Page 122 of Anathema

“They are very real.” Dolion looked up from his studies. “We have so much to learn from you, Maevyth.”

I sank back into my chair, trying to absorb everything. “I feel as if I’ve so much to learn of myself.”

“And you will.” Allura gave a reassuring smile.

“Yes, but perhaps in the morning.” Dolion yawned and stretched his arms. “I’m growing quite weary of studying bones.”

“It has been a long day of travel.” Allura sighed.

At a knock that echoed through the dungeon, the three of us looked up to find Rykaia standing outside of Dolion’s cell with her arms crossed. “So … I’m supposed to show our new guest to her room.” Her eyes fell on Allura in a way that seemed appraising. “That must be you.”

“I’m happy to sleep down here, if–”

“Sorry. There are only two cells with beds. If you took one of the others, you’d be sleeping on a concrete floor.” Gone was the warmth that Rykaia had shown me when I’d first arrived, and I frowned, wondering what it was about the woman she seemed to not like very much.

“Very well. I will bid the two of you goodnight.” Allura gave a nod and pushed up from the table, gracefully making her way toward Rykaia, who glared at the woman as if she’d done something to offend her.

Rykaia looked back to me. “And you. I suspect you’ll want another bath and a change of clothes.”

“A basin and a sponge is fine. Maybe a change of clothes. I’m guessing Zevander will want his tunic returned.”

Her lips pulled to a smirk. “He hasn’t requested that I retrieve it from you.”

“In that case, just a sponge and basin.”

“Very well.” With that, the two of them set off down the corridor.

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

MAEVYTH

As I waited for Rykaia to bring me the basin and sponge, I flipped open the puzzle book to the next mechanism–the clock-like box with all of the various symbols. Eyes sweeping over each one, I twisted the book around, and paused on one I’d seen before–the spiny glyph that’d shot forth bones from my hand. Frowning, I studied it closer and, on the clock’s edge, noticed the three squiggly lines Rykaia had taught me for Aeryz.

Glyphs. The symbols were glyphs.

I turned the top of the box until it clicked into place, and discovered that each glyph on top lined up with the glyphs on the side somehow, though they were not the same symbol. They also aligned with what looked to be the different phases of each moon, carved on the outer edge of the top just outside of the clockface.

The question was, how did each glyph on top link to those on the side?

I would’ve asked Dolion, but I could already hear his snores through the wall.

A tiny hole in the center of the clockface caught my attention. Flipping back a page, I plucked out the lever that I’d used to open the book, and stuffed one end into the small hole. The other end of it stuck up like a crank, and when I turned it, something plinked inside. I turned it again to more plinking, a beautiful song with the impossibly rich melody of a harp. Turning and turning, I kept the song going, until it stopped and the box clicked louder than before. I looked at the arrangement of glyphs. The spine lined up to a scorpion. Aeryz to flame. The two halves of the moons united at the top and bottom of the clockface to form one full moon. With ease, I lifted the top of the box. Inside, lay a black rose, perfectly intact, as if it’d recently been picked. I plucked it from the box, noting the beautiful, metallic silver edges along every petal. After inspecting the flower, I turned the page for the next part of the story.

What looked to be Morsana, as she appeared on the first page of the puzzle book, stood over a baby lying in a bassinet, holding a rose similar to the one I clutched right then. When I ran my fingers over the page, the scene came to life. Morsana placed the rose on the baby’s chest, and ravens flocked around the bassinet.

Another brush of my finger unveiled words below the scene. From death, we rose. A new generation was born.

I thought back to the conversation I’d had with The Crone Witch, when she’d told me she had been the one to find me. That she hadn’t seen who’d left me there. Had she left the rose? What did it mean?

I turned the page again to yet another puzzle. A circular object, with various lines and a peg at the center. Beneath it appeared to be some kind of maze made of deep grooves, but too weary to decipher it right then, I lay the book down with a sigh. Between my earlier training and studying bones, my head was spinning.

The stars through the window captured my attention as I curled up in my blankets. As it had on previous nights, my mind drifted to Aleysia. I thought back to the vision I’d seen of her earlier in the day, lying calm and alive beside a warm hearth. Had someone found her and taken her in? I couldn’t imagine who, in Foxglove, would’ve done such a thing after her banishment.

Except for one.

The Crone Witch.

She was the only one who wouldn’t have been troubled by rumor, or the supposed evil that my sister represented. Yes, I prayed that she’d found Aleysia, and that my sister was safe with her.

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