A gut feeling told me that would not be the way, if it came to that. I was torn in two. I wanted to save him, yet I did not know how. I also knew that his death may inevitably be on my hands. There was one sliver of hope, I realized.
“There is a woman, a du-toath.” Though she did not complete her training, I added silently. “She is a player at the playhouse. She told me the first time we met that I was prophesized to break the unbound circle. Perhaps she knows how to break this curse, Johai.”
He looked at me for a moment before turning his head away. “What could she know that the other did not?” His shoulders were taut, and he did not look at me as he spoke.
“There’s something about her that is different than the other du-toath. I feel as if she knows more about me than I know about myself. I think she can help.” I was not sure who I was trying to convince more, Johai or me. She had been in my dreams twice now; that could not be mere coincidence.
He sighed. “I will meet her, but only if you promise to give up this hopeless quest when she, too, cannot yield any answers.”
I wrung my hands and thought about his counteroffer. I knew there was no use arguing with Johai about this; he had made up his mind on the matter.
“If she cannot help, then I will give up and accept my destiny.” I felt a weight upon my chest, making it difficult for me to breathe. I just hoped Elenna could help us.
The next day, Johai joined me at the playhouse. I had sent a message to Elenna that morning with a boy that hung around the inn, looking for odd jobs. He returned with an acceptance from her not an hour later. The walk was tense. Johai had not said much since the night before, and I suspected he was still opposed to my chasing after unobtainable answers. I gave Beau the afternoon off, and from the grim expression he paid me, I did not think he appreciated the thought. In truth, I wanted to keep this matter private. I knew Johai trusted Beau, and I had begun to trust him as well. However, I could not get Sabine’s letter out of my mind. Beau was loyal to Sabine; that I knew without a doubt. He found the duke’s study without much trouble. If Sabine and Jon are allies, does that mean Beau is in league with them as well? I could only speculate, but it put me ill at ease to think he was protecting us. He was advantageously positioned to betray us if he wanted to.
When we arrived at the playhouse, I pushed the dire thoughts from my mind. I rang the bell and waited. Johai stood with his arms crossed over his chest. The door swung open with some urgency, and Antoinette was standing there in a draped gown the color of ripe blackberries. It had a sheen to it that caught the light coming from the open door. Her wide smile faded into a small frown.
“Illusino…” She looked past me and out into the alleyway beyond. “I thought it might be someone else.” She shrugged, and then her dark eyes landed on Johai. “Who is your handsome companion?” She grinned, and her eyes danced mischievously. She clapped her hands. “Oh! Is this your husband?”
“No,” I said just as Johai said, “Yes.”
Antionette’s brows drew together above her petite nose. “Oh… I see…” Her eyes darted between us, and then she smiled. “Elenna has been waiting for you, come in.” She motioned with her arm, and we strolled past her.
I ducked my head and pretended to not have slipped up. How could I be so foolish! I chastised myself. Either Antionette did not notice or did not care. I hoped it was the former. I went down the hall towards Elenna’s personal quarters, and Johai trailed after me without comment. The door to Elenna’s room was closed, and I rapped on the wood, which echoed in the room beyond.
“Come in,” Elenna called out with her lyrical voice.
I pushed the door open, and Elenna was sitting in front of the fireplace. She rose with an effortless motion and came over to greet us. Her long, sable hair was unbound and fell over her shoulders in ripples. She wore a loose, ivory gown that fluttered as she walked.
“You have some concern you wish to speak with me about?” she asked me and gathered both my hands in hers.
“Yes, it is about my…” I fumbled over the word husband and glanced at Johai from the corner of my eye.
Elenna looked over to him, and then her eyes widened. “My, how the first mother leads our paths,” she said, looking at Johai with a small smile. “She is the recipient of the necklace, I assume?” Elenna asked him.
I looked to Johai in confusion. What are they talking about? Johai has never met Elenna before, has he?
“You were the Biski priestess at the book store?” he asked, and he seemed nonplussed by the proceedings.
“Have you two met before?” I asked, frustrated by being left out of the conversation.
“I see now how tangled fate truly is,” Elenna said as a way of reply. “Perhaps we should sit before we begin to unravel these tangled threads.” She motioned to a pair of cushions on the floor across from a third, which was placed before the fireplace.
I did as she bid, as did Johai. Elenna sat down across from us, and her gown billowed around her as she sat upon her cushion. She crossed her legs in front of her and folded her hands in her lap. No one spoke, and I fidgeted, unused to sitting on the floor and wondering how Johai and Elenna seemed to know one another.
“How do you know Elenna?” I asked Johai finally.
“A few years ago or so, I went to Thelmn in the southern province of Danhad, looking for a book about the specter. At the book shop, I met Elenna. She gave me the necklace… the one we used to take away your memories.”
Elenna leaned forward, propped up by her elbows on her knees. “Is that the fate that came of my gift? I can see now the lingering effects on Maea. Have you remembered fully yet?” She tilted her head to look at me curiously as if I were some kind of oddment. Her change in regard of me seemed strange. Before she had been reluctant to share; now she seemed eager to help, or so I hoped.
“Yes… I mean, I remember my past though everything feels… distant,” I said and lowered my gaze.
“That is normal with memory charms. You severed the connection between your past and present, I suspect. It should return in time.” She smiled and revealed her even white teeth.
“Thank you.” I balled my hands in my lap. I was not interested in talking about my folly. “I apologize in advance for being forward, but that is not why we came here.”
She shook her head, and her midnight hair rippled and caught the light from the fireplace behind her. “You want to know more about the thing which haunts your young man; am I correct?”
What changed? Before, she would not tell me anything. I glanced sidelong at Johai; did it have to do with him? “Yes, as I have told you before, we seek a way to break his bond with the specter.”
“I am sorry I did not help sooner, but after seeing you perform, and meeting Johai again, I know I cannot avoid the inevitable. I did not take my vows and become a full-fledged du-toath, but I am fully trained. We are taught to look beyond the outward and look inside.” Her dark almond-shaped eyes fell on Johai. “You already knew that, did you not?”
“I suspected as much,” he replied. He sat with his back straight and his arms still folded over his chest.
“Do you know how to undo this bond?” I asked. Something about the familiar way she addressed Johai irritated me.
“Among my people, there is a story of what lies dormant inside him. Some call him the harbinger of darkness. There are some tales where he is death himself. He has many names, but in each tale there is one theme.” She held up her finger. “He is destroyed by a woman who can see into the past and future.”
The fine hairs at the back of my neck stood on end. I reached up and rubbed them down.
“He who wears the night as his cloak shall rise among the children of the first mother when the daughter of sunlight is slain by love and when east and west become one. He shall hold the world in his palm, and all shall cower before his power unless the daughter of the blood can smite him.” Elenna continued. “Or so the prophecy goes among my people.”
It was
the same dire prediction I had heard time and time again, and it did not sit well with me. “Are you saying I must kill him?” I did little to disguise my frustration. Why does every lead end up at a dead end? Was this truly our fate?
“No. The prophecy says you must smite the darkness not the host.”
“What do you mean? He has no corporeal form. There is no other way to kill him than to kill the host,” Johai said with venom.
Was it too much to hope?
Elenna did not answer his question straight away but spoke as if she had not heard him. “Among my people, before a du-toath takes their oath, they must see the oracle. The day after I met Johai, I went to see the oracle. She told me I would meet the next dreau and that our destinies were intertwined. She foretold I would play a pivotal role to stop the rise of the darkness.”
“What kind of role?” I asked.
She shook her head. “The oracle did not say, but her words terrified me. I ran away not long after that and came to Sanore, where I joined this playhouse. That was two years ago, and here you are with the man who carries the darkness within him.”
I touched the hollow in my throat where the necklace had once laid. “If what you say is true, then destiny is in escapable. I have no choice but to kill him.”
“No, that is not true. I believe you will save him and destroy the specter at last. You are destined to be his salvation, not his destruction. You were destined to break the unbroken circle to stop the continual rise and fall of the darkness. For thousands and thousands of years the daughters of the blood have stopped the rising of the darkness by killing the body, but each time he returns more vengeful than the last. He does not die but goes back to the land beyond, where he waits and plots. I think you can find the way to stop him for good. You are destined to break the circle, and I shall help you find out how.”
Tears stung the back of my eyes. It was everything I had hoped for and more, but Johai was being too quiet. I reached over and squeezed his hand. He looked at Elenna with a cold expression.
“You should not give her sweet words with false hope. I have been damned from the moment I opened the book and summoned him forth.”
“Perhaps, but what if the time of unbreaking is upon us?” Elenna countered without flinching.
“And if it is not and we unleash this monster upon the world?” he asked. His gaze was narrowed, and his eyes flashed black. I could not be sure if it was Johai or the specter speaking.
I stood up and loomed over Johai. “If he is unleashed, I shall kill you myself,” I said, and this time I meant it. I would not live in fear of the specter any longer. I would find a way to save Johai. Elenna’s words had uplifted me; Johai would not die. I would save him. “How do we break the circle?” I asked Elenna.
She lifted her hands. “I cannot say. We shall know when the time comes. The clues have already been there in your dreams and visions. You must figure out how the pieces align to discover your answer.”
“When we came to Sanore, I dreamed of Princess Sarelle and, since then, Queen Sabine’s promised son, the child of two crowns.”
Elenna nodded. “They are connected somehow. You will need to discover more about the princess’ death to find out how they are linked to you.”
I looked down at the scrubbed floor. The first diviner had warned me as much. I felt like the deeper I travelled, the more tangled the threads became.
“I foretold that their union and the child of two crowns would spell destruction on the day that the moon swallows the sun,” I said.
“Then we have time yet,” Elenna said, “the child of two crowns is yet to quicken in the womb, and as for the moon and the sun, that day shall be on the summer solstice next year.”
“How do you know?” I asked in wonder.
“My people track such things, and we have long marked a dark presence with the coming of the next day of blackness.”
We had the day and the hour now to find the catalyst, the pins of the plan. Sarelle’s golden hair like rays of light spinning around her came to mind. “Sarelle’s death, can it be related to your people’s prophecy? Is she the daughter of sunlight?”
“Mayhap, it is hard to say. Rumors say she was slain for political reasons, but if her death were linked with the prophecy, it may lead to answers we need to save him. All the pieces are a greater part of the whole, and within the grander design we may see the answers.”
“Then I need to find out why she died?”
“I think so. If her death were to share the characteristics of the prophecy: slain by love.”
“Then if she was killed by her betrothed, Prince Reynard, it would fit the prophecy.”
Elenna shook her head. “Love takes many forms, and because they were meant to wed, it does not mean the prince loved her. You must find out if Sarelle’s death was a result of her love for someone or someone’s love for her.”
I did not need much convincing to investigate Sarelle’s death; just as I did not need provocation to try and find out what Adair was planning. I will stop him and save Johai. I will make no sacrifices, I swore. I looked over to Johai. He was staring past Elenna at the far wall, and he seemed a million miles away, distant and unobtainable. He was like this before, I recalled, remote and aloof.
He must have felt my eyes on him because he turned to look at me.
“Johai, is it not wonderful? I may be able to save you after all.”
He nodded but did not reply. The black was gone, but the threat lingered there. I may be able to save you, if it is not already too late.
“There was something else I meant to tell you,” Elenna said, breaking into my dire thoughts.
“Oh?” I asked with a raised brow.
“We received a new request, from the palace…”
My breathing caught. It could not be mere coincidence. Elenna walked over to a table set off to one side and picked up a piece of parchment. There was a crimson seal dangling from it. I saw the impression of a rearing stallion, which was the royal family’s sigil.
“The queen has requested that we play for her. It seems she heard about your performance at the ambassador’s fete, and she would like to see for herself.”
I glanced in Johai’s direction, but he was not looking at me. I was alone in this decision. The invitation was unexpected, and it made me wary. I had not intended to stay on at the playhouse. There was no need for me to further expose myself. However, the offer was tempting. To find out what Jon and Adair were planning in Sanore, to find out why Sarelle died, I needed access to the palace, and now the opportunity had been handed to me on a silver platter.
“Will you?” Elenna asked.
It may well be a trap, but if I do not try, then I may not get another chance.
“I will.”
Chapter Seven
When I arrived at the playhouse the night of the royal performance, I could hear the excited voices of the players, who had gathered in the theater from down the hall. When I entered the amphitheater, a dozen broad smiles were turned in my direction. Several hands reached out and pulled me into the middle of them. They all tried to speak to me at once, which made it difficult to understand anything anyone was saying. They stared at me, with garish stage makeup making them appear to be staring at me from behind living masks. I unwillingly thought of the specter and, with it, Johai. Am I wasting my time chasing after Jon Sixton? What if he really knows nothing about Sarelle’s death and Adair’s plans? A nagging voice at the back of my mind, however, told me I was on the right track. Even the diviner had told me the answers lay in Sanore.
Elenna embraced me. She wrapped her arms around my shoulders and my head only came up to her chin. I was uncomfortable with the intimacy but forced a smile just the same.
“How can we thank you for such an honor.” She pulled back from me, grinning from ear to ear.
I smiled back, but my stomach did a flop. This night was very important to finding a way to save Johai and dangerous as well. I had decided to go alone, witho
ut Beau and without Johai. I can do this on my own. It is my task to save Johai, and I will find the answers myself.
“Everyone seems excited,” I commented while straightening my gown to have something to do with my hands.
“Not everyone can perform at the palace,” she said.
Philippe came up to me next. His face was covered in white grease paint. “Thank you, bella, for this opportunity.” He kissed me once on each cheek. The thick paint smeared on my cheeks, and I blushed to my roots from his attentions.
They all took turns thanking me, some clasping my hand, more than a few kissing my cheeks.
“I have done nothing,” I demurred.
“But you have,” Antoinette said, stepping forward. She was painted to look like an old woman with a powdered wig on her dark curls. “The queen heard about your reading, and she was impressed enough to request us. If it weren’t for you, we would never have gotten this opportunity.”
I shook my head, but they refused to hear it. I had given Jon’s guests false hopes and preyed upon their dreams. There was nothing to be proud of about that. I had not even done it to entertain; it was all a ruse to get the information I wanted. Just as I was using them once again to spy on the palace. These people loved to perform; I was a charlatan in more ways than one.
“Time to go; gather the props. Jean-Pierre, ready the cart!” Elenna shouted directions to the players.
I was grateful for the distraction. We loaded our party into the cart, along with the props. Once we were on our way, the performers sang and played their instruments as we rode. The sounds of their voices floated through the night and echoed back off the buildings that lined the streets.
The merriment and levity of the wagon made it hard to brood on my plans. Antoinette smiled as she told another girl, Louisa, about her suitor.
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