by Rin Chupeco
We dropped to our knees a few feet behind them, caked in sweat and exhausted beyond measure. Lan was by Vanya’s side in moments, checking the unconscious boy for signs of life.
“Is he dead?” Lisette asked, pale and tight-lipped.
“He’s breathing, but he’s ingested some of the poison.” Lan pushed down on the boy’s chest, and I watched as Aether patterns entered his body, slid down the length of him. “Turn him over to one side,” she commanded, and the Addax clan mistress complied, rolling him toward her. Almost immediately Lord Vanya’s eyes flew open and he began to choke, coughing up huge globs of silver liquid. Lan pounded him on the back for a few minutes until he stopped gagging, then forced him up into a sitting position. “I think I’ve gotten everything out,” she pronounced.
“One of you should bring him back,” Lisette insisted. “He’ll be useless here. Surely the other clans can—”
“No,” Vanya said, still coughing. “I’m not heading back.”
“You oaf! You’re in no shape to—”
“Lady Lan said she got everything out, didn’t she?”
“It doesn’t matter,” Arjun said heavily. “We don’t have time to bring him back.”
“You’re heartless,” Lisette accused.
“I’m not leaving,” Vanya said stubbornly, still the color of candle wax.
“My apologies for interrupting, ladies and gentlemen,” Noelle said quietly. “But we must focus on the present if we all are to get out of here alive. It appears to me that this statue hides another entrance.”
“Haidee. Odessa. Can either of you sense what’s behind it?” Lan had moved on to Sonfei. The large man barely winced as he sent sharp Air cutting through the arrow, as close to the skin as was possible, and hissed softly when my Catseye pulled it out in one quick movement.
Haidee and I were reaching out for each other before I’d even realized it; Haidee’s other hand was pressed against the cave wall, while mine was braced on the stone beneath us. As one, our minds burrowed through the strange limestone rocks, toward the faint pulsing we could detect behind the stone face—only to come upon a strange resistance, preventing us from going further.
“There’s some odd incanta shielding whatever it is behind this statue,” Haidee said. “We can’t break through.”
“There are two holes on either side of the stone woman,” Noelle observed. “There are dark stains around each opening. It could possibly be old blood. I’d advise caution.”
“I’m not going to stick my hand in there,” Arjun muttered. “I don’t have any left to spare.”
“There are two holes,” I pointed out, already angling toward the one on the right.
Lan grabbed my arm. “What are you doing?”
“I would have thought it obvious.”
“Odessa—”
“I can do this.”
Lan paused and nodded. “I’m staying beside you, just in case,” she threatened.
I grinned, because that was exactly what I’d expected her to do. “Of course you will. Haidee?”
“I’m ready when you are.”
“Haidee—” Arjun began.
“Trust us?”
The boy exhaled. “Yeah. Always.”
Despite our confidence, I could sense the same worry I felt emanating from my twin sister as we both approached. I let my terra-gates flare, let the patterns wrap around my hand and arm, shaping them into the hardest barrier I could manage, and could feel Haidee doing the same. We both took a deep breath at the same moment.
“Ready?” Haidee asked me.
“Yeah. One—”
“Two—”
“Three!”
We both plunged our hands in, and I steeled myself for anything, including pain. I felt something shift behind the stone, a strange pressure building up and then slamming down on our Stonebreaker-protected fists, but I didn’t feel so much as a sting.
A light shone out of the carved woman’s eyes, that shade of blue I had come to hate. There was a faint whirring and a click, like something had locked into place—or like something had been unlatched from the inside.
And then, with a heavy, grating noise, the stone face slowly swung inward.
Chapter Twenty
Haidee and the Stone
WHAT I SAW INSIDE TOOK my breath away.
We found ourselves within a large expanse of cavern—much bigger than the passageway we had just gone through. It was a few hundred feet high, almost as tall as the Citadel. But the immensity of this hidden chamber was not the most surprising thing about it.
The cave was filled to the brim with glittering treasure. Chalices and jewels carpeted the floor, and stacks of coins several feet high were piled against the walls. They were all dusted with a bright red powder that did little to diminish their shine. I was used to the opulent displays of gold in Mother’s throne room at the Citadel, but they were nowhere this impressive. They were dazzling to the eyes, intimidating in their richness.
“Amazing,” Lisette breathed, her eyes round with stunned delight. She took a step toward the the nearest chest.
“Red with the blood of treasures,” Arjun muttered.
I crouched down to peer more closely at the red gold. I’d never seen this kind of substance before, wondered if I could get a sample to study once we returned.
“Wait!” Lan warned sharply before I could reach my hand out. “Don’t touch anything!”
“But . . .” Lisette cast a yearning glance at the gems littered around us.
“I’ve read enough medical treatises to recognize cinnabar. It’s toxic to the touch, and even a whiff of it can be poisonous. Tread carefully and try not to breathe in too deeply. I can purge it from your body if necessary, but let’s not get to that point.”
“Right,” Lord Vanya agreed with a shudder.
“There are enough riches here to fund several large cities for years,” Sonfei said. “Why would anyone be going through all this trouble to coat them with such foulness?”
“Whoever did this could afford to waste all this gold.” Noelle carefully prodded at a coin with her foot. “This was created as a warning.”
“I don’t think most people know what cinnabar is,” Lan said. “They wouldn’t know not to attempt to steal these.”
The steward nodded. “I know. The cinnabar is punishment for any would-be robbers, but I also think this treasure is here as camouflage. Someone wants us to focus on the gold, and not on whatever it is they’re distracting us from. There’s a smaller alcove up ahead. Let us hope the air is less toxic than it probably is here.”
The smaller enclave we stepped into was bare, and fortunately absent of any more of the cinnabar powder. A small altar stood at its farthest wall.
“No telling what other traps lie in wait here.” Arjun’s flames glowed brighter as he turned to examine the walls.
As one, Odessa and I dropped to the floor, placing our hands on the surface and letting terra patterns spread out underneath us as we probed for hints to what lay underneath. “There’s something strange by that altar,” Odessa finally said, frowning.
“Another barrier,” I grumbled, none too pleased. Whoever had constructed this place hadn’t made it easy for even us goddesses to solve its mysteries. But why? “We can’t seem to penetrate that, either.”
“Let’s stay clear for now, then. Look.” Arjun raised his arm higher. “There’s writing here.”
It was an understatement. As it turned out, carved text dominated the cave walls, accompanied by large-scale drawings. I focused on the first of them, which depicted a youth being pulled down a dark hole by shadowy hands, his arms raised beseechingly toward a woman. The latter, garbed in ceremonial robes, was reaching out desperately toward him. The colors had faded over time, but there was no mistaking the hues of her hair.
“Inanna,” Odessa gasped. “And her beloved.”
Arjun moved to reveal the next illustration: now there were two girls with the same multitoned hair, opening a
portal before a monument that looked eerily similar to the one at Brighthenge. “Twins?” he questioned. “Are these Inanna’s daughters?”
“No,” Lord Vanya said, reading the text underneath the first painting, etched into the hard rock. His eyes glittered with excitement. “This is written in old Aeona. I can interpret it for everyone—” Without waiting, he began:
“‘A demoness is only a goddess
That men cannot control;
They could not control us.
And lo! She pays for my sins.’”
He moved to where Arjun stood, underneath the twins, still translating.
“‘My sister, who loved me dearly.
We descended to the world below
To steal immortality from the Cruel Throne
And return my beloved to me.’”
“What sister?” Arjun asked, but nothing could stop Vanya at this point.
“‘Seven gates we traveled through,
Our Devoted guarded every doorway
A radiance at every door, the price for passage
Accept this gift, I said, and grant us entrance.’”
“A radiance,” Odessa echoed, staring at another depiction of the goddesses, the two girls passing through seven arches. People I assumed were their Devoted were stationed at every archway, their weapons raised and ready, facing strange galla with blue jewels fused to their bodies. Odessa took one look at them and shuddered.
The next work repulsed me, though I couldn’t explain why. The goddesses now faced a gigantic, nameless void. The artist was a master at their craft; the demon the twins confronted had neither shape nor symmetry, and was an inky, indescribable abstraction. But something in that absolute blackness made me suddenly afraid.
“‘The last gate demanded no gifts
Instead, it led us to the foot of
a decayed throne
a decayed horror
Within the kingdom, it waited
It sent fires, and we overcame
It sent pestilence, and we overcame
It sent demons, and we overcame’”
The next painting made us all gasp. One of the goddesses was being overwhelmed by shadows with twisted talons and horrendous maws. Her mouth was open, her arm reaching back as if to beg her sister, but the other goddess was running away, not even looking back.
“‘And finally, there lay a jewel
shining on a throne
You may take this immortality, It said,
but for a price.
The price was my sister.
The price was my sister,
and I took the stone,
and fled.’”
“Inanna has a sister?” Arjun growled. “Are you translating this accurately?”
“I know what I’m reading,” Vanya said, in no mood to be lectured at.
“‘I repented; but, as with all gates, what was once
opened to two, remains forever shut to one;
The Cruel Kingdom, fat and heavy with my sister’s soul
Brought Aeon to blossom as her brideprice.
“There is a hole inside me
where my sister’s love used to be.’”
Odessa gasped, a hand fluttering to her own chest.
The next painting depicted the goddess on her knees and weeping, while the world behind her flourished and people celebrated.
“‘Let the bravest of my daughters
return this stone to that spiteful Kingdom;
Place immortality into Its heart
and bring her the freedom and peace I could not;
And may they learn to love
their sisters better
A demoness is only a goddess
That men cannot control;
Remember Inanna and Ereshkigal
When you rule your kingdom.
A half-life is better than
No life at all.’”
“This was the answer all along,” I whispered. Inanna and Ereshkigal had originally sought out immortality, at the cost of Ereshkigal’s life. Unable to access the kingdom again without her, Inanna had written this strange riddle, hoping one of her descendants could finish what she couldn’t. Here lay the reason the people of Aeon had been killing their goddesses almost from the very beginning. The Devoted then had come close to losing both goddesses to the Cruel Kingdom, and they were resolved never to do so again. Sacrificing one was infinitely better than losing two.
Odessa and I stared at each other, awed. We should have known Inanna had also been a twin. Why hadn’t that ever crossed our minds? Why did we think Inanna would be any different from us? It felt right, that she would be just the same as us.
“Inanna had a sister,” Lan said, stunned. “In hindsight, we should have realized. . . .”
But I was already a step ahead. “The shadow wasn’t Inanna, either,” I said weakly, and saw Lan’s face turn from shock to horror once she realized what I meant. “It was Ereshkigal.” Of course. Why would Inanna implore us to save her sister, and then return as a terrifying demon to stop us from doing exactly that?
“And because of the sisters,” Odessa said softly, “one goddess from every generation since has been sacrificed.”
“But why didn’t she just return and save her twin, if she regretted it?” Lisette asked.
“‘But, as with all gates,’” Noelle quoted, “‘what was once opened to two, remains forever shut to one.’ Sounds like you need two goddesses to open any portals into the Cruel Kingdom. She wanted to return. But with her sister lost below, that was no longer possible.”
“And so the people discovered how to bring prosperity back to Aeon,” Lan said darkly.
“How cruel,” Oda muttered. “They treated their goddesses like cattle, fattening them up for slaughter.”
“So it’s true?” The anguished cry came from Odessa. “That’s all they wanted? Rather than do the work to keep Aeon fruitful and flourishing, it was easier to kill us instead?”
I hugged her, sharing a worried look with Lan. If not even Inanna could undo sacrificing her sister, then what hope did we have of avoiding the same fate?
No. There had to be another way.
“Someone better tell me what ‘Place immortality into Its heart’ means,” Lisette demanded. “Is Inanna buried here?”
“I doubt that this shrine would be booby trapped only to protect paintings on walls. Inanna would have wanted her descendants to know about this.” This was our whole history laid bare before us. They called Brighthenge our temple, but this small and forgotten grotto was our true link to our first ancestress, personal and private and tragic. She was a goddess, but in this nameless shrine she was human, with faults and regrets just like the rest of us.
“Maybe,” Sonfei said grimly, “whatever is hidden here is more important to protect than even the truth.”
“I suspect it’s got something to do with that altar over there.” Arjun glared at it. Fire sparked along his fingers. “Let me try some fire incanta on it.”
“You absolutely will not!” I barked. I could still feel that strange barrier emanating from it. “What makes you think that will even work?”
“You needed mastery of a water-gate to enter the shrine, and air-gates to pass through that river of quicksilver. You used Stonebreaker barriers to clear the third trap, and that requires terra-gates. I’d say you need a Catseye and therefore an aether-gate on hand too, to protect against the cinnabar. Whatever’s going on with that altar, I know it’s going to require fire-gates.”
I hated that he had a point. “Odessa and I can use fire incanta, too, so I don’t see why the responsibility should fall solely on you.”
He flashed me a cocky grin. “Because I’m expendable. And I’m not trying to sound arrogant, but if we need a fire expert, that’s me.”
“He be right,” Sonfei said. “The deathworms go crazy with desire over him.” His two fellow Liangzhu murmured their agreement.
“You’re not helping me, Sonfei.” Arjun crouched
down, staring intently at the altar.
“What are you doing?” Lisette asked.
“Waiting. With Fire patterns, there’s always something that gives them away, no matter how well a trap is hidden. Some shift in the air that tells me there’s a spark lying in wait, or heat I can sense in a place where it shouldn’t be.” His eyes narrowed, before a smile suddenly flitted across his handsome face. “Ha. Found it.”
“Wait!” I yelled when he began walking toward the altar. I hurried after him. “There may be other—”
The sudden conflagration knocked me off my feet. Flames erupted around the altar, abruptly hiding Arjun from view. I screamed and scrambled forward, but my fears were unfounded. Arjun’s blue fire spiraled out from the burning floor, and he emerged, coughing slightly. He raised an arm toward what remained of the flames, concentrated, and the rest died down just as quickly. “Flammable air,” he confessed, waving away the smoke. “I’ve encountered natural pockets of it in the desert before, though they don’t make it to the surface often. There must be some hidden contraption here that spews it out. If it spreads too far it could bring the whole place down, so I ignited what I could find, cleared it out in one go—”
He grunted when I nearly knocked him over, gluing my mouth to his. “I want to throttle you!” I squeaked, my pitch climbing with my frustration. “Through our entire trek to the Great Abyss, you were constantly on my ass about thinking before I acted, about never knowing the dangers, about not getting into more boring overly complicated technical details because you can barely follow them, and now you . . . !”
With a laugh, he kissed me back. “You must be rubbing off on me. One of us had to risk it, and I was the best bet. I won’t do anything rash now, if you’d like.”
“I would very much like,” I snapped fiercely, and then kissed him again.
“It’s not over yet,” Lan cautioned, approaching the altar much more slowly than Arjun had, because unlike him she was actually competent and more considerate of Odessa than he was of me. She pointed. “I knew it couldn’t be that easy.”