mean if I don't go first?'
Yago frowned, and Atreus ascended the staircase while the ogre was still trying to puzzle out the question. The Dweller raised its tentacles and cocked its head, its dark scarlet eyes growing steadily dimmer as Atreus climbed out of the pool's brilliant aura. He averted his own glance and was careful not to lock gazes with the monster. When the trio of scarlet eyes finally faded to nothingness, the creature let out one of its low belly rumbles and splashed its tentacles back into the water.
Atreus found himself standing alone at the entrance to what appeared to be a narrow, vaulted temple. Down each side ran a low meditation platform covered in the mouldering remains of folded carpets. On the walls hung tatters of silken tapestries whose patterns and colors had long ago vanished into dust and mildew. The shining stream ran straight up the aisle between the meditation platforms, narrowing in the distance until it finally vanished into the darkness.
'Atreus?' called Seema. For the first time since leaving her hut, there was genuine concern in her voice. 'Is everything well?'
'It's fine. Come up.'
His companions emerged from the cloudy aura one after the other, each entering the strange vault in awestricken silence. Once they had gathered, Atreus quietly led the way up the aisle. A low murmur began to resonate in the back of his mind, growing more noticeable as they progressed. It was not a sound, but rather the perception of a sound, an echo that reverberated inside his head without passing through his ears.
The murmur became a rhythmic growl, then a deep, guttural chant, and finally an eerie pulsing roar as mesmerizing as it was maddening. Atreus looked back and found Yago and Rishi staring wide-eyed at the dark walls.
'You hear it too?'
Though Atreus had intended to speak only loud enough to make himself understood, his voice rang through the silent temple like a thunderclap.
Both Yago and Rishi nodded nervously.
'It says, 'Luck and Happiness to all creatures. May the Serene Ones spread their grace over the world,'' explained Seema. 'The ancient monks filled the stones with their voices, and now the walls are ringing their chants back to us.'
'The walls?' grumbled Yago. 'It sounds like ghosts.'
Seema whirled on the ogre. 'You mustn't say such things,' she said. 'Not here!'
Yago's orange cheeks darkened. 'Sorry,' the ogre apologized. 'I didn't know they was listening.'
Atreus led the way down the aisle. The chanting continued to swell, but as they grew accustomed to it, it became almost calming. They soon found themselves droning along, 'Omna lo renege ge suun, song tse ngampo ge lung pa… omna lo renege ge suun, song tse ngampo ge lung pa…'
The chant seemed to free their minds from all awareness of time and space, so they were all taken by surprise when the sparkling stream suddenly narrowed and became a fan-shaped cascade spilling down yet another stone stairway.
For a moment, Atreus just stood there, too mesmerized by the hypnotic rhythm inside his head to realize what he was seeing. His gaze began to rise, following the stream up a long series of steps to the summit of a pyramidal dais.
On top sat a pair of golden yaks, kneeling across from each other and facing a great alabaster altar inlaid with a thousand-spoked wheel of gleaming silver. At one end of the altar sat three elegant vessels: a bronze brazier with incense smoke still rising from its heart, a glass butter lamp with a tiny flame still flickering on its wick, and a jade vase with a single hibiscus blossom still rising from its mouth. At the other end sat three plain objects: a loaf of steaming rice-bread, a tin caster filled with fresh cinnamon, and a sandal-wood lute still resonating from the touch of its last player.
In the center of the altar, resting on its side between the two groups of sacred objects, lay what Atreus had come so far to find, a platinum cup rimmed in sapphires and rubies, from whose mouth spilled a perpetual stream of glittering silver water.
Rishi clutched Atreus's arm and whispered, 'Good sir, your wisdom and faith are the measure of all men!' The Mar glanced over his shoulder. 'If I may suggest a small precaution, we should see to Seema with every haste.'
Atreus tore his eyes from the altar and scowled down at Rishi and said, 'See to her?'
Rishi winced, then held a finger to his lips. 'Quietly, good sir,' he cautioned. 'I am sure it will only take one scream, and then the Dweller will come running.'
Atreus glanced back at Seema, who was standing at the base of the dais as awestruck as he. 'Why would she do that?' he asked.
Rishi raised his brow, genuinely surprised. 'Is it not obvious?' he whispered. 'Your goddess sent you here to steal the Fountain of Infinite Grace… that is how you are to return the shining water to Erlkazar.'
The Mar's sly logic stunned Atreus. It was an elegant solution to an otherwise impossible problem, but for the one detail Rishi had overlooked.
'Sune would never want such a thing.'
'Want what thing?' asked Seema, finally drawn out of her reverie.
Rishi glanced at Yago, then cocked his head meaningfully in her direction. Atreus scowled and shook his head.
Getting no answer to her question, Seema stepped to Atreus's side and asked, 'What is all this whispering?'
'Nothing for you to worry about,' Atreus replied.
He was careful not to look in the direction of the alabaster altar, but Seema's suspicions were already raised. She glanced at the toppled cup, her eyes lit in understanding, and she grabbed Atreus's arm with surprising strength.
'You would steal Langdarma's beauty?'
'No,' Atreus said, and covered Seema's fingers with his hand. 'Sune would not want me to. The last thing she would want is to spoil a place like Langdarma.'
Yago rolled his eyes and quickly looked away, but his skepticism was not lost on Rishi.
'What do you think, my friend?' asked the Mar. 'Is this Sune not a jealous goddess, who might very well resent this stream of beauty pouring forth from her ancient rival's temple?'
The ogre gave a grudging shrug. 'She's fickle enough,' he said. 'I wouldn't put anything past her.'
Seema paled, turning to call the Dweller.
Atreus pulled her back, clamping a hand over her mouth. 'You have nothing to worry about,' he assured her. 'Even if Sune did want the fountain, how could we get it past the Dweller? I'm sure it would frown on us stealing the source of its shining pool.'
'How would it know until it was too late to stop us?' asked Rishi, smiling.
The Mar bounded up the dais and snatched the cup off the altar, eliciting a muffled scream from Seema. 'Put that back!' Atreus ordered.
'Have no worry, I am not stealing the cup,' said Rishi. 'I am only demonstrating how such a thing might be possible, in case the good sir should in his own judgment consider it necessary.'
'I won't'
Rishi paid Atreus no attention, began to descend the dais, and said, 'You see?' The Mar stopped two steps above, holding the cup sideways so that the water continued to pour out at an even rate. 'In this manner, we could advance all the way to the stairs above the Pool of Gems, where we might wait until the Dweller wandered away on its business. Or perhaps we would send someone to distract it while the others fled with the Fountain of Infinite Grace.'
'How do we escape Langdarma before the Sannyasi catches us?' Atreus asked, more to prove the impossibility of Rishi's plan than because he was really interested. Or so he told himself. 'From what little I recall, the Passing was something of a challenge.'
Rishi's smile grew confident 'Langdarma is difficult to enter, but easy to leave,' he said. 'Yago and I learned of many exits while we were searching for the fountain.'
Seema's body stiffened. She began to struggle in Atreus's arms, going so far as to bite his palm. He winced,
