Chapter 30
THE TEMPLE OF DUST
Niri pulled the scarf around her face, wrapping the loose fabric to block out the penetrating sun. The day wore to infinity in her mind. The empty expanse of the desert was an optical illusion of identical dunes. The only way she knew they made progress was that the draw of the ocean was a distant and fading pull behind her.
Lavinia and Ria were wrapped similarly to Niri as they rode their camels side by side. Ahead of them, Ty swayed slightly in his saddle. Weary herself, Niri eyed the sun that hung low to the horizon now, promising at long last an end to the day.
There was supposed to be an oasis. An old spring that was the mid-point between Tabook and Karakastad. It had supported a small town once when the Temple of Dust had been the residence of the Order of Earth Elementals. When it had been the Temple of Stone. Now, no one traveled this road and they had been given no assurance the spring and oasis still existed.
Niri tossed her senses ahead as she had so many times during the day. It seemed nothing existed but sand. Then almost too faint to feel and nearly masked by the weight of the sea behind her, she felt the slightest pull. It was along the course they were traveling, a slight degree south. With the dying day, they might have walked by it separated by a sand dune and never have known.
Niri urged her camel beyond Ria and Lavinia’s to pull up next to Ty. Only his dark blue eyes showed through the scarf around his head.
“We are almost there. The spring is ahead.”
Relief washed across his eyes in a flood of moisture. Side by side, they rode the last hour to the oasis. As the setting sun’s glow faded in the western sky, a half dozen fragile palm trees came into view. Beyond them, a scattering of timbers rose through the sand. That was all that was left of the desert town.
Niri sat on her camel and stared at the spring. The still pool of water below her was mesmerizing. It mirrored the golden streaks of the violet sunset as if she could see through the world to another sky. Ty’s hands grasping her around her waist brought Niri back to herself.
“I can get down.”
It was too late. Ty lifted her from the camel’s saddle and gently set her on her feet. Niri blushed. Aware of the world again, Niri watched Lavinia pull bedding down from the pack camels. Nearby, Ria smoothed out a place in the sand with palm fronds.
“Are you okay?” Ty asked, his gaze remaining on her face.
“Yes, of course. I’m just tired. The heat ...”
Ty nodded. He left to scavenge timbers for a fire. The air was cooling quickly. Alone, Niri sighed and dropped to her knees next to the small pool. Its closeness was a balm to her scorched senses. Being so far from her element was not a feeling she had ever endured.
Exhausted by the heat, which made the quickly cooling night all the more chilly, Ria and Lavinia fell asleep almost as soon as they had eaten some bread and had their fill of water. They curled into blankets next to the fire. Ty watched his sister a moment, before coming and sitting next to Niri where she had stayed near the ephemeral basin of water. Without saying anything, he scooped a handful of water and splashed it at her. She smiled.
“I’m sorry I ever said I’d throw dirt at you. I didn’t know it would bother you so much.”
Niri smirked at him, the sense of dislocation dissolving with the water sliding down her skin.
“If I’d known you could swim so well, I would have rocked the boat and tossed you in,” Niri replied, thinking back to the afternoon when they had worked together to undo the Curse’s damage to the Grey Dawn.
“You should sleep.” Ty said, taking her hand and pulling Niri to her feet. He held onto her, their hands joined between them. “Your eyes still have flecks of lavender,” Ty said, looking down at her.
A different sensation rushed to fill where the sense of being out of place had sat in her chest. It wasn’t entirely comfortable either, prickling at her nerves so that she wanted to twitch and pull away. Niri looked toward the small fire dancing in the sand.
“You should sleep too.”
“Do something good for myself? That would be a change.”
A soft laugh burst from Niri. She peaked at Ty through her lashes. His gaze remained on her. The charge of energy drained out of her, leaving only exhaustion. Niri pulled a hand away and ran her fingers across her eyes.
“What is wrong?” Unconsciously, he pulled her closer.
“I feel powerless out here. I’m really out of my element,” she said with a wry smile.
Ty put his hands on her shoulders, but then slid them up to lightly touch her neck. He cradled her face between his fingers and stared earnestly down at her.
“Don’t you say that. Don’t you ever say that.”
Niri held her breath as a tremble ran through her. Her wide eyes were held in Ty’s. She couldn't have looked away, even without his fingers so gentle against her cheeks. Shaking, Niri nodded slightly.
The moment lasted a second longer. A flash of emotion like pain flickered across Ty’s face. He pursed his lips to speak, but the words died. He closed his eyes and let her go.
“You should sleep. We don’t know what we’ll find in Karakastad.”
Niri walked to the fire, unrolling her bedding. As she lay down under stars the brilliancy of lit gems laid across an ebony sky, Niri wondered what thought had gone through Ty. She shifted to watch him over the flames, sitting alone with his bedding still rolled tightly beside him. She fell asleep without any clear thoughts or deeper understanding.
—
They were up before dawn, hoping to beat the rising temperature. But they found them soon enough. This deep in the desert, the land simmered with warmth and light. Wind blew sand from the tops of dunes so that the air sparkled. The barest breeze stung exposed skin. Even the camels groaned.
Ty checked their direction frequently, sighting on the blazing sun. Niri’s sense of the ocean was a faint memory, even though it was only a day’s ride behind. She had no sense of where they headed. The world was fire and scorched sand. As the sun finally touched the horizon, it became apparent that they would not make Karakastad that day.
Wearily, Niri felt longingly for water. There was nothing. The sky glowed with the last of the day's light when a few sparse ruins appeared as they crested a low dune. Ty halted his camel.
“It will do. We have stored water.”
Only essentials were unpacked with little conversation. Everyone was spent from a second day of heat and fell asleep as if already in a dream.
—
Ty climbed the closest dune as the sun began to creep above the rim of the sky. Niri, Lavinia and Ria were a few moments behind. At first, the only thing Niri saw was the desert stretching endlessly in all directions.
“There is nothing.” Ria said, voice plaintive with exhaustion.
“No, we are in the city.”
Ty pointed to the base of the next dune. A fragment of stone was exposed in the shallow between dunes, a remnant of the old road. Finally, Niri’s eyes picked out the lines of timbers, which were bleached the color of the desert by the sun and wind. Niri let out a slow breath.
“We’re there?” Ria asked, brow wrinkled.
Niri shook her head. “Karakastad is the town that grew around the outskirts of the Temple. We have to go through it.”
“I don’t see any large structures. No Temple. Could it be buried in this desert?” Lavinia’s distaste for the shifting sands carried in her voice. A smile tugged at Niri’s lips. They cracked from sunburn and lack of water.
“It is a Temple for Earth Elementals, so it is built ...”
“In the earth,” Ty said with an awed sigh. “At least we will get out of the sun.”
They led the camels through the remains of Karakastad. Beyond the first dunes more of the city was exposed: timbers and partial buildings half buried in the desert sand. The wind echoed and twisted through the abandoned town. The morning sun cast odd shadows through the collapsed adobe buildings. The quiet and desolation bred unnamabl
e unease. All four were on edge before they were half-way through the ruins.
Finally, they could see that the partial buildings with their empty windows and bleached timbers dwindled ahead. Niri walked forward and finally saw the Temple of Dust. The ground fell away one hundred yards beyond the last building. A vast sinkhole, over eight hundred yards across and almost perfectly circular, plummeted into the shadows in the heart of the city. Niri’s heart hammered so quickly that, as she looked down, for a moment she felt faint. She backed up a step.
On the wall opposite, Niri could see windows carved into the rock. Exposed staircases occasionally jumped between levels from one yawning dark opening to another. In the recess below an overhang, several multi-story houses clung impossibly to a rock ledge.
“How do we get down?” Ria asked in hushed amazement.
“There has to be stairs.” Lavinia spoke in a whisper as well.
“We’ll walk around the edge. Check the nearby buildings.”
Ty turned as he finished speaking, leading his camel back to the closest structure. They spread out, but it took nearly an hour to find an entrance to the underground Temple. Ty finally found a partially collapsed building with stairs leading down into the darkness. Timbers nearly blocked the way. The old adobe wall canted over the steps, arching up into the blue sky.
They hid the camels in the shade of a nearby building and gathered around the opening to the stairs. Cool air seeped up, at once inviting and eerily out of place in the mid-morning desert heat. It wrapped around Niri’s ankles as if to pull her down to whatever lay in the desolate Temple. Niri looked over at Ria. She was pale, green eyes wide and vivid in the golds and browns of the desert. She looked entirely too young.
“Maybe,” Niri began.
“You aren’t going alone.” Ty interrupted. He stared her down, his gaze more steely than she had imagined was in him. Niri glanced away first. “Are you ready to use that thing again?” Ty nodded at the sword on his sister's hip.
Lavinia stood straighter, the terse answer on her lips fading as she realized what her brother meant. The blue in her eyes vibrated as the thin bravado faded. Lavinia swallowed thickly, but did not look away.
“If I need to, yes. I’m ready.”
“Do you think the Curse is selective?” Ria asked as Ty helped Niri over a fallen timber. “If we run into trouble, I could always summon it and see what happens.”
Lavinia snickered nervously, but flashed Ria a grin. As they descended, the steps curved into darkness before passing the first window. Stairs and open doors led off into the dimness, but Niri kept straight with the main staircase.
“How do you know where to go?” Lavinia whispered. Even so, her voice echoed through the passageway. Everyone winced.
“I don’t. I just thought if I was an Earth Elemental, I’d keep the records and books at the bottom of this thing.”
Ty shrugged. “It is as good a place as any. We can always search from the bottom up.”
Ahead, the stairs bridged a crevice in the rock walls. The dizzying height gave a glimpse to the bottom of the sinkhole, still over two hundred yards below them. A few buildings stood along the sinkhole’s floor. Each was constructed from, and chiseled into, the rock walls. The largest building had four columns of differently colored stone: deep red, violet blue, creamy yellow, and blue gray. They rose to hold a massive stone lintel that shone with veins of silver and gold in the dim sunlight that bathed the bottom of the sinkhole. Ty gazed upwards. Niri followed his movement. The sun was almost directly overhead.
“That looks like the place to start,” Lavinia said, voice hushed. Her gaze remained on the buildings along the bottom.
“No, too obvious. It is probably a dormitory.” Lavinia rolled her eyes at her brother’s comment.
“Do you think the bottom was mostly water?” Ria asked, pointing to the dusty floor far below.
The structures were built on cut stone ledges similar to those that lined Rah Hahsessah's canals. A few raised pathways traversed across the heart of the sinkhole and from building to building. The rest of the bottom was of varying depths and rough. Niri could imagine the sinkhole floor once filled with water, reflecting the sun in rippling waves up the stone walls. Now the empty pools only held fine sand blown from the desert above.
Their staircase ended catty-corner to the colonnaded building. From the floor of the sinkhole, they could see how large it was. What had seemed small from halfway down was an imposing structure over six stories tall. It rose from the smooth floor like a leviathan’s stone head, the back of it merging with the rock face of the sinkhole. A wave of weariness washed over Niri as she wondered how deep into the ground the building went. Dark openings, like the one they exited from, were scattered around the base of the towering walls.
“There are so many places to look.” Ria said, overwhelmed.
“We’ll try the large building first. From what you’ve said, Niri, it isn’t like the library was hidden.”
Niri nodded at Ty’s statement. “No, it was well known before the war. Scholars came to the Temple to study.”
Together, they walked across the flat pathway toward what was the largest structure along the floor. The very bulk of it drew the eye. The faint hiss of sand pattering against the rock resonated an empty sound across the wide sinkhole. Their footfalls were lost to the massive surroundings.
The path they traversed sliced through the shadow of the western rim wall. Ty glanced up for the second time, a frown on his face. Niri followed his gaze with a sigh. The sun was no longer overhead, but still high. It had taken over an hour to walk down. Her leg muscles ached with the constant strain of stepping. Walking up was not going to be much better.
“All of our food and extra water is up there,” Lavinia said, following Ty’s gaze as well.
Ria shivered. “I don’t want to sleep down here.”
“No, neither do I,” Niri said, quietly. The place might have been inspiring once, but now the silent awe it invoked was of vast emptiness and the unknown.
“We don’t have much time then. If this is the place, we might have to split up after all. If not and we have to search the whole Temple, we only have water for a few more days. Then we’ll have to go back to the oasis. Unless Niri finds something closer.”
Niri did not answer other than a shake of her head. Ty’s question made her reach out to her senses. As far as she could tell, there was nothing but rock and dust.
“First, we need to see if it is the library. If it is, why hasn’t anyone walked down here and carted off the books?” Lavinia crossed her arms, as she stared at the building.
“Maybe they have,” Ria said, despairing.
Niri placed a hand on Ria’s shoulder and let her power go. Where it had been a comfort to summon a connection to her element when they traveled on the boat, to seek and find nothing made her feel adrift as if she was the only speck of her kind in the world. It gave her a sudden, shuddering perspective of how Ria must feel.
Finally in the shadow of the building, Niri walked cautiously up the trio of steps pausing next to a column. It was the deep red one and had rippling veins of gold marbled throughout. To Niri, it felt like a bad omen. Ahead of her, the towering stone door, three times Ty’s height, stood open.
Ty walked around Niri where she hesitated. He entered first, pausing when he reached the polished stone floor a few feet beyond the pale light of the door. It took Niri’s eyes a moment to adjust to the dimness when she stopped beside him. Then she saw the papers lying scattered across the floor. Old shelves, once solid and heavy, were splintered and overturned. Their broken angles disappeared into the gloom.
Lavinia walked to the nearest set of shelves and picked up the remains of a book. The binding was split, loose pages falling. Half the book was charred and a corner was completely burnt off. She dropped it as her hand began to tremble.
“No one has been here,” she whispered. Her voice sent echoes through the room.
Ty let o
ut his breath. “These are ordinary books. Where do you think the records of the Order will be kept?”
Niri walked into the gloomy hall. The ceiling vaulted over her head to dark heights. From the outside, she knew there were floors overhead. Her gaze dropped to the tattered pages scattered across the stone floor.
“Deep,” Niri replied. “And down.”
Whatever system had been used to light the library no longer functioned. They saw no evidence of torches and no oil lamps. So, they were left to pick their way through the debris in the perennial dimness.
Ria found a set of stairs in a shadowed alcove partially concealed by a tipped bookcase. Blackness yawned behind the opening, swallowing the curving steps. Ty moved to enter the narrow doorway first. But Niri touched his arm, halting him.
“If there is anything here to fear, it will be an Elemental or leftover magic from the war. I’ll go first. Ria should take the rear.”
Ria started in surprise. Niri held onto her arm for a moment. “If something happens, use your magic. We’ll deal with the Curse when it comes. Hopefully, it is still over the Archipelago or the Sea of Sarketh. We may have time.”
Ria nodded crisply even though her breath came faster, rising her chest in short puffs. Niri stepped into the darkness. She had to use her hand to feel along the smooth, cool wall as she started down. Dust came off on her fingers from the accumulation of years. Not a trace of moisture resided in the Temple, not even clinging to the stone walls.
Then, Niri’s hand caught an opening and she paused. Ty walked into her. Her balance toppled and Niri took a step forward, her foot coming down on air. She gasped as she reached blindly forward, trying to find the wall to grab onto.
Ty yanked her back. She leaned into his chest, feeling his heart pounding as hard as hers.
“You okay?”
“Great. I found an opening, but I think the stairs keep going down, too.”
Her statement was met with silence.
“We should check out every floor,” Ty said after a moment. His hand was still threaded in her hair from where he pressed her against him. Niri straightened, disentangling herself. The sense of aloneness that fell on her in the dark staircase was oppressive. She shifted so that her arm brushed against Ty. He put his hand on her shoulder.
“We don’t have a lot of time. I think we can split into two groups to search each floor and keep going," Niri said.
Ty’s fingers tightened, pushing into her skin.
“I’ll take this floor.” Lavinia edged around her brother. Niri guided Lavinia’s hands to the lintel. Ty remained frozen behind her.
“I’ll go with her,” Ria said into Ty’s silence. “Who knows, with her sword, I might not have to use magic at all. If it will even work.” Ria’s voice was rueful, far lighter than Niri would have imagined for the girl, being so deep underground in a dark warren. Ria slipped around Ty and Niri as well.
“The records we need will be handwritten accounts of the war. If you don’t see anything, skip the next floor down. We’ll take that one and meet you at the bottom.”
“I guess we’ll hear each other if ... if we find anything. There hasn’t been another sound in this whole place,” Lavinia replied to Niri. In the poor light, Niri could not see Lavinia or Ria.
“Be careful, both of you,” Ty said, voice hoarse.
“You too, both of you,” Lavinia whispered back. From the sound of her voice, Niri guessed Lavinia had already turned to feel her way forward. Niri wondered how they would find anything in the dark. They had come so far for this, surely they would find a way.
Niri took Ty’s hand and started forward into the blackness. He came along slowly at first, then placed his hand back on Niri’s shoulder so that he could follow steadily behind. Niri found the next opening fifty steps down. She felt blindly forward, shuffling her feet to avoid tripping.
“We are going to need a light,” Ty whispered behind her. “I don’t suppose you can make water glow?”
Niri laughed softly. “I never learned that trick. Besides, there is no water down here. If there was, I could at least find the walls.”
Ty paused. “None?” His voice was incredulous.
“Not that I can feel. It is as if it has all been blocked somehow ...”
“Or evaporated?”
Niri didn’t reply for a moment. “That wouldn’t have stopped it from coming back.” Her throat was tight.
“After the Order of Earth lost, they could have been forced to seal off the underground springs.”
“Or those with magic could have done both. We won’t know what happened if we don’t find the records,” Niri retorted, angry at herself for the worry that rose in her. What Ty said made sense, more sense than what Niri had seen of Ria’s abilities. It meant that Lavinia and Ria above them could be facing something worse than darkness. Niri sighed. “Let’s just keep looking,” she said.
Niri slipped ahead, Ty following her. Away from the alcove the darkness thinned. Skylights linked to overhead windows directed filtered sunlight between floors. The shelves were intact here. A quick glance through the rows of books revealed a few handwritten scrolls, but nothing from the war. Philosophy, botany, and discussions on Elemental abilities filled different shelves.
“This isn’t it.”
“I know,” Niri sighed.
“I guess we get to see how far down this thing goes,” Ty said, gesturing for Niri to walk ahead of him.
“I shall complain to Darag the next time I see him. Only Earth Elementals would build a library out of catacombs.”
“Odd, the Kith don’t seem anything like the Elementals that built this place.” Ty replied, voice muffled by the rows of books.
Niri counted down fifty more steps and found the next entrance. She walked down another set. The stairs plunged into the darkness ahead of her.
“Can you hear Lavinia and Ria?” Niri asked as they stepped onto the fourth subterranean floor.
“No, I haven’t heard anything. They must be on the third level by now.” Ty said, sounding worried.
The fourth level was similar to the second. The only difference was the topics: history, wars, ancient societies. In the dimness, Niri thought at times she could see movement. No sound followed. One glimpse she had faded or merged into a stone wall.
“Did you see something?” Ty sounded on edge.
“Yes, earth spirits, I think. They probably once were part of the Temple, summoned by Elementals for tasks. Now they just wander.” She sounded confident, which surprised her. “Down again?”
“After you,” Ty said chivalrously. Niri rolled her eyes. She and Ty walked to the stairwell.
The stairs ended at the sixth level down. Her eyes had adjusted, but the light was fainter here. Niri felt carvings on the lintel of the door: heavy lines broken by what felt like crystals jutting from the stone. This had to be the place.
This room was unlike the others above. There were no bound books. Instead, lightly framed open shelves filled the space. Scrolls bound by ribbons and wax were stacked ten high in the wooden frames.
“This is it.”
“Where do we start?” Ty said, looking around. The shelves led off in all directions.
“What we need will be among the last scrolls written. It may be best if we split up.” Ty frowned. Even in the dimness, Niri could see the downturn of his mouth. “We’ll be on the same level - the same room.”
Niri didn’t acknowledge that they had never walked all the way to the sides yet, nor the back wall, which seemed to loom beyond imagination in the darkness. They were on the right level. There had to be an end to the library’s tunnels and rooms somewhere.
Ty sighed. “Fine, but call me if you find anything.”
Niri walked into the gloom alone, picking up random scrolls. Breaking their seal, she found they were ancient records going back thousands of years. The dates between those on the same shelf seemed arbitrary. The cases were organized by subject rather than linearly throug
h time. Niri leaned against a shelf and looked around. She could feel the unseen day slipping by.
Niri realized suddenly what was out of place. Compared to the destruction on the main floor, this room was organized and neat.
She imagined the underground Temple under unexpected attack, and for once did not focus on who was the cause. She thought instead of the Elementals down in the rooms of books. They wouldn’t have had time to seal and file scrolls when the fighting came to them, Niri realized with a hitch in her breath.
She pushed herself away from the bookcase and began her search anew, looking now for disorder and signs of haste or work unfinished. Her search took her further into the depths of the warren of rooms.
Finally, she found a place where the bookcases ended. Light shone from a wide circle, refracted by what appeared to be thousands of interconnected crystals. In the dimness below sat a circle of desks. Fine metal scribe’s pens were still resting in dry ink wells. Scrolls lay partially finished on the tables.
Niri hurried through the rows of tables, scanning the incomplete documents. There were copies of letters to the Temple of Mist and the Temple of Winds asking for help. They pleaded for the other Orders to not join with the Order of Fire or believe their words. Niri’s heart caught in her throat.
On a high table written in mature, flowing script and not the careful copy of scribes, one letter caught her eye. It was addressed to a Mage, someone she guessed to be skilled in the use of magic.
“Mage Khodan,
It is our belief at the Temple of Stone that the abilities of mages are not alien to the Elementals, as the Order of Fire proclaims. Rather, we view the gift as akin to our own - a Fifth Order that taps into the essence of life: a Spirit Elemental.
Please accept our hand of brotherhood. We would ask for your help before the Order of Fire consumes us all into one Church under their control. Already, we fear what step the Order of Fire will next take, as no other Order will agree to join them.
Please, if you will not aid us, at least take caution for yourself. Bind together, or the Order of Fire will hunt you down one by one.
I have heard reports from our sister Order of Water that the Order of Fire has gone against their decrees and are working with mages, who seek power and status. They are endeavoring to create a creature of magic that will do their bidding. A creature of magic so that it will hunt and kill magic. If they are successful, none of your kind will be safe. They call it their curse to you.
I do not know what words will win your belief. I will only say that I know it is true that magic is the same as the other Elements. An Elemental is born with natural skill in one ability. But skill in one reflects latent talent in another that can be learned. I tell you, I know use of the life force is a Fifth Order, an Order of Life and Spirit.
I beseech you,”
The letter ended there. Dizzy, Niri remembered to breathe. The letter confirmed the worst of her fears about the war and the Church. Her heart pounding, she wanted to believe she could trust Sinika. Trust that he had sent her here with the best of intentions. She read the letter again. In her heart, Niri knew she could not chance the possibility that Sinika would protect her.
With heavy certainty, Niri knew they had to leave. The risk was too great to stay and seek further answers. Niri wasn’t sure how much time had passed as the realization sunk in. But when she looked up, Sinika was watching her from across the circle of tables.