Page 134 of Blood Feast

“Yes,” he replied. “Let’s search the rest of the tower. There could be clues that will help us understand the enchantment.”

Knight was waiting for them outside the Ritual circle. She stroked the soft fur of his ears to reassure him, then reached for the door to the stairwell. It opened before she touched it. “I take it the entire tower has recognized me as Ebah’s descendant. It’s about time.”

Cassia finally sheathed Rosethorn. Mak surrendered his heavy weapon belt to Lyros and let him carry it.

Her heart ached at the sight of them leaning on each other for support. “This tower is our errant Sanctuary now. Let’s find you a place to rest.”

They made their way downward through other rooms just as impossibly transformed from their abandoned state. In the bedchamber, a bronze chandelier cupped spell flames that cast a warm glow over the ancient tower’s glory. Luxurious furscovered a large bed carved from thick beams. Ivy flourished on the walls, and the cold floor was now warmed by rugs woven in designs like the triquetra on Cassia’s pendant.

“What in the name of all the stars of old…” Lio went to the window and looked out.

There was a look of uneasy wonder on Lyros’s face. “It feels like we stepped into another time. But that’s not possible, is it?”

“No.” Lio pointed out the window. “We’re in our own epoch, in the same tower.”

Cassia joined him there, looking down to see the snow-dusted forest, the dreary bailey, and the thatched roof of the stables.

“All of this should have disintegrated,” Lyros protested. “Without Hesperine tending, cloth and wood and such don’t last sixteen hundred years.”

“Cassia’s pendant lasted,” Lio pointed out. “The magefires are still burning. The Lustra sustains all of this somehow.”

Cassia turned in a circle, taking it in. “So, this…version…of the tower was here all along?”

“The real tower,” Lio said, “protected by the crumbling facade that men can see. Just like the passages at Solorum and Patria, only concealed in a much more complex way.”

“None of that makes any sense.” Mak yawned.

“No, it doesn’t.” The grimness in Lio’s aura hadn’t lifted. “But it will by the time we’re done, mark my words.”

Cassia’s mind whirled, thinking of all the nights she had slept within the Changing Queen’s secrets without knowing it. She ran a hand over one of the woven blankets on the bed. Had Ebah made it with her own hands? “This place is different from the other sites. More personal, somehow. As if she only just stepped out the door and will return at any moment.”

They found another spacious room across from Ebah’s bedchamber. This one had a decidedly masculine touch, fromthe empty weapon rack to the tidy bed that did not appear much used.

Lio raised a brow at Cassia. “Seems like Lucian visited his queen in her room most of the time.”

Lyros, although still limping, guided Mak to the bed and sat him down on the edge of it. “You need to get off your feet now.”

“We should finish searching the tower,” Mak protested.

“Cassia and I will do that,” Lio said.

“We’re safe here now.” She headed to the door with him by unspoken agreement.

“The horses,” Mak called after them. “We should bring them inside the keep so they’re protected by the Lustra’s spells too.”

“We’ll make them a place on the ground floor,” said Lyros. “Later.”

Mak started to grumble again.

“You need more blood,” Lyros interrupted in his most commanding tone. “Now.”

A grin tugged at Mak’s lips. “In that case, I might be persuaded to put up my feet in an ancient warrior’s bedchamber, as long as I won’t be resting alone. Not everyone can say they got their fangs polished where the famous Mage King slept.”

Smiling, Cassia closed the door behind her and Lio.

They drifted through the lower levels of the tower. In one room, the vacant armor stand spoke of a king gone to war. A collection of Lucian’s shields and banners still adorned the walls, perhaps trophies of victories that gave him particular satisfaction.

But it was clear this tower was the domain of a sorceress. There was a weaving room with a half-finished tapestry still on the loom. One chamber appeared entirely dedicated to her alchemy, with still-fragrant herbs hanging from the rafters.

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