Page 82 of A Tempest of Intrigue (Tempest of Shadows #4)

CHAPTER EIGHTY-TWO

Ellery

I stared down at the slab we’d closed in the floor. Because of the intricate designs carved into the stone floor, once it was in place, it was impossible to tell where the slab started and the floor began.

I knew where the thick piece of stone was and couldn’t differentiate its position in the floor. Kneeling to examine it more closely, I couldn’t find the seam to the opening, and it looked impossible to open from this side.

Rising, I stepped back and lifted my glowing hand to examine the complex etchings in the floor. I didn’t know what it was, but it seemed ancient.

“Is this some kind of writing or symbols?” I whispered.

We were alone, but talking above a whisper felt wrong.

“Maybe both,” Ryker said.

Apparently, he agreed about talking normally, as he also whispered. Lifting my head, I shifted my attention from the floor to the large room.

The smell of the thousands of parchments lining the many shelves tempted me closer. My fingers itched to learn the secrets tucked within, but now wasn’t the time to stop and read.

“Where are we?” I asked.

“I think we’re in the temple.”

My eyes shot to Ryker before darting around the room with its thousands of parchments, stone tables, and strange hieroglyphics in the floor. I’d only been to the ancient building once and never to this part of it, but his answer made sense.

“How is there a hidden passage between the temple and the Revenant Woods?” I asked.

“I’m not sure, and I doubt anyone else knows about it. We can ask Tucker, as he’s spent a lot of time here and knows a lot about this place, but first, we need to get out of here before anyone else arrives.”

That really wouldn’t be good. I placed my hand, without my lightning, on Mouse’s shoulder when the boy edged closer to me. While it was warmer here than in the passage, his teeth still chattered. The cold had seeped into my bones too, and though I’d stopped shivering, I felt icy.

Mouse remained close to me as we followed Ryker to the stairs. We crept up the steps behind him to the closed door at the top.

Like most buildings in Tempest, no one could open a portal into or out of the temple. It would have been a whole lot easier if we could.

Ryker turned the knob and pushed the door open. He held up one finger to us before leaving the stairs behind.

I doubted there was anything treacherous in the temple, and no one could see us together, but I didn’t like having him out of my view again. While he was gone, I strained to hear anything beyond.

I didn’t know what I’d do if I heard him talking to someone. I wasn’t sure how we’d get out of here without being seen.

Ryker returned a few minutes later and waved us out of the stairwell and onto whatever lay beyond. Mouse hunched up, as if prepared to flee, when we entered the room above.

Darkness and shadows enshrouded this space too, but it wasn’t nearly as gloomy as the room below. No shelves blocked the towering windows with their stained glass depictions of gargoyles, unicorns, weather formations, phoenixes, and other assorted immortal creatures.

The moonlight streaming through the colorful panes revealed some of the stone tables in the center of the room and the hundreds of shelves lining the walls. Rolled parchment filled every spare inch of those shelves.

Some parchments were spread out on a couple of the tables. A quill and ink sat next to them as the scholars worked to preserve the history of our realm by copying the older, more worn parchments onto the newer ones. I’d bet that history lacked the details of those gargoyles below.

The windows with the gargoyle images had a lot more meaning to me now. I wasn’t sure what that meaning was… yet. But then, I might never know.

Those gargoyles seemed to have been locked beneath the temple for millennia. Maybe the scholars, who the king appointed to keep the parchments safe, knew about them, but I doubted it.

It was a secret that would get out… or never kept. There were so many of them down there, but for what reason?

It was a question I couldn’t wait to ask Tucker, but I suspected he wouldn’t have an answer either.

“Do you know any of the scholars?” I asked Ryker as we strode toward the front door.

“No, but Tucker might.”

Ryker stopped before the large, curved black door. The chiseled designs of ivy running around the edge of the door gave it an almost mystical feel that made it seem as if a magical world lay beyond, or maybe this was the magical world.

I hadn’t felt the same way before discovering the cavern, but I couldn’t shake the feeling now. But then, the only time I’d ever been here before, I’d been more focused on the endless parchments and all the history tucked within the building.

The scent of the ink and parchment captivated me as we made our way through the vast structure. My mother had brought all the kids from her school to visit the temple, but I’d forgotten about them as I traversed the rows of shelves.

I’d been awestruck and felt so small as I walked amid the stories of our ancestors and explored the different floors, though I’d never gone in the basement. Too scared to touch anything, I kept my hands at my sides.

The oldest known building in Tempest, the temple had been here for millennia and had seen countless other amsirah. I could almost feel their ghosts walking beside me while I explored the building for the first time.

It was only about a mile from The Hollows, but not many amsirah came here… outside the scholars. Tucker and his father were an oddity in that.

The hush hanging over the building was nearly palpable, and the click of the lock turning made me wince. Ryker hesitated before opening the door to reveal the steps leading to the hardpacked road and field surrounding the structure.

At the edge of the field was the shelter of the Revenant Woods, but we’d be completely exposed as we made our way toward the trees. Glancing around, I didn’t see anyone out there as the insects sang, but I felt eyes on me.

Those eyes didn’t come from the outside. The hair on my nape rose as my head turned toward the shadowed recesses of the temple.

I expected to come face-to-face with fangs, but only shadows greeted me. Yet there was something there, watching… waiting.

I had no idea what it was waiting for, but a heavy expectancy enshrouded the shadows and the mysteries they contained. When I stepped outside, Ryker closed the door behind me. I edged away from the eyes and secrets following us.

We descended the stone steps and were halfway across the field before I glanced back at the towering, black-stone temple. I could only see two of the four turrets and the gargoyles perched on them from my angle.

In the glow of moonlight, they were poised to take flight. And that flight would bring them straight to us.

“Ellery.”

Turning back, I discovered Ryker and Mouse standing before an open portal near the woods. I didn’t look back as I hurried away from the temple and through the portal.