Terena frowned. “How will I find you?”
“Look up again. See the temple. See the mountain. You will find me.”
“We need to be off, Terena,”Rydon said.
Terena sat up with a jolt. Sonah sat back on her heels, startled. Terena reached out to her in apology, then looked around and noticed they had packed away their camp. Gabriol set his saddlebags over hishorse as he arched a dark blond eyebrow at her. Sonah too, was watching her curiously and Terena shifted to see she was still wrapped up in her cloak, her saddlebags as her pillow.
“What?”
“How can you still be asleep? We’ve already packed everything,” Gabriol said.
Terena rubbed at her face, realizing she’d been dreaming.
Usually her visions were only images, pictorial clues leading her to treasures or artifacts left behind by the gods. Breadcrumbs she hoped would one day lead her to her parents.
The voice she’d heard, however, was new.
Terena stood, frowning as she thought more on the vision she’d just had. It had been a woman speaking, that was certain. But she didn’t recognize the voice and none of what she’d said made sense. She focused instead on the mountain and the building she’d seen. A temple.
The frustrating thing was, whenever she’d had these visions in the past, she had resources at her disposal to find where those clues led. Now, in the middle of the continent with no books or Orry to help her decipher the visions, she was stuck.
“I’ll be ready in a minute,” she grumbled, fastening her cloak and grabbing her saddlebags. “Would you mind putting this on Nyx while I piss?”
Rydon snorted and grabbed the bags from her. “As you wish, my lady.”
Terena mumbled her thanks and strode off a good distance. She and Rydon had formed a tense truce after fleeing Nosam. A day later, she’d even apologized for hitting him, to which he’d complimented her on the viciousness of it. He had then apologized for not letting her silence the messenger when they’d had their chance, agreeing leaving him alone made it more dangerous for them. She’d accepted his apology and soon they’d fallen into a more amicable mood.
Finishing her business, Terena made to turn back to the others when pain shot through her belly. It was so sharp andsudden, she doubled over.
She shut her eyes and breathed through the pain when a voice went through her head.
Find me.
Terena exhaled and blinked. Instead of seeing the surrounding woods, she saw the mountain from her vision. She dropped to a knee, gasping for air when her chest tightened.
Find me.
And then she saw it. The temple. So white it looked like a beacon. Gilded pillars and large brassieres with fires licking at the sky. Sitting atop a mountain with no clear path up to the top. A straight column of earth and stone and trees, as if the trees themselves held the mysterious building aloft.
Pain shot through her gut once more.
She heard rustling in the trees but she couldn’t straighten, could do nothing but gasp as the pain receded.
Find me.
“Terena, are you all right?” Sonah’s worried voice sounded a second before the girl rushed over, bending and taking hold of Terena around her shoulders.
Terena nodded, her hands clutching her belly. Sonah helped her straighten, keeping hold while Terena took in big gulps of air.
“You look green,” Sonah said, and Terena’s lips lifted at the sound of Sonah’s distaste.
“I just threw up,” she said.
Sonah looked down and yelped, her soft leather boot in the mess.
“Gross, Terena, gods,” she moaned and stepped away. “A head’s up next time, please.”
“Of course,” she said.
