Rebel Angels

Page 127

Ann nods. "You said yourself that the girls in white came to you in a vision. They showed you the Temple, and here it is!"
Yes, and yet. . .
It's off the path. Nell said we shouldn't be led astray. Nell, who strangled a parrot in a mad rage, who tried to strangle me as well.
Don't trust her, the girls in white said.
But Kartik said nothing from the realms could be trusted.
I don't know what to believe anymore. The cathedral stands like something that has existed for many years. It has to be the Temple. What else could it be? Down on the shore, a small rowboat sits waiting, as if we have been expected.
"Gemma?" Felicity asks.
"Yes," I say, tucking the amulet away."It must be the Temple."
With a yelp, Felicity runs sliding down the hill to the boat. In the distance, the magnificent cathedral beckons with a thousand lights burning. We untie the boat and push off from the shore, paddling toward the isle.
Out on the water, it grows foggy. Night rolls in suddenly. The cries of the gulls are all about us. The moat that separates us from the Temple is surprisingly wide. I look up through the haze and, for a moment, the towering church seems no more than a ruin. The yello"Y moon bleeds through one of the cathedral's tall, hollow windows, glinting off the shards of glass that remain there like a beacon calling in a wayward ship. I close my eyes, and when I open them again, it is still magnificent and whole, an enormous monument of stone and spires and great Gothic windows.
"It seems deserted," Felicity says. "I can't imagine anyone living there."
Or anything, I want to say.
We pull the boat ashore. The Temple sits high on the hill. To get there, we'll have to take the steep stairs that have been carved into the rock.
"How many do you think there are?" Ann says, peering all the way to the top.
"There's only one way to find out," I say, and start climbing. It is rough going. Halfway up, Ann has to sit to catch her breath."I can't do this," she huffs.
"Yes, you can," I say."It's just a bit farther. Look."
"Oh!" Ann says, startled. A great black bird flaps close to her face and takes a perch on the steps beside us. It's some sort of raven. It caws loudly, making gooseflesh on my arms. Another joins it. The pair seems to dare us to go on. "Come on, then," I say."They're only birds."
We push past them to the top of the steps, where we are greeted by an enormous golden door. The most beautiful flowers have been carved into it.
"How lovely," Ann says. She puts her fingers to the petals and the door opens. The cathedral is vast, with ceilings that soar high above us. Everywhere, candles and torches burn.
"Hello?" Ann says. Her voice echoes, Hello, ello, lo.
The marble floor tiles have been laid out in a pattern of red flowers. When I turn my head one way, the floor seems dirty and chipped, the tile broken in chunks. I blink and it is again shining and beautiful.
"Do you see anything?" I ask. Anything, thing, thing .
"No," Ann says."Hold on, what's this?"
Ann reaches for something in the wall. That part of the stone crumbles away. Something skitters across the floor and lands at my feet. A skull.
Ann shudders."What was that doing there?"
"I don't know." The hair at the back of my neck prickles in fear. My eyes are playing tricks on me, because the floor is going chipped again. The beauty of the cathedral sputters like the candles, flashing from majestic to macabre. For a second, I see another cathedral, a crumbling, broken shell of a building, the shattered windows above us looking eerily like the empty sockets of the skull.
"I think we should go," I whisper.
"Gemma! Ann!" Felicity's voice is high with fright. We run to her. She holds a candle close to the wall. And then we see. Embedded in it are bones. Hundreds of them. Fear screams inside me.
"This is not the Temple," I say, staring at the bones of a hand stuck fast in the crumbling stone. I'm chilled as I realize the truth. Stick to the path, maidens."They led us astray, just like Nell said they would."
Above us, something scurries. Shadows run across the dome. Ann grabs my arm."What was that?"
"I don't know." Know, know, know.
Felicity pats the quiver on her back. The scurrying comes from the other side. It feels close.
"We're leaving," I whisper."Now."
Suddenly, there is movement all around. The shadows flit across the top of the golden dome like giant bats. We're almost to the door when we hear it: a high-pitched keening that turns my blood to ice.