Page 111 of Kissed By the Gods
The Veil is pulling at me, urging me forward. Urging me upward.
A wave of dizziness slides through me, and my arms fall to my sides. They’re so heavy. Holding myself upright is one of the hardest things I’ve ever done.
But not the hardest, I resolve grimly.
I’m not going to die here. Irefuseto die here, mere steps away from a new future for us all.
I keep running my hands along the smooth ice, trying to see with my hands what I can’t make out in the darkness. It’s the waterfall, I think. My hands slide off the ice and continue in the air before sliding back across that smooth, smooth ice. There’s a gap in the ice, like something was parting the water of the falls when it froze.
There’s a stillness beyond.
“Hello!”
Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello. Hello.
The echoes bounce backward. I hesitate before I step through. It could be a crevasse. I could easily slide through to unknown depths, my bones trapped in these cursed mountains. With Alden.
And yet …
There’s that pull urging me forward. I jam my scythe into the ice wall and take as firm a grip as I can. I take a cautious step forward, praying that I’m not stepping right off this peak. Another step, and another. The wind dies down. Another step. The snow stops falling.
A cave. It’s a cave.
“Bless you, Thayana. Bless you.” My voice is ragged, my mouth and throat dry. My broken voice echoes endlessly.Bless you. Bless you. Bless you.
I surge farther inside, using the walls of the cave to find my way. There’s warmth in here.
Impossible. It must be my body, shutting down from the cold.
I drop my pack to the ground and rip it open, digging through for the flint and steel and the small torch. It would have been useless out in the constant wet, but in here … I slam the flint against the torch with clumsy fingers, and with a hiss and a sputter, the flames burst to life, casting flickering shadows against the cave walls. There, in the back of the cave, steam rises from a spring. I moan in a relief that is so visceral it hurts. I try to run, but I can barely get one foot to move in front of the other as I stagger into the depths of the cave.
I slide into the hot water fully clothed. I whimper, and then I scream, the warmth returning to my body first in pins and needles and then in an excruciating stabbing, my numbed nerves reawakening in searing intensity, sending shockwaves of agony through my body. I arch my back against the pain, but stay in the pool of spring-fed, hot water as the cold’s merciless grip fades, replaced with a searing fire.
Once the pain has eased, and the worst of the danger has passed, I slip back out of the spring, lunging for my pack and the flask of laomai Elowen packed for me. A hissing sound catches my attention, and I notice steam rising from a crack in the ground near my feet. Vaguely, I wonder if anyone knows Elandors Veil is a volcano. I don’t think it was ever mentioned.
Once the fog starts to clear, my survival lessons start to jab at the edges of my thoughts. Find or make shelter.Done. A hysterical giggle leaves my mouth and then bounces back and around me.
Get out of wet clothes. I strip, and drip my soaking wet clothes against the warm, almost uncomfortably hot rocks that line the cave.
Treat injuries. I grab the aldersigh paste that all Altor carry with them and apply it to my now-bleeding wounds. They start to heal almost immediately.
Make a fire. Thoroughly unnecessary.
Eat. Drink. I pull a frozen hunk of dried meat from my pack and start to gnaw on it, but by this point my eyes are starting to close. I need to eat, but sleep is calling to me, like the cave did. It is an enticement. A seduction. My hand slides down to the ground, the meat falls from my grasp.
I let my eyes slip closed, the heavy weight of sleep pulling me under, into the darkness.
“Yes. Sleep. I’m here.”
“Truly, I cannot understand the Veil. It is almost as vexing to me as humans—almost.”
Thayana, Goddess of War and Justice
CHAPTER FORTY-THREE
