You know what this is.Control fed Father wrong information, or?—
Erik could figure out the treachery out later, if they were both still alive to do it.The good thing about their situation was that he knew the layout of most temples and could break a window on the first floor, carefully laying his sliced, battered coat over the glass before giving her a boost through.It was child’s play to hop himself inside, but he heard the hunting cry again behind him, much closer than before—and the silvery wrong notes of a horn winding through a deep, diseased descant.
Shit.Alun’nyie, out during the day?Though the solstice was officially past it was still the dark time of the year, and the blizzard, helped along by the unclean and their god’s urging, was a lid over the sun’s cleansing eye.
This temple had indeed been active once; a faint feeling of welcome clung to dusty, shuttered rooms.No stick of furniture, not a scrap of cloth—nothing of whateverliraihad sheltered here remained, except that slight lingering warmth.
“Big place,” Liv whispered.Her eyes were huge, deep circles underneath.Terror wore on the body like lack of sleep.She wasn’t bruised, though she moved a little stiffly—car accidents weren’t good for anyone, even with healing sorcery.
Those weren’t accidents, Erik.“There were probably two or threeliraihere once.”If Jake was still alive, he’d work along their path, clearing stragglers and attempting to reinforce his Elder.If he was dead, or part of the treachery—but Erik couldn’t afford to think about that at the moment.“The Flame’ll be below.”
It wasn’t hard to figure out which of them was braver.Liv let out a soft, strained sound trying to be a laugh.“Great.You going to tell me what it is?”
“It’s kind of…” He paused as the hunting horn cried outside again, a glassy trill blunted by the solid walls but still nerve scraping.
“What’s that?”she whispered.
Hunters, beautiful.They rode bigleng-spiders back in the day—among other things.“Bad news.”He checked the hall, ghosting through half-open doors.That passageway would lead to the main armory; there would be smaller ones on each floor for convenience and in case of siege.Nothing would be left in the larder, of course.
It was a pity.More weaponry was always better.
“I can tell that much.”Sarcasm, shaky but definite, tinted her tone.
“I know.”The whispers rose inside his skull for a moment, despite her proximity, and his temper almost snapped.It wasn’t like him, heknewit wasn’t like him, and the thought that the god might be taking a personal interest in chasing down this very powerful and practically unattended potential was enough to make him sweat.“Just don’t want to scare you.More than you already are, I mean.”
“That’s awful nice of you.”Her voice broke, and she did something strange.
Liv’s slender, chilled fingers found his, threaded through, and squeezed.She was actuallyholding his hand, and a soft haze of power poured up his arm, took a break in his aching shoulder, flooded the rest of him with warm honey.
The whispers stopped.Their sudden cessation was a balm he didn’t deserve, and Erik found himself stock-still in a hall leading to a low archway, bare blocks of blue stone fitted carefully together without mortar.His head was down, his chin almost touching his chest, and a thin tremor ran through him, much like the shaking in her own small, vulnerable hand.
“Sorry.”Now Liv just sounded sad.“I thought it would help.”She attempted to tug her fingers free, but his clamped down.Not hard enough to hurt, just enough to contain.
You mean, just enough to trap.“It does,” he said.“You can’t know how much.Come on, this way.”He gave a gentle, experimental tug and she followed as if she did trust him, and more than just provisionally.“Nothing can really prepare you for the Flame.If the planet has a soul, that’s kind of what it is.Or a pulse, maybe.”He was chattering; any information he gave her now would be hopelessly mangled.
“Oh.”She absorbed this, following him almost fearlessly.She hadn’t been taught to step only where he did, or to send sonar-rings of numinous force through him to scan their surroundings.There was so much otherliraihad to teach her, but first they both had to survive this.
If they managed that miracle, finding another temple would be easy.
Past the archway was another short hall of undressed stone leading to yet another black, blank archway.If the place was active, there would be Sons on both sides, standing and sweeping guard, plus a fullliraiwith Liv, keeping her calm.The air would sing with pleasant tension, and maybe Erik would be drifting behind his potential, haunting her steps.
Literally.And waiting for the moment when he’d have to do the unforgivable.
She flinched a bare moment before the entire main structure shuddered, mutely protesting an invasion.The fucking unclean had made it to the temple, and while its residual blessing would be uncomfortable, it wouldn’t slow them down.
Not with valuable prey so close.
“I can’t see anything,” she whispered, and the dread in her voice was almost enough to break him.
He’d forgotten to hold some corpselight since she couldn’t see in the dark, and of course theoneiroswould be mute—she was only potential, notlirai, and the danger wasn’t close enough to make it flash.“There’s stairs,” he said, and decided he wouldn’t use the light.Blindness was terrifying, but seeing what he was about to do would be even worse.“A spiral, going down.Just keep holding my hand.”
“Sure.”Her tiny, jagged laugh held more panic than amusement.“This is a weird first date, Erik.Even for you.”
The pain in his chest wasn’t from the claw-spear; that was well-healed.It was allher.“Yeah, well, it’d be my first ever, so I’ll take your word for it.”
“Your first?Ever?”
“The Sons are taken young.Generally, straight from the orphanage.”His voice bounced off stone, fell into a deep well of overlapping echoes.“Stairs.There’s the first one… good.I know you can’t see, just hold onto me.Don’t let go.”
