THE BURIED GOD
Chapter 10: The Night Before
They stayed in Rook’s house.
The rooms were small, the walls were thin, the floor was cold. But there was food — bread and cheese and dried meat — and there was water, and there was rest.
Damon sat by the window, watching the mountain.
The silver light still pulsed. The priests still screamed. The god still dreamed.
“We cannot wait,” Vespera said. “We must go back. Tonight.”
“We need a plan,” Lyssa said.
“We need to reach the heart. We need to touch the heart. We need to speak the words.”
“We don’t know the words.”
“We will know them when we hear them. The heart will teach us.”
Rook stood by the hearth.
His gray eyes were dark.
“The heart will teach you nothing. The heart will consume you. The heart will make you part of the hunger.”
“Then what do you suggest?”
Rook was silent for a long moment.
“I suggest you run. As far as you can. As fast as you can. As long as you can.”
“And the god?”
“The god will wake. The god will rise. The god will consume.”
“Then we have to stop him.”
“You cannot stop him. You can only delay him. As the priestesses delayed him. As your mother delayed him. As the mountain delayed him.”
“Delaying is enough.”
“Delaying is never enough.”
Damon stood.
“I’m going back.”
Everyone turned.
“Alone?”
“Alone. Vespera is the key. If the priests catch her, they win. Lyssa knows the tunnels. If the priests catch her, we lose our way. Rook knows the village. If the priests catch him, we lose our refuge.”
“And you?”
Damon looked at his hands.
They were still dirty.
“I’m just the gravedigger. I’m no one. I’m nothing. The priests won’t notice me.”
Vespera grabbed his arm.
“You are not no one. You are not nothing. You are the reason I am alive. You are the reason we are here. You are the reason there is hope.”
“I’m just a man with a shovel.”
“You’re more than that.”
“I wish I believed you.”
He walked to the door.
“Damon,” Lyssa said.
He turned.
“Come back.”
He smiled.
It was a sad smile, small and tired and full of years.
“I’ll try.”
He stepped into the night.
The mountain glowed.
The priests screamed.
The god dreamed.
And Damon walked toward the hunger.