Chapter 21
They kept on riding until they got to the point where their horses could no longer run for sliding across the loose gravel. With heavy hearts they all dismounted. They would have to let the horses go. Kiayani gave her mare a friendly pat on the neck and a scratch around the ears. She had really grown attached to the beast. She removed the saddle and reins, dumping them on the ground as she would no longer need them. She hugged its head and it nibbled at her hair. Kiayani breathed in its scent one last time. She gave a sad giggle and stood back to let the horse go. When it didn’t move she gave it a soft slap on the rump and said, “Go-on, go!”
The horse broke into a quick trot back down the mountain and was joined by the boy’s horses. Leo seemed to be sniffing slightly but she thought she must have been imagining it because when he turned around his face was perfectly dry.
Everyone was sad to see the horses go. The animals had been more than just a steed to ride upon; they had indeed been great comforts to them all.
Sadly they shouldered their bags and began to once again, trek forward on foot.
The walking was much harder than on the flat ground through the forest. Sure there were roots and the like, which were easy to trip on, but the gravel was tedious. It slipped underfoot and there were no solid spots. And when they weren’t sliding back down the hill the slope made their chest pull with each breath and their sides sting with pain. It was a very uncomfortable experience for all of them.
Another thing that was becoming more unpredictable was the weather. It was a lot colder than ever before and Kiayani had to wear her thick coat at night to stop herself freezing once the fire died out. Starting fires was also an issue as they were no longer in the forest wood was not as readily available. Some nights they just went without it all together.
The walking was not good for their feet, after a few weeks of riding they had begun to heal and now they were being re-exposed. Kiayani often thought about what life would have been like in the city, had she been a good girl and stayed in her carriage. She would have been eating hot meals for dinner and been sleeping in a warm bed. And then she would sadly remember that she would be married and that she would have to share that bed.
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It was as they walked across a sloped but grassy plain covered in boulders that one of the strangest experiences of their lives would occur. They wound their way through the rocks, always going up. Here the land was not so steep and they walked through what must have once have been a beautiful valley. Except that water no longer flowed down the centre no did trees grow out of the hills. The moonlight lit it all in an eerie way, turning the boulders into demons and for Kiayani, the skeletons of trees into Moose.
Kiayani walked with her head bowed and her eyes half closed. She didn't notice the fact that she was walking waist deep in a thick swirling mist that was rapidly enclosing them. It was only when Leo called out that it became apparent to her.
"What's with all of this mist?" he said.
Everyone looked up and stopped in their tracks. Kiayani could see Koran frown.
"Everyone come to me now," he said nervously.
Slightly confused, they all grouped around him as the valley filled with mist. The watery air made Kiayani’s hair prickle on the back of her neck and she felt the dampness seeping to her clothes.
“What is it?” Leo asked from beside Kiayani.
But she wasn’t listening. She thought she had seen a figure, a mere shadow, move through the mist. It looked so familiar in some ways that Kiayani swore that she knew who it was. Ignoring Koran’s warning she slowly ambled forward. The image in the mist had entranced her and she wanted to follow it. Her fingers slipped between Leo’s as she broke into a light jog, her eyes fixed on the shadow. It was drawing her in, calling out her.
She thought she heard someone yelling her name but it seemed so distant in the heavy fog. The mist had created a thick white wall around her and she couldn’t see anything but the black shape that jogged on ahead.
It was getting closer and closer and she called out to it, stumbling on a rock, “Wait. Please wait!”
Then the blankness stopped. Kiayani reached out with her hand- they were close enough to touch. Except her fingers slid through the air and the image faded. Kiayani swung around wildly, looking for the stranger. All she could see was the heavy mist.
She felt very disorientated and she spun around on the spot trying to find where she had come from. She thought she could hear yelling but it might have just been her imagination. She stumbled forward and almost tripped over a loose stone.
Feeling very foolish she sank to the ground. She was such an idiot. Koran had told them all to stay together.
However, before she could cry, a wind whooshed past her making a gap in the fog. She looked up to see a small light glimmering in the distance. Curious she stood back up and inched towards it. The longer she looked at the light the less she thought and the more her mind went blank. All she had to do was follow that spark in the fog.
Mindlessly she crept forward. Then the ground began to incline steeply yet she didn’t notice as she climbed. Soon she could almost close her hand around the light. It was a beautiful flickering orb of power that floated in mid-air. Before she could get her fingers close enough to touch it pulsated strongly and floated upwards. Kiayani followed it hungrily. She toppled over many times yet she kept her eyes on the strange light.
Whenever she got too close it would zoom ahead and go out of her reach. Not once did she think about where she was going or what she was doing. Her mind had become strangely obsessed by the thing. A few seconds after the ground began flattening out it flew high into the air and flashed brighter than before, cutting through the fog. Before it flickered out completely Kiayani caught glimpse of a large tangled vine that stretched in front of an oddly shaped rock face.
She blinked back the sudden blindness that came with the removal of light. But her eyes adjusted quickly and she noticed that the rock face was giving a slight glow. Giving a nervous look over her shoulder and the fog she stepped closer to the mess of dead vines that covered the rock.
Now that the light was gone she could think clearly again. As her fingers graced the surface of the rock she felt sheer panic began to sink in. Kiayani had no idea where she was much less where Mik, Koran and the others were. A thick forbidding mist was separating them and until it cleared she had no way to even find them. As her the tips of her fingers slid along the wall she noticed what was unusual about it. It was made of stone bricks, arranged as they would be in a house. She looked closer. Gasping she grabbed a handful of the vine and yanked at it as hard as she could. With a loud snap it pulled away from the brick wall in one large piece. She had found some kind of building built into the side of the hill. Amazed she placed her hand on the wall and began walking to the right, following the wall carefully. She wasn’t sure what it was but it was the only lead she had.
The wall had one corner which she followed and then she found herself in an area void of fog. It was a large courtyard. Pillars were lined up in rows across the paved ground. As she looked more she could see that the area scattered with benches, gardens and paths. And every inch of it was covered in the thick, green vines that she had found earlier.
Her shoes clicked on the pavers as she walked past the wall into the courtyard. At a far end she thought she could see a pavilion.
Once again the need to find the boys was wiped from her mind. She walked along one path which wound through countless gardens. She looked sadly at all of the dead plant life. Not once did she think about where she was until she found the building she had most hoped to see.
It was a temple. The walls were made of the same glowing stone as the wall she had followed. Slightly dazed she walked towards it.
“It’s the temple,” she muttered to herself, “It really is the temple.”
It would have been a beautiful building when it was first built. It had two or three stories and the roof was a large dome. However, time had taken its toll. A wall on the far side had collapsed in and many of the roof tiles were missing.
Kiayani reached the large wooden doors which were slightly grey with decay. She laid a hand on the ornate carving that covered the entire panel. The door itself was at least as twice as tall as her. Curiosity bubbling up inside her she pushed the doors open gently.
She found that the holes in the roof allowed for enough moonlight to pour into to see by. She crept in looking around. Inside it was just one giant room lined with columns on the sides. Pools of what Kiayani suspected must have been water sat on the other side of the pillars. The walls had been painted with gold paint that was now peeling off of the wall. In her mind’s eye Kiayani could sort of picture what the temple would like if it was all cleaned up.
At the very back of the temple was a giant statue made out of stone painted with the same gold paint as the walls. It was an old woman sitting with crossed legs with her eyes closed. She approached the base of it and was only just able to read the text that was engraved on the stone plinth. ‘The Mother,’ Kiayani read. She was certain she had never heard that term before so she wondered what it had to do with the Ancestors.
She was just tracing the letters with her cold fingers when she heard a large clicking noise coming from above her. She turned around and looked up. Instantly she was frozen to the spot with fear.
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