Page 25 of The Storm of the Empire

I slipped into the temple unnoticed and breathed in the heady scents of herbs and magic. The Shrine of Kalilah was always open. Our people came night and day to pray at this ancient place of worship. I just needed the sense of connection that being here would deliver so that I could ground myself.

I lit a candle and carried it to the shrine at Kalilah’s feet. Her likeness stood twenty feet tall over the temple and wore a crown of Draco Fulgurite, a crystal found only in this kingdom when storm dragon lightning struck the coastlines and fused sand into crystal formations. The shards in her crown were said to have been struck by the first storm dragons that lived. No dragon alive today had the strength to fuse structures of that size, so I believed the tales of old.

It was infused with the power of storm dragon’s lightning, which caused disturbances to other magic and disrupts natural energy fields, severing connections and preventing new ones from forming. Outside this kingdom, Draco Fulgurite was tightly controlled and could be dangerous in the wrong hands. But to those of storm blood, it posed no threat. The energy of the storm ran through our blood, and our powers were not disrupted.

Kneeling in the sanctum, I closed my eyes, and held my palms up to the Goddess, and breathed in the energy that filled the space from the ground beneath. I felt close to something here. It would be obvious to assume it was Her I felt close to, but really, it was the energy of the place. It was the storm. My home. It ran through me and filled me with a sense of self I only found here.

Here, I found me.

I meditated for a long while. Clearly it was what I needed, and I could feel the benefits immediately. Maybe that was the pull I felt. A need to come home and find myself again.

For far too long, I had been beating myself up for things I couldn’t control. If I never found my ryder and got to fly with the King’s legion, I was still one of the highest ranking Archeiai in this kingdom. I could be proud of all my achievements.

I blew out a breath.

Be proud. Be proud. Be proud!

And yet, despite the swelling sense of power I felt here and the support and assurance I always got from my family, I wasn’t fooling myself into being satisfied with my lot. If the Goddess intended for me to be ryderless and fail, then why did it feel so wrong?

Just then, a crack and a flash of light split the sky above the temple. The storm hours were upon us. I looked around the temple and realized I was alone. The priests took private afternoon prayer under the temple during these hours.

I was made to join the storm, not hide from it, but the sense of danger that prickled the back of my neck was completely new to me. Never had I feared a storm, but I could feel that this would be a bad one, and something told me to wait in the temple rather than head home.

I was battling with myself over that decision when movement caught my eye near the rear of the sanctuary, and I snapped my head around in time to catch a priest disappearing along a corridor I knew led to the outside.

I quickly got up and set out after him, down the dimly lit corridor. He should know better than to go out now.

I called out as he reached the door, baffled at why I would need to explain this to a native of the kingdom.

The priest stalled at the door after pushing it open a crack. I had no doubt what he saw was enough to drive my point home. He let it close and turned. Beneath his hood, I could only see shadow, but that prickle again told me something was wrong.

“You should be below with your fellows,” I cautioned, slowing to a stop a safe distance from him. I was armed, but I would not invite danger.

He looked around, seeming to want to escape me, and I knew this was no priest.

“State your business,” I demanded.

The priest bolted. Ripping open the door, he leaped out into the storm. I cursed and drew my dagger, sprinting after him.

He was navigating the wide steps as I caught up to him, and before he knew I was upon him, I had him pinned to the temple wall, face pressed into the stone and my blade to his throat.

“I said state your business,” I growled into his ear to be heard over the roar of the storm.

He shouted something unintelligible, but it was swallowed by thunder, so I turned him in a move I had perfected that happened so fast, he hardly knew my blade had lifted before he was spun and had it pointing right back into his jugular again. I tore back his hood and gasped.

“Luka?”

TEN

LUKA

I’d lost track of eggs when we got to port at Neilius. They’d vanished from the deck of the ship, but since this was where they brought the priests, I assumed the eggs were here too, and I was determined to find them. So I’d taken matters into my own hands, and an hour after we were left to rest, I was up.

I was alone in the sanctuary and had planned on checking out some of the doors we had passed coming in while all the priests were below during the storm. They had warned us not to venture out, but I would be inside looking around, so the storm wouldn’t affect me.

Then I heard footsteps behind me in the corridor. Ice ran through my veins. If I was confronted now, I could be exposed as an intruder. I couldn’t risk it, so rather than deal with a confrontation that would unravel my whole situation, I decided to ditch whoever it was. I hurried along the corridor to the rear exit of the temple. We had been brought in this way, so I knew I could escape to the outside and shake off whoever it was. The storm couldn’t be that bad.

“You should stay inside,” a female voice called out.

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