Amelia bounced on the balls of her feet once more. “Made this? No me. I found it! You know how Kade and I have been visiting my great grandfather, Justinian?”
“Yes.” I glanced around, looking for Kade and Rowan. I couldn’t see them, but I could hear their voices rumbling from not too far away. I’d have liked to have Kade here to tell his side of the story, but I supposed that would have to wait. It always took a little while for Rowan to explain why we had to do things for the best of the Casters, not only Kade’s mate. It was an argument Kade never liked to hear.
“Well, on our last visit, we stopped waiting at the doorstep for entry to Justinian’s chateau. Instead, Kade broke the door down, and we got into a battle with three mages.” Amelia lowered her voice to a conspiratorial whisper. “It didn’t go well for the mages. I used my new dart shooter on them.” She pulled what looked like a miniature crossbow from her jacket. “Took them down like that.”
“You killed them?” I knew Amelia had been getting battle training from Kade, but somehow I never thought she’d use it.
Kade stepped out into our group. Grinning from ear to ear, he pulled Amelia into his arms and spun her about in a circle. “Amelia had to kill those fiends; they were attacking without provocation or remorse. My mate is fearsome in battle.”
Amelia set her hands on Kade’s shoulders. Her big blue eyes sparkled with delight. “I wasn’t that scary.”
“Yes.” Kade brushed a gentle kiss over her lips. “You were.”
Rowan walked out of the maze and into our group. When he saw the statue, he froze in place. His eyes narrowed. “What’s this? Who’s making statues of Elea?”
Amelia broke free from Kade’s embrace and started circling the statue, touching bits of bronze or stone as she went. “As I was saying, we broke into Justinian’s castle and finally got to speak with the old goat.”
“You did?” Bands of excitement tightened about my chest. This might be the information we were looking for. “Did he tell you where the Sword was?”
Amelia sniffed. “He said the Sword was hidden and would find me when the time was right.” Amelia poked at a bit of worn leather on the statue. “The man really was useless, but then Kade had the idea to search the chateau, and we found this statue.”
Kade turned to Rowan. “I had the palace mages transport it back here to the laboratory. They ran some Assessment Spells on it. The thing is made of bronze gears, wood, stone, and some small leather bits. It was made by Amelia’s forebears.”
“This certainly looks like the work of your family,” I said.
“The mages also ran an Age Incantation on it. You won’t believe the results.” Kade gestured toward the kneeling figure. “That’s two thousand years old.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “Two thousand years old? Are you certain?”
Amelia kept poking at the statue’s shoulder. “Positive. They ran the spell about a dozen times.”
Two thousand years old, so it was built around the last time someone was sacrificed during the Martyr’s Comet. Plus, this statue looked like me and was an heirloom of Amelia’s family. Instead of getting answers, every time I got more information, I only turned up more questions. In this case the query went something long the lines of: What in blazes is going on here?
“Did the mages get the figure to do anything else?” asked Rowan. “It looks like it was designed to move.”
“The mages didn’t.” Kade beamed with pride. “Amelia did.”
“It took some tinkering, but I got it to work a little,” said Amelia. “This dolly-mech doesn’t function like it should.”
My brows lifted. “Dolly-mech?”
“It needed a better name than statue.” Amelia pointed to the statue’s base. “You can see that this was broken off from a larger set of dolly-mechs. I think there were three figures in the original piece. That’s why I can’t get it to do everything it was created to do, but I have gotten our dolly-mech here to say a few things.” Amelia stood behind the figure and fiddled with some tiny buttons and levers on the back of its neck.
A small door on the back of the dolly-mech’s head swung open. Amelia began fiddling with whatever was inside this machine’s head. For a few long seconds, there was nothing but silence.
After that, the dolly-mech moved.
The figure lifted its head and opened its eyes. Metal creaked and groaned as its jaw moved. “I am Elea,” it said.
Her words ricocheted around my head. I am Elea? How can that be?
“And she looks like you,” gushed Amelia. “What are the chances?”
“What are the chances indeed,” I said slowly. Other Necromancers like me had died every two thousand years for these damnable gateways. Had the girls all shared my name as well as my proposed fate? If so, it didn’t bode well for me getting out of this alive.
“The Sword of Theodora is in two parts,” continued the dolly-mech. “Do you have both?”
My brows lifted. “The Sword is in two parts? That’s news.”
The figure blinked over and over. “Do you…Do you…”
“Oops.” Amelia bent over the figure again. “This happens sometimes.” A soft clang sounded as Amelia fixed something inside the dolly-mech’s head. “Ah, here we go.”
The dolly-mech began speaking again. “The Martyr’s Comet has come at last. It is time to heal the gateways. I am prepared to make my sacrifice…Sacrifice…Sacrifice…”
As the dolly-mech stayed stuck on the word sacrifice, I thought back to the many Necromancers like me who died to fulfill the Prophecy of the Martyr’s Comet. I stepped against Rowan’s side; he wrapped his arm around my shoulders.
“Yipes, she’s never said that before.” Amelia fiddled with the dolly-mech’s head, and the figure froze in place. “Sorry about that. I’m sure you don’t like being reminded of, you know.” Amelia slammed the tiny door shut on the back of the dolly-mech’s head. “That’s all she’s ever said. What an odd happenstance, finding her like we did.”
Rowan pulled me closer against his side. “I don’t believe in coincidences.”
I leaned my cheek against Rowan’s shoulder. “It’s maddening. Instead of finding out what the big picture is, I keep getting more unrelated puzzle pieces. Are these dolly-mechs all part of some greater plan? If so, how?”
Amelia nibbled on her thumbnail. “So, does that mean you’re going to do it? You’ll call Mlinzi and Walinzi tonight?”
“That’s the idea,” I said. And as soon as the words left my lips, I wished they rang with more confidence. “We’ll join the Festival of Monkeys and make our wish with everyone else.”
Rowan kissed the top of my head. “Perhaps they won’t even answer our call for information.”
“It’s possible,” said Kade as he glared at me. I knew what the man was thinking. It might be possible it was anyone other than Elea.
Rowan raised his right arm, which was a sure sign he was beginning a spell. “Let’s go back to our rooms and get ready. The festival starts soon, and we need to prepare. I’ll cast the transport spell.”