Page 131 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
Chapter
Forty
EVIE
Goose entered the kitchen with an empty tray, reciting some kind of poem under his breath. “Your laughter is a melody, pure and clear, it brings joy to my life, drawing near–”
“Hello, Goose.”
He dropped the tray, whirling around, hand on his heart and eyes wide with shadows I couldn’t make sense of. The clank reverberated between the stone walls of the kitchen, echoing on a loop in the stillness.
“No, no, no.” I rushed forward from behind the large furnace. “It’s me.”
“Your Grace.” Goose took a ragged breath. “I apologize for my reaction–”
“Don’t worry. I’m sorry I scared you.” I drew closer as carefully as my cousins used to do with me when I’d first come back. There was something about Goose in this moment that I recognized down to my core. The jittery aura of someone whohad been unfairly surprised by life and unprotected when they’d been too young, too fresh in this world, and was now fleetingly unnerved by the smallest twist.
“What–what are you doing here?” Goose asked, shaking his head. Then an idea seemed to light up his face. “Are youhungry? Fantastic, I have a lamb shoulder crisping up–”
Ah, so that was the mouth-watering scent I’d been enduring in silence hidden in the shadows, waiting for him to show up. “I’m sure it’ll be great, but later.”
“Alright.” His brows furrowed. “Then why…?”
“Because I have a plan. Something that needs to be done on an empty stomach. Something only you can help me with,” I said. “And something Zandyr and Adara can’t know about. Yet.”
“Far beit from me to criticize your decisions, Your Grace,” Goose whispered so low, even I struggled to hear him. “But this seems unwise.”
“It is unwise,” I whispered back as we rushed through the plump bushes of Phoenix Peak, on the small, deserted paths behind the grand temple I’d mapped out during my first weeks here. Small wonder nobody smelled us coming with the amount of stealth ointment we’d dabbed on our clothes. “It’s also necessary.”
“Why couldn’t I tell the prince or Adara?” He gulped. “This seems like the kind of thing they should know about. In case something…happens.”
Because both of them would have told me not to risk it. And perhaps try to stop me.
I’d already asked Zandyr about the Quoriliths and he hadn’t given me much to go by. Healsodidn’t mention the remnants of that Clan had been absorbed by his own.
I wasn’t about to discuss this issue with Goose, before I knew for sure why. My mind concocted one grim scenario after another without any outside help.
How could Zandyr not tell me?
As for Adara…she had been behaving strangely ever since that tumble in the courtyard. We still trained, but the words were short, clipped, and rare.
I had to know the truth. If nobody was in a sharing mood, I’d find it myself.
“We’ll be fine,” I said, fingers running down the vials on my armor. The blood inside them whirled around in warning. “It’s not like we’re going into enemy territory. We’re visiting a library.”
“The Senate’s Sacred Archives, Your Grace. It’s more guarded than the temples.”
I stared up at the building towering in front of us, its mighty shadow darkening our path in the setting sun. It was a big, square construction, with sharp towers at every corner. Encased between them was a dome large enough to cover my entire house. Its glass was embossed with similar symbols to the ones Zandyr had painted on his own dome.
Though there were trees closeby, no vines or flowers dared approach these towers. They gleamed white in the light, powerful and menacing, reaching for the skies.
“That’s why we’ll be extra careful,” I said, either to convince myself or Goose, I didn’t know. “It’s going to be alright.”
Goose let out a wheeze of panic as we rushed forward.
“I’ll be quick, I promise,” I said. “Do you trust me?”
“Yes,” he said, so fast and without a hint of hesitation that I almost missed a step.
