There were many old-fashioned phrases and mythical references that she recognized from the book she’d read in the library andthe stories her mother had told her so long ago.
May the gods remember us in our sorrow.
The Tree lies here in honor, once so disgraced.
The bite of Haisar’s axe against what should never have been touched.
She circled slowly around the pillar, squinting in the flickering light from her candle.
A sliver fell free, a splinter forgotten by the gods.
The only piece left in Endahr.
Here entombed.
She chewed on her lip, the candle burning low.
The shard shall lie here in glory forever, and may whoever touch or remove it from this place be accursed, unless in greatest need.
Her fingers traced the words in the marble, and she felt intensely uneasy.
You shall know it by its light and its music.
You shall know it when you hold it.
That here lies the shard of the Immortal Tree.
May the gods remember us.
May the gods be with us.
May our sins be forgotten.
And then she was around at the front again, staring at the glass-and-iron casket.
You shall know it when you hold it,the shrine promised.That here lies the shard of the Immortal Tree.
She slid her fingers into the hollow and tugged the casket free.
Her hands shook as she knelt on the dusty stone floor and examined thecasket. It had obviously once been sealed, but now the lock was broken. The lid opened easily.
The air seemed to tremble around her, like a host of invisible onlookers had all sucked in a breath.
A splinter of wood lay in the casket, no longer or wider than her own hand. It was white as bone and dry as dust but somehow it was beautiful. It smelled like honey and wine and blooming lilies in thesunlight.
You shall know it when you hold it,sang the shrine’s promise in her head.The shard of the Immortal Tree.
Could it really be true? She reached out her hand, slowly, reverently. She had to know.
“Talia, don’t!”
Chapter Twenty-One
SOMEONE GRABBED HER ARM AND PULLED HERaway from the shrine, up the stairs and through the door and out onto the hill, rain spitting cold from the still-darkening sky. The sea rose black and wild beyond the shoreline.
It was Wen, his face white with terror. He grasped her shoulders, nearly shaking her. “Did you touch it? Did you touch it?”
She jerked away from him, breathinghard.
