Page 35 of Traitor Witch (The Deadwood #1)

Chapter Thirty-Five

NILSA

I 'm halfway through my meal before Petra and Sophie reappear, taking their seats at a small table set slightly apart from the rest. The other witches treat them with a casual kind of reverence, bowing as they pass, but otherwise they're content to allow the High Priestesses a moment to enjoy their meal without too much pomp and circumstance.

Reva, Elsie, and the rest of our table ignore them, for the most part, but it doesn't take long for me to be summoned. The Solar who approaches the table is soft-spoken, mild in a way that makes Elsie seem almost Lunar by comparison.

"The High Priestesses asked if you would join them," she says, bowing softly and disappearing before I can reply.

"I guess we'll see you round?" Reva asks.

"Of course," I agree, "I want the full tour of this place."

The rest of the table starts calling out suggestions, Solars and Lunars alike bombarding Reva with places to show me as I pick up my plate and head for the high priestesses' table.

They're both staring at me, waiting there like perfect mirrors of one another. Sophie is relaxed, if a little cautious, while Petra looks like she'd rather be anywhere else.

I bow softly before taking a seat opposite them.

"How are you settling in?" Sophie asks.

How does she honestly expect me to be settling in after all the revelations Petra dropped on me earlier?

"It's good to be back among my own kind." That much is true, at least.

"If you're feeling recovered, we thought you might want to get started learning about the Eagle of Galmere's allies in case they need to be eliminated."

"Alright." Why is Sophie broaching this and not Petra? A Mother Solar speaking so openly about killing is strange to say the least. "I assumed most of the problems would come from her guard but Reva mentioned she has mages on her side."

Petra scoffs. "No. If it was just an army of humans, any witch could get past the walls."

"She has powerful, immortal allies." Sophie shoots Petra a look. "Her main ally is in the Mage High Councilman, Everett Castleman, but she also has a powerful ally called the Alchemist."

"Another mage?"

Petra's expression turns thunderous. "No. A witch."

I gape at her. "Who?"

"No one you will have heard of." Sophie interjects. "Lily was an exile long before even Petra was born."

"The point is," Petra grumbles. "You will need to be prepared for all kinds of attacks. Lily is a powerful witch, and anyone who underestimates a Castleman mage is an idiot."

"Why would a witch help the Queen?" I mutter, taking a small bite of food. "Even exiles serve the Goddess."

"Lily chose a different path. One which has led her to madness." Sophie gets quieter as she speaks. "Though she was once a Solar, she no longer counts herself one of us or holds herself to our vow of non-violence. Her powers are formidable, and we have no idea what abilities she might have developed over the centuries she's been in hiding. We didn't even know she was still alive until..."

"Until she was mentioned in Glenna's letters," Petra spits. "No wonder so many of my students died when they went into the palace completely unprepared to fight an elder witch on top of the shifter and mage guards." Her hands fist around her cutlery, knuckles turning white. "She will be a tough and unpredictable opponent. Even I would struggle to go up against her."

Petra unclenches her hand from her knife long enough to grab her goblet of wine and down it in one.

I wonder if she's thinking about her own mates facing an elder witch.

"So you didn't face her when you went after the Eagle yourself?"

The glare she gives me is withering. "Obviously not."

Is that all she's going to say on the subject? How am I supposed to know what I'm up against if the one person who's come back from the palace won't tell me?

"That Lily still has the ability to draw power when she's abandoned the teachings of Mother Sunlight worries me," Sophie interjects before I can say anything, taking a sip of water. "As an elder, she knows magic that the rest of us can scarcely dream of. You should not engage her directly if it can be avoided."

Petra scoffs. "You have a week to learn, and the first day will be wasted while you heal your new sigils."

I suppress a shudder. "More sigils?" After all the ones Alletta inked into my skin, I hoped I'd be done with sigils for at least the next few decades.

"Yes. Shadows have their own marks. Ones which help with our unique gifts." Was it my imagination or did Petra seem a little sympathetic?

Great.

"Anyone else I should know about?"

"The usual: mage traps, shifter guards, and human ingenuity." Petra doesn't even look up as she says it, and it's starting to annoy me.

"Come on, you've been there. You must know something more than that."

"Yes. I've been there. I was cut down right outside the Queen's bedroom four hundred years ago ," Petra grouches. "I saved every memory I had and prepared my students to face the same. Even if they hadn't upped security all these centuries later, my information hasn't helped any other Shadow get as far as I did."

She shoves away from the table, leaving her food mostly untouched as she stalks towards the stairs.

Sophie just sighs.

“Forgive her, Nilsa. She has lost a lot and your being here has her more on edge than usual."

"She seems like she hates me."

"Petra is... she has a complicated relationship with her Goddess." The Mother Solar spears a potato delicately with her fork and chews slowly before continuing. "In her mind, she is being punished for her failure. Although that is not how our great deities work, the Moon Mother's efforts to protect her can seem like that at times."

"Her ageing?"

"She is still a great warrior. She has the power to do all she once could. But the Goddess insists Petra remains at Sanctum to preserve the knowledge of the Shadows and allow the future Lunar High Priestess time to come of age." Sophie glances over the crowd and I wonder, for a second, if the High Priestess knows who will be chosen as Petra's successor .

"Her ageing worsens when she tries to leave, and Petra—for all her faults—will not allow the lore of the Shadows to die with her. So she has remained here, bitter with loss, for too long. Her days are spent watching Cawshome sink further into true darkness and praying for someone to kill the Queen so she can just let go and join her mates in the stars."

"Until she got the order to kill Glenna and Felicity," I grumble.

"Until then," Sophie agrees. "When she learned that, not only was there a last Shadow, but Glenna had been perverting the Goddess's plans while another of our own kind was aiding the Eagle."

"Are we certain that Lily is doing it by choice?" I ask. "She could be being coerced."

"No. She may have been a Solar, but she was never weak..." Sophie stares off into the horizon, eyes raking the sea. "I'm not certain of her motives, but there is a chance—No. The speculation of an old woman helps no one. Avoid her, Nilsa. The Goddess did not call for her death, not yet. Perhaps simply killing the Eagle of Galmere, the root of the problem, will be sufficient to let the exile see the error of her ways."

My eyes follow hers to the waves. "When I was travelling here, I met another exile..."

"Alletta," Sophie says. "She is a strange one. Perhaps the only one still living who is as old as Lily."

"She summoned the power of both Goddesses."

The lost, vacant expression that took over Sophie's face is gone in an instant. "Such things are not to be spoken of."

I'm not giving up that easily. "We were always taught that calling on both was impossible. That the Goddesses would strike us down for trying."

"That is all you need to know."

"It's not the truth though, is it? "

Sophie clams up, the impassiveness icing over her features. "It must be enough. Do not dwell on a strange rogue at the edge of the world, Nilsa. Focus on the Queen, the threat she poses, and your duty to your Goddess." A soft smile plays at the edge of her lips. "And try not to be too hard on Petra. Remember, I have to deal with her on a daily basis once you've finished riling her up."

I recognise the dismissal for what it is. I stand and bow, leaving my half-eaten meal on the table beside Petra's.

If I'm getting more sigils, I'll just end up fighting to keep the food down in a few hours, anyway.

I find myself wandering away from the gathered crowd as I contemplate what I've just learned. Although my soul is starved for the simple, easy companionship of a Lunar coven, my mind is starting to doubt witches as a whole.

Sophie's reticence to share her thoughts would have been an understandable side-effect of being a High Priestess to me, less than a month ago.

Now that Glenna and Danika have outright manipulated and lied to me, I'm not quite so trusting.

The Goddesses might be divine, but their servants keep secrets. I can't decide if Sophie is trying to protect her witches, or is just another high priestess who wants me to kill on command.

Ugh. Life was so much simpler before I left Coveton.

"I don't think these people mean to use us like that." Opal twines around my feet, drawing me out of my thoughts enough that I realise I've gravitated to the railing looking out over the damned sea without meaning to. "Petra wouldn't have told us about your harem if that was the case. A Lunar alone is much easier to control, which is why Glenna kept them secret from you."

"But there are things they're not telling us." Big things.

"So has everyone we've met." Opal's dry words are not what I want to hear, but they're true. "Even your harem was lying to us. I'm not saying we trust them about everything, but Petra is a Shadow. At the very least, we can learn from her. We have to kill the Queen, anyway. She manipulated us and Glenna. Not to mention the fae bargain she holds over your males.”

"When we've killed the Queen, I want to look into Alletta and this 'Alchemist.'” I stare out over the waves as I absently scratch her ears. "I want to judge for myself if it's something they should be keeping from the other witches."

"Maybe we can learn something about it from Petra?"

"If she doesn't kill me first."