“What the –” one guard yelled, startled out of his reverie. “What was that?”
“Shit,” the other said. “The canvas! Quick!”
As the two men scrambled to deal with the fire, Felix grabbed Isolde’s arm and tugged her along with him. They darted across the open space behind the distracted guards, keeping to the shadows, then hurried up the stairs.
“Nice one,” Felix remarked with a chuckle once they were out of sight and earshot. “You would make a fantastic thief.”
“Tempting,” she replied primly, “but no.”
They dashed through the second level of the complex. Some structures they passed were very grand, with elaborately carved friezes and endless rows of columns. Despite having been abandoned for so long, the stonework was pristine. A ghost town of beautiful buildings, as if the inhabitants had left only yesterday. Finally, the base of the last staircase loomed before them. The massive archway leading into the Nexus’s inner sanctum towered above it, the eerie blue light pulsing faintly.
The air was heavy, with an overwhelming pressure surrounding them like a dense fog. It smelled like the sky before a storm, heady and powerful.
Isolde halted, staring up at the passage. Her ley markings were glowing vividly in the darkness. Felix squeezed her hand. Before he could say anything, she turned, wild-eyed, and threw her arms around his neck.
She kissed him as if her life depended on it. Maybe at that moment, it did. When she pulled back, her fingers traced the line of his jaw. “Felix, if I…”
It reared its ugly head with a vengeance, the terror, the suffocating fear that he had been working so hard to keep at bay. “Don’t, Isa.”
“But –”
“We’re going to walk in there together, and out of there together. No ifs, no buts.”
She looked like she wanted to argue. He knew she did, because he did, too. There were a hundred, a thousand things he wanted to say, just in case, but saying them would make it real. So he did not say any of them, and neither did she. Instead, Isolde squared her shoulders, lifted her chin in that fierce, determined way that made his heart clench, and let go of him.
“Don’t do anything stupid.”
He grinned at her. “No promises.”
Then she took a deep, slow breath and started up the steps.
***
The archway led to a long hallway that led straight into the mountain. Ahead of them, the floor was smooth as polished marble. The walls were rough stone but had sculptures rising out of the textured rock. Figures frozen in time; dancers in elegant, fluid poses; entwined lovers; warriors brandishing strange weapons. All were carved in incredible detail. The light continued to pulse faintly, as if beckoning them onward.
Not halfway down the passage, Isolde stopped. Despite the chill, there were tiny beads of sweat on her forehead. “It is so loud,” she whispered, “I can’t hear myself think.”
“Do you need a moment?”
“No.” She shook her head. “Let’s continue.”
The hallway finally opened up onto an enormous vaulted cavern. Ley lines spiralled outward from its centre, where a raised dais sat. A dozen crude stone slabs circled it.
Suspended in the air above it all was the Arcaenum.
Felix knew that’s what it was, even though it did not look like anything except a shimmering, pulsing mass of light and force. It dominated the space, demanding undivided attention. No matter its current state, they were in the presence of divinity. He had never believed in the gods. But standing here, Felix felt small for the first time in his adult life. Magic filled the air, sparks clinging to the rock walls and floating around like motes of dust.
“This is the place,” Isolde whispered. “I saw it through the ley line.”
As Felix stood and stared slack-jawed at what was essentially the god of magic, Isolde wandered over to one of the stone slabs. There was some kind of bundle laying upon it.
Felix took a few steps in Isolde’s direction. A thread of silver light, almost imperceptible, ran through the air between the bundle on the slab and the Arcaenum itself. It thickened and thinned in a slow but steady rhythm, like an eerie pulse.
Felix took a closer look at the thread. An incrediblewrongnesscame over him, sending a shudder down his spine.
Isolde shrieked. She leapt backwards, her hands pressed to her mouth. Felix rushed to her side, weapon in hand.
“What? What happened?” He peered at thethingon the slab, but it looked like nothing but a pile of rags. Even so, he could not shake the sense of dread it evoked in him.
