The irritating cuff chafed against my wrist. I considered casting to Tiberius… But would it be worth the energy required? And what good would it do? He couldn’t do anything for us while he was in Lotrennia. No, I’d save that for when I had something more practical for him to respond to.
“Can’t. Need my hands for it or I would have already,” he said as he opened his bound hands and waggled his fingers against my lower back.
“Stop that,” I hissed.
“Ticklish?”
Before I could respond, my heart leaped from my chest as a horn blared in the distance and the smooth slide of ice on ice groaned from behind me. Soft, orange light floated into the small room, outlined by two large shadows that split. The first knelt in front of Lord Astraeus and the second stalked before me.
The warrior, clad in white and bedecked in hundreds of bones strung together like armor, eyed me from behind the human skull he wore as a mask. He held a spear in one hand and the long, thick humerus of some large beast in the other.
I flinched as he lifted the bone and prodded my elbow with the rounded head. I bit back the scream that tried to escape as pain ripped through the joint. He murmured something in another language to the other, who gruffed in response.
My body stilled as he knelt, removing the binds from my wrists before hauling me to my feet with a dagger poised at my lower back.
I stumbled as he shoved me from behind, glancing back at Lord Astraeus, whose face was haggard. Blood had frozen on his short, cropped beard, and his dark eyes glanced at me as the man standing before him raised the thick bone into the air. A sickening grunt ripped from Lord Astraeus’s lips as it crashed into his thigh.
The dagger pressed dangerously against my spine as my captor gave another shove. My stomach churned as the door slid shut behind us. I didn’t care for Lord Astraeus. In fact, I think I hated the man, but I couldn’t help the growing nausea as his pained growls chased us down the hall.
I scannedthe walls of ice as we walked, taking mental note of every turn we made until a second door slid open and a vast rotunda stretched before us.
My breath caught as I took in the massive arena, entirely made of ice and as grand as any castle. Hundreds of rings lined the space that spiraled down into the center of the icy amphitheater. Glowing blues and whites mixed in a frozen, twirling tapestry. White and silver etchings of a bloody battle with fearsome warriors and winged monstrosities covered the flat space at the bottom, an elaborate portrait of a battle.
At the center stood the short woman from the tomb, draped in a cloak made of bones and white feathers. Her arms spread to the side as she gazed at the domed ceiling, where the carvings continued. The markings on the ceiling mimicked the pattern of stars as they appeared on each Sending, each twin eclipse. She turned toward us, still wearing the massive skull of the strange beast. She peered through its large nasal cavity and motioned for us to descend.
All too aware of the dagger at my back, I scanned the rest of the rotunda, slowly making my way down the rings. Several guards posted throughout the upper ring, arrows nocked in my direction.
When we reached the bottom of the vast chamber, my bonds were cut. I staggered back a step as the tall form, hidden among his own set of bones, reached for me.
“Your arm,” the small woman before me explained, her voice clear and commanding with that strange accent.
My eyes snapped to the man slowly reaching for my left wrist.
“I can do it,” I said in a shaky voice. I stepped back, reaching for my wrist and biting my tongue to keep from crying as I twisted and snapped it back to my shoulder, sliding the joint back into place. Unbound, I turned to the woman, reaching for any type of connection to my powers.
She stepped forward until she was a mere foot in front of me.
“Bonder… Tynan’s Accepted… Death Digger… Daughter of Darkness…” she mused, scanning me with dark eyes shadowed beneath the mask.
My stomach churned at the names. How could she possibly know what the Stone Witch and Dark King Daimos had called me? She made slow circles around me.
“What names they have given you. But who are you, Lyvia? Who will yoube? Death Scholar, no more. Lady… I think not. Daughter…” She threw me a knowing look as she paused her pacing.
My heart sank.
“Chosen by the gods,” she continued. “Butwereyou? A twin eclipse... That was no doing of Ganmira and Renova’s, which means someone is to blame for manipulating it. And how does that tie into Olienna’s prophecy? Fate? Or was it even a prophecy to begin with?”
Manipulateit? What in gods’ names could possibly do that? My brows pinched as she made a large, sweeping motion with her staff in the air above us. Her opposite hand stretched between us, as if counting something invisible.
“Intriguing,” she murmured. “Bound, yet wholly unbound.”
“What is that supposed to mean? How do you know all of this? Who are you?” The questions tumbled from my lips as I adjusted my stance.
Her body relaxed, and she tossed her long staff into the air, catching it gently in the palm of her two hands, extending it for me to see.
I took a tentative step forward, eyeing the staff. Tiny carvings of skeletons were etched onto it, bowing to a man with his arms stretched out before him…
The woman snatched back the staff, clanking it on the ground three times, to which the guards shuffled from the chamber.
“The stars whisper to me about a great many things. I am Xenelpha, Matron of the Rhashtai. We are the Guardians of the Dead. Soldiers of Tynan, at least in this realm.”
I swallowed, and a dead weight pressed on my chest. “And what commands does the god of death give?”
Her lips tilted up in a small smile, the white powder on her skin cracking, revealing a small line of deep, dark copper.
“Protect.”
