He had faced death so many times over the last few days, but this felt different. More final. What chance could there be that he of all people would walk into the Source and be found worthy?
Panic shrank his world sliver-thin, made it impossible to breathe.
The cup tipped forward.
Then a voice rang out across the temple chamber, clear and commanding. “Release him!”
Eneva’s expression turned coldly furious. But she only let Jacen see it. She schooled her features into resignation, set the cup down, and stood.
She said, “Var Naktis.”
Such was his shock and relief, Jacen could have fainted. He sagged to the floor, retching, wiping any traces of contaminated water from his lips.
“I was carrying out due justice,” Eneva said with a bow. “As is my role as Gatekeeper. I didn’t think it necessary to disturb?—”
“Spare me the act,” snapped the newcomer. “I told you I was to be alerted immediately once they arrived.”
Still kneeling, Jacen turned to look at her. Ysira Naktis wore a black spidersilk gown with a neckline that plunged to a hammered copper girdle, exposing the red tattoos spiraling over her arms and torso. Her red-black hair hung loose around her shoulders. She had brought no weapons, but she carried herself with the countenance of a queen.
“I didn’t know,” Hesaya said, with real deference. “I thought we were following orders.” She frowned at the Gatekeeper. “Eneva. What’s going on?”
“Var Naxal commands that you spare Jacen Kheris,” Ysira said. “My son wants him alive.”
Ysira laid heavy emphasis on the wordson,as if Eneva might need the reminder. Jacen could not muster more than distant surprise. He still felt on the verge of collapse. The Gatekeeper bowed lower and backed away.
Ysira’s night-dark gaze swept the room, narrowed and calculating. She ordered, “Everyone except the new arrivals—out. I’ll speak with them in private.”
29
ABSOLUTION
YSIRA
Iyelekirin twitched and pulsed in the back of Ysira’s skull, as though excitably communicating with whatever lay beyond the Gate. She had grown more acclimated to the Source’s effects since her mishap at Zal Fel, but her demon’s restlessness still made it difficult to focus. She struggled to tune it out as she assessed the situation.
Jacen knelt on the floor before the Gate, wearing a dazed expression. A teenage girl Ysira didn’t know, dressed in the grey robes of a Church novitiate, hovered beside an exhausted-looking Seth. Then there was Ogden, and a slight, pointed-eared man in head-to-toe armor who—unless she was very much mistaken—was of the same species she had fought on the Firstborn station.
Where to begin?
The novitiate saved Ysira the trouble when, without warning, she burst into tears. It was impossible to tell what might have set her off. Perhaps whatever she’d endured to reach this place had simply caught up with her.
Hesaya had almost reached the door but doubled back. She embraced the novitiate. The girl seemed briefly horrified, arms stiff at her sides, but then she began to cry harder. She sobbed into Hesaya’s robes as the priest murmured, “You’re safe. It’s over. Come with us; I’ll get you a meal and a bath.”
She looked at Ysira, not really asking permission, but Ysira nodded. Hesaya gently guided the novitiate away. When they were gone and the others had recovered, they all accosted Ysira at once.
“Where have you been?” Seth exclaimed. “Where is Neri?”
“Neri is safe and eager to see you.” Ysira turned to Ogden. “It’s good to see you alive. I worried my actions might have made you a target.”
“You needn’t have.” Ogden cast an appraising glance around the temple chamber. “You did well.”
“Ysira,” Seth cut in. “What did you do?”
“What, indeed?” Ogden raised his eyebrows. Jacen also looked up at her expectantly, as did the . . . other person.
She would come back to that.
She put it as concisely as possible. “Neri found the demon. I was too late to stop it from claiming him as a host. We were taken by the gods to their . . . they called it a station, in the sky. I killed quite a lot of them. We escaped. The Lord of Hunger made it clear he means to take revenge.”
