The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series) (38 page)

“
We have it all figured
out. The girls will stay in town. You will remain in the forest for
now.”

I frowned, dismayed. “That’s not fair!”

“
Now, where did you step
outside the boundaries?” Father Ellis was always good at deflating
my anger and tantrums. It was hard to oppose him when he was quiet,
gentle and genuinely the nicest priest on staff.

“
By the lake,” I sighed and
pointed in the general direction.

“
When?”

“
Sundown last
night.”

He appeared thoughtful, gaze on the charred
ruins of our home.

“
It was only for, like, ten
minutes,” I added quickly. “I wanted to dip my toes in the
water.”

“
Did you?”

I nodded.

“
How was it?” he asked
almost absently.

“
Amazing. So much better
than the pool.”

“
Did anything happen at the
lake?”

My mouth dropped open. It wasn’t possible
for him to know about the creature, yet he was asking the question
like he did. At my silence, he met my gaze with another of his calm
smiles.

“
Whatever you did, it’s
okay, Lyssa. I just need to know,” he said.

“
I didn’t
do
anything!” I replied.
“I dipped my feet then went back to the forest. Then …” I drifted
off and shifted feet, not sure how to tell him about the creature
without sounding crazy. “Well … I saw something at the lake early
this morning.”

He waited, brows furrowing.

“
It was a creature of some
sort. Wings, tail, standing on two feet.” I cleared my
throat.

“
This … creature. Did you
speak to it?”

“
Oh, no. I stayed in the
forest. It was kind of freaky.”

By his expression, this wasn’t the news he
was expecting, though he wasn’t surprised either. “Grotesque.”

“
It wasn’t gross. I’d
probably say terrifying.”

“
No, Lyssa,” he said with
another patient smile. “It’s called a grotesque. It’s like a
gargoyle only different.”

“
A gargoyle,” I repeated.
“It was ugly enough. Never heard of gargoyles flying around,
though.”

“
The grotesque has been
rumored to exist in the service of the Triumvirate. Glimpses are
seen every once in a while but have never been
confirmed.”

“
Um, okay.”
The old man’s lost it.
Then again, I was the one who witnessed said
creature.

An awkward silence fell between us. My gaze
drifted once more to the school.

“
So what’s the plan?” I
asked. “Have classes in a tent or something?”

“
The plan is to move the
girls out to their assignments immediately instead of waiting for
graduation and for you to go to a similar site.”

“
But I’m supposed to
graduate and move on, too. Why do I need to go to another stupid
school?”

“
Father Cristopolos will
tell you.” He glanced at me. For the first time since arriving, I
sensed he was hiding something. I had always found the monks and
their dedication to the Old Ways mysterious, but I never felt like
their secrets pertained to me. Whatever he wasn’t saying
about
me
, however,
snagged my attention.

The remaining three priests approached. I
bowed my head to each of them as was appropriate. They exchanged
looks I wasn’t able to decipher but which made me uneasy.

Father Cristopolos addressed me.
“Alessandra, why don’t you take us to your and Herakles’ favorite
spot in the forest. I think it’s a meadow?”

I nodded. My pulse was starting to race at
the calm request. I’d wanted the attention of the priests my whole
life and watched them dote over the nymphs instead. Now that the
four of them were focused on me, I suddenly wanted them to leave me
alone. “This way,” I said quietly and spun on my heel, leading them
deeper into the forest. “Was Herakles in the house or something?” I
asked uneasily, unable to identify why they wanted to go to my
favorite place.

No one answered. They simply followed
me.

I swallowed hard, edgy and scared that
something had happened to Herakles. For all my complaining about
the forest adventures and him not letting me near boys, I loved
him. He was the only father I really remembered, and I wasn’t going
to handle it well if something happened to him.

Maybe they know
that.
Maybe that was why four priests were
following me, in case I went crazy and they had to tie me up or
something. My sense of dread grew as we approached the meadow where
Herakles and I trained. My step slowed out of fear of the bad news
they’d give me once we reached it.

Setting foot in the meadow, I faced them
with my arms crossed. “Is Herakles okay?” I asked and braced myself
for bad news.

“
He is well,” Father
Cristopolos replied.

I sighed. “Omigods. Then why all this?” I
demanded and waved at their grave visages.

“
We need to talk to you
about your future,” Father Ellis replied.

“
Now? After our home was
just destroyed?”

“
Our home was destroyed
because you left the boundaries,” another of the priests, Father
Renoir, replied coolly. He was probably my least favorite staff
member.

“
Renny,” Father Ellis said
gently. “This is a delicate situation.”

“
What’re you talking
about?” I asked. “So I left the boundaries for ten minutes. Am I
being expelled for it? The nymphs go to town every
weekend!”

“
My dear,” Father Ellis
approached. “This all exists because of you. The school. The
orphanage and property.”

I waited, not understanding.

“
Once every great while, a
very special woman comes along,” Father Cristopolos started.
“Someone with great power that rivals the gods’.”

“
Yeah. The Oracle of Delphi
who becomes the bridge between humans and gods,” I recited from
class. “They found the new one. Again.” There had been five new
Oracles found the past year alone, though they all turned out to be
frauds.

“
Focus, Alessandra,” Father
Cristopolos said with tried patience. “You are about to learn how
different the world is from the sanctuary we created here, from the
education we’ve given you. We brought you here to protect you from
gods and men, to teach you how to survive in a world that wishes
you crippled so they can use you. We wanted you to be the strong
woman you are so you can bring back the Old Ways and save our
people from wrath of the gods.”

“
You aren’t making sense,”
I said with a glance at Father Ellis. There was a reason he was
usually the priest dealing with me, and it was because I didn’t
really care for the flowery diplomacy of the others.

“
The Oracle is captured and
held in a state of tortured suspension, Lyssa,” Father Ellis said.
“Every second of her life is filled with pain and suffering. She is
kept immobilized physically and her powers harnessed for use by
gods and politicians, to keep the bridge between the world of the
gods and our Earth open, to use her power to suppress the people.
The process is one of excruciating pain. But without her, the gods
cannot draw off their sources of power and interfere with human
affairs.”

I listened, able to follow Father Ellis’
explanation better than Father Cristopolos’.

“
Twelve years ago, her
successor was accidentally found during a raid and brought to us.
We have protected her since then, sheltered her and most
importantly, shielded her from discovery. These cords,” he motioned
to the rope he wore at his waist, “are infused with the power of
invisibility granted to us by our patron Lelantos, the Titan of
everything unseen, whose goal has been to protect the next Oracle.
Our patron goddess, Artemis, granted us this forest to hide you in.
When you are enclosed by the cords, you cannot be seen by men or
gods, only by Lelantos.”

“
When you stepped outside
the boundaries, everyone was able to see you again. The attack on
our school was the first step. They cannot see you while you are
here, so they destroyed the school to break Lelantos’ magic and
will send in a ground force next to find you,” Father Cristopolos
added.

They gazed at me.

I stared back.

“
For the love of the gods …
you’re the Oracle, Lyssa,” Father Renoir snapped. “You revealed our
location, and now, there is probably nowhere for us to hide where
we won’t be hunted down and slaughtered like you hunt
rabbits.”

I don’t slaughter
rabbits.
The irrational thought gave way to
astonishment. I laughed. “No, no! You all have always told me I’m
the
least
special
orphan here, that I was graced by Tyche to be around the nymphs,
who really are special!” I said with a shake of my head. “This is a
well thought out practical joke, though.” My gaze fell to Father
Ellis.

He wasn’t smiling. In fact, he appeared dead
serious.

I choked on another laugh.
There was no way –
no way –
their claim was real. “I don’t have godly powers!
I don’t even get an allowance.”

“
The cords shield you from
the world and the world from you,” Father Ellis replied. “It
prevents your power from awakening. Why else do you think we
permitted Herakles to train you as he did? To survive at the hands
of humans and gods, you need to be able to adapt to any
circumstance if you are to fulfill your destiny.”

None of this made sense to me. Something
really weird was going on, and only I seemed to realize it. My
chest was being squeezed by an invisible hand. I couldn’t wrap my
head around how any of this was possible – but they truly believed
it, no matter how insane it sounded. “I’ll play this weird game. My
destiny. What is it?”

“
To break the bridge and
send the gods back where they belong. To return humanity to the Old
Ways, to freedom,” Father Renoir said quietly. “You need only
outlive the current Oracle. We hoped to hide you until that day
when she passed, after which, you could live a normal life once the
gods were gone. It is the deal we struck with Lelantos, the reason
he wanted you hidden, and the promise we made to Artemis, whose
heart has been weighed down with the treatment of each Oracle. When
she discovered you were only a child, she offered us her help. We
must in turn deliver on our promise.”

I wanted to laugh, but
something about the severity of their features stopped me. Everyone
knew Artemis had a soft spot for little girls in trouble and about
the brittle nature of the relationship between the Olympic gods and
Titans after the war that saw the Titans exiled to another
dimension. The Titans swore vengeance. The idea I was in any way
involved in the doings of
gods,
when I’d barely been allowed to participate in
sports on campus, was absolutely crazy. “You guys can’t be
serious!”

“
We are, Alessandra. And
now that they know where you are, they’ll be hunting
you.”

“
They … who?”

“
Everyone.” Father Ellis
said with a shrug. “The Supreme Magistrate will hire, coerce or
order all of those beneath him to locate you, and the Supreme
Priest will enlist SISA to do the same. You are worth more material
wealth than anything that exists today. The gods will reward
whoever finds you with … I can’t imagine. A priest knows nothing of
wealth except the reward is beyond the most ambitious dream of
anyone alive.”

“
You’re starting to scare
me,” I said. “If this is a joke, it needs to end now.” I searched
the face of each. “If this is not a joke, then …” It was the
craziest thing I’d ever heard. I had spent my life being treated
like a burden by the priests and ugly little stepsister by the
nymphs only to find out
this
? That I was the reason we were
all in the forest? That everyone on the planet was searching
for
me
?

That the Supreme Magistrate, the most
powerful man in the world, and the person the priests despised
most, knew who I was?

“
We will have to go to the
alternate plan,” Father Renoir said. “We need to reach the existing
Oracle.”

Father Cristopolos responded, but my
thoughts were in splinters after the bombshell they dropped on me.
I struggled to swallow it all and do what Herakles trained me:
focus on what had to be done next.

“
Anyone have a cell phone?”
I asked. “I need to talk to Herakles.”

They fell silent and exchanged another look.
“That won’t be possible,” Father Cristopolos replied.

“
Because …” I
prodded.

“
Because your disobedience
not only cost us the school, but tipped off someone who knew to
look for him,” Father Renoir replied. “He was captured.”

“
No. He’s too strong.” Even
as I said the words, I had the urge to run, to find him and demand
he refute the story the priests were telling me.

“
You’re right, honey. He’s
probably distracting them to give us time to evacuate you,” Father
Ellis said.

“
Then we have to go get
him!”

“
Think about this,
Alessandra. Assume everything we’re telling you is the truth, if
you can’t believe it outright. People will give anything, do
anything, to find you. The best thing you can do to help Herakles
is to not be where he thinks you are. He loses his value to his
captors at that point.”