Chapter 26

CHAPTER 26

ELODIE

The metal was dark and cold, so cold. It sapped the heat from Elodie's body, and deadened the last embers of the Aurum inside her. She could feel it, vaguely, like a distant, startled murmur, but she couldn't reach it, not properly, and certainly not as she had earlier.

The Aurum itself flickered low, uneasy, the light barely enough to illuminate the chamber.

She had worn shackles like these before. In the clearing of the Seven Sisters, on the edge of the standing stone circle where the old magic had converged to create a dark and terrible vortex which had almost consumed Wren, Leander of Sidon had put manacles like these on her wrists and she had been helpless until the light of dawn when Wren had helped her get free. Utterly helpless.

Just like now.

She looked up at Sassone's face, and saw that sneer, the disgust in his eyes.

She'd always known he hated her, or was at the very least jealous of her. ‘What are you doing?' she asked.

‘What the regents' council should have decreed,' he replied. ‘You, Aeryn of Asteroth, will be stripped of your crown, and taken from this place to a place of imprisonment where you will be examined until you confess. Then you will be consigned to the flames in atonement for your many sins.'

Maryn rushed to her side, or at least started to. The guards grabbed her, holding her back. She struggled wildly, trying to draw on her magic. But the Aurum was too weak. Because Elodie had weakened it, as it had weakened her. Had they known? Had they realised that this was the moment to strike? With everyone else distracted, the Aurum drained and the maidens weakened? And Elodie herself next to useless even without the manacles?

Beyond the door, Elodie could hear the other maidens shouting, banging, trying to raise the alarm and desperately attempting to reach her. But it was no use. She knew it was no use.

She didn't know what was happening, how or why Sassone thought he could do this. She hadn't done anything wrong. The Aurum had awoken for her, proved that she was true and that she had not betrayed it. She never would. She had almost torn the Sanctum apart proving that.

‘Why are you doing this?' she asked, bewildered. For the first time in her life, Elodie realised, she was lost. Completely lost. ‘Where is Roland?'

He would never have agreed to this, would he? Not Roland. And if he had, then he would be here himself to see it through. None of the knights were here, she realised. Her Paladins, her sworn men, not a single one of them were here. These guards were Sassone's men to the core.

‘Roland will learn of your fate soon enough. But far too late to avert it. No matter how much you call for your lover, he won't be able to help you. Bring her.'

Maryn broke free, scrambling to Elodie's side. She drew herself up to her full height and light swirled around her. The flames in the Sacrum rose, brightening. It wasn't the blinding light Elodie had summoned, but Maryn had power too. She had also been chosen and had dedicated herself to the sacred flames. They answered her now.

‘In the name of the Aurum and all the light it holds—' she began, but got no further. Sassone lashed out, striking her face with his fist full force. Maryn's head snapped back and she fell soundlessly to the stone floor, blood pouring from her nose and mouth.

Elodie screamed more from outrage than fear. There was nothing she could do, nothing to stop this sacrilege, this injustice. To attack one of the maidens here of all places, to deny the judgement of the Aurum and impose his own – what was he thinking?

She opened her mouth to call on the light, to call on all the powers of the flames before her. Nothing happened. Of course nothing happened. The steel manacles saw to that.

He slapped her hard, open-handed and with force. She staggered back, stunned, and her face flamed where the impact fell.

‘Someone should have dealt with you years ago,' he snarled. ‘You and your wretched line. All the so-called maidens who think they have the only right to interpret the flames. Ilanthus has the right idea, controlling their witchkind with steel and sacrifice. This is a world of men, my lady.' The words dripped with sarcasm. ‘A new world of the sword and the flame, and your sisters will soon learn their place in it. But not you, false queen. It will be far too late for you.'

‘You can't do this,' Elodie tried to say, numb with shock.

‘If you had stayed away it wouldn't have been necessary. But back you came with your brat in tow. Hopefully she'll be more biddable than you, if she knows what's good for her.'

‘You can't put Wren on the throne,' she said, and fear for herself evaporated. Wren was all that mattered. Wren and the kingdom. She couldn't tell him why – no, definitely not him – but she had to warn him somehow. ‘Listen to me. You can't?—'

His hand closed over her mouth, huge and suffocating. His grip crushed her face. ‘You don't get to tell me what I can or can't do, bitch. Gag her and bring her. We need to move.'

A cloth was shoved in her mouth, even as she tried to scream, even as she tried, uselessly, to use her power, to reach the Aurum and tear them all to shreds. Something was tied around her face a moment later, blinding her, and they dragged her bodily from the Sacrum.