by Rin Chupeco
It sounded promising, at least. “And what of the other shrine?”
“Cross the circle of dead,” Vanya began, reading from the book again:
“‘Where endless rock follows endless sand.
Where blue shines brightest; let it show you the way
to where Ereshkigal’s temple waits within.
Take water from where your eyes cannot see—’”
“I understand nothing about this,” Lisette interrupted. “What’s an Ereshkigal? Is that the name of Inanna’s lost love?”
But Arjun had gone even paler. “Cross the circle of dead,” he repeated. “My—the mirage said that. And something about a room, red with the blood of treasures.”
He sat down heavily on the ground, hands fisted in his hair as he squeezed his eyes shut, agonized. “What the hell did it say again? A temple. ‘The answers to life and death lie within the stone.’ And other things. ‘The stone will light your path. The stone will show you the way. But first—’” And then, abruptly, he fell silent.
“Arjun?” I sat in front of him, placing my hands on his knees and waiting for him to finish.
“That’s it. That’s all I can remember.” A pause. “Where is Faraji?”
“They’re . . . bathing him,” I said softly, tentatively, not sure how I should phrase it. “Your brothers and sisters are attending to him.” I didn’t want to hurt him more than he already was. The other clans were treating him coldly because he’d defended us ever since we’d arrived, like he was to blame for our presence. I could understand their distrust of me and Odessa, but Arjun was one of them. He didn’t deserve their anger.
It wasn’t fair. It wasn’t fair.
His head dropped. His thumb stroked at the side of my hand. “What the hell does all this mean?”
“I don’t know,” Mother Salla said softly. Her own eyes were red-rimmed. Only an hour ago she had thrown herself across Faraji’s body and cried. I’d watched her adopted children gather around her, grieving, and stepped outside, unable to bear their agony.
“These mirages . . .” Odessa bit her lip. “They seem to have more agency than . . . those I’ve raised from the dead. What if there’s something out there sustaining them? Something we can’t see, at least at first glance?”
“A temple?” Lisette asked dubiously. “You think this poem is saying there’s a temple out there that we don’t know about?”
“‘Endless rock follows endless sand.’ Do any of the clans know a place like that?”
Tamera frowned, scrutinizing the ground. “Yes. We’ve taken cursory patrols there, but I’ve always warned my people never to stay long. The area is full of rocks in that part of the coast; not even the hardiest scorpion or insect could thrive there. On the two or three occasions I’ve roamed the area, I’ve seen derelict ruins, crumbling structures fallen beyond repair. None of them ever resembled a temple to me.”
“Clan Addax are settlers more than nomads like the others,” Lisette said. “But I heard stories of that part of the coast from the clans who’d visit us. It’s the hottest and driest part of the desert.”
“My experience is the same,” Lars confirmed, and a few of the other elders also murmured their agreement. “There is nothing of value in that region. We never lingered long.”
“So no one’s ever seen this supposed temple?” Noelle asked. No one answered. “For all we know, it could have been destroyed during the Breaking.”
“How sure are you that it’s a temple?” Lisette asked Vanya.
“The topography could have changed by now, of course. It will require exploring the area in person.”
“What guarantee do we have?” Lisette asked.
“This is all speculation, so I can only make a hypothesis on—”
“That’s not what I mean. Forgive me for still being skeptical, but I still don’t know if I believe a Golden City lordling would willingly leave his comfortable life to betray his father. It sounds more feasible that the same lordling, who has never shown an inclination to get out from under his father’s thumb until now, is doing Arrenley’s bidding to mislead us, sending us to comb through a dangerous part of the coast as a distraction.”
“Lisette!” I cried.
“It’s my life on the line too, as well as those of my clan. He ought to offer us more proof beyond just claiming that he wants to do the right thing.”
“But it’s not fair to—”
“No, Your Holiness,” Vanya responded hotly. “Let me answer her. What’s wrong with wanting to do the right thing? Regardless of what Lady Haidee feels about the matter, it is my duty to see to her safety!”
“Oh, really?” Lisette sneered. “All this for love? I don’t believe that.”
“Maybe you can’t because you’ve never cared deeply for another person in your life.”
Lisette’s eyes widened, anger standing out on her face, but before she could respond I intervened. “There’s more to it than just Vanya’s word.”
“I won’t stand here,” Vanya sputtered, “and allow you all to blacken my—”
“I’m on your side, you lout. Remember what you said about this book back at the Citadel? You said your father guarded it so closely that even Mother wasn’t aware of it. How did you know that?”
The boy paused, considering. “The volume was in his study once, when Her Holiness paid us a visit. I saw him deliberately take the book from his shelves and hide it in a drawer before she entered. He never said anything to me about it, but it made me wonder about the book, why he’d been so keen not to let her see it.”
“Have you ever known your father to have taken expeditions out into the desert?”
“Do you really think the lord disloyal enough to conduct his own investigations without his liege’s knowledge?” Mother Salla asked.
“I . . .” Vanya straightened his shoulders. “If you’re asking me based on what I know about my father, then yes. Father always wanted to rule the Golden City himself. That was why he was so invested in my engagement to Lady Haidee.”
“Are you suggesting that he’s been to this temple?” Noelle asked. “That he also interpreted the passages in this book, and knows where it’s located?”
“I don’t think so. If he’d found anything there, he would have acted on it.” Vanya turned to me, looking alarmed. “Are you going to tell your mother? I didn’t tell you this to strip my father of his position.”
“Mother won’t take very kindly to it. And quite frankly, your father’s not my favorite person right now.” Mother had always kept everyone at arm’s length, including her private council. Maybe that had led her to keep her distance from me, too, even if she didn’t realize it.
“Any landmarks that could lead us to this temple may be long gone themselves,” Giorme pointed out. “We could be searching for months.”
“Would Lord Sonfei and his people be familiar with some of these landmarks?” Noelle asked me.
“I don’t think so. Their territory lay beyond the Sand Sea.” I didn’t want to approach Sonfei yet. The poor man was deliberately keeping himself apart from the others following his confrontation with Asteria, and it was clear that he wanted to be left alone for now.
“Are there any other parts of the book that mention the Cruel Kingdom in any way?” Arjun asked.
“There’s the Corridor of Yearning.”
“The what?”
“The Corridor of Yearning, where those who had been greedy in life were encased in stone, with only their hands free to cling and entreat passersby to join them. And the Gorge of Wrath, where penitents who’d succumbed to rage were punished to fall forever.” Vanya caught Arjun’s blank stare. “The Cave of Realities? Sinners are tortured with their worst nightmares. Or the Sands of Punishment. And then, of course, there’s the Path of Regret, where you’re condemned to spend eternity with your greatest guilt, but I don’t know if that comes after the Corridor of Yearning or the Gorge of—”
“Hell and sandrock, Arrenley. Is this wha
t you think the afterlife is gonna be like for you? You’ve got some sick, twisted mind—”
“It’s supposed to be everyone’s afterlife! Goddesses may be able to enter the Cruel Kingdom, but mortal souls must endure several areas of hell before they can even reach the kingdom’s entrance. It’s what parents use to scare unruly children. You’ve never heard of the stories? My brothers and I learned them almost from the cradle. They’re why I initially dismissed the Ages of Aeon as a work of fiction.”
“I never had a cradle, much less bedtime stories,” Arjun said flatly.
The lordling looked suitably chastened. “Well, that’s all the book says about the Cruel Kingdom.”
“I have an idea.” Odessa had been quiet for most of the gathering, but now she stood.
“What do you have in mind?” Lan asked, rising to her feet as well.
“You said none of the clans are familiar with the area. But it seems to me that at least one clan has roamed most of the Skeleton Coast.”
We received hard stares from numerous clan members as we made our way to the other side of camp, and more mutterings trailed in our wake once they realized where we were headed. The initial awe many of them had felt for Odessa and I had long since been replaced by suspicion. I wasn’t sure I could blame them. I might have felt the same had I been in their place.
“A thousand curses on Janella,” Lan muttered. “She knew what she was doing.”
“I hope you know what you’re doing, Odessa,” Arjun said quietly. “Nobody’s in a good mood right now.”
The cannibals’ leader, the one with the ugly scar on his face, sat up as we approached. “Your Holiness,” he groveled.
“I could have let you burn till there was nothing left of you but ashes,” Odessa told him coolly. “All your life you roamed these deserts seeking food and pleasure, but now you will have purpose. Swear to obey my sister and me, and you will never need to hunger.”
The cannibal’s eyes flicked back and forth between us. Maybe he was waiting for me to side with her, or make a statement of my own.
“Disobey,” I added, hoping I sounded just as threatening. “Disobey, and I will kill you myself.” Lan was right. I had to trust Odessa.
Anyone else would have been afraid of such an ultimatum. But the Hellmaker’s eyes grew bright, the expression on his face adoring.
“You and your Saiga brothers know the desert better than anyone else here,” Odessa said. “There are questions I would like answered. In your wanderings, have you ever come across a small temple?”
There was a moment’s pause before the man shook his head.
“There is a section of the Skeleton Coast, I’m told, that is mainly of rock and hard sand. How well have you explored that area?”
He wet his lips. “Ground’s too hard for much, but you can find enough scorpions and lizards to feast on underneath the rocks if you look hard enough.”
“Anything that might resemble a circle of dead?”
A shudder went through him. “The ghosts?”
“What ghosts?”
“They stand there sometimes without moving, in a circle. We run when we see them. I don’t think they would taste like meat.”
My hopes lifted. Finally, a breakthrough. “Will you lead us to them?”
The cannibal stared back at me, and then let out a quick bark of laughter. “Do I have a choice? But I like you. I like her. She gave us food when others would kill us. My belly is full. We will lead you to the spot, and may the Good Mother help you with what you find there.”
“Swear it to me,” Odessa said. “Swear it to me this instant.”
“They’re not likely to uphold any of the oaths they make,” I warned.
“Because no one’s ever treated them like they could.” Odessa crouched down so she was eye-to-eye with the Hellmaker. “What’s your name?” she asked.
He trembled now, his arrogance disappearing. There was a sheer look of amazement on his face, like he couldn’t believe anyone had even asked. “I—” he faltered. “I don’t remember.”
“Before the dayspan is through, you shall all find yourselves names. You will then tell them to me. I want to know them.”
The knot on his throat moved up and down as he swallowed, then nodded.
“They’d never even given themselves names?” I heard Lord Vanya whisper behind me in disbelief.
I knew why. You didn’t name your food. Arjun teased me often about my penchant for name-giving, but there was a promise in every one I bestowed. I never named anything I ever wanted to harm. The Hellmakers couldn’t even guarantee that to their own brethren.
“I will swear. You make our stomachs full.” He saluted us with a clenched fist over his heart, and his subordinates followed.
“Tomorrow,” Noelle said.
I frowned. “We won’t have much time before the next attack.”
“I’m not sure we should set out now, given the circumstances.” Noelle’s tone was hushed, almost reverent. “Look at that.”
I stared. The sun was sinking behind the sandscape, fading into the next nightfall. But beneath it was another, even more stunning sight.
I saw the waves before I realized they were water. From a distance they glittered, as they washed through the terrain, stealing across sand and rock that had not known water for decades. The Sand Sea moved like this, the grains of sand so small and smooth they mimicked an actual sea.
But this wasn’t mimicry. This wasn’t sand.
There were shouts from the other clan members as they too poked their heads out of their tents to gape. As the bright ball of the sun gradually disappeared from view, a glitter of stars replaced it, shining down onto the waves.
“What is that?” Noelle asked.
“It’s water,” Lisette whispered. “The Salt Sea is returning.”
Chapter Seventeen
Arjun at Midnight
BOTH NOELLE AND MOTHER SALLA advised caution. The sea was still miles away, though clearly visible from where we stood. In what remained of the daylight, Tamera had sent some of her clan to gather water, though if the dead aspidochelone Haidee and I had found was any indication, the Salt Sea could still hold its share of monsters. But being in close proximity to so much water had eased some of the growing hostilities, and for now, that was good enough.
Tomorrow, after the sun rose, we’d be leaving this place. We’d be leaving the graves of Faraji and the many others who’d lost their lives in the last raid. Immie had wept throughout the short funeral, though my other brothers’ and sisters’ eyes were dry. “He wouldn’t have wanted us to be sad for him,” Kadmos said quietly, though his own eyes were hooded with sorrow.
I didn’t cry, either. Grief had hollowed out my chest. There was nothing left in me to weep.
“You can bring him back, can you?” a voice said, and I saw Immie approaching Odessa. “You said the galla’s gifts let you bring them back,” she begged. “You can do that, can’t you? Faraji believed in you. He thought you could save everyone. Can’t you do it for him? I won’t ask anything else from you, I swear!”
Odessa stared helplessly back at her. “I’m sorry. I—I shouldn’t. He won’t be the same person. He—”
“So? You’re the goddess! You’re supposed to watch over us. You’re supposed to keep us safe! So many people are dead now because they thought you could keep them safe!”
“Immie!” I shouted, but the girl was already running away. The rest of my siblings trailed after her, none of them looking back at either goddess.
“Haidee,” I began.
She shook her head sadly back at me and looped an arm under her twin sister’s. Later, she mouthed, pale eyes glistening as she steered the guilt-ridden Odessa away, Lan swiftly following after them.
I’d sat by Faraji’s mound after that, for as long as I could.
The clans had agreed to depart at first light. “If these day and night cycles continue as they are now, we’ll start seeing more lasting effects on the weather,”
Vanya explained. “As the colder winds shift back east, there’ll be more rainfall, which should replenish the Salt Sea and give rise to even more—”
“Why are you like this?” Lisette asked.
“I’m an avid student of history. I’ve read enough treatises from scientists of old to make a valid—”
“That’s not what I mean. How can you remain so positive even with”—the girl waved her hand to indicate the darkness surrounding us—“all this. Hell, Vanya, we just buried some of our people. Even in your well-defended city there were casualties.”
“I can’t do much about that, can I?” The lordling looked down at the pile of papers in his hands. “I’m sorry about the friends you lost today. I know I’ll grieve for any I’ve lost, should I ever return to the Golden City. I’m not like you. I’ve never been given much to do back home. I’ve never been considered important enough for most things. But I can actually be useful here. I can help change things. I know I can.”
“You’re a strange person, Vanya Arrenley,” Lisette said softly, her eyes unreadable. “Admirable. But strange, all the same.”
“Still feels like we’re taking a big risk for some prophecies we still don’t know are true,” I muttered, though I already knew the hypocrisy of my own words. I’d had less to go on when I first agreed to travel with Haidee. Still.
“We have all the confirmation we need,” Sonfei pointed out, gazing up at the stars blanketing the sky. They glinted down on us like diamonds, a wealth of light not even our earthly greed could corrupt. Sonfei was not quite over Asteria’s dismissal of him, but was trying to sound upbeat despite it. “You believe your mother’s words, and they be fitting the passages the Arrenley boy here has found. It is more than ample.”
“It’s not,” I snapped. Sonfei always had that uncanny habit of singling out exactly what was pissing me off.
He nodded sagely. “You don’t want to be responsible if it is a red herring, yes?”
“A what?”
“A red herring. It is a tasty little fish common in the waters before the Breaking. But in my time, it was also used to call something that may mislead others. And so you do not want to be a red herring.”