Softly, Jentt said, “We were lied to.”
“That doesn’t excuse what he’s done,” Zera replied just as softly. “Nothing does. And besides, how do you know we aren’t being lied to now?”
A valid point,Kreya thought.
Raising his voice to be heard above the rumbling crowd, Grand Master Lorn continued. “He knows now, though, that revenge was not the path he should have taken. And so, contrite and seeking redemption, he has returned to offer us a gift:life beyond death, for ourselves and our loved ones. A second chance to all who deserve it.”
He did it,she thought.He really did it.Eklor had given a portion of his own life to Lorn’s son. She’d never imagined he was capable of such an act. The Eklor she’d known wasn’t capable of that kind of self-sacrifice or empathy. She’d always believed he’d abandoned his research into resurrection magic because of the cost. Yet here he was, paying it.
Could it have been some kind of trick? Maybe the child hadn’t been dead. Except the other masters had confirmed it... What if Eklor had somehow fooled them too? Or maybe there was some other explanation she hadn’t thought of yet. A conspiracy? Some kind of mind manipulation? Smoke and mirrors?
So many possibilities, and yet the proof was here, now.
At Lorn’s command, Eklor stepped up to the pyre again and pushed back his hood. Immortalized as the greatest evil ever embodied by a man, Eklor was instantly recognizable. His face had been carved into statues, vilified on murals, and transformed into theater masks.
“I seek forgiveness,” Eklor said. “And I bring, to all of Vos, the gift of second life.”
Chapter Twenty-One
In the stunned silence, Grand Master Lorn shepherded his son and Eklor back into his palace, with the promise that more information would follow. As soon as the brass doors shut, the crowd outside exploded into chatter—awe, confusion, shock. It all swirled around her as Jentt tugged Kreya’s hand.
He murmured in her ear, “We should leave.”
Nodding, she let herself be led away from the pyre. But they only made it a few feet before the crowd closed around them. One older woman in a master’s coat patted Jentt’s arm. “You were dead, weren’t you? But now you’re alive again, too!”
“Just seriously injured,” Jentt said. He flashed her a smile, and Kreya had to resist the urge to step in front of him, knives drawn. She felt prickles over her skin as the crowd pressed closer.
“How are you alive?” a man shouted.
“Coma,” he supplied. “Totally unresponsive for years until one day, a miracle, I woke. It was amazing luck and great nursing care. Nothing to do with anything that happened here today.”
Another bone worker pushed closer. “Who revived you? Was it Eklor?”
“Youweredead,” another said. “My uncle fought in that battle. He saw you fall.”
“All of Vos mourned you!” another, a man in heavy finery, cried. “Did Eklor bring you back to life? Can he bring my wife back?”
Kreya and her friends clumped around Jentt and pushed through the crowd. Marso was shaking hard, and Kreya thought it had been a mistake to bring him. It had been a mistake for any of them to come at all.
“He was dead.” The words spread through the crowd. “How is he alive? Did you bring him back? Do you know what Eklor knows? Is that why you returned now? Are you working with him?” And over and over: “Did Eklor bring him back?” until Kreya wanted to shout at them all to quit asking and leave them alone.
Before she could break, though, Zera did:
“Yes!” Zera shouted. “It was Eklor! Ask him!” She pointed to Lorn’s palace, and the crowd, as if pushed by a giant hand, rotated and shoved toward the doors.
Kreya grabbed Zera. In a low voice, she demanded, “Why did you say that?”
“Because soon they’ll learnhowhe did it,” Zera said, also in a whisper. “They’ll learn about the key ingredient. I’d far ratherhewere burned alive than you.”
She couldn’t argue with that. Still, she felt a tug of unease, giving credit to their enemy. They still didn’t know what he truly wanted. Fame? He had that. Forgiveness? Eklor deserved to be arrested, tried, and convicted. You didn’t kill hundreds, then turn around and say, “Oops!” But then again, with an ego the size of Eklor’s, he could see forgiveness as possible.
Maybe this was his plan for changing his fate. Maybe he wanted to be granted a chance to return to civilization. Live a normal life.Or maybe he wants to quit all bone work and becomea traveling acrobat,she thought. She had no way of knowing what his thinking was. The last time she’d encountered him was twenty-five years ago, and she hadn’t understood him then. If only she could talk to him, maybe she could get some insight into what they were dealing with.
“Any ideas for getting in there?” Kreya asked, with a nod at the brass doors.
“Later. Right now, we need to get Jentt away from the crowd,” Stran said. “Also Marso.”
She weighed her odds of forcing her way into the palace and glanced again at the archers. They’d lowered their bows and were no longer focused on the Five.We didn’t do whatever they were afraid we’d do,she thought. Did that mean they’d failed once more?
