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"As was the Qayom Malak " She rose and patted the heap of boulders "This whole er A lovely, vibrant place at tiine now"

"What happened to it?" Luce asked "Hoas the sanctuary destroyed?"

"The most recent one was covered up by this rockslide That was about seven hundred years ago, after a particularly severe earthquake But even before that, the list of calamities to occur here was unprecedented--

flood, fire,into the pile of boulders as if it were a mass of crystal balls "Still, the only part that matters endures At least I hope it does And that’s e need to go inside" Caainst it with his ars, Dee, not the least of which is rock But passing through rock isn’t one of ifts" Dee clapped her hands "That is precisely why I packed the shovels all those years ago We’ll have to clear the rocks aside," Dee said "We seek what lies within"

"You’re saying we’re going to excavate the Qayoernails

Dee touched a mossy patch at the center of thebefore from the cliffs

"I’d start here if I were you!"

When they realized that Dee was serious about dis- the tower of boulders, Roland distributed the tools Dee had flung out of the wooden chest They set to work

"As you clear, estured to the open space between the rockslide and the head of the trail that had brought them there

Sheto need it"

Luce took a pickax and tapped it uncertainly against the rock

"Do you knohat it looks like?" she said to Daniel, whose croedged around a rock behind the fig tree "Hoe recognize the Qayom Malak e find it?"

"There’s no illustration in my book for this" Daniel split the rock easily with a tilt of his hand The muscles of his arms tree suitcase He tossed them behind him, careful not to let them land inside the area Dee had marked off "We’ll just have to trust that Dee remembers"

Luce stepped into the open space where the boulder Danieltrees were now exposed, down to their trunks They had been nearly flattened by the tons of fallen rock Her gaze flew around the gigantic pile of rocks they’d have to clear It was easily twenty feet high Could anything have withstood the ht of this landslide?

"Don’t worry," Dee called out, as if reading Luce’s mind "It’s in there somewhere, tucked away as safely as your first memory of love"

The Outcasts had flown to the top of the slope Phil showed the others where to cast the boulders they’d already chipped away, and they sla the compounded rock to fracture and slide down the sides

"Hey! I see sos fluttered above the rockslide’s highest point, where it edged up against the mountain’s sheer, vertical walls She heaved away soht be a wall of the sanctuary"

"A wall, dear? Very good," Dee said "There should be three " She was distracted, pacing the flat square of rock she’d ress of the dig She seeaze was fixed on the mesa floor Luce watched Dee for a fewher steps, as if blocking a play

She looked up, caught Luce’s eye "Colanced at Daniel, at his sweat-glistening skin

He was busy with a large, unwieldy boulder She turned and followed Dee into the mouth of the cave

Dee’s lantern wobbled strobe-like into the dark recesses The cave was infinitely darker and colder without the glow of angel wings Dee rued for a few moments in her chest

"Where is that bloody broo up another lantern to help light her search She reached into the enorh straw of a broom

"Here"

"Wonderful Always the last place you look, especially when you can’t see" Dee slung the broo while the others continue with the excavation"

They walked back out onto thestone Dee stopped at the edge of the rockslide, facing the space she’d asked the angels to leave clear She began to drag the brooht the mesa was all made of the same flat red rock, but as Dee brushed and swept and brushed and swept, Luce noticed there was a shallow : Pale yellow stone alternated hite rocks to forn

Eventually Luce recognized a sy diagonal lines of decreasing length

Luce crouched down to run her fingers along the stone It looked like an arrowhead, pointing away from the top of the els had arrived

"This is the Arrowhead Slab," Dee said "Once everything is ready, ill use it as a kind of stage Cah I doubt that he reh so much since then