Page 18 of Dark as the Cursed Abyss

“Let me guess…at dawn?” Chloe rolled her eyes.

“No time in particular. When you are ready you will find me.”

“What does that even mean?” Chloe scoffed, shifting side to side in her seat. Her meal was done and she was growing unnaturally tired.

“You’ll figure it out.”

And that was the last anyone spoke at dinner.

Chapter Thirteen

Chloe

The bright light of morning had long since passed and Chloe felt no inkling whatsoever to train. At breakfast her hair had prickled looking out to the east where the sun had risen over the mountains, but that was a common occurrence. A need to shift more than any daunting when you are ready you will find me.

Curled up in her living chambers, she flipped aimlessly through a worn book she’d found tucked in the dresser. It was a series of poems or riddles, inked in the Elliniká Glóssa, now since faded and barely legible. It was nothing like the books she read at home—gods, she missed those. Ones of epic adventures and knights that slayed mythical beings that even this world had never seen.

The library. That was where Chloe needed to go. Get out of this secluded, dusty room and find something that could entertain her until Markos decided his vague words weren’t enough and came to get her himself. Grabbing her sack to fill with books if anything interested her, Chloe went off in search of the room.

The corridors in the guest wing were less daunting than the ones between the entrance to the castle and the great hall. They were decorated with paintings of the mountain ranges and forests in all the different seasons. Interspersed near each of the paintings were intricate gilded oil candles, lighting the path out of this wing and to the stairs that would take Chloe to the main part of the castle. Servants bustled about, tending to their early morning duties. None of them paid her any mind as she wove through the halls, peeking into the open rooms to get her bearings.

Turning the last corner before she would make it to the stairs, Chloe slammed into someone. Screeching to a halt, she brushed her hair from her face.

“Sorry,” she murmured, attempting to take a step around the person without looking up.

“There is no need to apologize, Princess. I should have been looking where I was going,” the man said and Chloe finally looked up to see Markos standing before her.

The older gentleman was dressed more casually than the night before, a simple cotton shirt, black breeches, and only one leather holster that held a small sword. A cloak covered his shoulders, shielding from the chill of the winter’s air even inside.

“I see you are heading to the library,” he noted, “I was planning to go there myself, actually, if you don’t mind the company.”

“I was, but how did you know that?” She was not holding any books, nor had she told anyone of her plans, they had been entirely spontaneous.

“Because I’m sure that old book of rhymes I left you in your chambers could not keep you occupied very long.” He chuckled and waved Chloe along.

Swallowing a lump in her throat, Chloe followed. “The book you left me? You were in my bed chambers?” He did not look like a man that would harm her, but what else could he have left there? Poison? A deadly creature? She could never be too sure someone didn’t want her dead in her thea’s court.

“I was not. I gave it to one of your lady’s maids. I heard from a little birdy that you have quite the collection back home. This is a journal of sorts.”

The pit in her stomach loosened. He was her trainer after all. It would be strange if he wanted her dead with supposedly such a good survival rate of his initiates. “The journal was utter nonsense. I couldn’t understand a single thing in it and I am fluent in the Elliniká Glóssa.”

“Ah, Princess, that is the issue. It is not the Elliniká Glóssa.”

“It’s not?” All the characters looked the same. Accents there and all.

“It uses the same alphabet, but it is code. I thought maybe the brilliant Nexian princess would be intrigued to figure it out.” Markos strode alongside her, slowing their pace with every few steps.

“Could you not just tell me what the code is then? Save us some time?”

“Ah, but that is the thing, Princess. I don’t know it.” Another servant walked by and Markos lowered his voice. “Keep that book close to you. There are secrets buried in it that only those who participate in the Mysteries know. In the wrong hands…let’s just say there is an Olympi who would kill you for it.” He paused for another moment, stopping them and putting his hand on her shoulder, leaning in to whisper, “And a king who would as well.”

“A king?” Chloe questioned, and Markos held up his finger to his lips.

“That is all I will speak of it in public, Princess. But know, if you are able to translate it—if you conquer the Mysteries—you might come out with more than just a bride.”

A tingling sensation crept down Chloe’s spine, lighting a fire in her veins. “That sounds…daunting.”

“That is the purpose of the Mysteries; they are not for the faint of heart.”