The Alcazar (The Cerulean Duology #2) - Amy Ewing Page 0,87

alone. For the second time that night, Leela crept from her bed and out into the Moon Gardens.

She gazed up at the temple spire, silver in the moonlight.

Sera did this all the time, she reminded herself. But the sensation of falling in her dream was still thrilling through her limbs, and she found she could not move, her body locked in panic.

See beneath the glitter and the gold. And then make a leap of faith.

That’s what the will-o-the-wisp had said. Though Leela knew in her heart it was Mother Sun who had spoken to her, she could not bring herself to form the thought. It felt too large, too scary, too significant. So she focused on the task instead.

The glitter and gold must be the spire. And in order to see beneath it, she would have to climb.

She used the eave above the dormitory door to heave herself up, the way Sera had always done. The outer wall of the temple was shingled in sunglass, and she gripped its ridged surface with her fingers and toes. The first few moments were sheer terror, but soon Leela found herself developing a rhythm, moving her feet first, left then right, and letting her hands follow. And slowly, she inched her way up the cone of the temple until she had reached the top. She was breathless, sweat dewing in her hair and trickling down her back, but she felt a rush of triumph as well. If only Sera could see her now.

She stared at the spire, wondering exactly what she was meant to do. She ran her fingers over its smooth surface, feeling the sharp point of it, then searching at its base.

She gasped as her fingers ran over a thin piece of metal that wrapped halfway around the edge where the spire met the sunglass.

It was a hinge.

Leela grasped the narrow point of the cone in one hand and pushed. The spire fell open, and though Leela had been told what to expect, she still stared in shock at its depths.

The space beneath the spire was filled with moonstone.

She could not see how deep it went—some pieces looked to be parts of the fountain, broken and shattered, but others were carved into shapes, doves and snails and beetles, while some were set in jewelry like Sera’s necklace. There was a thin decorative cuff of moonstone within her reach, its ends gilded with sungold. Leela picked it up—it felt warm in her hand, and a tingle of magic glimmered up her wrist and into her arm as she slipped it on. It shone against her skin like it was happy, as if it had always meant to live there and had finally returned home. It was hers, Leela was sure of it, though she sensed a different owner, a faint whisper of some long-dead Cerulean who had once worn this bangle on her wrist. And she suddenly understood what the wisp had meant when it said moonstone was yearning to be touched, to be owned, to connect. It was a piece of Mother Sun’s love and every Cerulean left her own imprint on it.

Leela wondered where the moonstone in Sera’s pendant had come from, and what life it had lived before she had found it on the Estuary’s shore. And how had she found it, come to think of it? If moonstone stopped appearing, where had that particular stone come from?

She would not find the answers all the way up here, though. Leela carefully replaced the spire and began the long descent back to the ground. Her arms and legs were aching by the time she reached the bottom, and she quickly slipped the cuff into the pocket of her robe. She could not wear it, but she would keep it on her person at all times.

Only after she snuck back into the dormitory did she think she should have gotten a piece for Elorin as well. But, she reassured herself, the cache was not going anywhere, and she could always go back up to the spire another night.

The sad tolling of a bell from within the temple woke Leela almost as soon as she had laid her head on her pillow.

Novices were rousing themselves and looking around the dormitory in confusion. Leela met Elorin’s eyes across the room and Leela could tell they were both wondering what had happened.

Leela managed to slip her moonstone cuff into the pocket of a fresh robe as she changed. She and Elorin gathered cushions to