AllFreeNovel
Share Us
My heart was in my throat as I watched him struggling to right himself.
Finally, Bracken jumped down, catching himself with a flap of his wings.
With his free hand, he pushed Kiar up, helping him climb until he could reach the narrow ledge.
“Hurry!” Hadi hissed.
“I’m sorry,” Kiar said piteously. The poor thing was scratched and torn everywhere I looked, but there was no time to do anything about it.
The sun had set hours ago.
Above us, the full blood moon shone, traveling across the sky.
There was no time left. An hour, maybe.
“Keep going,” I said, and Hadi went ahead, leading the way.
I held on tight, squeezing my eyes shut, praying desperately for the end to be near. We had been climbing for hours. Tsuki’s temple must be near–
“Yes!” Hadi cried out. “Finally!”
My eyes flew open as he took us over the edge onto a flat plane and there, standing long abandoned, was Tsuki’s temple.
It was entirely open and made of wood and stone and pillars taken from the very mountain it was erected on and appeared to almost be part of the wilderness despite the obvious structures.
I climbed off of Hadi’s back, slowly approaching the archway.
The others joined from behind us, sighing in relief.
“Here we are, Sun. Summon your God,” Hadi declared.
I looked up at the moon. An hour remained, maybe less.
“The Goddess. Your Goddess, Hadi,” I corrected him. The closer I came, the more I saw that it was in disarray. The temple was smaller than I imagined. It was a relic of a bygone era trapped in an abandoned wasteland.
The wooden, sloping frame was worn and falling apart, and the roof, like an overturned flower, rotted out.
Pilgrimages used to stop here, and the most devout lived in nearby villages before the invasion, inhospitable hellholes in my honest opinion. However, it looked like not a soul had touched this place since well before Taiyo became the sole patron God of Gaulu’s empire.
The emperor had banned her worship and stripped her of deification in our holy texts. But somehow, it felt strange to see an immortal’s place of worship in such disarray, even the traitor Tsuki’s.
“What is this?” I asked, unable to move forward.
At first, I thought the tether had dragged me back as I was lifted from the ground. But to my surprise, I realized that Hadi had grabbed me by the fabric of my robe, holding me still as the others closed in.
He regarded me with hooded, unreadable eyes, crouching as low as he could, which still meant he was lifting me off my feet and I was hovering above the ground.
“Hadi? Can you hear me?” I asked.
His frown deepened as he released me suddenly like he’d been possessed and freed from a demon. He snapped back and beckoned Clem. We all tensed, and Bracken’s fur stood on edge.
What was he doing?
“You’re our court magician, Clem. Help him summon her before it’s too late.”
Everyone looked stunned while Clem puffed up importantly at the recognition.
He strutted over to me, chest out, and I couldn’t help but smile despite my confusion. Put off by that, Clem demurred, trotting beside me as I approached the gateway to the Gods.
