She fell to her knees, eyes squeezed shut, her body curled around the artifact like a shield, before her thoughts, too, went dark.
CHAPTER6
Breath did not come easily. Ru felt as though she might never breathe again. Fear exploding in her, she wrestled with her lungs, desperate, panicked, until oxygen finally filled her empty chest. She gasped, choking. The air was thick with dirt and dust, filling her throat. She blinked, tears leaking from the corners of her eyes, and saw only darkness.
What happened?
How long had she been lying here? Had night fallen? Had she passed out when she touched the artifact? The artifact. Where — but there it was. Pressed to her stomach, her arms still wrapped around it, her body curved inward like a child. The stone was cold against her belly, and with horror and confusion, she realized that she was naked. Her clothes, her satchel — everything was gone.
All except for the artifact.
She blinked again, trying not to panic, waiting for her eyes to adjust. But there was only darkness. She felt around her, thinking she must have been carried to her tent, that she must be confused. Surely it was the small hours of the night after the moon had set. Just before sunrise.
But her shaking fingers brushed hard-packed dirt instead of her cot.
She sat up slowly, trying to make sense of where she was, and a cold wind pulled at her hair. She let the breeze wash over her, slowing her frenzied thoughts. Then it occurred to her — the wind should be moving the tents. It should be shifting any loose tools, it should be making sounds. Shaking, she listened, tried to understand... and heard nothing. No rustling tents, no researchers snoring, no soft clanking as the guards made their rounds at the edge of the dig site.
All she could hear was the fast, wheezing rhythm of her own breath.
“Hello?” she rasped.
She sounded awful, as if gravel lined her throat. Had they packed up and left her then, for some unknowable reason? Left her to waste away in the crater? Maybe they had confirmed that she was mad, that the artifact was nothing but a normal stone, that she was better served by abandonment. Better this than return to the Cornelian Tower for another round of humiliation.
With great effort, Ru struggled to her feet, clutching the artifact to her. She was so stiff. Every joint ached.
“Lady Maryn?” she said, so quietly it was almost a whisper.
The wind pressed at her and whipped her hair across her face. She stumbled, shuffling in short, awkward steps through the dirt.
“Lady Maryn?” she said again, louder this time.
Only silence.
The possibility of a nightmare flitted across her mind, but she knew reality when she was in it. Shivering in the dark, she tried to think of an explanation. But her thoughts were moving at half speed, maybe slower, and everything that occurred to her was so improbable it verged on nonsensical.
A total eclipse could have explained the darkness, but there would be no solar eclipses in Southern Navenie for the next several decades, let alone a complete blackout of the sun. This couldn’t have been a prank or a setup. It was too intricate, too cruel. Even Grey Adler would never go this far.
She stood for what felt like an eternity in complete silence and darkness, clutching the artifact to her naked skin. There was no answer, no conclusion. Only terror and bewilderment. She desperately needed to find light, clothes, and water.
Horror-stricken but determined to use her intellectual brain, she took off walking in a random direction. Standing in one place, feeling sorry for herself, would do nothing.
She tripped and fell almost immediately, sprawling in the darkness. Tiny pebbles ground at her palms and her knees smarted. The artifact rolled, and she nearly broke down crying, scrabbling in the dirt, searching. But it hadn’t gone far. Her fingertips brushed it within moments, and she tucked it to her bare chest once again.
A sense of sudden comfort blossomed in her, unbidden and unexpected. She was sure the artifact was reaching out to her, trying to lessen her pain. She pushed its touch away, fear choking her as she did.
The moment she had touched the artifact, everything had gone dark.
“What am I supposed to do?” she said, her voice a whimper. She lay curled around the stone, helpless, tears clinging to the corners of her eyes.
“You could try asking for help.”
Ru jolted and sat upright in the vast blackness, her heart pounding. She hadn’t heard anyone approach. She had been too busy panicking, trying not to cry.
“Who are you?” she asked, voice tight in her throat. “How can you see me?”
There was a rustling and crunching of pebbles under boots as someone approached. The voice was much closer now, deep and accented. “I can see you because you’re the only living thing within miles, completely naked, in the middle of the Shattered City.”
Ru went cold, the hair raising on the backs of her arms and neck. A million wild questions wrestled for purchase, and at last, the least important one came out: “But you can see?”
