by Jayne Faith
White meant victory.
There were still many other battles that were red, and a good number that were green which indicated they were going in our favor. But in my lifetime we had scored only one major victory, and it was back when my father was still Lord.
I stared at the monitor, counting again to make sure I had it right. “Seven victories?” I turned to Xavier for confirmation, making no effort to disguise my shock.
“You are correct, my Lord.” Triumph shone in his eyes.
I’d have to check the records to be sure, but I believed that seven battles won made Xavier the most successful Master of War in Calistan history.
I shook my head. “So suddenly? All at once like this?”
Part of me felt that I should be whooping in celebration, but I still hadn’t overcome my disbelief.
“A series of very fortunate events combined with several strategic moves made by our forces seemed to culminate at the exact right moment,” Xavier said. “The complete sequence will be detailed in tomorrow morning’s war report.”
“A massive victory, Master Xavier.” I inclined my head in homage to his prowess. The Guardian Lord of Calisto and Earth was subject to no one and nothing except for the sacred texts, but Xavier had earned my deepest esteem. “How does this figure into the larger war to reclaim Earthenfell?”
“The coming weeks and months will tell us whether this is simply one very large step forward, or if it is the beginning of an unstoppable momentum,” Xavier said. “Of course we will pour every resource and effort into ensuring it is the latter.”
The room went silent, but I was certain that every one of us was thinking the same thing. The possibility that we would live to see the Return had become a glimmer on the horizon. Even the tiniest chance of it was nothing short of a miracle.
My mother was looking at me with eyes full of pride and shining with emotion. If these victories were indeed signs that the Return was near, her son would be the Lord to lead the long-awaited reclamation of our ancestral home. She stepped close to me and reached up to briefly place her hand on my cheek. I gave her a quick smile.
But we could not make assumptions, even in the glow of such news.
“This is a tremendous day for Calisto,” I said. “We will need to address the nation. Congratulations, Master Xavier, on this immense step toward victory.”
Though the Priestess had said nothing during the entire exchange, her usual serenity seemed somehow charged through with agitation. I needed to speak with her alone.
“I must excuse myself to my prayer room now, to contemplate this momentous change of events and ask for our further good fortune,” I said. “Priestess, would you do me the honor of joining me in prayer?”
“Of course, my Lord,” the Priestess said.
A flash of disappointment passed over my mother’s face. I knew she wanted to talk about the victories, about the future, but I would have to appease her later. I squeezed her hand. “We will speak soon, Mother.”
“Yes, my son,” she said.
I kissed her cheek and turned to go.
Outside the war room, an experienced guard named Tullock had joined Palovich. They fell in step behind me and the Priestess for the silent walk to my chambers.
Two more guards stood outside the main entrance to my chambers, and Tullock and Palovich accompanied us inside and then stationed themselves on either side of the door.
“Priestess, please join me in my prayer room.” I gave her a slight inclination of my head, which she returned.
We passed through the formal entryway of my private chambers, a receiving room, through the short hallway to my bed chamber, and then into my prayer room. Once we were in the tiny space with the door closed, I turned to her.
“This is unprecedented. I hardly trust that I can believe it’s true. I ask for your wisdom and guidance, High Priestess Lunaria,” I said. I kept my voice low, as if someone might be listening at the door, even though I knew we were safe here.
My heart pounded an anxious rhythm. I could tell by the Priestess’s demeanor that she was similarly stirred.
She drew a deep breath and then sank to my prayer mat, sitting cross-legged and settling her opalescent robes around her. I sat too, facing her in the same posture.
“My Lord,” she said. “You know I cannot see the future. My wisdom comes from the sacred texts, meditation, and prayer. Not from any facility for soothsaying.”
I nodded, wondering why she felt the need to preface with such statements.
“However,” she continued, “we are most certainly on the threshold of a new day in our battle for Earthenfell and the right to return to our homeland in peace. The victories you just learned of are the start. I am certain of it.”
Detecting the conflict in what she’d just said, I gave her a narrow-eyed look. “How do you know this?”
She looked intently into my eyes, and her fingers flexed in the folds of her robes. “There is another volume of the sacred texts. A secret one.”
My mouth dropped open as I stared at her. I was positive I’d never heard mention of secret volumes. “Who else knows of this?”
She shook her head. “I don’t know. I only became aware of it recently. On the day of the Selection, shortly after the new Offered arrived on Calisto.”
“How did you learn of it?”
“It was delivered to me along with some inconsequential items I had ordered.”
I blinked several times. “I don’t understand. Who sent it? How do you know it is genuine?”
“I am making inquiries to try to discover who supplied it, and so far I have come up empty. But I do know that it is genuine. I can only guess that there is someone somewhere who holds a secret position of responsibility. Perhaps even within my own Temple. And somehow he or she knew this was the time to reveal the new volume to me.” She seemed reluctant to say more, but after a moment she continued. “My Lord, it contains a sort of map for taking us back to Earthenfell.”
I gaped at her again, unable to form a suitable response as a sudden chill walked up my spine and brought goose bumps to my arms.
She shifted and an agitated frown passed over her face. “Perhaps map is not the correct word to use. It is not that specific. But it is clear that as High Priestess I am to be the guide in this process.”
“But we always knew that would be the case, that the High Priestess would facilitate the Guardian Lord in leading the Calistans back to Earthenfell,” I said, finally finding my voice.
“It is probably not quite how you imagined,” she said. “It is certainly not exactly as I had imagined. It is important that I have a hand in the process but not too strong a hand.”
I squinted, giving her a sidelong look from the corners of my eyes. “You must guide things to try to ensure that certain events take place but without forcing these events or exerting undue influence?”
She nodded.
My gaze drifted and my eyes lost focus. “So it is not simply a matter of defeating our enemies, packing up, and shipping off to Earthenfell.”
She gave a short laugh. “There seems to be a bit more to it than that.”
I searched her smooth face. Though her expression was serene, there was a new tightness in the set of her jaw and a sharpness in the way her gaze flicked over my face.
A vague sense of foreboding circled around in the center of my chest. “Has something already gone off track?” I asked.
Dead silence filled the prayer room for a couple of seconds.
“Not yet, but I fear it will,” she said. “One of the Earthen women—the one who must win this Tournament to keep us on the path back to our homeland—is in danger. If she loses the Tournament or if the wrong person uses her as a pawn, we will lose our chance at Earthenfell in our lifetimes. Perhaps forever.”
My blood seemed to slow and freeze in my veins.
Maya.
The Priestess had to be speaking of Maya. I’d left Calvin to watch over her and see her back to her quart
ers, but I hadn’t instructed him to stay. I’d need to set a guard outside her door around the clock. Surely that type of protection would not be against the sacred texts?
I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. “I assume that as before, we can’t directly interfere with the Tournament.”
“No, we must not,” she said sharply. “Our interference, even if well-meaning, could destroy everything. And the Earthen women must not find out that our fate rests with one of them. No one must learn of this.”
I shook my head, trying to absorb everything I’d learned in the past few minutes. “Your new sacred text could have spelled out an easier way for us.” I gave a short laugh.
Her face softened into a tiny, wry smile. “But the easiest path is never the one that leads to the greatest reward, my Lord.”
A new, pure white light of purpose seemed to have ignited within me. I took in the wonder and hope in her eyes, and it dawned on me that our every action, our every move in the coming weeks, would steer the fate of our people.
15
Maya
I BERATED MYSELF as Lord Toric swept out of the ballroom with the Priestess. That was my chance to say how cruel this was, how terrible the practice of sending Earthens to their deaths, but I hadn’t. I’d just smiled and chatted and made nice with him, and I hated myself for it.
“I guess he had something more important to do after all,” Akantha said. I whipped around to find the Mistress of Tournament looming over me, and the hate in her eyes forced me back half a step. She plucked a grapeberry from a tray and popped it in her mouth and then shooed at me with the backs of her hands while she chewed. “Go on, now. Go find one of those Earthen boys, take one behind a curtain and give him a little thrill. Maybe that muscled one who fancies you. He looks innocent enough. He probably wouldn’t last half a minute.”
She threw her head back and gave a throaty laugh as she turned her back on me and walked away, her hips swinging seductively.
I pressed my lips together, pinching my mouth tight to hold in the words I wanted to fling at her. Why was she so cruel? She already had so much power over me and the other Obligates and obviously delighted in bossing us around. I didn’t understand why she had to be so haughty.
I watched as she went to Lord Toric’s brother, Jeric. The other Calistans at Jeric’s table slinked away, leaving just the two of them. Akantha’s entire body was rigid as she lit into Jeric. What had her so riled, I couldn’t guess, and I was too far away to hear.
My eyes flicked to one of Lord Toric’s guards, who had stayed behind when the alien Lord left the ballroom. Although the guard stayed a respectful distance away and didn’t look at me in any overt way, I couldn’t help feeling that he’d been instructed to watch over me. Why would Lord Toric order such a thing?
My stomach in a knot over my failure to speak up to Lord Toric and Akantha’s harassment, I left my plate where it was, poured a tumbler of water, and walked toward one of the unoccupied curtained areas. I wasn’t hungry—I’d only been willing to go back to the buffet table because Lord Toric wanted to—and now that the alien Lord was gone, I no longer felt compelled to try to keep up an act to win favor. I was the only Obligate who’d had any direct contact with Lord Toric, and I figured I’d either made a good impression that would help me in the rankings, or I’d screwed up and there was nothing I could do about it now. I wasn’t like Kalindi or Meribel. I had no talents with which to entertain a crowd. I wasn’t even really sure how or if pleasing the other Calistans in attendance would affect the ranks of favor, and at the moment I didn’t really care.
Confusion fluttered through my stomach as I sat on a padded bench with my cup. I was still angry at myself for letting an opportunity to express my opinions to Lord Toric slip away. But I was much more irritated because of something I didn’t really want to admit . . . I truly enjoyed the alien Lord’s presence.
He was intimidating, but as I’d felt in the throne room the first time I’d seen him, he possessed a depth that piqued my curiosity. And I couldn’t say how I knew it, but there was also profound pain—anguish, even—lurking behind his gaze. In spite of my feelings about the Tournament, I couldn’t help wanting to understand how someone like Lord Toric had come to know such pain.
Those things aside, he was so powerfully, magnetically handsome it was all I could do to keep from fidgeting like a silly girl when I was sitting next to him. I tried to tell myself it was ridiculous to be attracted to the very man who was responsible for taking me from Mother and Lana and stealing my future from me, but . . . I couldn’t seem to help my reaction to him. And I couldn’t help feeling that as long as he was nearby I was safe from harm, and that was probably the most ridiculous of all the thoughts spinning through my mind.
I let out an exasperated sigh.
What was wrong with me? I had come to the ballroom determined to give Lord Toric a piece of my mind, and I was hiding away and mooning over the way my heart bumped every time he turned his blue-green gaze on me. I hadn’t even managed to try to follow Iris’s advice about expressing a desire to serve him.
“Maya.”
I looked up. Four Obligates stood in a row peering at me—Kalindi, Meribel, Cheytan, and Riki.
I shifted on my seat. Despite their smiles, something told me they didn’t intend to be friendly. Where was Britta? She was the only one I might consider an ally, but if she’d continued the pace of drinking I’d seen earlier, she was probably passed out somewhere by now.
Not wanting them to come and stand over me, trapping me in between the two gauzy curtains, I stood and walked forward. “Enjoying the party?”
Kalindi brushed ahead of the others, came to me, and took my cup. She set it on a small table and then took both my hands in hers. She pulled me back and practically forced me down to sit on the bench next to her. She leaned in with a conspiratorial smile. The other women crowded in. I stifled a sigh.
“You’re the only one who got to talk to him,” Kalindi said, her eyes bright as a bird with a sparkly object in its sights. “What was he like?”
“What did he say?” Meribel asked.
Cheytan and Riki asked questions, too, right on top of each other.
I pulled my hands away from Kalindi’s and angled my knees toward her, giving me an excuse to scoot back a little.
“He was very gentlemanly,” I said.
“What else?” Kalindi leaned forward and put her hand on my wrist, tugging at me a little.
“We didn’t have much time to converse,” I said. “We were listening to the music.”
Meribel gave me a sharp look that glinted with jealousy. “And then he had to leave. Why did he take off so fast?”
I shrugged. “He didn’t say. Some urgent business.”
“It’s not fair,” Riki said, not bothering to hide her irritation.
I shrank back a little. “It was out of my control.”
All of them were examining me, looking over my hair, my clothes.
“Maya, I see the desserts have been brought out,” a male voice called from the entrance of my section. “Would you like to sample them?”
I looked past the women to see Orion standing behind them. He gave me a half-smile, and I let out a relieved breath.
“That sounds lovely, Orion.” I stood up and turned sideways so I could move between Riki and Cheytan. I took his offered arm and then looked over my shoulder at the women. “You’re all welcome to join us.”
I didn’t wait to see if they followed.
“Thank you,” I whispered to Orion. “Are you done serving your nobleman?”
“Yes, he decided to retire for the night. That guard is watching you.” He tipped his head in a subtle movement toward the Calistan who had stayed behind when Lord Toric left.
“I know, but I’m not sure why,” I said.
“How was your time with Lord Toric?” Orion asked, his eyes still on the guard.
I gave a little laugh. “I don’t know. I may have made a fool of myself. But if
I did, he was quite kind.”
“The two of you make a striking pair.”
I glanced up to see if he was teasing me, but he looked sincere. I wasn’t sure how to respond.
At the dessert table, I placed a delicate little square cake on a napkin. The aromas of lemon and vanilla wafted to my nose. I took a bite and couldn’t help a hum of enjoyment.
“The other women certainly didn’t appreciate that he spent his limited time here with me,” I said, my lips pulling to one side in a frown. I took another bite of the delicious little cake.
“Of course they’re jealous,” Orion said. He arched a brow at me. “Regardless of the standings, I think it’s clear to everyone that Lord Toric has a personal preference for you.”
I stopped chewing for a second. Then I swallowed and looked at him out of the corners of my eyes. “It was just luck that I was the only Obligate he spoke with this evening. A messenger arrived and he had to leave.”
“It’s not just that you were the only one he spoke to. He truly favors you,” Orion said, then bumped my arm with his elbow. “Just trust me on this, would you?”
“It’s not that I don’t trust you . . .” I shook my head. Perhaps Lord Toric had given me small acknowledgements during the ceremonies in the throne room, but Orion was implying something much more overt. “I’m not being coy. He may be a bit intrigued by me, but beyond that I don’t think you’re right.”
“Oh, I’m right.”
“Well, in any case, I hope my interaction with him helped me in some way. How did your evening with the nobleman go?” I asked, eager to shift the conversation to something other than me.
“I could have done better, but I think it went as well as possible considering that I have not been trained for this. When Lord Toric reviews the evening, I can only hope he sees that I’m doing my best and that I am eager to improve.”
“When he reviews the evening? What do you mean?”
“We’re being recorded. Nearly all the time, aside from when we’re in our private rooms.”
“What?” I gave him a wide-eyed look of horror.