A pause. Then a nod as Arick passed her the tray and cup. “We do what we have to do.”
She knew what it looked like to everyone else, this new closeness between them. But Raffe knew she and Arick better than most, well enough to know neither of them could forget Red so easily. Still, there was sadness in the set of his mouth as he watched Arick lead Neve back down the aisle, and it made her stomach churn.
She wanted to tell him. She wanted to tell him so badly it felt like the words physically dammed in her throat. But Kiri and Arick insisted on complete secrecy. Kiri because the ideas of her second, smaller Order were technically sacrilege until she and Neve cemented them into religious truth with their political power. Arick because . . . well. She wasn’t really sure.
The doors closed behind them. Neve dropped her hand from Arick’s arm. “How long do we have?”
He glanced at the place on his arm where she’d touched him, a quick dart of his eyes with an emotion she couldn’t read. “There’s no rush. Give Tealia a few more moments to enjoy being High Priestess.”
They were alone, but still Neve’s spine went rigid. She whipped her head to look down the halls, to make sure they couldn’t be overheard.
“Peace, Neverah,” Arick murmured. “Everything will be fine.”
She crossed her arms tightly over her chest, but his reassurance did somewhat loosen the knot in her middle.
“It will take Tealia at least ten minutes to get back to the Temple.” Arick propped a foot on the wall behind him, mindless of the scuff marks his boots would leave. “Kiri should have the others already gathered inside.”
Neve paced a tight line back and forth. “And you secured the position for her? At the Temple in the Rylt?”
“They expect her by the end of the week. Ryltish weather is even less agreeable than Valleydan, and they don’t get many sisters willing to live there. They were happy to have her and anyone else who refuses to join the Order of the Five Shadows.” Arick gritted his teeth. “I still find that name ridiculous.”
Another slight loosening of that stomach-knot. The priestesses who didn’t want to join them would be gone, out of Valleyda, across the sea. No need for her strange storm of death to touch anyone else.
Arick watched her pace with something apprehensive in his eyes, but he didn’t speak, and nothing else about his stance spoke of nervousness. In fact, he looked nearly nonchalant, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed, an insouciant dark curl falling over his forehead.
The ten minutes passed. Arick’s hand was gentle on her arm, halting her pacing. A small smile tugged at his mouth as he gestured her forward. “My Queen.”
It stopped her cold, for a moment. But Neve recovered, returned a shaky half smile, and let him lead her to the Temple.
The Temple was built like an amphitheater, with only two corridors leading to the sunken main chamber— one from the palace gardens, and one, much longer and more guarded, from the city street. Both were completely empty. Whispers made a soft susurrus beyond the door as they approached, and Arick released her with a reassuring squeeze of her shoulder.
Neve closed her eyes, steadied her hands. Then she pushed the door open.
Tealia’s face was calm, hands folded in her sleeves as she stood on the dais at the bottom of the room, but near-panic lit her eyes. Kiri and her followers from the Order of the Five Shadows fanned out behind her. The other priestesses sat silent in their graduating rows, dread hanging thick as candle-smoke.
The High Priestess ducked an abbreviated bow as Neve made her way down to the dais. “Your Majesty, to what do we owe the honor? Had I known you desired to meet, I could’ve set aside time for an audience.” Fear made her brash, her eyes sparking anger even as her voice stayed solicitous. “There are protocols for such things. As I recall, none of them involve a priestess other than myself calling a gathering.”
Behind Tealia, Kiri’s face was expressionless, but malice lit her eyes. Neve said nothing, still gliding carefully down the stairs, channeling all that icy poise she’d learned from her mother. Behind her ribs, her heart beat like a hummingbird’s.
The laugh Tealia summoned was shrill. “Surely, nothing we need to discuss involves every priestess in the capital?”
“It does,” Neve replied.
Tealia’s mouth clicked shut.
Neve reached the dais, finally. She had no script for this, and no energy to make it a long and drawn-out affair. She lifted one hand, placed it on Tealia’s shoulder. “I thank you for your service. Now you are released from it.”