Palace of Silver (The Nissera Chronicles #3) - Hannah West Page 0,30
figures. “But my mother was devout. It grieved her to find the edifice empty when she came to say her prayers. So she set out to renew our people’s commitment to the faith, and our people loved her enough that her devotion sparked an awakening.” A wistful smile crossed the girl’s face as she stopped before me again. “She was so kind. She represented every Holy virtue, but Lovingkindness most of all.”
Hesper bowed her head in reverent sorrow.
“When she fell ill,” Navara continued, “she grew weak and had to be carried to the edifice on a litter. My father tried to convince her to travel to Nissera to see an elicromancer Healer. She refused, believing that Eulippa would take pity on her and Hestreclea would honor her loyalty. At first her fellow devotees continued to flock to the edifice and pray for her. But when it became clear that prayers for her health would not be answered, they abandoned the faith again. People began to speak fondly of her beauty and kind spirit as though she was already gone. They preferred to remember her as she was. Even my father.”
Navara stared at her toes, tears glittering like dewdrops in her thick lashes. She looked so young and fragile until her eyes shot up to meet mine, deep and determined. “She said the Holies would not look kindly on this city turning their backs on the faith again. She said that I would live to see the wrath of the gods fall upon Halithenica.” She paused. “And their wrath has come.”
“What do you mean?” I whispered.
“One of the Fallen deities walks among us,” Hesper answered. The candlelight sculpted her narrow features.
“The Fallen?” I repeated, remembering the illustration of bloodshed and chaos in Perennia’s book. A skeptical laugh slipped out.
“You cannot deny that an unholy presence accompanies the queen,” Hesper said. “You said you sensed something strange about the portrait.”
“Yes, the fact that Ambrosine treats her stepdaughter like a child to try and stifle a beauty that rivals her own.”
Navara blushed and ducked her head, but Hesper lifted her chin. The compliant attitude befitting a ladies’ maid had vanished; the fire of a challenging scholar’s spirit flared in her gray eyes. “Nexantius, the Fiend of Vainglory, would do just such a thing.”
“Of course,” I snapped. “The one who spawned elicromancers, seeing as we’re inherently vain and power hungry?”
“No.” Princess Navara shook her head. Her denial resounded through the edifice. “We know what you did to save Nissera. That’s why I thought you could help us. It’s why I thought you would.”
“It was you who unleashed her upon us,” Hesper added. “You unburdened yourself of your sister at our kingdom’s expense. It is your duty to liberate us.”
“Hesper,” Navara chided. She stepped forward to seize my hand, her grip firm and desperate. In her other hand, the candlestick trembled. “The final chapter of the Book of Belief warns of a time when the Fallen will take on flesh and enter our world. They’ve been waiting for their moment and the vessels to make it possible. They will bring scourges on mankind. Once all four arrive, it will signal the beginning of the end.”
“Of what?”
“Humanity.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t believe—”
“Please, listen,” the princess pressed. “There’s a missing section of the final chapter: a sealed apocryphal scroll, which only the high priest and the king are allowed to see. It’s rumored to contain guidance for banishing the Fallen. The high priest kept it safe and secret, but he died suspiciously over a month ago now. The day after his death, the queen questioned me to make sure I didn’t know what it said. I think she wanted to destroy it and bury any knowledge of it.”
“Are you implying that she killed your priest?” I asked in disbelief. “You don’t know my sister. She’s not a murderer, and she has no interest in your religion.”
“The priest was one of only two people who knew how to banish the Fallen, and now he’s dead,” Hesper said. “The other is the king, and the queen has locked him away and corrupted his mind.”
My skull prickled with the onslaught of a raging headache.
“Regardless of what you believe, my father is in peril,” Navara said. “I haven’t seen him for weeks except when she trots him out to sign royal decrees. When I try to find his quarters, the mirrors confuse my mind and I wake up in my bed as though I never left.”