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Trace chewed on his full lower lip, narrowing his eyes a little. “I think the best way for us to handle this is to go back out to the city. There should be some sort of entrance or exit concealed within the city.”
Merrick wrinkled his nose. “Is this going to be one of those things where we have to wade through god shit in order to get into the castle?”
Trace just shrugged, and I groaned. As we started following the ex-rock star back out toward the city, I leaned close to whisper to Merrick, “If it is, I’ll make you a magical bubble so you don’t get any shit on you. But you have to do the same for me.”
Merrick let out a quiet laugh. “It’s a deal. Besides, it would be a dead giveaway anyway—walking through the palace smelling like a fucking septic system.”
We headed out down the paths, through a garden area and then out to the city. When we were far enough away from the palace, we slipped down one of the darker alleyways, we began to search in earnest for a way in.
Finally, Trace held up a finger, cocking his head. “Do you hear that?”
I stopped and turned to face him, my ears pricking. “What?”
“Water.”
Now that he said it, I could hear the low rushing sound.
“Yeah. What is it?”
“Water ducts, I’m hoping,” he said with a grin. “And if they aren’t completely underwater, they should have tunnels that lead toward the palace. I can’t imagine there’s anyone down there guarding the aqueducts.”
“Well, that’s better than sewage, so let’s get a move on it.” I nodded, excitement thrumming in my veins.
The four of us followed the sound of the water until we located the entrance to the water ducts, looking around and making sure no one was watching as we slipped down and into the dark area.
I sent a ball of magic ahead to light our way, and Trace led the pack. We followed the tunnels toward the palace, using our magic to help us navigate more clearly through the tunnels. They went in all directions, and we made several wrong turns, retracing our steps before latching onto the right path. I kept a mental log of every turn we took, trying to reverse it in my head so that we could make a quick escape this way if we needed to. It wouldn’t be fucking easy, but I wanted to have the option, at least.
Finally, we emerged, stumbling out into what seemed like some sort of storage room inside the palace.
We used our magic to dry ourselves off and headed out into the hallway, hoods draped low over our heads.
Walking in formation, we all glanced back and forth nonchalantly, finding droves of mages within the palace walls. We snuck down the corridor and took a right into a room covered in shelves of books. It was a small, elegant library—only the books glowed slightly and appeared to be magically chained to the shelves.
Merrick quickly shut the door behind us. “Does anybody else think this is weird?”
I nodded. “So fucking weird. It’s almost like the gods just gave humans magic so they could have people to attend to them as servants and worshippers. Maybe that answers one of my questions about the school.”
Lachlan had his face close to the magical books, though he was careful not to touch them. “What question?”
I bit the inside of my lip. “Maybe, and this is just me thinking, but maybe the teachers are servants too. That would explain why they’re so afraid. I don’t know though, if the gods gave magic to people thousands of years ago, and they’ve been happy with the supply ever since, then what happened in the last hundred years to change that?”
Trace shook his head, his gaze shifting around the room. “That’s a good question. Why did the gods decide that now is the time to create more magic users? What exactly do they want with them, or with us?”
Thinking about it for a moment, I stared at the ground. It didn’t make any sense to me, but I knew it wasn’t supposed to. I was never supposed to ask questions. But I had, and I had no intention of stopping. So here we were, standing in a small library within the palace walls of the gods.
We were so close to finding answers.
As we left the small library, we joined the droves of mages walking down the hallways. We followed the largest group, figuring they would take us to where we needed to go. As we approached an enormous archway leading into another room, I looked over at the men. Their keen gazes darted around, seeming to track every movement around us. We were literally surrounded by possible enemies, and our luck could change on a dime. If we were discovered, I wasn’t sure any of us would make it out alive.
As we walked through the arched doorway, I almost stumbled as awe overwhelmed me. The room was massive, larger than any we’d been in so far. It looked like a court, the gathering place for all the gods, and there were dozens of the larger-than-life figures arrayed around the space. This must be their central meeting spot.
Shuffling to the side, the men and I gathered into a tight cluster. Merrick glanced up to the front of the room.
“For some reason, I thought that there would be fewer of them,” he murmured. “But there seems to be dozens of gods. I’m not even sure that I’ve read about any of them.”
I scanned the rows of chairs leading up to one larger chair, positioned on a small raised area of the room. A man—god—who was at least seven feet tall with huge muscles, long flowing white hair, and golden robes that were thinner than the others took a seat in the chair.
“Who is that?”
