Page 98 of Ashes of Gold
“But it was a magical night. Not your sort of magic, but the heart kind. When I woke up, he was gone. Taavi and Totsi found their way into the world several months later. He visited me once or twice, but I never told him about the pregnancy outright. I think a part of me was afraid of what he might do. When I couldn’t hide my pregnancy anymore from my family, I was forced to tell Memi whose it was. But once word started to spread across the island that the Ghizoni had contracted the Sickness, I knew he’d taken that potion and done something terrible to their water supply. The Ghizoni started to die off. In record numbers. It was”—she shakes her head—“awful. Just awful.”
“A-and as the potion worked, their tribe shrank, and bits of me started to wither away too.” She picks at her loose flesh, hanging from her thin arms. “My skin began to yellow. It grew blotchy and my bones would ache all over like a nest of thorns swelling inside me. I was so sick, my family thoughtIhad the Sickness. But no, no, I had some backfired version of it as a punishment for brewing a potion, dabbling in a magic that was never mine to touch.”
I gasp. “That’s how you ended up this way? The potion cursed you?”
The horror of it skitters up my arms like nails scratching a chalkboard. He didn’t care if she lived or died. Did he know she was pregnant? What kind of monster…?
“Yes. And my girls hated him for it. I never lied to them about who their father was. Totsi was angry. She worked her way up through Designation and never told her father who she was for fear he’d kill her if he found out that his daughters had lived and they knew his dirty secret. Taavi didn’t get Bound. The Macazi Designation gutted her. To behisown blood and not be suitable to be given magic cut deep. Even if he didn’t know. She’d even tried to tell someone that she was his bastard by starting a rumor, but it was taken as no more than gossip. She never quite got over that. It still pains her, I think. But she’s so closed off, there’s no telling what’s going on in that head and heart of hers.”
I don’t know what to say. It’s her fault. It’s all her fault. But not really.
“I want to be there. The moment you face him, I want to see his face as he crumbles.” She squeezes my hand. “You owe me nothing. Not even a clean death. But it would mean the world if you would do that for me.”
I still can’t find words. Shock is stamped on Julius’s face too. He looks at the Seer and back at me. Then back to her.
“It’s almost dark. I should be leaving in a little bit.” I need to sit with this. Digest it. Chew it up some, then spit it out. I don’t know how to feel. “One more question.”
“Yes?”
“Do you know how he got magic in the first place? How he filled the onyx pressed intohiswrist?”
“I don’t know for sure, Jelani. But I do believe he took some of those lovely people, your people, and forced them to Imbue onyx and fuse it to him. And maybe not just on his wrists? He had piles of it even then. I don’t know what he promised them in exchange or how he made them agree to it. But I can guarantee you, once he got what he wanted from them, he got rid of them. That’s what he does.”
My stomach is in knots. I twist on my feet and walk as fast as I can. I need air. I’m outside and somehow, I can’t breathe.
“Rue, wait up,” Jue says.
“Just gimme a minute.”
I keep walking and he hangs back, which I appreciate.
I’m going to rip the onyx out of the Chancellor’s skin with my fingernails. I bite down and see red.
“Oh, there you are.” Bri heads my way, arms full, glasstinklingwith each step. “The Plinor River runs through here, did you know?”
“No, I… huh?” I blink, trying to make sense of her randomness.
“When I saw it, it gave me an idea.” She presses something cold into my hand. “I’m sorry,” she says, and I turn a vial of dark blue liquid in my hand.
“A potion?”
“The remembering potion. When I saw the river, it hit me. The Plinor has special properties that make it a perfect antidote for a potion gone wrong.”
“Bri, slow down. What are you talking about?”
She meets my eyes, finally. “Rue, I didn’t ever mean to make you doubt me. I-I should have tried this a long time ago. I hope it works. I was so scared that I’d make it incorrectly…”
“Oh, Bri, look, I’m sorry for what I said. I’m just… Nothing is asit seems lately. Every time I turn around, someone I think I can trust is someone I can’t. There’s so much lying.”
“You have a lot you’re juggling. I just want to be sure you know I’m in your corner. I’m in this, all the way. The best way I know how to be. But I’m going to keep learning how to be better at this. Ride or die.”
“Oh, shit, Bri! You got it right!”
“Got what right?”
“Nothing.” I squeeze her shoulder. “Thank you, friend.” The moment is warm, and damn, did I need it. I turn the vial in my hands.
“I really hope it works,” she says. “I found some albino quello root in that Loyalist lab, so I’m ninety-nine point ninety-seven percent sure it’ll work.”
