Page 99 of House of Dusk
So the Serpent’s mark might have remained fixed to her soul. Stayed with her even if she was reborn. “It doesn’t make sense. It almost felt like it waspersonal. Is it because I’ve got a piece of the Serpent’s power?”
Nilos tapped his fingers together thoughtfully, and now his green eyes seemed to be looking everywhere but at Sephre. “Possibly. Especially given that...”
“That what?” she prompted, as he continued to avoid her gaze.
“Your fragment is...particularly potent.”
“Why would that be, if none of us is special? Am I just unlucky? Or—” Fates, she felt like a fool to even say it. But what had that skotos said, about the shattered heart of a dead god?Do you even knowthat you carry it? And why?“Or is there a reason? Something I did?” She drew a breath, to steady herself. “Am I the Maiden reborn?”
That made Nilos look at her, finally. A single flash of those green eyes, before he veiled them. He stood, collecting the bowls. “Only you can discover what you are, Sephre.”
“That wasn’t a no.”
“I don’t know for certain what you carry. You might find answers in the labyrinth. Just...be wary of what memories you wake.”
She glimpsed a slice of his expression as he started to step away. So grim. So heavy.
“Nilos?”
He halted, shoulders tensing. Did he know what she was going to ask? She hadn’t known, herself, until just now.
“Have your eyes always been green?”
He drew in a breath. Released it. “No.”
There was another question on her tongue, but she could not bring herself to ask it. And so he left her by the fire, and went to wash the bowls.
CHAPTER 27
YENERIS
The day was hot already, though the sun was only just creeping over the eastern wing of the palace. But the lily garden still held onto some of the night’s coolness, in the damp breath of the pool and the shadows of the boxwood hedges. Yeneris found Mikat there, her feet sunk into the shallow mud, pulling out the reedy stems of intruding grasses and weeds from among the water lilies.
As always, she listened impassively to Yeneris’s report, giving only a faint stir at the mention of the wedding.
“Five days,” she said, after Yeneris finished. “No more than five days.”
“Yes. They plan to hold the ceremony at the Temple of the Fourfold Gods, outside the palace walls. The kore will travel by palanquin. It could be the chance we’ve been waiting for. Can our people be ready to take her then?”
“We must be. The sibyl has spoken. This is our chance.”
“So you believe her?” Yeneris had expected this to be harder. In fact, she and Sinoe had spent several hours the previous night plotting how to convince Mikat to go along with the plan. Of course, she still hadn’t broached the subject of what would happenafterthey had reclaimed the kore. Mikat would expect Yeneris to leave the city, to come with her.
Mikat looked up, lancing her gaze into Yeneris. “I have no reason to doubt that the princess speaks for the Fates. Unless you think the prophecy she made before the kore was a pretense? Could it be a trick?”
“No.” The blood tears had been horribly real. And the words Sinoe spoke felt painfully true, still echoing inside her.Only one shall walk free if the divided heart remains.She still wasn’t certain what it meant. She cared for Sinoe. And she cared for the kore, for Bassara. Of course she did. She was human; she would never love only one person, only one thing. The Fates would never ask a child to love only one of their parents. Maybe that was the point. She had thought she had to choose between them, but in staying, she’d chosen both. The koreandSinoe. Though that was a decision she hadnotincluded in her report to Mikat.
Mikat bent over the water again, jerking sharply at one of the weeds. “Can she learn more? Either through prophecy, or from her father? What route they’ll use to take the kore to the temple? The number of guards? What sort of pursuit we might expect?”
“With luck there won’t be any pursuit, at least not for some time,” said Yeneris. “The princess promised to hide the truth from her father for as long as possible. She said we might even be able to use a set of decoy bones.”
“We have no wish to hide it.” Mikat crushed a handful of slimy roots, tossing them into her basket. “Everyone must know. There can be no suggestion of deception. Let the Helissoni know the truth of their defeat. And let our people know the truth of our victory. They need that, as much as they need the kore. To know that we are not powerless.”
The words chewed at Yeneris, poking at memories she had scuttled and sunk deep, long ago. Ironic, considering it was Mikat who had taught her to set them aside.Focus on what you can donow. You grow stronger feasting on fresh meat than on bitter bones.
But the memories were always there. Ready to entangle her in past pain, to drag her down into the depths of that terrible day. Waking to cruel silence. To her mother, cold as shadowed stone. She had thought it was a nightmare. Had run through the streets, calling and calling, her voice fracturing, until at last she could only gasp, a horrible mewling noise like a half-drowned kitten. It had been a bright blue day, but to Yeneris, it was night, and all the stars had been struck from the sky.
A hand gripped her shoulder. She blinked, finding Mikat standing beside her. Watching her. There was no judgment in the older woman’s expression, only a weary sympathy.
