Azuquita. “Did you talk to Rising Star?”
She nodded. “She wouldn’t discuss her future. Oh, Dominic, she’s so unhappy. What will she do?”
“I wish I could say I knew. Maybe Patrick-”
“Patrick?” Then as she grasped his meaning her eyes widened in surprise. “But she thinks of him as a child. He’s much younger than she is.”
“That’s not unusual in Rising Star’s tribe, and he loves her. In time she might come to love him in the same way.”
“And you could accept that? Joshua is your brother.”
“And I love him,” Dominic said wearily. “But I love Patrick and Rising Star too. Why should all three of them be miserable?”
“Patrick would have to leave Killara, and I think he loves it almost as much as you do, Dominic.”
“Yes.” His gaze left Patrick and shifted to Elspeth’s face. “Sometimes we must choose to give up what we love.” He turned back to the entrance of the temple. “Have you found anything else you want to take with us?”
“I tied a few artifacts in a knapsack and fastened it on Nina’s saddlehorn,” she said absently as her gaze returned to the figures on the trail. “How strange. Dominic, look at Azuquita.”
Dominic turned to see Azuquita leap off his haunches, his long ears laid flat against his head. The mule lunged forward, tearing the lead rope from Patrick’s hands. He shouldered Patrick’s horse aside and passed Rising Star at a gallop.
“Damn, I’ve never seen him move that fast,” Dominic said with a grin. “I wonder what’s gotten into him? I bet Patrick-”
The stone steps suddenly jerked beneath Dominic’s boots, throwing him to his knees! “What in-”
The steps were splitting, great jagged cracks gaping like hungry mouths in the stone.
“Dominic!” Elspeth screamed. “What’s happening?”
Dominic’s gaze flew to the Sun Child. A thin wisp of black smoke belched into the air. Poisonous smoke?
“Oh, my God!” He leapt to his feet and caught Elspeth’s hand. “Come on.” He pulled her down the steps, tossed her on Nina’s back, and slapped the mares rump. “Get going! Follow Rising Star and Patrick. Don’t wait for me.” He jumped on Blanco and turned the stallion to follow Elspeth.
“Of course I’m going to wait for you.” Elspeth had reined in Nina a few yards away. The streets were shivering, undulating as if they were alive. It was like riding on the back of a giant serpent flexing in the sun. “It’s the Sun Child, isn’t it? Do we have time to get out of the city?”
“How do I know?” Dominic yelled as he grabbed Nina’s reins and put both horses to a run. The balcony of the house they were passing suddenly shattered and fell to the street. Blanco reared, pawing the air. “Lord save me from an obstinate woman. Do you want to get yourself killed? My saddlebags are heavily loaded and Blanco may not be able to move as fast as your horse. Get
“I’ll wait for you.” Elspeth was pale, but her lips were firmly set. “But I think we’d best hurry.”
Dominic cast her a glance that was a mixture of desperation and exasperation. “If we get out of this alive, remind me to tell you about the virtues of wifely obedience.” He turned down the street leading to the trail to the pass.
They had to stop twice to avoid falling columns, but they were finally climbing, leaving the city behind.
The billows of smoke had increased but there was still no sound except the shattering cacophony that came from Kantalan itself as the earth quaked and shivered, bringing houses, palace, and temple alike crashing. The trail was also shaking, and Dominic could feel Blanco trembling with fear.
“Patrick and Rising Star have reached the pass,” Elspeth called back to him. “Does that mean they’re safe?”
Dominic shook his head. “With the mountain shaking like this, there are bound to be landslides. We just have to hope there’s not too much loose rock. There’s a chance the-”
Elspeth’s mare fell to her knees and Dominic had to jerk Blanco aside to keep him from stumbling over the fallen horse. Then Nina struggled to her feet and Elspeth had time to glance at the Sun Child.
“Merciful God,” she whispered.
A third of the top of the mountain had blown away in the explosion and a thick stream of orange-red lava-like an obscene tongue of fire-poured down the mountain toward Kantalan.
“Not very merciful at the moment,” Dominic muttered. “Lets hope for more leniency in the next ten minutes or so.”
The sky was raining fireballs of lava, some as large as a mans torso. It was no longer early afternoon but night, the entire valley shrouded by black smoke. The only illumination was the fireballs being hurled into the air and the stream of lava rushing toward the city in an invincible tide of destruction.
“Cover your nose and mouth,” he shouted, tying his bandanna over his lower face. “Even if the fumes aren’t poisonous the smoke could still-” He broke off as a small fireball hit Blanco’s left flank. The horse gave a shrill neigh of terror and then bolted. Elspeth’s mare followed in a flight of panic, straight up the trail, ignoring the trembling earth and tumbling rocks, desperately fleeing from the fire falling from the sky.
Dominic managed to rein Blanco in as they reached the pass. The trail was straight down, and a misstep could cause the fragile bones of the horse’s legs to snap. He cast a hasty glance down the trail as he waited for Elspeth to reach him. There had been no slide yet as far as he could see, but that didn’t mean there wasn’t a blockage farther on.
Elspeth was now beside him, her eyes streaming above the handkerchief tied over her nose and mouth. “Patrick and Rising Star-”
“They should be almost down to the waterfall by now if they…” He didn’t complete the sentence, there was no use stating the obvious when Elspeth was frightened enough as it was. “Let me go first and keep a tight rein.”
“Oh, Dominic.” Elspeth was looking back at the city with shocked sorrow. “Kantalan.”
Dominic’s gaze followed hers. The lava that had entered the canal at the foot of the Sun Child had flowed into the other canals and there was now a flaming cross intersecting the smoke-shrouded darkness of the city. Elspeth and Dominic were breathless with wonder at the sight. Slowly the canals began to overflow and the lava spilled out to begin to cover the city.
“We have to go,” Dominic said gently. “Now, Elspeth.”
“I know.” She closed her eyes. Good-bye Kantalan. Her eyes flicked open and she turned to face the trail leading through the pass. “I’m ready to follow you.”
He nodded and began the downhill trek.
The way was clear for the first few hundred yards, then they ran into a minor landslide but nothing the horses couldn’t pick their way around. Three quarters of the way down there was a more serious blockage, and they were forced to get off the horses and climb over the four-foot-high pile of rubble, tugging the leads of the horses until they managed to clamber over the obstruction.
The ground was still shaking, but Dominic was allowing himself to be more hopeful. He caught sight of the lake a few hundred feet ahead of them and turned his head to call back to Elspeth. “Just a few minutes more.”
She nodded silently.
He turned back to the trail.
“No!” Dammit, not when they were so close.
“The Sun Child.” Elspeth’s gasp behind him. “Another eruption.”
Huge jagged cracks were appearing in the stone on either side of them. A cool rush of air, pocketed for perhaps a million years within the bowels of the mountain, touched their faces. “Run for it!”
Huge chunks of rocks dislodged from the cliffs, hurtling down behind them, in front of them, all around them. They plunged into the cold water of the lake at the same time. The horses swam frantically. A boulder the size of a tree plunged into the lake behind them. Crashing, roaring noises assaulted their ears; shards of smaller stones were flying through the air.
Then they were climbing onto the rock-strewn bank behind the waterfall, the mist bathing them in a soothing balm. In another moment they had made their way under the waterfall and around the rocky ledge to the grassy bank.
Elspeth’s breath was coming in little gasps, her chest hurting, her eyes burning. “Are we safe?”
