Page 133 of A Crown of Tears and Treason
To report, to spread rumors, maybe even to bring that snake into my house. Whatever Owyn had refused to do, he’d been punished for it.
“Thank you,” I said.
“You shouldn’t,” Owyn said as his eyes shined with surprise.
“And yet I did. Where do you live, Owyn?”
His hold on the spear tightened even more. “In the Capital.”
“Where, precisely?” This needed to end fast. The pounding of the next guards already resounded from behind the building. But Owyn, knowingly or not, had helped me by refusing to participate in whatever the advisors had planned. Having principles was so rare and he’d been penalized for it. “I understand your little one needs medicine and your request has been denied.”
The color drained from Goose and the guard’s faces.
“I meant no disrespect.” Owyn’s voice and spear shook as his shoulders caved. The change in him was stark. He was terrified. “The advisors know best and they decide who is worthy or not. They have decided my precious little–my daughter doesn’t…I trust their judgment. As should all.”
There was fear in Owyn’s eyes, glowing desperately.
“Trust your future queen,” I said with all the gravity grandpa Constantine had tried to instill in me. “And I say a child, yours or otherwise, is worthy of help. Let us in or not, your child won’t suffer for it.”
The guard gulped.
The seconds ticked.
The marching guards drew closer.
Owyn took out a scraggly key that looked to have changed thousands of hands throughout the years. He inserted it into the lock, chanting under his breath. A hiss vibrated through the enormous door as it opened.
“I never saw you,” Owyn whispered as I and Goose rushed inside.
The door fastened behind us with too many bolts digging inside the frame, sealing us inside.
Goose swallowed thickly, the sound echoing in the cavernous space. “Now the dangerous part begins.”
Chapter
Forty-One
EVIE
Empty.
We stood in a massive marble hall, big enough to feel insignificant in. A deep,deepabyss burrowed in the middle, taking up most of the main floor. It stretched down so far into the bowels of the earth, I could barely make out the bottom. Its base was…moving.
“What is that?” I asked as I leaned over the banister surrounding the abyss, heart in my throat. Water? Mean, slow water?
“The sacred vines on which the library was built.” Goose’s voice shook. “They guard our most blessed texts, the foundations of our Clans.”
“That’s weirdly endearing. To have nature protecting the basis of society.”
“Yeah…they’re endearingly deadly. They will squeeze the life out of anyone who disturbs the sacred texts without the proper Blood Brotherhood touch. Which neither of us have. We’ll onlybe able to reach level eight, you have to climb the rest of the way.”
I frowned, trying to quiet my racing heart. “You can’t do magic.”
Goose’s cheeks tinged. “I’m still a civilian. But if I finish my studies, rise in the ranks and officially enter the Elite…Hope dies last, right?”
I gazed back down at the vines slithering and intertwining with each other. Hope would have to guide me–and the stubbornness my parents hated so much.
The upper floor around the leveled abyss was filled with symbols and crests, all flecked with gold. Sculptures sprouted from them, winding around the columns and spiraling into the underhang. There, dozens of the marble statues, each more fearsome than the next, supported the edge of the dome on their shoulders.
