“I don’t think I’m quite ready for that yet,” Neil confessed.
He felt Dyrnwyn’s weight on his back as he faced the gorge again.Soldiers clad in khaki moved among the flowering vines and soaring rib bones that lined the sandy stream.
Borthwick stood in the center of it, surveying his domain.
In the Ramayana, Valmiki had described a weapon of apocalyptic power—one that could turn a nation into a desert and bring down the most powerful demon in the world.
Neil thought of an arcanum like that falling into the hands of the man that he had faced over Tulsidas’s manuscript back in Puri.
Constance was right.They couldn’t let Borthwick get the astra—no matter what that required of them.
He studied the holes in the face of the ridge.There were dozens of them, from simple ragged openings to chambers fronted by elaborate colonnades.Somehow, he had to use an ability he barely understood to figure out which of those doorways led to wildly dangerous arcanum.
Constance squeezed his hand.“You can do this.I have complete faith in you.”
Neil realized with a jolt that she really did.Constance was easily confident that he could do this, even though he’d only done it once before—on purpose, anyway.
“I haven’t the foggiest notion where to begin,” he confessed.
“What did you do last time?”
Neil tried to remember.“It was the bird.”
“The bird?”
Neil shook his head to clear it.He’d gone over a bit vague at the memory.“There was a bird in the stepwell.I heard it tapping at the stones.It felt… important.”
“What looks important down there?”Constance nodded at the valley—which held a platoon of soldiers, a sadistic secret police chief, Neil’s vulnerable sister and friend, and a forest of bones.
“Everything?”Neil offered back weakly.
“Stuffy…” Constance’s tone was dark with warning.
“I’ll try,” Neil countered.“I’m trying.”
He drew in a breath, readying himself to do the impossible.
Constance wiggled next to him as she inched closer to the edge.
Neil’s nascent attempt at concentration fractured.
He scooted away from her and forced his focus back to where the openings in the cliffs gazed at him like dark eyes.
Start with whatever feels important.
An impulse rose up in Neil—one that ran so contrary to his normal instincts, he knew with a sinking sense of unease that it had to come from somewhere else.
“I need to get closer,” Neil admitted uncomfortably.
Constance frowned.“We are safer up here on the ridge.”
“It’s…important,” he ground out.
Constance arched an eyebrow, then made a study of the landscape of the ravine.
“There.”She pointed to a place where the gorge was split by a sharp jut of stone.“If you stay close to the wall, you should be able to look out without being seen from the camp.”
The notch Constance indicated lay slightly to the left below them.She was likely right about it offering cover, but they would be exposed for a few seconds while they scrambled down.
