The Bound (Ascension #2)(10)

They went through a lush overhang of vines and into the outer chamber of an enormous tree. The room was full of beautifully colored objects with purposes that she had no clue of. In a kaleidoscope of colors, the same glowing jars hung from the ceiling, producing beautiful soft light.

With his back to them, a man stood in front of a large gold door intricately wrought with climbing vines, like the vines in Queen Kaliana’s chambers back in the Nit Decus castle in Byern.

“What are you doing here?” Avoca demanded.

At her question, the man slowly turned around. He was as equally beautiful as Avoca and the healer. His face was roguishly handsome with impossibly high cheekbones, light hair, and eyes a vivid shade of gold. He wore the same type of green camouflage clothes as Avoca, but his looked brand-new.

“Hello, Ava,” he said with a toothy grin.

Her eyes turned steely. “Ceis’f.”

“I’m here to bear witness, of course.”

Avoca ground her teeth together and tilted her head to the side. She looked like she would rather be dropped back into the woods with those monsters than standing before him.

“Witness to what?” Cyrene whispered.

Avoca sighed. “My unequivocal failure.”

She was getting answers, but they were no more of use to her than Avoca’s silence.

Ceis’f’s eyes passed right over Cyrene, as if she didn’t exist, before he turned back to the door. It opened a second later, and another man beckoned them into the inner chamber. The room was twice as large as the one they had just been in.

A small woman sat on a wooden throne at the front of the room. On her left, two other people sat at a table, speaking in hushed tones.

Their queen was beautiful and ageless with sweeping long blonde hair so fair that it was almost white with the lightest blue eyes. She wore a simple gown with no adornment, but she did not need it. The only embellishment was a crown of flowers atop her head.

When Cyrene met her eyes, she glimpsed nothing but wisdom and sharp intelligence.

“Avoca,” the Queen said.

Avoca stepped forward and touched her hand to her lips. The Queen repeated the action, and Cyrene filed it away as some kind of greeting of their people.

“Queen Shira,” Avoca murmured.

“Report.”

“She’s to report in front of it?” Ceis’f said.

“Are you questioning me, Ceis’f?”

“No. I was just unaware that we would be so freely opening our gates to their kind,” he spat out.

“Now, you are aware,” she said.

Her tone never changed from its neutral state, but Cyrene could feel the tension rolling off of Ceis’f. She was glad the Queen had put him in his place. Even if Cyrene had no idea where she was, at least no one else had called her an it.

“I responded to the Indres presence in the area with my team. We knew immediately that there were too many for a six team. Ceis’f came with backup. We attacked simultaneously. They were surrounding three humans—two girls and a boy. Our teams slaughtered close to forty Indres,” Avoca told her.

Cyrene gasped. Indres! More creatures of myth had stood true before her eyes. Death wolves, they were sometimes called. Too scary, even for younger children, to hear the stories.

The Queen’s eyebrows rose at the number. Her eyes flickered to Ceis’f for confirmation, and he nodded gravely.

“One was getting away, so I followed it to finish the job. I walked into an ambush and nearly died. The human called the Indres off, nearly burning herself out, and then collapsed. Every Indres in the area lay dead.”

Burned myself out? Is that what happened? And how does Avoca know that?

“How many died from the teams?” the Queen asked.

Avoca winced. “Four of mine and two of Ceis’f’s.”

“A whole team.” The Queen seemed to consider that for a minute, and then her eyes turned to Cyrene. “Child.”

Cyrene swallowed and then stepped forward. She had so many questions. But, for once, she held her tongue. She did not want to anger these people who could take on over forty Indres.

“What are you?” the Queen asked.

“My name is Cyrene Strohm.”

The Queen thoughtfully tilted her head. “My healer said you used the word Doma.”

Cyrene’s hands sweat at the statement. The Queen knew. Without a doubt.

Cyrene had used magic in that clearing. In fact, she was sure it had almost killed her. In part, that was why she had needed their healer. But how could they have someone to heal her like that? How could they know about Indres? How could they know about magic?

“Yes,” Cyrene finally responded.

“And you used Doma power to destroy the Indres?” She didn’t wait for Cyrene to confirm. “Where did you learn it?”

“I…I didn’t. I don’t know what I did.”

“Untrained?” the Queen asked with a sigh.

Cyrene nodded slowly.

She was untrained. That was the whole point in leaving Byern. The traveling merchant Basille Selby had told her she needed to go to Eleysia to learn from Matilde and Vera, and that had been confirmed for her in her vision of Serafina. She didn’t understand how they could be alive two thousand years later, but they were her only hope.

“I’ve never seen anyone hold so much power,” Avoca interjected. “Even as she was burning herself out, she was still collecting more.”