Page 119 of Lost and Stolen Gods
He sighed. “This is my fault. I have been selfish. Taking when I cannot give.”
I didn’t want to talk about this right now. About us or a lack thereof. “Let’s just focus on the mission and getting these people to safety.”
“Spoken like a true demigod.”
I finished off the bar he’d given me.
“I see it,” Araz said. “The town is in sight.”
“The benefits of being tall, eh?”
He grasped my waist and lifted me up. “Better?”
Gray and white stone jutted up against the night sky like the bones of a dead civilization, but it was difficult to take much in when my focus kept drifting to the feel of his hands on me. “I see it. Thanks.”
He set me back on my feet, hands lingering on my waist for a little longer than necessary before releasing me.
Our convoy sped up.
The first half of the stretch was almost over.
We setup camp in what was once a house of worship to the gods. White stone pillars supported a domed ceiling etched with images that were too faded to make out. Nature had reclaimed the cracked marble floor so that it was now a blanket of moss and blooms with only the edge of a tile peeking out here and there. An empty altar sat in the center, and the chains that had once held huge brass bells hung limply from the ceiling.
The whole town was the same, broken, desecrated, abandoned, but there was evidence of beauty everywhere—in the gently arched peaks of empty windows and the intricate carvings on the walls of buildings.
This had been a gorgeous town once. Before the war.
We built campfires to keep the people warm, and food was handed out—dried meats, bread, and nuts. There were six children in total, the oldest fifteen and the youngest, Viki, at five years old. We made beds for them in the center of the temple, close to the broken altar.
Silence fell soon enough as the humans fell asleep. The drohi and elite teams drifted off to take posts around the temple, leaving us potentials to make camp with the humans.
Pashim lingered a moment, and I got the impression he wanted to speak with me, but Guru Mihir summoned him, and he left with the others.
The potentials and I picked a camping spotbetween the children and the adult sleep area. It was easier to watch over both that way, although from the sounds of the snoring, it was unlikely that we’d have much to deal with till dawn.
“They’re exhausted.” Dharma passed me a canteen of water. “Chaya says it’s dipping moon time. She says if we leave at dawn, we should reach the new settlement by the end of dipping sun.”
“Imagine living like this,” Joe said. “You have the whole world, but…you don’t. The monsters own it.”
“I guess that’s why we’re here. To make it safer,” Priti said.
I took a swig of water and handed it to Joe. “Yeah, but they’ve been trying to make it safer for centuries. They need to kill this devouring force or whatever. There must be a way.”
“I’m sure if there was, they would have used it by now,” Joe said.
“They had a way, but it was destroyed,” Dharma said.
Oh yeah. “That Vajra thing.”
“What’s that?” Joe asked.
Dharma and I filled him in on our visit with sage Bhoomika and what we’d learned.
“So this thing they’re fighting…the thingwe’regoing to be fighting has existed for like…forever?”
“It sounds like it,” Dharma said.
“But everything must start somewhere,” Priti said. “Be born somehow, and nothing is invincible. It must have a weakness.”
