Chapter 31

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The path had evidently been neglected as the torches stopped long before the end of the corridor. Ben plucked a torch from one of the holders and took the lead. Sand covered most of the floor and the supports were mostly posts with a few crossbeams over our heads. We crossed over the interior of houses and a wide street. The remains of ruined marble statues dotted the area. There and there were the hands and feet, and I glimpsed a portion of a head.

My sleeve got caught on something sharp and I looked down to find myself staring at a skeleton hand. I clapped my hand over my mouth to stifle my scream, though a little noise came out.

Ben spun around as I struggled to free myself from the clutches of the dead. He grabbed the bones and crushed them in his grip. The fingers turned to powder and fell in bits to the floor when he opened his hand.

I shut my eyes and placed my hand over my quickly beating heart. Ben sidled up to me, keeping one eye on me and another in the direction we'd come. "Are you alright?" I couldn't find enough strength to speak, but I nodded. He turned his attention to the parts of my captor that remained in the wall. A wrist bone stuck out just slightly from the jagged surface. "A victim of the flood."

A shudder ran through me. Ben set a hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. I took a big, shaky breath and opened my eyes. The torch played off Ben's face and revealed his concern. I managed a small smile and swept my arms in the direction ahead of us. He didn't look quite convinced by my false bravado, but he took the lead and we continued on our way.

The narrower the tunnel, the colder the air became until I was constantly shivering. My arms brushed against both walls and Ben had been forced to turn sideways. He held aloft the torch in his right hand over my head so I could avoid stumbling over the rubble that littered the ground. His own bright red eyes stared ahead always searching for danger.

Finally, the tunnel ended and the torch revealed a wall of collapsed stone. Ben pursed his lips as he studied the blockage before he turned to me. "Can you still feel the cold air?"

I, with my arms wrapped tightly around me, squeezed past him where I held out my hand out in front of me. The coldest wind I had ever felt brushed across my palm and past me, giving me a chilling kiss on the cheek. I looked up at Ben and nodded.

He handed me the torch. "Get back."

I scurried back with my light and watched him step up to the blockage. He flexed his hands and they stretched into thick claws. His entire body, too, seemed to increase in size so that he could barely fit sideways in the tunnel. He grabbed a hold of one of the lead boulders between his hands and pressed them together. The might of his strength was such that the rock shattered between his hands. He brushed away the remnants and took up another rock near where I had placed my hand.

One after another, the stones fell before his might. After the tenth broken rock, a deeper darkness appeared in the wall. I held the torch closer and the light shone into an empty void. Ben grabbed hold of either side of the small hole and used his strength to widen it, as easy as tearing open an envelope.

The rocks crumbled or rolled out of the way, revealing the start of a large open space. Ben shrank into his human form, even doing away with his billowing black attire, before he climbed through the hole. He disappeared and a moment later popped his head back out where he held out his hand. I handed off the torch and by the flickering light I eased myself through the gap.

Ben helped me finish the climb and I stumbled onto my feet. He held aloft the torch and revealed a huge cavern. The whole space stretched for a hundred yards ahead of us and fifty on either side. Small broken buildings occupied the areas to our left and right, but before us was a huge platform accessed via a set of wide stone steps. The steps led up to the top where lay the ruins of dozens of marble columns.

"The statues Dakin mentioned weren't from the palace," Ben mused as he plucked something from off the floor. The torchlight illuminated the head of a statue that had once formed the features of a hideous serpent, but the face was cracked and missing much of the right half. "They were from here."

"But where is here?" I asked him as I swept my eyes over the eerie silent cavern.

"I'm not sure," Ben mused as he set the statue back down. "But let's find out."

He led the way to the stairs and onto the platform but stopped at the top. I couldn't blame him. A half-foot-deep square hole greeted us.

Ben knelt and brushed his hand over the hole in the floor. "There was something quite large here."

"But where did it go?" I asked him.

He swept his eyes over the area around us. "Perhaps the flood tore it from the ground."

Something struck me and I took a step back to get a full view of the hole. "Ben?"

"Hmm?" he returned as he turned his face to me.

"How big would you say the Kneeling Stone is?"

"About five feet square," he replied as he stood and joined me at my side. His eyes widened as he recognized what I had seen. "About a perfect fit for this hole."

"Then the Stone came from here," I guessed as I gave the area another look with clearer eyes. I nodded at one of the nearby columns. "Do those look like serpents to you?"

Ben slipped over to the ruins and plucked a piece from the bits that he held up to his face. "A coiled serpent."

"Like what Dakin said the serpent temple had," I reminded him as I tilted my head back to look up at the dried mud that encased the area. "And this doesn't look like it ever had a roof, either, so it was open air."

Ben stood and turned in a slow circle. "It's curious that such a space exists around this particular location. It's almost as if someone had tried to protect it during the deluge."

I scuffed my foot against the ground around the hole and discovered an indentation that had been filled in with dirt. "Ben!" I called out as I used my foot to reveal more. "There's something in the floor here!"

Ben moved to my side and knelt near my foot. He brushed away more of the dirt to reveal a row of letters that made up words I couldn't read. My companion must have been able to read them, however, as his eyebrows crashed down. "This is a chant to Eanif, the serpent god."

"So the one Maram worships?" I guessed.

He nodded as he followed the words, removing the dirt and reading them out as they were revealed. "To the Great Eanif, may the sacrifices upon this stone replenish your body and soul and keep you to the end of your days. May you absorb their life and make yourself great, and keep us under the protection of your benevolent hood."

I shuddered. "I don't think I like where this is going."

Ben reached the top center above where the Kneeling Stone had lain and brushed aside the dirt to reveal a couple of pictographic scenes. Two images represented one person kneeling on the stone and the other holding up what looked like an aqara. In the next image, the kneeling person lay flat on the ground while the standing figure turned to a giant snake. In their hands, they offered a glowing orb of brilliant light emphasized by the many rays coming out of the ball. The final one revealed the snake having grown larger than the worshiper, with the second human completely gone.

Some of the color drained from my face as I beheld these scenes. "Okay, now I really don't like where this I going."

Ben leaned back and pursed his lip as he studied the scenes. "The Kneeling Stone was a sacrificial altar."

"That doesn't sound like some benevolent god," I mused. The familiar chill drifted past me and I shivered.

Ben noticed. "Can you tell where it's coming from?"

I turned my face to the rear of the temple where a huge stone block stood. The rock was as dark as night and shaped into a rough rectangle where the height was the long side. The pitch-black surface somehow reflected and swallowed the torchlight, like a void that stared back.

Ben moved over to the stone while I reluctantly followed. We reached the block and Ben studied the smooth surface. "I've never seen a stone quite like this," he mused as he reached out to touch the stone.

"Don't."

My voice was sharp and revealed my fear. Ben stopped and turned his head around. "What is it?"

I bit my lower lip as my eyes flickered over the stone. "I-I don't know, but something's not right. Something about this- " I nodded at the stone, "-isn't right."

Ben drew his hand back and nodded. "Then we should look elsewhere before we leave."

He draped his arm around my lower back and guided me away from the stone. We reached the top of the stairs and a voice caught our attention.

"How kind of you to find it for us."

My heart dropped into my throat as both Ben and I stiffened. Diana stood in front of the entrance we had made with a half dozen of her diggers behind her. They all held pickaxes in their hands and grim expressions on their faces.

Her cold eyes were full of wonder as she gazed at the ruins around her. "The Temple of Eanif. How long I've wanted to see it." She walked over to the stairs and tilted her head back to look up at the ceiling. "How ironic that it would be just below the Thaqiba." My eyes widened and she grinned at me. "Yes, that's where we're standing."

"Why have you been searching for it?" Ben questioned her.

Diana laughed as she sauntered up the stairs with her entourage in tow. "Why wouldn't any magikologist want to discover such a find?" Her eyes widened as she beheld the hole in the floor. "The placement of the Sacrificial Stone!" She dropped to her knees and studied the floor and the ceiling above her. "Yes! It's nearly perfectly aligned! That would explain why the stone was able to transfer the power successfully away from the Thaqiba and the sacrifices!"

I glared at her. "Quit jabbering and tell us what the hell you're talking about. I'm sure you want to brag about what you know before you kill us."

Diana stood and offered us a wicked smile on her lips. "Kill you? What a foolish idea. If I recall, a pair of recent foreign visitors had a gift for magic. It would be much more appropriate to hand you over to the king on charges of trespassing and see that you receive your punishment on the Kneeling Stone."

A horrible roar echoed out of the tunnel and made our foes turn.