He paused, regarding me closely. “I heard unusual captives were rounded up near Naunet. Judging from your performance in the hydra’s chamber, I’d say the rumors were true.”
Rolling my tongue in my mouth, I fell silent. If he sought the Elpis maiden, as the Hades Knights had, I would need to choose my words carefully.
Biting my lip in concentration, I threw up walls around my thought. This man might be a psyche.
At the end of the hall, he opened a door and beckoned me inside. A beautiful ivory piano sat on a rug in the corner, but other than the instrument, only a thin wooden bench and armchair decorated the stone chamber.
Pressing a hand to my shoulder, the nobleman shoved me down onto the bench and pulled up the armchair across from me.
“Do you run this place?” I asked.
“I frequent the Duat often.” His eyes darkened. “Though surely you know that.”
“No. Who are you?’
A twitch of annoyance curled his lip. So he did lament his lower position in the hierarchy.
“The last of the Elpis maidens will appear on the Naunet shore,” he said. “She will be unmistakable in mien. Do these words sound familiar to you?”
I shook my head, but made a note of his words. ‘Unmistakable in mien.’ The Oracle had spoken true.
“Unmistakable?” I repeated. “I’m not particularly striking.”
“No, you aren’t,” he agreed. “But I suspect our Oracle is being vague purposefully.” He leaned forward. “And what of the man imprisoned with you? The chthonic with the red eyes. What’s his name?”
Giving an answer was a bad idea. Instead, I tilted my head. “Why didn’t you ask him?”
“I did,” the nobleman said. “He offered a ridiculous lie.”
So this manwasn’ta psyche. Good to know.
“He calls himself Burgundy Rose,” I said. “Did he tell you somethingdifferent?”
The nobleman’s eye twitched. Sethhadgiven his ridiculous title in answer. No wonder he’d fooled us all. The man had con artistry mixed into his blood.
That was probably why I liked him.
Standing, the nobleman lifted his chin. “You’re lying,Elpis,” he spat. I kept my face straight, straining not to react. “The Oracle is hiding something, but they’ll never take my word over hers.” His eyes drifted to the piano, and he slowly approached it, trailing a hand across the keys. “This is your last chance to come clean.”
“I have,” I insisted. “My father and I were out gathering herbs when the knights attacked us.”
Sighing, the nobleman played a few notes. “Prince Set was exiled over a decade ago. He would be allowed home only when he prostrated himself before his father and begged his forgiveness. A tale you’ve surely heard.”
I nodded, though the groveling bit was news to me.
“That man with you looks strikingly like him.” His eyes narrowed. “But you claim he’s a mere thief?”
“Yes. If there’s more to his identity, he’s hidden it from me.”
The nobleman’s hands danced up the piano, playing an eerie tune. “Tell me. What do you fear?”
“Quite a bit.”
Lifting his hand from the piano, he marched toward me and grabbed me by the neck, hauling me from the bench and pressing my back to the wall. My hands twitched behind my back, desperate to peel him off. Pain screamed through my elbow.
The man’s color-drained eyes drank me in. He tilted my head, gaze running down my neck. “Someone’s tortured you recently. You hated it—being under someone’s control.”
My fingers curled into a fist, and my mind raced. How did I get out of this situation?
