“Most of the time. The prince’s instructions were to keep it covered when it returned with communication from the queen so as not to tax the caster linked to it. We were to uncover it once each morning or if something important should happen, so the caster could relay our whereabouts to the queen.”
Important, like an unimaginable kingdom within the deeps of Islor? “What about when you arrived here last night?”
Kienen inhales. “The caster will have seen the gates of Ulysede, yes. And you, standing within it.”
I curse.
“I apologize, Your Highness. I did not know the depths of the queen’s betrayal to Ybaris.”
“No, it’s not your fault. You were just following orders.” So Mother Dearest will know I’m alive and that I’m with Zander, and the Ybarisan army is with us. A darker thought strikes me and panic stirs. “Wait. What exactly did the taillok see?”
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
AGATHA
A knock sounds on my door, followed by a creak.
“I told you not to bother me this afternoon,” I admonish, not breaking my gaze from the old text I’m studying.
“Still as fixated on your work as ever.”
My head jerks up to find Lorel standing in my office doorway. “Prime?” It’s another few beats before I remember myself. Setting down my magnifying glass, I ease out of my seat as quickly as my body can move. “I apologize. I was not expecting you.” It’s been decades since a much younger version ventured to my office. I assumed she wouldn’t remember her way here. “Can I help you with something?”
“I hope so.” She pushes the door shut and saunters in, her heels clicking on the uneven stone floor. “You know more about matters of the ambiguous than anyone else in Nyos. In all your years of studying the seers’ foretelling, have you ever come across a gate in the Venhorn Mountains?”
“A gate, Prime?” Wariness creeps in, mention of the very mountains that Gesine was heading to too coincidental. “No, I do not recall mention of any gates.” A token from the nymphs, the seers have seen. Something vague but of great value, meant to be found one day, by those in Islor who need it most. “What sort of gate?”
“One you would find at the entrance to a city.” She sighs. “Queen Neilina has just sent word. Her taillok remained with the Ybarisan soldiers in the Venhorn Mountains since the queen’s last letter to the prince. Last night it showed an image to Caster Yesenia of Princess Romeria standing within a set of gates. The exiled king was with her.”
“And you believe the answer to this lies within prophecy? My, my … how interesting.” I can’t keep the incredulity from my voice, the mocking smile from curling my lips. The Prime has never been a supporter. She’s gone as far as to suggest the seers are a burden, better off put out of their misery the moment the change takes hold, their ramblings useless and a waste of effort to document.
Lorel’s cheeks flush with anger. “I will give you some leeway because you were the first face I remember in Nyos, but do not forget to whom you are speaking,” she warns sharply. “I do not know if any of this has to do with prophecy, but I do recall there is a wall of nymph scripture within those same mountains.”
Lorel wasn’t completely dismissive of her early learnings. “A stone wall with no answers that no one can explain. Not even the seers.”
“Yes, well, Her Highness expects an answer, and there is no one else in all of Nyos who has such a grasp of these things as you. That is why I’ve come now.”
I temper my self-righteous glee, for I will be of little use to anyone from a dungeon cell. “Did the taillok see anything else of note?” What I would do to have that messenger for my own devices. My letter to Gesine is on its way via Allegra’s skills, but fates knows when it will arrive.
Lorel falters. “This is, of course, confidential. I do not feel it necessary to share beyond this room.”
Which means she has no plans on enlightening her Seconds. “Of course.”
She paces. “There were saplings among the Ybarisans. They had an Islorian prisoner, and it looked like they were surrendering him. One of the warriors exited the gate to collect his comrade and immediately crumbled for some unknown cause, and when the princess reached out to grant him support, he turned on her, fangs and all!” Horror splays across her face. “Savages, all of them.”
My eyebrows arch. “The warrior fed on the princess?” But that should have killed him.