I was kind of surprised that we had anyway.
“No,” Rhea said. “At the fact that you passed the Gauntlet.”
I just looked at her, hoping for more information. I did not want to have to admit to yet another thing I didn’t know. But I guess the idea got through, because her eyes went round.
“The Gauntlet!” For the first time, she looked genuinely shocked at my ignorance.
I sighed. She might as well get used to it. “I’m afraid I don’t know what that is, either.”
“Of course!” She suddenly looked angry. “The Circle doesn’t make teaching Coven lore a priority!”
“Maybe not, but they didn’t oversee my education; a vampire did. And his only priority was making himself money.”
“Maybe it’s just as well,” she said bitterly. “When the Circle does teach something about the covens, it’s usually not . . . complimentary.”
“But this Gauntlet thing is important?”
“It’s not just important. It’s what gives a Coven leader her legitimacy. It varies from coven to coven, but the basic premise is the same: a prospective leader must pass a test, a physically and emotionally grueling, possibly deadly test, if she wants to prove herself fit to lead. If she doesn’t have the courage to go through with it, she won’t be selected, no matter how good she may be otherwise.”
“That sounds a little . . . barbaric,” I admitted, not wanting to offend her. But damn.
But she didn’t look surprised that time; I guessed she got that a lot. “It isn’t!” she insisted.
“Okay. I understand people have different traditions. . . .”
“It’s not just about tradition! A leader has to prove herself. Why should anyone lend her their power if they don’t know what she’ll do with it? If they don’t know that she’ll fight for them, die for them, if she must? You fought for us. You fought for us when Jonas wouldn’t. To the covens, that means you earned your court; someone didn’t give it to you—you bought it with blood and pain. To them, you have a legitimacy the other Pythias didn’t have—that they’ve never had! And then you defied him. . . .”
She broke off, but I kind of got the idea. “And Jonas . . . knows about a
ll this?”
She nodded.
Well, that explained a few things. Like why he went ballistic the other night. I’d thought it was because I’d broken a rule to save my court.
But maybe it had more to do with who I’d broken it with.
Typical. I managed to stumble over one of the Circle’s biggest hot-button issues without even knowing it. I needed a crash course in Magical History 101, like, now. But I wasn’t going to get it now.
Because I’d just realized that, for the first time since taking this job, I finally had someone to ask about things—a lot of things. And who sounded like she might actually know what she was talking about. And I had a question, oh yes, I did.
Chapter Twenty-four
“Rhea.” She looked up. “You seem to know a lot about the Pythias.”
She smiled. “I like to read the histories.”
“Good. I could use some information.”
She hugged her armful of soiled cotton and nodded. “Yes, Lady?”
“About . . . changing time.”
“You were right to rescue your court,” she told me quickly. “The Lord Protector should not have—”
“No, not about that.” That had been all of a fifteen-minute jump, to rescue kids who hadn’t been doing anything but sleeping before I showed up. I didn’t think I could have screwed things up too badly there. “Not about that,” I repeated.
She nodded.