I sent a swirl of black into it, to no effect?—
At first.
But as I started to take a step back, the floor beneath me rumbled even more violently than the wall had. Another crack appeared, joining with the first. It was enough to make the fissure in the wall expand, giving us a glimpse of something on the other side.
I thought maybe I was seeing things, until Aleks said, “There’s a room hidden behind this wall.”
The symbol on the pedestal blazed brighter and brighter with our combined power, and I wondered how many other secrets might be revealed in this way—by a balance of darkness and light.
After a brief search, we uncovered more Order marks hidden around the bases of the statues. We activated them in the sameway as the first. One by one, they responded, humming faintly as they lit up. Soon, cracks began to split through the entire wall, outlining the shape of massive double doors. Then those doors pulsed with a dull light, slowly sliding apart and into hidden channels on either side, rattling and groaning like stone giants waking from a long sleep.
The space beyond seemed small, though the exact edges were lost to shadow and the swirling dust kicked up by the shifting walls; for a long moment, we saw nothing definite—just the air glittering with old particles, disturbed after who knew how many years.
Then, the dust began to settle, and light poured in through three narrow skylights cut into the high stone ceiling. The pale beams revealed a room with walls scorched black in places, and with strange, crooked veins etched into the floor, some of which were faintly glowing. There were claw marks as well—and these wereeverywhere. Deep, violent grooves that made my stomach flutter anxiously.
The brightest beam of light fell directly onto the center of the chamber, locking on an altar slick with what looked like dark and long-dried blood.
A corpse slumped against this altar, head bowed low as if in mourning. Or shame.
We all slowed to a stop, staring at it.
Thalia whispered something under her breath; it sounded like a prayer.
Eamon appeared to be trying to work up the courage to take a closer look.
Zayn coughed and said, “Leave it to the necromancer to lead us to a creepy dead body.”
He let out a grunt as someone jabbed him in the side—Aleks, probably—but I was too focused on slowly making my wayforward to pay much attention to what was happening behind me.
There was something…offabout this dead body.
It was strangely proportioned, with arms and legs that looked mismatched in length, and a neck that was bent in a way that made its head hang oddly low against its chest. It wore a robe of white, which was bunched up along its back, heaped there as if hiding a mangled spine.
“The body Calista spoke of?” Aleks suggested hopefully.
I wasn’t surprised when Eamon shook his head. “This isn’t Lorien’s body.”
“Of course not,” Thalia muttered. “That would have been too easy.”
The longer I stared at it, the less I was convinced it had ever been human…orone of the Vaelora. The energy surrounding it was similar to the energy that clung to graveyards. But there was something much less…peacefulabout it.
Something much more powerful.
Much more chaotic.
One after the other, we found ourselves looking to Eamon for an explanation.
He hesitated, but eventually said, “I think this might be…asentier. Or what’s left of it.”
“What’s left of awhat?” I asked.
Eamon didn’t reply.
Thalia frowned, chancing a step closer. “I remember one of my magic instructors talking about these. But I thought such things were only a legend. Nobody I know of has ever seen an actual manifestation of one.”
“Yes, but what exactly is it a manifestationof?” Zayn questioned.
Eamon didn’t seem eager to explain, for once, so Thalia continued: “Sentiers are a by-product of extremely powerfulVaeloran magic. Such magic leaves a permanent mark on the world, and the residual energy left behind often forms into a living being. Usually, they’re semi-divine, intelligent creatures that serve a purpose tied into whatever spell the Vaelora cast upon a particular place.”
