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A pale-leafed olive tree and a dwarf fig tree strained to grow diagonally around the boulders on the slope

This reen speck Luce had seen at a distance from below Dee had said it was their destination, but Luce couldn’t believe they’d cli dust

Everybody’s wings looked like they belonged to Outcasts, brown and battered, es looked even ile than normal, like cobwebs Dee used a wind-stretched sweater sleeve to wipe the dust froh wild red hair Soant Luce didn’t want to consider what she looked like

"Never a dull moment!" Dee’s voice trailed behind her as she disappeared into the cave

They followed her inside, stopping a few feet in, where the dusky light withered into darkness Luce leaned against a cold reddish-brown sandstone wall next to Daniel His head nearly skis down to accohtness of the cave

Luce heard a scraping sound, and then Dee’s shadow stretched into the lit portion at the entrance of the cave

She pushed a large wooden chest toward the boot

Calow of their dusty wings altering the darkness of the space Each lifted a corner of the chest and they carried it to a natural alcove in the cave that Dee’s gestures indicated At her approving nod, they set it down against the cave wall

"Thank you, gentlee of the trunk "It seeh it o" Her face furrowed into a sia "Oh, well, a person’s life is but a day Gabbe helped h because of the dust storel who knew the value of advance preparation

She knew this day would coant silver key froan and twisted it into the chest’s lock As the old thing creaked open, Luce edged forward, expecting soical--or at least historic--to be revealed

Instead, Dee tossed out six standard-issue army canteens, three small bronze lanterns, a heavy stack of blankets and towels, and an armful of crowbars, pickaxes, and shovels

"Drink up if you need to Lucinda first" She distributed the canteens, which were filled with cold, delicious water Luce inhaled the contents of her canteen and wiped her mouth on the back of her hand When she licked her lips, they were prickly with dry sand

"That’s better, isn’t it?" Dee smiled She slid open a box of ht flickered off the walls, generating draels bent over, pivoted, brushed each other off

Arriane and Annabelle scrubbed at their wings with the dry towels Daniel, Roland, and Caainst the rocks until the soft sssss sound of sand falling on the stone floor faded The Outcasts seehtly lit with an angelic glow, as if someone had started a bonfire

"What now?" Roland asked, pouring the sand out of one of his leather boots

Dee had moved to the mouth of the cave, her back to the others She walked to the flat stone expanse outside, then waited for theathered in a s pile of boulders and the struggling olive and fig trees

"We need to go inside, " Dee said

"Inside where?" Luce turned around to look behind her The cave they’d just walked out of was the only "inside" option Luce could see Out here, there was only the flat floor of the ainst the cliff wall

"Sanctuaries are built on top of sanctuaries are built on top of sanctuaries," Dee said "The first one on Earth used to stand right here under this slope of fallen rock

Inside it, the final piece of the fallens’ early history is encoded This is the Qayom Malak After the first sanctuary was destroyed, several others followed in its place, but the Qayom Malak always remained within them"

"You mean that mortals have used the Qayoht or understanding Over the years it grew roup to build their temple here For lanced at Arriane, who shifted her weight--"but that is no one’s fault It was a long tiht, we unearth what once was lost"

"You e of our Fall?" Roland paced the perimeter of the slope of rocks "That’s what the Qayom Malak will tell us?"

Dee smiled cryptically "The words are Aramaic

They meanwell, it’s better if you just see for yourselves"

Beside the noisily on a strand of her hair, her hands stuffed deep into the pockets of her overalls, her wings stiff and un and olive trees, as if in a trance

Luce noticed noas strange about the trees

The reason they seeonally out of the stone was that their trunks lay buried deep beneath the boulders

"The trees," she said

"Yes, once they were fully exposed" Dee bent down to caress the withering green leaves of the little fig tree