Page 77 of The Dragon Queen
“No human has ever passed into the Realm of Caelum and returned.”
“I know.”
She continued to watch me. “I need you to know that you understand your life is at stake?—”
“If I can’t save Talon, then I don’t want to live anyway.”
“Careful,” she said quietly. “Because Talon found himself in that same predicament…and look where he is now.”
I felt no fear at the prospect of not returning. If I was trapped there forever, then so be it. My only regret would be not taking Talon with me. “I have to do this.”
She watched me for another moment before she nodded. “Khazmuda won’t tell him?”
I shook my head. “He doesn’t want to give him false hope…if this doesn’t work.”
“That’s wise. Hope can be as dangerous as a sword to the neck.” She approached the outline of the door inside the trunk of the tree, the gateway to the afterlife, the cause of so much bloodshed. She placed her hand upon the door and closed her eyes.
I waited a few feet back, my heart beating irregularly, the adrenaline making me sick. I’d tried to accept Talon’s death every day, but now, my world was upside down because I had been given another chance to save it.
She murmured under her breath, speaking in the tongue of her people, words I could not understand. It went on for minutes, her hand moving to different parts of the door like she was searching for the pulse of the tree.
Then a bright line of sunshine outlined the shape of the door in the trunk, light coming from within the wood. It burned so brightly that I had to avert my gaze because it made me blind. It burned even brighter before it disappeared.
I looked at the door again as Queen Eldinar stepped back.
The wood that had barred the way magically disappeared, revealing a black hole without a view of the other side. Itwas just…empty. Like we would step into midnight and leave midday.
She turned back to me and silently asked if I wanted to continue.
“Let’s go.”
She moved into the passageway first, stepping into the darkness and disappearing the second she crossed the threshold. She didn’t seem to blend into the darkness, but leave it completely.
I inhaled a breath before I approached the doorway, looking into a black so substantial it felt physical. It seemed like I was stepping into the underworld rather than the afterlife.Wish me luck…
You don’t need it, Calista.
I stepped into the darkness and was immediately absorbed by it. It was neither cold nor warm. It was the absence of all senses, the absence of everything that made me feel alive. Then I felt my feet leave the ground, and I fell, my hair whipping into the air behind me as I fell into the never-ending darkness.
I blinked, and then my feet were on the ground. I somehow didn’t crash into the earth, went from free fall into absolute stillness in a split second. My eyes opened, and I looked up at the white stone walls of the keep, at the colored glass of the windows, at the majestic beacon of beauty that rose before me.
I smelled the sea, felt the touch of the cool air and the heat of the sunshine on the bridge of my nose. But the longer I looked, the more I noticed the haze, a pastel blur to all the colors, like it wasn’t quite real.
I blinked, and then the image was gone. Now, I stood inside the castle, the ceiling a hundred feet high, the floor made of thesame white stone that I’d seen outside. A chorus of music from an organ that took up the entire wall played loudly, the pipes the color of gold that matched the throne on the top of the rise. It was profound and distinct, music that played for a few seconds before silence returned.
She hadn’t been there a second ago, but she was there now, seated upon the throne with her ankles crossed, her fiery red hair down to her waist, wearing a white gown with the Great Tree embroidered down the center.
Her hands rested on the armrests, her nails sharp like talons, and she stared us down with a tension that showed how unwelcome we were.
Queen Eldinar stepped forward. “God of Caelum, Riviana, we’ve come to seek your audience.”
Her eyes darted to me. “You know the law.”
“I requested your presence in Riviana Star, but you wouldn’t come.” Queen Eldinar was the elegant queen who commanded the hearts of the elves who worshipped her, so it was strange to see her be the inferior to someone else, to be the one on the bottom of the rise rather than upon the throne.
“I’m busy, Queen Eldinar.” Riviana’s shifted back to the queen.
“I understand that, Riviana. But what we wish to discuss is urgent.”