Page 50 of Blood Sanctuary, Part One

Argyros nodded. “If the king and queen had taken our side, they would have risked being branded as heretics themselves and undermining all they had worked so hard to build.”

“A good ruler would face the same decision today.”

“They had to choose to keep their ship afloat or sink with Hespera’s. They made the right decision to let us sail to a safer harbor.”

“You still agree with the terms of the first Summit?”

“I do. Our Queens were highly satisfied with the outcome. King Lucian and Queen Hedera could have thrown us to the wolves and let the Mage Orders hunt us down. But they afforded us this much protection—they allowed us to leave in peace and go in search of a new homeland. Those who sympathized with our plight lauded their rulers’ mercy, and those who hated us saw King Lucian as the warlord who was brave enough to banish us. A brilliant move that satisfied nearly everyone. We retreated over the northern mountains and built Orthros in this land of ice and snow, where mortals feared to tread even before our magic touched it.”

“But you were allowed to return under the terms of the Oath.”

“That too was a bold risk on King Lucian and Queen Hedera’s part, but one that served them well for some time. They established us as those who cleansed the problems their fledgling government was incapable of addressing. More children than parents could feed. More casualties than warriors could bury. More criminals than the new magistrates could bring to justice.

“Our sacred practices were protected, and the Tenebrae’s undesirables disappeared. The consequence, however, was that the people of the Tenebrae came to see us as vultures. Our function as adopters of the outcasts, corpse-cleaners, and avengers became a specter in mortal minds. Now we loom large in their imaginations as the creatures that will claim them if they do not walk the path of obedience to gods and king.”

“I hold out hope Tenebrans will come to see you as you are.”

“On that subject,” Argyros said abruptly, “you and Lio have no need of my expertise. I can teach you nothing but ancient history. Come, we had best rejoin the others. The sucklings will soon tire.”

So much for Cassia’s attempts to divine Argyros’s thoughts on either Summit politics or family politics.

With Argyros’s tree cradled in her arms, Cassia rejoined Lio, no closer to discovering the reason for the rift between him and his uncle, much less mending it. Whatever she and Lio must face in the course of the Summit, it seemed they were on their own.

37

Nights Until

WINTER SOLSTICE

A GAME OF PRINCE AND DIPLOMAT

When the final nightof the royal celebration arrived, Cassia dressed in red and black with great anticipation. Let ladybug colors be her private jest with the Eighth Princess. Little did Chrysanthos know he had an appointment with her, and it promised to be a fitting finale for the gauntlet he had run this week.

In the residences of Princess Gregoria, Prince Kleos, Princess Helene, and Prince Iulios, Cassia had done everything in her power to covertly support the Hesperine royals. She had kept the translations flowing with invitations to Lio and encouragements to Eudias. She had murmured in the right ears among the embassy, raising the right innocent questions, heartfelt sympathies, and expressions of wonderment.

If the other mortals felt even a hint of the same longing and awe as she did in Orthros, they must surely look upon Lio’s people with new eyes. There was no resisting the magic of the Hesperines’ kindness. This Cassia saw in the young men’s eager gazes and the stoic warriors’ freer words, and especially the Cordian mages’ faces, which hardened ever more as it became a greater and greater effort to deny the truth before their eyes.

Tonight Lio and his Trial brothers escorted the embassy through the back gateway of House Annassa, past an apiary and a greenhouse. Cassia peered inside, eager for a glimpse of the Eighth Princess’s mulberry trees, and caught sight of the orchard housed within the glass.

The residence was a circular wing that ringed a courtyard. The central double doors swung open in welcome, and everyone crossed an entry hall into a long, low-ceilinged room with inviting plush carpets in deep, bold colors. The doors eased shut, closing in the warmth.

“Ambassador,” Cassia said, “I do not believe my eyes. That is a fireplace.”

“Indeed it is, Lady Cassia. Welcome to the Eighth Princess’s hearth room.”

The central feature of the chamber was a tiled hearth, where an actual wood fire burned. There was another fireplace at each end of the room, and their flames beckoned from between silk hangings that divided the space into intimate sections.

To the last man, woman, and mage, the embassy drew near the central hearth fire like moths to their beloved, proverbial flame.

The princess waited for them by the hearth in black-and-white formal silks. She stood arm in arm with a tall, well-built man who appeared to hail from the Empire. As the Tenebrans gathered around, she gave them her impish smile and greeted them in Vulgus. “Welcome to my residence, everyone. Please have a seat wherever you like and make yourselves comfortable. Put up your tired feet and warm your chilly fingers.”

The Tenebrans stood about awkwardly. All except for the Semna, who marched nearer the hearth, leaning on her walking stick.

The princess reached out to help. “Here, Semna, please sit on the hearth tiles, where the warmth is best.”

The Semna accepted the invitation. “Thank you, Princess. Geomagi are all well and good, but there’s nothing like a real fire to warm old bones.”

The ice broke, and the other Tenebrans began to drift out of their defensive knot. The princess’s Hesperine guests, who all appeared to be about her and Lio’s age, showed the mortals to comfortable chairs or even lured them to have a seat on silk floor cushions.

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