Kaidan and Zerua stood rooted to their spot as Bane looked out over the field. Her long, slender fingers clenched into fists as she stared at the field of tombs. "Why are you here, travelers?"

The two exchanged glances. This is the moment of truth, Zerua thought. She bit her lip and then said, "We're here to find the truth, my lady."

Bane whipped around to face them, her eyes blazing and no longer hazel. "Why do you seek the truth? And do not lie to me. I hear your thoughts, strangers, and I know your hearts' darkest desires."

"If you know them," Kaidan muttered, "Then why do you want us to restate them?"

The blaze in her eyes dimmed, and her expression went back to the neutral one it held prior. "Often, people do not know the truth of their intentions until forced to state them. People—" She snorted. "People are so good at lying to themselves." She wrapped her lily-white arms around her torso. "So, so very good at it."

Zerua wondered if the woman had lost it.

Bane snickered. "You wonder if I have lost my mind. Maybe I have. She certainly did enough to ensure I would. But no—" She laughed again. "I have not lost my mind." The wind picked up again, whistling through the trees. She raised her hands, and thunder rolled again. "I haven't lost it. But I sometimes wish I would so I wouldn't have to endure this loneliness!" She spun to face them, the glow back in her eyes. "You say you have come for the truth, travelers? Well, let me show you my truth!"

They shrank away from her, staring at her glowing eyes and wild red hair, which whipped in the wind. She raised her arms higher, throwing back her head and yelling words into the sky. The words were in a language Zerua had never heard, but the power behind them made the hairs at the nape of her neck prickle. Bane let out a wild scream then, which rent the silent air.

Thunder boomed, and lightning ripped across the green-hazed sky. From the graves rose thousands of ethereal beings, their green forms in various states of decay. Zerua's eyes widened, and her lips parted. Her stomach flipped, and she took a step back, releasing Kaidan's arm. She clapped a hand over her mouth as she noticed that the man rising from the grave closest to her was missing half his head and the woman next to him was clutching a baby whose throat dripped black ichor.

Zerua's breaths came in ragged gasps, and she dropped to her knees, shaking. "W-what are they?"

Bane's lips peeled back in a vicious grin, revealing sharp canines and two rows of straight, pearl-white teeth. "This is what has become of my kingdom. Of the once great Ashkarith. Behold, those that have no rest! Behold, those that Sedra murdered and threw into this mass grave, burying them under the jungle's floor to hide her atrocities from the world forever!" Bane swept her arm back in a wide gesture to include the thousands of decimated ghosts hovering over their graves. "You seek the truth, travelers? Well, you shall find it. And if it does not drive you mad, then—" Bane cast them a sly grin. "Then, we shall see if you are fit to complete the journey you've begun."

The ghosts began to fade back into the ground, and the thunder grumbled to a halt. Bane also began to fade, her body scattering into a white mist.

Zerua threw out a hand. "No! Wait, please! Tell us where to go. How can we find you again?"

Bane's lips curved into a wicked grin, and she pointed with a dissolving hand to the center of the city where the green mist hung in lurid clouds over the center of the city.

"We don't know what that means." Zerua let out a cry and lunged to latch onto Bane's disintegrating form. Her hand slipped through Bane's chest, and Bane burst into a glowing white fog before disappearing all together. Zerua stood there, her hand outstretched and her eyes wide. Her lower lip trembled, and she stared out at the wasteland of graves, her chest heaving. What was done here—That woman. The baby. Those men. A shudder rippled through her, and she took a step back, her lips parting. W-we can't stay here. She turned and crashed into Kaidan in her desperation to leave.

He stood there, staring at the spot where Bane had stood. Her hand pressed to his chest, and his heart pulsed under her hand in quick, unsteady beats. She grabbed his shoulders and shook him. "Kaidan! Kaidan, can you hear me?"

His vacant gaze drifted down to hers. "What?"

"Kaidan, we need to go. Anywhere but here." She grasped his hand in hers and yanked him toward the break in the wall they'd entered through.

Kaidan stumbled along behind her. "Go where? Zer, what we saw—"

She shook her head, sucking in a breath. "We can't—no, I can't talk about that. We need to leave this place. Now. Before it drives us mad like Tebhor."

He ground to a halt, tugging her to a stop too. "She won't let us. We have to finish this, Zer."

"What?" Zerua spun to face him and released his hand to put her hands on her hips. "This is madness! All we have to do is go back the way we—" She stopped with a gasp. The way we came. She turned to look. Nothing looked familiar. Houses filled the gaps between trees, and she could've sworn they hadn't been there before. Spinning in a circle, she searched for the street they'd run down. The only street visible led further into the city the way Bane had directed them to go.

Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

"We can't leave until we do what she said." Kaidan's voice cracked. "We can't leave. Gods, we're—we're trapped."

Zerua rounded on him. Grabbing his tunic, she tugged him into her. "No, stop it. Stop this instant. If you panic, we're going to die in this gods-forsaken city of the dead. Do you want to end up like the poor people who came here before us?"

He shook his head, his hands resting on her waist out of habit. "Of course not."

She wrapped her arms around his neck and pressed her forehead to his chest. "Then find whatever courage you have left, and let's get on with this."

He wound his arms around her waist and held her close. She shifted to let him bury his face in her neck. "Whatever happens, know that I love you and don't regret anything." He snickered, but the laugh shook more than usual. "Except maybe coming here."

She squeezed him to her. "Neither do I. Except, you know, I regret coming here too."

Their broken laughter was the only thing that made a sound in the surrounding area, and it carried across the fields in an eerie echo, bouncing against the houses and trees around them. They stopped laughing and straightened, smoothing wrinkles out of their clothing. Then they turned to face the path into the heart of Ashkarith and the fog-covered castle on the hill towering above the rest of the city of the dead.

***

Moonlight drenched the vine-covered temple in silver. Kaidan and Zerua stood before the great carven doors, gazing at the emblem etched into the rowen wood of the doors. They glanced at each other then back at the door. Kaidan's fingers trembled as he stretched them toward the iron handles of the temple. "S-should I?" He looked to Zerua again. "Last time we thought it would be a good idea to camp out in a temple, those glowing ghost men attacked us."

Zerua bit her lip, the color blanching from her face. "We don't have another option, Kaidan. Sleeping out in the open isn't safe either."

He took a deep breath. "You're right. Of course. After that last experience though—" He shook his head. "I'm never going to see temples the same way again." Stepping forward, he closed his fingers around the chilly iron handles. For a moment, he remained there, barely breathing.

Silence draped over the clearing in which the temple nestled. Even his breathing was muffled in his ears. He swallowed hard, his fingers tightening on the wrought-iron circlets beneath them. Then he heaved backward, and the doors groaned outward. A sliver of space opened into the moon-soaked interior of the temple. Nothing stirred in its depths. Silence reigned inside just as it did outside. It was as if some invisible magic wave through the temple and the grove, hushing the world in reverence.

He slipped through the crack. His footsteps made no sound within the chapel as he padded up the pew-lined aisle. The interior made of the temple was dimmer in the back where the moonlight could barely reach. At the front, however, moonlight filtered down through a hole in the ceiling and flitted over the water cascading down the fountain in front of an alabaster statue.

The statue looked out over the forest chapel, her face carrying an open invite to all who approached. A knowing smile had been carved onto her cold stone lips, and one hand stretched out in a silent welcome to the weary pilgrim. Vines crept over the statue's feet, lapping at the hem of her skirt and twining up it to her waist. The tendrils crept no further, embracing her slender waist and broad hips like a lover clinging to his love. There she presided over the silent sanctuary as she had for eons and would for eons more if the strange state of this city was any indication.

Nothing moved, and for the first time since entering the haunted city, a sense of peace enveloped Kaidan. It felt as if this place had been intended for a safe haven even in the midst of the chaos of the siege that had brought this great city to its knees. Shoulders slumping, he strode back to the door and beckoned for Zerua to enter. "It's safe this time. But close the door for good measure."

She released a nervous laugh and stepped over the threshold. "Why bother? They're spirits. Doors won't keep them out."

"No. But it'll make me feel better." Kaidan dragged the door shut behind her when she stood unmoving at the entrance, staring at the statue. He frowned when she still didn't move after the door was shut. "What is it?"

"Kaidan, do you have any idea what we've just found?" Zerua looked over her shoulder at him.

He frowned at the statue she'd been staring at. Art was her area of expertise. Of course he didn't know. "No. What?"

"Kaidan, this is one of the original temples of Albrith. The one in Ashkarith was presumed lost." She wandered further into the temple, trailing her fingers over the pews and gazing up at the moonlight-drenched boughs of the trees that stretched over the open roof above the statue's head. "It was said that this was the most beautiful of the temples for her. Rith created it as a memorial, according to the texts. Allegedly, Sedra had left it standing out of respect for her lost sister, but—" Zerua shook her head. "When everyone declared the city lost to the jungle, it was supposed to have been destroyed. To find it here after so many years."

"So—" Kaidan cleared his throat and followed her up the pew-lined aisles. "Think it's a coincidence that the only path we could follow led us right here just as the night got too dark to continue?"

Zerua shook her head, spinning in a circle to take in the pristine chapel, which showed none of the decay the rest of the city showed. "It's not a coincidence. She led us here." Her lips thinned into a tight line. "I just don't know why. The temple of Albrith in Ashkarith is supposed to be a sacred place of protection. Those who had been declared guilty for crimes they hadn't committed could flee here, and Banach would grant them a hearing for the sake of Rith's sister because she was known to be a woman of justice."

Kaidan flopped onto a pew. It groaned under his weight but held as he laid back, folding his hands over his abdomen. "So, it's a safe place to sleep?"

Zerua nodded hesitantly. "I mean, I think so. I doubt she'd bring us to the place where she pardoned the innocent if she was going to kill us."

Kaidan grunted. "Didn't seem like she was all that stable to me."

Zerua shrugged and dropped her packs on the floor. Rummaging through them, she pulled out their new blankets, which had been provided by the Faelkishians for the journey, and spread them out over the hard stone floor. "We're doomed one way or another if we run, Kaidan. Just come lay down with me and try to rest. We're going to need it for what lies ahead."

He sighed and threw his legs over the edge of the pew, sitting up. Padding over to her, he laid down and tugged her down beside him. He pulled their extra blankets up over their bodies, warding off the night air's chilly nip. "Right as always, love." He pressed a kiss to the tip of her nose. "And if we die here tonight, at least we don't have to face the terrors at the center of this cursed city."