This reunion was not going the way Felitïa had hoped. “Where are the others?”

“Quilla’s looking after Fra-Tepeu,” Rudiger said, turning away from Zandrue and Fra-Ichtaca. He went over beside Meleng and Nin-Akna. “They’re outside. The steps were too steep for Fra-Tepeu. Borisin’s with them. He was waiting there when we arrived. Fra-Mecatl didn’t make it, I’m afraid.”

“What about Jorvan?” Felitïa asked.

“No idea,” Rudiger said. “He was with the Resistance in the attack on the Palace. We haven’t seen anyone who was in the battle. Not Jorvan, not Izel. The attack clearly didn’t succeed, so it doesn’t look good. Quilla’s anxious about Garet.”

Felitïa lowered her head. How was she going to tell Quilla about Garet?

“I had a chance to look through the battlefield,” Zandrue said. “There was no sign of Jorvan or Ses-Izel, so I’d guess they got away.”

Meleng breathed a soft sigh.

“Good to hear, I guess,” Rudiger said. “Noticed you didn’t mention Garet there.”

“Yeah, I didn’t,” Zandrue said, looking at the floor. “Garet’s dead. Looks like he went down fighting though. He...well, it wasn’t a pretty sight.”

“Shit,” Rudiger said. “Quilla’s going to be devastated.”

Corvinian looked up at Meleng. “Who’s Garet? Who’s Quilla?”

“Uh, Quilla’s your...uh...your mother,” Meleng stammered. “Your real mother, that is. And Garet was her fiancé. He was also a prince of Arnor.”

Corvinian backed away from Meleng. “My mother is dead. Why does everybody keep claiming to be my mother?”

Fra-Ichtaca laughed. “Such a functional family you have, Will-Breaker.”

“Can I gag her?” Zandrue said.

“How about I just shove my spear through her chest?” Nin-Akna said.

Felitïa sat down at the table. She wanted to bury her face in her hands, but the pain from them was a stark reminder she couldn’t do that. “No shoving spears through her chest, please.”

“I’ll remind you, I’m supposed to be in charge here,” Nin-Akna grumbled.

Felitïa sighed. “Yes, I know. And...you are. But we might still need her.”

Fra-Ichtaca laughed. “You’re not in charge, Nin-Akna. No matter what the Will-Breaker may claim, she—”

“Just shut the fuck up!” Felitïa snapped. She tilted her head and half closed her eyes, and Fra-Ichtaca fell asleep. “Now, let’s the rest of us stop snapping at each other, and figure out what we’re going to do.”

“You’re right,” Nin-Akna said. “I’m sorry again.”

“We’ve all been through a trying night,” Felitïa said. “We’re injured. People have died. People we loved. We’ve seen a lot of death recently. It’s natural we’re all...jumpy. Frankly, it’s amazing we’ve held things together as well as we have. But we have to hold things together a little longer if we want to survive till morning. So we need to plan our next move.”

“We need to regroup,” Nin-Akna said. “Find Ses-Izel and any other survivors from the attack. Once we have our forces back together, we can start planning how to retake the Palace and avenge Queen Nin-Xoco’s death.”

Zandrue sat in the last remaining chair at the table. “I doubt there were enough survivors of that battle to have any hope of attacking the Palace again. I’ve seen the results.”

“And you won’t have the people on your side either,” Felitïa said. “Fra-Ichtaca’s followers will blame the Queen’s death on me and they’ll link me to the Resistance. Nin-Chicahua told me I was supposed to herald terrible destruction, and as much as I’ve tried to avoid that, it seems death and destruction have followed me anyway.”

“We still need to find the survivors,” Nin-Akna said. “We may not be able to attack again right away, but we need to start making plans for the future. Plans to rebuild.”

“That may be what you need to do, Nin-Akna,” Rudiger said, “but the rest of us need to get out Ninifin. We’ve found what we came here for—which I’d like to know how that happened, by the way—but we really need to get out of here. We don’t belong. Izel’s been telling me that for months, and I’ve only just started to understand.”

“There are answers here,” Felitïa said. “Answers to what’s going on. Answers to, frankly, who I am. I need those answers.” Rudiger looked about to say something, but she pushed on, not giving him a chance to interrupt. “And there’s more. Fra-Atl tried to show us something. Nin-Akna, Rudiger, you were both there. She said it was amazing. And there’s some sort of presence here. I’ve felt it. It’s calling to me. I need to find it.”

“Felitïa, there are dozens of Volgs down there,” Zandrue said. “Maybe more. It would be suicide to walk into that. Especially with your hands in their current state.”

Felitïa slouched over and nodded.

Felitïa.

She should just walk away. Recuperate. Maybe answers could be found somewhere else. If not, maybe she could come back after her hands had healed.

Felitïa.

“What do you think, Meleng?” she asked.

“Well, we have found Corvinian,” Meleng said. “We should get him away from the Volgs. I mean, I’m really interested in these prophecies, and it would be great to know what they say, but at the same time, if it’s too dangerous...”

Felitïa.

“Let’s just take the writings,” Felitïa said. “At the very least. We know where they are. Let’s just grab them and go.”

“You’d steal sacred texts from the Temple?” Nin-Akna said.

Felitïa grimaced, though she sensed a hint of amusement from Nin-Akna. “If that’s okay.”

“Yeah, sure. Chica did promise you could read them. Just let me know what they say, too.”

Felitïa smiled. “Of course.”

“All right,” Rudiger said. “We go downstairs, grab the book, and get out. Shouldn’t be too hard. Should we let Quilla know what we’re doing? Come to think of it, do we tell her about Garet?”

Felitïa shook her head. “Not yet. I want to tell her myself. It shouldn’t take long to grab the secrets. If we’re quick, we’ll be back up before she starts wondering what’s happening.”

Rudiger nodded.

Felitïa stood up. “Let’s get moving then.”

“All of us?” Zandrue asked.

“Just in case we meet opposition,” Felitïa said. “Corvinian, you stay up here though.”

“But I want to come too,” the boy replied. “You keep making me stay behind.”

“It’s too dangerous.”

“But my powers might help you.”

“The Volgs have a way to negate your powers, remember?”

Corvinian scowled and sat on the bottom step of the stairs. “Fine. I’ll stay right here.”

“Maybe you should go to Quilla and Fra-Tepeu,” Meleng suggested.

“No,” Corvinian said. “I’m staying right here.”

“What about her?” Nin-Akna said, pointing to Fra-Ichtaca.

“We’ll tie her to something more secure than the chair,” Zandrue said. “She’ll wake up when we move her, but Felitïa can put her back to sleep again. One of the extra statues in the room upstairs should work. They’re heavy enough that she won’t be able to knock them over if she wakes up again before we come back.”

Nin-Akna took a moment before responding. “I suppose, but what if someone comes?”

“That’s a risk we have to take,” Felitïa said.

“We could take her down to Quilla and Fra-Tepeu,” Zandrue said, “but that would take time. We want to do this fast.”

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“And what do I do if someone comes?” Corvinian said.

“Hide,” Zandrue said.

“And if they find me?”

“Fine, come with us then,” Felitïa said. “There isn’t much other choice. You can carry a torch.”

Corvinian jumped to his feet. “Yes!”

It took only a few minutes to move Fra-Ichtaca upstairs, retie her to one of the statues, and put her back to sleep. They also checked on the guard in the other room and made certain he was still securely tied and asleep. Then they collected a couple torches—Meleng held the second—and started down the stairs. Rudiger took the lead, Nin-Akna right behind him. Felitïa and Zandrue took the rear.

When they reached the level with the secrets room, Zandrue said, “Gods, this place is deep. Is this the end?”

“There’s a hidden passage right there that goes deeper,” Felitïa said. “But that’ll take us down to the Volgs. The secrets are this way.”

The others had already entered the room, so Felitïa and Zandrue followed them in. It was a tight squeeze with all of them in there, but Felitïa managed to squeeze past Nin-Akna and Rudiger to reach the wall with the written secrets.

Meleng was already there, poring over the book spines. “I don’t recognise the languages on these two,” he said, indicating the only two books with titles on the spines.

“No, neither do I,” Felitïa replied. “That’s the—” She tried to point at the book she knew to be The Foretellings of Eleuia, but realised that it was hard to point at anything when she couldn’t bend her fingers. “That is, I mean...” Pointing with her thumb was awkward too as it looked more like she was holding out her hand to tell Meleng to stop.

Meleng obviously took it that way, as he stepped back. “Sorry.”

“No, it’s okay. I didn’t mean that.” She settled on turning her hand so that the line made by the tips of her fingers—or rather, the tips of her splints—ran parallel to the book spines, and then tapped the spine of the book she wanted. Even the very gentle tapping she used sent pain running through her hand and arm. “This is the one I want.”

“I’ll get it for you,” Corvinian piped up. He handed his torch to Nin-Akna, then darted between Felitïa and Meleng, and pulled out the book. “I can help you read it. I can turn pages for you.”

“Thank you,” Felitïa said. “But we’ll worry about reading it later. Just carry it for now.”

“Okay,” the boy said.

“A lot of junk in here,” Zandrue said. She took the book from Corvinian, who scowled. “You need to carry the torch.” She slipped the book into her pack.

“Not junk,” Felitïa said. “Just old. Fra-Atl said everything in here related to the secrets in some way.”

“I wish we could sit down and study them,” Meleng said. “I’d love to look through everything.”

“Another time, maybe,” Felitïa said.

“Yeah, now we head back up,” Rudiger said.

Felitïa.

“Maybe we should grab a few more of these secrets,” Zandrue said. “They might be helpful.”

Felitïa glanced at Nin-Akna.

“The book you have is the one that talks about you, right?” the Youth Guard said.

Felitïa nodded. “Part of it does.”

“That’s all Chica promised you. Technically, she didn’t even have the authority to do that. I don’t like the idea of stealing the rest.”

“Agreed,” Felitïa said. “We leave everything else, Zandrue.”

Zandrue shrugged. “As you wish.”

“Can we go now?” Rudiger said. He was already in the corridor by the stairs.

Felitïa.

There was another presence in the Room again—the presence that wasn’t quite a presence.

Felitïa.

The voices in the Room echoed it. Felitïa. They and the extra presence were all the same voice, really.

“Felitïa?” Zandrue said.

Felitïa.

Felitïa stared into the hallway, by the stairs, at the wall where the hidden stairs were located. “It’s calling me again.”

“What’s calling you?” Corvinian asked.

“That presence thing?” Rudiger said.

Felitïa nodded. She squeezed past Nin-Akna and Zandrue into the corridor.

Felitïa, you must listen to me. Zandrue. Rudiger. Borisin.

“What’s going on?” Rudiger asked.

Felitïa edged past him, and walked to the base of the stairs. She began to look along the wall for the door’s trigger.

“You’re not thinking of going down there again?” Rudiger said.

Meleng. Corvinian. Jorvanultumn.

“It’s down there.” She was sure of it. She looked back at Rudiger and the others behind him. “The Volgs are up to something underneath Ninifin. We can’t just let them do what they want.”

“I agree,” Rudiger said. “But we’re in no shape to do anything about it. I’m injured and exhausted. We all are.”

“Rudiger’s right,” Nin-Akna said.

Quilla. Kindanog. Nin-Akna.

“Let’s go outside,” Rudiger said. “Rest, find Jorvan and Izel and any other survivors from the attack, and then make a plan for what to do.”

She saw the stone that needed to be pushed. But the others were right. She was in no condition to go down there, and neither were they. She turned away from the wall, looked at them, and nodded.

Rudiger began up the stairs.

Nin-Akna handed the torch back to Corvinian. She came over to Felitïa. “Don’t worry. I want the Volgs down there even less than you do. We’ll come back for them when we have the strength.”

Felitïa nodded. She agreed with them. She really did. So why was she so tempted to be reckless? She wasn’t a reckless person, was she?

Nin-Akna started up the stairs, followed by Meleng.

Felitïa, you must listen to me.

Why? Felitïa asked. Why must I listen to you?

You will soon forget this, but you must remember.

I can’t remember anything you don’t actually tell me. Tell me what you want me to remember.

Felitïa, you must listen to me.

Felitïa took a deep breath, focused her attention on the extra presence in the Room. Willed herself to remember that day by the well so many years ago. Nothing came of it. Just like every other time.

Corvinian smiled at her as he passed her and headed up the stairs.

“You okay?” Zandrue asked.

“I will be.”

Zandrue nodded towards the wall behind Felitïa. “Still thinking of going down there?”

“Yes, but I’ll point out that thinking about it isn’t the same as doing it.”

“I never suggested otherwise,” Zandrue replied.

“There’s something down there, Zandrue, and it’s calling to me. I don’t think there’s going to be another chance. One of the things that book says about me is that I will try to prevent a terrible disaster. I’ll fail, but I’ll save people who would have otherwise died. I have a feeling that’s about to happen.”

“You two coming?” Rudiger called from up the stairs.

“Give us a second,” Zandrue called back. She looked back at Felitïa. “Maybe it was talking about everything that’s happened so far.”

Felitïa shook her head. “I haven’t done a very good job of saving people. Everyone keeps dying. I hate that my life is being dictated for me, but I need to know what’s going on, and maybe I can change things. Make something different happen.”

“And what about your hands?”

What about her hands, indeed. She couldn’t flex her fingers for the hiding spell, but what if she could redirect the energy through a different body part? Through her legs maybe and use her toes to control the release? She would have to make a wider tilt of her head in the opposite direction, and maintaining the spell while walking would be more difficult, but it might work.

“I need to learn alternative casting techniques anyway,” Felitïa said.

“Wouldn’t it be better to learn them first?” Zandrue said.

“What are you two doing?” Rudiger called.

“I’m making certain Felitïa doesn’t do anything stupid,” Zandrue called back.

“If I decide to go, will you stop me?” Felitïa asked.

“Not if you convince me it’s not something stupid.”

“I’m not sure I can. I need you to trust me.”

“I do. In fact, I’ll come with you.”

Felitïa shook her head. “I’m not sure I can hide myself. I definitely can’t hide both of us. It has to be just me.”

Zandrue turned her head to the side for a moment and sighed. “All right then. Just be careful.”

“I will. As careful as I can.”

“And I’ll be right here,” Zandrue added. “If you need me, scream as loud as you can.”

“I’ll scream loud enough to wake the City.”

Zandrue grinned. “Go on. Before I change my mind, or the others start coming back like they’re already doing.”

Felitïa glanced up the stairs. Rudiger and Nin-Akna were coming back down. She took a couple steps back so that she was beside the trigger for the door. She took a moment to make note of the presences in the Room. They were just the ones of her friends, so she jabbed the trigger stone with her elbow. The door began to grind open.

“What the hell?” Rudiger said, reaching the bottom of the stairs.

“Sorry, I have to.” Felitïa stepped through the door and jabbed the trigger stone on the other side to close it again.

“I thought you said you’d keep her from doing something stupid?” Rudiger said as the door ground to a close again.

Then she was left in pitch black darkness.