gaze, with pain? All they need to do is force her to weep, with the smoke, and she cannot stop the words?”
“Yes.” The word felt like a hot coal on her tongue, but Mikat didn’t seem to notice. She was nodding to herself.
“Very good,” she said, finally. “Go, then. Continue the work.”
• • •
For the next two days, that work involved mostly standing around. Nocturnal adventures aside, Sinoe’s life was highly constrained by protocol and the seemingly endless rituals of dressing, grooming, and prayers to whichever greater or lesser god the star-seers proclaimed to be in ascendence, punctuated by a handful of carefully curated social engagements that Yeneris suspected served primarily to remind Hierax’s court that his daughter spoke for the Fates.
Standing stiff-backed against the wall while two handmaidens dried Sinoe’s hair, Yeneris could almost imagine that none of it had happened. The necropolis, the visit with Melita. The bloom of jasmine and Sinoe’s upturned moon-bright face and the brush of her seeking fingers.
Maybe Mikat was right. Maybe this was all just a game to the princess, a distraction.
Coward, Yeneris told herself. It would be easier, that way. It would mean she didn’t have to feel guilty. She could pretend that they were both using each other, that no one would be hurt when this all ended. Because it would end. Yeneris would reclaim the kore’s bones and be gone, and Sinoe would still be here, in her cage, aching to fly free.
Unless Yeneris set her free, as well. Found some way to remove her from the palace. A tremor rippled through her at the thought, the wild and completely impossible dream. Sinoe beside her on a swift ship, sailing down the river to the sea.
“Yen?”
She startled, drawn out of the vision into a present that was equally unnerving. Sinoe, alone now, standing before her in her silky sleeping gown, face unpainted, her hair twisted up in bits of cotton cloth. Tomorrow they would spill down in long dark curls.
“Where were you?” Sinoe asked.
Yeneris coughed, shaking her head. “I’m sorry, princess. What do you need?”
“Mm. An intriguing offer. Honestly, a sound night’s sleep. But this is our chance, so I doubt I’ll get one.”
“Chance for what?” Yeneris corralled her mind very sternly.
“To sneak into Lacheron’s workshop of course.”
“Oh. Yes.”
“You sound disappointed. Did you have something else in mind?” Sinoe waggled her brows. “We have a mission, Yen. Lacheron must be at Stara Bron by now. We need to find out what he’s up to.”
• • •
“I didn’t realize picking locks was a standard part of bodyguard training,” Sinoe said as she leaned against the doorframe outside Lacheron’s workshop, watching Yeneris slowly work her thinnest dagger into the iron keyhole.
“I didn’t realize sneaking into the workshop of your father’s spymaster was a standard part of princess training, either.”
“Oh, yes. They teach it right after comportment and before mathematics.”
“You studied mathematics?”
“I’m quite good at it, thank you very much,” said Sinoe. “If I ever wash out of being Sibyl of Tears, I’d make a respectable accountant.”
Click. Relief melted through Yeneris as the door swung open. She slid inside, moving slowly, cautiously. Lacheron seemed the sort of person who might well leave unpleasant surprises for unwanted guests. And there were the corpses to consider.
