The Alcazar (The Cerulean Duology #2) - Amy Ewing Page 0,89

frowned. “But neither of us have eaten the fruit. So how were we able to?”

“Perhaps it is because you two know about the lies,” Leela said. “There is a strength of will in our minds and hearts, not just in our magic. Your eyes are opened. So you are seeing things you never imagined possible.”

Elorin nodded solemnly, but Leela was not finished. She took a deep breath and told Elorin about the dream.

By the end of the tale, Elorin’s mouth was hanging open. “Leela,” she whispered. “That was Moth—”

“Now we know where all the moonstone has gone,” Leela said quickly, because admitting she’d spoken with Mother Sun still felt altogether too overwhelming. “The High Priestess may have bent her circlet to her will, but now I have moonstone too.” She reached into her pocket and pulled out the cuff. Elorin marveled at it.

“I can feel the life inside it,” Leela said. “The lives of the other Cerulean who have worn it. It will protect me when I—” She swallowed hard. “When I fall.”

For a moment, Elorin just stared at her. Leela thought she would cry or beg or protest, but when she did at last respond, her voice was steady.

“You are going down onto the planet.”

Leela nodded.

“Are you going to jump off the dais, like Sera did?”

Leela was so relieved she did not have to explain herself. “No,” she said. “That way is not for me.”

She remembered the flash of the tether from her dream. The Sky Gardens were where answers waited for her. It was through the pool that she must go.

“The High Priestess could not destroy the moonstone, so she hid it, in a secret cache,” Leela said. “The fountain is there, and other moonstone as well, jewelry and figurines and all sorts of things. It is all beneath the spire of the temple—there is a hinge at its base. When you think it is safe, go and get a piece for yourself.”

“All right,” Elorin said, though she looked pale as she gazed up at the impressive height of the temple. “When are you going to the planet?”

Leela slipped the cuff on her wrist, the welcoming sensation rippling once again up her arm. “Now,” she said.

Then she held Elorin tight, feeling the girl’s weight and warmth, trying to memorize it in case she never came back. She was too frightened to say goodbye, so she released her and fled through the gardens, the statue of Faesa springing aside before she even reached it, as if it knew, as if it sensed this night was not like other nights.

Down the stairs she ran, and through the paths and past the pools until she came to the tether. It was singing for her tonight as it had once before, the cone of moonstone’s beating red heart aflame with hope, and the song echoed in her veins and gave her courage. She stopped at the water’s edge and stared down at the planet.

A leap of faith, she thought.

Then a voice said, “Good evening, Leela. I was wondering who I might find here.”

From the other side of the pool, the High Priestess emerged. Her face was drawn and terrible. The circlet glowed a sickly green. Leela put her hands behind her back to hide her bracelet.

“I felt a change in my moonstone,” the High Priestess said. “As if another had worn my circlet. But I could not sense who.” She cocked her head. “Impressive, if I’m to be honest, that your magic was able to elude me.”

But Leela had no use for the High Priestess’s praise.

“What you are doing to this City is wrong,” she said.

The High Priestess’s smile was a sharp, jagged thing. “What do you know about right and wrong?” she said. “You have lived such a sheltered life. I have made it that way. It is because of me that this City survives. You could not begin to comprehend the sacrifices I have made to keep it strong and healthy, to keep it protected from the hungry darkness of space and the cruel dangers of the planets.”

“This City is meant to move,” Leela insisted. “And Cerulean are meant to go down onto the planets. It is just as Sera always thought. Is that why you chose her? To silence her?”

“I chose her because her magic was the strongest I have sensed in a century,” the High Priestess said. Then she sniffed the air. “But yours is strong as well. In a different way, a way that I have not