Chapter 23: The Cost Sib Prophesied

The blind spot held them for three minutes, maybe four. Long enough for the cold to settle in properly, the kind that comes from standing still after moving fast, the body suddenly aware of all its accumulated complaints. Mara's feet hurt. She hadn't eaten since the half a cereal bar she'd found in her coat pocket at noon. Brekke was a warm point of pressure on her shoulder and the lamp was warm in her hand and the flame inside it moved against the glass in small, almost animal gestures, as if it were trying to see out.

"We need to go," Asha said.

She didn't explain what she meant by go in the tone that suggested she might mean anything other than the temple, and she was already moving, reorienting herself to the passage they'd come through, the one that smelled of pressed time and old stone and something under that which had no name in English, or at least no name Mara knew. Mara followed. Brekke stayed where he was, a small specific weight, and said nothing.