“The curse split the kingdom into three, raising mountains and swamps between them. The northern land was covered in snow, subjected to endless winter, the southern land was turned into a waterless desert, and the central land—what became the Iron Kingdom—fell into darkness. The land in the east, where the king and prince had died, was scorched until it became nothing more than dust. But worse, the curse flooded the generals’ hearts with malice, causing them to turn on each other. And so the war began.”
His voice trails off. “Endless fucking war.”
He falls silent then, and it’s too quiet after everything he said. A story I’ve never heard before.
“What happened to the Oracle?”
“She disappeared and took the blade with her. The generals didn’t even look for her. The malice of the curse kept them focused on war. It wasn’t until two generations later that the search for the Oracle and the blade began.”
I consider what he told me. The story he believes to be the truth.
I have no tangible facts to refute it. I don’t know anything about the blade. My father kept it hidden, even from me. When I did finally hold it, the pain I felt was beyond anything I’d ever experienced. Since then, the energy within the blade has surged at unpredictable times, taking over my mind and body in ways I can’t control.
If the dagger’s history is this dangerous…
And now it’s embedded in my body with no way to remove it other than to cut off my own limb…
A wave of cold and sudden panic billows within my stomach, forcing me to push back as hard as I can. I can’t succumb to it. I also can’t take Antony’s story at face value. Not when he’s a self-professed liar.
“You told me you would weave your lies with the truth so I couldn’t tell which was which.” I press my left hand to my stomach, trying to quell my panic. “We, neither of us, can believe the other.”
His response is to jolt away from me, his action forcing me to follow him.
At the fierce glare he gives the chain, it seems he’s only now realizing that the ruby circlet may bind me to him…
But it also binds him to me.
He glances at the door and then at the statues in the back of the room.
“Come with me,” he says, as if he has made a decision. “I will show you thetruth of it.”
With that, he moves toward the back of the room, and I follow, the chain stretching taut between us as he walks fast.
It soon becomes clear that the wall behind the statues of the Serulian King and the Slain Prince is only a partition, leaving a gap on the left side.
Behind it, a spiral staircase rises up through an opening in the ceiling, although it’s impossible to see where it leads from our current location.
“Up,” Antony says, and that’s all before he tugs me toward the stairs, ensuring I ascend them in front of him.
Around and around I go, climbing higher through another level, this one also lighting up as we pass.
I catch sight of shelves full of scrolls and a simple wooden desk before we ascend to the next level.
Here, the staircase lets out into a small room, similar to the entrance building at the top of the forge tower.
But this one has only three sides; its front is completely open to the elements.
The hairs on my arms rise as Antony urges me out onto the wide, flat roof beyond the covered area, and I step through what feels like a magical shield.
Whatever magic is at play within the temple, it keeps the wind out.
Now, I welcome the fresh breeze that plucks at my hair, taking deep breaths, trying to expel the cold panic that lingers at the edges of my thoughts.
Inhaling and exhaling, I focus on the rustle of leaves in the forest around us, the calm in the air, and I embrace the safety of this moment, even if it’s false.
Like the platform at the top of the staircase beside the forge tower, there’s no railing around the roof’s edges, but Antony doesn’t ask me to move beyond its middle.
In the distance, far into the west, the sun has descended to the horizon, its final rays fading across the sky.
