Unravel the Dusk by Elizabeth Lim

Author:Elizabeth Lim [Lim, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Published: 2020-07-07T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWENTY

A pair of inky eyebrows darted up at the sight of me, drawing creases in the monk’s broad forehead.

“Your kind is not welcome here,” he said, waving me away from the temple doors. “Go now, before my master arrives and banishes you to the fiery pits of Di—”

The last thing I needed was a reminder of what I was becoming. “Summon your master,” I said, cutting him off. “I have come to speak with him.”

The monk opened his mouth to protest, but he noticed Edan beside me.

“You!” he cried. “You are not permitted to return here either. Master Tsring specifically—”

Like me, Edan wasn’t in the mood for the doorkeeper’s games. He pushed past the young monk, and I followed.

The monk scurried past us, shooting warning looks at Edan. “Once he hears you’re back, Gen, you’ll be in trouble yet.”

Edan and I ignored him and continued along the corridor. The Temple of Nandun was ancient, its structure carved into the underbelly of the mountain so skillfully one could not tell where the temple ended and the mountain began. We passed several chambers, sparsely occupied by the master’s acolytes, their eyes half closed in concentration.

“Are they practicing magic?” I asked Edan.

“Most are.”

I tilted my head at a lone plum tree in one of the open-air courtyards. “How does it flower so late in the year, and so high in the mountains?”

Edan led me to stand under its branches. “Nandun took refuge under a blossoming plum tree,” he explained. “Magic is what keeps it alive here. The disciples take turns tending to it, and it blooms always, even in the dead of winter.”

“Plum blossoms are the first flowers to bud after winter,” I remembered. “They’re a symbol of hope and purity.”

He plucked one and set it in my hair, the way he’d done on our travels with the blue wildflower I now kept pressed in my sketchbook. “And new beginnings,” Edan said quietly.

We found Master Tsring meditating in the garden. His eyes were closed, and if he heard us approach, he made no gesture to acknowledge it.

Copying Edan’s movements, I sat cross-legged on the ground, and waited.

Master Tsring looked so old and frail his robes practically swallowed him: his pants hung slack, the hems discolored with age. His shoulders were pinched, narrowing his gaunt frame. Yet when he spoke, his voice was strong.

“You disobeyed me, Gen,” he said. His eyes snapped open, pupils sparking like burning coals. “I forbade you to leave the temple.”

Edan touched his forehead to the earth, remorsefully. “Forgive me, master. It is entirely in your right to expel me.”

“Quite so!” Master Tsring huffed. “The audacity of you young enchanters—”

“—is inexcusable,” Edan finished for him. “However, I implore you not to punish my companion. She—”

“I know who she is,” said the old man irritably. “Even if you had not spoken about her all these weeks past, I would recognize the demon’s kiss upon her. You do the temple grievous harm by bringing her here.”

“She hasn’t yet succumbed. There is still a chance for her.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.