Divined (14 page)

Clio shivered. The red sunset reflected across the cave, turning the water red.

“Then no one will disturb us,” the Oracle replied. “You either go in the pit or we slit your throat out here.”

Ealis shifted Ashira and stepped forward. Clio followed, ready to meet whatever end awaited her.

A small staircase had been carved into the soft stone. It wrapped around the cave’s rim, spiraling down to meet the watery floor. Clio steadied herself against the wall as she descended, her head light and her limbs heavy. She was so tired. If she could just reach the bottom then she could sleep. With every step, Clio felt as if she were entering a new realm. The air felt heavy, and she could hear nothing but the sound of dripping water. There was something indescribably beautiful about the cavern. The water threw light onto the walls until it seemed as if the stone was made of every color and glowed with the approaching night. In the shallower edges, the water shone red, but as the water grew deeper in the back of the cavern, it faded to an iridescent blue.

Someone had lit a small fire at the bottom. It was circled by strange black stones piled high enough to contain the sparks and embers that licked out from the flames. When Clio reached the cave’s floor, her head pounded once, so painfully, she cried out and fell to her knees. When the pain receded, it left her mind jagged and broken.

In the moments before the world fell away, she looked up into the flames and the black stones that contained them. Only they weren’t stones at all.
 

Skulls. Blackened and brittle and rotten. Dozens stacked one on top of the other.

Human sacrifice had been done here.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

She woke with a start, her head slamming painfully into something hard behind her.

“Ouch,” she murmured. Clio reached to rub her head and found her legs and wrists bound. Then she remembered. The Oracle. The cave. The skulls.

She was still at the bottom of the cavern. The wall of skulls had been disrupted, and bones spilled into the water.

“Are you all right?” Riece’s voice sounded behind Clio.

She whipped around as best she could within the ropes.

“You’re here.” Her voice scratched along her throat, her mouth dry.

He was sitting near the far wall, bound to Ealis who was either unconscious or asleep. Clio looked up to find the night dark above them. She’d been asleep too long.

“Clio, are you all right?” Riece repeated, his tone urgent. There was a deep gash in his cheek. Another on his shoulder, but he’d stopped bleeding.

“I think so.” Clio pushed herself up so she sat against the cave’s wall. There were bandages wrapped around her wrists, stained red with blood, but Clio didn’t feel any pain. Her head felt clearer than it had in days, and yet Vazuil remained silent. “I feel really good, actually.”

“Good.” Ixie’s voice echoed across the still waters. She stood across the pond with a small torch. Behind her, Clio could make out a dark alcove in the stone—a private chamber.

Riece strained against his bindings. “What did you do to her?”

“Calm yourself, Commander.” Ixie walked along the side of the cave, crossing over the water on a creaking wooden walkway.

“Where’s Ashira?” Clio asked, and Ealis stirred behind Riece.

“I was just tending to her. She’ll be fine.” Ixie stepped off the walkway into the shallow water.

“If you’ve hurt her, I swear it, I’ll kill you,” Clio growled.

Ixie stilled, her eyes hard. “I didn’t touch her.”

“You let that woman hurt her. You helped her get to us!”

“Ashira wasn’t supposed to get hurt.” Ixie looked down.

“How could you not understand this by now? The woman you serve—the Oracle—she doesn’t care who gets hurt or who she kills. All she cares about is doing the will of her Deity.”

“Enough, Clio.” Ixie was shaking. “You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“I don’t? You betrayed us. You turned on me only to serve another Oracle.” Clio swallowed the ache in her throat.

“I didn’t betray you! If you could only set aside your pride, your fear, just long enough for me to explain—”

“I don’t want to hear another word out of your mouth.” Tears rose in Clio’s eyes. “You sided with a woman who attacked me, who threatened Riece, who serves a Deity! You played a hand in my capture and brought innocents into it. There’s no possible explanation—”

“It was all to get you here so we could help you!”

“
Help
me?” Clio laughed. “By attacking my friends in the street?”

“Yes, Clio.” It was the Oracle’s voice. She stood at the top of the twisting staircase, the moonlight reflected in her dark eyes. “We needed to bring you here, and we couldn’t let you know why.” She descended the steps as she wrapped a bandage around her hand.

“Because you know I would never do anything to help an Oracle or her Deity.”

“No.” The Oracle reached the bottom step and crossed to Clio. “Because if we told you why we were bringing you here, the Deities would have killed you before you ever stepped foot in this place.”

Clio looked to Ixie, searching for an explanation.

“There’s a way to free you from them, Clio,” Ixie said, her voice soft.

Clio stilled. “I don’t understand.”

The Oracle kneeled before Clio. “You don’t want to serve the Deities any longer? You don’t want the Visions? I can untether you from them. I can make it so they can never reach you again.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

“That’s impossible,” Riece whispered.

“I assure you, it isn’t.” The Oracle faced Clio. “Tell me, have you so much as felt the Low One’s presence since you’ve woken?”

Clio shook her head, too uncertain to speak.

Another trick?
She asked Vazuil in her mind, but there was no answer.

“This place—it’s called a
cenote
,” the Oracle continued. “Your prophet told you people used to fear this place as a gate to the underworld. They were wrong.

“These caverns are lost spaces outside the Deities’ dominion. They can’t see us down here. And if one were to come here, he would be greatly weakened. In ancient times, people would come down here to sacrifice to gods older than our Deities. Gods like the ones who blessed Cearo’s council with your prophet marks.” The Oracle nodded to Ealis.

“Clio,” Ixie began with a hesitant smile. “Vazuil can’t reach you here.”

Clio stared at her scarred hands, too numb to accept Ixie’s words. Dried blood caked Clio’s hands, and she pulled at the bandages around her wrists. Two long, shallow slices had been made across her wrists while she slept.

Riece shifted as he tried to move closer to Clio. “You bled her. Why?”

“We had to get as much of the draught out of her veins as we could. It was already killing her, and we needed her head clear for this.”

“For what? If what you’re saying is true, then I’m safe from Vazuil as long as I’m in this
cenote
. But the moment I step out, he’s going to take his revenge.”

“There’s a way to free you from him for good,” the Oracle answered. “The gods before the Deities put magic into certain runes, not unlike the marks of the Deities, only these runes were blessings. Not curses.” She gestured to her head, where her black tattoos stood out against her smooth skin.

“And what do I have to do to get these runes?” Clio asked, her hands curling into fists.

“Listen to what I have to say and promise you will help me.”

“Help you? Why would I trust you? All I know about you is you’re an Oracle, and Oracles serve Deities.”

“I am an Oracle, yes. I serve a Deity. But there’s more you should know before you refuse this.” She looked to Ixie and nodded.

Ixie pulled a dagger from her belt and cut the ropes around Riece and Ealis before coming to Clio. Clio rubbed her wrists when Ixie sliced through the knot.

“Here.” Ixie shoved the blade into Clio’s hands.

“You can leave anytime you wish,” the Oracle said. “But Ixie assured me you would care about what I have to say. If not for her, I would have used other methods to secure your help.”

Clio tightened her grip on the dagger. She could take her chances and attack the Oracle. Perhaps they could escape. But then what? “If you can truly untether me from the Deities, then I wouldn’t see the future anymore. Why would you even want me in your fight? You’re already more powerful than I am.”

The Oracle smiled. “It’s flattering you think so. But I wasn’t born an Oracle like you were—I was made one. My name is Atzi. I was born an ordinary slave, until the Lost One came to me in a dream. He told me he could give me powers of foresight if I would help him prevent a war that would end everything.”

“And you want my help in preventing this war?”

Atzi shook her head. “I
need
your help. The Lost One has Shown me all he can, but he’s not like the other Deities—not as strong. And since my veins don’t run with the blood of the Deities, he can’t give me as many or as clear Visions as you would get. Still, what he has been able to Show me has brought me here, to you.

“A terrible change is coming. I’ve Seen only glimpses of it—war in Morek’s streets, a man in amber sitting on the Empire’s throne ordering unprecedented bloodshed. It’s all a blur of blood and amber until thousands are dead. Only one girl, one warrior, will stand atop Morek’s pyramid and save us. Without her, I’ve been Shown how the Order will take over. Deities will come to our mortal world, and they will slaughter indiscriminately until there is no one left to defend mankind from their greed and bloodlust. At first, I thought I could take the place of this warrior. But the Visions got worse, and I was Shown the truth. Nothing I could do would be enough without the girl.”

“Me?” Clio took a step back, her blade hanging uselessly at her side.

“You. Believe me, I’m as surprised as you. I watched you for a time before I came to you. I wanted to learn what it was about you that was going to be the key to stopping this, but I saw nothing—nothing but a frail girl, too scared to fight.”

“She can fight,” Ixie interrupted.

“I’ve yet to see it. I know you have faith in the girl, but I fail to see how someone so afraid of the Deities could ever be the one to stand up to them.”

“I’ve stood up to them.” It came out before Clio knew she was saying it. “I faced Daizon, I fought him without a thought of whether I could survive. I turned my back on my calling, incurring the Deities’ wrath. I’ve done nothing but stand up to them, so I’m sick and tired of people telling me I’m afraid.”

“Then fight with me.”

Clio paused. Her chest tightened, blood squeezing through her heart. “I have no reason to trust you.”

“That’s not the reason. You’re still a slave to your fear.”

“That’s not true. I’ve seen too much. I know too much. I used to charge into battle thinking the Visions would keep me safe. You still think they will. That’s your folly.”

Atzi’s hand flashed out, landing a quick and harmless blow to Clio’s face.

Clio felt blood well in her cheek, stinging her skin where Atzi’s hand was.

“You’re holding a blade,” Atzi said, and suddenly Clio could see every single one of the long, thin scars on the Oracle’s face. “Why do you stand there as if powerless? Is it because you know too much or is it because you are still too afraid to face the Deities? I understand. I know what they did to you, what they did to your mother. She was scared too, you know. Why else would she consent to lie with the Deity who threatened to kill the man she loved?”

“She didn’t know the Deity was behind it,” Clio protested.

“Of course she did. She wasn’t a fool. She always knew why the Deities wanted to keep her from the man she loved. Then she chose to betray him with a Deity anyway—”

Clio let her fist fly without thinking. The blow was sloppy, her technique weak from disuse, but she hit Atzi hard with forgotten strength.

Atzi grinned, her teeth bloody, and dove to the side, kicking her foot into Clio’s chest.

Clio staggered back but didn’t lose her balance. Riece was coming toward them. She would finish this before he even had a chance to join the fight.

Her muscles sang, reveling in the sensation of movement, swift and sure. Clio spun and jumped toward Atzi, landing with a knee on the woman’s chest. Clio had her blade pressed against the Oracle’s throat before Atzi could respond.

Riece came to their side, but Clio lifted the blade and held out a helping hand to Atzi.

The Oracle laughed and then wheezed from the lasting force of Clio’s blow. “Finally.” A line of blood tricked from where the dagger’s point had pierced her skin.

“I told you she could fight.” Ixie came over to them, grinning.

“I’m not fighting for you.” Clio turned away, looking to where Ixie said Ashira was.

“Clio.” Riece grabbed Clio’s elbow, stopping her. “What if she’s telling the truth?”

“We have no reason to believe she is.”

“But the Order. They
are
up to something. She said there was going to be a priest on the throne. That means something is going to happen to the Emperor. I can’t take that risk.”

“Riece, you know Deities lie in their Visions.”

“But what if this is the truth? I know they’ve lied to you, to your mother. But I’ve also seen you prevent attacks and end battles because of what you’ve Seen. I have to do something.” His voice was hard, commanding. Atzi had threatened to involve Riece, and she had succeeded. Clio saw it in his eyes—if she wouldn’t help him in this, he would do it on his own.

“I don’t see what I can do. Vazuil still controls me.”

The Oracle wiped the blood from her mouth. “Not if you allow us to untether you from him. Clio, think about it. You were once the Deities’ greatest strength, but now… If you’re the warrior in my Vision, then you’re the one who will destroy them all. I know you thought you were doing the right thing by running away from the Empire.”

“What are you saying?” Clio took a step back.

“I’m saying, what if you weren’t defying them? What if you were still doing exactly what they wanted?”

“No. I’m their eyes. They want me in the Empire, where I can influence the mortal world for them.”