In fact, our surroundings had not changed much in the minutes we had been walking. Only a few rocks had cropped up, jutting out of the ground like monoliths. Every so often, we stumbled across geysers. I steered clear of one now as it rumbled menacingly, and hot water jettisoned out of its tip in a quick stream, filling the air with steam. The ground fizzled where the water splashed, searing the earth. Sweat streamed down my neck.
Then there was silence. There were no insects or other animals, no vegetation that I could see. It was as if the land had wholly swallowed all traces of life. Even if something wanted to grow here, I had a feeling the land would not let it.
“This is pointless,” Caleb muttered as we passed yet another stone that looked similar to one we’d seen moments earlier. “Wandering around a desert, looking for a cave and some mystical weapon. You do realize that the farther we go, the longer it will take to get back to the border, right?”
I glanced down at the watch strapped to my wrist. We had been walking for fifteen minutes now, which did not leave us much time to find a weapon and return to the scry before the land cracked one sleepy eye and consumed us too.
“I know that. But we have to try. Maybe we should climb one of the higher banks to see our surroundings better? Let’s also keep watch of the time and when it hits the halfway mark we’ll start to head–” I paused. “Can you hear that?” I cocked my head to the right as music – no, notmusic, voices called out.
A cacophony of them, all overlapping, all crying and screaming at once. It was too much. I grabbed my head, dropping to one knee as I struggled to focus around the sound.
Caleb clutched my wrist, his face angling in front of mine. “What is it?”
I grit my teeth. “Voices. So many voices!”
“I can’t hear anything!”
“It’s the death.” Calendula hovered in midair, then dropped to my knee. “Breathe, Lirah. Push through it. You need to follow it.”
Follow it? I wanted to run a hundred miles from it.
The sound grated against my eardrums like a high-pitched staccato, but mournful.Somournful. The last note sounded like it was drawn by a violin.
The noise gave way to a fervent muttering, a thread of words spoken over and over, but at least the screaming had ceased.
“Your nose,” Caleb said in horror. “It’s bleeding.”
I lowered a hand to it, dragging my fingertips across my skin to find it wet. The blood glistened beneath the moonlight.
“I’m okay.” I caught my breath for a minute and when the ground stabilized beneath me, I allowed Caleb to pull me back to my feet.
“What happened to you?” Caleb asked.
“I don’t know.” I glanced around, the voices still playing in a loop in my head, urgent and panicked, in a language I didn’t understand. But from their tone, I knew it was a command. They wanted me to do something.
“It’s this way.” I stumbled across the plain, in a more western direction, where the earth sloped into a steep skyward curve. Following the sound like I followed the link, I allowed myself to be tugged by the crescendo of voices. It was almost unbearable. I couldn’tthinkaround it, and still they spoke, words that were guttural and melodic at the same time; strange sounds overlapping in different pitches with one another.
“Don’t you think it’s weird you’re hearing thingsI’mnot?” Caleb called from behind me. “That it might be a trick?”
“A trick from who?” I was breathless as I climbed the hill, nearing the top.
“I don’t know, maybe this evil fucking place we’re in?” Caleb grunted as he trailed after me.
I shook my head as the voices continued fervently, like they were trying to tell me something.
At the peak, the plain stretched out in uninhibited view. And visible with it was a cave-like structure. It was as wide as it was tall and seemed to be made of many small stones, all welded together to form a large circle.
“There it is,” I said, relief wending through me as I slid down the slope. Scuffling sounded behind me from Caleb.
“What does it mean?” I asked Calendula as I strode toward the cave. The very ground thrummed as I neared it. I recognized it for what it was: energy, unlike anything I had ever felt before. Radiating from within the monolith was death. Glacial, ruthless death.
I repeated the chant; the words being yelled at me.
Her face went pale gray. She whispered, “Keep away. And never return.”
“That’s encouraging,” Caleb muttered.
A large black mouth gaped open like it wanted to devour us. Another salt line ringed the base of the cave, fencing it off.