waiting on pilgrims to the top must leave at the end of the season.”
“Because I’m probably dead.”
“Yes. Come.” As they followed her in, Invia snapped her fingers and pointed at the males. “These are her husbands and her nemari. They need rooms for a possibly extended stay. Maevana Lorren Amori is here to climb.”
Gasps from the priests and priestesses around the group made Mave looked around quickly, seeing a dozen of them standing in the dark shadows watching.
Her males were ushered away from her, and Mave’s heart began to pound.
“Will I be able to see them before I leave?”
“You have declared your intent to climb to the Dragon’s Nest, the peak of this great mountain. You have forty-eight hours to settle your affairs and learn before you leave. If you back out, you will leave having been banished from this place, for we don’t take these things lightly. One chance—that is all you have, and you have already begun.” Mave looked at her husbands as Invia led her away. “Once you and I are finished talking, you can spend the next two days doing as you please.”
She led Mave to a large inner courtyard, somehow kept alive in the midst of the storm. Mave looked up and gasped. A glass ceiling let the minimal light available through and kept the storm from penetrating. It was deceptively warm as well. Mave found small fireplaces built around the side in areas where it wouldn’t set the plants on fire.
They ended up going into a quiet room at the back of the temple, or what Mave thought was the back. Invia offered Mave a seat, then took another across a table.
“Why do you wish to climb?” Invia asked, grabbing a large book and flipping to a blank page, then readied a quill. “We have all those who come tell their story, for remembrance.”
Mave understood. In case anyone came looking, the story was written.
Mave told her story from the beginning—her childhood, her time as a slave and a gladiator, her evolution into the warrior she was now, her freedom, her journey through Olost and the Elvasi attack. It went on and on.
Mave spoke of her first dream of Kristanya, which made the high priestess stumble for a moment, the only time the high priestess messed up as Mave continued on through the war.
And finally, to her argument with Alchan.
“So…the secret about the royal family has finally escaped their tight lips,” the female whispered. “Interesting. Also bold of you to send your king to his death.”
“My king is…” Mave trailed off. “My brother is a good male who deserves his place in history as a great king who tried to exhaust every resource to save his people. And I will do everything in my power to give him that.”
Invia only nodded.
Mave finished her story with finding Invia.
“Now, I’m here with you to ask the goddess Kristanya to make me her Avatar in the hope it grants me the ability to win this war.”
“No one knows what an Avatar of Kristanya could do, but you seem to have great belief in the idea,” Invia pointed out. “Others went to Kristanya for the same reason, hoping it granted them the power to keep their loved ones from dying. Control over her darkest forces, so they could subvert them. In a way, you are doing the same.”
“In a way, but she’s not just the goddess of darkness and death. She is also the goddess of war, and that's what I’m hoping to draw on.”
“Of course.” Invia closed the book and set it aside. “You climb for a long time. Only four Andinna have ever returned from this journey, and it took many weeks. They never told anyone what they found at the peak. You could get there and find nothing.”
“I have the feeling that won’t be the case,” Mave whispered, thinking of what Kristanya told her.
“Certainly. You’ve had more access to the goddess Kristanya than any other Andinna. She’s always been most withdrawn. We know her in our blood as warriors. We know her on the night of Al Moro Nat. We know her at our end. No Andinna has ever truly known her while they’ve been alive.”
“I can’t say I know her well, but she took an interest in me, and now, I’m going to see it through, even if she thinks it’s pointless. I have so many questions for her, and I’m going to get answers while I’m up there.” Mave decided she wanted to change