Tarrah nodded. “As long as you choose correctly.”
Reyna pressed her lips together and turned toward the pool. With a deep breath, she jumped. Her body went weightless as she soared through the air. She slid into the waters, but she did not feel a flicker of the same soothing chill she’d felt from the river. Instead, she felt a strange nothingness surround her as if she had jumped into an empty pit instead of a pool.
She fell. The pool stretched wide like an open maw as she hurtled past stone after stone after stone. Her heart flailed wildly inside of her as a scream built up in her throat. Time became meaningless as the darkness deepened into an impenetrable black. She could no longer see the hole above her. No light speared this terrible darkness. Suddenly, something yanked on her waist. The rope, slowing her fall.
She came to a sudden stop, her body jerked like a rag-doll. For a moment, she just hung there, swinging back and forth in the darkness. It was quiet down here. Too quiet. So quiet that she could hear nothing but the trembling breath on her own lips.
A voice boomed, making her lurch in the rope. “Reyna Darragh.”
The voice was endlessly deep and loud. It burned with power, every word dripping with pain and fear and death. She trembled, her hand twisting up to grab the rope. This was wrong. She shouldn’t have come here. Whatever this was, it wasn’t good. She could feel the darkness whisper across her skin.
“You came here for power, did you not? The power to stop the plague spreading across your kingdom’s dying lands.”
She stilled, her breath frosting before her. Suddenly, it was very cold. As cold as ice. Never before had she feared ice, but it terrified her now.
“I came here to find a power great enough to stop the Ruin,” she whispered to the voice.
“The Ruin?”
Fear stole through Reyna’s heart. The power did not know of the Ruin. And if it didn’t know, then it would not know how to fight it. She needed to get out of here.
But she tried one more time. “Yes, the Ruin. It’s a powerful dark magic destroying the kingdoms of Tir Na Nog. Ash falls from the skies, and—”
“The Ruin is whatyoucall it.”
Reyna’s heart pounded. “Does it have another name?”
“Many have seen the Ruin but few know the truth of it. Some have called it the Great Ash. Others have named it the Dionadair.”
“Then, you do know what it is,” she whispered, breathless.
“All of us in Inishfall know your Ruin. The Dionadair of Tir Na Nog.”
“Tell me,” Reyna said. “Please tell me how to stop it.”
“Onlyyoucan stop it, Reyna Darragh,” the voice rumbled. “But only if you choose well.”
Choose.Just like Tarrah had said.
“How?”
The rope at her waist suddenly unravelled. She broke free, and the pit beneath her stretched its maw wide. A scream ripped from her throat as she tumbled into darkness. She flailed, reaching up for the frayed edges of the rope, but her fingers found nothing but air.
Her heart thudded in her chest, and the scream died on her lips. The wind rushed up around her, death beckoning her further into the pit of the world. She had never been more scared in her life. The terror was the heartbeat racing in her chest, the frantic grasping for breath by her lungs. Reyna was going to die here. She would never get out. The power would swallow her whole.
The winds began to slow, and her feet hit the ground. Gently, she fell to her knees on moss as black as night. Another pool lay a few steps away, glistening from an indigo glow that came from within. She pressed her hand to her heart, trying and failing to catch her breath.
She reached for her dagger, but the voice broke through her thoughts. “You will not sow violence here.”
With a gasp, she dropped her hand. “Where am I?”
“You are in Inishfall, the birthplace of the gods.”
She swallowed hard, pushing up to her feet. “Are you a god?”
“Look into the pool. You will see two reflections before you. Two paths for your life. Two powers you may claim. Choose wisely, Reyna Darragh.”
“What am I choosing?” she whispered, taking a slow, timid step toward the pool.
