Page 101

Chapter

Sixty-Eight

Liv

T he prayer chamber resembled an underwater grotto—a large, circular room with thin beams of light filtering through horizontal cracks in the ceiling. The air was stuffy, and the back half of the room sunk into a low pit in the shape of a crescent moon. Moss-covered rocks filled the pit.

Maev crept close to the edge of the platform, looking down into the moon-shaped recess. “I bet this used to be a pool of water. The sea must have once touched the back of the shrine, and the Sea-legs could pray above or below.”

I bent over the edge, eyeing the rocks. “You’re always so clever. Why am I even here?”

“Haven’t figured that out yet,” she teased, turning back to the rest of the chamber. “There’s no paintings on the walls like I hoped.”

I ran my hands along the rough stone of the circular walls.

“There could have been paintings here once. This shrine is ancient.” I remembered all the places I had seen the painting of the two legends.

“The image of the Aspis and the glowing Ikhor is depicted all over Veydes, but the painting in the Avenmae Palace was different. Have you seen the legends depicted in any other way?”

“I haven’t, but I have never explored caves or shrines before. The texts I’m usually interested in are not about the legends, but rather alchemy.”

Our voices echoed in the large chamber. The dark lighting comforted me, and I wondered about the Sea-legs coming here to pray to their goddess. How many centuries had this shrine stood? And when did it crumble?

“Not much to look at in here.” Maev took out a notebook and scribbled in it. “I’ll go to the next one and check that it’s the same.”

“You’re okay going out there on your own?”

Maev put her notebook away. “The Interrogator is being babysat. I’m far less nervous. Plus,”—she played with the end of her braid—“I think Bastane would step in if anything were to happen.”

She wasn’t wrong. “What about the guy back home? You didn’t tell me about your date—you only mentioned you have another one planned.”

Maev’s hands dropped to her sides, and her cheeks went scarlet. “I don’t know. It was amazing at first, and then … I don’t know how to say it.”

“Did something happen?” I stepped toward her.

“Nothing I didn’t want to have happen,” she hesitated, then added, “Only, it was disappointing when it did. And it was over really fast.”

“Oh.” Maev’s discomfort had me unsure of what I could ask.

“It mostly … um … it wasn’t as good as I thought it would be. That’s all.” She chewed the inside of her cheek, turning an even darker shade.

Ah . Now I felt awkward. “It’s not your fault. You just had bad luck and found a partner that didn’t know what he was doing.”

“It seemed like he knew what he was doing. Then, afterward, I walked home alone, and I couldn’t help feeling disappointed.”

“I don’t think you should go out with him again,” I said.

Maev threw her hair over her shoulder, standing straight. “I told him I would when I got back. It will be better the second time.”

“Maybe a certain Guard will keep your mind occupied until then.”

Maev opened her mouth to say something and stopped. She looked past me and paled.

“What?” I looked over my shoulder, finding what had distracted her.

A light so bright it made my eyes water lit the prayer room, shining through the cracks above, blinding us in sharp beams of sunlight. More filtered in until it wasn’t just coming in through the cracks, but through the wall . It seeped through the stone, collecting in a ball before us.

My feet froze in place as a glowing orb floated into the cavernous room, bathing me in golden light. The hair on my arm lifted as the buzzing of magic travelled through me. It was so familiar, had haunted me since I left the Endless Forest.

The light descended on us, tinkling like a bell.

“The talking Light,” I whispered. This was the same thing that had found me by the river back home.

How? How had it found me here?

“What?” Maev clapped her hands over her ears.

The light, the similar sensation, and that high-pitched ringing in my ear—the same magical, talking Light that stole me from my homelands and told me to “Wake the Aspis”.

“Go, Maev,” I shouted, pushing her toward the door. “It’s the Light that stole me from my lands and brought me here.”

“No, Liv, what if it takes you back?” Her eyes went round with panic.

“Then I won’t let it take you too. Warn the others. The Guards can help me.”

She nodded, running from the room and slamming the door closed.

Was I wrong before, thinking the Light that found me was the magic of the Ikhor? What was going on?

A chilling cold swept through the room as every part of my soul screamed to run and hide, recognizing that humming sound. I had heard the same sound in the Guardian City.

It wasn’t the talking Light.

It belonged to the golden god, Rem.