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Jordan reached to his pocket and extracted the two halves and passed them to her. While the Sanguinists remained entranced by the chest and what it held, Elizabeth joined Erin. Erin fitted the two halves together and rotated the gem to expose the design imbedded in the stone. Only this time, she reversed the image, turning that chalice-shaped symbol upside down.

“Could this symbol be some representation of that pyramid of light?” Erin asked.

Erin swung around to Xao, plainly seeking confirmation. In her hands, the stone slipped askew, separating into the two halves.

The monk stared down, and for the first time, he showed a strong reaction, his placid features wrenching into a look of horror and dismay. “No, it can’t be.” His face went hard with fury, stepping menacingly toward Erin. “What have you done?”

Erin backed away as Rhun rushed to stand between the woman and the monk.

“She didn’t do anything,” Rhun said, his tone full of warning.

Xao shook his head. “The Garden Stone is shattered. In such a state, it cannot open the gate.” The monk gaped at them, his face lost. “With this key broken, there is no future. The world ends this day.”

11:34 A.M.

Erin stared down at the two halves of the gem in her palms, tamping down the despair rising inside her. Was their journey doomed from the start? She refused to accept that, not after all the blood and sacrifice needed to reach this valley.

“There must be some way to fix it,” she said.

Jordan took back the pieces. “And here I left my tube of superglue in my other pants.”

“You do not understand,” Xao said. “The stone is not just broken, it is defiled. I can sense the shreds of darkness that still shadow its heart.”

Erin pictured John Dee’s bell and the hundreds of strigoi burned to ash inside, all so their dark essences could be gathered inside the sacred gem.

“Can it be purified?” Erin asked. “Baptized?”

The holy rite of baptism could wash away original sin from a soul. Couldn’t the gem be equally cleansed?

“Only good can vanquish evil,” Xao said. “Only light can rid the darkness. To purify such defilement, it would take the greatest good and the brightest light.”

The monk turned to confer with his brothers. They whispered back and forth to each other in Sanskrit. Erin wished she could understand, but she sensed that the answer would not come from these three.

I am the Woman of Learning.

She stared at the emerald reflection off the pieces in Jordan’s hands — then back to the sand painting. She studied the three figures, each with a representation of Arbor, Aqua, and Sanguis before it, and recalled something Hugh had said.

You must decipher the riddle so that you may retrieve the stone that belongs to you.

She returned her attention to Jordan, noting how the light dappled his features. The motes of shimmering green appeared like tiny leaves shooting forth from his crimson lines. It was as if the stone was indeed a seed, one that had sprouted inside Jordan.

She spoke aloud. “These stones… are they bonded to us individually?”

Xao faced her. “So it is said in the proverbs of the Enlightened One. The Daughter of Eve will be bound to the red stone by her blood. The Son of Adam will be rooted to the green stone by his connection to the land. And the Immortal One will join with the blue stone because he has tamed his nature to walk under the blue sky.”

Erin wished she had time to read all of these ancient proverbs herself, but instead, she focused on their current problem.

“If the Son of Adam’s stone is broken, then maybe the Son of Adam can fix it,” she said. She stared between the snowy lion and Jordan, knowing the common bond the two shared. “Jordan’s blood holds the essences of angels, beings of light and righteousness. Maybe such purity can cleanse the darkness from the stone.”

“And if that blood can heal Jordan,” Rhun added, “perhaps it also holds the power to heal the stone.”

Jordan shrugged. “And if that all fails, I can always just hold those two halves together with my bare hands.”

Erin could tell he was only half-joking. “What other choice do we have?” she asked.

“She’s right,” Christian announced loudly, glancing toward the roof, likely sensing the sun. “Whatever we’re going to try, it’d better be soon.”

“Then let’s see what my blood can do.” Jordan pulled a dagger from his boot. “It’s not like I can defile the stone any worse than it already is.”

He lifted the blade to his wrist.

“No, not here!” Xao exclaimed loudly. “It is forbidden to shed blood in our sacred temple.”

“Where, then?” Jordan asked, pausing with the knifepoint on his skin.

Erin knew they had no more time for second-guessing. She pointed to the sand painting. “We’ll have to attempt it once we’re in our proper positions.” She turned to Xao. “Where is the third stone? Your blue gem?”

The one meant for Rhun.

Xao nodded to one of his brothers, who returned to the belly of the Buddha and removed another box, also white, but painted with a sky full of fluffy clouds. It was easily held in the palms of the monk, who carried it to Rhun and offered it to him.

Rhun began to open it, but Erin stopped him.

“Don’t,” she warned, remembering the effect that the Sanguis stone had on Jordan back in Hugh’s church. She didn’t want this holy gem singing Jordan into a swoon like before.

Instead, she pointed in the direction of the open gate.

“Xao, take us where we must go.”

39

March 20, 11:44 A.M. NPT
Tsum Valley, Nepal

Rhun hurried with the others out of temple and back through the stone village. His inner clock felt the approach of the noon hour, while the holiness in his blood responded to the moon’s passage across the sun. As darkness approached, his strength faded with each passing second, like sand sifting through the pinch of an hourglass.

Ahead, beyond the open gate, the day’s brightness had dimmed to a dull twilight as the moon’s shadow swept over these mountains. The group rushed forward and bowed their way back into that wintry valley, the evil even more palpable now.

As Rhun straightened, he looked to the sky, noting only a thin crescent of sun remained. The brilliance burned his eyes, searing him with certainty.

We’re out of time.

Under the bower of the two massive trees, the group quickly divided. One monk led each of the trio. Rhun split away with the tallest of the brothers, who hurried him at a fast clip along the base of the icy cliffs toward the western bank of that black lake. Xao took Erin by the hand, and another marched with Jordan. Both headed in the other direction, toward their respective positions on the eastern and southern shores.

Between their parties, Sophia and Christian strained under the weight of the chest and its sacred silver chains and climbed straight down, staying in the shadow of the trees at the north end.

The two remaining members of their party followed at Rhun’s heels. One did not surprise him. The young lion padded through the snow behind him, growling softly, his head lowered from the evil wafting off the lake. Clearly this valley assaulted the cub’s senses as thoroughly as Rhun’s.

His last companion surprised him. Elizabeth strode behind him, taking large steps, her back straight, her eyes on the lake. Unlike Rhun and the lion, he read a longing in her face, as if she wished to run to that lake and skate across its dark surface.