Thynos coughs.
Kalliarkos releases me but I just stand there. I touch my lips, sure I can feel the pressure of his mouth still lingering.
He grins cockily. “That’s the first time I’ve made you blush.”
I cross my arms and lean just a little closer, chin coming up. “You won’t manage it again.”
“Won’t I?” His fingers close on my elbow.
“Come along, children, enough playacting,” says Lord Thynos sharply. He leads the horses down the path between the trees, calling over his shoulder. “I can hear Menoë’s cavalcade rattling along the road. She never travels anywhere without twenty wagons of furnishings and five carriages of personal servants, and her drivers have specific orders never to let any vehicle pass her household’s wagons unless it belongs to the king, the queen, or Prince Nikonos. We need to get ahead of them or we won’t reach the city gates until dawn.”
Thynos keeps walking, expecting us to follow, but neither Kalliarkos nor I move. His hand braces my arm. Our bodies touch like they are eager to learn more about each other. He examines me in a way that makes me feel he is searching for my every least secret simply because I fascinate and concern him so much.
“Did you see your father? Did you get what you desired or needed from him?”
I don’t hesitate. I leap.
“I need your help to do something so dangerous and entirely forbidden that bringing me here to see my father is trivial in comparison. If we are caught, we will both be executed.”
His warm hand slides caressingly down my arm to capture my hand. “What could possibly be that dangerous and forbidden?”
I am both terrified and exhilarated because I have seen something in him tonight that no one else has ever believed in. That I didn’t really believe in until right this moment.
“Your uncle entombed my mother and sisters with Lord Ottonor to keep them away from my father forever. I’m going to rescue them. I can only do it with your help.”
He lets go of my hand as if I’ve burned him. Crouching, he buries his head in his hands. A whisper escapes him, words I can’t quite hear. He rocks back and forth in some kind of pain.
Out of the darkness, General Inarsis trots into view. “Lord Kalliarkos? Are you injured?”
Kalliarkos jumps up so fast that Inarsis draws a long knife and spins a full circle to fend off attackers, but there is only me.
From the other direction Lord Thynos runs up, sword drawn. “Who has assaulted you?”
“‘I am assaulted by impiety, injured by blasphemy,’” cries Kalliarkos. It is a famous line from a tragic play, and he speaks the words with a vehemence that chills me.
Taking a step back, I make ready to run. My rash confession has jeopardized everything.
He grabs Thynos’s elbow so aggressively that Thynos looks startled and Inarsis almost leaps between the two men. “Did everyone know except me?”
Thynos looks at the fingers gripping his arm and smiles perilously. “What am I meant to know?”
“Uncle Gar has committed a terrible crime.”
If the ground had dropped out from under my feet and I had plunged into the furnace where the unjust are blasted and blinded by flames for eternity, I would have been less surprised. “You believe me?”
Kalliarkos’s chest shakes in a false, fierce laugh. “Of course I believe you. It’s exactly what he would do.”
“What are you two talking about?” demands Lord Thynos.
“Uncle Gar entombed Jes’s pregnant mother and her sisters as the oracle’s attendants in Lord Ottonor’s tomb.”
“Ah!” sighs Inarsis. He sheathes his long knife.
Kalliarkos begins to pace, but his gaze sticks to me. “The priest-wardens will not just let us break open the brick door. What do you propose?”
“We’ll go in and out the air shaft,” I say. “It has to be at night, but I will not be allowed into the City of the Dead on my own.”
Kalliarkos considers the plan as if it is a maze. “I can walk in and out at any time without being questioned. Everyone will expect me to have attendants with me.”
The world waits to bow at his feet, and he is finally starting to see the power of his rank.
“You’re serious.” Thynos crosses his arms.
“They both are.” Inarsis lowers a suspicious gaze on the other man. “Did you know?”
“Sun of Justice!” Thynos swears. “With the gods as my witness, I knew nothing! Nor would I ever be party to such an act. Bad enough they bury living women in the tombs of every lord and prince and king here in Efea. To entomb a pregnant woman on top of that! It’s sickening. It wasn’t like this in the old country.”