It is beautiful,I breathed.
It is unnatural.
Isanara punctuated her observation with a headbutt to my rear end. She did not need to speak for me to receive the message. She was right. The beauty was likely just a trick and possibly another part of Pava’s test—whatever it was.
I kept my feet moving along the path. It curved left and then right in wide, unhurried arcs. But as I turned the next time, I stumbled again. Isanara caught me, of course.
Watch where you?—
Hush.
She did, with a silent growl into my mind. But I hardly heard it. And the woman ahead of me certainly had not.
We were not alone.
A woman walked ahead of me.
There was no one else in the tunnel. She must have heard us tromping along, but she did not turn around. Even though I stopped, she kept walking. I moved immediately, Isanara at my heels.
There was something vaguely familiar about the woman’s shape, but it was difficult to tell in the shadowy cave with only the glowing blue and green stalactites for light. I kept my distance at first. She might have claws and a gaping maw, waiting to tear me to bits. Not very peaceful. But then, when had the gods been anything like I expected?
A minute later, the path split and veered off in two different directions. I had a choice to make. Follow the woman, or not.
Of course I had to follow her. There was no reason for Pava to show me an apparition if I wasn’t meant to interact with it. Battle it if I had to or… talk to it? Thus far, only the Mercy Gate had required a physical component. The rest of the Seven Gates had been challenges of the mind.
A familiar dread began to take hold in my stomach.
I needed to catch up to the woman. But no matter how fast I walked—or jogged, ugh—the figure was always the same distance ahead.
The blue-green light reflected the strands of silver in her hair, but what remained of its original color was brown. The shape of her hips, the easy grace with which she carried herself…
I had to see. I broke into a run. I heard Isanara’s chuff of frustration behind me. She couldn’t keep up, not in the tight confines of the tunnel. But it didn’t matter. I was not in danger, but I needed to see the woman’s face.
But I… couldn’t… reach her. I stumbled to a stop, bracing my palms on my knees. Garrick had worked hard to build up my stamina, but I could not sprint long enough or fast enough to reach her. That was part of Pava’s test. I had to name the woman ahead of me if I wanted to speak to her.
I knew who it was.
Of course, I did. She had lived in my memory for four centuries. Everything I had done, every choice I had made, had been in penance.
I dragged air into my chest, gulp after gulp. She continued to walk, but she would not disappear. That would be too easy. And nothing about this was going to be easy.
Finally, with Isanara once again behind me, I pressed myself up to stand. The air it took to say her name dragged against my insides like a knife.
“Rylynn.”
The woman stopped. She turned, slowly. She was many yards ahead, but her features were clear. Beautiful, as she had always been.
I reached out for the walls, afraid my knees would give out beneath me. Isanara was there.
Oh gods. No.
Oh… gods. I had nothing else. There were no other words.
“Hello, little sister.”
CHAPTER 37
KORYN
