31. An Ultimate Sacrifice
An Ultimate Sacrifice
Aradia
Sleep evaded her. She sat up with a huff, tossing and turning did nothing.
Her mouth was parched and the night had shockingly warmed.
Gail would be a chilled evening by now. Fires would be roaring as the night guards ran their patrols throughout the city grounds.
Smoky streets would cling in a foggy haze.
A result of hundreds of chimneys across the city.
Families would be bundled up around the hearth sleeping peacefully.
She stretched and reached for the canteen of water. Empty, of course. No noise came from outside her tent although she knew someone would be on watch. She licked her lips and tried to swallow what felt like cotton balls clogging her throat.
“No, gods no,” she whispered.
Aradia knew this feeling well. Sweat beaded her forehead and upper lip. She had been pushing her mind too hard in the past weeks to ensure the visions were at a minimum. She should have known the fatigue would weaken her.
Not now. Not here.
She stumbled toward the entrance of her tent, desperate for fresh air. Her vision blurred and she shoved the tent flap open. The air brushed against her face. A gurgled cry escaped her lips. Water began to swim around her ankles as the vision began to overtake her.
“Help!” She cried but her voice sounded distant and weak.
Her legs locked up as a form began to take shape in front of her. Was it from the vision or reality? She was losing her bearings. Ocean eyes, a strong jaw, and a ruby ring came into view.
Kaiden.
“Help,” she whispered.
Aradia’s eyes rolled back and she felt her body collapsing. She tensed awaiting the impact of the hard ground but instead fell into warm arms. The smell of the salty sea and foreign spices enwrapped her in a protective embrace. Then everything went dark.
Ravina stepped forward on shaky legs, whispering a quick plea to Cybelle. She knew no answer would come tonight. They had failed and now Lilith would face the consequences. She hated this place. Her bare feet were numb and she stumbled on a jagged rock protruding from the cave floor.
The damp air clung to her skin, providing no comfort as sweat coated her back.
Each slow drip echoed in the eerie darkness, filling her with dread.
Salty waves crashed into the rocks occasionally lit by streaks of angry lightning.
Small candles were placed to the side, dripping with wax.
She supposed she should be grateful it illuminated the entrance with enough light to see the path in front of her.
She willed her feet to move forward against every nerve in her body screaming for her to run.
This wasn’t right. The full moon shone through the open tunnel carved above them.
It cast a pale halo against the walls. She tried not to think of Lilith, whose tears slid down her face as she passed Ravina in silence.
This isn’t right but what could she do?
Ravina chanted quietly with the five priestesses who circled the altar.
Lilith’s gaze focused only on her mother.
The high elder stood behind the stone table. Her knuckles bone white as she clenched a long obsidian dagger. It was the only indication she might be as scared as they all felt.
Ravina sucked in a breath, holding back the sob threatening to choke her. She was to shed no tears tonight. She stepped toward Lilith and lifted a chalice.
Lilith kept her eyes downcast, even as Ravina silently pleaded for her to look at her one last time.
For her to know the wine was tainted with hemlock.
For Lilith to understand there was nothing Ravina could do.
Aside from Ravina, every priestess here believed Lilith’s sacrifice would appease the gods and send Ukoron back to the dark abyss.
Lilith’s own mother, Derena, had not hesitated in sacrificing her.
Even now, she stood rooted in place, waiting.
Lilith drained the wine in three gulps, gasping as her tearstained eyes finally met her.
“I’m sorry sister,” Ravina whispered. “I’m so sorry.”
A sob escaped Lilith, her skin as pale as the thin dress she wore.
The high elder had thought of the poison to spare Lilith the pain she would soon endure.
Ravina had voted against it, knowing full well the poison would only numb Lilith to any outside pain.
Her insides however, would soon turn to slush, and her mind would burn.
She would beg for a quick death in the end, making it easier for her mother to take her life.
“Step forward, child of Cybelle,” Derena’s voice rang out, silencing the chant.
Ravina’s vision burned as she staggered back from Lilith and found her place next to the priestesses. She watched in horror as Derena Cranzinum began the ritual.
“Tonight,” Derena’s voice reverberated against the cave walls.
“We will right the wrongs men have made. It is our duty, nay our honor, to protect this realm from the darkness destined to desecrate all that is good. Lilith of Cranzinum, my beloved daughter and child of Cybelle, will you lay down your life for the greater good? Instill peace once more between our ancestral gates, guard the secrets of Qualan and bring about the new dawn?”
Silence.
“Lilith, will you heed the cry?” Derena repeated.
Ravina dared a glance at her closest friend who lay paralyzed on an altar of their own making.
Lilith struggled to speak. Her tongue swollen and saliva poured from the sides.
“Oh gods, stop. This isn’t right!” Ravina stepped forward.
A viper’s grip latched onto her forearm as two priestesses held her back.
Derena glanced down; brows knitted together in a frown.
Tears pooled at the corner of Lilith’s eyes, slipping down the sides of her face. An agonizing sob ripped from her throat and she struggled to raise her head. Her sobs grew quieter as the paralysis settled in.
Oh gods, what have we done?
“High Elder!” Ravina’s pleas were drowned out by the raging thunderstorm but nothing matched the storm that flashed across the high elder’s face at Ravina’s interruption.
“We must go on.” Derena’s voice was laced with determination. “Or I’ve poisoned my daughter for nothing.”
Gone was the smiling mother who had shared her home with Ravina, who taught her how to weave on a loom or make a winter stew. Only the high priestess, who put duty above all, stood behind the stone altar.
“She can no longer speak,” Derena said. She raised her head to the priestess surrounding the altar. “As her mother, I know she has come willingly.”
Unrecognizable words choked Lilith’s throat, forcing her to gasp for air like a fish plucked out of its element.
“We will proceed.”
“Derena, please, she’s your daughter!” Ravina begged.
“Silence.” A priestess hissed in Ravina’s ear. Her grip tightened until Ravina thought her bones would shatter.
Ravina ripped her hood off, begging with her eyes, praying Derena would look at her. To stop the ritual. Why couldn’t she want her only daughter to live, grow old, have a family? Why was no one else stopping this? Lilith had wanted more out of life than to be a sacrifice to the gods.
“Cybelle, goddess of life. Morana and Moliath, goddess of war and god of death, Eos goddess of the dawn, Decimus, god of the sea and Keres god of the skies. Hear my voice. I offer you my daughter. With her sacrifice we shall close the Gates of Osiris and banish Ukoron back to the depths where he belongs.”
Ravina fell to her knees, her dark curls spilled from her robe as she sobbed.
“Blood of my blood.” Derena sliced her hand. Blood pooled in her palm as she filled a small bowl. She dipped two fingers in the bowl, dripping lines and symbols of the gods across Lilith’s body. “Daughter of light.”
Fury bubbled in the pit of Ravina’s stomach as Lilith’s head rolled to the side.
Her hazy gaze, finding Ravina. Fear and pain contorted her beautiful features into a canvas of misery and death.
Ravina hoped her misery seeped into the very sacrifice meant to save all of humanity.
Her mother had once declared such a thought was selfish.
It was an honor to be sacrificed to the gods.
To give one’s life to maintain peace throughout the six realms and protect the secrets of Qualan, the gods’ realm.
Ravina lay hostage on the cave floor, unable to free her best friend, and knew nothing could be further from the truth.
Derena leaned down, placing a kiss onto Lilith’s forehead. Her gaze found Ravina and she whispered as if it was only for the three of them. “I will always love you, my Lilith.”
“Save her!” Ravina sobbed.
Derena shook her head, lifting the obsidian dagger, she raised her head to the sky. A single tear fell from her face, splattering onto Lilith’s forehead. Ravina fought against the priestesses as the high elder's damning words cut deeper than any knife ever could.
“Let her light the way into a new dawn. As a mother there is no greater honor, for she shall not die in vain. Galanith speria tunasu: And so we rise.”
Lilith’s strangled cry was cut short at the sudden jerk in her body. Not before she raised her blurry vision to the moon and with her last ounce of strength, damned The Order of Qualan and cursed the gods.
Aradia lurched from Kaiden’s arms, coughing and sputtering imaginative blood. She gasped as if she had been truly drowning in poison and grabbed her stomach, expecting a protruding dagger.
“Are you okay?” Kaiden’s voice brought her back to reality.
Her face felt as if it was on fire and goosebumps bristled her arms.
“Is this normally what happens when you have a vision?”
Her frozen limbs were replaced with fear. She couldn't very well lie her way out of this one. “Yes.”
“What did you see?”
Where did she even begin? She looked around realizing they were still sitting on the ground outside of her tent. She hadn’t made it nearly as far as she thought.
“Did you catch me?” she asked.
“Yes.” Kaiden rubbed his hand around the back of his neck. “You ...”