Dream of a City of Ruin: Dreams of QaiMaj Book II

Chapter 19: Temple of the Orb: Stasia

Stasia staggered through the night toward the towering dark shape in the distance. She was tired to the bone and she thought the brilliance of the stars would cut right through her heart. Maia and Dynat had suggested they rest hours ago, but Stasia could not stop moving.

Ahead loomed the wall she had seen in her Dreams over and over. Ruins sprawled around it, tall and dark like the city in her Dreams. After a month on Khell, and nearly another three months of wandering through the wasteland, the moment she had waited for was about to arrive.

Dynat counseled caution as they approached the outlying ruins. A streak of cobalt in the east heralded the rising sun. Stasia did not see any dark shapes winging through the early morning.

Once the twisting maze of buildings had obscured it from view, Stasia felt the wall before she saw it again, a prickly sensation deep under her skin. She recognized that sensation all too well now.

The wall was made of khyor. It seemed to writhe toward the sky, solid and yet subtly moving and growing before Stasia's eyes. She stopped before an open gate and stood staring as Dynat and Maia caught her up.

"I don't like this at all," Dynat said to no one in particular. "Not at all."

"You don't have to go in," Stasia said. "But I—"

"I'm not afraid," Dynat insisted. "If you truly think Medoc is in there . . ."

Stasia shook her head. Something was wrong here, but she couldn't put her finger on it. This place had been in her Dreams, but it seemed incomplete somehow.

"I don't know," she said. "I just don't know."

"I will go in alone, if you fear this place," Maia offered. "This black metal will surely not affect me any more than the leashes do."

Dynat growled low in his throat, startling both women. "You will not," he said firmly. "I will not allow it." As if her threat to leave his line of sight had overcome his reservations, he strode forward and through the opening in the wall.

Stasia hesitated only a moment longer, then followed him, staying close to Maia. The minute she stepped past the threshold, her sense of T'Jas disappeared just as thoroughly as she had been leashed. She steeled herself to the sensation of helplessness, gripped her spear and kept a hand near her dagger, and followed Dynat's back deeper into the city.

The first person she saw was an old man from the Fishing Guild. He was pushing a creaky metal cart down the rough-cobbled lane, toward the wall. She did not recall his name, but his pale skin, blue eyes and tattered lakehide garments were unmistakable. He stopped and stared open-mouthed at them. He did not appear to recognize Stasia. When he saw Dynat, he cringed and glanced behind him as if considering fleeing.

Stasia strode forward quickly, putting herself between the Flame and the Iskaloner.

"Greetings, Fisher," she said. "What is your name?"

"Fi-fisher Gentel, Lady—" he cut off and stared at her as if seeing her for the first time. "Majesty? Princess? No. Queen. Queen Stasia?"

Stasia did not feel very queenly at that moment; she was exhausted and dusty and hungry and thirsty. Nonetheless her spine straightened and she saluted him with a fist over her brow to symbolize the crown jewel. Gentel fell to his knees behind his cart.

"Forgive me, Majesty, but how is it that you live? When they took Casser and the rest of the Icers . . ."

Stasia shivered in spite of the heat of the morning sun. "Get up, Fisher Gentel. No need to strain your aging bones. Who took Casser? And all the Icers? What of Larc and Kiner? Who is in charge here?" She wanted desperately to ask about Glace, but it did not seem appropriate.