Page 71 of The Stolen Throne
Reven crosses his arms. “You’re thinking of your desert friends.”
“Who have risked their lives to protect us? Yes, I’m thinking of them.”
“A traitor doesn’t taint the entire lot.”
My chest squeezes. “I know.”
An odd tink of sound in the hall outside the chamber has me looking in that direction.
“What?” Immediately, my Shadowraith is between me and the archway leading out of the room.
“Didn’t you hear that?” I ask quietly.
Not answering, he goes to the open doorway and sticks his head out into the hall, looking both directions. “There’s nothing.”
Oh. Am I turning paranoid? It wouldn’t surprise me. “You’re sure?”
“Wait here. I’ll check around.”
30
I’ve Got a Bad
Feeling About This
I’m not particularly fond of the idea of Reven leaving me here alone to go off by himself—both for me and for him—and it sets my stomach clenching. Tziah and Bene are next to come through, but it will be a bit.
The longer I wait, though, the more I’m sure that sound was my imagination. I can tell by the stillness that cloaks the building that this temple is exactly as Vos and Reven reported from their earlier scouting—empty. Abandoned, even. As though no one has been here for months. Not since the attack on the Shadowood.
But that can’t be right. This is Tyndra’s only portal and their temple. At the very least an acolyte or a guard of some sort should be in the building.
What happened?
Suddenly, the glass changes from solid to opaque, then to clear, and on the other side is Tziah—covered head to toe and with a hood drawn low over her face to hide the blue of her skin.
Bene sits on her shoulder. Before we entered Yolyn Zag, he shifted shapes again. Smaller. Less noticeable. Now he looks like a raven, even using the part of him made from black sand to color his entire body. Someone would have to get very close to spot the difference.
Tziah’s hand is glowing a deep purple as she operates the glass. I wasn’t sure if she was Hylorae or Enfernae, given how she uses sound, but now I have my answer. Enfernae. Once she’s through, the portal closed behind her, she flips her hood back and smiles. Immediately, Bene flies to my shoulder and pecks at the chain under my jacket. He was not pleased having to let me go ahead with the amulet that may or may not house his lover.
I wave him off. “She’s fine.”
Meanwhile, Tziah tips her head, looking around, then raises her eyebrows in question, no doubt asking about Reven.
“He’ll be right back.” I’m sure he will. I’m just being squeamish.
Bene flies to my shoulder. “Aryd created these portals.”
“Really?” I ask, snagging Tziah’s attention, who didn’t hear him. Quickly, I translate.
“The walls I knew were hers. I watched them rise from my place in the waters…” He ruffles his sandy feathers. “You have never heard such a calamitous sound, but she had no choice. Locking me out with the rest of the consorts.” His voice goes sharper, harder in my head. “Devourers. What an apt term.”
That much we know.
“But these…” He points his beak at the glass. “I feel her magic in this glass.” If a miniature Devourer in the shape of a raven can smile, I guess that’s what he does. “I should have guessed. It was always my goddess’s way to be a blessing to her people, and the dominions need one another.”
He’s right about that. Aryd wouldn’t survive without the trade we do with the other five.
The glass changes again while we’re all three looking at it, and Vos and Horus file through next. They’re both breathing hard.
