Cyrene watched it leave, her heart sinking. After everything she had done to get here, she had lost. No more ships for a fortnight "What do we do now?" Maelia whispered.
She wished she had an answer. She turned and pulled Ceffy back down the dock.
A dark figure stood at the end of the dock. "What in the Creator"s name do you think you"re doing?" the person asked as she threw her hood back.
Cyrene broke out into a smile and rushed to her, leaving her friends on the dock. "Rhea!" She wrapped her arms around her friend.
"Cyrene."
They crushed each other in a hug.
"I"ve missed you so much."
"I"ve missed you, too, Cyrene."
Rhea pulled back from Cyrene but kept a hand on each of her shoulders. "Now, what is this all about? A cryptic message when you only just got into Albion? I don"t understand."
"I was afraid of explaining in a letter," Cyrene sheepishly told her.
"But you were willing to leave without seeing me?"
"No! That"s why I sent the letter in the first place."
Rhea opened her mouth to speak and then clamped it shut as she looked over Cyrene"s shoulder. Cyrene glanced back to see Maelia and Ahlvie approaching.
"Who are they?" Rhea asked.
"Friends." She introduced them to each other.
Rhea seemed apprehensive. She nodded curtly. "Why did you ask me to the docks? Where are we going?"
"Nowhere," Cyrene said sadly. "The ship has left."
Rhea bit her lip and glanced between all three, who had matching somber expressions. "Come with me. I"ve already broken curfew, and Master Barca will not be pleased. I might as well bring him a reason for it. Maybe we can figure this all out there."
Through the winding Albion roads, Cyrene walked Ceffy next to Rhea. Cyrene hadn"t wanted their reunion to go like this, but there was no other choice under the circ.u.mstances. When Rhea glanced over at her, Cyrene could tell she was thinking the same thing. She was just so glad to have Rhea back. With her friend at her side, she was whole again.
Rhea leaned against Cyrene and glanced back at Maelia and Ahlvie. "Is this about the letter? Do they know?"
"No," Cyrene replied just as softly.
"So, there"s something else?"
"Yes. I"ll give you the details when we"re alone," Cyrene promised.
"As will I. I have some news," Rhea said when they turned down another street. "About the letter. I"ve been digging through the libraries every chance I get. Have you found anything?"
"Hardly. I"ve had no chance. The Queen hates me."
Rhea looked at her, astonished by the statement.
"I have a lot to explain," Cyrene added.
"Clearly." Rhea glanced back over her shoulder again.
She didn"t trust Maelia and Ahlvie, and Cyrene couldn"t blame her. She had never met them before and didn"t know their motives.
"Let"s talk in private. We"ll have to go to the library anyway for me to show you," Rhea said.
Cyrene sighed. Now that she had to be here for another fortnight, she would have time with Rhea, but she would also have to account for her actions with Kael and put off her journey longer.
Rhea broke her from her thoughts. "Why does the Queen hate you?"
"Because the King doesn"t." Cyrene dipped her head to her chin and then glanced back up at Rhea.
"What does that-" She broke off and her mouth dropped open. "The King fancies you?" she squeaked.
"Yes," she whispered. She spoke nothing of her own feelings.
"King Edric fancies you?" Rhea asked again in shock.
Perhaps Rhea hadn"t been ready to hear that one. And if she hadn"t been ready to hear about the King, she certainly wasn"t going to be ready for the unconscious Prince in Cyrene"s bedchamber.
"Cyrene, I don"t know what to say."
"I still don"t either," Cyrene told her honestly.
"Have you...been with him?" she whispered, blushing furiously. "I just mean...I know the King has been rumored to...well, you know. I"m not insinuating that you would ever...just never mind." Rhea looked straightforward and continued walking purposely.
Cyrene laughed at her and shook her head. "I haven"t."
Rhea blew out a breath. "Good." She squeezed her hand. "Life really isn"t the same without you. Thanks for not jumping on that ship and leaving me behind."
"Ugh, I don"t even want to talk about it."
"It"s all right," Rhea rea.s.sured her. "Master Barca"s house is around this corner."
They turned one more corner, and Rhea pointed out her Master"s residence-a plain white square building with only one window facing the street and a high fence. It didn"t look like much from the outside, but it was in a nicer Veda near the castle, so Cyrene had high expectations about the interior.
Rhea opened the exterior door and allowed them to escort their horses through the gate before closing it securely behind her. At the stable yard, an older man took their reins, smiled fondly at Rhea, and even patted her dark red hair. She smiled at him before grabbing Cyrene"s hand and pulling her through a back entrance into the house.
The room they entered was dark, and it opened into a well-lit inner courtyard that rivaled the size of her parents" mansion back in Byern. Rhea"s Receiver must be an extremely wealthy man to have such extravagance.
As they walked across the garden courtyard, Cyrene noticed that something was off about it. Where fountains would have been among the flowers, strange metal contraptions stood in their places. Cyrene stared at one giant device with a strange circular piece that rotated around another huge circle. She wondered what that was for.
"Just ignore that stuff," Rhea urged. "I do. It"s easier than asking."
Cyrene warily looked at her. "He doesn"t tell you?"
"His explanations are more confusing, so I don"t bother."
"They confuse you?"
Rhea laughed and leaned into Cyrene. "Coming here made me realize how behind I really was. Wait until you meet Master Barca."
They filed into a ballroom filled to the brim with random odds and ends. The room itself was beyond grandiose, but spider webs hung in the corners of the white walls and in between the pieces of cut crystal in the chandelier. Dust settled on the enormous bookshelves filled top to bottom with obscure pieces of metal, old t.i.tleless books, strange rocks, and more that Cyrene couldn"t even distinguish among the rubble. Piles of loose ends were stacked nearly to the ceiling, and pathways had been cleared, revealing the vibrant blue-and-white crisscrossed tile that had once been a beautiful feature of the room. How anyone could make sense of it all was beyond Cyrene, let alone having someone live in this.
"Sorry about the clutter." Rhea guided them through the maze.
Cyrene glanced back and saw that Ahlvie and Maelia both wore similar looks of fascination in their eyes as they walked through.
"You call this clutter?" Ahlvie asked sarcastically.
"I try to help him pick stuff up, but he tells me that he"ll forget where he put things if I move them," Rhea said.
"How could he ever know where anything is in this?" Maelia asked the question they had all been thinking.
Rhea shrugged. "He made the piles, I suppose."
She grabbed a lit lantern on the wall and then entered a tidy small office. Cyrene recognized Rhea"s handiwork all over the room. A st.u.r.dy wooden desk with six chairs around it had stacks of books and drawings of different objects. A banister ran all the way around the room at about hip level, and the bottom half was a soft green color while the top was a light brown. Only one bookshelf sat against the back wall, and Cyrene was surprised to see it all but empty compared to what lay on the other side of the door.
"Take a seat." Rhea pulled out the chair and waited for the others to follow suit. "Now, can someone please tell me what is going on?"
Ahlvie and Maelia looked at Cyrene to begin.
Cyrene sighed. "We"re trying to get to Eleysia."
"Why?" Rhea lifted her eyebrows.
Cyrene bit her lip. She hadn"t told everyone the same information, hadn"t even told anyone the whole truth. Maelia knew Cyrene wanted to go to Eleysia to complete her training and that the Queen had refused to let her leave. Ahlvie knew they were leaving, and while he might have had the means to leave on his own previously, he had never had the nudge that he needed to go alone. Rhea, of course, knew about the Presenting letter.
None of them knew about the book. None of them knew about Basille Selby. None of them knew that all her answers rest in Eleysia with Matilde and Vera.
"Because I need to go there."
Rhea narrowed her eyes. "But why?"
Cyrene swallowed and closed her eyes. Then, it all spilled out of her...the whole story. They needed to be on a similar page. She needed to trust them as they trusted her.
She told them about Edric, the unconscious Kael, the envious Kaliana, and the manipulative yet endearing Daufina. She told them about her Presenting letter. She cautiously told them about receiving the book and how she would sometimes seem to lose time when she read it, but she couldn"t bring herself to tell them about the strange swirly font. She remembered Basille Selby"s apprehension, and she wouldn"t repeat that unless she had to. But she did tell them about Master Selby"s declaration about how she had to go to Eleysia to get answers.
Finally, she revealed her connection to all the murders. She didn"t know how that piece fit into the puzzle, but it felt significant.
"The murders are connected to you?" Ahlvie asked in surprise.
Cyrene nodded. "I just figured it out when we got back. So, you see why I have to leave to find answers. There"s something...wrong with me," she said slowly. "I don"t know what it is or even how to explain it. I want to make you believe me, but I can"t. It"s something I don"t even understand, but it terrifies me. I"ve been scared, wondering what is happening, if it will get worse, if something else will happen, if I"ll hurt myself or someone else while trying to figure out what is going on inside of me."
A tear fell and then another one. She couldn"t stop it. She placed her hands over her eyes to try to quell the storm rising up inside of her.
A minute pa.s.sed in silence before she could continue, "I wanted to tell you all, but I didn"t think you would believe me. So, I"m sorry for deceiving you, even as slight as the deception was, but I need to go to Eleysia. I have to go to Eleysia. I"ll go with or without you, but I"d rather have you there with me."
She expected disgust, hurt, betrayal, and anger. She expected them to hate her for using her, like Kaliana, Daufina, and even Kael had used her. She hated herself a little bit for it.
All that stared back at her was determination, pity, sorrow, hope, and love. Rhea covered Cyrene"s left hand with her own and squeezed like it just like old times. Maelia slowly reached out and placed her hand over Rhea"s. She nodded once and then smiled.
Ahlvie chuckled softly and shook his head. "I"ll be d.a.m.ned," he said. "Guess I"m in, too."
His hand slid across the table and covered Maelia"s delicate hand.
One more tear slid down Cyrene"s cheek. They were going to stick by her, even after all of that, even after she had kept secrets from them. She swallowed hard. For the first time in months, the weight slowly eased off her chest.
As they pulled away, the door to the office banged open, and they all jumped apart.
"Rhea!" an old man yelled, walking into the room with his eyes closed and hands covering his temples. He was incredibly tall with a great white beard and unkempt long white hair. "Have you seen that last sketch I made? And the fandangled thing? I used it last time. Where is it?"
Cyrene stared with her mouth agape. She had no idea in the slightest what he was talking about.
And Cyrene was slightly shocked by the man"s appearance. His clothes were as disheveled as his house. He wore a long brown tunic, reaching nearly to his knees, that was threadbare at the hem and across the seams. He looked like he needed a good scrub down before he would ever be fit to be seen by the public.
"I left the sketch on your desk," Rhea told him with a smile. "In the center, on top of your latest concept art."
"What an odd place to leave something!" He turned in a circle, looking up at the ceiling. "What if I needed to find it?"
"That"s what I"m here for, sir," she told him with humor in her voice.
Suddenly, Master Barca stopped mid-spin, facing the door, and craned his neck around. "Rhea," he said softly, his madness seemingly dissipating, "you didn"t tell me that we had visitors."
"My apologies," she said with her ever-present easy smile. "This is my friend Cyrene. We grew up together in Byern before I moved here. And these are her two friends, Maelia and Ahlvie. They"ve just arrived on the procession with King Edric and the rest of the court."
"Affiliates and a High Order, I see."
"Yes, sir," Rhea said firmly.
Cyrene recognized that tone loud and clear. She wanted to giggle because Rhea had used that exact tone with her on one too many occasions. It meant that you should hold your tongue before you got yourself in trouble. Cyrene didn"t usually listen, and it didn"t look like her Receiver was about to either.
"Well"-he turned in another circle, as if he already forgot what he was thinking earlier-"let"s go then. There"s much to do."
He barreled out of the room in much the same manner in which he had entered it. Cyrene, Maelia, and Ahlvie stared after his retreating figure.
Rhea, however, had already hopped out of her seat. When she noticed they weren"t coming with her, she stopped and turned back around. "Come on then."
They scurried out of their chairs and followed Rhea"s hasty steps to keep up with her Receiver.
Muttering to himself, Master Barca led them back through the cluttered ballroom. He turned down a long hallway that was completely blank and then into another courtyard. Row after row of perfectly aligned wooden racks lined the interior of the enclosure.
"Bursts," Ahlvie murmured softly in awe.
The inventor stared off into the clear night sky for a few minutes. When he pulled his gaze away, he looked at Rhea, but his eyes were distance, as if seeing through her to a different time or a different place.