Divined (26 page)

The man shook his head. “I don’t know, sir. Messages have been sparse. We’re all still getting used to our new positions.”

“Of course.” Nox bowed, then moved on without looking to see if Clio was following.

“What’s your rank in the Order?” Riece asked Nox when they’d passed through the gates.

“Second only to the High Priest.” Pride filled Nox’s voice. “It was the best way to get information. The perfect position from which to topple the Order to the ground.”

Riece nodded, but something darkened his features. They had entered the palace, though, and there was no further room for discussion. Every door, every corridor, they met with more priests. The Order had filled the palace to the brim, and Clio had to hold her hood in place as they pushed through crowds of men talking eagerly about the coronation.

Nox led them to a guest wing of the palace. These corridors were covered in gold and jewels, designed to impress the nobles important enough to visit the palace. It made sense the High Priest would choose one of these ostentatious rooms for himself over the austere humility of the Emperor’s old quarters. Clio felt a sudden pang at the thought. He had been a great man. And if they didn’t succeed in breaking the Order, the corrupt excesses of the High Priest would hold power over thousands.

“I have to go to the front steps for the ceremony.” Nox stopped. “Will you be able to find your way out after? I’ll try to keep as many men away from the area as I can.”

“We’re fine. Go,” Clio whispered. “And Nox,” she called as he turned away. “Thank you. Truly. I’m again indebted to you.”

Nox bowed. “Convince Riece to give Tirza and me his blessing, and you can consider any debts paid.” He grinned at Riece before walking back down the hallway toward the front of the palace.

“
There’s
a marriage that could stand to wait until all of this is over.” Riece walked ahead, his stride stiff.

The corridors were mostly empty. Whatever Nox had done to prepare their way seemed to work. When they reached the High Priest’s rooms, they found only two guards who were easily fooled into letting Riece, Clio and Ashira inside. Still, Clio felt her hand slipping to the blade at her side. Everything was almost
too
easy. She rounded every corner fearing the worst, not knowing at what point they would walk into a dozen priests.

“In here,” Riece whispered ahead of them.

Clio ran to catch up and burst through the glittering archway.

Inside, Ixie was on the floor, her wrists bound behind her to her ankles. Her hair was matted with dark brown blood, and her lip was split, a line of blood trailing all the way down to her chest. She didn’t move when they came in. Instead, it seemed as if she were only half conscious. Swaying, she slowly tipped her head up and looked at them, her eyes hooded and swollen.

“
No
…” she moaned and shivered.

Clio stepped into the room, fighting the horror and grief that threatened to overwhelm her.

“Ixie, it’s all right.”

“No…” Ixie flinched away from Clio’s touch.

“The robe,” Ashira said, taking off her hood and kneeling in front of Ixie.

“Ashira?” Ixie’s voice was weak, but something lit up in her eyes.

When Clio pulled off her hood, Ixie’s face crumpled in pain.

“Clio,” she cried. “You—you came.” Her voice was cut thin, and her eyes were red with blood and tears.

“Of course I came.” Clio held in her own tears as she reached out for the girl now sobbing into her knees.

“I’m so sorry,” Ixie choked out.

“No, Ixie.” Clio pulled Ixie in, holding her as she shook.

“Clio.” Riece came into the room. “Someone’s coming.”

“What do you mean? Nox said he would keep the area clear.” Clio felt Ixie go rigid.

“
No, no, no…
”
Ixie murmured.

“Well, something went wrong. We have to move.” Riece leaned down over Ixie.

“And what are we supposed to do with her? We can’t carry her through the hallways unnoticed.” Clio stood, the sound of footsteps growing louder. “Hoods,” she hissed, pulling hers on just as three men burst into the room.

“What’s going on here?” It was the High Priest. He was wearing the great ceremonial headdress Clio recognized from the sacrifice. But the High Priest shouldn’t have been here. He should have been on the palace steps, far from the guest quarters.

“Nothing, sir,” Riece answered, throwing his voice low.

“I gave specific instructions for no one to disturb the prisoner.” The High Priest walked into the room, fisted his hand in Ixie’s hair and pulled her head back.

Riece’s hand drifted to his side. “We heard crying. We only wanted to make sure someone hadn’t snuck in here.”

The High Priest smiled down to Ixie. “And you said I wouldn’t have the pleasure of your tears.” With his free hand, he wiped his thumb roughly under Ixie’s eyes and brought it to his mouth. Leering, he turned back to them. “Why are you wearing your hoods? Take them down when you address the High Priest.”

Clio froze, powerless, and for a moment no one in the room moved. Unable to speak without betraying herself, all Clio could do was watch Riece and hope he could talk them out of this.

But the High Priest’s eyes narrowed. “Guards!”

Riece sprang. Clio saw the flash of the blade, the spray of red. One of the guards moved in to help his fallen master. Without thinking, Clio whipped out her own dagger and sunk it into the man’s chest.

But the other guard had been more shrewd. Instead of coming in to fight, he had bolted down the hallway, out of sight. Clio pulled her blade out of the man’s chest and stepped over the body toward the archway.

“Where are you going?” Riece stopped her.

“We can’t let him get away! He’s going to send every Order member here any moment.”

“And you’re going to what? Kill him in front of the other priests? Either way we’re exposed.”

Clio looked back to Ixie, knowing he was right. They were trapped. “We don’t have much time.”

Clio glanced at the High Priest. He had died quickly, his neck slashed deep. But even with him dead, the Order still had power. Nox couldn’t change them overnight.

She cut through Ixie’s bindings, then knelt in front of the dead guard to turn him over. “We’ll dress Ixie in his robes.” Ashira came to her side, her hands shaking violently as she pulled free the bloodstained cloak. “If anyone asks, we’ll pass Ixie off as a guard injured in watching the prisoner.”

“Hurry,” Riece urged, keeping his eyes on the archway.

As they dressed Ixie, Clio felt her heart stop at every echoed footstep, every distant strain of a man’s voice.

“Clio.” Ixie grabbed Clio’s wrist as she finished tying the robes. “Clio, I didn’t tell them anything.” Ixie’s voice was weak, and even though her eyes were nearly swollen shut there was something determined in their unflinching intensity.

“I know,” Clio breathed, wrapping her hand around Ixie’s. “I never doubted you. Never,” Clio repeated, willing Ixie to understand.

Ixie nodded, her shoulders sagging as if relieved of a great burden.

“Let’s go.” Clio shouldered Ixie’s weight, allowing Riece to walk ahead of them.

The corridor was clear, but they moved cautiously. Every step they took had Ixie whimpering, but she walked on, her breathing labored but steady.

“There’s no one here,” Riece said, looking out a low window. “The guards that were watching the grounds have been moved.”

“Nox,” Clio breathed with relief.

“Someone’s coming,” Ashira said, her eyes going wide.

“Through the window. Quick.”

Ashira slipped over the ledge, and together, Riece and Clio helped lower a quaking Ixie into Ashira’s waiting arms.

“He’s dead,” a voice said down the hall. “It was the Oracle. I saw her hair when she moved.”

“You’re sure he’s dead?” Nox’s voice.

Clio stilled, looking to Riece.

“I’ll show you, sir.” The footsteps grew louder, then stopped.

“He’s with the Deities now,” Nox said, his voice breathy.

“Should I alert the reserve men? They couldn’t have gotten far.”

Clio heard a hurried rustling. “I have to do the coronation. We’re already behind, and the crowd’s impatient.”

“But sir—”

“Are you about to question your High Priest?”

Clio sucked in a breath, an image of Nox donning the High Priest’s ceremonial headdress filling her mind.

“No. Forgive me, sire.”

“We’ll send men after the assassins when the coronation is finished. Right now, making sure we hold this throne is of the utmost importance.”

“Of course, sire. What do we do with the body?”

There was a pause. Then Nox spoke, his voice loud and solid. “Get some men, carry him to the front steps. After that, I care not.”

The footsteps started up again, and Riece grabbed Clio’s wrist and pulled her over the window ledge with him.

CHAPTER FIFTY-ONE

They changed out of their amber robes in the shadows beneath the palace. Ashira handed them each a common brown cloak from her bag. No one would look at them twice in the crowded Morek streets.

“He’s dead, right?” Ixie wheezed as they walked to the main road.

“Dead. Riece killed him,” Clio answered. “He can’t hurt you anymore.”

Ixie spat on the dirt. “Good.”

Every person they passed in the road was walking in the opposite direction, heading toward the palace steps.

Clio stopped. “We should hear what Nox says.”

“I’ve no desire to see Mannix coronated,” Riece said, frowning.

“But it’s Nox. He’ll find a way to prevent the coronation now that he’s the High Priest.”

Riece hesitated. “Ixie doesn’t look like she will be able to stand much longer.”

“I’m…fine…Commander,” Ixie said through labored breathing.

“I’ll take her to the meeting point with Atzi,” Ashira offered. “Go. We should know what happens at the coronation.”

Clio nodded, squeezed Ixie’s hand once and turned back into the crowd heading back to the palace.

“The people don’t look happy,” Riece murmured out of the side of his mouth when he caught up. “Look. Everyone brought farming tools—weapons.”

“You think they will rebel?”

“The Emperor was beloved. And the Order plans to replace him with a man the people hardly know.”

They arrived in the sprawling square in front of the palace steps. Hundreds of Morek citizens were crowded into every corner. Clio had to hold tightly to Riece’s robes to keep from being separated in the pulsing throng.

It didn’t take her long to notice Riece was right. The air was thick with discontented murmuring buzzing with the promise of bloodshed.

But when four priests emerged on the steps bearing the High Priest’s body, a hush fell over the crowd, and everyone stilled as one.

Nox stepped out of the palace gates, the bright feathers in his golden headdress catching the sun’s rays, washing him in a glaring glow of golden light.

He stopped at the edge of the steps and raised his hands. “The Deities have spoken this day.” His voice boomed out over the crowd, stirring more hushed murmurings across the square.

“Our city bled the day our Emperor was killed. Today we are to replace him with another.”

A man screamed out at the front of the crowd. “A murderer!” And the call was taken up by those around him, spilling throughout the square until Clio feared weapons would be drawn and blood spilt.

Nox raised his hands higher and shouted over the roar. “The murderer lies before you.” He gestured to the body of the High Priest, and Clio felt confusion ripple through the crowd.

“The Deities have struck him down in their inimitable knowledge and power.”

Clio watched as the men who were only moments away from wielding their weapons let their hands fall empty to their sides.

“You mourn your fallen Emperor. As do I.” Nox closed his eyes as if in pain. “He was a great man. Under his rule, this Empire has stretched all the way to the Great Sea. He brought the glory of the Deities to those who had never sacrificed, those who had never worshipped. But since his death, his work has been undone.”

Clio blinked, confused. Nox didn’t believe in spreading the Order.

His eyes flashed dark in the bright light. “Cearo opposes us, harboring those who have been marked for the Deities. The Corner bars our Deities, our priests, from entering their city. And Sheehan, our dearest sister, has made threats against our city. They challenge the Deities themselves in their war cries.”

Clio glanced at Riece, dread growing in the pit of her stomach. Riece’s mouth was drawn tight, his eyes wary. Something was wrong.

“The Emperor’s dream of peace was one too beautiful for our brutal world,” Nox continued, his voice suddenly soft, respectful. “It was a dream fit for the divine, and thus we must take solace in our great Emperor’s release from our ugly mortality. How can we remain peaceful when as I speak Sheehan and the Corner conspire to shed our blood?”

Rumbling picked up among the men, and Clio felt the air shift, growing darker, heavier.

“They would threaten us! And thus they threaten the Deities! We must stand as defenders of not only our glorious Empire but of the Deities themselves!”

A spattering of cheering broke out across the square. Clio grabbed Riece’s arm, tugging him back.

“What happened?” she asked, her eyes on Nox.

Riece shook his head. “We’ve given him too much power. He leads the Order now, why would he give that up?”

“But Nox hates the Order.”

“Perhaps. I’m starting to think the High Priest interrupting us wasn’t a coincidence.”

Clio felt sick. Nox had used them. They’d killed the High Priest, and Nox walked away blameless and with all the strength of the Order.

She fixed her gaze back on Nox, her hands shaking at her sides.

“We are called upon to rise to greatness once more. I have spoken to the Deities. I have been told what we must do to prevail against these unworthy foes. Blood gives them strength, and thus, it will give us strength.” Nox looked behind him to the row of priests lining the palace entrance.

Clio had to rise onto her toes to see over the surging crowd. Two priests walked out from the line, dragging someone behind them.