Was there another reason for her to visit in the dead of night?Against my better judgement, the tension in my body shifted into an entirely different variety.But after a moment’s hesitation, her footsteps moved on, softer than before.
“Are you going to stop her?”Ben prompted from the other side of the room.“Or must I?”
I was already halfway to my feet.“Sleep.”
“Gladly.”
I slipped out into the hallway and closed the door softly at my back.Night prayers still drifted though the hush, haunting and beautiful.Mary was already out of sight, but I caught the soft tread of her feet around a corner and followed.
“Mary!”My hissed word caught her just as she started down a set of stairs.“Where are you going?”
She looked back at me, and I recoiled.Her eyes—her human, natural eyes—were sheathed in a ghisten glow, opaque as sea-glass.
“Tane?”I asked.
Mary’s lips twitched into a flat line and something of her human self resurfaced.“Yes.Adalia has summoned us again.”With that, Tane seemed to take control once more.She nodded for me to follow her and disappeared down the stairs.
Unease, perpetually close to the surface now, coiled.I lowered my chin and hastened to catch up, but, even when I hovered at her shoulder, she ignored me.I wanted to grab her, to stop her, but Tane was not to be trifled with.
Instead, I whispered, “Do you have Mary’s permission to do this?”
“We are one and the same.”Tane spoke through Mary’s mouth.Her voice was Mary’s too, though it bellied into the woman’s lowest register, rich and deep and feminine.
“Then why can I only see you in her eyes?”I asked coldly.
Tane glanced back at me then, those sea-glass eyes taking me in with a clinical detachment.“Because we share this body.And there are some matters that should stay between ghistings.Which is why you may accompany me now but will let me enter the Oruse alone.”
We had already reached the end of the passage, with its broad steps and flickering sconces.There was not a single acolyte or Servant in sight.
“Wait here,” Tane instructed.She mounted the remaining steps and turned right, vanishing through a circular archway.
I followed more slowly and lingered outside the door, taking in all I could see of the shrine—its carvings and gilding, softly illuminated by candle and ghisten light.I saw the trail of Mary’s robes swish around the far side of the gilded room’s central pillar, then silence fell.
I stood vigil for long, painstaking minutes, until I heard footsteps in the tunnel, distant but echoing, and glanced around for a place to hide.I could go into the shrine—but Tane had forbidden that, and I had other options.
I darted across the mouth of the stairs and went the other direction.The corridor split, and I ducked down one way while the footsteps ascended the stairs.They approached, driving me farther down the passage and away from Mary.
I plastered myself into a window alcove, layered with glass that did little to keep out the cold, and held my breath.
The steps went down another passage.I listened to them fade, counting them and judging the distance until a familiar, presentient whisper stole through my mind.
I stepped out of the alcove and turned.There, at the end of my passageway, was a door.Curiosity assailed me—half a child’s curiosity, half an uncanny need.There was something of the Other behind that door.
I quickly returned to the main passage and glanced at the shrine.Mary was still there, her robe visible, and did not appear to be in any distress.
Returning to the mysterious door, I cracked it open.A dragonfly lantern hung from the center of a domed ceiling, illuminating a small, octagonal room.It might have reminded me of an observatory if the roof had not lacked any hatches or openings.
In the center of the chamber was a massive looking glass.It was directed up at the ceiling, and golden light from the lantern ran down a smooth, polished surface of faintly glowing ghisten wood.
“It is an observatory.”
I spun to see Mary, Tane still shining from her eyes.She watched me with an odd posture—her arms loose, a bit too far out from her sides, her head cocked.It was eerie and unnatural, and I longed for Mary to wake up.
“To observe what?”I asked, speaking just as quietly as she had.
Tane’s eyes trailed over the spyglass.Coming forward, she pushed my hand from the door latch and pulled it shut with a soft tap of wood.“The Dark Water—its suns and moons and stars.”
Questions rushed forward, but she spoke before I could.“All that is irrelevant right now, Captain Rosser.We need to leave.Now.”
