Page 83 of The Stolen Throne
Everyone else remains silent as tension fills the room. I should also tell them how I found the page in the book—or, more specifically, what showed me. I know I should, but they’re already dealing with so much. Does it really make a difference? How I found it doesn’t change the words on the page. I glance at Reven. Maybe I’ll tell just him. Later.
Vos continues to turn the pages slowly, then holds up a hand. “Found something.”
I lean over his shoulder to see what he’s looking at, my confusion growing with every symbol on the page.
“What does it say?” Pella asks me.
“I…I don’t really understand it. Something about punishment.” I glance at him. “Does it make any sense to you?”
He’s still focused on the words, so it takes a second for him to answer. “It’s about the Devourers, I think.”
Bene makes a hissing sound as the sand of his body ruffles like wind rippling across the water of a pond.
“And the protections the goddesses put in place before they were trapped,” I note, pointing at the words on the page.
“Yes, but it’s specifically to do with Wildernyss and Tyndra. Something about…” Vos shakes his head. “The goddesses’ magic being out of control and Wildernyss creating a hole under the ocean’s waters.”
Reven peers closer, then spears Vos with a troubled look. “Do you think this is why Tyndra is sinking?”
Vos goes still, his lavender eyes flashing. “It’s dropping into the void left by Wildernyss?”
“The book doesn’t say for sure,” Reven says, but now I’m starting to wonder.
Is this why Aryd is getting hotter and hotter—because of the walls? Why Wildernyss keeps raising into the skies? Why Tyndra’s winter is taking over other dominions? Because our trapped goddesses aren’t there to control the magic?
Guesses. Speculation. But it’s yet another reason for Eidolon to want to release them. Maybe for us, too.
Vindication flares inside me. I knew, I damn well knew, I was right to bring us here.
Pella drops into a chair. “Great. Something else for us to worry about. And we don’t even know what it means.”
Ignorance would be worse, though. “We should focus on what we know for sure.”
Which sets us all to thinking about the amulets.
Tziah gestures, and I don’t need Vos to translate her question. We’re sure it’s Aryd?
“She woke up for a second in the library,” I tell them. “Bene felt her.”
Horus rises slowly and leans his fists on the table as he stares at my necklace. “Here’s the problem. If this is Aryd, Meren’s ancestresses trapped the goddesses in those amulets for a reason.”
Vos claps a hand on Horus’s shoulder, expression solemn. “You have a point. Releasing any of the goddesses, Aryd included, is a bad idea until we know why they were imprisoned in the first place. Even if we think they could fix Tyndra sinking.”
“That’s assuming my sister has the right power to release them at all. And we still don’t know how the Celestial Alignment plays into this.” Best guess is it bolstered my ancestress’s magic. I pick my necklace up, studying the white glass.
Reven shifts beside me. “I think we have a more immediate problem.”
Cain grips the chair he’s standing in front of until his knuckles turn white. “We can’t let Eidolon find the other amulets before we do.”
“If I may…” I glance up to find Horus regarding me with a quiet thoughtfulness. “Why do we think we are going to find the other amulets? If the king is searching for them but hasn’t found them all, how can we?”
I wish the book had told us exactly where they were. Sadly, my fate has proven to be not the easy road but the rocky one.
“We have to at least try. Based on this”—I point to the line on the page—“I think it’s easiest to start with the kings and queens of the other dominions. This says each of the ancient sovereigns took their own goddess’s amulet with them. Maybe, like mine, they’ve passed them down through the generations, either without knowing what they had or keeping them secret from their people.”
“Great,” Cain mutters, pushing away from the chair hard enough that it clatters against the table.
“What’s the plan?” Pella shoots at me. “Knock on the front door and ask politely if they have an amulet that looks like yours and happens to contain their dominion’s lost goddess?”
