“Here we are,” Nimue said as we stood outside the smaller temple at the base of the main temple stairs.
I looked up at the face of the building. Stone skeletal figures had been carved all over the walls. They fought with swords and carried shields. Whole legions of the undead were depicted fighting the living. Similar images existed throughout the city. Stone skeletons seemed to be a common decorative fixture.
“The priests were much like the Druids of my time,” Nimue continued. “They were acolytes, and bards, and warriors. They had an understanding of music and the power of resonance. Sound, they discovered, was a fabulous killer,” Nimue told me as she pushed open the door. “But unlike my people, and yours, they also knew necromancy,” she added, glancing back at me.
A shiver went down my spine. Necromancy. Just beside the door was one of the stone skeletons. Carefully, I reached out to touch it. It had a stain of blood on its head.
Nimue slapped my hand away. “Careful. This place is not quite as dead as it seems.”
I stared into the empty eye sockets of the statue and got the eerie feeling that it was looking at me. I could feel its…disappointment. “Is it…what is it?”
“Sleeping,” Nimue said. “You’ve heard the stories, I am sure, of how the standing stones that dot our beloved isle were once giants dancing with ladies. The truth of that story is not far off. You are looking at a hint.”
I looked from Nimue to the skeleton and back to Nimue again. “Come on,” she said, leading me within. “I’ll explain later.”
We stepped over broken stones as we made our way inside. The left side of the building was completely burnt. Nimue led us down a hall on the right and into a large room. The front of the room near the widows had a raised stone platform. Stone benches, most of which had fallen over, faced the platform.
“This is where they used to perform music. See how the wall is open there?” she asked, pointing to the far right. “The townspeople, though not permitted to enter the temple, were allowed to come to the courtyard to hear the priests play and sing.”
Carefully, Nimue led me up some crumbling stone stairs to the second floor, where we found the priest’s chambers. Some of the bedrooms contained elaborately carved furniture that had begun to decay.
“You can’t reach the third floor anymore,” Nimue told me. “The stairwell was destroyed, but you can just spy the space from here,” she said, pointing to a hole in the ceiling.
I gazed upward to see an overturned trunk. Plaster and stone loosened from the third floor ceiling and dropped to the floor overhead. It stirred up a swirl of ash, making both me and Nimue cough.
“We’d better go. The building is not stable.” Nimue said, turning quickly.
As I turned to join her, I spotted something on the floor overhead. It was sitting just at the edge of the hole in the second floor ceiling.
“Wait,” I said. “There, do you see that?” I asked her. I took a few steps to the side to get a better look. There, at the very edge of the hole, was a small silver box. “A box.”
“Probably just an old stone, part of the wall or ceiling.”
“No, no. It’s silver. It glows. There, do you see it?” I asked, pointing.
She stood beside me and looked up. “It is a box.”
I spotted a bench toward the side of the room, just tall enough to help me reach the hole in the ceiling. The temple groaned in protest as I slid the bench across the floor. From below, I heard stones clatter to the ground.
“Easy,” Nimue cautioned, her eyes darting about nervously.
Nimue steadied the bench as I crawled up. I had to stand on my toes to reach the very corner of the box with the tips of my fingers. But working slowly, I was able to scoot it to the edge. It tumbled into my waiting arms. I crawled down and set the box on the bench. Nimue stood beside me as I opened the lid.
Inside was a pair of silver wrist torcs capped with raven’s heads and a matching raven amulet. The ravens held glimmering purple stones in their beaks. Their eyes had been crafted with the same sparkling purple gems. The amulet was adorned with three silver ravens twisting around a large purple stone. The stone glowed. I had never seen anything like it before. The jewels were tarnished but in no other way damaged.
“Beautiful,” Nimue whispered. “You must show these to Andraste.”
I stared at the jewels. They were finer than any piece of jewel-work I had ever seen before. The silver looked very heavy, and the stones, well, I didn’t know what they were, but they looked like amethyst. “It seems so strange to find something so old. So…lost.”
“Just like us,” Nimue said, then set her hand on my shoulder.
I looked up at her. “Isn’t there a way out of here…a way back? Did you ever try?”
Nimue stared off into the distance. “Once. But I was…brought back. And not without consequences.”
I closed my eyes and clenched my teeth. Anger seethed in me, and for a brief moment, I swore I heard my raven wings.
“Let’s go,” I said then, closing the box lid. I followed Nimue out of the temple.
As we headed back up the main stairs of the temple of the Dark Goddess, I remembered the skeleton statue that had stood outside the priests’ temple. I turned and looked back toward the temple. My body trembled when I realized that the statue’s head had turned; its dead eyes were watching me.
Chapter 25
Andraste was sitting at a table on the cauldron terrace. Before her was a basket full of fresh bread and rolls, their crusts flakey and golden, ripe red apples, grapes, and wheels of pale yellow cheese. She was drinking a huge goblet of wine. I stared at the food. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d eaten.
“Well, curiosity sated?” she asked when we entered.
The bread’s yeasty scent filled the air around me. Even from this distance, I could tell it was still warm.
“Cerridwen found a treasure,” Nimue said.
When I didn’t move nor speak, Andraste laughed. “Sit, child. Eat. You are hungry, aren’t you? Didn’t Sidhe tell you to remember to eat?”
“Where does the food come from?” I asked as I joined her.
Andraste handed me a hunk of bread, and I slid the box across the table to her.
Thora trotted over and sat down beside me.
Andraste laughed. “Here, Graymalkin,” she said, then unwrapped a huge bone. It must have been lamb’s leg. It was thick with meat. Thora struggled to get a hold of it, but eventually found a grip. She trotted over to the fire where she lay down and began chewing her prize. “It comes from the market, of course,” Andraste finally answered me.
“What market?” The bread practically melted in my mouth. Nimue handed me a slice of cheese and a glass of red wine that I ate and drank greedily.
“Any market. I bought these in Glasgow.”
I set the bread down. “Glasgow?”
Andraste opened the box. She stopped chewing as she stared at the jewels. “Where did you find these?”
“How did you leave?”
“In the priest’s temple. Cerridwen spotted the box on the third floor,” Nimue answered.
Andraste set down her food and lifted one of the torcs. “Beautiful. No doubt they were a hero’s prize. Now they are yours. A gift from the goddess,” she said, then slid the box back across the table to me.
“Certainly, our lady owed her a gift,” Nimue said leadingly.
Andraste frowned at Nimue. She wiped her hands on a cloth napkin then looked at me. “Our lady is growing impatient and sloppy,” she said, tossing the napkin onto the table.