Page 162 of In Rising Tides

Lyra glanced sidelong at him, raising her chin. “I’m fine.”

He looked pointedly at her grip, and she relaxed it immediately. “It’s the sea here … it’s different.”

Drystan looked around as if expecting to see something different from what they had passed thus far. The onyx sand glittered in the sunlight streaming in from the surface. The anemones here were different from the amethyst they had traveled through earlier.

It was a rainbow, an effervescent rainbow. The tentacles were thicker, too. They were healthier here. Everything was thriving with energy.

Even the light in the water was brilliant enough that Lyra found herself squinting against the brightness for quite some time until her vision adjusted.

“How so?” Drystan asked.

Lyra sighed deeply, her eyes fluttering closed as she spoke. “It slumbers. But not peacefully.” She opened her eyes to see Drystan gaping at her. “What?”

“Your voice …” he started before shaking his head. “It didn’t sound like yours just now.”

A frown marred her face before she turned and waved him off. “You’re idiotic.”

The current shifted for a heartbeat, like a ripple.

They halted their procession.

“What was that?” Lyra hissed, feeling the hair on the back of her neck stand on end.

Drystan’s keen eyes scanned their path before he turned to stare behind them. “Something woke up.”

The guards shifted, bringing their weapons before them and moving into ready positions. Gold gleamed and metal whined.

The princes also looked around restlessly.

“An earthquake?” Caspian asked, his white hair tied back and off his shoulders.

Rigel shook his head in earnest. “Didn’t feel as strong as the others had been.”

“Let’s move.” Lir pushed his manatee along.

“How is your magic, really?” Drystan murmured, sliding off his mount and coming to a halt beside her.

Lyra fumbled for the thread in her chest. It was there, but dim. Drystan’s shoulders relaxed a fraction as she wiggled her hand back and forth in a so-so fashion.

“What is out there?” she hissed.

A crackle of electricity shot from one of the volcanoes in the distance, and she gasped.

A loud rumble trembled the seabed. It was the closest thing to thunder she had ever heard beneath the waves.

Lyra’s mouth dropped open.

Drystan stared in awe, his eyes widening, but his knuckles turned white against the reins. “Those volcanoes haven’t been active since before the First War …”

The land stilled, becoming silent once more, but the tension did not ease from those gathered.

Fear had drawn up the muscles between Lyra’s shoulders, and she could not shake the feeling that something monstrous was soon to come.

“Keep moving,” Drystan ordered, regaining his position and easing to the front of the group.

A dark cloud gathered far off in the distance, and anxiety coiled in Lyra’s gut. She couldn’t shake the feeling for the rest of the journey, and when the temple finally appeared, a mass of onyx glass with colossal pillars the size of the trees she had seen in the Wilds, her stomach dropped.

The time had finally come.