Page 60 of A Queen’s Game (Aithyr Uprising #1)

Chapter Thirty-Seven

Marietta

W ithin the hour, Amryth arrived. “I came as soon as I could,” she said, leaning against the doorway to the dining room. “Is everything alright?”

Marietta swallowed hard, pacing back and forth. “Keyain won’t let me leave.”

“Do you want me to talk to him?”

“It won’t matter,” Marietta said, pausing. “The King visited me, told me that the law allows for me to go to the temples, but even his visit didn’t convince Keyain.”

Amryth stared for a moment, watching Marietta with a blank expression. “So you sent for me,” Amryth said, pushing off the doorway, hands clasping before her.

“Yes,” Marietta whispered.

“Though he’s my superior.”

Marietta faltered her stare, biting her lips as she paced once more.

Gods, this was a terrible idea; she was too loyal to Keyain.

Amryth was the obvious choice, but not the only one.

The King might visit again. He might overrule Keyain on the matter, but what if he didn’t visit?

What if he couldn’t be bothered by a miserable half-elf like her?

Gods, when did she start thinking of herself that way?

“Marietta,” Amryth snapped. “Did you even hear what I said?”

“No, but I don’t want to put you in a position—”

“I’ll take you.”

Marietta’s heart stopped once more. “What?”

“I’ll take you to the temple.”

“But Keyain—”

“You have a right to visit the temple.”

“What if he demotes you? If you lose your position?”

“Well, I’m already breaking his rule of not visiting you,” she said, offering a tight smile. “I do what’s right, regardless if my superiors believe it is or not.”

Marietta nodded, her chest swelling. “How do we do it then?” she asked. “How do I leave?”

“Don’t worry. I came prepared.” Amryth undid her green cloak, flapping it out. “How fast can you change?”

After changing into a simple dress that hung on her now thin frame, she met Amryth by the door. “Whatever happens, just follow my lead,” she said, not waiting for Marietta to respond. She stepped into the hall with Marietta in tow. The guards posted outside paused, exchanging glances.

“No one said Lady Marietta would leave the suite today, Amryth,” said a male with rich, dark skin and a scowl fixed on his features.

“Special instructions to get her on a walk since she hasn’t left in weeks,” she said, placing her hand on Marietta’s back to encourage her to go.

The guard glanced at his companion, a lighter-skinned male with a similar scowl and a hooked nose. “Makes sense. We were wondering how sick she was. Glad to see you up, my lady.”

Marietta nodded, trying to smooth the confusion from her face. The guards were always posted outside the door, so it made sense that they would notice something was wrong. Did they seriously believe her to be sick? Is that what Keyain told them?

Amryth ushered her away before she could respond. With luck, they exited the Noble’s Section without encountering anyone. Within a few minutes, Amryth stopped in the Central Garden. She handed her cloak to Marietta. “Put this on.”

Marietta took it as the rain began to fall, the cool droplets dotting her skin.

She gasped at the sensation, casting her face towards the sky as she donned the cloak.

Gods, when did she last feel the rain on her skin?

The wind in her hair? Without another comment, Amryth pulled up Marietta’s hood and took her hand, dragging her through the garden towards a part of the palace she didn’t recognize.

Guards in similar cloaks walked past, some with intent, others milling about with laughter in their throats.

The sight was almost overwhelming, seeing that many bodies at once, though they stayed in the halls.

She tried to focus on Amryth’s back, not to stray too far behind as they raced towards the exit.

Two woman guards approached them as they neared a set of doors, but Amryth shrugged them off, saying Marietta was a new recruit in training. The excuse seemed good enough for them.

Outside the garrison, the surrounding wall stretched to both sides farther than Marietta could see.

Guards stationed at the gate, swords at their hips and papers in their hands, waved them through as Amryth approached.

As they stepped onto the sidewalk next to the cobblestone street, she sighed and picked up her pace.

If the hallways filled with guards were overwhelming to her senses, then the city was an assault.

Crowds of people packed the walkways, calling to one another over the ambient sound of the city.

Marietta gripped the back of Amryth’s armor as they wove their way through, growing dizzy at the bodies pressed in around them.

How funny that a few months in confinement had changed Marietta.

Just three months prior, she could walk into a crowd and control it at will, make a friend or two in the process.

But after the quiet loneliness of the suite, her heart rammed into her ribs, and her grip grew sweaty, holding onto Amryth.

A horseless carriage rolled by, and Marietta almost lost Amryth as she gawked. There were no horses—or any other animal—pulling it, right? Or had she lost her gods damned mind?

White buildings laced with greenery loomed over them as they ventured deeper into the city. Nestled between the structures were pockets of trees surrounded by neat fencing. Marietta craned her head to catch a glimpse of a statue, but they didn’t stop. Instead, they turned down a narrow side street.

Overhead, purple wisteria draped between the tall buildings, blocking a portion of the misty weather that fell. Fewer people patrolled the side street, making it easier for Amryth to navigate. She turned for a moment, her eyes still looking forward. “Not too much farther now.”

The street opened up to a wide avenue, which they quickly crossed, dodging another horseless carriage.

At the head sat a man, hands held in front of him and eyes focused in the direction he traveled.

Though confused, Marietta was happy she didn’t mistake the earlier carriage.

Perhaps she wasn’t losing her mind after all.

The rain started to fall steadily as they turned down another street.

Marietta gasped as she saw the temples, all columned with steps climbing from their raised landing down to the circular street.

Through gaps in the crowd, she glimpsed a temple of red-veined marble with vibrant crimson banners hanging between ornate columns.

The one across from it was of taupe stone and gray banners.

The color of the temples pulled at her memory, reminding her of the temple districts found in Enomenos.

Though she had friends in the temples, she never remembered which god or goddess belonged to which color.

Her parents never joined a temple, so Marietta grew up without knowing much about them.

As she grew older, her friends had shared more details, but she never had a reason to practice.

Even as some of the colors tugged at her memory, nothing surfaced.

Statues dotted the fronts of each temple, the ones from the black stoned temple being the most notable. At street level, they passed a carved man crying out in pain as he gripped his chest. The temples in Enomenos didn’t have those.

Amryth led her to where the crowd was thickest. Marietta caught the gaze of a smiling woman in a yellow tunic, breath catching when she saw her ears. A blunted arch like her own. A half-elf in Satiros—someone like her.

They approached a temple of white stone, columned with cerulean banners, marked with a black serpent, hanging beneath a relief depicting a brutal fighting scene.

Cypress bushes and other greenery broke up the stone steps and building, dressing the white stone in bright shades of green.

Before the entrance, towering above her there was a statue of a woman nearly as tall as three men.

The relaxed face had a slight smile on her full lips.

A wide nose sat beneath large, rounded eyes, and a hand extended out before her, beckoning to Marietta.

With her gaze locked onto the statue, Marietta nearly tripped going up the steps, but Amryth caught her.

The statue’s eyes seemed to follow her, call to her. They were gentle, kind, yet realistic and showed the pain she felt.

Beyond the columns, at the top of the stairs, was a double set of opened doors.

A dark-skinned man in a blue tunic and silvered armor stood to the side laughing with a man in plain clothes.

Scruff lined his face, thinner than what grew on a human, but the presence of facial hair was enough of a clue—he was a half-elf, the second she’d seen in Satiros.

Marietta met his gaze as they walked through, his smile dropping with a look of shock.

Amryth held up her hand. Less a hello and more a warning. “Later,” was all she offered as she pulled Marietta into the building.

Ornate statues lined the antechamber to either side, the space wide and open. Scenes of people receiving healing lined one wall, scenes of people screaming in pain lined the other.

Amryth guided her down the bright hallway, passing more attendants in bright blue, some robed, others donning a tunic, and a few in armor, like the man out front. The deeper they went, the stronger the scent of eucalyptus and peppermint grew.

The hall ended in a towering room, benches lining the space with people sitting in silent prayer.

They all faced the altar at the front of the room.

A statue that matched the figure out front towered above them, her face the same.

However, inside the temple, she knelt on one knee with waves of hair flowing away from her body and her hand extended to lie flush with the ground.

A person in the same blue as the others occupied the hand, kneeling before the statue.