“And yet it is. You have done what you came here to do.”
“That’s what Malachi meant? That I open Ulysede?” My words are hoarse, barely audible, as I search through my memories and the words I clung to for weeks while locked up in my wallpapered prison. “But Sofie said to retrieve a stone.” Which seemed straightforward until I saw the nymphaeum. Then it was a matter of interpreting words.
And that’s how I interpreted it.
But it’s also what Wendeline thought would have to happen for a key caster to open the door.
“Retrieve a stone. I do not know this Sofie or what tales she spun to coerce you. She might not even understand it herself. She is a wielder of the elements, yes? Treacherous creatures, they are.” Lucretia glares at Gesine. “If I were to make assumptions, I would assume she told you what she thought you needed to hear. That’s what they do,” she purrs. “But your kingdom is set in stone, and you did retrieve it from its sleep, did you not? Or rather, you claimed it with a crown upon your head.”
My mind works furiously, but nothing adds up. “She said it was guarded by soldiers.” Soldiers of a sort were her exact words. “And surrounded by a garden. There’s no garden out there!” I throw a hand haphazardly toward the stairs. “The land outside the gates is dead!”
“Dead now, yes. But once, long ago, the path to this kingdom was lush with an entrance fit for a queen. You should have seen it. You will see it. And as for Ulysede’s guards”—she glides toward me, smiling as she leans in—“do not assume that which you can’t see isn’t all around you, watching.”
I shudder at the feel of her breath against my ear, still not willing to accept her words as truth. “Malachi wanted me to open the nymphaeum in Cirilea, just like he had Farren try.”
“And how did that work out for him?” Musical, mocking laughter rings out through the cave. “My dear queen, you will soon see that it is all connected. Malachi had the right idea and also the wrong one. But he persevered, and now here we are. He has given my masters what they sought, and this will allow him what he longs for.”
“What did your masters want?”
“A Queen for All. You.” Her pretty face furrows. “Why do I sense such distress from Her Highness?”
How is someone so full of knowledge also so obtuse? “Because Malachi is a cruel god, and he wants to be king!”
“He is not our favorite, that is true, and yet there is no life without him.”
“There will be plenty of death with him. He releases daaknars for fun.” If this secret book from Shadowhelm that Gesine talks about is true, people suffered at his hands.
“Yes, he is powerful, and yes, he is cruel, but he must forgo some of that strength in order to walk this plane. Besides, you are also powerful. And while you are not cruel, you have an army who can behave as terribly as needed.”
“Islor is divided, and no one follows me. I have five hundred soldiers who will probably turn on me the second they find out about this.” Only an hour ago, I was beaming with triumph.
She waves off my words. “Not that army. They are useless. No … the one that awaits your call. The one that has been waiting in the void for two thousand years.”
Two thousand years. “You mean the Nulling.” I was so focused on how this could have happened, I forgot about what will happen next. “It will open.” Of course it will.
Jarek curses.
Lucretia cocks her head, as if confused by our reactions. “Why are you not pleased?”
“How could she be?” Gesine asks before I can. “The creatures from the Nulling serve no one but chaos.”
“Do they not?” Lucretia’s patronizing laugh makes me want to choke her. “Is that what your seers have told you?”
“No, that is what history tells us!” Gesine’s calm is wearing thin as well. “King Ailill and Caster Farren, under the guidance of Malachi, tore the barrier into the Nulling. It took fifty years and untold deaths to cleanse these lands from that mistake.”
“Because my masters were not here to help rein them in. But now my masters are coming, and they have found their queen.” She frowns curiously between Gesine and me. “Surely, the few that remain in this realm have sought you out by now.”
“Yeah. If ‘sought me out’ means tried to kill me.” First the nethertaur, then the grif.
Lucretia shrugs. “I did not say they weren’t without problems.”