2. Quintus

2

QUINTUS

O nly a handful of tall columns and jumbled stones remained from the temple once known as the Sanctuary of the Great Gods. White stone gleamed beneath the crescent moon. Samothraki might be a tiny island in the Aegean Sea, but forbidding dark mountains loomed over the ruins, offering protection from the wild sea.

I couldn't say why I came back to this island hundreds of times over the centuries. This place called to something in my blood. I'd always thought my queen must have once walked these hallowed grounds, but she'd been lost ages ago. Long before she'd been able to call me to her side.

I was old enough to remember the fall of the Roman Empire. I had walked across Europe dozens of times. Sometimes a soldier, a scholar, even a bard. Sometimes I managed to avoid Samothraki for years, forgetting what might have been. Dulling the hollow wound inside me.

I had never served a queen. I never would. I had resigned to my fate long ago. I watched young Aima rise up and serve the last precious queens of our kind. Many fell. Many more rose to take their place.

But not me. My place was here. A long-forgotten ruin that no longer carried any meaning or relevance, much like me. Once, I'd certainly been bitter and angry. Why me? Why must I live so very long, if I was never to serve? Never give myself to anyone? I'd fought in the crusades, hoping I might meet a glorious end, only to walk away unscathed from every battlefield. For whatever reason, I could not seem to die.

Even the Great Mother didn't want me. Not yet, at least.

What use was a queenless, miserable old Aima like me? I still didn't know, but I'd resigned myself to this unending life long ago.

Ironically, I became stronger every year that I lived and breathed on this earth. Perhaps I inherited the strength of every other unBlooded Aima of my line. Or, more likely, we Aima simply grew stronger the closer we came to returning to the Mother. If so, my time must be near. Goddess, I hoped so. Please, Mother, bring me home to Your loving embrace.

Even the temple ruins hadn't been immune to the passing of time. More ancient stones had crumbled away each time I visited. This year, even part of the mountain had fallen away, revealing a dark hole.

A hole that crawled with snakes, scorpions, and spiders, as if a giant nest had exploded out into the courtyard.

I stared at the new cavern a moment before I realized what bothered me. They weren't crawling out . They were going in . A steady stream of creatures glided past me. Slithering and crawling over my boots. Ignoring me completely, as if I was merely an obstacle rather than a threat that could stomp them into a bloody smear

In all my endless years, I'd never seen anything like it. The crawling, slithering tide pulled me closer to the dark crack in the rocky hillside. Something inside me stirred. Something that had lain silent in every court. Before every queen. In every nest. After thousands of years of waiting...

I heard the Call.