Eliana spun around to face me. Her eyes bored into mine, their softness turned to flint. I tried to stare back, but her gaze was strong and my head and shoulder throbbed with pain.
“Ganymede, take him out of here before it is too late!” she shouted.
“Where would I take him, Eliana?”
“I...I will use the stone. I have used it before,” I said, “and I will use it again, when the time comes.” I looked up. A crowd had gathered around us.
“You have been with her, with Lilith!” Eliana said.
“Yes, but I did not know, I—”
“You knew.”
“I...I...She was not able to—”
“She is inside of you.”
“She...ah...”
“He is here, Eliana. That is something,” Ganymede said. “Once Nathanor went to her, was with her, he did not come back, except to war against us.”
“I do not trust him, brother,”
“Shiloah himself gave him the stone.” Eleoni said.
“Perhaps not,” one of the men near me answered, “perhaps he stole it.”
“You cannot steal this stone.”
“Then perhaps it is not the true stone.”
“Rohrsgord retreated before it. I saw his shadow flee,” Ganymede replied. “It is the true stone.”
“But how? Why? This, this man who has no faith?” Eliana said.
“You don’t know that I have no faith.”
“I know.”
“The Ancient One sees what we do not see,” Eleoni declared. “Often he sees faith where we see only doubt. Often he sees strength where we see only weakness. Often he sees light where we see only darkness. Often he sees what might be in the future, when we see only what is now.”
Listen! Reading from The Ra-tsepherah, the powerful sequel to The Worm Within the Skull. Coming soon!
