Page 45 of Thief of Hearts

“I did have a very strange dream, though.” I described it for him, told him everything that had happened and what I saw and how confused I felt by the entire thing.

It was nice to have someone to share it with.

“I’m not sure who the man was,” I said.

“You said he had wings on his sandals?”

I nodded.

“That was Eramis.”

“Eramis?” I couldn’t keep the shock out of my voice. “Why would the god of thieves be in my dream? No, more importantly, why would he be there with Invara?”

“Do you not know the story of your goddess’s true love?”

Confused, I responded, “Invara loves fighting.”

“Thousands and thousands of years ago, when he was a child, Eramis’s parents arranged for him to marry the goddess of discord. It was thought that his nature would be a good balance for her volatility and chaos.

“After he came of age, one day he went walking through the woods. He came upon the most beautiful being he had ever seen. It was Invara, fighting a giant. She won her battle and pulled her sword on Eramis, thinking he was a foe. He reassured her that he wished only to know her and spend time with her, and to his surprise, she agreed.”

I had never, ever heard any of this. He had to be making it up.

“As time went on, Eramis and Invara fell madly in love. They were the true balance—her protectiveness and ferocity offset by his mischievous spirit and cunning mind. They wished to be married but the arrangement his parents had made still stood. They met in secret and tried to find a way for the agreement to be broken.

“It is said that the goddess of discord found them in bed together and swore vengeance on them both. She went to the council of gods to complain about how she had been wronged. Eramis presented his side, that the arrangement had been made without his consent and that he had found his true love. He wanted to spend his eternity with Invara.

“The goddess of discord demanded compensation and that she be allowed retribution against the pair. She knew too much about what the king of the gods had been up to while away from his wife, and so the king took her side. He decreed that Eramis and Invara were to be bound away from one another. They could not be together, could not touch, could not speak. So they spend their time circling one another, never able to be with the being they love most.”

“That is horrible,” I finally said. I didn’t know how else to respond to it. No wonder Invara was angry. I would have been, too. It sounded like they had picked the absolute worst goddess to jilt.

Was that why Eramis stood away from her and didn’t speak? Because he couldn’t?

Two things happened at that moment—our server brought us more fish and the server that Zain had given the necklace to located its owner. She seemed shocked to see the necklace, and her husband helped her to put it on. She held on to the stone tightly, probably afraid that she might “lose” it again.

“Do you think your dream was real?” Zain asked me.

“I don’t know. Have you ever had Eramis appear to you?”

He had taken a bite of food and nearly choked on it while laughing. “Why would a god appear to someone like me?”

“Why would a goddess appear to someone like me?”

“Because you are a goddess.” He said it matter-of-factly, as if this were common knowledge.

“I—” What was I supposed to say to that? “Lia—I mean, the queen of Ilion—speaks to her goddess regularly in her dreams. I know it’s possible but I don’t understand why it would happen to me.”

As I’d told Lia, I was no savior.

“Did Invara speak to you?”

“She did. She only said one word. ‘Win.’”

“There you have it,” he said. “Invara wants you to win the tournament. I suppose that means there’s no hope for the rest of us. What are you planning on asking the diviner stone after you win?”

“I want to be the leader of my clan when my mother is gone. I thought it was a foregone conclusion, but a few days ago, she told me that she was going to choose my elder sister to be her heir. There has to be a way to convince her; I just don’t know what it is.”

“In case you’ve forgotten, I am a master strategist. Tell me about your mother.”