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“The E before her ascension She cao, when she wore a different body ‘You have a secret,’ she toldher here or face denunciation Knowing one word froh to secure hed” His e and shame “She mocked this divine place” He cal to the plinth between the three statues “But she stopped when she saw that”
Reva angled her head to study the plinth oncelittle remarkable in it save for the precision of its construction It was free of any ht indicate its purpose Shebetween the woman and the beardeda hand towards the indentation in the centre
“Do not touch it!” His voice was barelyher hand instantly froze
“What is it?” she asked
“I do not know Nor did any who came before me But it is the most implacable commandment instilled in every member of my family since we undertook our divine duty: do not touch the stone”
“Did she touch it? When she caht, but no She knows too much But she was not alone when she ca man, red-clad, barely older than you Also, plainly besotted with her ‘If you love me,’ she told him, ‘touch the stone’ And he did”
Varulek ht over the surface of the plinth; the black surface gleamed Centuries down here and not a speck of dust, Reva saw “What happened to him?”
“She didn’t wantout as if in both pain and pleasure She leaned close to hi some question I couldn’t hear The boy’s reply was faint but filled with awe, holding his hands up, hands that gloith so She told his,’ she said And he touched it oncevery still the instant his hand touched the stone, as still as these statues, giving no answer to any whispered question I saw her sreat satisfactionthen she killed hi closer to break his neck ‘Give that to your beasts,’ she toldto the corpse ‘I shall come back one day, some years froue has been loose’”
“No other has seen it?” Reva asked “None of herfellow creatures”
Varulek shook his head “Only her”
Keeping secrets of her own Reva remembered the Empress’s whispered offer, Whendown the Ally and all the world will be oursWhat is she plotting? Reva sighed in frustration, wishing she could ask for Veliss’s counsel, she would reckon this in an instant As would the queen
“I can offer no insight here,” she told Varulek “But if you can soe to my queen”
“An impossibility I am bound to this place by more than duty To stray outside the precincts of the arena by a single step would mean the three deaths”
“Then why show me this?”
“This is not what I want to show you” He returned to the wall, holding the torch close to a barely discernible cluster of symbols near the end, just before they dwindled into utter obscurity “Here,” he said, beckoning her closer, his finger tracking over the marks “‘Livella will be made flesh when the Fire Queen rises’”