“The stories about the Valory Arch are among our cursed tales. Stories on the Valors can only be passed down via word of mouth, and in the case of the Valory Arch, there are two different versions of the tale. Lucky for you, I know them both.”
He graced her with a proud grin, and Evangeline felt more of the tension uncoil inside of her.
“The Valory Arch is believed to be the gateway to the Valory. In one version of the story, the Valory was a magical prison built by the Valors. Magic cannot be destroyed, so the Valors said they created the Valory to lock away any dangerous magical objects of power, or foreign captives with magical abilities. They said the Valory was built to protect the North from forces who would wish to destroy it, but…”
Apollo paused, looking as if he were searching for his next word as he slyly slid closer until their legs touched.
Evangeline’s heart skipped over a beat.
“Is this all right?” he asked, deep voice suddenly soft and utterly sincere. He would move away if Evangeline wanted, but it would crush the fragile hope that he was trying to hide behind his shy smile.
“This is nice,” she said, and she was surprised to realize how much she meant it. Ever since first suspecting Apollo was under Jacks’s spell, everything Apollo did felt like a little too much and a lot too unreal. But this—having him tell her a story as he timidly tried for the smallest touch—felt as if it could be real, as if this was how things might have been if Apollo actually cared for her. And it felt good to feel cared for.
She reminded herself it wasn’t genuine, this was just Jacks’s spell making Apollo act this way, but it had been so long since she’d felt so important to anyone. And Apollo didn’t know he was under a spell; all he knew was how he felt for her.
Evangeline gently put a hand on his knee, and Apollo smiled as if she’d just given him the sun.
“Unfortunately,” he went on, “the Valors lied. They didn’t build the Valory to protect the North from its enemies. They built it to lock up an abomination that they’d created. No one knows exactly what the Valors made, but it was so terrible that all the Great Houses turned on the Valors and chopped off all their heads. Alas, they did this before the Valors had locked away their horrible creation, so it was left to the Great Houses to imprison this abomination in the Valory and seal the arch that led to it. Normally, arches are locked with blood, but no one wanted to risk this arch being opened, so a special sort of lock was created. A prophecy.”
Evangeline fought the temptation to panic. This was only one version of a story that was cursed, and therefore unreliable. But she still asked, “How do you lock something with a prophecy?”
“The way I always heard it told is that the lines of a prophecy work like the ridges and the notches of a key. A number of prophetic lines are strung together by a diviner, and then they are carved into a door—or, in this case, an arch. Once this is done, the arch will remain locked until each line of the prophecy has been fulfilled to create the key that will allow the arch to be opened again. It’s rather ingenious. If done well, a prophecy can ensure something stays unopened for centuries.”
“Do you know what this prophecy supposedly said?”
Apollo looked amused, as if he wanted to say the prophecy wasn’t real. But he continued to humor her. “This version of the story says that the arch containing the prophecy was broken into pieces and they were parceled out to the Protectorate—a secret society that vowed to never let the arch reopen. But no one has ever found the missing arch pieces. And most everyone in the North has searched at some point.”
At her surprised expression, he explained, “The second version of the story is entirely different. This one claims that the Valory wasn’t a prison for a terrible magic but a treasure chest holding the Valors’ most powerful magical objects. Some believe this was really why the Valors were killed, because the Great Houses wanted to steal their magic and treasure. In this account of the story, the Wardens, those who had remained loyal to the Valors even after their death, locked the arch with the prophecy so that the Valors’ powers and treasures would be prevented from falling into the wrong hands.”
Hands like Jacks’s.
Evangeline could definitely see Jacks being interested in magical treasure. Unfortunately, she could also picture him being interested in the magical terror from the first version of the story.
She tried to remember what Jacks had said about the Valors to see if she could figure out which version of the tale he believed in. But all she knew for certain was that whatever it was that was locked away, Jacks wanted it desperately. The look on his face when they’d reached the Fortunas’ arch had been one of utter hope. But why? Why did he believe in a story that Apollo clearly thought of as a fairytale?