Zodiac (Zodiac, #1)(88)

“What are the alarming new details?” I ask, hugging my knees.

“They have to do with time.” Sirna Waves Yosme’s book of the myth of Hebitsukai-Za over our heads, and the four of us lie on our backs and look up, reading the text and reviewing its images.

The first picture shows travelers from another universe passing through a time warp to settle our Zodiac Galaxy. Hebitsukai-Za was the last in the group to traverse the time warp, and when he emerged, his body was entwined in the ropey coils of an enormous worm that was biting its own tail, simultaneously devouring itself and growing longer. This worm was Time.

Passing through the time warp had altered the laws of physics and created an unstable leak between the old universe and our own. The two universes were in imminent danger of sliding together and collapsing. So the terrified travelers sealed off the time warp, but only after Za had brought the time-worm through.

The book’s images mesmerize me. They show how the worm could turn its head both forward and back, thus ruling the direction of time. Recognizing what chaos this might cause, the travelers tried to kill the worm, and by accident, they bludgeoned Za to death. But the worm needed a host, so it reversed time and resurrected Za.

When the book ends, a new image rotates in the air. “This is the glyph of the mythical House Ophiuchus,” says Sirna.

I study the familiar staff entwined by two serpents, the emblem we call the Caduceus, or healer’s wand.

“Now look at this one,” she says. A second emblem materializes next to the first. This one shows a stylized outline of a man trapped in the coils of a single giant worm biting its own tail. When Sirna overlays the two images, the resemblance is too strong to miss.

“Myths speak to us through metaphor,” says Hysan.

“I don’t know what it adds up to,” says Sirna, shutting off the holograms. “It’s only legend.”

“Maybe nothing,” says Mathias.

“Or maybe everything,” I mutter, my inner sense foaming with possibilities.

On a sudden impulse, I sit up and say, “Sirna, could you call up ‘Beware Ochus’?” When the holographic poem hovers above us, I read it out loud and linger on the line A wound even time could not mend. All these references to time . . . are they just coincidence, or could they be clues?

Before Sirna leaves, I find an excuse to pull her into the privacy of a bedroom. As soon as we enter, she lowers her gaze, and I realize she knows what I’m going to ask.

And I already know her answer.





32


“WE DON’T KNOW WITH ABSOLUTE CERTAINTY. . . .”

“But you’re pretty sure,” I whisper, dropping onto the bed and clutching my chest. She doesn’t say anything, so I look up. From the expression on her face, I know Dad’s gone.

I turn away, staring at the floor but not seeing it.

I don’t feel pain.

I don’t feel anything.

Yet.

“I’m sorry if I’ve been rude to you,” says Sirna, her voice constricted. “I’ve misjudged you, Guardian.” She draws something small and shiny from her pocket.

“Mother Origene gave me this. . . . Now I’d like it to be yours. Please wear it always to honor our House.” She opens her hand and a thin gold chain dangles out. On it hangs a simple pendant holding a single rose-colored nar-clam pearl.

Like the ones on the necklace Mom made me . . . the one I lost on Elara.

That day, Stanton was bitten by the Maw, and we rushed him to the healers, who did what they could for him. . . . But no one could say with certainty if he would ever wake up. Stanton was out for five hours, and Mom and I spent every one of those three hundred minutes trying to find his fate in the Ephemeris.

But it was Dad—not the stars—who kept Stanton safe. He sucked the poison from his wound after the attack, and while Mom and I were off predicting if my brother still had a future, Dad was caring for Stanton in the present. He sat beside him and held his hand all five hours.

Whenever I’ve thought of that day, Mom’s stood out in my memory as having saved us. She killed the sea snake. So why am I only seeing the true hero now, when it’s too late?

“Please promise me you’ll never take it off,” says Sirna, pulling me out of my sink-sand past and clasping the gold chain around my neck. “Let it bring Cancer to you, wherever your travels lead.”

? ? ?

I wish Sirna a tender goodbye, and after she leaves, Mathias tells Hysan he needs to talk to me privately. I can barely speak, but he thinks it’s because of what happened at the Plenum and where I plan to go tomorrow.

I can’t tell him or Hysan about Dad. That would make it too real.

“Please, Rho.” It’s Mathias in the room with me instead of Sirna, but my eyes keep finding the same spot of the floor, like I can’t stop reliving the realization of Dad’s death.

“It’s my duty to raise objections. I’m just trying to help you think clearly.”

“I know,” I manage to say. “I’m just tired.”

His baritone grows gentler. “I’m going to do some scouting tonight with my mom, see if I can find out who’s after you. I’ll be back in the morning. Just try to get some sleep . . . and think things over.”

“I’m leaving tomorrow to find Ophiuchus,” I say in a dead voice.