The Dark by Marianne Curley

Author:Marianne Curley [Curley, Marianne]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi, azw3
Publisher: Bloomsbury USA Childrens
Published: 2003-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

Arkarian

The temple is a pyramid-shaped structure, with an enormous base, the centre point reaching far into the darkness and the disappearing sky beyond. It is, so Sera informs me as we enter through an open doorway, made entirely of crystal, glass bricks and marble sheets. The glass is apparently constructed from elements able to withstand freezing temperatures and incredible heat. Inside, the walls are shaped in a design that forms a perfect octagon, a design that can also be found in a room within the Citadel. A smaller, inner octagon forms the base for this high slanted roof. Each panel of this roof is a myriad of etched, coloured patterns. Not that I can see all the way to the top. There’s only the light coming from a single fireplace built into one distant wall, which hasn’t a chance of heating this entire building. But somehow the cold takes second place in here. There’s another more dominant sensation – more a feeling really. Of solace. It helps me control my pain.

I make my way to the fireplace, and it’s obvious the temple hasn’t been used for a long time, centuries or maybe even millennia. It has the look and sound of hollowness. Dust lies thickly on the sparse furniture – a chair, a footstool, a bed, a simple stone bench, a table and a rug before the fire.

Sera leads me to the chair near the fire, where I sit gratefully. She says she will bring me a drink of water, but first helps me remove the cloak. Taking the cloak she looks at it with a frown, then buries her face in it. ‘It smells of Bastian.’

‘That’s right. He was wearing it. Tell me, Sera, how do you know him?’

‘He visits me sometimes.’ Her face scrunches up with a frown and a smile at the same time. ‘He confuses me.’

‘I think perhaps Bastian confuses himself.’

‘He brought me here after a long time of wandering through Marduke’s gardens. They were so beautiful I could have lived amongst those fragrant petals for ever.’ She sighs like someone who misses something she once loved, then shrugs her slender shoulders. ‘I don’t know why Bastian dragged me from them. They’re here, you know. On the other side of this island. But Bastian won’t let me go there any more.’

She leaves me with these bizarre thoughts of Marduke having a garden, a beautiful one at that, to fetch me a cup of water. In all his years in the Guard, I never knew of Marduke’s love of flowers, though he did appreciate beauty in those days. It was his love of a beautiful woman that played a large part in his turning traitor in the end.

Sera soon returns with the cup of water. I sip it slowly, rinsing my mouth of the taste of blood. We sit and stare at the soothing fire, and in these quiet moments I bring my thoughts into focus to try and manage my pain. Still without my powers, the most I end up accomplishing is to take the sting out.

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