I had much to say about that… If any king in history had done more to dim the Gyorian light, it was Terran’s father, but I remained silent and stared at the soaking tub. It was sunk into the floor and easily large enough for two, perhaps three.
“Its rim is polished obsidian.” Terran moved closer to me. The scent of bergamot and something darker, like crushed cedar and spice, reminded me he was near. As if I could forget.
A Gyorian crest was carved into the wall above the basin, half-wreathed in ivy, and I realized this wasn’t simply a place to clean oneself. It was a retreat. A private escape for someone who didn’t let many people in.
I looked up at him. “I’ve bathed in the palace before and have never seen anything like it.”
“My quarters, and Kael’s too, are unlike my father’s in many ways.”
“Fitting, for you both.” I left the rest unsaid.
Terran’s expression hardened. “Do not mistake me for someone I’m not, Lyra.”
Deciding it was time to push, I did just that. “You will not convince me that tearing apart Elydor by punishing innocents was your doing.”
“Innocents? Your king knew the risk of opening that portal. Legends foretold it.”
“Humans brought their own sort of magic?—”
“Conjecture and supposed prophecies?”
“Your hatred of them blinds you.”
“Your love of them softens you.”
I moved my hand quickly to show Terran precisely how soft I was and never expected him to grab my wrist in time. He was surprisingly nimble.
“Do not use Aetherian magic here.”
His hand wrapped easily around my wrist. Shuddering at the feel of it, shockingly immune to wishing he’d let go, I asked one simple question.
“Why?”
His gaze moved to the intricate carvings on the chamber walls: spirals and branches that seemed almost alive in the glow of the candles. Releasing my wrist for the second time that day, he exhaled.
“Why?” I asked, quietly this time. “What are they?”
“My mother,” he said finally, “was quite skilled. They’re her carvings.”
Terran’s mother. The former Queen of Gyoria.
I knew less of her than I did the king or her sons. When she was alive, my parents were ambassadors to Gyoria, though I’d learned more about her from Kael when we served on the Gate Council together.
“Kael never mentioned that particular skill to me. My father remembers her as kind and welcoming. Back then, he enjoyed coming to Gyoria. Said it offered a kind of peace not found in the north.”
He hardly reacted to my words.
“She was kind to all. Kael is fond of saying what’s become of Elydor, in her name, would devastate her.”
“Do you agree?”
The demons Terran wrestled with were not ones I envied. He stared at the walls, not answering, for a long while.
“You are welcome to freshen yourself in here while I’m away. I will bring food, and hopefully information, that will allow us to seek the Stone this eve. I would prefer to do so quickly, before you’re discovered.”
“Will it matter if I’m discovered when your father realizes what you’ve done?”
“For you, aye. It could be the difference between life or death. I do not doubt my father will wage a war between our clans and will have little qualm about taking your life, Lyra.”
