Page 37 of Skyshade
Silence. There were only her ragged breath and heartbeat and the waterfall beating against the pool to mark seconds in the night.
Then the curtain of water parted, and the augur stepped through.
Isla stilled. The augur had smooth skin, as pale as the curve of the moon, covered in dark markings as thin and delicate as the weaves of a spiderweb. They glimmered mysteriously, like the ink had been melted straight from a starless night. His eyes were dark crimson voids. He didn’t have a nose—just a hole where it should be, a skull clear of its cartilage. He was tall and wore the same robes as the prophet-followers, without the hood.
“What do you do with the blood?” It wasn’t her most important question, but the words spilled out of her as she watched him pluck her sword from the ground. He eyed the hearts appraisingly. Hungrily.
“I’ll show you.” He motioned with his chin toward the waterfall.
She had worked days to get to this point, but now she looked at the entrance to the cave and wondered if she was making a grave mistake—if Eta had tricked her. She had no powers; only daggers and her snake. She had never encountered a being with bloodred eyes before.
As if sensing her hesitance, the augur said, “You’re scared. Good. You should be afraid, Isla Snake-queen. You should be terrified of everything that makes up this wretched land.”
He stepped over the pool separating her from the cave and passed through the waterfall.
She followed him.
Water hit her for a moment, soaking the crown of her head, and then—darkness. The cave was carved from smooth black rock. She walked blindly forward, following the white flash of the augur’s robes and the high-pitched scrape of her heart-laced sword he dragged behind him.
Soon, there was a light, the faint twinkling of sparkling rocks embedded in the ceiling like a cluster of stars. Beneath it sat a shimmering pool.
A pool of blood.
Isla stopped short. Her hand crept toward her throat. One pull of her necklace and Grim would be there; she knew that. But then he would know she had sought the augur. He might start to listen to those rumors about his traitorous bride.
The augur looked amused. “I do not fear the ruler,” he said, as if knowing the significance of the necklace. “He should fear me, as I know the properties of blood. Blood tells such secrets, doesn’t it?”
His gaze never leaving hers, he slowly removed the first heart from her blade, held it in his hand above the pool—and squeezed.
There was a ring on his thumb adorned with a blade curved like a talon on its underside, and he used it to cut through the tissue. He pressed harder. Harder.
She watched him drain the heart of every drop of blood, the red liquid sputtering from between his fingers until he threw the spent organ behind him, to a corner of the cave. Creatures chittered there, fighting over the pieces. She swallowed the bile building in her throat.
The augur looked over at her as he did the same thing to the second heart. Then the third. He looked amused.
“Your people have done far worse to hearts,” he said, his fist tightening for the fourth time.
“They did it because of a curse,” she responded, forcing herself to watch. “They did not relish it.” She wouldn’t shy from her actions anymore. If this was the price required for the information she needed, so be it. “You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Right. What I do with the blood.” He threw the last of the hearts to the corner, where a mound of insects with a tangle of legs had gathered.
He handed back her bloody sword. She took its hilt with tentative fingers. Then he made his way toward what looked like stone steps leading into the pool. At the top of the first one, he turned toward her. Extended his hand.
The augur raised a brow when she didn’t immediately take it. “You want answers...yes?”
Yes.
But she needed to know he could give her the answer she needed. “Can you tell me how long I have to live?”
He nodded.
She swallowed down her disgust and bent to release the snake onto the rock. It slithered and curled, head raised, as if pleading with Isla to reconsider. Still, she stepped forward. Took the augur’s hand. It was spindly; his bones protruded through his skin. His grasp was cold as the cave itself. Together, they walked down the steps.
Blood. She had seen it before, had felt it on her skin, but not like this. It was thicker than water, noticeably so, and rippled only slightly as she moved through it. First, it was at her knees, then her hips, and then her ribs, and she fought the urge to retch. The scent of metal prickled her nose; there was something else in the air.
“You feel it, don’t you?” The augur said, watching her far too closely. “Power...it’s in the blood, you see.”
Blood is power. The past whispered the words, and the memory of her and Oro sank its teeth into her before she could shake it away.
