The singing rose and fell, their lyrics just out of reach.Ione craned her neck towards the ceiling, the source.Beside her, River stirred, blinking at the room like he’d forgotten where they were; his face fell when the memory seemed to return to him.
He groaned and brought his forehead to his knees.“I was hoping Kai would’ve gallantly levelled the building by now,” he muttered.
“Unlucky,” Ione replied, still staring skyward.The song was in the gods’ tongue, she gathered, newly resentful that aside from a handful of phrases, she knew nothing of it.
River heard it now, too; he closed his eyes, his face set in concentration.“Glorify the dawn,” he murmured, thoughtful.“Hail the newborn sun.”He waved a hand and stood, stretching.“Some good-morning song.If Oseidos made us wake up at dawn to sing each day in, I’d quit.”
Ione mustered a hollow smile at that as River trudged up the stairs to the door, where the guard’s head still cast a black shadow through the barred window.The guard was chattier now, although just as accommodating as before, laughing when River asked if they could have some water to drink.
“Can’t you make your own?”he asked derisively.
Above them, the singing swelled until Ione could pick out some words.Welcome, she heard;Come, conquer the night.
“Who’re we welcoming?”River asked the guard; why, Ione didn’t know.Annoying their captor was a distinctly Kai move.“Or is this just a daily prayer?”
“Shut it.”The guard sighed, harassed.“It’s bad enough missing the ceremony to mind you two.At least let me listen to it, or the message we send to House Artem will come with a couple of your fingers.”
“What ceremony is it?”
It occurred to Ione that River was trying to goad him into opening the door.She groaned, vexed.They were exhausted and powerless.It made more sense to her just to wait for Kai, considering everything she’d done so far had only gotten them into worse trouble.
The guard grumbled.“Don’t you know?I assumed the Snake priests had to do something similar.”He called out to Ione: “How’d you move Menon, then?Rigel’s still pissed you outsmarted his golden boy.”
As though she would’ve given Menon up on purpose.“Pliers,” she said flatly.The guard laughed.
“Sky and bone,” River recited.“Fire and flesh.A bit more macabre than our prayers.”
“I’ve heard yours.”He yawned.“Beautiful moons and sparkling seas and blessed little fish.Yours are prayers for weaklings and poets; ours are for warriors.”
“Shame what happened to your best one,” Ione called, growing bored listening to them both.
“Castor was a volatile bastard,” the guard granted her.“I never did think it was a good idea for the priests to place so much hope on him, especially with Ms Runaway their only other…”
He trailed off, but not without a small, flustered scoff that let Ione know that he had misspoken.
Reborn the Light,the chorus sang.Rise the Sun.
Occupied,Rigel had said of Lina.Not dead.Not gone.
The hairs on the back of Ione’s neck stood on end.Rigel didn’t have Lina killed.
He was going to use her.
There were wards that required blood, and most hydromantic wards had a fire counterpart.Ione stuffed down the elation that Lina was still alive and wracked her mind for the wards Kai had told her about.A magma ward of some sort, a glacial ward’s equivalent: something huge and dangerous, something designed to obliterate her people, retribution for what Menon did to Castor, to Rigel’s plans.
Lina was alive.But if Sowelan’s priests were using her to weave a magma ward, then she may not be for much longer.
Ione couldn’t wait for Kai.
Her ears still on the guard, who was beginning to lose his patience with River, Ione slipped out of one of her boots.The things she wore at Caelos were all second-hand, donated by the Tannos or other shrines.In another life, she would’ve reviled her new clothes, rough-hewn and ill-fitting, but the thick woollen stockings she’d chosen might yet prove useful.
“Excuse me,” she called, creeping up the steps.
River watched, curious, as she advanced until she was beside him.The guard grunted an acknowledgement but didn’t even turn.
Ione stood on tiptoes before the barred window, her stocking in one hand.The guard’s head was inches away, just on the other side.“Do you have the key to this door?”
He chuckled.“D’you think I’m going to let you out because you asked nicely?”
