As the water crashed down onto me, I thought that maybe I should have taken that Priestess up on her offer. At least then I'll have died with a pleasant memory to reflect upon.
Grasping for purchase, my fingers dug into the mud but could find nothing to latch onto as the flood threw me over the ledge and into the rushing river below.
It pulled me under and down, my limbs smacking against branches and boulders. My pack snagged on a root and I scrambled to free myself, lungs burning. Clearly, Fate ordained that I should drown, as this was the second time it tried since I'd left home.
Something grasped my hand. Startled, I opened my mouth. Instead of choking on water, warm lips pressed against mine and filled my lungs with air. In the dimming light, I saw the Priestess from Solaris as her body wrapped around mine, and then I knew no more.
The sun beating down brought me back to consciousness. I was laying on the shore of the river, mud caking my body and hair. Every muscle ached, but the storm had passed for now, leaving droplets on the leaves and calm water in front of me.
My pack was mostly intact, so I waded into the water to try to wash some of the mud off before it dried to me any worse. But judging from the sound of thunder this effort would probably be in vain.
Something splashed to my left and I drew my knife. Dark hair breached the surface of the water and then the Priestess emerged. I watched as she shifted, first into Sam and then her skin turned iridescent blue and her hair that starlit night. The mermaid that had nearly lured me to my death weeks ago smiled her razor-toothed smile, but I wasn't afraid.
That at least explained why she'd been so tempting yesterday. Though I don't know if she had actually been that Priestess, or had somehow pulled her image from my mind. "You followed me all this way."
She pressed her hand to her chest, then swam closer to me, humming that same song that she'd sang before. A siren's call that was so difficult to resist. I thought of Sam. Sam waiting for me, Sam that I would not could not betray.
Slipping around me, she rose from the water, arms encircling my chest. It was too shallow here for her to drag me down, but not so shallow that I couldn't be drowned. But she'd saved my life and somehow I didn't think she wanted to end me now.
I turned in her embrace, "Why did you let me go last time? Why did you save me this time?"
As far as I could tell, she'd had every intention of devouring my bones deep beneath the surface of that pond. But she didn't have an answer for me, her alien, inhuman features inscrutable. Everything that is, save for her eyes.
"I'm sorry, I truly am. You're beautiful and the gods know I've never felt so tempted, but I have something important to do and someone I love very much waiting for me to come home. I can't betray my Sam."
Her eyes held mine for a long moment, and her lips brushed mine once, and twice, before she nodded and let go of me. She swam around me for awhile longer, and then with a mighty flick of her tail, she was gone.
I didn't leave the water until I could feel the chill seeping into me and I didn't dare look back as I started back up the mountain. Whatever she felt for me, whatever she'd seen in my heart back in that pond, I was certain that I wouldn't see her again. That was the last bit of help she'd give me.
With the break in the storm, it was easier to climb than it had been that morning, but the rocks were wet and the path up to the temple steep and nearly worn away. But as I got closer, the clouds started to close in. Lightning flashed, and the sky opened up. This time I was ready, and avoided being washed away.
Three hundred yards above me, I could at least make out the temple. It was lit from inside, though I'd seen no sign that anyone had used this trail in centuries. But that light, like a candle in the window, guided me. The last fifty feet was sheer rock and I clung to it as wind buffeted at me. My fingers bled, and my muscles burned as foot by foot I hauled myself up that damned rock until I'd reached the top.
Laying on my back, I wanted to take a few minutes to catch my breath and rest my arms but lightning struck just a few feet away. I scrambled towards the temple, diving inside and narrowly avoiding another strike.
It was dry inside the temple. Carved pillars formed twin lines on either side of me, leading up to carved statue sitting above a dias.
The Sun Queen. I could feel her power resonating through the temple and through me, vibrations that set my teeth on edge and rattled my bones. The closer I came, the stronger the feeling became.
The statue was very realistic, as though flesh had turned to stone. I placed my hand on it, and the eyes opened. They fixed on mine. Pain and anguish were reflected within them. There was a hideous scream as she lashed out. Wind knocked me back, slamming me into a pillar. The statue stood, stone falling away and smashing to the ground.
A young woman stood there, skin pale and stretched too thin across her bones. She lifted skeletal like fingers. I barely pulled myself out of the way before lightning shattered the pillar I was leaning against and rocked the temple. My sword, Roth's sword, clattered out of my reach.
How long had she been trapped like that? How long had she been living stone, cursed to watch the world until someone came to kill her? Maybe what I had to do was actually a mercy.
I knocked an arrow and loosed it, striking her in the shoulder. Her shriek made the ground heave, the marble cracking under my feet. I regained my footing, loosing another arrow, then a third and a fourth. Each shriek threatened to bring the temple crashing down onto the both of us.
I lined up the fifth arrow, and she stood there unmoving. The wind died down, the storm outside stopped and she made no further move to resist. I lowered the bow, just a little. In the space of a blink she stood in front of me. I lifted the bow again, the arrow at her throat and bowstring pulled back.
"Free me," she whispered, her voice like the sound of rustling parchment and canvas. "Free me."
"That's what I'm here to do," I told her.
"Thank you."
And I let go of the string.
Lightning shot through me, rippling up my body and out through my eyes. I screamed, the sound like thunder, my body convulsing and my muscles out of my control.
For a thousand years or a thousand seconds, the power gripped me. I could see back, stretching back an age and I understood what I'd done, who had trapped her and where her power had come from. I'd freed her, but the cost…
As suddenly as it had begun, it stopped. Something impacted my chest, and I looked down to see Roth's sword embedded to the hilt, just below where my amulet hung. I looked up to see Natla's face.
Her voice was like poison in my ear, "When you kill a god, someone must take her place."
She pushed me forward, the sword sinking into the stone wall as she left me to hang there, my breath coming in short, painful gasps. "Don't worry about your kingdom. It will simply go on without you."
Holding out her hands, Natla's eyes glowed, "Now return my power to me, your majesty."
Lightning sprang from the hilt of the sword, connecting with Natla's fingers. With each pulse, I could feel what little life I had remaining drain away.
"Sam…"
A voice rang in my mind, She has hunted us for centuries, using mortals' blood. You can restore the balance, you can take my power and you will live. But all power comes with a cost.
What cost?
She answered me with a vision and I understood what the cost would be.
Close your eyes, and let me in.
I let the voice in. I let the voice in and I stood watch.
