Hearing the name of my home on his lips steals my breath, and I nearly choke on my water. “You’vewhat?”
“It was years ago, when Jezara was … evicted from the temple,” he replies quietly. “I lacked the influence then that I have now. What I could do to serve her was keep her cloudlander from getting himself killed, as someone almost certainly would have done once Jezara’s banishment was complete.”
“Hercloudlander?” I echo, but an instant later, the memory arrives.
Jezara knew I was from Alciel when she met me. My speech, my manner must have given me away—but that could only happen if she knew what to look for.
Are you so arrogant as to think that you’re theonlycloudlander ever to have come to our world?
“When she decided to take a lover, she didn’t do it by halves,” Techeki says, dry. “But to the point, he used the crown to return home—I saw it myself.”
“How?”
“The cloudlander used an amulet I provided to him. It came—which is to say I stole it—from the relic stores in the archives. It was rumored to have once belonged to a Sentinel.”
“Sentinels aren’t real,” I point out. “Everybody says they’re a myth. Matias offered to get me a book of bedtime stories for children when I asked about them.”
“And no doubt he was right that there is no other trace,” he agrees. “But the amuletwasa way to the sky, and the Sentinels were said to guard the passage between worlds. I imagine that’s how the myth came to be attached to it. The cloudlander told me he was sure the crown was the key, and so I … borrowed it for him. He broke the amulet against it, and in a moment, he was simply gone, leaving only the crown behind.”
My heart stutters with hope. “The amulet, what was it?”
“I cannot say, but it was believed to contain the blood of an ancient king. I cannot say what made it work.”
I feel a bit sick as realization overtakes me. “He broke it, you said—you don’t have another one, do you?”
“I do not.”
I try to ignore the sick feeling in my gut, turning his words over for any hint of a clue as to what really happened.The blood of an ancient king.Could he be talking about a … a DNA lock?
Nimh’s scroll certainly unlocked itself when touched by blood. Could the crown be the same?
I repeat the words again in my head.
The blood of an ancient king.
Slowly, the barest seed of an idea starting to take root, I say, “Nimh told me once that you haven’t had kings here for a long time … since before the Ascension—the Exodus?”
Techeki raises an eyebrow at me. “Around that time, I think. You’d have to ask the archivist for an exact answer, if anyone could find him.”
“What do you mean? Is Matias all right? He helped Nimh and me escape. If Inshara found out …” Guilt washes through me—I should have thought to ask earlier.
Techeki shakes his head. “He hasn’t been seen since the night you fled. None of my sources have yielded even the smallest scrap of information. Thatmaybe good news.”
I have no choice but to cling to the hope that Matias has holed up somewhere to wait out Inshara’s wrath. For now, he’s not here, and Techeki is. I hesitate, but only briefly. Techeki’s loyalties might be questionable, but I don’t see anyone else on my side around here. Maybe he knows something he doesn’t realize is important—I need to give him a reason to search his memory for me. By magic or technology, Ineedto find a way home.
The blood of an ancient king …
Lifting my chin, I say quietly, “My family has been sitting on the throne of Alciel since the time of the Exodus.”
Techeki’s other eyebrow joins the first. “Not just a god, but a prince among gods?” His voice is amused, however, rather than reverent. Then realization takes hold. “You think it is possibleyouare descended from the ancient king whose blood sent the last cloudlander home.”
“You wouldn’tbelievehow intense my family is about making sure our bloodline is unbroken. If your ancient king was my ancestor, then I most definitely share his DNA.” Remembering who I’m talking to, I add, “My blood could work just like the amulet did—if we could get our hands on the crown.”
Techeki nods slowly. “It’s possible,” he murmurs, thoughtful. “And if we remove you from the equation, then the usurper has no way up to the sky. I shudder to think what she might be capable of should she get her hands on the powers of the gods.”
Inshara, with Alciel technology, would be a formidable opponent down here … and anyone armed with magic would be nearly unstoppable in my world. But Techeki’s point makes my stuttering heart steady a little as hope takes hold, and I say the words out loud. “My blood could be my way back home.”
The cat suddenly growls low in his throat, and a moment later the door opens to reveal one of the temple guards, a woman clad in black and gold.
