Page 119 of Heir

I have more to give, Mother Div said.Come, Aiz bet-Dafra. Find me.

Ilar! Ilar!The wind called the name she’d chosen, and she remembered months ago when she’d fallen from the Aerie, hearing it just like that, screaming:Aiz! Aiz!

A small hand slipped into hers. Aiz’s wind failed.

“Ilar! Why didn’t you wait for me?”

“Ruh, go back to your family’s wagon. It’s not safe.” The wind clawed at them, and Ruh’s little body shook from the cold, but he didn’t budge.

“I put a pillow in my bed. Sufiyan won’t even notice! He never does. You’re going to find her, aren’t you? Mother Div. I’m going with you. You trusted me to help you hunt this story, Ilar. Trust me now.”

“The wind—”

“You speak to the wind. I’ve seen you!”

Damn the child, but he was too observant. Aiz was gripped by urgency. Something huge flew past them—a tent or part of a wagon. Aiz couldn’t tell.

“If you send me away, I’ll follow! I want to meet her, Ilar. Mother Div— I feel— I feel like I’ve been waiting for her for a long time.”

He held on to her though she tried to shake him off. He was surprisingly strong.

Tears streamed down Aiz’s face, the wind whipping them away. The storm would pass. When it did, Elias would find her, and she doubted he’d be merciful enough to leave her alive this time. She had to leave.

“Fine!” she shouted over the wind. “But you must promise to do exactly as I say. No questions. No stories. Keep quiet and follow my lead. We’ve no idea what’s out here and we must move carefully.”

“I promise!”

Follow the wind, daughter of Kegar.Holy Div spoke in Aiz’s mind, eager. Hopeful.Let it bring you to me.

Aiz pulled Ruh onto Tregan in front of her. They wound their way down an embankment, across an empty streambed, and through a broad swath of empty desert. The wind shoved Aiz forward, working in her favor, and she used only a little of her smithing to keep the way ahead clear of sand.

Far in the distance, a huge spire that reminded Aiz of home jutted like a broken finger into the sky.

Yes, Div whispered.Come.

As they approached the spire, Tregan shied back, whinnying nervously.

“It’s okay, girl,” Aiz whispered, rubbing the beast’s neck. “Be brave for me.”

Tregan continued reluctantly, and almost as soon as they reached the base of the spire, Ruh pointed to what looked at first like a shadow in the rock. When they got closer, it glowed an eldritch blue, like the belly of a cloud lit by a storm.

A hole in the desert that leads to the sky…

“It’s a gate,” Ruh whispered, which was when Aiz realized that she couldhearhis whisper.

The wind had stopped.

Aiz approached the gate warily, theclip-clopof Tregan’s hooves suddenly too loud. As they neared it, a sliver of moon broke through the clouds long enough that Aiz made out a rocky trail winding into the dark.

Tregan picked her way forward for a quarter mile, until the rocks overhead narrowed and joined, transforming the trail into a tunnel. They should have been left in pitch darkness. But the walls glimmered, veined with a luminescent blue ore. The ceiling was carved with intricate symbols that Aiz couldn’t quite make out. They seemed to writhe, as if in pain.

“Is that Sadhese, Ruh?”

The child looked up, the blue light reflecting off the silver of his irises. “I’ve never seen that language before. Ilar— This place doesn’t feel right.”

“I think— Ruh, I think a Durani has trapped Mother Div’s spirit here,” Aiz whispered. “We must free her. Like the heroes in your stories would.”

The tunnel widened into a carved gate. It was decorated with images instead of runes, and Aiz flinched. Carved fire licked up the sides of the red stone columns, and screaming faces—of animals and humans—emerged from the flames, so real that she covered Ruh’s eyes lest those tortured visages haunt his nightmares.

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