“Sigrid may be able to help, too,” Eva said. Just as she spoke, Sigrid shoveled in a mouthful of squash and could only nod as she struggled to keep the food from spilling past her lips. Eva cringed, but Anarchos didn’t seem to notice or was too polite to react.
“Why are there so many travelers coming into the city?” Eva asked, hoping to steer the conversation away from Sigrid’s poor manners.
“It is a great celebration, the like of which has not been seen in this part of the world for hundreds of years,” the priest said. “Summons were sent far and wide. The Mother of Cities has grown large with her children once more. I hope you will remain with us throughout the festival?”
Chel shot Eva a look similar to the one she’d just given in turn to Sigrid. “We…would be honored,” Eva said.
Anarchos grinned and raised a goblet to toast his guests. “Excellent.”
While Ivan continued to recover, the friends spent the next week enjoying all of the finery and luxury the Mother of Cities had to offer. From food and drink to clothing and entertainment, Anarchos provided them with everything they could have wanted and more. They passed most of the day’s heat beneath the cool shade of the garden’s flora or inside the cool, mud plastered houses. The gryphons were likewise content, fat, and happy eating and lounging around after days of hard travel.
Eva knew it couldn’t last, but Ivan, Anarchos assured her, was still a week or so away from being able to travel. Considering herself accountable for his injury, Eva’s desire to make sure Ivan was completely healed before leaving the city outweighed her urgency to find her father. At least she kept telling herself that. If she admitted it, a safe place to rest from the road was a hard thing to leave, too.
When night came and cooled the hot stone of the city, the high priest assigned them guides to show them the many wonders inside the temple grounds. They rarely ventured outside of the temple due, Anarchos said, to the sheer number of people filling the streets. Eva watched them from the walls, a wild scattering of cultures and looks, swarming through every open space. Each night, strange and wild music filled the air along with other sounds of jubilee as the city’s visitors celebrated the festival.
In the meantime, Ivan pored over countless tomes in the governor’s archives of ancient texts. The broken history of the Mother of Cities captivated him. Although he joined them for meals and entertainment, the Scrawl spent the majority of his time conversing with Anarchos or studying the runes in the temple with the other priests.
“It’s very strange,” he said. “This city — well, at least the temple, is clearly of ancient Palantine make and design, but somehow their rune lore has diminished over the ages. I would imagine the temple fell into ruin for some time and then the city built back up around it.”
Sigrid and Eva let him talk on and on, happy he was feeling better but with no real interest in the history of the Mother of Cities. Chel, on the other hand, roamed the temple grounds like a caged cat, annoying and tiring them with her impatience.
“When are we leaving, Eva-lyn?” Chel paused in her pacing and placed a hand on her hips, staring at Eva with an accusing look.
“We jush gob her!” Sigrid protested around a mouthful of grapes. She swallowed them in one big gulp and grinned, purple juice running down the corner of her mouth.
“The problem,” Sigrid continued wiping her chin and reaching for an apple, “Is that you haven’t spent enough time in a city. You're acting like a cat in a lightning storm. Relax!”
Chel shot Sigrid a withering look. “There is something strange about this place.” She pointed to Eva. “You said so yourself when we first came here!”
Eva sighed. They’d had this discussion almost every day since the first night in the city. “I was just being cautious is all.”
"Maybe you just miss someone trying to kill us?” Sigrid suggested.
“Or maybe, I remember why we came here in the first place!” Chel said, a snarl in her voice. “To find your father!”
A wave of guilt washed over Eva. She opened her mouth to say they were resting and recovering, that Ivan was studying and learning about the Smelterborn, but the words rang hollow in her head before she could ever speak them.
Finally, after another week passed, the Juarag-Vo girl would not be detained any longer. “I am leaving with or without you tomorrow,” she said one night, folding her arms across her chest. “Ivan is better, you know this. It is time to leave.”
Eva sighed but she knew Chel was right. “Okay, okay. Let me see if I can speak with Anarchos tonight and ask if they will give us supplies. We’ll leave the following morning, I promise.”
“Tomorrow would be better,” Chel said, arms still folded. “But yes, this is good.”
Knowing their last evening of luxury was coming to a close, Eva and Sigrid lounged about their small veranda, catnapping and waiting for nightfall and the music, dancing, and feasting that went hand in hand with each sunset. Although she’d been sated by the promise of departure, Chel remained restless as ever and finally left them to walk around the grounds.
At last, Eva knew she couldn’t put off speaking to Anarchos any longer. She rose from her hammock, brushed her hair and slipped on a pair of sandals. The evening was warm but not to the point of being hot, a perfect night in the Mother of Cities, especially considering the cold temperatures gripping the lands to the south with the advent of late fall.
“Are you coming with me?” Eva asked Sigrid. The dark-haired girl sat on the edge of her cot, sharpening her array of blades.
“Think I’ll go check on the gryphons — make sure they’re not too fat to fly,” Sigrid said. She rose with a long yawn and a stretch.
Enjoying a final stroll through the exotic flowers in the temple gardens, Eva wandered down the pathway, flanked by vibrant hues of scarlet, sapphire, lavender and more. She paused to watch a swarm of fireflies dancing over the pond and fountains. When she reached Anarchos’ chambers, she glanced back over the beauty one last time before climbing the final stairs and hailing the guard. She waited in front of the smaller stone slab while an acolyte notified the governor of her visit. The shadows born from the cracked crystal lanterns and flickering braziers cast an ominous darkness throughout the empty halls.
“Eva?” The priest walked around the side of the stone tablet without a noise and Eva jumped at his voice. “What can I do for you this evening?”
“Thank you for seeing me,” Eva said. She felt her stomach do a flip as she tried to figure out how to let Anarchos know they would be leaving.
“I hope you will be joining us for the feast this evening? It will be our grandest celebration yet for tomorrow is the Day of the Ancestors. I would dare wager the event will be more spectacular than anything you have ever witnessed.”
“Uh, yes, I’m sure it will,” Eva said. “I look forward to it — but what I came to tell you is that we must leave the following morning. We are beyond grateful for your hospitality, but the time has come for us to continue on our journey.”
Eva glanced up at the priest to gauge his reaction. Instead of being offended, however, the man looked confused. “This is sad news indeed,” he said, voice heavy with regret. “Would that it were possible to persuade you from your course. If the land eastward is indeed threatened by automatons, I fear for your life and the lives of your friends.”
“Thank you,” Eva said. She relaxed — everything was going to be fine. “I wish that we could stay here, but it is our duty to learn more about the Smelterborn, no matter how dangerous the journey ahead might be.”
Anarchos shook his head. “I am afraid the journey may be more difficult than you know.” The priest stepped forward, lips peeling back into a cold grin that turned his face into a gaping skull in the faint light.
“What — what do you mean?” Eva stumbled backward, wanting to put as much space between them as possible. She reached to her side out of instinct, only to realize she’d left her sword back in their quarters. Behind her, the gua
rds shifted, blocking the doorway to the gardens.
“There is a lesson, dear Evelyn, that every man, woman, and child who comes to the Mother of Cities knows: nothing is given without something expected in return.”
The priest’s hungry eyes sent a chill through Eva’s body as a dozen terrible things drifted through her mind. She had no weapon. She had no way to let the others know she needed help. “What do you want from me?” she whispered, terrified to know the answer. Struggling to focus, to think of something — anything she could do to escape, Eva, tore her gaze away from Anarchos and saw the empty hallway behind him. Her only chance.
“Tomorrow, you and your companions will pay the price in full,” Anarchos said. A deep booming sound, like distant drums down the hallway behind the priest. Eva tried to step to the side as he continued to speak, preparing to run for her life. But the pounding noise grew closer and louder. Something about it seemed familiar and Eva’s Wonder stone began to pulse, giving her pause.
“Ah, it seems another of our honored guests is coming to call,” Anarchos said, still grinning.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Could Eva feel the floor shaking? She looked up, and for the first time, notice the height and width of the hallway. And then she knew why that sound was familiar. The last time she’d heard it, she’d been in the depths of the Gyr, but at least she’d had Fury and Ivan with her. This time, she was alone. Each step of its iron boots on the rock caused her to tremble until the Smelterborn stepped around the corner into sight.
The golem’s orange-fire eyes seemed to gleam when they landed on Eva. Its plate armor was made of the same smoke-colored iron, engraved with dark runes of death and destruction. Somehow, the Smelterborn was more terrible than Eva remembered from her fight against Celina. Truly, she had nowhere to run now.
Taking advantage of the Smelterborn’s commanding presence, Anarchos snaked out a hand and yanked the Wonder stone chain from Eva’s neck. For a brief moment, white light burst throughout the room and the Smelterborn held its enormous iron hands to its eyes. Whatever hope Eva might have felt, however, grew dim along with the stone as Anarchos placed it in its hand. The light blinked out at once. The priest waved a hand to his guards.
“Take her.”
Chapter Fourteen
“Hey Eva, I’ve got a bad feeling about this place.”
Eva shot Ivan a withering look. “For someone who can supposedly see into the future, you sure don’t do much to keep us out of these situations.”
“Well, that was before they locked us into a cell, wasn’t it?” Ivan said. The Scrawl shook out his hands, growling in frustration and tried another kenning. Nothing happened. “Bastards must have slipped me something that’s dulling my connection with the runes. I can’t even make a spark!”
“They could do that?” Eva asked. She felt an even greater despair and mentally kicked herself even harder for being fooled. “How long does it last?”
Ivan shrugged. “There are certain combinations of things that can inhibit a Scrawl’s ability to summon runes. It’s hard to say — it might last a few hours or a few days, there’s no way to tell.”
Eva buried her face in her hands. Without Ivan’s abilities, Chel was their last hope. When the guards dragged Eva off to her cell beneath the arena, she’d hoped that her friends had gotten away. Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case for Sigrid, Ivan or the gryphons. The priests had lured the gryphons into the cavernous cage with food and when Sigrid came to check on them, they’d locked her in first. Eva came next, the guards holding a blade to her throat lest Sigrid or the gryphons try to attack them and escape when they threw her in the cell. Last was Ivan, who’d been drugged and dumped in with them sometime in the middle of the night.
They hadn’t brought Chel yet. Eva didn’t know if this meant she’d been killed resisting capture or if she’d somehow escaped Anarchos. She hoped it was the latter and cursed herself yet again for not listening to the Juarag-Vo girl.
“Let us out of here, you snakes!” Sigrid shouted in a hoarse voice. She’d been yelling and shaking the bars for hours to no avail. No one came and no one seemed to care. Frustrated, the dark-haired girl slumped to the ground and smacked the sand of the cavern floor with her hand.
“I’m sorry,” Eva said, the weight of her poor choices pressing down on her in the darkness. “I’ve led us from one bad decision to another. If Ivan hadn’t been hurt and I suggested we come here —”
“Oh shut up, Eva.”
Eva looked up, surprised to hear Ivan’s voice instead of Sigrid.
“If we hadn’t come here, I’d be dead,” Ivan continued. “Captive is better than dead at any rate.”
“Huh,” Sigrid said. “When I get my hands on that scrawny priest…” She brought up her hands in front of her, wringing an imaginary neck.
The night passed with none of them getting any rest. Confined in the darkness, the angry gryphons paced the small cavern, scraping at the sandy floor, hissing, and screeching. The humans fell silent, each choosing a wall and staring out past the iron bars. Eva found herself lost in a hundred different questions: Why was there a Smelterborn in the Mother of Cities? Was it the only one, brought life by Anarchos as Celina had done? Or was Anarchos in league with the Smelterborn from the east? Each possibility sounded worse than the last.
No guards came to visit them and Chel made no appearance. Eva’s stomach knotted, wondering what had happened to the girl. She couldn’t imagine Chel hiding very long, even in the crowded streets of the Mother of Cities. As far as Eva knew, it was the first time she’d ever been in a city.
On the other hand, maybe Chel had left the city completely to continue searching for Aleron. Why hadn’t Eva listened to the girl’s warnings and left days ago? She asked herself this question over and over, sleep eluding her until the first orange rays of light shone on the sand outside the cavern in the arena. About an hour later, Anarchos entered the chamber, flanked by guards. Eva found some small relief that the Smelterborn hadn’t come with them.
“Ah, my valued guests,” the priest said, spreading his arms and giving them a warm smile as if they’d just arisen from their beds and not spent the night confined in a dark cavern. “I am glad to see you well this morning.”
“Let us out!” Sigrid shouted, throwing herself at the bars.
The priest tisked and shook his head. “I must say, if all of your people have as poor manners as the three of you, I do not think I would like to visit your lands to the west. Don’t you know you’ve been given a very special honor?”
Eva didn’t think it was possible for her stomach or heart to sink any lower, but they did. “What do you mean?” she asked, knowing she didn’t want to hear the answer.
“Today is the Day of the Ancestors,” Anarchos said. “And you will be the crowning centerpiece of our celebration.”
“How about you come in here and we’ll start celebrating early?” Sigrid said, baring her teeth and clenching her fists.
“I would save that anger if I were you,” the high priest said. He toyed with a chain at his throat, and with a sickening wrench, Eva realized it was linked to her Wonder stone. “You are going to need to if you wish to survive the trials we have prepared for you.”
“And if we survive these trials, you’ll let us go free?” Ivan said. He’d been in the back, trying to summon another kenning with no result. The priest shrugged.
“That is up to the people themselves,” he said. “You, inscribed, will not be participating, I am afraid.”
“What do you mean I won’t be participating?” Ivan said, face going pale beneath his tattoos.
“You’re much too valuable to be wasted in an arena spectacle,” Anarchos said. “We will study you and learn how the runes of the Ancestors are still working within you. And you will tell us everything you know.”
Now it was Ivan’s turn to bunch his hands into frustrated fists. “Like tempest, I will! I’m not going to tell you anything you storming snake! I’ll roast you alive!”
>
“Oh, I don’t think so.” Anarchos gestured at Sigrid and Eva. “Your friends, however, will be willing participants in our festivities.”
Sigrid spat and scowled. “What makes you think that?” Eva asked.
The high priest raised a hand and the guards around him drew back their bows, arrows on the string. “If you don’t I will fill your beloved pets with so many arrows they will look like porcupines. We have the other girl and will kill her as well. How does that sound?”
With that, he snapped his fingers and a handful of guards approached the door and lifted the chain and lock. The rest kept their bows trained inside the cage. Eva knew at that range they could hardly miss if they tried — an arrow that close would go right through a person or deep into a gryphon.
“You will all step away from the front of the gates,” Anarchos commanded. “Except for the Inscribed. If anyone makes any move, or if the boy resists, we will kill you all. Is this understood?”
Eva and Sigrid nodded and urged the gryphons toward the back of the cavern. Fury hissed and let out a blood-curdling screech. Afraid he would charge, Eva lifted a hand to his beak, whispering in his ear. After they were against the back wall, Anarchos nodded and the guard opened the door. Ivan shot them a helpless look as the guards cuffed chains on his arms and legs and led him out of sight.
“Well this just keeps getting better and better,” Sigrid said, hurtling a handful of sand through the bars of the iron gate after they left. “I bet even if we survive whatever this thing is, he’ll still kill us.”
Eva nodded and the grim reality of their situation sank even deeper into her. “So what should we do?”
“Fight, what else?” Of course, that was Sigrid’s suggestion for everything. At the moment, Eva didn’t see any other options, though.
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