Page 180 of City of Snakes
A man shouted, “Wait your damned turn!”
Ignoring him and sinking into the shade of the carved space, I shouldered away anyone else from entering. Then I commanded, “To the South Tower.”
There was no way I would bring Firose to Fen and Asterie’s doorstep. I trusted Amara to listen to me.
I trusted she of all people would understand how wholly Caym could overtake someone.
Chapter 59
Sybilla
Impossible language.
There were so many fucking vowels, and the inflection held so much nuance. I struggled over the Brennac words that Krait had used to open the alley doorway into the cavern. Ready to give up, I heaved out a breath, with my forehead pressed to the door.
With Caym inevitably on my heels, doom crashed around me.
Krait had told me that I would never face dangers alone again, and I longed for that to have been true. I wanted him here.
“Repeat,” a feminine voice whispered to me. She sounded familiar but her voice was so vapory at the edges that I knew no physical form accompanied it. I shivered to think that it resembled my mother’s cadence.
The voice whispered Brennac to me, and I repeated it, hoping this wasn’t just an illusion of my own creation. As I spoke the words, I somehow understood their meaning. “Welcome me. ForI seek not darkness but cannot find the light. In the Shadows we trust.”
The lock gears turned, and the door beneath my forehead gave in. I whimpered in relief. Running into the tunnels, I tried to remember the way.
“Left, left, right, straight, left, right.” The whisper in the wind continued to guide me. Every muscle in my body burned, every joint aflame, but still, I ran. Adrenaline and fear fueled my hurried pace.
When I burst into the cavern, Lymrasi hissed. She coiled and lifted her serpent snout in my direction. “I knew you would be back sssooner than you expected.”
I gasped for air, but approached her without fear. “How do we wake them?” I motioned toward the other stone serpents. “I’m calling on you for helpnow.”
“Ssso many have sought us for Death. What is it that you wish to ruin, child?”
“Nothing!” I huffed out, “We don’t have time for riddles. I don’t plan toruinanything. But Caym will if we do not stop him. You told me not to fail—to come back to you when Isolde’s power has been returned. I beg you. Help me, Lymrasi.”
“Lymrasssi means ‘center’ in the Brennac language. It was not my given name.”
I groaned, clenching my fists. “Then what is your given name?”
“Isssleen.”
My back straightened.
My cousin and healer had been envoys, and my ancestor was a winged snake. No possibility seemed off the table. I felt as though I knew nothing.
She hissed, “When we laid him to rest, he changed me and all but one of my children—made usss monstersss. We want to be free of him, soshemust ssspeak with you now.”
I looked around; no one else stood in the cavern, yet the distinctive feeling of being watched overwhelmed me. The same voice that guided me here said, “Sybilla, forgive me.”
I spun to face the woman who had both broken and shaped me.
“Mother?”
She stood there in iridescence, like a shimmering cloud atop a mountain. My mouth hung open as I took in her face and curls—so similar to mine. I’d never had a chance to face her as the woman I’d become.
“We do not have much time,” she said. “He will still rise once more, but you can stop him today, Sybilla. You have always had access to one of the ways to stop him—he fears the weapons Isolde created, for he cannot wield them, but they can destroy him.”
“How...” I glanced at Lymrasi, orIsleen, and then back at the ebbing form of my mother. “How do you know? How are youhere?”
