Page 89

TEN DAYS BEFORE

Iprayed as I fell. Maybe that’s why I survived the drop from the top of the caldera to the bottom.

Though maybe I shouldn’t have prayed. The sensations wracking my body as I tried to escape Edan’s talons were so far beyond what I could recognize as pain, it would have been more merciful if She had let me die.

But the pain stopped, more or less, when he squeezed too hard. My neck broke, some of the vertebrae making a quiet clicking sound that I heard over the roaring of the dragon who lay beside me, his wings bound with a shredded pelt.

A pelt the Goddess had somehow imbued with Her power, just as She had filled me. I could still feel Her energy around me, even though my body was numb. I could almost see it, a sphere of golden light encasing me. How? How was She able to be present here, beneath the earth, in the heart of Edan’s home?

Sacrifice, my priest, She whispered in my mind as the world exploded around me. The Alldyns Vug was erupting, though I only felt a comforting warmth on my face. Even when the moon is dark, a sacrifice like the one Kellin made can allow my power to work in this world. A golden glow emerged from my chest, where Rada’s smoldering body had burned past the muscle to the bones beneath. A sacrifice like yours can do even more.

Then She was gone, the golden glow fading and leaving me in the darkness. I wasn’t certain that Her power had gone. I could still hear the chiming bells that had always announced Her presence before. But I also heard Edan’s roars, moving away as I drifted off from exhaustion.

I woke, my throat parched. My breathing was too loud, and I knew whatever space I lay in was a small one. A coffin made of stone and power, deep inside the Alldyns Vug.

Tears slid down the sides of my face as I waited for death to come. Whether by starvation, or dehydration, or from the wounds that I wasn’t sure the Goddess had healed before She left, death was my only certainty.

Until someone called out, “Priest?”

Something scraped at the darkness beside my face, and a puff of ash rose into the air. I closed my eyes, my heart pounding too fast, too loud.

“Priest?” the voice said again, before I felt air move around me. Air with more than a hint of sulphur. I opened my eyes and sucked in a breath. A small corner of the upper wall of my coffin had been torn away, and an orange glow silhouetted a dark shape a few inches from my face. “Priest, are you alive? Can you move?”

“I… Who are you?”

For some reason, the voice laughed. “That is a very good question. I… I don’t know.”

My mind spun. Could another of Edan’s noseless priests have been trapped down here?

“Can you help me dig you out?” he asked. “I am afraid I’m not strong enough to do more, not as I am.”

I had no idea what he meant. “No. I… My neck is broken.”

There was a long, silent moment, before he spoke again, though his voice was deeper this time. “I am not the only cruel god, it seems.”

The air was uncomfortably warm, but a cold breath blew across my mind. I knew better than to say his name, but I had to know. “Edan?”

Another long silence. “I suppose.” The shape moved away, while I breathed too fast. I hyperventilated, then passed out.

When I woke up again, I felt his presence. It was unmistakable now. The oppressive heaviness of his aura, obvious even through a small window in my coffin. He’d grown stronger. Of course he had. He was in the very seat of his power.

“Priest, are you awake?”

I swallowed, not willing to answer.

“I have something for you.”

I was certain I did not want it. But when I felt something cool nudge the corner of my mouth, I opened my lips, and pure water dribbled onto my lips. I drank greedily, mourning the excess as it slid down my cheek and to the stone below. When it was gone, I felt something else. Smelled a tangy, bright scent that cut through the sulphur.

“Eat,” he urged, reaching through the gap to press a piece of pineapple to my lips.

I was confused. Edan would not do this. Edan had no compassion… “Serak?” I whispered when I’d eaten the fruit.

“In a way,” he replied quietly.

“What happened to you, Serak? Where is Edan?”

“I am Edan.”