Chapter 971
After four hours, the spiral path ended at a granite boulder. The glyph on its face matched the shard, except now it glowed, humming. Behind it, a narrow cave entrance yawned. It felt alive, echoing breeze like soft voices.
Jude knelt and pressed his palm to the glyph. It pulsed. The watchers gathered, bodies close. The wives formed a line behind him. Jude closed his eyes and spoke: "We come again as memory-bearers to this place. We stand with watchers, mountain, island. We ask to pass."
He placed the shard into the glyph. A tremor. Light belched outward, filling grove with gold. The stone vibrated. Behind, the cave lit from within. The watchers condensed into glowing threads that circled the entrance. Silence. Then the cave mouth shimmered like liquid.
Grace stepped forward. "We must enter together." Nods all around.
They held hands; the six wives, the watchers drifting overhead. They passed beneath the boulder, and stepped into a place that felt like memory itself.
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Inside the cave, the air glowed with soft bioluminescent moss, casting pale green light. The stone tunnel fell away at their feet until they reached a chamber wide as a hall, and ceiling open to starlight they’d never seen until last night. Water trickled from walls, and glyphs glowed faintly in lines spiral deep along the cavern floor.
The watchers floated through skylight and tunnel, shimmering ripples over stone. The wives stepped carefully, feet echoing softly. Each touched a glyph mound with reverence. Jude held Grace’s hand.
They found a pool in the center. Water so still it mirrored the cave’s biolight and starlight above. Within it lay floating petals, blue, violet, gold, like constellations.