“I have birthed nothing,” I cut him off.
The smile grew, flushing his face. “Not in a physical manner.”
“How? How has a Priest in Solis heard a prophecy spoken by a god eons ago?” Valyn pressed, even though he already knew. Isbeth. “A prophecy that only a handful of Atlantians have heard?”
“Because we have always served the True King of the Realms.” Then, and only then, did Framont look at Valyn. His smile turned into a sneer. “And the Atlantians have always served a lie.”
Valyn stiffened and then moved as if to step forward. I held up a hand, stopping him. “The True King?”
“Yes.” Framont spoke the word as if it were a benediction.
The Priests and Priestesses might believe they served the gods, but they answered to the Blood Crown—what I was sure they called the True Crown. And what they believed about the gods had been fed to them by the Ascended. Which meant that the person Framont believed this True King to be, was who Isbeth believed it should be.
And that could only be one person.
My upper lip curled as anger pulsed through me. “The Blood Queen spoke of the True Crown in her summonses,” I explained to Valyn. “Who do you think she would believe to be the True King?”
“Malec,” Valyn seethed.
It made sense, especially since she now knew that Malec was alive. A sudden chill swept through me. What if Isbeth had discovered where Malec was entombed?
Gods couldn’t be killed in the same manner as the deities who were held under the Chambers of Nyktos, but they wouldn’t be able to feed. And according to Reaver, Malec would’ve needed to feed more than a normal god. He would’ve weakened to a point where he most likely no longer resembled anything close to who he was. I imagined at some point he would’ve lost consciousness.
What if Isbeth hadn’t used Kolis’s essence to create the storm? What if it had been Malec? That sounded impossible, but…
“Keep a close eye on them,” I said to Hisa and then motioned for Valyn to step back several feet from the Priests and Priestesses. Kieran followed, listening intently as I spoke in a low voice. “I don’t know how much of what he said is true or not. But what do you know about how Eloana entombed Malec?”
“She used old magic—what kind exactly, I don’t know—and bone chains,” he said, and I suppressed a shudder as memories of the twisted chains of sharp bones and ancient roots surfaced. Nyktos had created the method of incapacitating any being that carried eather in them, bestowing the bones of dead deities with such power. I didn’t need to think hard to remember what they had felt like digging into my skin. “The only way he could’ve escaped them is if someone removed them.”
It was possible that Isbeth had figured out where Malec was entombed. I needed to be sure. Malec was the ace up my sleeve. It was what kept Casteel alive. “We need to know exactly where Malec was entombed and any other safeguards Eloana may have put in place.”
Kieran frowned. “Even if the Blood Queen had located him, they would need to get past the Craven. Which would be difficult—even for whatever she is.”
“And after all that time? Hundreds of years?” Valyn added. “He wouldn’t be conscious. I doubt he would remember himself, let alone be able to seek retribution against Atlantia.”
“We would think that, but he…he is a god. The son of the King of Gods and his Consort. We have no idea what he would be capable of if he somehow woke and had time to recover.” And blood, lots of blood. I glanced back at those in white. Framont still smiled as if a hundred of his wishes had all come true at once. There was no telling what the Blood Queen had told the Priests and Priestesses to evoke this kind of faith. “Everything he’s saying could be nothing more than mind games. But…”
“But we need to be sure,” Valyn agreed. “I will get word to Evaemon as soon as we’re done dealing with this.”
Nodding, I turned back to the task at hand while many things picked at my thoughts. Malec possibly being this great conspirator that the prophecy warned about made sense—and yet, didn’t. For many reasons. Starting with: what could I possibly have to do with him waking? When I asked Framont, he only smiled blissfully up at me. And with no one present who could use compulsion, I knew we wouldn’t get any more information from him regarding this.
Besides, there was something that felt far more important that I needed to deal with. I shoved all the other stuff aside for now. “I want to know where the children are.”