I pushed the drink forward across his desk. “So did the other four members of the council. And their vision—”
“Wait.” Grigfen’s face flushed red. “My father drank from the Seer Spring?”
I gripped Grig’s shoulder. “What they saw … It’s terrible, Uncle. The Savak queen will try to destroy us all, but we have a plan to stop her. You need to drink, so you can see the plan and help us survive.”
“The council drank seer water?” Edvarg murmured. He pressed his index finger over his lips, considering. He pointed to the scroll. “And what is that?”
I unrolled the parchment and laid it out over the papers on the desk. I knocked over a small idol, but I didn’t right it. “After they drank, they all agreed this was necessary to save our people.”
Uncle’s neck pulsed. “They disavowed our god in favor of the heathen spring?”
Father said Uncle would help. He had to. He was the only family I had now. I’d give him one last chance—one last opportunity to be who my parents thought he was. “Trust me, Uncle. They are trying to save us.” I moved around the desk. “Please, Uncle Edvarg. You need to drink to see the future and help protect us from what is coming.”
Grigfen stepped to the desk, his fingers tracing the scroll as he read the words. “They left us for the Savak? Why would he leave without saying goodbye?” Grig ran both hands through his curls and stepped away. His face crumpled.
“They wouldn’t have, if the danger wasn’t real,” I insisted. “Please, Uncle, you need to believe me. Drink the seer water, and I’ll let you rule as adviser until Father comes back.”
Uncle Edvarg’s cheek creased, and his eyebrows lifted as he read the words. My muscles tightened, but I had to trust that his ambition would be stronger than his piety. I was offering him the throne.
“I could believe you, but never the Savak. My foolish brother has been tricked by them and he’s turned a traitor,” my uncle announced.
“No. He’s trying to save us. If you drink the seer water, you will see why.”
“My brother has renounced his god-given duty to our people, and in the Undergod’s name, I must assert my claim for the throne he’s left behind.”
I shuddered. “I’m giving you the throne.”
“No. You, my traitorous nephew and your disheveled friend, are the only things standing in my way.”
Edvarg raised both hands, his thumbs touching in a summoning pose. A green mist spread from my uncle’s fingers, lighting the curve of his cheekbones, leaving shadows under his eyes.
I rocked back. The glowing light filled the room.
“Stop,” I commanded. I darted a glance to Grig, my body flushing hot. I should have never allowed him to accompany me.
“What’re you doing?” Grig’s eyes widened.
My uncle pulled his arms down and the bone walls shuddered. A crack and a whiff of bone dust and floating bones flew toward him and congealed together into half-formed, animated skeletons.
I flinched back. The Undergod’s own power.
Grig swore and joined my side. His hands lifted into fists.
“Uncle,” I whispered. I couldn’t stop staring at the half-formed creatures. Bones formed where bones should not be, deer antlers for hips, a skull from a beast I could not name serving as a set of ribs. The Undergod’s power to move the dead was a sacred gift bestowed only on the most righteous. Such holiness should only be used for protection from the lich and against our enemies.
Never against me.
“Will you disavow your father,” Uncle asked me, “and kneel before me as your king?”
We huddled in shocked silence. “Not bloody likely,” Grig said.
I shook my head. No matter what power my uncle wielded, I would never betray my father. Uncle knew that. Uncle leaned forward, his eyes firm on mine, the side of his mouth hooked up like a jagged lure.
He wanted me to stand against him. He didn’t want me to cower. He wanted me dead.
My body tensed and I found a store of rage I’d never cracked into before. I bared my teeth, drunk with my anger, off-my-head tipsy with a need to right this wrong. How dare he threaten me? He didn’t just betray me, he betrayed my father. I drew my sword.
Uncle pulled more bones from the wall. The ceiling above us cracked.
My heart thundered in my chest, and my throat tightened. “I won’t.”
“Shame.” Edvarg sat at his desk. The side of his mouth twitched like he was hiding a smile. The bone-formed creatures crept toward