Page 38 of Gilded Curses

Sahira had suspected as much, but she hated to hear it stated so confidently. “What does he plan to do with us?”

“Do we look like we’re privy to the Elite’s plans?” Aurora asked. “We’re as much cannon fodder for them as all of you.”

Her eyes narrowed on the woman who was ridiculously hostile, considering she left the note that brought Sahira here. “You’re servants; you hear things. You’ve lived here for centuries, if not more, so you know how they act. Let’s not pretend you’re completely in the dark about all this.”

The woman glared at her, and Sahira returned it until Clive spoke again, and her attention shifted back to him.

“We really don’t know. I’m sure it’s nothing good, but we didn’t expect them to put you in the castle and treat you with such high regard either.”

“That was Sheree’s idea,” Alda said. “That’s why she stayed back when everyone else went to greet you. She kept a handful of servants with her to ready the rooms, and I was one of them. She thought it would be fun.”

That can’t be good, but then, nothing here is.

“Wonderful,” Sahira muttered, but she’d have to worry about the implications of that later. Right now, she required more information. “Why were the towns established? Was it just for The Tournament?”

“That took many years of planning,” Alda said. “Our ancestors lived there while building each of the separate towns. They established their own homes there for a bit.”

Sahira’s eyes widened at this revelation. “That’s why there was evidence of other buildings in Belda’s town.”

She remembered learning this detail and not understanding it then, but she did now. She hadn’t bothered to see if there was evidence of other buildings in the different towns; what would be the point? But there must be.

“Shit,” she whispered. “Okay, so they built the towns and came back here after?”

“Some did. Some didn’t survive to make it back,” Clive said.

“Of course they didn’t.”

“They also left clues for any immortal who arrived to guide them from the town and into The Tournament.”

“Their clues were garbage,” Sahira muttered.

The corners of Clive’s mouth twitched toward a smile. “We all agree, but the Elites instructed our ancestors to leave them. They mostly wanted to screw with the heads of other immortals.”

“They succeeded. So, they built the towns just for The Tournament?”

“Yes. The first immortals who entered a portal into Epoch and became trapped here usually arrived where they erected Belda’s town. The brownies are the only ones who have entered The Tournament in a different location. It was quite astonishing when they did so; everyone talked about it for weeks.”

“The Elite did not like that,” Alda said. “They hadn’t expected it, and it took some fun out of their game.”

Score some points for the little guys for keeping these bastards on their toes.

“In the beginning, our ancestors didn’t pay much attention to the immortals who arrived in those outer lands. They had guards and knew they were there, but with no food, many wasted away until they were incapable of moving. The beasts who live here eventually devoured them.

“After a while, the Elites grew bored and decided they needed entertainment. That entertainment came in the form of the immortals who arrived here. They ordered the building of the first town where most of them arrived, on the shore of the lake and near the river.

“They put up seven buildings to help those new arrivals survive, left behind some farm animals, planted crops, established the symbols as clues, and waited. They even gave them books in case they were bored.”

“So you can control throwing your gold dust because there was no sign of it in Belda’s town?” Sahira asked.

“We can.”

“Did they put trapdoors into all of those seven buildings or just the pub?”

“All of them.”

Sahira had suspected as much. “And they use the symbols to monitor and learn about the immortals trapped in those towns or traveling through The Tournament.”

When Aurora’s jaw dropped, Sahira rolled her eyes at Aurora’s shock that she’d already deduced this much.