The Rylt looked very different from Valleyda.
All the greenery in Valleyda was carefully cultivated—flowers bred to keep hardy in the cold, banks of tough grasses that would survive short summers and long, bitter winters. Other than the Wilderwood, most forests were all pine and fir, more blue and gray than green.
But the Rylt was green all over. Even the beach beyond the small dock that serviced the Temple was fringed with waving fronds of grass, hillocks of it sprouting from the sand, like the earth here was so abundant, it couldn’t be held back. Flowers bloomed in the moors beyond, carpeted a deep and verdant green.
Red expected the Wilderwood within her to be pleased when they stepped off the gangplank, feet once again on solid ground, especially among all these growing things. But it stayed as it had throughout the voyage, still and close and on edge.
She shot a look at Eammon. He met her eyes, gave her a tiny nod. He felt it, too. This place might be abundant, but it wasn’t home.
And what waited for them here wasn’t welcoming.
Kayu strode past them, headed for the dunes. “Temple is just ahead.” Her voice was quiet, preoccupied. Nothing like the funny, playful woman she’d been in Valleyda and on the ship. She’d grown quieter and quieter as they drew closer to the Rylt, drawing in on herself. Even Raffe couldn’t get her to laugh there at the end, only give a wan smile.
The man in question walked up to Red and Eammon, all three of them watching Kayu climb the path cut into the dunes beyond the dock. “She doesn’t seem all that happy to be here,” Red said after a moment of quiet.
“No, she doesn’t.” Raffe frowned as he watched Kayu draw farther away. With a sigh, he started forward, tugging up his hood against the wind off the sea. “Though frankly, if anyone was enthused about visiting Kiri, I’d be concerned for their mental stability.”
Fife and Lyra were the last to disembark. Lyra looked around curiously, always excited to see somewhere new, but Fife seemed as apprehensive as Red and Eammon felt. He rubbed at the Mark hidden beneath his sleeve. “Well. Let’s get this over with.”
“At least the food will improve,” Red said, searching for a bright side as they started through the sand.
“If you like sheep’s stomach,” Lyra replied.
Red grimaced.
The Temple was immediately visible when they topped the dunes, gleaming marble amid all the green. A profuse garden of herbs and wildflowers grew around the plain driftwood fence and shallow stone steps that led to the Temple doors, ruffled by the ever-present breeze off the water.
Kayu stood by the door, shifting from foot to foot, not making eye contact with any of them. Raffe stood next to her, face drawn into uncomfortable lines.
When the rest of them reached the door, he was the one to turn and face it, drawing his spine straight and his shoulders back. His hand lifted to knock.
But the door swung in before he could.
A priestess with a white, freckled face and golden-red hair stood on the other side, smiling. “The party from Valleyda,” she said brightly. “We’ve been expecting you.”
All of them cast sidelong glances, shifted from foot to foot. All of them but Kayu. She brushed past the priestess without looking at her. “Come on. I’ll take you to Kiri.”
The priestess at the door stepped aside with another smile. “Yes, do come in.”
Red gave Eammon one more quick, apprehensive glance. His fingers wrapped around hers as they crossed the threshold, and it felt like crossing into enemy territory.
The inside of the Ryltish Temple was just as simple as the outside, the stone walls unadorned with anything but a single tapestry of five crowns—four in quadrants, one in the center, a pattern Red recognized from the Temple in Valleyda. Three hallways branched from the circular foyer, stretching from side to side and directly in front of the door, with no sign to what might lay within them. Sconces adorned the walls, providing wavering light in the gloom.
All the candles were dark gray.
Eammon gave the candles a wary glance. “Say the word, and we’re gone,” he murmured, low enough that only she could hear. Leaves rustled in his voice. “I won’t even complain about the seasickness.”
“We have to see what she knows,” Red whispered back. The key burned in her pocket. “We have to see if she knows how to get to Neve again.”
His teeth ground in his jaw, but Eammon nodded.
Kayu headed toward the central hallway, not looking behind her to see if they followed. Lyra’s brow furrowed. “How does she know where to go?”