Chapter 16

CHAPTER 16

WREN

‘Do you think it will work?’ Wren asked again, pacing across the floor with her hands knotting together in front of her. The light from the stained-glass windows fell in a blur of colours on the flagstones beneath her feet, and shadows danced with firelight on the walls, but otherwise the room was dark. Lady Oriole sat by the fire, her eyes fixed on the flames as if to burn them from her head. She clearly did not approve of Hestia’s plan, but now she was restored to them, Hestia Rayden outranked her. And perhaps Oriole was not so terribly overjoyed about that, though she tried to hide it. They were part of a hierarchy, after all.

‘It’s all we can hope for at the moment,’ Hestia replied. She still looked washed out and exhausted, dark circles staining the skin beneath her eyes. She sat in the chair opposite Oriole, wrapped in furs but she still shivered though the room was sweltering. ‘If not, we’ll have to try something else. Leander has to believe that you have fully embraced the Nox.’

‘And perhaps she should,’ Oriole interrupted. ‘It does not do to make mockery of such powers, Hestia. Not even for you. Either of you. No good will come of it. You are asking her to walk the sacred path. The Nox will demand a price for that.’

‘I understand, Oriole, and I promise we are not taking any of this for granted. The Nox will have her due. Isn’t that right, Wren?’

Wren swallowed hard on her suddenly tight throat. That was another thing she didn’t want to consider.

‘And we will make Leander king of Ilanthus?’ she asked, hoping to change the subject.

‘So long as we save Finnian, that’s all that matters,’ Hestia replied coldly. ‘If Leander wears the crown it won’t be for long. I have seen?—’

‘I know what you’ve seen,’ Oriole snapped irritably. ‘We all know. But this is not the way of our people. The Nox chooses the king. We do not trade the crown away for our own ends.’

Hestia waved an elegant hand at Wren. ‘And she is the Nox. And that crown he would wear is a mere trinket. He wants the Crown of the Nox, doesn’t he? To place on her head and make her his.’

‘Would that be a bad thing? Having a channel for its power, focusing it? The Nox is not…not entirely sane, Hestia. Not anymore. That makes her dangerous. Not this girl, the Nox. You know that to be true.’

‘The Crown of the Nox was put out of their reach long ago,’ Hestia countered. ‘And for good reason. The line of Sidon abused the power of our goddess for their own ends. With it they can control her, perhaps even make her little more than a slave. It’s a blasphemy. We act as intermediaries between the king and the goddess. That’s the way it should be. Would you inflict that on Wren?’

‘Better it be inflicted on one than on us all, Hestia. Surely you can see that if we do not do something, the Nox will only become more volatile?’

But seeing Hestia was unaffected by this prospect, Oriole changed tack, glancing at Wren, a dismissive look which cut her to the core. ‘Much good it would do if we could use it anyway. The crown is lost and she is not the Nox. Not yet. She’s just a girl. She begged my help. Mine, Hestia, and I gave it. Now she is denying her own fate, as well as ours. This will all come to ruin.’

Wren shifted uncomfortably. Oriole spoke about her as if she wasn’t here and Wren didn’t like that, or the way she talked about controlling the Nox. She sounded almost eager. She sounded afraid of the goddess they all claimed to love. And, from what Wren had experienced of the Nox, maybe she was right to be afraid.

Hestia sighed and her hands trembled against the black fabric she wore. At the doorway to her cosy little study, lined with books and warmed by the open hearth, Laurence stirred, his eyes fixed on his mother, his mouth a hard line. Whenever she looked for anything he was there in an instant and Hestia invariably waved him away. He ignored that as well, which Wren admired. This apple had not fallen far from the tree, it seemed.

‘What kind of ruin?’ he asked in that gentle voice.

Oriole’s expression softened. All the sisterhood had a soft spot for Hestia’s son. He was of the line of Sidon as well, or so they said. Cousin to kings and princes, and the son of a sorceress. There was far more to Laurence than being a mere boy.

‘So far,’ Oriole continued, ‘Wren has withstood the Nox and held herself apart, whole and stable. This is admirable and shows her strength of will.’

Wren frowned. ‘But I thought you wanted – the sisterhood, I mean, and the Ilanthians – I thought you wanted her back, possessing me.’

Oriole gave a dismissive snort. ‘We serve the Nox in all things but these past twenty years…well, let’s just say it is somewhat easier when she is distanced from our world. A lot less death and sacrifice for one thing. Politically speaking, though we worship and adore the queen of the darkest night?—’

‘Oriole,’ Hestia said with a note of warning in her voice. She had been the one to bring up blasphemy. It was a dangerous charge in a world such as theirs.

‘Oh hush, the girl has a right to know.’ She fixed Wren with her darkest glare. ‘The Nox unbound is a terror for a tale of the darkest night. Some say our royal family wronged her, and others that she simply went mad with power. Or that she was ever thus. We had ways to control her, mitigate her powers and keep her controlled, happy.’

‘The sacrifices?’

‘Among others. There are artefacts of power hidden in the deepest caves with good reason. If you touch the wrong treasure, or walk the wrong path, or make the slightest misstep… Once, all men with magic died for the Nox, and not so long ago either. Far too many. Perhaps Leander should have been the one to be sacrificed but Alessander adored him, so much so that he sired another to take his place. And look where that got him. The blood of Sidon is eternally drawn to kill each other, thanks to the Nox’s own curse on them. And if Leander has his way, she will answer only to him. However, I don’t think he has the strength. The Nox must be controlled and brought to heel, but it will take more than just brute force. I for one do not want to go back to the days of blood and death. Neither does she.’ Oriole gave Hestia a brief nod. ‘Not with a young son of the blood royal.’

All three of them glanced at Laurence, who turned grey and pressed back against the door. ‘What?’

This clearly had never occurred to him, or they had kept it from him. Poor boy. But there was no keeping secrets now. It was time to be honest at last.

‘Quite,’ Oriole replied. ‘But if you enter the caves of the Nox, Wren, being who and what you are, you’ll strip away such protections as the light has afforded you in the past. You will expose everything you are to the Nox. A greater portion of the fragments of her power are gathered there. She may seem more convincing. She may even seem sane. But she is still dangerous. Our lady of the darkest night is powerful in these caves, even broken and scattered. This is where her heart lies. I fear…’

‘You’re afraid I won’t be able to withstand the Nox if I go into the caves alone,’ Wren finished for her. ‘That’ll she persuade me to let her in. And that if I give into her there…’

‘There is a reason that the caves were sealed,’ said Hestia. ‘And that the artefacts of power were hidden. But it is the only chance to get Finn back. To demand he be brought anywhere else but the caves of sacrifice is folly. Leander would see right through it. Yet, by entering that holy place, by walking the path which will take you there, you may lose yourself entirely, bringing into being the very thing you fear.’

It was a risk she had lived with for so long now, it almost seemed normal to her. A foregone conclusion that one day it would happen. Something she just kept pushing further down the line. She looked directly at Hestia now, Hestia who she almost trusted.

‘What if I do become the Nox and kill Finn anyway?’

‘It is…a possibility,’ Hestia admitted.

‘Not just Prince Finnian,’ Oriole muttered. ‘Any number of us. Even the sisterhood. The Nox is vengeful. Dangerous. Possibly insane still. And powerful here. Too powerful.’

No possibly about it, Wren thought but said nothing. She couldn’t help but glance at the boy again. He was listening closely now, intently. ‘Then maybe Laurence should have a say as well.’

‘I—’ At first he seemed so confused at that idea, he didn’t manage more than that syllable. ‘I don’t think you’d kill me, princess.’

Wren smiled, tears stinging her eyes. She hadn’t expected that, nor to feel so grateful for his belief in her. Though she didn’t share his confidence.

‘But she would no longer be her ,’ Oriole told him.

‘Then give me another solution,’ Hestia exclaimed. ‘One which protects the prince and extracts him from his brother’s clutches soon because Leander is going to torture him and kill him. You know he will and we need Finn if any of us are to survive. He is the king who will set all to right in this kingdom and usher in a period of peace and prosperity. He is the son forsaken by his father, and he will crown our future.’ A flicker of despair crossed Hestia’s face before a different thought seemed to strike her. ‘That wretched body-swapping spell gave Leander every excuse he will ever need. Where did he even learn how to do something like that? You were his teacher, Oriole.’

‘He was always too bright for his own good,’ Oriole sighed. ‘There are factions within our own sisterhood with sympathies there. They would follow Leander if it meant more power for themselves, no matter where it came from. They would take that crown and use it. They would try to harness all magic, break everything apart to get to it.’

A crown, buried deep in the darkest caves of the Nox, one which could control a goddess…no wonder Wren had always recoiled at the thought of wearing one.

‘There would be nothing to take power of if the old magic rages free,’ Hestia warned the other sister.

‘And if Leander can crown Wren as our lost queen? What then? He will control her and the sisterhood. If we could but reach a compromise with him…’

‘No,’ Wren said with an assuredness she wished she felt. She knew one thing though – there was no compromise that would save Finn. And besides, she had thrown down her gauntlet to Leander already. She locked eyes with Laurence who was still frowning. Slowly he nodded, his jaw firming. He was as brave as Finn, she thought, and her heart twisted a little.

‘The risk is mine to take,’ she said, cutting across the two of them. ‘And the caves can be sealed, can’t they?’ They nodded, slowly and thoughtfully. ‘Then you seal us in there. If anything goes wrong, if I lose control… Then it’s just Finn and I. Leander won’t be able to reach us.’

That had to be enough. Because if she did fail she was leaving them all to Leander’s mercy.