“Think about the clue Lucielle gave us,” I said. “She said that—”
“I know exactly where it is,” Isu said sourly, interrupting me. “It’s obvious. That tart said it was under beauty, correct? Look over there. It’s under that statue, I guarantee it.”
I followed the direction of her finger and saw a statue of a very beautiful young woman, with thick locks of wavy hair, big pert tits, and seductively curved hips. Her face was a masterpiece, and if it was a truly lifelike replica, I definitely would have liked to meet that goddess.
“Lucielle, isn’t it?” I asked, even though the answer was clear.
“Who else?” Isu folded her arms across her busty chest. “The empress of vanity herself. She considers herself to be the epitome of beauty, so that’s your clue right there. Get that smelly oaf to topple her statue, and I’m certain you’ll find what you’re looking for.”
It seemed a shame to destroy a statue of such exquisite beauty, but we didn’t have time to remove it carefully. If all went well, we’d be saving the real-life version of this archetypal beauty, which would be worth infinitely more than one stone replica, however well crafted.
Drok, always eager to participate in any sort of destruction, almost jumped for joy when I nodded my affirmation. He bounded over to the statue of Lucielle, grabbed it by its marble arms, and grunted. With one powerful twist of his hips and shoulders, he ripped the whole thing out of the ground and flung it to the side, where it shattered.
“Not so beautiful now, are you, Lucielle?” Isu stared at a split-off section of the Charm Goddess’s face.
Where the statue had just stood, I found a small hollow in the floor. Inside it was a leather pouch. I pulled it out and opened it, and as soon as I did, a pure and almost blinding light blazed out of the bag.
“Shit,” I grunted, turning my face away from it. “That felt like it was about to melt my fucking eyeballs. What the hell is this thing?”
Elyse hurried over and took the pouch. Keeping her eyes turned away from the intense spears of light shooting out of the pouch, she reached into it and closed her hands around whatever was inside. As soon as she touched it, she nodded and smiled knowingly.
“This,” she said, taking her hand out of the pouch and pulling the drawstring shut to block off the powerful light from within, “is a Tear of the Lord of Light. It is one of the most powerful artifacts of Light in the world. I always thought that there was only one in all of existence, but now I know that there are two.”
I’d heard of the Tear of the Lord of Light, way back when I’d been an ignorant youth who wanted to become a Consecrated Knight. It was indeed one of the most powerful artifacts of Light in existence, and I too had thought there was only one. That was what the Church of Light told people anyway.
“And where is the other one?” Isu asked.
“The vaults of Luminescent Spires, of course,” Elyse answered. “Of all the valuable objects, treasures, and artifacts kept there, the Tear of the Lord of Light is considered one of the most valuable.”
“Well, now we know where to go if we need another of these,” Friya commented.
I chuckled humorlessly and shook my head. “Maybe we can grab it while we’re fetching an embalmed dragon heart? Hopefully, we won’t ever need either of them. Right now, we have what we need to destroy the Temple of Blood.”
With that, we raced out of the crypt and returned to our mounts.
“We need to take the trail northwest of here,” Rami-Xayon said.
“I’m sending Talon on ahead to check the trail before we go down it.”
“We can move while the harpy is flying though,” Elyse said. “We cannot delay, Vance. Every second that we allow to slip through our fingers is another second that brings us closer to catastrophe.”
“Okay, let’s ride,” I said. “But don’t interrupt me; I’m going to be scouting.”
We took off, galloping out of the destroyed fortress and following the northwestern trail that led toward the distant mountains. Once again, I put my trust in Fang to carry me safely onward as I shot my spirit and senses into the body of the harpy, who was flying a few hundred yards above the ground.
I flapped the undead creature’s wings urgently, propelling it onward at maximum speed, that ineffable worry making me push even harder even at this speed. I used the currents of air to my advantage, swooping and diving and rising with them; I was becoming quite the expert flyer.
The sharp mountain peaks, shaped like dragons’ teeth, loomed ever closer. I kept the only passage through these harsh mountains beneath me like a strand of thread that would guide me through a labyrinth. As the trail started to wind upward into the peaks, I swooped down lower to get a closer look at the terrain. The trail cut like the bed of a long-dried-up stream through the mountains. On either side of it, sheer walls started to rise, getting higher and higher until they reached a mile in height at one point.
And then I saw a sight that almost made me forget to flap Talon’s wings. Here, right here by the unsurpassable cliffs, an avalanche had occurred. Debris and rocks were piled hundreds of yards high, blocking off the trail completely. We would eventually be able to climb over it, of course, but that would add a number of hours to a journey that was already cutting things extremely close.
This avalanche could not have been a natural occurrence. My uncle and the Blood God had been behind this. And it had been a good move; this would surely delay us beyond dawn. The sacrifice would go ahead, Lucielle would be killed, and the Demogorgon would take permanent physical form in the world.
With
