Lucian nodded. “From the archives. Yes.”
“How did this Kieran manage to sneak a book out of the archives without the Triumvirate or their Guardians knowing?” Helena asked. There was no censure in the question, but the Guardians visibly tensed.
“It shouldn’t have been possible,” Kael answered as Lucian opened the ancient book.
“May I?” Trinity asked, still hovering by Lucian’s shoulder.
He gave a terse nod, and she reached out, flipping through quickly before stopping on a dog-eared page with notations scrawled in the margins. “Here. This is where it was when we found it.”
Everyone moved around the table to get a closer look. Effie recognized the passage immediately, although she’d never seen this book before. It was the same one Smoke had shared with her when they’d connected the massacre in the jungle to another marker.
“TMJ prophecy? What’s that?” Von asked, looking to the Triumvirate for answers.
Lucian was very still beside her, his jaw clenched. Whatever it meant, he was familiar with the reference.
“The Mother’s Judgment?” Helena offered.
It was a smart guess. Given what they’d been told of the Shadow Years, it certainly fit.
“No,” one of the Triumvirate answered. “It’s a much older prophecy.”
“Obscure and long forgotten.”
“Named, it was believed, for the one who Saw it.”
“Do you think you could manage to recall it?” Von asked. Despite being phrased as a question, it was clearly not a request.
Lucian bristled, but no one save Effie was looking at him. Everyone else was staring hard at the three robed figures. It was hard for her to remember to carry on with the charade when she knew who was actually speaking.
The silence in the room stretched, and Effie was starting to think the Guardians wouldn’t—or possibly couldn’t—respond. But they did, their spectral voices harmonizing as they answered as one.
“The slumbering one comes. The spell that holds him suspended no match for the depth of his wrath. None will be safe when his lies return to the realm of the living. The shackles will break, a sign to mark each passing. When the last is broken, he will walk the world once more.”
Goosebumps rose along her skin and Effie’s heart began to race. It was too similar to what the Mother had shared with her to be a coincidence. “These marks refer to the markers we’ve attributed to the Shadow Years,” she said, her voice low but steady.
Lucian looked grim as he nodded his agreement.
“Your prophecy wasn’t named for its bearer,” Reyna said with a harsh laugh. She leaned across the table and slammed her finger down to point at the notation. “TMJ: Tul Mort Jateh. None of your Keepers recognized it because they weren’t familiar with the title. This prophecy is about the Lord of Death. He’s coming for us all.”
“Why are you so sure it’s about him?” Lucian asked.
“Besides the initials? Every element points to him. The sleeping, the shackles, being trapped between worlds . . .” Reyna trailed off. “The Night Stalkers recognize the Mother, but we do not consider ourselves Her children. We are born of night, as are the gifts we are blessed with. Who do you think my people served before he was bound and we were freed? We were his assassins. His spies. His slaves.”
“So why serve him at all?” Helena asked.
Reyna scoffed. “We were not given a choice. He is our creator. The Night Stalkers would not exist if not for the Father of Dreams. But he was not a kind Father. Legend has it that the Night Stalkers were created out of a jealous bid for attention. When the Mother’s focus shifted from him to Her Chosen, he lashed out. Began destroying them just to hurt Her, as She had hurt him. We were the instruments of that destruction. Why else do you think we were banished alongside him? The first of the Forsaken tribes.”
The mingled gasps of their indrawn breath was the only noise in the room. This was not the history the Chosen had been raised with. Not even close. Even the people of the Vale looked shocked by Reyna’s tale.
“If you belong to him, why are you afraid of his return?” Kael asked.
“How do you think he was captured? Bound? It was with our help that he was trapped in the dream world, the place that joins the realm of the living to the land of the dead. If he returns, my people will be punished for that treachery even though any wrongdoing happened many lifetimes ago. The Mother cast Her spell with our help, trapping him in between worlds so he could no longer torture Her favorite children. Not that it stopped the Father of Dreams. In the end, he is the lord of that domain. Even bound he was able to reach out; to find someone who could set the necessary events in motion.”
“Time means nothing to an immortal,” Lucian murmured.
“Exactly so. All beings were immortal before the Lord of Death,” Reyna said with a small shrug. “Once he brought death into the world, mortality was inevitable. He might be trapped, but that is a gift that can never be taken back.”
“As dire as this sounds, it doesn’t really change anything . . .” Effie said slowly.
“How can you say that?” Reyna asked, looking stricken. “If he is freed, death as you know it would be a mercy compared to what he will do to you—to us all.”
“We already knew that the Shadow Years meant the destruction of the Chosen. All that’s different now is that we know it’s not some vague notion, but an actual being. Beings can be fought and defeated. And either way, Shadow Years or your Lord of Death, if we can find a way to stop the final markers from coming to pass, then we’re in the clear, right? He’ll still be trapped, and we get to keep living.”
The room fell silent once more but some of the tension ebbed. It was not much as far as plans go, but it provided something they’d been sorely lacking only seconds prior . . . hope.
Kael scrubbed a hand over his head before leaning forward on the table. “Easier said than done, unfortunately. There’s one, maybe two markers left if we’re lucky, and that’s assuming there aren’t any out there we don’t already know about.”
“I think there has to be at least one more—otherwise my vision would have said he’s here, not he’s coming . . .”
“Fair point,” Lucian murmured.
“Well, there are still any number of events that could be markers, most I should add, that we have no way to predict,” Kael said.
Instinct had Effie turning to Reyna. “Do your legends say anything about what the final marker could be?”
Reyna shook her head. “No, I’m sorry. That is as much of a mystery to us as it is to you.”
“Without knowing what else to watch for, our best and only option is still to go after the Shadows,” Lucian said. “Any remaining marker is likely tied to them.”
“Alright, so that’s our next move,” Helena declared.
“Where do you suggest we start looking?” Effie asked.
Helena looked thoughtful. “I still think we need to go back to the citadel. There may be something there that points us in the right direction.”
“Is there anything we can do to help?” the Councilman asked.
Helena turned her aqua eyes on him. “Are there any other spells that you know of that might help us cleanse and repair the land? We’ll likely need to split our resources in the days to come, so anything that gives more of us the ability to counter the effects of the corruption would be welcome.”