Page 98 of The Garnet Daughter
We step onto the raised platform with stone basins burning in each corner. Cosima’s stone is nestled into the perfect indent in the surface of the altar, a sliver of a sphere with empty places on either side for the others.
“Frith’s and Viathan’s remain in the temple within the Estate,” I say, brave enough to let go of August’s hand and view the stone in its original resting spot. “You took Cosima’s because the ward is down?”
“I brought it back where it belongs.” She watches me, birdlike and perfectly still.
“The priestess order has a new ward protecting the others.”
“Viathan’s fleet protects the city as well,” August states flatly, as if representing his own world even though he is unsure of her words.
“I care not for the affairs of humans. I watched Mother break the world into three, felt the ache of that imbalance since. I hold no hope humans can bring the worlds together again.”
“First Son cannot come here, to your temple?” I ask, not knowing if I have offended, but it seems the only patrons welcome are ones she lets in.
“You fear the stone’s destruction.” She runs her hand across the top of it, caressing fondly. “First Son desires to destroy them, but not for their power. To destroy the hope they bring to humans. But he does not need the stones to carry out his true intentions.”
I swallow hard, suddenly aware of the monotone note the wind makes as it prowls through the temple’s pillars.
“His intentions?” My voice sounds smaller somehow. “You know what he is planning?”
August steps closer to me, growing impatient but too cautious to interrupt for translation.
Omnesis pauses, processing the information like it is checking the outcomes of different paths before she answers, to not disturb the balance.
“Three women, daughters divine but birthed of the three possible iterations. He vowed to give gifts as First Mother did, but his are few and his daughters will be closer to gods than human. This conjunction is the first since the beginning he has found all three.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Spontaneous, Hereditary, and Sacrifice. Three chosen to receive his dark gifts, to carry out his bidding. He does not need stones. He needs daughters. He has one well within his grasp. The other is known to you, and the third will be harder for him to hold than sand between his fingers.”
“Known to me?” I pant out.
Its floating, starlike eyes blink, its features unhuman, but the expression that crosses it sends my insides into a free fall.
“He readies his fleet even as I say these words.” She gestures to the open side of her temple, to the vast valley below.
“What is she saying?” August interrupts, his tone empty of any remaining patience.
“First Son’s fleet,” I half-answer.
August walks to the edge Omnesis points to and watches the horizon. When he looks back at me, his eyes are so intense, mine water from knowing whatever he saw is dire.
I hesitate to look, but my body forces me, and when I see the forces below, every other worry and question I have for Omnesis falls away in striking panic.
Black ships line up in deadly pillars, some familiar and some shaped in a way I have never seen covering the vast landscape, thousands of soldiers camping around them.
“Those are Viathan?” I’m afraid to whisper.
“Some of them.” August looks betrayed. “And others.”
“Does the Viathan fleet know how big this army is? That some have switched sides?”
“They have no idea this is coming,” August utters painfully.
Omnesis is suddenly next to us, looking out into the dark horizon. “First Son’s allies are greater with each conjunction. They will rip apart the Estate to destroy the stones and the hope they hold . . . but he comes for his other daughters.”
“In the Estate?”
Omnesis nods. “When he has all three, the worlds will never be the same. He will harness their power for a ritual.”
