“What do you mean, Stuffy?”Constance prodded gently.
Neil stared helplessly at the pillar as the feeling grew stronger.“Something changed about the carving.”
“Part of it fell off,” Subhas reminded him with a hint of mischief.
“No,” Neil bit back sharply.“Not that.Before.”
Subhas arched a surprised brow.
Constance’s eyes widened.“You’re doing it right now, aren’t you?Using your magic.”
“I’m not… It isn’t...”Neil twisted between his complete discomfort with the word and the undeniable truth that rang through him like a struck tuning fork.
The tapping echoed in his ears, hollow and relentless.
Neil gritted his teeth.
A warm hand closed over his own.He looked down, startled to see Constance’s fingers entwined with his.
“It’s all right, Neil,” she softly assured him.“No one here is going to judge you for it.”
He met her steady gaze and knew that at least part of that was true.Constance would never judge him for what he was.She’d soak it all up with curiosity, wonder, and a childlike excitement.
Subhas’s expression was less reassuring, but his skepticism fell into a tired look of chagrin.“Just… do your thing.”
Neil faced the missing piece of the carving.“I still don’t know what that is, exactly.”
“Try saying whatever comes into your head,” Constance suggested.
How could that possibly be enough?It felt mad… but so was all of this.
Neil closed his eyes, opened his mouth, and let the words spill out.
“Bas-relief works in ancient India weren’t painted the way they were in the Mediterranean regions.Sculptures like these were intended as devotional and teaching aids more than decor.”
Blurting out the ephemera of years of random books and journal articles probably hadn’t been what Constance had in mind—but she’d told him to say whatever popped into his brain.
Helpless and slightly desperate, Neil kept going.“The Ramayana was a religious tale meant to instill a sense of wonder at the power of the gods while also teaching the principles of dharma, or one’s proper path in the universe, with Rama’s actions serving as a model for righteous living.And there was something else between those mountains.”
He stopped, thrown by his own words.
“What do you mean?What was between the mountains?”Constance prompted.
Subhas watched them thoughtfully.
Neil studied the two peaks that framed the missing piece of the carving.They were roughly but not precisely even in height, lower in profile like the rambling slopes of the ridge that framed the valley.
He shook his head, feeling dizzy.
Something between the mountains…
An image popped to life in his mind like a jack-in-the-box.
“Horns?”Neil burst out.
He felt like a lunatic… even as his instincts sang with recognition.
“Horns,” he forced himself to say again as he followed the thread, the image burning more brightly inside his brain.“They’re poking up out of the ground.Enormous, curving horns.Wait…” He caught himself, frowning.“It’s not just horns.It’s…”
