Page 478 of Kingdoms of Night

Watching them take the lead, side-by-side, with her bold and him hesitant, I was left far more interested in their dynamic than the floor we traversed. That proved in my best interests, as once they found distraction within one another I could slip away unnoticed.

Along a curving wall with high-mounted arched windows, they had become engrossed in a ‘subtle’ conversation, asking about one another’s sides of the palace in lieu of personal assurance. The nearby chill and sound of wind must have made it easier to only notice one another. Deep in discussing who had it worse, security or housekeeping, they passed the large, open doors that caught my attention.

Stretching out like a sword, the platform offered an unparalleled view of everything I couldn’t perceive aboard the flying ship. Out ahead in the surrounding sky flew other vessels and winged beasts that twisted through the air like snakes. I had to see what lay below, and how this strange hidden world looked in its green daylight.

Bewitched, I crossed the platform. With the veil gone, the wind levitated my damp hair and the nightgown, blowing back the robe like a cape. The view shifted faster than I could grasp, the extended floor going from large enough to hold a ship, to a dark sliver slicing through the mossy clouds and the city—

Dizziness swarmed me when I looked down, the sight spread out beneath was unlike any I’d ever witnessed. Not even the ziggurat in Bab-Elani stood this tall, rendered the citizens invisible, and presented the city as a living map.

It was unbelievable. It was daunting. It wassickening.

I stumbled, head spinning like the world had rattled around me. Pressure built up from stomach to throat, and my lungs struggled to take in the thin air. Moving became a chore, and so did remaining upright.

Swaying against my waning strength, I tried to retreat inside. Relief came when surrender forced itself through, and I grew too heavy to fight the pull that tipped me over.

CHAPTERFIVE

There was something blissful about the plunge.

Panic should have reinvigorated me, the upward wave of harsh wind that bit at my freezing skin should have roused me, the distressing tug at my bones and organs ought to have sprouted tears. But it didn’t.

I just fell through the lunar sky, as powerless in this moment as I was in the rest of the life that was about to end. After all, it could have been a worse death, one to mirror my mother’s fate at the hands of her husband.

It was best for me to give into the pull of the ground and unconsciousness. Anything else would only upset me further.

A screech tore through the surrounding sound, and I managed to open my eyes to glimpse something slithering my way.

For a moment, it looked like I would meet my end far faster than I’d anticipated. In between struggling blinks to wet my blindingly-dry eyes, the creature had gotten close enough for me to spot its horns and the being astride its back.

Tamuz’s hand was the last thing I saw before I was once again weighed-down by unconsciousness.

* * *

What was the opposite of weightlessness?

‘Heavy’ didn’t suit how I felt. A cast that had been filled with molten iron and left to solidify, my bones changed and far denser than they ever were, but my exterior fragile.

All I could move at first were my twitching eyelids, allowing the light to filter through my lashes and slowly show the colors awaiting me.

Moving patterns greeted me, smoothly blending and splitting in geometric perfection, all in soothing shades of shimmering white, sea greens and sky blues, encompassing the shades from all seasons and hours.

As the blur faded from the edges, the patterns stabilized, showing a domed ceiling with small windowed gaps at its base that shed light on its flower-like image. I felt my fingers and toes move, my ankles and wrists less stiff, but no strength to sit up yet.

I was content to lie here, taking in greater detail from the walls beneath the dome, the splendor of effort that put the Bab-Elani palace interior to shame. Perhaps this was what awaited me before I entered the underworld? The process of death calming any initial panic by showing me what I enjoyed in life?

A horned, serpentine face appeared over mine, blocking the view and shattering the theory. I stiffened, as much as I could with weighted bones, and tried not to breathe too loudly as it stared curiously at me with large, snake-like eyes.

“Iltani,” a man’s voice called, urging her to retreat.

I breathed easier for a mere second until Tamuz’s shrouded form came to my side. “How do you feel?”

Speaking was an effort, my voice emerged weak and airy. “Exhausted.”

“Do you remember what happened?”

It took a minute of hazy searching through memories felt so distant, but faint recollections began to return to my grasp. “I fell off the platform.”

“You fell?” he asked disbelievingly.

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