Journey Into Nyx by Jenna Helland Read Free Book Online Page A

the game would soon be over for her. Elspeth kept her eyes firmly on the game board so her face would betray nothing. The three of them were in Daxos’s rooms in Heliod’s complex. They often gathered in the evenings to sit by the fire and play a tile-and-board game known as Heliod’s Domain. At least that’s what the locals called it here in Meletis. Back in Akros, it was called Iroas’s Domain, and Xiro and his friends played the game incessantly. Xiro believed it taught actual strategy on the battlefield and had insisted that Elspeth learn it. Much to Xiro’s and his crew’s surprise, it took Elspeth only a few sessions before she grasped the subtleties and routinely won the game.
    Nikka made her disastrous move. Daxos shook his head in disbelief and removed his yellow tile. Elspeth tried hard not to stare at Daxos with his secret smile and the firelight flickering across his face. Nikka started humming a little song and moving her shoulders as though she was dancing in her chair.
    “You’d been setting that up for how long?” he asked. Elspeth coughed politely into her hand to keep Nikka from seeing her smile.
    “For ages,” Nikka said happily.
    It was nice to see Nikka smiling. She hadn’t adjusted well to life in Meletis. She refused to study or obey the rules expected of Ephara’s acolytes. While the news that Beta had survived the attack by Erebos’s agents had allayed her grief, her rebellious attitude had only gotten worse. Ephara’s priests had complained about Nikka to both Elspeth and her father. They called her defiant and uninterested in participating in Ephara’s civic works. There was talk of sending her home to her father in Akros.
    “Well, you’ve been so busy trying to barge your way into my territory that you’ve completely ignored the threat right behind you,” Daxos said.
    He gestured to Elspeth, who slid her red tile into Nikka’s home row. Nikka’s face fell in disappointment.
    “Victory for Elspeth,” Daxos said.
    Nikka yelled incoherently. She swept her arm across the enameled board and knocked the tiles onto the floor. Elspeth and Daxos exchanged knowing glances about the impulsiveness of youth.
    “Manners, child,” Daxos said. “Don’t they teach you how to behave in Akros?”
    Nikka opened her mouth to retort, but the door of Daxos’s rooms slammed open and a woman strode inside, sloughing off the priests who tried ineffectually to stop her. She had long dark hair, high cheekbones, and she wore the armor of a Setessan warrior. She carried a long white bundle while Stelanos dogged her heels.
    “Daxos, we’re sorry,” Stelanos said. “She insisted on seeing you.”
    “It’s all right,” Daxos told Stelanos. “I know her.”
    “Do you need anything?” Stelanos asked. He was already backing out of the room while the woman stared aggressively at him. In the corridor outside the door, three more Setessan warriors waited impatiently. Each of the womenwas more than six feet tall and towered over the flustered priests. The two sides stared at each other distrustfully while Daxos reassured Stelanos.
    “No, thank you,” Daxos said, and Stelanos retreated to the corridor.
    Elspeth could only see the woman’s profile, but she looked desperate and ferocious at the same time.
    “Anthousa,” Daxos said. “Why have you come to Meletis? What’s wrong?”
    Anthousa laid the bundle on the cushions of a nearby couch and brushed the cloth aside. They saw the face of a small child. The girl was as still as a statue.
    “Can you help her?” Anthousa asked. “Her heart beats, but no air moves through her lungs.”
    “Is it a mage’s injury?” Daxos asked.
    “The Nyxborn invaded Setessa in the night,” Anthousa said. “Since the Silence, they’ve been swarming through the Nessian Forest. She was bit by a Nyxborn snake, and it afflicted her with this strange sickness.”
    Daxos knelt beside the girl. His hands hovered on either side of her face. As Daxos attempted to