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22
SILAS
When we finally came uponthe outer fields surrounding the palace of Ke'Thal, we slowed our pace. The fields were quiet, empty. If any of the servants remained, they were not outside working now. I looked to Anya, trying to judge her mood as we approached.
She'd barely spoken two words to me since the day before. She seemed content to suffer in solitude, roundly ignoring my offers to warm her with my body, even when I insisted that I meant nothing by it. But that had only turned her sourer. Did she want it to mean something? It was impossible to tell.
"Let's go through the side door," she muttered, surveying the abandoned ground ahead. "If there's anyone watching, they won't be able to see us approach."
Deferring to her judgement, I let her lead the way along the perimeter of the fields and around toward a narrow door that was nearly invisible until you were right upon it. With a glance in either direction, she pushed against it and stood aside for me to enter first. I took an extra second to breathe in Re’Utu’s power, calling upon my armor, just in case.
I took two tentative steps and paused, scanning the room and listening for any movement. This part of the palace was eerily silent, just like the fields. With a grunt, I gestured her inside and waited for her to close the door behind us.
"Now what?"
"Kiango told Ember to take everyone down to the sanctuary. That's our best chance of finding answers."
Every step we took felt like an affront to the stillness that surrounded us. Even when we tried to move silently, I could still hear the soft rasp of my scales rattling against one another and the light pattering of her feet in the confined space.
Following her lead, we came out in a tunnel near the sacred pools. I thought longingly of the warm water bubbling up from the underground springs, wishing I could sink into it until all my aches and pains vanished and the lingering cold subsided. I thought it might be good for Anya to have a good soak, too. She looked like she might freeze in place if we didn't find a source of heat.
"Come," I said, deciding that we could at least walk through the steamy heat of the bathing chamber, even if we didn't stop.
Anya looked the other direction, and I wondered if she might go her own way. At least in here, she couldn't get lost, even if I couldn't guarantee her safety. In the end, she decided to follow.
As soon as we stepped into the enormous chamber, I knew that we would find no relief here. The pools had dried up to nothing more than a trickle, ice forming along the edges where the water had receded. Only one pool still held any of its original bounty, and that was the one I had been dipped in just before everything had gone wrong.
I stepped around the barren holes in the ground and went to the final pool. I dipped my hand in it, only to retract it immediately with a pained hiss. The water was icy, pushing up under my scales and making it feel like my armor was being pried apart.
"What the hell happened here?" Anya breathed.
I cradled my hand against my chest, using the last little bits of Re'Utu's harnessed energy to pour heat back into it and regain feeling in my fingers.
"Whatever it was, it was bad. Let's go."
This time, Anya didn't even hesitate as I headed straight for the main part of the palace and wound my way down toward the sanctuary at the other end. She had been right. If there were any answers to be had, they would be down there.
However, when we reached the bottom of the last stairwell, we discovered the answer to all of our questions. Where the sanctuary doors normally stood in all their splendor, the hall was filled with debris and a gaping hole showed through to one of the many storage rooms above.
I stared at the fallen stone and tried to make sense of what I was seeing. The palace hadn't survived untouched after all. All this time, we'd assumed that the sanctuary would be the safest place for everyone to hide, and yet it appeared to be the one place that had suffered the most damage.
"Why are you just standing there?" Anya cried, rushing forward. "Put those big strong Guardian muscles to use! Help me move this stuff!"
I watched as she threw herself at the rubble, hoisting anything that was light enough to lift and tossing it aside. I went to work beside her, helping whenever she reached something impassible.
"Wait," I said slowly, pulling her away from the debris and hauling her back a few steps.
She swatted at me furiously. "What did I tell you about grabbing a woman like that?"
I didn't let her go. "It's not safe. If we keep pulling those stones out, we might cause a further collapse. Look." I pointed up toward the top of the pile where it opened up to the floor above. "We know they're alive in there. Or... some of them are... but if we go tunneling through there carelessly, we could get them all killed. And ourselves, too."
She stopped struggling, gave me an impatient look, and I released her. "So what do we do, then?"
"There has to be another way in. Trydan's private quarters are down there. Let's go look."
"Don't you think they would've just left, if that way was open?" she asked dryly.
"Maybe it's not open from their end, but we can open it for them... without causing a disaster," I added.
She rubbed at her face. "Okay. But we need to tell them we're coming. We need to let them know that everything's going to be okay."
"Hurry," I said. "We don't have a lot of time to waste."
She scurried up the pile toward the door, and I calculated how long we'd been gone. Two days. Everyone down there had to be on the brink of starvation and dehydration at this point. I imagined they were all huddled together for warmth.
Anya slid down the slope toward me and landed at my side.
"All right. Let's go."
