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There was a parking lot at the top of the hill, and a sign told visitors that it was a steep climb up to the Chapel of the Holy Cross I closed the car door and stood there, shivering in the suddenly cold breeze, staring up at the place It was beautiful Built into the rocks, organic, angular Strikinglyin with a short line connecting the sharply with the red sandstone around it The front was all glass, reflecting the sun and the beautiful eternity of the desert around it It wasn&039;t as large as I&039;d have expected, but then it was a chapel, not a church It was a place pilgriift of worship

There were a few other cars in the parking lot I was hoping there wouldn&039;t be unsuspecting visitors caught up in this, but it was too late to worry Everybody was in the crossfire now Six billion potential innocent bystanders

I took the steep stairs toward the chapel at a run

Sweat dried on my skin as I pounded up the steps, and I was about halfway up when I realized that solanced back

It was Ashan, feral and bloodied, and as I looked, he changed himself tofall A broken neck, at best

But he didn&039;t fling ot the weird sense that he just couldn&039;t, noprevented hi hit hiht train, and he went sailing over the edge of the drop, with little Alice/Venna on his back and riding hi surfboard toward the rocks He had tiround level, and I had the sense that Ashan was trying to get free to come after me, but she circled to counter him at every turn

It was fun for her There was a terrible tiger&039;s smile on her innocent little face that made my stomach lurch

"Go!" she called to irl hand toward Ashan

And blew hiainst a concrete retaining wall He bounced off and ca rubber ball I turnedthem two and three at a time My calf muscles screamed in protest I hadn&039;t run stairs in well, years Since evil Coach Hawkins in high school, who&039;d made it the start to every PE class I&039;d never been all that good at it then, come to think of it

The stairs shouldn&039;t have been this tall It felt as if I were trying to run the stairs at Chichen Itza, not just a few dozen up to the local chapel I couldn&039;t see the top I couldn&039;t tell that there was a top

And then I felt it a whispering sense of presence So vast and powerful and not like me, not at all

Not even like the Djinn

I stopped on the stairs, grabbed the railing in one hand, and listened

It was whispering I couldn&039;t tell what it was saying, but I heard the voices Lots of voices Male, fe

All crying out in pain

"Let me in!" I yelled My voice echoed from the rocks, from those lovely, silent, patient rocks They&039;d heard it all, those rocks Listened to lovers whispering, to warriors killing and dying, to speeches and preachers and songs It was just noise It didn&039;t last

I slipped under the railing on the side away from the drop and cla I put h as sandpaper, and flecks of old

Please, I prayed Please letto work I was just too small, too frail, too te around and get up here!"

She didn&039;t respond When I looked down--risking a broken neck in the process--there was no sign of any Djinn at all in the parking lot Dammit

"Rahel! Dammit!" I yelled it without any hope at all "David!" The echoeshis na to be lost because I couldn&039;t get up the daconcrete

I froze in place, sweating, tre, and clawed at the stone for another few inches

So pushed , skidded underneath, and began pounding up the steps again No barrier this tiular, even rhythive it I&039;d run until my feet bled, if I had to Until oing to quit

There was nothing in the world forat the top of them, with the ena at the top, waiting for s, his tie h the rents in the fabric It was just representation, I knew that, but he looked bruised and trashed and thoroughly pissed off He&039;d defeated Venna, then Probably Rahel as well And David, David, oh God

I putScrew Ashan He was just another obstacle, and I would get past hi in the air, feel polarities shifting There was sohting that The Wardens were useless The Djinn were--or would be--hers And hu problem, like an overpopulation of wood lice and just about as important to her

And there was a corruption in it, too A black, spreading, cold corruption that meant the Oracle had been infected, and the infection was spreading

Please

I sent my prayer up, up into the sky Up to a heaven I wasn&039;t sure even existed Wardens were literal Scientific We weren&039;t into the spiritual, and our theology tended to start and stop with the idea that nobody really knehat the hell was going on, beyond the aetheric level

But if God was out there, if he cared, this was the moment for that hands-off policy to be rescinded

I ranmuscles felt like overcooked noodles Untilso fast, it felt like one continuous long reverberation in my chest Until I was soaked with sweat and spots danced in front of my eyes

Until I could barely lift my feet for each endless step