In the Ruins (Crown of Stars 6)

“Of course you are right,” said Elene quietly. “I pray you, Holy Mother, do not let them harm Wolfhere.”

“I am sworn to God’s service, not to the trivial quarrels of humankind. Yet I hate to see suffering. It is possible that you and Wolfhere have information that may be of value to me.”

“I’ll tell you everything, if you’ll let us go.”

“Were you not already planning to escape? What manner of sorcery did your grandmother teach you?”

Elene twisted one hand within the curve of the other. She bit her lip.

“I know something of sorcery, Lady Elene. I am not without weapons of my own, cruel ones, more dangerous than you can know. Ones whose reach flies farther than that of arrows or spears. Ones whose touch is deadly, and whose heart cannot be turned aside by any manner of plea or bribe. My servants are not of this world, and nothing on this Earth—nothing you have—can stop them.”

Blessing stopped crying, but she shuddered against her servant.

Elene hid her face in her hands. “I know who you are. My grandmother spoke of you. You’re the one who controls the galla.”

“That I am. Now do you see it is better to cooperate with me? Even if you used magic to escape, my servants can still hunt you down no matter where you run.”

“What are galla?” asked Berthold, his face twisted with nervousness and confusion and a touch of proud Villam outrage.

“Something very bad,” said Elene so faintly that her voice faded and was lost as, below, a bench scraped and a guard’s yell drifted up from the lowest level. She lowered her hands. “What do you want from us, Holy Mother?”

“I want the truth. Tell me everything you know, Lady Elene. I cannot allow you or Wolfhere to leave, but I will see that you are well treated and that Queen Adelheid does not harm you.”

“Yes.” Groping, Elene found a chair and sank into it with Berthold supporting her. Once she was sitting, he kept a hand protectively on her shoulder as she told her tale in a halting voice, backtracking often, repeating herself, and without question obfuscating where she could.

She was terrified, that was easy to see, and humiliated because she knew she was afraid. She made mistakes and revealed more than she meant to: how Meriam had demanded that her son sacrifice his eldest daughter to Anne’s cabal; how they had been shipwrecked but rescued by Brother Marcus; how Wolfhere had vanished in Qurtubah, near the ruins of Kartiako, because the others suspected he had turned against them; how a simple, illiterate brother called Zacharias had saved her from the monstrous akreva, taking the poison meant for her; how she and Meriam and their tiny retinue had crossed through the crown into the deserts of Saïs, into a trackless waste where no creature lived or breathed; how Meriam had woven the great spell with Elene’s assistance, on that terrible night.

“She died.” Elene’s voice was more croak than human and her body shuddered as Berthold patted her shoulder. She did not cry. “She needed my strength, but she sent me back at the last moment. She had planned it with Wolfhere all along.”

“With Wolfhere? Planned what?”

“That he would follow us and return me to my father. She fulfilled her vow to Anne. She knew it was right, what they did. But the Seven Sleepers failed. The Lost Ones have returned. They will kill all of humankind if they can. In Jinna lands they still tell tales of the ancient war with the Aoi. My grandmother heard those stories when she was a child. You know what Anne meant to do—to banish the Lost Ones forever, so they would never trouble us again. Why did you abandon Mother Anne, knowing that her cause was just and necessary?”

o;Queen Adelheid will not be so easily persuaded.”

“I have other—” She cut herself off, remembering prudence.

“I expect your grandmother has taught you some of her arts, child. I am not ignorant of Anne and her sorcery. I know Meriam. Is she dead?”

Elene’s shoulders curled. Her tense stance slackened. “Yes,” she whispered. “She’s dead. Anne knew it would kill them all, and she didn’t care! That’s what Wolfhere said.”

“Wolfhere would know, would he not, for he was Anne’s most loyal servant.”

Elene tilted her head sideways as a measuring smile teased her lips. “That’s right,” she said in a mocking tone.

Impertinent child!

“I don’t know what Wolfhere told you to convince you to travel with him. I stood among their number, once, before Anne tried to betray me. I saw what was coming. I saw who supported Anne, but I also saw that I would be sacrificed, so I chose a different path. That is why I survived.”

“What are you talking about?” asked Berthold.

Blessing sobbed on and on. “No one! No-o-o one!” The child had remarkable stamina, which was, no doubt, some unnatural inheritance from her parents.

“Of course you are right,” said Elene quietly. “I pray you, Holy Mother, do not let them harm Wolfhere.”

“I am sworn to God’s service, not to the trivial quarrels of humankind. Yet I hate to see suffering. It is possible that you and Wolfhere have information that may be of value to me.”

“I’ll tell you everything, if you’ll let us go.”