Page 127 of Requiem of Silence

Candlelight flickers ahead. You enter a chamber honeycombed with cubbies meant to hold bodies. Many are empty but some contain shrouded remains. This is where the maze intensifies into an arcane nest of passageways. You make a mental map of the turns you take, rushing to beat the invisible clock ticking away what could be the last moments of your life. But the risk is worth it.

The ground slopes downward and the next doorway leads to a natural cave barely illuminated by a winking glow. You step through to find Nikora standing in profile, the jar cradled to her chest in one arm, a candle burned down to a nub in the other hand. She stands a dozen paces away; just behind her the ground drops off. The sound of a stream trickles, but you can’t tell from your position just how far down it is.

The only exit to this cave is behind you, leading back to the catacombs. You spread your arms apart, affecting a harmless demeanor. “Please tell me you know a way out of here.”

She spins around, eyes dancing madly. “This is an attack. The rebels within the Physicks destroyed the Great Machine and nowthey would destroy Saint Dahlia’s ancestral home.” She spits out the words. A sheen of sweat coats her skin.

You approach slowly. “Will you not fight? Protect your people?”

She laughs, eyes wide and unstable. “This is the only thing that matters.” She squeezes the jar to her more tightly. “Dahlia’s flesh must be protected at all costs.”

“Let me help you protect the flesh,” you say, stepping closer.

“Stay back!” Her body begins to vibrate with madness or fear—you’re not sure and don’t care.

“We are allies,” you coo. “The flesh is just as important to me as it is to you.”

She backs closer to the ledge, her grasp on the jar never loosening. “You are a trickster. You think I do not know what you are, that I can’t see the truth in your cold, dead eyes.True Father.” She laughs. “True Deceiver is more like it.”

You take another step. She retreats to the very edge of the ledge. Now you see that the drop is significant. A glint from the stream shows it must be fifty paces down. Far enough to kill? The blood spell prevents you from harming her directly.

“Give me the jar. I will protect Dahlia’s flesh—I vow it.” You place a hand over your heart, gird yourself for the pain, and reach for the jar.

She does what you expect. Leaps away, dropping the candle to embrace the jar with both hands. Her feet slide right off the stone and there is a long moment where she struggles for footing. And then she falls.

A splash sounds when her body hits the stream, followed by silence.

The wound on your arm begins to knit itself.

You hope the jar has not broken. It will be incredibly disgusting to have to touch the flesh of the dead goddess with your barehands. You will need to use some of Nikora’s clothing to bundle it up.

You kneel in the darkness and feel for the sharp stone corner of the ledge. Running the back of your hand across it opens up a gash. Blood wells on your skin. You swipe your index finger through it and touch it to your tongue.

The taste of copper and power fills you.

Your laughter echoes across the cavern even as explosions start to sound above.

CHAPTER FORTY-SIX

Pride bolsters the spine and shreds the mind,

restoring dignity,

erasing community.

If not in service to unity

it does not serve at all.

—THE HARMONY OF BEING

The room in which Zeli stood was wide enough for the base of the obelisk, but not much wider. The pillar itself looked much like the one in the center of Gilmer’s Archives, but instead of a rich bloodred, this one was a pale rose quartz. As if the color had faded in the many years since it had last been seen.

She also had no sense of its relative size. She hadn’t been this close to Gilmer’s monolith, and the tiny, truncated room here meant she couldn’t back up to get a good look at the thing. Upclose, the four sides of the stone were perfectly smooth. Lanterns did nothing to penetrate the opaque surface but if it was truly a caldera, something must be trapped inside.

Whoever had closed this up had obviously not intended to leave space for even three people to stand here gawking up at it the way she, Varten, and Darvyn now were. All of them were exhausted, having been up all night due to the wraith attack.

She didn’t know where Darvyn had been stationed during the assault—Zeli had been in one of the palace ballrooms, protecting as many of the gathered staff and residents as she could with her Song. In the aftermath, when she’d located Darvyn and asked for his help, his Song hadn’t been drained and the Shadowfox had been able to easily break through the bricks and reveal the treasure held within. But now that they’d found it, she didn’t know what to do with it.

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