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CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

Ellery

“We can’t let them stay down there,” I said.

“They’ll kill us, Ellery,” Ryker said.

“Maybe not, if we’re the ones who free them.”

“I’m not willing to risk your life on a maybe.”

“What if I am?”

When Ryker glowered at me, the others edged away from the anger emanating from us. I stared back at him with my hands fisted and my chin raised.

“What our ancestors did to them was…” I fumbled for the right word, but none of them were adequate; I finally settled on, “ atrocious .”

“And they might have done it because the gargoyles turned on our ancestors,” Ryker said.

“I don’t think they’re lying about what happened.”

“But you don’t know for sure.”

“Look at how greedy our rulers are now! Our ancestors wanted the Heart for its power, and once they had it, they placed it in the tower to show it off and to remind all who came near it that they’d conquered the gargoyles. They suffered the consequences of their selfishness.”

“The lightning bearer who stole it most likely survived,” Tucker said, “and was probably a distant ancestor of at least one of you… if not both.”

Ryker and I had been so focused on our battle that his words didn’t sink in at first. And then both our heads turned toward him.

“What makes you say that?” Ryker asked.

“Given what we know about lightning bearers and the number of amsirah in that town, probably only one bearer existed back then. Look at how many amsirah live in Tempest now, and there are only two of you.

“Some of the other survivors might have had the lightning bearer gene, so it could have passed on that way, but we can’t be sure.

Also, if you can pick up that stone and bring it to the gargoyles, you could most likely survive the effects of the energy release that caused the town to sink and created our magnetic storms.”

“So our very, very distant ancestor might have trapped them there,” I said.

“Yes, and that’s also something the gargoyles will understand. They’re not stupid.”

Some wind went out of my sails while Ryker’s tension eased, and he gave Tucker a grateful look. I didn’t like either of them much right now.

“And that’s one more reason for them to kill us as soon as we return the Heart to them,” Ryker said.

“Yeah, I figured that out,” I muttered.

If Ryker smirked at me, I might punch him, but he remained expressionless as he rocked on his heels while studying me. Everything they said was true and rational, but I hated it.

Those gargoyles scared the shit out of me, but they were living creatures who didn’t deserve the fate handed to them… or maybe they did. It was all so confusing.

“They’re just stuck there for thousands of years,” I whispered.

“And probably a little crazy because of it. There’s no way they’re still sane after being trapped like that for so long,” Callan said.

I couldn’t argue with his assessment. I couldn’t imagine what imprisonment would do to a mind.

“If they’re lucky, when they go into the statue stasis, they become exactly like statues, and we just woke them,” Tucker said. “They might have no idea how much time has passed.”

“But they’re aware of the blood drenching the land,” I murmured.

“That could be something in their periphery. They could still be sleeping through most of it.”

“I hope so.”