Votress Perla’s eyes were soft and sad as she lifted my chin. “You’re correct. It’s time to act, but you, Lierick Hanovan, have a much greater purpose than fighting at your father’s side.” She looked up, waving a hand at one of the other Votresses. “Get the books.” The second Votress disappeared into the maze of halls, while Votress Perla stood. “Come, we should have this conversation somewhere a little more comfortable.”
I’d normally have made a joke there, but her face told me this wasn’t the time.
Leading me to another small alcove filled with heavy floor pillows and two wide chairs, she indicated I should sit beside her. “Do you know where the Votresses came from, Lierick?”
I shook my head. I just assumed they’d always been, and always would be. “No, Votress.”
“We were once the women of the Ninth Line. Well, it wasn’t called the Ninth Line then, but we were once from the Halhed family tree. When our magic weakened, and the Goddess was withdrawing her favor from the world, the women of my Line pulled themselves away from civilization and became her devotees. We kept her magic alive here, even as the power in the people of Ebrus waned. We sacrificed all the women ofour Line, until the Line produced only sons for centuries.” The second Votress reappeared, her eyes flicking between me and Perla quickly as she handed the older woman a book, then disappeared. “Until Ellanora Halhed.”
Everyone knew the history of Ellanora Halhed. She was the reason our people still existed. As soon as she’d foreseen the plans of Ivan Vylan—his plot to murder us all and eradicate our entire Line—she’d moved quickly. She’d met with the Baron of the Second Line at the time, Luftan Hanovan.
Luftan’s oldest son, Oris, had requested Ellanora’s hand, and been rejected. Despite that, when Ellanora went to Luftan, he took her seriously. Ellanora’s reputation as an oracle was legendary all throughout Ebrus, so he believed her immediately when she told him that she’d seen his whole Line dying. That no matter what thread she took, it all ended with the entirety of the Second Line gone. Dust on the wind. There was only one thread that ended with the Hanovans surviving, and it was a hard one.
Her plan was simple. He had to disappear dozens of people from his lands. Not titled people. Not people whose names would have appeared in the heraldry ledgers at the Hall of Ebrus. Everyday Second Line folks. And they couldn’t know why. If they knew, everyone would die.
The only person he could tell the truth to was his wife, who was carrying his child.
For Ellanora’s vision to come to fruition, Luftan would have to tell the world his wife and baby had died in childbirth, and then she would be smuggled across the Alutian Sea by boat, down through the Eleventh Line and up over the Herelean Cliffs to the hidden temples of the Votress. His wife would lead their people until the Heir in her stomach could take over.
And that was what the Baron of the Second Line did. He said goodbye to his wife and put her on a boat, knowing he’d never see her again. Over the course of the two months afterthe Baroness’s “death,” the Baron recreated these steps with hundreds of people, making them disappear in the night, leaving behind their loved ones. Loved ones that they didn’t know would die, murdered in their beds by the First Line.
The Baroness had known, though. She had to leave, knowing her husband and sons would die. They still wrote laments about the lifelong sadness and guilt that plagued Baroness Hanovan. How she mourned for her husband, her children, and her people until the day she died.
All on the word, on the prophecy, of Ellanora Halhed. “She was the savior of the Second Line,” I said softly to the Votress Perla.
She inclined her head. “And so powerful, like many women in the Halhed family. Powerful enough, she created this.” She passed me a book.
A Future History of Ebrus.
“She isn’t the only powerful Daughter of the Ninth Line. There will be one even more powerful. The Ninth Daughter of the Ninth Line. You must know that she is the real savior of the Second Line. The Savior of all of Ebrus. You must find her.”
I tried not to be sceptical. The Second Line didn’t need saving now. We needed to step out of the shadows and into the light. “The Ninth Line doesn’t have power anymore.”
“Yet, young Lierick. Yet.” She pressed the book further into my hands. “Learn who she is. How to understand her heart, not just her actions. Ebrus needs her.Youneed her. Do you know what a Recreationist is?”
By the time Perla was done, I felt like I didn’t know anything at all.
Three
Hayle
Inarrowed my eyes at the man in front of us. Although I believed that there was some truth to what he was saying, I doubted he was telling us everything. Actually, I knew for a fact he wasn’t, because he’d be a fool to lay it all out there like that, regardless of whether he thought Avalon was some prophet here to liberate Ebrus.
“And you managed to raise several warships in a week and set sail through the Alutian Sea, making it all the way to Boemouthe unseen?”
Lierick shrugged. “We went around. There’s a whole world out there beyond the shores of Ebrus.” He gave me a pitying expression, like I was some little backwater farmer who’d never left the borders of his village. “And I didn’t raise warships. They’ve always been there, waiting and protecting. I just borrowed them.”
“For the good of a Line that’s not your own?” I still wasn’t buying it.
“Didn’t your own Line do the same?”
I tensed my jaw, because while his words were light, there was censure there. “We sent food, not raised an army.”
He curled his lip, making it clear that he thought we were weak for our response to the Conclave, though he didn’t dare say it out loud. “The Second Line has strong affiliations with the Eleventh Line. We weren’t going to let our friends, and sometimes brethren, die out just because the Vylans are greedy, genocidal psychopaths.” He looked at Vox. “No offense.”
His tone suggested all offense was intended.
Avalon slapped a hand down on the table. “Stop. Vox is not his father or brother. He is mine, and you’ll treat him with respect. Or you can just fuck off back to wherever it was you came from.” She was agitated; I could sense it in my bones. I pulled her closer, my hand resting on her lower back, a comforting reminder that I was there for her.
