Page 83 of Anathema

“I’ll answer that in a moment,” he said, and slipped away, as if it weren’t the single most important thought in my head right then.

“Look,” Rykaia said, pushing to her feet. “Those woods are guarded all hours of the day. There’s no way you’d get past the cavalry, and if you did? You’d still have to get through the Umbravale, somehow. But before all of that, you’d have to get past my brother. He does not. Bring. Anyone. To Eidolon. The fact you’re here does not bode well for your freedom.”

“What could he possibly want from me?”

“That is a question I’ve mulled for hours now.”

“Can I speak with him?”

Lips flattened, she shook her head. “Afraid not. The king has requested his presence this afternoon. He’s on his way to Costelwick as we speak.”

I had no idea what Costelwick was, or where it might be in relation to where I was right then.

Dolion appeared again, a brown bag clutched in his hand. “Suffice it to say, the Lord of Eidolon plans to keep you here for a bit. In the meantime, perhaps you might kill the hours with a book?”

A book? “I don’t want to read. I can’t read while the person I love may very well be suffering her last breaths. I want to go home.”

“Perhaps you want a bath, too.” Rykaia waved her hand in front of her face and pinched her nose. “No offense. The oranges are starting to smell a little ripe,” she said in a nasally tone.

“I empathize with you.” Dolion pressed his palms together. “Truly. And perhaps Lord Rydainn might be so kind as to track her down for you.”

Rykaia snorted and shook her head. “Zevander is not a man of favors.”

“No, I suppose he’s not. But there are other ways.” Staring off thoughtfully, he scratched at his beard. “Would you happen to have something belonging to your sister?”

“What kind of something?”

“Anything really. A lock of hair, a piece of clothing, jewelry. Anything you may have gotten a hold of.”

I had none of those things, and the more I thought about that, the more my heart ached. Had she, in fact, perished, I had nothing by which to remember her. “No. I don’t have anything.”

“Ah, that is a shame. I can attempt with her name, but it’s never accurate that way.”

“What isn’t accurate?”

“A scrying mirror. It’s much better with something belonging to the person you seek to find.”

Poking my spoon at the last couple of bites of stew, I shook my head. “So, I guess I’m stuck here. Reading books, while my sister’s fate remains unknown.”

“I wouldn’t consider reading books in solitary the worst scenario.” Rykaia tucked the small knife she’d used to carve the apple into the belt of her dress. “Well, I’m going to scrounge up a bit more to eat. I’ll come back to check on you in a bit.” With that, she set off down a long corridor that led to a shadowy end.

“The book in question is not just any book, miss.” Dolion reached into the brown bag, before pushing an odd wooden book, with spindles that looked like bone along the spine, through the gap in the bars. The aged cover, garnished in black feathers, boasted one silvery pale eye set beneath a bony protruding ridge that gave it the fierce appearance of an angry dragon. Or bird. Yes, perhaps it looked more like a raven. It reminded me very much of Raivox, who I’d also lost in those woods.

The eye was divided by small diagonal slits that converged in the center at a pitch-black pupil. Along the edges, symbols had been carved in deep black grooves with small peg holes. Just outside of that, a strange pattern that reminded me of a maze lined either edge of the entire structure.

Book in hand, I sat on the edge of the bed and attempted to lift the cover, but it wouldn’t budge. I turned the book over in my hands, examining the tightly sealed pages along the edge.

“It’s a puzzle book,” Dolion said. “Quite popular when I was a child. Every winter solstice, my grandmother would gift one to me. Each page, including the cover, is a mechanical puzzle fused with magic. You solve a puzzle, you unlock a page.”

“Is it a story?” I asked, and pried at the cover, to no avail.

“Yes. A very compelling one, I’m sure. Though, I’ve not personally been successful at opening it.”

Huffing, I set the book on the table beside me, no longer interested. “What makes you think I’d fare any better?”

“Oh, I’m certain if you worked with it, you’d be successful in opening it. Again, just a means of passing the time, until this confusion over your circumstances is cleared with Lord Rydainn.”

I very much doubted there was any confusion on Lord Rydainn’s part. In fact, my kidnapping seemed very intentional. “You said I was in grave danger. Why? From whom?”

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