Page 3 of The Garnet Daughter (The Viridian Priestess #3)
Chapter
Three
PRESENT
I heard tales of Cosima’s cruelty and still I came. In my life, I was reminded constantly of the priestess order’s corruption, and now I have flown close enough to the heart of such crimes to sense the warmth of one of its temple’s burning.
The relief of that scorching heat cooling from my skin is instant the moment I fold back into our safe house on the outskirts of the city, my final view the eyes of my dearest friend, panicked and desperate for help replacing the city’s protection ward that was destroyed as Cosima’s highest priestess took her last breath.
Leaving Ferren was difficult, but not letting my gift overtake me as I cling on to my desired destination without my mind tugging at something else becomes a new all-consuming focus.
My entire body wants to retreat to safety, but I fight against it, forcing it to complete the path I must go.
My gift has never appeared like that, and something inside me frays just a little from going against it.
My feet touch the safe house’s floor and I sprint to the room I have stayed in these last few weeks.
The books I brought with me are arranged neatly on the modest dresser within it.
The one I seek is inside, hidden under the clothes I have acquired since my departure from Frith.
I shove them to the side, looking for the spell book that has kept me from sleep with its secrets for many nights.
The pages are so thin, they are almost transparent and would take months to read to completion.
“Where is it?” I whisper to myself and push more clothing out of the way until panic takes over and I strip it of the entire contents.
The faint ring of the Estate’s bell is audible as I switch to another drawer, the flames engulfing the Temple of Divine Mothers likely growing so tall it can be seen even from this part of the city.
I rip out the last drawer and dump everything inside.
It’s not here. The spell book is gone.
I run my hands down my face, defeated and perplexed of what to do next, but then a strange sound rings in my ears, a high-pitched wind increasing in power and then a blast so loud my ears pop.
The distant noise came from the Estate, a world-crumbling explosion I have only heard when a Frithian mountain shakes in tremor and its boulders come loose, wreaking havoc in their wake.
I steady myself on the doorframe and search around the safe house, desperate to locate that book I thought was safely kept with my possessions. Whatever that sound was, it means I need to be quicker.
“Calliape!” August’s voice cuts through the walls, as frantic and searching as I am within them.
He bursts into the windowless home inside the skyship hangar and pants in the doorway once his eyes fall to mine.
Suddenly, I realize where my body was pulling me to, the location it truly wanted to fold instead of here, to the safety of his ship.
Another trembling explosion rumbles down from the Estate and we both duck on instinct.
“99 sent word you were coming back here!” he yells over the booming sound of more bells and citizens outside screaming.
“We have to find the spell book!” I run into Selene’s room, the only other place that would make sense.
“What book?” He follows me into the threshold as I rip the room apart.
“She took it. I know it.” I lift her mattress and there it is. Stuffed between the base is the thick book of spells she thought necessary to take from me. “The ward is down. We need this to place another.”
I walk to the dining room, where artificial lights can illuminate the words better, and flip through the thin pages, hunting for the spell I came across weeks ago and then pausing.
“We can’t stay in here,” August warns. “We need to get to the ship in case there is another explosion. These walls cannot protect us from their weapons.”
I glance up at him, searching his face and trying to make sense of his words, of more dangers now present in just the short time I have left the others.
“Calliape.” He stands in the doorway and flicks his fingers, begging me to come with him. “There is a First Son ship near the Estate. They are attacking and more may come.”
“The others?” Terror runs through me from picturing the damage that explosion must have done to the very building our friends dwell in.
“They’re alive. But we need to go. Do you have what you came for?”
“Yes,” I say on an exhale of relief.
The moment I grip his hand, he pulls me toward the door and I fold us both into the cockpit of his ship. He is so used to the transition now, he doesn’t even stumble over his next steps to his command station’s blinking lights.
I watch him lean over it, pressing the comm and asking 99 for an update with so much urgency in his voice. The wait for a reply is agonizing. I can see the moment August’s shoulders drop in impatient defeat, sending a sour twist in my guts.
Static cracks over the silence. “Standby.”
“Was that them?” I demand.
He nods without turning his head toward me.
The static continues again, 99’s voice a mix of commands to the others around him in the Estate and updates to August before it cuts out again. All the while, my heart beats so forcefully, the pulse in my ears drowns out the news on our friends I am desperate to hear.
August turns to me, wiping his hands down his face. “First Son’s army breached the grand hall. They are clearing it now.”
“We have to meet them in the main temple,” I say, trying to keep hope they will reach it.
He nods. “99 will comm again when they arrive.”
“First Son’s army is inside the Estate,” I repeat aloud, trying to picture the turmoil my loved ones are facing.
“Calliape, look at me.” August crosses the cockpit, calling back my dazed attention. “The Viathan commanders can handle it. There are no other ships visible in the area. I know it is difficult to wait.” He reaches for my arm, a soothing gesture, but it sends an angry sting to my elbow.
I wince and recoil my limb against myself and notice a red patch of burnt skin already oozing clear liquid as it tries to heal itself.
His jaw clenches as he looks at the wound, fingertips hovering over it before he searches my face, expecting an answer.
“The Temple of Divine Mothers—” I begin, unsure of how much 99 updated him on as we waited for Ferren and Selene to exit the burning temple. I hold it closer, the numbing adrenaline giving way to fiery pain as I acknowledge the injury.
“What happened? Tell me.” His brows furrow as if he knows he will not like the answer before it is even said.
“There were elder priestesses inside. They fought Selene and Ferren. One of them burned me as I held her for Ferren’s light.”
“Did Ferren kill her?”
“Yes.”
“Good.” His serious tone surprises me, as if he would find the elder and kill her himself if Ferren didn’t. “We should take care of the wound.”
I force myself to hold the limb naturally. “We don’t have time. The highest priestess is dead as well. That is why the ward is down.”
He nods in blank understanding. The details, I doubt 99 would say over a comm when Ferren is so closely involved.
“They sent you back to fix the city’s ward?”
“To collect the spell book and for you,” I cut in. “To help in the temple. I don’t imagine we will be welcome inside.”
He watches me for a moment and then points to the book. “That will fix it?”
“Maybe. Selene thinks there could be others like it in the main temple, but if not . . .” My eyes drift to the ancient binding.
He presses a sequence on a compartment beneath the pilot’s chair, rummaging inside the moment it opens. Compact Viathan guns and blades are withdrawn from the low cabinet, and he straps one to his boot and several on his waist.
“I know you won’t take a gun. So here.” He presents a retractable knife. “Keep this on you.”
“No.” I don’t want it. We’re going to be folding back into the belly of whatever battle is within the Estate, and I cannot protect myself or anyone with a knife when First Son has weapons that made stone walls crumble like pebbles.
“I have to read from the spell book. It will be pointless.” I heft the open book in both my hands to show him its size.
“Just take it,” he demands.
“Will you not be near me? I just thought—” I stop the stream of thoughts that has now been made known aloud.
He smiles slightly. “Yes, Calliape. I will be close. You have my protection while you place the ward. The knife is for my own peace of mind.”
As soon as I nod, he squats and secures it to my boot, the tug and pull of the strap being fastened bumping me off balance.
“I need to find the right spell.” I rest my hand on his shoulder while he finishes to compensate for the slight tilt of my body. But when I see him stop and inspect the wound on my arm in his eyeline, I step back, assuming he’s finished.
“I will tend to it once the ward is placed.” I give him a flat look because I know if I do not assure him, he will pester me with his worry. A trait of his I am all too familiar with after the last time I was injured.
“We should be ready for their word. We need to move once 99 gives the all clear.” He clears his throat and rises.
“I can’t even imagine what is happening in there right now.”
A sickening sensation in my stomach I cannot control pulls at the tendons in my body, like part of me is trying to fold the distance while the rest will remain behind. I fight to stay here when a sudden wave of terror spills in from the other side, a warning not to fold to my friends yet.
“This is our part. We wait and you focus on placing the ward. Think of nothing else.” August waits for me to agree, not willing to turn back to the command station until I do.
When he speaks like this, it’s clear he is worried.
The serious tone has only come out in the most dire of times since I have known him.
Gone is the lighthearted man that tries so hard to make me smile with him, and instead his sole focus changes into making sure I am safe, that the job is done.
Two facets of him I admire equally, both needed in different ways.
I sit in the nearest chair and open the spell book, balancing it on my lap as I flip through the delicate pages. “I hope Selene finds what she is looking for in the temple.”
August glances over his shoulder, reminding me to stay focused on the task I was appointed and nothing else.
I ignore the sounds in the surrounding city and August’s back and forth with the other Viathan ships docked within its walls.
My finger runs over the title of each chapter, some so ancient Ferren mentioned them being used during the war with First Son when the worlds were still one.
I scan through until I find the heading about general warding spells and dog-ear the page in case I can find nothing else.
“August.” 99’s voice makes me jump. It’s sturdy and calm and I am certain at least it signifies Ferren is alive.
“Copy.”
“We are on the move toward the temple, standby.”
My attention snaps to August strapping more weapons to his body. “Any minute now,” he tells me.
“I think I have enough.” I flip back to the spells on wards and mark the one closest to our need.
He stands next to me, leaning against the wall at my side and anticipating another message from 99 so we can fold the moment it comes in.
I clasp the book across my chest, afraid of the splitting sensation I felt moments ago returning and taking me over.
“I don’t know what we are walking into, but if anyone can fix this, it’s you.” He looks down at me.
“Thank you, August.” My leg bounces with anxiety.
“We stick together,” he says flatly.
He means it as a statement, but it comes out so soft it sounds like a plea. I repeat it back firmer, and he smiles just a little and leans his head back against the wall behind us, closing his eyes and readying himself like he often does when I take him with me across a longer distance.
We wait in silence for so long I close my eyes too, focusing my breath.
The humming of the ship blots out most of the bells and Viathan alarms going off around us.
The flashing lights in the cockpit make colorful shadows across my closed lids, the ship ready for August to command it to leave and take us to safety.
I jump to my feet as my ears pop from the sound of Ferren reaching out in my mind’s eye. She says my name like a simple plea and nothing else, and the tone in her voice terrifies me. I lean toward it, cracking open the doors to fold to the chaos on the other side.
“What is it?” August stands more alert by my silent reaction.
“It’s Ferren. She called out.”
“We should wait for 99’s command.” He crosses the space to the receiver.
“We have to go now.” I reach for his forearm at the same moment he understands just how serious it may be to receive the message this way. He holds onto me as I pull us both across the city in a single step and land in the cold temple of the priestess order.