Like a North Corridor King who wore a crown he seemed not to want and who had been jilted by a Queen he had been loyal to.
Elsedora’s leg bounced, and it wiggled the table. Ryn grabbed her knee and rubbed it to calm her in a way that was far too familiar. I would ask about that development later.
“If they are all dead, then there must be a new envoy…one in Helos,” Ryn concluded, pointing at the mark on the map.
It seemed we were all avoiding saying Emmerick’s name.
“Could Caym be controlling more than one envoy again?” El asked. She looked down at the single symbol on the map with a furrowed brow. “It seemed that both Firose and Stygian were under his influence at once…maybe the late Mattock, too.”
“Possibly.” I sighed. “Wheredid you find this? And how do you know the symbol was on Corric’s crown?”
“I saw it in a tomb beneath Helos; that’s where I found this. Obviously. Keep up,” Elsedora answered. “There was also a memorandum, but I’ll need one of you to use an opening charm on it.” She retrieved a smoothed triangle-shaped black stone with gold etchings of the sun carved into it from her pocket.
I stifled a growl of frustration. “What were you doing in the catacombs of Helos?” El had a habit of going above and beyond on her information-gathering missions. She’d taken many detours through the years.
“Do you just pay me to look pretty?” she retorted.
I scoffed. “No, but being paid requires that you keep living.”
“Don’t question my methods.” El flipped her dusty braid over her shoulder and waved away my concern.
“You really are going to get yourself killed someday,” Ryn said. “We won’t always be there to Source-wield you out of things.”
“Quit dreaming of getting rid of me,” El said and stuck her tongue out. Ryn attempted to grab it, and El tried to bite his finger.
I reached up to squeeze the bridge of my nose, amazed that two of the brightest minds in the realm could default to acting like children when put in the same room together.
El sobered and looked past me as I placed my palms on the table.
“Asterie thinks that the Sun and Star Origins bargained with Death,” Sybilla cut in from the doorway to the dining room, seeming unsure about whether to enter.
We’d been too busy bickering to hear her footfall. She hovered there, now dressed in her heavy finery, ready to attend the next council meeting.
Elsedora pointed to Sybilla. “See.The Book of Isoldewarns that Death will rise through such bargains.”
“That tells us nothing. We always knew he would rise,” I said, losing my patience.
I eyed Sybilla, motioning with my chin for her to join us. She wore an impractical Luz-blue velvet gown, and a flush from the heat had already spread across her chest. The dress hugged her body in a way that held my attention. Though it seemed anything she wore did that.
“Good afternoon.” Ryn rose to pull out a chair for her and then took one of her hands to plop a kiss on the top of it as he helped her sit.Kiss ass.
Sybilla seemed grateful for it. “At least one of the men in this residence has manners. What’s with the dusty old map?”
Ryn straightened and scratched his head as Elsedora filled in the gaps of what Sybilla had missed—of the map and the memorandum. As Sybilla’s eyes landed on the symbol, her shoulders tensed.
“Are you going to tell me now why that symbol makes your skin crawl?” I asked.
Sybilla held my gaze. “Because when Caym infiltrated my mind…” She swallowed hard. “I saw King Mattock give that dagger to a cloaked figure, instructing him to bring it to Sahlmkar. It had that symbol on it. I think the blood it drewallowed him to pull me away from Asterie.” Her fingertips traced the healing cut on her cheek.
My jaw grew stiff. “The late Mattock?”
She shook her head, and it infuriated me to see her blink back tears. But there it was—she’d finally confided in us, and yet it still burned to see her distraught over what her former lover had done.
Ryn carefully said, “If Death truly bargained with the Sun and Star Origins, if he is gaining strength, we have to find a way to slow him down. It seems he’s using the envoys to harvest Death—he has been since the Great Wars.” As Ryn spoke, Sybilla grew more tense.
“To do what exactly?” Sybilla asked.
I drew in a deep breath. “Hecouldtake his true form through the Death harvested from his envoys. If he has done that, which is likely, he will have years to walk among us and gain momentum, to kill, before he gains Isolde’s powers back as the prophecy says he will.”
