Page 66 of House of Dusk

YENERIS

“A ren’t you worried your father will find out?” Yeneris asked, as she and Sinoe made their way out along the gravel path to the athletic field. “I thought he didn’t want you speaking with the Scarthian emissaries.”

“We’re not speaking with anyone,” Sinoe said. “We just happened to be passing by on the way to the shrine, and saw my brother, and stopped to say hello.”

“Your brother, who just happens to be sparring with the ambassador’s son.”

Sinoe rolled her eyes. “I know, yes, fine, it doesn’t look entirely innocent, but Father’s got plenty of other distractions right now. Agia Beroe’s barge is nearly to the docks, and he wants a grand procession to welcome her. Get the people all fired up for their new queen’s rebirth.”

They found the prince and Hura in a wide sandy sparring ring, both armed with blunted spears.

They were both quite skilled to Yeneris’s eye, though her training had leaned more toward small secret blades than spears.

Lord Hura seemed to have a slight advantage, landing a sharp crack to the back of the prince’s knees as they approached.

Spotting Sinoe, he broke off the attack, dipping his head.

“Princess Sinoe. You bless us with your presence, as always.”

Sinoe snorted. “It’s certainly a blessing for my brother. It looks as if I just saved you from a proper trouncing, Ichos.”

The prince scowled. “I was doing fine. That was a good trick there, though,” he added, glancing to Hura. “I didn’t even see it coming.”

“Few do,” said Hura. “But I’d be happy to teach you. Today seems to be a day for learning new things.”

His eyes rested on Sinoe briefly, and his smile sharpened. “That’s a lovely hair ornament, princess. Is it new?”

Sinoe brushed a careless hand over her dark hair, which had been twisted up atop her head, held by the amber pin. “Yes. A gift, from someone I love very much.” Her voice wobbled slightly. “A generous gift.”

“Ah. I’m sure they will be pleased to know that you appreciate it.”

“I do,” said Sinoe. “I would very much like to see them again. But that isn’t possible right now. Perhaps after my father’s wedding. I have duties here. Responsibilities I cannot abandon.”

Hura’s smile became slightly fixed. He glanced toward Ichos. “Yes. Your brother told me some of this. But princess, surely you can leave those duties to others. You have an opportunity now. It may not come again.”

Sinoe drew in a breath, shading her eyes as she glanced around the empty field. “No,” she said, her voice lower, serious now, for all that she continued to smile as if in the midst of some trivial conversation about the weather. “Ichos told you about Lacheron, yes?”

Hura tamped the butt of his spear into the sandy ground. “He told me a pack of wild-wind tales. The sort of thing my grandfather sang over the fire at midwinter.”

“I know,” said Sinoe. “But this is real. Yen and I saw it. Saw him ordering the skotoi. Heard him speaking with that nasty, nameless thing in the brazier.” She turned to Yeneris for confirmation.

It was still strange to be a part of such conversations. Yeneris was so used to standing on the edges. Being unseen. Being the watcher, not the watched. But these were her allies now. And there was too much at stake not to speak plainly. As her full self.

She turned to Hura. “Did your father ever tell you the story of creation?”

It was Ichos who answered. “His father? What does that have to do with this?”

“It’s an old Bassaran story,” Yeneris answered, seeing Hura nodding to himself, a grim understanding hardening his expression. “My mother told it to me.”

Her throat tightened. They all knew what she was.

That this was a part of her. And the story was important.

Still, she had a brief, terrible vision of Mikat, growling at her for every tiny lapse, every time she let a trace of her accent tinge even a single word.

Slapping her hand when she started to make one of the old warding signs.

But she’d made her choice, and she would hold to it. She would show Mikat there was more than one path to a renewed Bassara. It was the kore she served, not Mikat.

“It’s the story of how the world came to be,” she explained. “All was churn and void, until Chaos birthed her five children, so that they might give order and structure to the world.”

“Five?” Ichos repeated. “But there are four children of Chaos.”

“The first one, the eldest, desired to shape the world to his own designs, alone. And because he was first, he was the most powerful. He devoured his younger siblings.”

Sinoe poked Ichos in the shoulder. “Remember that, little brother.”

Ichos rolled his eyes. “You’re only ten minutes older than me.” He looked back to Yeneris. “So then what? How did they escape?”

“By creating us. People. Mortals. The Scarab—or the Beetle, as you call her—gave us flesh, and the Phoenix gave us spirit, and the Sphinx gave us thought, and the Serpent gave us...” Yeneris hesitated, searching for the right word.

“Emotion is probably the closest word for it in Helissoni,” said Hura. “And yes, I have heard the story. How mortal warriors freed the four younger children of Chaos, who then joined forces against their elder brother and cast him into the abyss and sealed him away forever.”

“Not forever,” said Yeneris. “He promised he would break free. That one day he would rise again and consume this world, and remake it alone.”

“Fates.” Sinoe looked slightly ill. “So that’s who you think Lacheron is working for?

“It’s...one possibility.”

“A horrible, horrible possibility. Which means it’s probably true.” Sinoe pinched the bridge of her nose. “I can see why the Fates want to stop it. So that’s why the Ember King wanted the Serpent destroyed? Because he thought it would help the first one break free?”

“It would make sense,” said Hura. “If the four younger gods sealed the first one with their power, then breaking that power might break the seal.”

“Or weaken it,” suggested Yeneris, thinking of the hazy lines of ancient palaces hidden below the sea. Of a once-mighty empire, shattered and fallen.

Sinoe looked to her brother. “Ichos said there’s some mystic out there trying to bring the Serpent back. Would that help?”

“Lacheron doesn’t seem to think so,” said Yeneris. “He brought the dagger back here. He’s got other plans for it.”

“There are three more children of Chaos.” Hura’s knuckles had gone pale, gripping the spear.

“And if he has his way, one of them is going to manifest right here in three days,” said Sinoe. “The Phoenix.”

“It could be even worse than that,” said Hura, darkly.

Sinoe gave a high, humorless laugh. “Really? Worse than breaking one more seal unlocking a divine power that wants to destroy everything?”

“The kore,” said Hura. “She may not be the Helissoni’s Faithful Maiden, but Lacheron could have another use for her.

She was from the House of Midnight. Dedicated to the Scarab.

According to our legends—” his gaze shifted briefly to Yeneris, and she felt the warmth of that our —“the kore bound herself to the god-beast of earth, to hold back the cataclysm. To quell the shaking earth and keep Bassara from falling into the sea like so much else of the old empire.”

They all fell silent then. Sinoe pressed herself closer to Yeneris, who fought the urge to sweep an arm around the other woman.

Ichos and Hura wouldn’t care, but to any other eye she must be only a bodyguard.

She cast her gaze across the training grounds, taking note of a handful of soldiers and servants. Any of them might be Lacheron’s spy.

“There are too many eyes here,” she said. “We shouldn’t linger much longer, princess. You’ll be missed.”

Sinoe made an impatient noise. “Yes, yes, no time for war councils when there’s a gown to be fitted.

At least I’ll look dazzling for the end of the world.

Right, so, obviously we need to stop this.

” She looked at Hura then. “I know what my mother sent you here to do. But I’m not the one who needs to be rescued.

We need to get the kore’s bones away from here. ”

Her hand brushed Yeneris’s, fingers twining tight.

Hura’s gaze slid from Sinoe to Yeneris, then back again.

“We can do both. It would be the perfect opportunity for you to flee as well, princess. I can have my people ready to waylay the palanquin once it leaves the palace. Yeneris can return the kore to her contacts, and I can take you north. Your mother has already arranged safe passage, so long as we can reach Vigil Pass.”

“No,” Sinoe said, resolutely. “I need to face my father. He needs to hear the truth, for once. He needs to understand what Lacheron is.”

Hura shook his head. “I don’t like it.”

Ichos crossed his arms. “I don’t like it either. What makes you think Father will believe you? He’s been the Ember King for half our lives. He’s too proud to give that up. It’s who he is.”

“He’ll believe it because the Fates will tell him so,” said Sinoe. “And they’ll do so in public, before his entire court, and the ashdancers. Even if he doesn’t believe it, they will. Prophecy made him king. Now it can unmake him.”

“And what about the real Ember King?” Hura asked. “He has the blade of oblivion. And Agia Beroe.”

“But he won’t have the kore’s bones. Without a dead maiden to raise, he has no excuse to summon the Phoenix. So you see, it’s all under control.” She squeezed Yeneris’s hand as she spoke, giving her a bright smile.

Warmth flooded Yeneris at the touch. Her chest ached. Maybe it would always ache at the sight of Sinoe.

And yet her nerves flickered. The smile was bright, yes, but brittle. She thought of how the princess had once teased her, telling her she wasn’t afraid of dying because she’d seen her own death. She’d claimed it was only a joke.

“Sinoe,” said Yeneris, “have you seen something?”

“I see a lot of things,” she said. “I see a beautiful woman standing beside me who really shouldn’t be frowning like that.”