Page 144 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
Forty-Five
EVIE
“I’ve read many old texts in my life, but those scrolls seem…ancient.” Leesa worried her bottom lip between her teeth as her nimble fingers twisted and teased my hair into submission, the final stage of my transformation to meet the grand Oracle.
With her help, I’d squeezed into a Blood Brotherhood-red silk dress that draped behind me in decadent rivulets. Thick bands of gold clinked on my wrist each time I moved, and the earrings hung low, whispering against my bare shoulders. Perfect training for when I wore the gleaming crown, the strands of pearls cascading against the sides of my face.
I stared at my reflection in the mirror, not quite believing it was me who sat in front of it. This creature was, dare I say it, beautiful. Her collarbone didn’t bulge out and her cheekbones had lost their gaunt look.
I stood up taller. Prouder. There was a spark in my eyes that hadn’t been there before in my reflections in the mountain creek.
Leesa had done wonders, but being in Phoenix Peak had transformed me. I looked more like the princess grandpa Constantine had raised me to be.
Inside, though…inside I was trembling. With anticipation or apprehension, I didn’t know. This Oracle’s words were powerful enough to help the advisors turn the Clan against me. I couldn’t let that happen.
“They are old.” I turned my gaze to Leesa in the mirror. “But can you help me open and decipher them?”
Zandyr and I had both decided the fewer people knew about the scrolls, the better. He’d mentioned one of his loyal Brothers, Soryn, might also be able to help us. But he and Clara were currently dealing with the fearsome Clan Council halfway across the continent and transporting the scrolls in their flimsy state was impossible.
Leesa’s thirst for history had led to her reading more old, obscure texts than all of us combined, and Goose had encountered various ancient tongues through his studies of chemistry and alchemy.
Most importantly, we could trust them. The two of them were our best shot–and I knew both would be thrilled to be working with each other.
Leesa hesitated. She opened her mouth and closed it one too many times. “I will do my best.”
“Thank you.” I sighed in relief. The scrolls had been taunting me all night; I could swear they’d been whispering threats at me.
“First we have to survive today,” Leesa said, whether to convince herself or me, I couldn’t tell. “Then we can deal with any ancient text you want.”
“It’s going to be fine,” I said, wanting to believe every word.
“The Oracle will speak the truth. But I’m concerned about what some people will do with that truth. It wouldn’t be the first time.” Her hand trembled as she picked up the ruby red hairpin. “I like it here. I don’t want to go back to the Fair Isles. The people there are cold. And mean.”
“You can’t be forced to go back.”
“Until the Dragon rests on the throne, the advisors have the power to do almost anything they want.” Leesa’s nervous gaze met mine. “May I speak plainly, Your Grace?”
“Always, Leesa.”
“My uncle was tried as a traitor for questioning the advisors’ access to the Clan vaults. It happened long before I was born, but I and all my family will bear his supposed shame for seven more generations.”
My palms fisted in my lap. “How did they get so powerful?”
Leesa nipped at her lips. “I don’t know what magic they possess. But it must be forsaken.”
Leesa suspected Banu and Valuta of using their powers for at least some of their influence, too. I shook my head, trying to dislodge the dread.
I needed my wits with me for my meeting with the Oracle.
“How did you and Goose meet?” I asked, willing the heavy air to vanish.
“In school. He was always nice and so smart.” Leesa’s doll lips twisted into the kind of smile I tried so very hard not to have around Zandyr all the time; the carefree, sweet, vulnerable one. “He didn’t care that I came from a traitor’s bloodline, and I liked that he spent more time reading than trying to impress anyone in the training ring, like our other schoolmates. Outcasts always find each other.”
I huffed a laugh. “And we’re all living in this house.”
Leesa, Goose, Adara, and me. All of us went against what the great Blood Brotherhood Clan had come to want underBanu and Valuta’s hidden rule. We might have been this Clan’s future–and it was time to find mine.
The journey to the grand Phoenix Peak temple did nothing to calm my nerves.
