Narrow streets trailed away from the square, each lined with small houses with neatly thatched roofs.
This was a home.
A village hidden in a mountain.
A place where djinn and Asura lived side by side, yet it was also the devouring force. This made no sense.
A group of children sat outside a shack, their attention on a female djinn with flowing blue hair. She looked over as we passed. The children followed her gaze, then began buzzing in excitement.
“This is Falima,” C’ael said. “One of the tutors here.”
He raised a hand, and she inclined her head with a warm smile.
One of the children ran up to me. He had the biggest grin and crazy blue hair that stood up all over the place. “Didi says you’re a queen. Is that true?”
“Dody!” Falima called out, her cheeks going pale. “Get back here.”
“It’s all right.” I smiled down at the boy. “I’m not a queen yet. I was going to be.”
“You will be,” he said with a nod. “I saw it.”
“You saw it?”
“Dody…” Falima appeared beside us and gently took the boy’s hand. “I’m sorry, Blood of Vijayroodra, Dody can be fanciful sometimes.”
Dody frowned up at her. “But I?—”
“Now, Dody, say goodbye.”
Dody sighed. “Goodbye…for now.”
Falima bowed slightly and led the boy away.
“Not what you thought you’d find, is it?” C’ael said.
I shook my head. “No. It isn’t.” And I still wasn’t sure I believed it.
We walked until the market fell away and the ground beneath our boots got rockier. A set of stone steps appeared to our right, ascending to an ominous-looking vaulted door built into the rockface.
“What’s through there?”
“The temple. No one is permitted inside. The ancestors sleep there.”
“Ancestors?”
“You’d have to speak tohimabout that.” He continued forward, and I followed him through an arch and into another chamber, empty and echoing. The only feature was a rockface riddled with dark arches connected by zigzagging stone steps.
“What’s that?”
“That is the barracks,” C’ael said. “Each arch leads to living quarters that house a troop.”
Countless arches. Countless troops. How big was this army? How vast was this devouring force made up of djinn and Asura?
“The people in the market aren’t part of the army, are they?”
“Mostly they’re civilians. The active troops are resting. You’ll meet Craven, the leader of the force, soon enough. But for now, I think you’re ready.”
I dropped my gaze to his, blinking at the intensity in his eyes. “Ready for what?”
