Page 86 of House of Dusk
Yeneris gaped. In fact, she’d been doing exactly that. This was her chance to fulfill her mission. To seize the stolen kore and return her home. And yet she stood frozen.
“What?” Sinoe asked. “Morethan three? If you’re considering the sewers, I advise against it. They say there are crocodiles down there. It could be just a rumor, but why risk it?”
“I...I hadn’t thought about the sewers.” Her lips felt rough and stupid. The words weren’t the right ones. She had to master this. Yeneris bit the inside of her cheek, a pinch of pain to center her. She turned her gaze to the kore. Remembered words spoken in a dark room.Let the Scarab herself bear witness: I swear I will set the kore free.
But she had sworn another vow, hadn’t she? Unthinking, but sincere.She’ll be safe with me. I swear it by the Fates.The words she’d spoken to Ichos whispered in her mind, along with the memory of the princess in her arms.
Sinoe stood tall, chin lifted, as if bracing herself for something terrible. “Goodbye, Yen.”
We have to choose one path, and give up another.Her mother’s words came back to her. But so too did her childhood defiance. There had to be another way. A path where she could keep both vows.
“No,” Yeneris said. “Wait. Here.” She tugged the parcel from her sash, thrusting it out. “Hura gave this to me. It’s from your mother. They have a plan to get you out of here. To Scarthia. You’ll be free.”
A faint frown creased Sinoe’s brow, but she took the gift, unwrapping it carefully. At the sight of the amber hairpin, her lips parted in a silentoh. She unfolded the note, reading it. She swallowed, then gave a small shake of her head.
“I can’t just leave. I need to stop Lacheron. Whatever he’s planning, it’s something terrible. And he’s using my prophecies to do it.”
“All the more reason for you to leave, then,” said Yeneris. “Please, Sinoe. I need to know—” Her throat clamped shut.
“To know what?” Sinoe’s eyes seemed darker now, the pupils wide. Clouds had dimmed the light streaming through the windows.
“That you’ll be all right.” She winced, hearing how useless the words sounded.
“You don’t have to worry about me, Yen,” said Sinoe, softly. “You were never really my bodyguard, were you? You don’t have to lie. I always knew it wasn’t real. I was a means to an end.”
Yeneris opened her mouth to agree. To admit that she had used the princess to reach the kore. That always and ever, that had been her only mission here. The only thing she cared about.
But for all her training, the one thing she couldn’t do right now was lie. That vow hadn’t been a stupid slip of the tongue. She had meant it. Even then.
“Itwasreal,” she said. “I want you to be safe, Sinoe. I want you to be happy. I want...”Something I can’t have.“You’re not what I expected.”
Sinoe gave her a wan smile. “I’m much more beautiful in person, yes?”
Yes.
“You’re clever and stubborn and wicked and brave,” said Yeneris, before she could stop herself. “And you’re one of the most generous people I’ve ever met. I’m not sure how you fit such an enormous heart into such a tiny person.”
If she reached out now, she could brush the loose curl at Sinoe’s temple. And Fates help her, she wanted to. That, and more. To trace the curve of Sinoe’s cheek. To test the softness of her lips. To squeeze the space between them to nothing but heat and skin.
Sinoe stared back, eyes liquid, shimmering. “Yen, I—” She drew in a ragged breath. “Oh!” She lifted a hand to her cheek as a single tear slid free.
Yeneris was still staring stupidly at that lone jeweled droplet, her brain too slow to recognize what was happening, when the uncanny, inhuman voice of the Fates began to spill from Sinoe’s lips.
“Two maidens shall be bound, but only one shall walk free if the divided heart remains.” Sinoe shuddered, her back arching, quivering in the grip of the prophecy. “The key lies hidden. Hidden...”
She gasped, twisting, as if caught in the crash and surge on an invisible sea. Yeneris thought of how Sinoe had described it earlier.A single ewer trying to pour out an ocean.
“Sinoe!” She seized the princess’s hand. It was cold and stiff, the hand of a corpse. Her eyes were wide, unblinking, streaming tears, melting the kohl into dark rivulets.
“Hidden behind the gate with no lock,”she went on,“opened only by the blood of the Ember King.Only...”She gasped again, shoulders hunching, body curling in on herself.
“That’s enough!” Yeneris pleaded. “Please, Sinoe. Stop.Stop!” The last word came out a shout, flung into the air, at the Fates themselves.
But the words rolled on. “Only the right key can set the future free. And only then shall the old enemy fall.”
Desperately, Yeneris cupped Sinoe’s cheek, trying to turn the princess’s face toward her. Her fingers slid, damp and crimson. Yeneris stared stupidly at them before the meaning struck her, turning fear into horror. Blood. Sinoe was weeping blood!
Oh no. No no no. And then she was fumbling for the pouch, the one she’d carried always, ever since her first day of service. The one that held Sinoe’s elixir. The only thing that could stop the blood tears, before Sinoe wept herself into oblivion.
