“The door,” Karr answered.
As if in response to his words, the ground beneath them trembled.
Chapter 36
Sonara
They journeyed back into the mines, a breathless pursuit upon Duran and Razor.
With every beat of Duran’s hooves, every grain of sand that shifted beneath his heavy weight, Sonara felt the pull of that red door inside the Bloodhorns; and with it, the gentle whisper that continued to utter its need for a savior.
She left Duran at the entrance to the mines, pressing a hurried kiss to his nose, swearing she’d be back to journey with him once more into the wind.
Then they’d gone, the five of them, into the dim.
No beasts appeared to stand in their way; they took no wrong turns, and their torches never once faltered as they finally found their way back to their outlaw cave.
All along, the ground trembled.
Little tremors; delicate shakes that had the dust kicking up, stray bits of rock tumbling down from the rounded walls.
The Wanderers, wherever they were on the other side of the mountain,had to be close to the heart, their mad dash for their prize intensifying as time ran out.
“A door,” Jaxon said, breathless as they stood before it. “Where does it lead?”
There it was, ancient as ever, standing in the rocky alcove Karr had created as if it had been there forever. It did not have a handle, or a keyhole, or any gaps that allowed them to peer inside.
“The heart of the planet,” Azariah said. “An ancient temple, long covered up by time and power.”
Jaxon, to his credit, did not raise a brow or utter a laugh at the pure absurdity of the statement. He simple shrugged, and said, “So how do we get inside?”
Sonara pressed her hands to the door.
When she closed her eyes, she swore she felt the pulse on the other side.
“I uncovered it,” Karr said.
“With Sonara’s help,” Markam added.
“And her blade,” Azariah said with a warning tone.
Jaxon looked to Sonara. “What exactly did I miss while I was gone?”
She shook her head, still trying to understand why the door called toher.Why she knew, without a hint of doubt, that the voice calling to her was no longer in her mind. And though she knew she was the only one who could hear it… it was coming from behind the door. From the other side.
“It was both of us,” Karr said. “Both of us together, that made something react that first time. Could I…?”
He held out a hand.
Timidly, Sonara took it, and they pressed their palms to the door together.
Sonara winced, waiting for a great explosion, a shifting of the very ground beneath their feet. But nothing at all happened.
Instead…
The voice on the other side of the doorsighed.
An impatient little sigh, like it was tired of waiting.
