Rade nodded and approached the center. He knelt before it, resting his fingers just on the edge of the eye. “This is my favorite place in all of Kaldfold,” he said softly, reverently. “Peaceful, meditative. It feels like the Mother watches over this place.”
I drew to his side and lowered myself to my knees, following his movements and touching the edge of the eye. A beautiful, wonderful place of worship. An oasis, somehow shielded from nature’s cruelty. The brass wasn’t corroded in the least, but gleamed as if it had been placed here just yesterday instead of millennia ago.
“My mother brought me here to say goodbye before she went back to the Shroud.”
I glanced up at him in surprise.
He struggled to meet my eyes. “She thought if she did it here, in this beautiful place, it would lessen the blow. And she was right. For as long as I remained in this circle, I wasn’t sad. Even when I couldn’t see her beyond the trees anymore, I wasn’t sad. Not here. Never here.”
But he’d had to step out of the circle eventually. And the shadows creeping into his face were answer enough of what he’d felt then.
Indeed, Rade seemed to feel a great deal. For his people, for his mother who had abandoned him, for the gods. I didn’t have very many people to care for like that. I wasn’t sure I’d have the strength to even if I did. Perhaps the burden of caring for my queen was enough.
I licked my lips and thought about what solace Amunet could offer. Rade didn’t have the heightened sense of smell the Shifters did, so I didn’t have to be so careful with my word choice. “My mother died in childbirth,” I found myself saying. This was Amunet’s story and not mine, but I thought it might comfort him just the same. “I never knew her. But I think my life would have been very different if I had.”
He nodded in understanding. Then he said, “It’s foolish, I know, but I… Sometimes, I think that if I could just get rid of the Shroud, I’ll find her waiting for me.” He huffed an embarrassed laugh and scratched at his beard.
A couple of hours turned a person into a ghul. If she’d been in there a decade…
But we all needed a bit of hope. I was not so cruel as to take that from him.
I reached across the space between us and took Rade’s hand. “You are blessed by Eira, Goddess of the Lost. If there is a way to bring her back, you will find it.”
Rade smiled softly. “You know, I have good memories here as well. The first time I felt like I had a family again was here. Keir’s aunt took me in. Things had been difficult—for both me and Keir. But we came here and talked. We understood each other. And I knew I had not just a friend but a brother.” He let out a long sigh and looked up at the surrounding trees. “Things always feel easier here.”
They did. There was a lack of pressure somehow, like physical pounds had been lifted off my back as soon as I’d stepped foot onto the metallic surface.
Rade’s gaze lowered to my hand over his, and his smile faded. “Keir told me you were listening to our conversation.” My heart skipped a beat. “He seems to think you’re hiding something from me, Amunet.”
Slowly, I drew my hand away from his, blood rushing loudly in my ears.
“Ashorah is a blessed land. The Lotus River is obvious evidence of that. But this”—he ran his fingers along the edge of Ketet’s eye again—“this is proof that Kaldfold is blessed, too.”
I swallowed hard, struggling to look down at the emerald, no longer feeling worthy enough to do so. Out of the corner of my eye, I thought the jewel gleamed brighter. As if Ketet herself were glaring at me.
“So I will ask you this once, Amunet, only once, and I ask that here, in this sacred place, you be honest with me.” He locked his eyes with mine. “Is there truth to what Keir says?”
Everything I’d been taught, everything I believed, warned me not to lie here. Not here.
But Queen Amunet still had almost two weeks before the Igniting. Plenty of time for the Kaldfolk to kill me and turn their attentions toward finding her. And by the time they managed to find her, my deception would have enraged them, made them crueler to her than they had been to me. She wouldn’t be offered a warm cabin. They’d hold her in chains. And then drain her of every ounce of her power.
Bain’s threat rang in my ears. I could still feel where his fingers had clutched my arm. A little more pressure and he could have shattered every bone.
As my silence stretched, Rade whispered, “I saw you.”
My head whipped up.
He was watching me carefully. “I know we’re not supposed to share what the Seer shows us, but… I saw you, Amunet. You were by my side.”
“You saw me in your fortune from Zarqa,” I repeated.
Rade nodded.
Me. He’d seen me. Not Amunet. “What… what was I doing?”
“I can’t tell you that,” he replied apologetically. “It’s dangerous for others to know their future as someone else has seen it. Some will rush toward it, some away, and it inevitably leads to chaos. I shouldn’t have said anything at all, but Keir is like my brother. I had to ask the question. I owe him that much.” He waited for my answer.
I struggled to keep the shock off my face.
