Page 124 of The Isles of the Gods
I’m standing at the edge of a huge, semicircular cavern hewn from the black rock of the island itself. It’s open to the sea on one side, the great mouth of the cave facing out toward the lagoon, guarded from entry below by jagged stones covered in razor-sharp shells and barnacles.
The passageway has led us onto a balcony high above the floor of the temple—as high as theLizabetta’s mast—and it runs the entire half circle around the edge of the open cavern.
Far below lies a wide altar, and standing around it, facing out toward the sea, a statue of the Mother, flanked by her children on either side, their arms outstretched to the world beyond the temple.
Despite the dark volcanic stone, the temple is filled with light and with life, the opening in the side of the cavern framing the myriad blues of the sea and the sky and all of the Mother’s creation.
I stare down at the altar, alone with all of it for a moment. Goosebumps prickle my skin—this isn’t justatemple of the Mother.
This istheTemple of the Mother.
Leander and Keegan come hurrying in behind me, and I’m jerked out of my reverie. I grab our prince by the arm, pushing him along the little balcony, keeping myself between him and our pursuers. Keegan catches my meaning immediately, falling into place beside me.
Laskia and the others have to be close behind, but Jude has bought us a moment’s reprieve, and if we can buy ourselves enough time to make the sacrifice…
Leander’s voice distracts me from my thoughts, but he’s speaking so softly I can’t hear him over our footsteps.
“Leander, what is it?”
He stops short and turns to face me. “There’s no way down,” he says, breathing the words more than speaking them.
“What?”
“There’s no way down,”he repeats, and as I swing around to run my gaze over the length of the balcony, my mouth goes dry, my gut dropping with a dizzying wave of horror.
He’s right.
There are no stairs leading to the altar below. No ramp, not even a column we can shinny down. Just clear air.
“There must be something,” I hear myself say, even as my eyes tell me there isn’t. My voice rises, turning shrill. “How can there not be a way down?”
“Because nobody’s meant to come here,” my prince whispers, slowly shaking his head, as though he can deny his own words.
“Leander,” Keegan murmurs beside me. “Watch out.”
The huge man with magician’s marks—the one who threwfire at us back at the inn—is making his way through the archway and onto the balcony. He wears an expression like thunder, and holds the gun ready.
I lift one hand, as if that can fend him off—there’s my arm, covered in the strange, geometric shapes my magician’s marks have become. Did I really search for my magic all my life, only to die now, just as I’m on the verge of discovering why it’s so different, what it means?
There’s nothing I can do but stare at the huge man as he slowly lifts his gun and takes aim.
Was this how my crew felt, back on theLizabetta?
There are no moves left to make, no cards left to play. I can’t take my eyes off the barrel of the gun, but I don’t want it to be the last thing I ever see, the last thought I have.
I wish I were out on the ocean instead.
I wish I were standing on the deck of a ship as she surged along atop the waves. I wish I could feel the air spirits playing with my hair, feel Leander at my back, helping me brace the wheel on a sunny day. I wish I could taste the salt on the breeze.
I see the tiniest of shifts as the man’s finger begins to tighten on the trigger, and I wrench my gaze from the barrel so I don’t have to look. I open my mouth, wish I had an instant to speak, to say something to Leander, to Keegan—
—and then the gun explodes with a muffledbang, and the man screams, falling to his knees as he clutches the ruins of his hand.
We’re frozen in place, staring—but we’re still alive. I take half a step forward, then stop myself, light-headed.
“What was…?” I whisper, over the big man’s gasping—he moans on each exhalation, curling over on himself as the color drains from his face.
“The Mother,” Leander says softly. “She won’t allow it. Nothere.”
