Page 214 of A Sanctuary from Shadow
Liatris cleared her throat, faced me. “Rare’s not the word I’d use, but it’s a—sticky matter—to be sure.” She paused, rubbed the back of her neck, and cleared her throat. “My own ceyla—Rhamnus is his name—was sought by the Shadow Prince for his leadership and strategic acumen. When I took vows with him, he was a simple agrifae with a few fields to plant, but centuries before that, he led the crown’s winged legions in the war against the Fomorians.”
Whoa! Rhamnus’ birthday cake would burn right to the ground!
“Is Gentian creating a winged legion of his own?” I asked, chest tightening. I knew Gentian had forces, but I didn’t think they were that organized.
“I can’t say. But Gentian wanted him, and when Rhamnus wouldn’t go willingly, he cursed our family. For Rhamnus, he sent an ordination of capture. For me and our little one, he sent death curses. I imagine he wanted all Rhamnus’ sentimental connections severed. He does so dislike not having someone’s full devotion.”
I sneered.
Liatris swallowed, her voice cracking. “Anyhow, the warden came for us. He took me and my sweet Jet to shelter—but Rhamnus—he was beyond mercy.”
I stared at her like her head had fallen off. “Pete—he took Rhamnus to Gentian? When he could’ve let him stay here with his family? With hisson?”
What the fuck, Pete?
Liatris’s face pinched, her pain and sympathy for my cluelessness mingling. “As I said—the ordinations for capture are sticky. A harbinger botching a delivery to the Shadow Palace within a reasonable timeline is considered an ordination failure. And harbingers daren’t fail more than once—if that. Especially one as effectual as our warden. He’d be risking everyone he’d already saved, wouldn’t he?”
“But not killing the mark in a death ordinationisn’ta failure?”
She and all the rest of the group cringed. “That’s the trick, dear Amy. We can only shelter here safely if the Shadow Princethinkswe’re dead.”
My mouth dropped open. And didn’t close.
“We’ve all reluctantly relinquished our totems to Pete or the other harbingers who’ve hidden us here. They deliver them as ordained, and Gentian believes we’ve been dealt with—killed. Some of us may as well have been. You see, when the void feeds off one’s totem, it can drive a person to blithering madness. For if it’s not magic, it’ll likely be destroyed. Even with healers at hand, the weaker minded few never recover.”
I knew there was more to totems than them being freaking ID cards.
“I laid with stupor for months afterward. Altered me to a degree, honestly.”
That cued a chorus of empathic noise.
“Jet, the tot that he was, didn’t yet have a totem, and so was in the care of another mother until I snapped to. Praise Danu that we were in a time pocket—I didn’t miss an inch of his growth.”
Clearing her throat, Ivy touched her shoulder. “Lia—” She cast a consternated glance my way.
Liatris’s hands fluttered. “Oh, aye—apologies, Amy—we Pixies do ramble here and there. But the point I’m building to is this—the void mustn’t ken if we’re truly dead when it feeds off our totems. Or if it does, it doesn’t care overmuch. And Gentian mustn’t figure anyone would be foolish enough to risk a cracked bean to evade death. He mustn’t ken some aged healers can cure the afflicted.”
Something awful hit me like a sledgehammer.To evade death, she’d said. The hairs on my arms stiffened. “Are you telling me—nobody here was supposed to be captured?”
“Aye,” Liatris finished. By now, she and everyone else had guessed that I was. “You can fake a death. But you can’t fake a capture.”
Nimue’s book toppled from my shaking hands as I jumped up and sprinted off. I now had a sinking suspicion—an infuriating, gallant, heartbreaking suspicion—that Pete had never laid down for that nap.
Eden wasn’t just a pleasant pit stop on our journey to hell. It was the new destination.Mydestination. But for Pete—?
Oh, how I hoped I was wrong! Pete couldn’t just deposit me in Eden for safekeeping and fail his ordination. He’d made it abundantly clear what would happen if he did.
Oh, puhlease, let me be wrong!
Finding Sionna still chilling in the warden’s hut reassured me. For a moment. Until I realized she now snoozed on the feather mattress, which remained loosely tucked with linen sheets, the way I’d made it that morning after my bath. The sheets smelled nothing like Pete.
Heart pounding, I nudged Sionna awake. “Where is he?”
She only blinked up at me, her tan eyebrows meeting. But what else had I expected of her?
I whirled in search of any sign that Pete hadn’t sneaked out of Eden. Would he really have left Sionna behind as he trekked off on another long, arduous journey? The hound he loved so much?
He sure as hell would, I answered myself.If he thinks he’s marching to his death. Or worse, his demonization.
