Page 12 of House of Dusk

“Suffering would be more accurate,” said Halimede. “The skotoi feast on the pains and fears of the dead. As each spirit cleanses itself, it leaves behind such things. Some legends say the Serpent created the skotoi for that purpose, to keep his labyrinth from becoming choked with their poison.”

“So if one of them managed to escape, they’d be hunting the same thing. Someone stuffed full of pain and shame.” If so, best to remove the fatted pig from the table. “Agia, please, won’t you—”

“Enough, sister.” Halimede was starting to look irritated, but Sephre could not stop herself.

“You gave Brother Dolon the Embrace,” she accused. “Why him, and not me?”

The agia regarded her coolly. “That is not your concern. And you should know better than to ask.”

The reprimand stung. As it should. She was being mulish, childish.

“You swore to honor me as your agia,” Halimede reminded her, not unkindly. “To follow the rules of this order.”

True. All true. The more fool her for doing so. Had she learned nothing from the last time she made herself someone else’s tool? Trusted someone else to command her?

But Halimede was not Hierax. Sephre drew a steadying breath. “I’m sorry, Agia. I was out of line.” She bent her head, both in contrition, and to avoid the agia’s piercing and far-too-sharp gaze.

“I accept your apology.” Halimede sighed. “And I see your struggles, sister. I recognize the burden you carry.”

But you will not let me set it down. Sephre caught the thought before it could show on her face. Instead she asked, wearily, “What now? Will you send word to the king?”

“No.”

Given that she’d just been chastised for impertinence, Sephre ought to have held her tongue.

“Why not? Why risk making Hierax our enemy? Wouldn’t it be better to have him as an ally?

” The king might be a vainglorious ass, but he did have a highly trained and competent army.

If the skotoi truly had returned—and if there were worse to come—the ashdancers could only do so much.

As Beroe said, there were simply not enough of them.

The agia folded her lips tight, her expression turned inward. Sephre tried again. “There’s something else going on, isn’t there? Some reason you don’t trust Hierax.”

“If only it were so simple as that.” Halimede’s shoulders drooped, making her seem suddenly small and tired and worn. There were dark blotches under her eyes. Why hadn’t Sephre noticed them earlier? Because you were too caught up in your own concerns, that’s why.

“Please, Agia,” she said. “You said you needed me. If that was true, then tell me what I can do. Tell me what you’re afraid of.”

Halimede did not answer immediately. She stared into her cupped hands. A single spark of blue kindled there, unwavering. “I swore an oath to the agia before me, on the day he named me his heir. The same oath he swore to the agia before him, and she to her predecessor, and so on. Back to Cerydon.”

Sephre shook her head, not recognizing the name.

“Cerydon was agia three centuries ago. They led Stara Bron through the terror and unrest of the cataclysm.”

So they would have been alive at the same time as Heraklion. Maybe even known him. “What was the oath?”

The blue flame flickered. “To keep something safe. Something entrusted to Cerydon all those years ago.”

“Safe from what?”

“From the Ember King. Lest we bring about a second cataclysm.”

“But the Ember King was a hero,” Sephre blurted out. “He ended the cataclysm.”

Halimede lifted her gaze. “According to the official histories, yes.”

Sephre opened her lips, but found she had no protest. The official histories called her a hero, too. She had ended a war, too.

“What’s the truth, then?” she asked. “What really happened?”

“The truth.” Halimede gave a wry snort. “Is there any truth, other than what we see, here, in the moment? The past burns to ash and the future is beyond our sight.”

“Very poetic,” said Sephre. “But it doesn’t answer the question.”

Halimede pursed her lips. “I’ve told you all I can. If there were more details, they did not survive the retellings.”

“Do you know what it is? The thing we need to keep safe?”

Blue flames sparked in Halimede’s eyes. “Yes. But that is something I swore not to speak of to anyone but the ashdancer who will be agia after me.”

“That’s fine,” said Sephre hastily. “I don’t need to know.” She seized her teacup, as if it could shield her from the agia’s expectant gaze. “Right now I’m more worried about the skotoi. The star sign. This isn’t a coincidence.”

Halimede stared at her a moment longer before nodding. “No. Cerydon warned that there would be signs. That there are those who carry the weight of the past, even if they do not know it. Many things may be reborn, not just the Ember King.”

A flicker of ice licked up Sephre’s spine. There was something strange in the way Halimede’s eyes held her. But before she could name it, the woman looked away, saying, “We need more information.”

“Somehow I doubt the Serpent is going to come knocking at our door, begging to explain his nefarious plans.”

Halimede gave a grim smile. “No. But there is an opportunity to learn more. And perhaps it will soothe your fears that your presence here endangers Stara Bron.” She gestured to the map sprawled across the nearby table.

“I have a task that would take you from the temple for a time. It’s not without risk, but it could gain us answers. ”

“What task?”

Halimede tapped a wrinkled finger to the northwest of Stara Bron.

Another marker rested there, beside a dot labeled Potedia .

A village some seven miles from the temple, with a populace that was more sheep than people.

They tithed a small supply of woolen cloth each year.

Sephre had traveled there once with Sibling Abas, years ago, to perform a cleansing of the tombs.

They had stopped along the way to collect a particular species of creeping pergem that grew in the high meadows.

It took Sephre a moment longer to recollect the significance of the marker. Or rather, the number 48 painted onto the wood. She sucked in a breath.

“Another death?”

“The most recent yet. They found him yesterday eve.”

“So you want me to go and examine the body? Check it for snakebite?”

“It was snakebite. The tomb keeper’s death report said as much.”

“And...did he have the same mark as the girl Iola?”

“He wouldn’t know to look for it. Thus far we’ve only instructed the tomb keepers to report deaths by snakebite,” said Halimede. “You will go and see for yourself. Check the body for the mark. Or any other worrying signs.”

“Like if it gets up and tries to kill me?” Sephre offered wryly.

Halimede’s lips crimped. “Indeed. Which leads to your second task. Even the invocation of the merciful flame could not guard Iola’s soul.

It seems we need a stronger deterrent. Once you have completed your examination, you will invoke the consuming flame.

We must not allow another demon into this world. ”

Sephre’s breath caught. The consuming flame was the most potent rite she knew, save for the Embrace itself.

But rarely used, and for good reason. It utterly incinerated the corpse, removing any possibility of it being inhabited by a skotos.

But in doing so, it deprived the soul of their connection to the mortal world, and the prayers and grave goods that might grant them strength during the trials of the netherworld.

Halimede arched a brow. “I realize you’ve spent much of your time in the herbarium these past years, but I trust you haven’t forgotten your training?”

“No,” Sephre found her voice again. “It’s just...”

“It is better than the alternative,” said Halimede. “The family will understand. It is our highest blessing, after all.”

We’ll see about that. But Sephre nodded, recognizing the logic. “Anything else?”

“Be wary,” said Halimede. “And watchful. The demons have already come for you once. And they may have a mortal agent.”

“The green-eyed stranger?” Sephre scoffed. “I’ll be fine. I can take care of myself.”

“I have no doubt of that. But you will not be traveling alone.”