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I stepped into the recess as Beks backed away. “Well, thank you for coming to check. I need to get out of here.”
“Happy to help,” Beks said graciously. “Whatever the Prince’s Paramour desires, Beks of Noctasia is here to serve.”
“Noctasia?” I said, choosing to ignore the other thing. “You’re from the city above?”
“Of course. Few humans live in the palace.” Beks was already running ahead. “Where would you like to go today? Wait, I think I know a place. Something different from yesterday. Very different.”
“Different from yesterday would be good,” I muttered, following behind.
We walked for about fifteen minutes, this time taking a new route off a fork in the path, before Beks began to slow his pace.
“We don’t just have to watch today,” the boy explained with a familiar twinkle in his dark eyes. “There are more doors, like the one you just came through.”
He flicked at something in the wall beside him and I heard a creaking sound. A tall rectangular panel was opening, large enough for us each to fit through.
“Go ahead,” he encouraged. “Push it open. I already checked. It’s empty. There’s a ceremony in the city today. Everyone is there.”
I wasn’t sure exactly what that meant, but I did as he said. Pushing the panel all of the way open, I stepped down a low ledge onto the floor cautiously, then looked around me in awe.
We were in an incredibly beautiful space. Some sort of a temple from the look of it. Two majestic rotundas, separated by a low rise of stairs, stood on either side of me.
Domed ceilings stretched over top each rotunda, their graceful curves creating a sense of boundless space and light. Delicate gold inlays decorated the interior of each dome, while spectacular painted friezes depicting exotic creatures and scatterings of arcane symbols covered the upper walls.
Slender fluted columns lined the perimeter of the temple's rotundas, their capitals covered with carvings of leaves and foliage that unfolded like a bouquet.
Along the walls, ornate censers swung from delicate gold chains, releasing fragrant incense into the air. I caught a whiff of cedar, rich and woody, and jasmine, sweet and intoxicating.
I walked slowly into the rotunda to my right. Brilliantly colored stained-glass windows covered the curving ceiling interspersed with panels of gold. The colorful glass filtered the muted volcanic light that found its way through. Rays of rainbow light danced across the white marble floor.
My wonder was mixed with an odd sense of premonition as I crossed to the center of the rotunda.
A ring of large, exquisitely crafted paintings adorned high-arched shaped gilded frames embedded in the ancient stone walls. Each one featured a picturesque landscape scene. There were twelve in all. I supposed they showcased various locations across the continent of Myntra.
I stepped up to the first one, peering into a vividly-painted serene sylvan realm where towering trees swayed in harmony with a gentle breeze. Another revealed a vista overlooking swirling mists and jagged cliffs. I turned from one to the other, taking in seascapes, mountainous terrain, and soft swelling hills and valleys. One painting almost reminded me of Pendrath. It showcased rolling hills leading into rich green forests, with a city in the far distance that almost resembled Camelot.
Struck with a pang of homesickness, I was just stepping closer to take a better look when a voice called out from behind me.
“I had not taken you for a devout woman, Lady Morgan.”
I turned to see Crescent and Odessa di Rhondan entering the temple through a large stone doorway. The official entrance.
“I wouldn’t call myself one necessarily.” My voice carried easily, echoing across the marble and stone.
From the corner of my eye, I caught sight of Beks. He was scuttling under a long stone bench with the speed of a spider. Putting a finger to his lips, he winked. I understood.
“Must one be devout to enjoy these paintings?” I asked, as Crescent reached me. I saw him exchange a glance with his sister. Then Odessa turned around and marched back to the doorway they had come in, her two blades crossed over her muscular back.
Apparently, Crescent was on Morgan-duty today.
“Well, not these ones, no.” Crescent grinned and I couldn’t help smiling back a little. While Odessa put my back up, there was something easy to like about Crescent. It was too bad he had been assigned to me as a duty. We might have been friends.
“But those in the other rotunda–” He gestured for me to follow, then led the way out past the hidden gold-paneled door that Beks and I had come in through and up the small dividing steps into the second rotunda. This one had a black marble floor and instead of landscape paintings in gilded frames, there were silver arched frames that depicted...
“Is that Zorya?” I exclaimed, stepping in for a closer inspection.
Long fair hair cascaded down a beautiful pale-faced woman's back as she stood in front of a golden boat. In the distance high on a mountaintop lay a spectacular palace.
“The Palace of the Sun,” Crescent pointed out. In legend, Zorya resided in the Palace of the Sun where she opened the gate for the sun’s rays each morning.
