The Way Into Darkness: Book Three of The Great Way Read Online Free PDF Page B

its mouth, he would have been like a grain of rice.
    Cazia’s knees felt weak and goose bumps ran the length of her body. She had communed with her own gods in the temple, but they’d never inspired pure animal terror. “That’s the face of your god?”  
    “It is.”
    “Where’s its body?”  
    “We are standing on him. All the dry land in the world is the body. That is why we venerate him and show our gratitude for the bounty he brings. That is also how he delivers messages for us, when it pleases him.”  
    “Have you...” Kinz paused as though she didn’t want to finish that question, but she did anyway. “Have you ever seen him make to stand up?”
    Cazia reeled at the idea of a gigantic stone man looming over them, but Ivy only laughed. “He is standing up. Every mountain is the body, standing up.”  
    The memory of the three of them tunneling up the side of the Southern Barrier came back to Cazia quite suddenly. “Does it...he, I mean. Does he mind digging and, you know...?”  
    Ivy shrugged. “The Durdric think he does. That is why they kill anyone they find carrying metal. When our kings asked about it, Kelvijinian said he could not feel mining or tilling and was pleased to share the bounty. He has not opened the ground beneath us and swallowed us whole, no? Clearly, the Durdric religious ban on mining or using metal is something they made up. Wait, you are thinking about the tunnel?”  
    “Shh! Yes, obviously.”  
    “I never asked about, you know, spells.” This last word was not said aloud, only mouthed. Still, even that was too much for Cazia’s comfort.  
    She looked over at the face again. Every time she glanced away and glanced back again, she was surprised anew by the size of the thing. “Will I be allowed to speak with him?”  
    Ivy shrugged again. “That is for my cousin to decide.” For a moment, she looked uncomfortable. “Er, for appearances, you might have to wait a bit. The faithful will certainly go before you.”
    Later, Goherzma went through the camp to ask everyone, high and low, whether they wanted an audience with Kelvijinian. He did not approach Cazia and Kinz--in fact, he did not even look in their direction as he walked from place to place.  
    Belterzhimi stayed in the temple until well past sundown. Ivy explained that while she had been in her father’s presence when Kelvijinian had announced the last alarm, she had never seen one as it was created. She was as curious about it as the others.  
    “How does your god make the alarm?” Kinz asked.  
    “The face emerges from the rock and soil much the way a swimmer emerges from the waters of a lake.”  
    Creepy. But of course, Cazia didn’t say that aloud.
    They laid out woolen blankets on the wet meadow grass and ate a stew made from dried boq and summer berries collected from the nearby bushes. The clouds blew away late in the afternoon, and the sun came out. Cazia found herself staring at Kelvijinian, at the way the sunlight shimmered on the wet stone, and wished she could do so from even farther away.  
    The Indregai serpents kept a greater distance than usual from the humans, arranging themselves at the easternmost part of the clearing in a line, almost like pickets.  
    “They do that,” Ivy offered. “The serpents do not worship Kelvijinian--at least, not in any way we understand--but they do keep to the east, guarding the road to the temple. I think it is an honorable thing.”  
    Cazia laid out her bedroll that night with an uneasy feeling. Kelvijinian could open the ground beneath her, couldn’t he? He could swallow her up while she slept; she might die without waking. Of course, she was sleeping in a camp full of Indregai soldiers who were openly hostile to anyone from Peradain, including one who was friends with an Ergoll princess. That she hadn’t been murdered in her sleep already was practically a miracle.
    Kelvijinian. Today, she had seen the face of Kelvijinian. Grateful am I to