darkened blade_ A fallen blade novel - Kelly McCullough Page 0,81

I said, “Master Illiana subscribed to the idea that the Lady is a real person?”

Siri nodded. “Absolutely. She told me that she had met her once, on a special commission from Namara—that the lake itself was somehow the Lady’s familiar, and that was why she is so powerful within its bounds.”

“I wish that I had gotten the chance to know Master Illiana,” I said—suddenly wishing that I had not been so intimidated by her in life. But she was another of the grand old legends of the order, Illiana Spellslayer, and she had seemed all but unapproachable when I still had that opportunity. “The Son of Heaven robbed us of so much. . . .”

Whatever Siri might have said in answer to that was lost when a hiss sounded in the darkness ahead of us. We had reached the island, and Kelos was there, waiting.

“You and I need to talk,” I said, ignoring the hand he offered to help me out of the water.

“All right. Alone? Or would you prefer an audience?”

“In this case, I think I’d like the audience.” He nodded and stepped back, crossing his arms impassively while he waited for everyone to come ashore.

I do not believe that he did it, sent Triss.

I don’t think I do either, but this has to be dealt with openly and immediately. I won’t let it fester.

“In front of the goddess.” I jerked my chin in the direction of the sacred pool.

Kelos raised an eyebrow, but didn’t say anything before turning to follow me to the pool.

“Stand there.” I pointed to the place where an initiate waited for the goddess to invest them as a Blade.

Once he was in place, with the rest of us facing him in a semi-circle, I told him what we had all seen in the Sanctuary at the temple and what Siri had to say about it. His face visibly paled, and he looked absolutely stricken by the time I finished. I hoped—almost prayed—that was an honest reaction. The alternative was simply too horrible.

After a moment, he shrugged out of his sword rig and extended it toward me hilts first. “There is no oath I can make that any of you would believe. I have earned that mistrust, and I won’t insult you by pretending I haven’t. I have earned even your suspicions about that abomination in the Sanctuary. I will swear no oath, nor protest my innocence with fair words.”

He took a deep breath. “I will say only this: I did not know about the spell, and I would have died to prevent its setting. If I am lying to you, I pray that the ghost of the goddess will send one of the hunters in the deep into her pool and have it devour me right now. If you don’t believe me, please take my own swords and put an end to me.”

I nodded at him, but neither took his swords nor suggested that he put them back on. Instead, I said, “Malthiss?”

The shadow basilisk rose from the tattoos that wrapped Kelos from waist to neck and bowed before me. “He speaks the truth, First Blade. I would have taken him into the darkness before I would have let him participate in something like that. I know that we have done nothing to earn the faith of any here, and much to betray it, so I, too, will make no vows. I will tell you that we have not been back to the temple since the day of the fall, nor have we stepped beyond the ring of salt on this visit. Were it not for the ritual of attunement we would not tread the shores of this island tonight either. We have not the right.”

“I have a question,” said Kumi, startling me with the firmness of her interjection. “I know that Kelos betrayed the order, but how exactly? It doesn’t seem to me that one man could convince the gods themselves to move against Namara.”

I turned to Kelos. It wasn’t something I’d thought about in quite that way before, and I wanted to hear his answer.

“Of course not,” he said. “The gods had long since decided that Namara was a problem. She had created weapons that could kill a god and she didn’t subscribe to the idea that the gods were themselves above justice. The question was always when. Never if. I only helped to decide the timing, and that because I thought I might make the inevitable serve the estimable, and bring