Vengeance Throne (The Callistra Chronicles #2)

NINE

Chapter Nine

Yelena of Eo had very little left. Whether in possession or in company, lately, she had been losing all that she held dear, so much that she was hardly surprised when she found her finest glass statue shattered in pieces on her bedroom floor.

She had blown it herself in the last week of school: back when everything was normal, back when the world still abided by the rules they knew.

Yelena crouched down, blinking back tears as she swept the glass shards into a burlap sack, tidying up the aftermath of a second sylph attack. When the sun rose, there had been casualties counted in the other sectors, or so she heard from the whispers through the streets. Her two mothers were medical aid workers, but they brought home little about affairs outside of Eo. There was a time when Yelena would have been among the first receiving line of information regarding everything to do with Medeis. There was a time when she would gather with the other members of her coven, with the girls she had initiated with, whispering conspiratorially about what was coming next.

That was before Arche killed Embess. That was before Pasiphae killed Arche. That was before Pasiphae and Circe became major players in the struggle for Callistra's power and Yelena was forgotten in Eo.

She didn't really mind being forgotten. She only missed the companionship when her house was empty for most hours.

Sighing, Yelena gathered up the burlap bag, and moved outside to dump it with the rest of the trash. She wound around the back of the house, stomping heavily in exhaustion. Others had it worse, she reminded herself, remembering Meira's weary expression yesterday while ordering those living in less dependable homes to immediately evacuate.

Yelena shook the glass shards into the trash pile, lost in thought. She didn't look up even as the sun's rays climbed higher into the sky, even as the sky suddenly brightened from a hue of purple to orange. It was the rustle in the trees—the noise—that drew her attention.

Yelena's gaze collided with a dark stare, one that was blank, but certainly not harmless.

When she pulled herself out of her shock, she realised there was a girl lurking afar, peering through the trees curiously. With one flare of her magic, Yelena knew what the girl was, but there was no time to put out a call of alarm. The girl disappeared, and Yelena was left horrified at the knowledge that there was not only a faery lurking about in Eo, but a banshee.

***

As the swirl of black dispersed, it became clear that each individual speck was an oily beetle, scuttling forward from the door and dispersing into the night, ignoring the witches and the faery that had frozen a short distance away. When it seemed that there were no more strange insects hiding in the doorway, Rhoden gestured for them to enter.

"This is peculiar," Seth remarked.

Indeed it was. This palace was nothing like that of the Unseelie Court, without a hint of resemblance to the cake-tiered structure and ever-shifting dark walls that Pasiphae had become accustomed to.

When Pasiphae stepped across the threshold and looked around, squinting under the torch light that Circe had lit, the palace of Calva appeared more like a particularly opulent house from Earthen times. The main area was a sweeping hall, boasting two twin staircases that led into the higher levels, and an arch at the back that led into the rest of the ground-level palace.

"By Callistra," Circe gasped.

She bolted towards a statue in the middle of the room, a marble etching of a strange, twisting symbol that resembled a fleur-de-lis. Pasiphae was bemused as to why Circe was so astonished, until she too, heard the soft sound of lapping water.