to as ‘the Lock’ and climbed down into the damp, buttressed underground tunnel, the voices rose up again, fierce and demanding.
So that was why Heliora had spent little time down here. Rhian had thought it would be better, away from the sky, but the wall stank of Creature Court, of their wretched animor, and it made her dizzy.
As she walked along, she came up with a refrain in her head, repeated over and over, fierce enough to keep the voices at bay.
Velody’s fault, it’s all Velody’s fault, it’s all Velody’s fault.
She tripped several times in the darkness, and once nearly fell into the enormous canal in the central tunnel. After that, she let the voices themselves guide her steps. They knew the way, and she did not.
Eventually, even in the darkness, she found her way to an old grocer’s shop, with lamps burning in the upstairs window.
You don’t have to do this, Heliora’s voice said, emerging clearly out of the messy chorus of Seers.
Yes I do, Rhian replied, and knocked.
After a short while, it opened, and she felt a wave of Garnet’s animor before she could focus on enough detail to see it was him, standing in the doorway. ‘Can I help you?’ he said with exaggerated politeness.
Rhian clenched her fists, holding herself together, determined not to fall apart here in front of this man. ‘I’m the Seer of the Creature Court. Don’t you think we should talk?’
Garnet hesitated, and then smiled, stepping back so as to usher her up a narrow flight of stairs. ‘Poet, my dear, we have a guest.’
It was a warm, elegant room, but their host provided enough frost to make up for that. ‘Mistress Rhian,’ he said, nodding warily.
‘I think I should warn you,’ Garnet said, obviously the only one enjoying this. ‘Your predecessor was less than helpful when it came to serving her Power and Majesty.’
‘Yes,’ said Rhian, glancing carefully around the room before choosing a chair to sit in. ‘But she didn’t like you very much.’
Poet laughed at that, a sudden surprised bark. ‘She has a point.’
She was here. Anything was possible. A sudden heat flared in her hands, and she pressed her palms hard against her knees, attempting to calm it down. ‘I came to you because I need to understand my powers. I think we can both learn something useful from the voices in my head.’
Garnet looked intrigued. ‘Voices? What do they say about me?’
Heliora was shouting at her. The others too, a cacophonous muddle in her head. Rhian resisted the urge to press her hands to her ears. ‘The city will be saved if you make the sacred marriage,’ she said.
Poet was watching her intently. Garnet too. ‘And what do you know of this sacred marriage?’ Garnet said finally.
‘Nothing,’ she admitted. ‘I think the older Seers in my head know it, but the knowledge is so old and their voices are so weak. I thought you could help …’
‘I’m hardly an expert on hearing voices,’ said Garnet.
Poet muttered something indistinguishable, covering it with a cough.
‘I think that the Seer might have a purpose other than seeing the futures of the Creature Court,’ Rhian said, pressing on. ‘Why else would I be able to hear the Seers of the past? If we can learn from them …’
‘I have learned everything I need to know about the Creature Court, past, present, future,’ Garnet said dismissively. ‘I don’t need you.’
He was lying, though. She had said something that drew him in, something that was of value. Wisps of smoke uncurled from the palms of her hands as Rhian stared down at them. She had made the right choice. If it all went wrong, she did not mind Garnet of all people getting hurt.
She met his eyes. ‘We are going to help each other. We are going to save the city.’
‘No,’ he said simply. ‘You would not come all this way to give me a prophecy, not when you could have given it to your Velody. You think you can use one flash of future as coin to bargain with me? It makes no sense.’
Oh, he was smarter than Rhian had thought. That wasn’t good. Poet was watching Garnet as if he might be about to bite her.
‘I came to help,’ she said again.
Garnet leaned in, dangerously close. ‘No, you didn’t. Tell me what you really want.’
You can’t do this, Heliora hissed. You cannot trust him with our secrets.
Rhian ignored her. She met Garnet’s gaze, and for once did not care if her hands