The many-pointed star pulsed out a welcome that Sera’s moonstone returned.
“The tether is inside,” Sera said. “I can feel it.”
Agnes struggled to her feet. “We’ll go with you.”
Leo didn’t say anything; he just straightened and looked at her with the blue-green eyes she had come to know so well, eyes that said to her now, “I will be with you to the end.” She knew he would let her go no matter how much it hurt.
“We’ll wait here,” Vada said. “These men are needing rest.”
“I am sorry, my friends,” Eneas said.
“I can come,” Matthias said, struggling to get to his feet. Sera stopped him with a gentle shake of her head.
“No, you have done enough. More than enough.” Then she leaned down and whispered, “Take good care of them.”
When she passed Eneas, he took her hand and kissed it. “Bless you,” he said. “And all you have done for this family. I wish you could see it. It all began with you.”
Sera’s first thought when she stepped inside the ruins was that this temple was almost like the one in the City Above the Sky.
The ceiling was vaulted and painted with moons and a sun and stars. But the paintings were ancient and not well tended—they were chipped and crumbling in places. The room was huge, circular walls of rose stone with alcoves cut into them that held sconces of copper, though they bore no light now, no candle or wick to be seen.
“Wow,” Leo said, and his voice echoed in the cavernous space.
When they reached the opposite side, they found a door so short they all had to duck to get through it. The next room was smaller and entirely overrun with plants. Ivy devoured the walls, saplings pushed their way up from the cracks in the stone floor, and dandelions and ferns and thistles carpeted the ground. The following room was so dark they had to feel their way along the walls to find the door to get out. It led them into an impossibly cold room with water trickling down the walls, lichen growing in the ancient stone.
At last they emerged into a huge courtyard that was oddly shaped—it took Sera a moment to recognize the many-pointed star, various prongs of stone shooting out from the open center. The tether was stuck into a fountain of frozen water that curled and arched and glittered in the sunlight, as if it had once been bright and bubbling and was caught by a sudden frost. The fountain itself was made of pale pink stone, three tiers with carvings along their edges. The beauty of the tether would have struck her dumb if not for the other, more surprising feature of this courtyard.
Kneeling by the temple was a woman. Not just any woman—a Cerulean. Her blue hair was streaked with silver and when she looked up, Sera saw there were deep wrinkles around her mouth and eyes. Her irises were dim and milky, a blue as pale as the sky at dawn. She struggled to her feet, leaning heavily on the fountain for support, her gaze fixed on Sera.
“Elysse?” she whispered.
Sera’s feet felt cemented to the stone floor. “I am Sera Lighthaven,” she said in a quavering voice. “Who are you?”
“I am Wyllin Moonseer,” the woman replied. Sera’s rib cage seemed to collapse, her head spinning as Leo grabbed her arm to steady her.
“But . . . you are dead,” she gasped. “You died when you created this tether.”
The lines around Wyllin’s mouth deepened. “I should have died many, many years ago, Sera Lighthaven. Have you come to break the tether and set me free to live in Mother Sun’s eternal embrace at last?”
“I have come to go home,” Sera said. “I was hoping the tether could help me get back to the City Above the Sky.”
“The tether cannot do that,” Wyllin replied. “Only moonstone can.” She frowned. “You must have some, if you are here at all.”
Sera took the pendant from beneath her dress and held it out for Wyllin to see. “My best friend gave this to me before . . . before I fell. I was supposed to break the tether, but . . .” She trailed off.
“So,” Wyllin murmured. “She decided it was finally time to leave.” She stepped toward Sera and cupped the stone gently in her hands. “This was mine,” she said. “I sent it to the City months ago, before the fountain froze. The tether can take things, as it nourishes the City, and I hoped . . .” She pressed her thumb to the pendant. “I do not know what I hoped. That someone would find it, and read my heart contained within it. That it would make a difference. I did not think to see it back on this planet again.”
All this was a bit more information than Sera felt herself able to handle. “How are you alive?” she asked. “How is this possible?”
“Elysse is still the High Priestess, is she not?”
Sera had never known the High Priestess’s name. “Yes.”
Wyllin nodded and closed her eyes. “She had a plan,” she said. “And I agreed to it. For the good of the City. For the health of our people. But it was not meant to last this long.” When she opened them, they shone with tears. “I never thought I would see another Cerulean again.”
“Can you help Sera get home?”
Sera had almost forgotten her friends. Agnes was looking at Wyllin with a mix of awe and determination. “We have traveled so far. Please. We want to get her back to her city.”
Wyllin seemed to only just notice them as well. “Humans,” she said, confused. “Humans are helping you?”
Sera nodded. “They have risked much to bring me here.”
Wyllin’s smile was a private, gentle thing. “So she was wrong after all,” she said. “I am glad to see it.” She turned to Sera, but before she could say anything else, there was a flash of brilliant light and then something fell into the courtyard, sending up a cloud of dust that made Sera choke and her eyes water.
“What . . .” Leo gasped, coughing and swatting at the air.
When the dust cleared, a young woman was standing beside the fountain, looking utterly shocked as she stared around at the courtyard. And Sera felt all her fear and confusion turn to joy.
“Leela!” she cried.
Part Six
The Island of Braxos, Pelago
and
the City Above the Sky
32
Leela
THE POOL HADN’T FELT LIKE WATER WHEN LEELA JUMPED through it.
She’d expected liquid to soak her the way the stalactite had when she’d freed Estelle, but instead she’d fallen through a thick gelatin-like substance and emerged completely dry. She caught a fleeting glimpse of shock on the High Priestess’s face before she was tumbling through space, the stars bright around her, the stalactites swirling in her vision.
The descent took ages—at some point it felt like she was no longer even falling, as if she was simply suspended in the cold endless black of space. It was cold, colder than anything she’d felt before, colder than the glowing blue columns of the Sky Gardens or the frosty grass in the cloudspinners’ grove. Her lungs expanded and contracted, but breathing wasn’t comfortable here, not at all the same as she was used to. The planet never seemed to come any closer.
Until all at once, it did.
She hit the atmosphere and her skin sizzled for several painful moments, the tether turning from winking silver-gold-blue to a thin streak of fire. But before the terror was truly able to set in—that she might actually die and her theory of moonstone was wrong—a pearly mist engulfed her, cool and soothing like a balm against her skin. She hung suspended and sensed the mist was waiting for her to make a decision.