Hesaya gave a solemn nod. One of the veiled individuals murmured something in Zal, and now Jacen understood. A deep cold flooded his veins.
“Naxal,” Seth repeated. “What does that mean?”
Jacen answered, “Devourer.”Another word which, in the Zal language, was deceptively simple. Taken literally, alone, it meanteateror perhapshunger.In context, though . . . He drew a long breath. “It meansworld-ender.”
Hesaya smiled grimly. “That’s the difference between your faith and mine, Brother Kheris. We do not pray for peace.”
Hesaya made them wait.
Jacen, Seth, Ogden, and Urien sat in a row along the cavern wall, while Nines dangled her feet off the pier. They watched the boats bobbing in the harbor as the four militiamen posted at the tunnel’s entrance watched them. The collective mood grew increasingly anxious and irritable.
There were a thousand things Jacen wanted to discuss—with Seth in particular—precious few of which he could actually say aloud. He imagined whatever judgment awaited him; in his mind’s eye, not unlike the day the Council had tried him for his role in Elyas’s fall. But these would not be his own Brothers and Sisters. They would be faceless strangers he had already once betrayed, beholden to a god he did not yet understand. His very life might have already slipped through his fingers. Atonement, for Jacen Kheris, might only come with death.
As the minutes ticked by, something tugged at the periphery of his senses. Not a human consciousness. This was much stranger, an impossibly dense amalgamation of extradimensional energy. It built until Jacen could no longer ignore it, and asked, “Whatisthat?” His voice echoed across the harbor.
“I sense it too,” said Nines.
“Probably the Gate,” said Ogden. “I can’t quite sense it from here, but I’ve been closer before. It takes time to acclimate.”
Seth massaged his temples. “Is that why I’ve had a headache since we docked?”
“Unlikely,” said Ogden. “You’re not a telepath. Perhaps you ought to drink some water.”
Before Seth could offer a sarcastic response, Nines blurted, “It feels like it does under the Cathedral. By the white door.”
She was right. That room with the strange heartbeat, where Ged had claimed the High Lord met the gods. It held aGate,a doorway through the Source, and Jacen had never realized itbecause he had not been taught what to look for. Legend held that only those who bore demons could pass through the Source unscathed.
“There’s a Gate in the White Cathedral,” Jacen mused, then frowned. “That one doesn’t leadhere,does it?”
“Of course not,” said Ogden. “Celes Lor’s Gate network is like a wheel. The hub is in the ruins of Zal Fel. Zivora is one spoke, and here is another. The Firstborn Empire is not aware of this particular spoke’s existence.”
“Seems incredibly risky to have a base here,” Seth opined.
“Not as much as you’d think,” said Urien. “Radiation levels and atmospheric conditions in the Scar make our surveillance instruments near-worthless.”
“Oh?” Jacen tried his utmost to assume the air of one mildly intrigued and not hopelessly baffled.
Seth had no such reservations. “Say that in Standard.”
“They won’t find the Gate,” said Ogden. “Spokes lead only to the hub, and to travel anywhere at all from the hub, one needs to have physically been there. Otherwise, their demons cannot know the path through the Source.”
Seth considered that. “Can’t they search the Source?”
“It doesn’t work that way,” Jacen muttered. “Space and time are meaningless in the Source.”
If anything, that frustrated Seth more. He stood and began to pace down the pier.
“Where do you think you’re going?” a militiaman called.
“To take a piss,” Seth said, without looking back. “Or would you prefer I do it here?”
They let him be. Jacen struggled to do the same. Seth was a creature of logic, prone to disliking things that did not operate as such. The Source was a prime example, not to mention everything else afoot. Likely, he needed a moment or two alone.
Once Seth had disappeared around the riverbend, Nines turned toward Jacen. At first, her uncharacteristic insistence on eye contact confused him, but then he realized she wanted to talk. He offered a slight nod as he opened his mind to her.
There’s something else,she said.Can you sense it?
Jacen cleared his mind and reached past the Gate. In the distance, he perceived the denizens of the Shrouded City—thousands of them. He couldn’t make sense of the cacophony. He didn’t have anywhere near that sort of range and was about to tell Nines as much, but . . .
