She carefully turned with her hands out, to show she wasn’t a threat. Had loungers and the plush fur rug been there before? The man certainly had not. He was tall and broader set with shoulder-length hair, a striking blend of mahogany and scarlet. His head was tilted in appraisal, but she found no judgment in his bright-blue eyes, only sadness.
“You’re...” Why couldn’t she say it? She knew it. Her heart knew it. Even had she never witnessed the Cry of the Ancestors, something inside of her was opening and coming together to form a story she’d been denied almost all her life.
Laxius’s eyes shuttered as he lowered his head. “No, no. Not like this. Will you sit?”
His incoherence introduced more disorientation, but she did as he asked. He passed earnest consideration between two identical chairs, like it was the most important decision he’d make all day, before settling into one.
For a while, neither said a word. His affected breaths carried the conversation. “Yes, I am who you think I am, and if this is not evidence of how terribly unfair both life and death can be, then I don’t care to know a better example.”
“You rescued me from the courtyard.” Elloven tried to stop obsessively studying his features, pairing them with her own, with Gennady’s. “But they told me I was a hostage.”
“Yes. Regrettably, that’s their spiel for everyone they escort. I’ve sent my feedback to the administrators, but nothing moves quickly here, as you might imagine.”
“How did you know I was there?”
He folded his hands over his lap. “All who pass through the Red Feather Gates are known to us. When you were ejected from Magna Annalis at moonrise, I saw no other choice.”
Elloven balked. “No other choice? I’m only here because you felt burdened to intervene?”
“When I received word you’d crossed the Desidero, I knew what had happened, who had sent you here.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“The truth answers as it must.” Then he... flickered. After a few strange seconds, it stopped, but part of him remained transparent.
“You’re not here at all, are you?” Elloven asked in disbelief. She was finally meeting her blood father, and all he’d brought was more dishonesty. More confusion. More disappointment. The foolishness was all her own, for expecting any different. “All these years, all these deceptions, and you cannot even face me in person?”
Laxius shrugged with a sorrowful smile that barely moved his mouth. “None who enter Imperator Hall ever leave it.”
“Is that not where we are?”
“I directed the sentinels to ensure you never reach our steps. You carry the blood, the honor, same as I. But if you are trapped there, how would your necromancer find you?”
Elloven refused to ask how he knew about Jesstin. “Is it even you? Are these even your words?”
“It is me,” he said sadly. “It is me, Aelloven. Of that you can be sure.”
“Can I be? How?”
“Because you already know the answer.”
“I know you look like the man I’m told was my father.” He looked like Gennady too. “What do you know about this ‘necromancer’? Why did you mention him?”
“Ryquin’s bondslave has been busy with his ponderings. None of what he does is a secret.”
Did he mean Daire? “And what has that to do with me?”
“He speaks to the wrong individuals. He’s not as clever as he would like to be. Nor is Ryquin, though the evil in his heart was a disappointment. Even after all this... I never foresaw he would use you to lure the necromancer here.”
Elloven shook her head. “Meaning?”
“There are too many competing intentions in Rivenholde.” Laxius glanced up and away, his words trailing. “My brother had other plans for you, but Ryquin acted first. He tested your necromancer, and your necromancer passed. And now he’s come here, just as Ryquin knew he would.”
Ryquin had seen what she couldn’t, amid the pain of misunderstanding... how far Jesstin would go to save her.
“You cannot let your necromancer open that door. Not even... not even for you.” Laxius’s gaze was so intense, it made her want to look anywhere else. “No matter what, Aelloven. As merciless as the Infinitum is now, it would be untenable under Ryquin.”
“But the door to free the dead isn’t Ryquin’s door.”
