Relic

XXXVI: Aprilus 28 Year 242, A.H.

“Give me a tick,” I call at the knock on my bedroom door. I assume it’s Katja. Earlier in the day, I had dismissed her so I could be alone in my room and bath; my siniks outside the Ring taught me to relish solitude. But now, with the guests beginning to arrive for the Feast, she’s probably eager to see if I need any help before I head downstairs.

I’ve got to be quick and hide the altar and amulet; I couldn’t resist looking at them once I was alone. The compulsion to make Elizabet real again was much too strong. I slide the altar back into my pack and bury it the bottom of a pile of smelly Testing garments. Until I find a suitable hiding spot, I figure that the smell and grime alone will keep the altar safe from everyone tonight, including Katja, whom I instructed not to touch them. Then I hang the amulet around my neck and tuck it beneath my Feast dress. I want to have Elizabet close to me—it’s her night, too. Looking down, I’m pleased that the sumptuous pattern my mother embroidered on the gown’s bodice masks the amulet. I must remember to thank my mother for the elaborate new dress; she must have worked on it the entire time I was gone.

“Come in,” I yell.

The door opens. But it’s not Katja. It’s Lukas.

I stand up and grin crazily. Grasping onto his hands, I blurt out, “I’ve been wanting to speak with you since I saw you in the town square. How can I thank you for all you taught me? I could never have survived without you, let alone won. You were with me beyond the Ring, Lukas. Every tick.”

He smiles back, his grip tight and warm. “Thank you, Eva, but you did it yourself. I’m so happy you won the Laurels, but most of all, I’m happy you’re home.”

“Me, too,” I said.

We grow quiet. There’s so much I want to say, but I hardly know where to begin. Maybe he feels the same way. Or maybe it’s just the Boundary quietude in him.

“I’ve come to say goodbye, Eva.”

“Goodbye? I’ve only just returned. I’ve got thirty more days here at home before I have to go study with the Archons. I wanted to go over every detail of the Testing with you.”

He lets go of me. “It’s not you that’s leaving. It’s me. Your parents were kind to let me stay until you got back. Tomorrow, I go home to the Boundary lands. Until my reassignment, at least.”

“No! I have so much I want to talk with you about. How can they do that?”

“It is their right within The Lex, Eva. You know that. They did me a kindness to let me stay so long. So I could attend the Gathering every day, to hear about your progress.”

I know he’s right, even though it seems unfair. On impulse, I hug him. He is stiff at first. But then he relents and hugs me back. As we separate, I notice a corner of the Apple altar peeking out from my pack at the bottom of the sealskin heap. I must not have closed up the pack all the way. Surreptitiously, I try to kick it back under the pile.

“What is that, Eva?”

“Just some junk from my Testing gear.”

He tries to walk toward it, but I stand between him and the pile. “I wouldn’t get too close. My Testing clothes don’t smell too fresh.” I try to distract him with a joke.

As he leans over to touch the altar, I pull away his hand.

“Stop, Lukas,” I warn him.

It’s only the third time I’ve ever ordered him to do anything, even though he’s technically my servant. Behind his usual mask, his eyes flicker with disbelief.

When he tries again, I lunge for the altar and clutch it in my arms. I can feel the altar gleam in the lamplight of my bedroom, surreal and almost magical amidst the ice-solid world of the Aerie. Lukas is staring at it.

“It’s an Apple altar, isn’t it?” he whispers.

“How do you know?” Very few people have ever seen one, even in a textbook. And Lukas doesn’t read our Latin.

“I know a lot more about Apple altars than you think.”

I glare at him. All of a sudden he feels like a stranger. Yet I am more angry at him than scared of his terrifying boast. “Like what?”

“It wouldn’t be safe for me to tell you. Please turn it over, Eva.”

“No. It’s mine. I mean, it was Elizabet’s. And I can’t turn it over to the Triad because I didn’t find it until the Testing was already over. You know what they could do to me.”

He turns to me, his eyes sharp. “I don’t mean for you to turn it over to the Triad. I mean for you to turn it over to me, Eva. Please.” Despite his use of the word “please,” he isn’t asking me. He is commanding me.

I step away from him. Why is he speaking to me this way? “You? Why would I give it to you? If anyone, I should give it to the Triad.”

He draws very, very close to me. His chest and broad shoulders are an ice wall. “Don’t you understand that I am acting for your own safety? Have I ever asked you to do anything that wasn’t for your protection?”

I shake my head, unable to speak.

“Then please trust me.”

“I’m not the same naive Maiden who left for the Testing, Lukas,” I whisper. “I’m stronger than I was before and smarter, too. I’m not going to just hand this Apple altar over to you just because you protected me in the past. I want a reason.”

Lukas hesitates. “That Apple altar isn’t what you think it is, Eva. If you let me have it until a bell after dawn, I promise you that I will reveal its secrets to you. Elizabet’s secrets.”

Elizabet’s secrets? What in the Gods is he talking about?

I hear my father yell up the stairs. “Eva, your guests await you.”

I am at a loss. I need to understand what Lukas is talking about, but I know if I don’t go downstairs right now, someone will come up after me. And they’ll stumble upon so many violations of The Lex that I’ll be stripped of my victory and sentenced to death. I want to trust Lukas. Eamon trusted him implicitly. I relied on Lukas utterly in the Testing.

Then again, I trusted Jasper, and he turned out to be less than completely honest with me. And now Lukas, who’s been the only reliable presence in my life, suddenly possesses secret and blasphemous knowledge. But more disturbing, he seems very afraid for me, more afraid than he ever was when we prepared for the Testing. And the stakes are incredibly high; this is Elizabet and her Apple altar that we’re talking about. So I ask him the one question for which I still have time.

“Are you suggesting that my Chronicle was wrong?” I ask.

“I wish that was all, Eva.”