When she cleared her voice to speak, the sound of it rolled like thunder out over the valley and into the surrounding hills. “May the grace of the Crimson Empress be with you,” she said.
Their response rose up, half a cheer and half a reply. “And also with you,” a multitude of voices answered. One of them was the firm, confident voice of the robed man who sat near her.
“Behold,” Ria said, “the falling moon!” As she said it, the first blue-green light of it rose up on the horizon. “Tonight, we celebrate the salvation it brought us in this-our first open celebration of the mass here in the land of our sojourn.” She paused, the roar of her words echoing out into the forests for league upon league, blending now with the wild cheers of the faithful. Then she turned, pointing toward Jin. “And behold, even our Great Mother attends, bearing the Child of Great Promise.”
The cheer was deafening, and she felt her face grew hot. Her eyes met Ria’s, and behind the adoration she saw there was something else, something off-putting. Was it defiance? She couldn’t be certain. Forcing her eyes away, she inclined her head.
Nestled close to her in his harness, Jakob laughed.
The Machtvolk queen spoke for nearly an hour, her voice rising in passion then dropping low and reassuring as she spoke of their home and their faith. Jin followed what she could but found herself focused instead upon the gathered crowds. Twice she saw uniformed soldiers wrestling individuals to the ground to drag them from the valley. And at least once, she thought she’d seen a tall, robed figure moving along the ridgeline above them.
She also watched the robed man, catching glimpses of a scarred jawline or of a crimson cuff beneath his fur robes. She could distinguish his voice from the others now, and it carried with it an accent she could not place at first.
To her right, she heard Winters shuffle, and she glanced at her. The young woman’s face was drawn tight, and she bit her lower lip with her eyes closed.
Jin leaned over. “Are you okay?”
The girl nodded but did not speak.
They were singing again, and when they finished, Ria turned to the robed man. “We are honored by another guest,” she said, passing over the phial to him. “He has come a long way to bear tidings of our empress. Tonight, he honors us by making the cuts of healing upon our proxy.”
The robed man stood and cast off his hood to reveal a scarred and pale face beneath close-cropped silver hair. He looked first over the crowd and then turned to meet the eyes of the others he shared the platform with.
“I am pleased,” Ria said, “to present to you Blood Regent Eliz Xhum.”
The man stepped forward, and when he spoke, his voice was warm, inviting, even as it blasted out from him. “Greetings,” he said with a wide smile. “It is good to see the Machtvolk on the edge of their new home.” The crowd roared at this. He turned slowly as they did, and his smile widened even farther, though Jin was not certain how it could. “It is good to see you at last, Jin Li Tam, Great Mother of Jakob, our Child of Promise. I’ve awaited your coming for many years now, as have all of us in Y’Zir.”
She met his eyes and found them disarming for that briefest moment before he looked away.
“I am honored to worship with you tonight,” he said as he outstretched his hands. “And this mass shall be your last without a home. Even now, the places are set to the table and the feast is soon coming. Even now-”
But another sound interrupted him, and Jin looked to the right, startled by it. Another clearing of the voice like thunder, and she saw that Winters stood now, her face suddenly a hard mask.
“Oh my people,” Winters cried out, “heed not the lie of wolves in our fold. The dreams of the House of Shadrus are clear. Our home is not
Jin Li Tam followed her finger, saw the moon to which she pointed, and then looked back to the girl. Her hands moved quickly though Winters didn’t pay her any mind.
Jin shot a glance to Ria and the regent. Ria’s face was mottled purple in rage, but Eliz Xhum’s face looked more bemused than anything.
“You surprise me, little sister,” Ria said in a voice that dripped venom.
Winter raised her hands. “Hear me,” she cried. “Our home arises, and our Homeseeker will bring us to it in the end. Do not lose your faith in our dream. Do not trade it for this late-coming lie.” She held her copy of the gospel high above her head and then flung it.
Jin watched it as it tumbled out into the evening air to land within the closest fire. When it landed in the flames, she heard a thousand gasps.
Now, the approaching soldiers faced off with the Gypsy Scouts. Their hands were upon their knife handles as Jin Li Tam’s fingers flew, issuing orders to them that they acknowledged with low whistles. “Stand down your men,” she said over her shoulder to Ria.
“I’ll not-”
But Ria’s voice was cut off by the regent’s. “Stand down,” he said, and they did. When he spoke again, his tone was gentle. “Let us reason together,” he said with a smile.
Jin Li Tam looked to the faith she saw upon Winters’s face, bathed blue-green in the light of the moon, and then to the painted puzzle of Ria’s face and the carved symbols that spiderwebbed Eliz Xhum’s strong features.
Last, she looked to the face of her child, still laughing where he lay against her.
Whatever came next, Jin Li Tam doubted reason would have much to do with it.
Chapter 25
Neb
For the longest time, they followed warm and winding corridors that gradually descended farther into the Beneath Places. Neb’s metal guides ran ahead, the breath of their bellows and the hiss of released steam playing counterpoint to the whir of their gears and the mechanical pulse of their pumping legs.
He ran behind them, surprised at how easily he kept up with them. The deeper down they went, the warmer the air became, and from time to time, the phosphorescent glow faded to leave them moving forward only by the light of their amber eyes in that dark place. Neb used the time to collect his thoughts, giving up on the notion of any answers from them when they ignored his initial questions.
Still hollowed by all he’d learned, he found a numb detachment ran with him. In the span of days, he’d found his dead father very much alive and had discovered through the man’s tearful confession that not only had Windwir’s fall been permitted, but that the man he’d believed his sire was not. True or not, it unsettled him most when he remembered the voice that vibrated through his body as he lay suspended in the bargaining pool.
In those moments, his detachment threatened mutiny.
Even as he thought it, the whispering started ahead as they once more passed through a broad cavern containing yet another silver pool-this one gurgling in a slow-moving current that fled away out of view. He strained his ears but could not distinguish anything intelligible. Still, the whispering grew in volume the farther they ran.
At last, it stopped when they reached a tall archway with a crystalline door set into it. The first mechoservitor placed a metal hand upon its crimson surface, and the door whispered open. A gust of hot wind escaped the space behind it, and a soft blue-green light poured out with it. The metal men inclined their heads.
Neb heard the quietest hiss, and the whispering started up again. As they stepped back, he stepped into the archway and took in the room behind it. It was another pool, one he recognized as similar to the one he’d awakened in, only this one was in a carved basin. At its center, hanging from a web of silver threads, hung a blue- green orb the size of a bull’s head.
