His laughter rises into the night as he heads toward the stables.
Morgana
“What’s that?” Leon points to a stretch of hills on one of the maps Harman’s brought with him. They’re marked all over with scribbled notes, corresponding to reports from various spies and contacts across Rhasborne. My brother is certainly thorough, and it convinces me I’ve made the right choice sending him to Elmere.
I squint at the note beside it. “Vineyards,” I say, flicking through parchment to find a note I remember reading. “That part of Rhasborne is wine country.”
“Well, my father did like a drink,” Leon says, his tone half joking.
“So much so that he’d hide a super-powerful, divine artifact there just so he’d have an excuse to stop in and buy a few bottles?” I ask doubtfully.
Leon sighs. “I’m just trying to find a pattern. There must be a connection we’re missing—a hint at where they could have hid the seal. I remember my father talking about Trova having good valleys for wine once or twice. Maybe that was their cover story:they could claim they were taking the scenic route, visiting some of the wineries on their way back to Filusia.I’dbelieve it.”
We’re both clutching at straws. Anything to help us narrow it down. As I stare desperately at the parchment, I notice a faintXdrawn in one of the valleys between the hills.
“What does that mean?” I murmur, half to myself, pulling out another map to see if it’s repeated there. “Look,” I say, tapping a note written in the margins. “The valleys have a cave system. That could be a good place to hide something, right?”
“Or lose something,” Leon says. “If it runs under that entire area, it’ll be more of a maze than the Wirstone Mountains.”
There’s a river that runs through the valleys, making the land lush and fertile. I absently trace it with my finger, coming to rest beside its name: the river Siga.
Something itches at the back of my mind.
“Siga…where have I heard that before?”I’m mostly asking myself, but I send it across the mooring anyway.
“It doesn’t mean anything to me,”he replies.
I frown. Rhasborne is new territory to me, so I don’t know why I’d know the name. Unless maybe I stumbled across it in one of my books at Gallawing? But it seems unlikely I’d remember it if I did.
“Maybe the river is named after something or someone else?”Leon suggests.“Lots of place names are.”
I rise from the table, sticking my head into one of the boarding rooms where Tira, Mal, and Lafia are talking and laughing together.
“Lafia,” I say. “Does the name Siga mean anything to you?”
Small lines appear between the girl’s brows as she thinks. “Yes…Siga was a goddess. An old one.”
I blink at her. She’s our fount of religious knowledge, and I’d been hoping for a bit more.
“Is that it?” I say.
“Sorry,” Lafia bites her lip. “I can’t remember what she did. No one worships her now. There’s lots of gods like that who’ve fallen out of popularity. We only remember them at all because they’re mentioned in some old tract or something.”
It comes to me then.
“Lafia, you’re a genius,” I gasp, then close the door without another word, hurrying back to Leon.
“The codex,” I say breathlessly. “Siga was mentioned in the codex. Before I read the prophecy about me, I read a bunch of others, and there’s one involving her.” I clap my hand to my head, struggling to clear my mind. “Oh, why can’t I remember what it said?”
“Because minutes after you read it, you were yanked out of the house by a dangerous spell, and then spent the next three weeks imprisoned and tortured?” Leon suggests mildly.
“Yes, but still…” I huff. “We have to find out what the prophecy said. What’s the likelihood there’s some big divine secret about this river thatdoesn’tinvolve Ethira’s seal?”
“There’s a good chance what you read is still there, in your memory somewhere,” Leon points out. “And when does yourmemory like to throw up strange things you thought you’d forgotten?” he asks, crossing his arms and looking smug.
“In your dreams,” I say excitedly. “You think you can help me find it?”
“It’s not the excuse I’d normally use to get you into bed,” he says with a smile. “But let’s give it a go.”
