“I asked, several times, but instead of answering me, he told me to find out if you are a god.” He scoffed. “I did not know it was you I was to question, Terena, and other than finding out if you are a god, Peleon said nothing more.”
He snapped his fingers and hissed at her when she turned her head away, “Who’s spoken with you? Gods, you look like shit. Was it the Royal Inquisitor?”
She whimpered and muttered something, but couldn’t form words. It took several tries and lots of finger snapping from Orry before she said, “Get me out of here.”
“Get..! Get you out of here?” He laughed, and it sounded more like a squeak. “Peleon thinks you killed one prince and were close to killing the other! You are not getting out of here, Ren. Best you can hope for is they believe me when I tell them you most assuredly are not a god!”
“Are you sure?” she whispered back.
This time, when he laughed, it sounded hollow. “You don’t have adamantine chains on, so they can’t seriously think you are.”
She scoffed.
“Now is not the time for your games, sweetheart,” Orry said. “The palace is looking to hang you and here you are jesting.”
“Orry,” she said, exasperated at yet another round of fingersnapping when she closed her eye. “Remember when we went to Forasa, when they were inducting the new priest there?”
Orry stopped snapping and sat silently. She almost smiled.
“We raced up the mountain,” he whispered.
“Yes,” she said, and this time she allowed herself a small lift of her lips as she recalled the laughter and then the sheer terror.
“Isher’s horse startled at something,” Orry said. “I don’t remember what. He would’ve fallen down the side?—”
“If I hadn’t grabbed his arm.”
“Indeed,” he said.
“How did I catch him?”
Silence. Then, “What do you mean?”
Terena sighed. “How did I catch him, Orry? He went over the edge. I was still on my horse when he fell.”
“Well, you—hmm. I don’t remember the details, Ren. We were children. I remember him going over and you on your stomach pulling him up. And then Croak and Lerek were there, too.”
“You know, Orry,” she whispered and turned her head back toward the ceiling. Tears slipped down her temples. “You’ve always known.”
He was silent for a time. Somewhere deeper in the catacombs, someone screamed and metal clanked. Terena heard Orry shift, his sandals scrapping the stone floor.
“You’re right. I wondered at first. Of course, I did. When I first met you and Croak, you and I were eight years old. A year later, you were… different. You were suddenly so interested in myths. In the gods. The Olympians. Then Croak—that idiot!—slipped once when we were older. Right after you’d become a tracker. I asked him why you didn’t want to be a Lady. After all, your father was Captain of the Imperial Guard. All you had to do was look pretty and nab a husband. Croak laughed and said you had no interest in that. He said being a tracker would help you find your birth parents.” Orry smiled as if recalling that moment. “We only talked about it one time, and he never came out and said it, but I knew. And he knew I knew, but I swore to him I would never say anything to anyone about it. And I never have. No one knows Lorence wasn’t your real father.”
He reached over and gripped one of her fingers. “Why do you think I became a cleric? It was the best way I knew to help in your search.”
Terena dropped her forehead against the bars and cried. He leaned forward and kissed her hair.
“But this is not the place for such revelations, Terena,” he said at last, his voice rough. He cleared his throat. “I will, of course, tell the general and the emperor himself you arenota god, only a particularly strong female whose years of training have certainly rendered her stronger than the prince. Peleon said five guards have sworn you used… powers on them, but I will stand by my word as I am the expert and they are brutes.”
“And what of Isher? He’ll have told him his version as well. You would contradict him?”
Orry snorted. “Again, who is the expert? Besides, he could’ve been drunk, or smoking, or both. In fact, I’ll ask to go see the terrace. Hopefully no one’s disturbed anything there, yet.”
Terena shifted, trying to sit up straight. As the pain arced up her broken arm and bruised leg, Terena cried out, but managed to prop herself against the bars to face her friend. “Yes, please. Go up there as soon as you leave here. If you’re stopped, tell them you need to inspect where I was to determine if, in fact, I had used any powers.”
“Why the hells would I say that? It will only?—”
“I need your eyes!” she hissed and then winced as white hot pain wracked her aching body. When she could speak again, she said, “I need you to tell me every detail of what the terrace looks like. Smell the glasses and the wine if there’s any left. Look for signs of a struggle near where Lerek was found. And see if you can find Sonah Yahn. She would’ve been there as well, to taste his wine. I don’t know how long she might’ve stayed, but she should know something. I need to piece together what happened and I need your help to do that. Will you do that for me?”
