I understood, then. It was the price paid to learn the Goddess’ teachings from a master. The captain had given it to her. I could feel it. Felt it in the twisted flesh of my right hand where once upon a time a different ring of iron and Glaith had glittered against my skin—and left behind nothing but scars. And I could feel the pull deep in my chest, behind my ribs, as the bond reached for the ki that had once fed it. Like recognizing like.Hiski in the High Priestess’ ring.
“They know you’re here,” I whispered, eying the Glaith as sweat trickled down my spine. Desperate enough to tell her everything, without reservation. “Belle and the others? I told them. They’re coming to rescue you. Us.”
She paused, bejeweled hand curled. Hovering in the space between us. Poised on the cusp of a terrible decision. Eyes narrowed, she said simply, “When?”
“Today. Next summer. I don’t know. But we have to be ready,” I babbled, fighting the urge to flee as her ring glittered with ominous potential. “I need access to my power, Your Grace. Without it, I cannot help the rebels. Belle and her good men will die trying to buy your freedom. I—I need you. Are you with me, High Priestess?”
Lips quirked, she adjusted my dress, fingers hovering just over my skin without touching. “You’re dangerous. The worst example of a Priestess and the exact reason our kind shouldn’t go without training. Reckless and ki-drunk, you can barely focus on one thought before you’re flitting off to the next.” She laughed, toying with her ring. “It’s the withdrawal. Painful, isn’t it?”
I clenched my fists, swallowing the indignant fury, for her palm settled on my cheek. Her skin hot. Flushed with the only ki I could still feel.
His ki.
“An Empath bound to an Elite Trila-Glís?” She shook her head, tisking. “I should hamstring you and give Asher everything he needs for nothing more than the hope that he’ll be better than the others of his ilk.”
“Are you with me?” I asked again, voice a breathy wisp of terror, sweat beading on my brow.
By way of response, she set her palm flat on my breastbone, over the place where the bond thrived.
And then I felt it—ki, weak, tainted by the putrid stench of the general and the captain both, but ki all the same. It sparkled at the edge of my consciousness, a glimmer in the dark too fleeting to touch. A whisper in the Void speaking in tongues.
She pressed harder, forcing me to bend as she gathered the power trapped in the Glaith, wrapping it around the link between the captain and I. Insulating it. Insulatingmefrom my Elite parasite and giving me a few, precious licks of independence before it was swallowed by the Void once more.
“There,” she said with a gasp, wrenching away. “It’s not much. Merely a concentration of your life-force, but it will allow you a little room to breathe. A buffer between you and him without unleashing an Empath.”
A tiny sob followed my breath as I exhaled, trembling, for the High Priestess had given me more than a little room to breathe. She’d given me hope. Hope that it wasn’t over, that I too, could wield the gifts of a dead goddess in spite of the Caledonians.
She’d given, when I knew she’d been tempted to take.
Standing before me was proof that it was still possible, though I’d need a crutch to access my dark birthright. And if I could not have my mother’s pendant without the captain noticing the theft, that ring would make a fine substitute—made all the better for the poetic justice of events coming full-circle.
A pendant of Glaith in exchange for a ring.
The High Priestess brushed a drop of moisture from my cheek. A stray tear I hadn’t felt or noticed. “He’ll be able to break through it,” she warned, sweeping sweat-damp hair back from her face and collapsing into her chair. “But you’ll have a little of your former independence without risking you to your Empathy. Without risking either of you until—” she waved her hand, pulling the Lotus forward, and setting bejeweled fingers to its skin once more. “I have some research to do.”
As I watched, she commanded the Lotus to retreat, sending my Truth into hibernation until only a wispy edge of green vine remained. No hint of anything inherently rare or dangerous by nature.
“If anyone should ask, your touch caused the Lotus to throw off runner vines. Nothing more, nothing less.”
“Why?” I asked, unable to tear my eyes from that ring.
“General Tilcot is a paranoid man,” she replied, shucking the ring and tossing it back into her drawer with a disgusted curl of her lip. “He’ll want to see evidence of a Triloth of moderate potential, and that’s what he’ll get.”
I nodded, not foolish enough to voice my interest in her Caledonian ring.
Folding trembling hands, she pursed her lips. “I’ve done things. Things that have compromised my standing with the Goddess. Things you wouldn’t—can’tunderstand. Not yet, but…” She lifted a delicate shoulder.
Picking at my collar with trembling fingers, I swallowed, hard. Played my part and bottled my temper. “Yousurvived.There’s no shame in that.”
“We all have our war stories.”
Rubbing my chest, over the insulated bond, I snorted.
For a moment, she said nothing, gazing at the surface of her desk. And then, “I’vealwaysbeen with you, girl. With Tritan. Always.”
Inclining my head to the former Mistress of Milithia, I said simply, “Be ready.”
A heavy fist hammered at the door. “Open the door. Time’s up.”
