Gavin smiled and took the book to the nearest reading table. Placing the book on the table, Gavin measured it with his left index finger and saw it was about three-quarters of it in thickness. How many Houses are there for the Registry of them to be this thick?
Opening the front cover, he saw a line at the bottom of the title page that read, “Published: 22 Nesnae 4572.”
What year did they say it is? 6080? 6081? That would make this book fifteen hundred years old, give or take. That would make me wonder if I’d find my House in here, but since I seem to be related to the God of the Sea too, I feel safe I’ll find it. I just hope I have enough time to find it before Kiri is ready to leave.
Turning past the title page, Gavin found the table of contents, and his shoulders tensed. Oh, shit…no House Glyphs.
Gavin picked a name at random, House Alcor, and flipped to that page. He sighed as he leaned back against the chair. An illustration of what could only be Alcor’s House Glyph occupied the top quarter of the page; it was a simple Glyph with two diagonal lines almost touching to form an A-frame. The diagonal line on the left was just slightly below the line on the right, and a second diagonal line was below the one on the left, which stopped a little past the upper-left line’s start.
Gavin took off his medallion and laid it beside the Alcor glyph. Nope, not even close. Hmmm…maybe there’s an index at the back.
Returning his medallion to his neck, Gavin closed the tome and turned it over to rest on its front cover. He opened the back cover and, skipping the blank page at the very back, found himself looking at the entry for House Zynvis. The Zynvis Glyph was a vertical line with a diagonal line bisecting it from left to right; at the point of bisection, the image of a sickle was attached by the tip of its haft.
Well, I’m not House Zynvis, either. Gavin sighed. This will take a while…
He swept his medallion off his neck once more and laid it on the table beside the book and started turning the pages with care, scanning the House Glyphs as he went.
The first name he recognized was Wygoth, one of Kirloth’s apprentices during the Godswar and now one of the Great Houses of Tel. The Wygoth Glyph was two diagonal lines going up from left to right with an underlined caret beneath them.
Nope. Not mine.
A few minutes later, he found an entry for House Roshan, the next name he recognized which was also one of Kirloth’s apprentices and now a Great House of Tel. The House Glyph was two horizontal lines with a single dot centered beneath them. Below the dot were two vertical lines centered along the horizontal lines above.
I’m not House Roshan, either.
The next page that caught Gavin’s eye did so not for the House’s name or its Glyph but where it was from. The wizard members of the royal family of Vushaar made up House Muran; its House Glyph was a dot in the upper-third, with a horizontal line coming in from the left and stopping at the edge of the dot in the middle-third. The lower-third of the Glyph looked like a letter T that had been rotated eighty-five degrees to the left.
Huh…I wonder if Kiri knows anyone from House Muran. She said she grew up in the capital city.
A few pages later, Gavin found the entry for House Mivar, the city and province’s namesake. He wasn’t House Mivar, either. Mivar’s Glyph, like that of Gavin’s House, was divided into left-, middle-, and right-thirds…unlike the upper-, middle-, and lower-thirds Gavin had seen so far. The left-third of the Mivar Glyph was a vertical line that turned left in a right angle at the overall mid-point of the Glyph and, then, turned back to a diagonal line. The middle-third was a dot in the center. The right-third looked like a capital E made with four lines and points at the line intersections instead of the usual block style.
Close…well, the dot in the middle is similar. Still, though…not me.
The L’s yielded no results, either. Halfway through the K’s, Gavin found what he sought, and a shiver ran down his spine.
The Glyph on the left page had a left-, middle-, and right-third. The left-third looked like two sickles with one inverted over the other and their points merging to create a solid line. The middle-third was a single dot in the middle of the space, and the right-third was a greater-than symbol with a wider angle than normal.
House Kirloth…I’m House Kirloth.
Ovir offered Kiri a seat in the parlor of his suite of rooms, and he chose the chair opposite hers.
“Would you like some refreshment?”
“No, thank you, sir.”
“So, how can I help, Your Highness?”
Kiri’s jaw dropped just a bit. “You know?”
“I didn’t recognize you right away in the alley, Your Highness, but one of the times I visited Gavin’s room in our infirmary, you turned your head in such a way you were the spitting image of your mother. I don’t make it home often, but I do remember seeing the Crown Prince, his wife, and their newborn daughter. This was several years ago, you understand…before your father became King.”
“Why did you keep my secret in the shrine?”
“The rebellion that has been coming for several years finally started last month, and two years ago, your homeland mourned your loss along with the Sprite. If your father’s enemies knew you were alive, you’d make a very potent weapon against him in the civil war, so I think it’s in everyone’s best interests if-for the time being-I forget you’ll be my Queen someday.”
“I’ll never be Queen; I’m a slave.”
“Do you honestly think your father-or our people-would care about that? Besides, I have information you don’t.”
“Really? What is it?”
Ovir stared into the flames glowing in the hearth for several moments before he returned his attention to Kiri.
“About three thousand years ago, there was a seer who gave a number of prophecies, and there was a set-sometimes called a sequence-of prophecies that made absolutely no sense to me or anyone else who had ever read them…until I realized who you were. Those prophecies foretell the rise to power of the Slave Queen, she who will rebuild the country from the ashes of the Vushaari Civil War.”
Kiri sat back in her armchair, staring at Ovir with her jaw slack. “The Slave Queen? Really?”
“Oh, yes, but I somehow doubt you came to discuss historical prophecies.”
Kiri couldn’t keep from grinning. “Well, in a way, I did.”
Ovir frowned. “Please, explain.”
Kiri took a deep breath and let it out as a slow sigh. “I’ve never told anyone this, not even my father. Honestly, a part of me wasn’t sure if it was real or not. The night before I was to leave for Tel Mivar, I went to the shrine in the palace to pray for the well-being of my father and homeland. When I arrived, I met a strange, old man who told me that, if I truly wanted to ensure my father’s safety and that of my homeland, all I had to do was find a young man named Gavin Cross.”
Now, Ovir’s jaw dropped. “Are you certain of that name?”
“Yes, Ovir, I am. Despite everything that has happened since I left my home, I remember that exchange very, very well. Before that moment, I had never heard a name like ‘Gavin Cross’ before.”
Ovir leaned back in his chair and stared at the ceiling in silence for several moments. After a time, he returned his attention to his guest and saw the discomfort in her expression.
“Is this what you wanted to discuss?”
“In a way. All the nights I’ve woken up wanting to scream and slit my throat, the one thing that kept me from doing it was that I had to find Gavin Cross to keep my family safe. And now? I’ve found him, only he’s not some awe-inspiring general or leader of the people. He’s maybe five years older than I am, and he has no idea who he is or where he’s from…or anything really beyond his name! How is he supposed to save my homeland? It makes it seem like everything I endured, everything I survived, was for nothing. I…I just don’t understand.” Kiri put her elbows on her knees and rested her head in her hands. “I just don’t understand.”