“Cancrians are natural nurturers,” I supply. “Librans are just. Aquarians, philosophers. Capricorns, wise. . . .”
He nods. “Each House excels in a different field because each Guardian guards the knowledge of a particular universal truth. This ensures we’ll always be equals, and we’ll always depend on each other for survival. That way no House can seize more power.”
“Only the Talisman is symbolic,” I say, speeding things up. Every House has its own theory for why we each evolved with different values, but the idea of a magical object is pretty popular, especially on Gemini and Sagittarius, whose people are more inclined to believe the unbelievable if the evidence fits. “It’s just a way of explaining our differences.”
Hysan shakes his head. “It’s real.”
He looks too tired and distraught to be making this up.
“How?” asks Mathias. “How could a thing contain a concept like nurturing or curiosity?”
“The secret stored in the Talisman is accessed the way you access the Psy. It doesn’t simply contain words or diagrams or films—it’s knowledge of the thing itself. Similar to how the communal mind creates meaning when it answers a query.”
Hysan looks at me and speaks slowly now, like he’s approaching our first speed bump. “Since they’re made up of Psynergy, the Talismans usually double as a different device.”
I know what comes next. He doesn’t say it, but it’s written all over his face.
I rise and walk to the other end of the room, where the strongbox is lying open and defeated. I stare hopelessly into its emptiness.
I just let the Geminin Guardian steal House Cancer’s Talisman.
25
“WHAT INFORMATION HAVE YOU UNLOCKED in yours?” For some reason, I whisper the question, as if on some level I know it’s inappropriate.
“I can’t say.”
“But it has to do with your Psy Shield.”
He looks at me a moment before nodding. “The Talisman . . . it doesn’t give answers. It just makes concepts clearer. Based on what it revealed to me about Psynergy, Neith and I were able to devise the shield. On Libra, I nearly finished synthesizing cristobalite beads that should veil people from the Psy. Individual shields.”
That’s the gift he was making for me, I realize. “Thank you,” I say.
He nods. “Lord Vaz and I built the Libran Talisman into this ship. It powers Equinox’s brain and projects the Ephemeris you saw back in my reading room at home.”
“And now Cancer’s is gone, before I could even find out what it can do.” I bump my forehead on the wall, feeling every failure of my tenure as Guardian so far. “This is all my fault.”
“Why don’t you take a rest in the healing box?” Mathias suggests, only gentleness in his voice. “Fix your arm.”
“The pod is all yours, my lady,” says Hysan, rising to his feet and following Mathias out the door. “And don’t worry about your Talisman. We’ll get it back. We know where Caaseum lives.”
? ? ?
The ship is flying on fumes.
We’re close enough that we should make it to House Aries before running out of fuel, but the timing will be tight.
The Zodai suit Lola and Leyla made me is ruined, so I have to wear the Libran uniform. To make sure Mathias doesn’t flip, I salvaged the four silver moons from the blue suit and sewed them over the Libran glyph of the yellow tunic. Probably best to head him off now, before we land, so there are no disagreements when we disembark.
When I get to Mathias’s door, it’s ajar, and he isn’t there. But Hysan is.
“What are you doing?” I ask.
He snaps his gaze to me from behind the desk and stops rifling through Mathias’s gear belt. “Inspecting cargo?”
I cross my arms. He glances toward the lavatory stall, where the ultraviolet shower is humming. He’s a little pink in the cheeks but otherwise unaffected by being caught. “You won’t tell, will you?”
“Hysan, these are Mathias’s things. This war between the two of you—”
“What about him? He went through my weapons—”
“Yes, and that wasn’t right either. But you’ve been keeping a lot of secrets.”
Hysan steps closer to me and lowers his voice. “I also just revealed my biggest secret to a complete stranger, my lady, and now I would like to know exactly who he is.”
“Two strangers, actually. What about me?”
He turns back to the desk and replaces Mathias’s things where he found them. “Rho, you’re a Guardian. It’s no more your fault Origene couldn’t teach you than it is my fault my parents couldn’t raise me. But it’s still your right to know.”
There’s a noise from the lavatory, and we both freeze—but the UV keeps humming.
“Look, I know that was wrong, and I won’t go snooping again,” says Hysan, coming around the desk. “But please keep this between us. I don’t want to set him off right as we’ve arrived.”