gateway to Tahninym’s temple. I gulped. How exactly did the king expect me to open this gate with a tiny key, anyway?
About twenty feet from the door now, a set of guards parted to reveal King Julreus and Queen Ixnia. They both smiled, though the Queen’s furrowed brow seemed worried.
Then the king began to speak.
“It has been over nine centuries since the Goddess Readimina sealed this temple. On that day, she foretold the arrival of one of her children. This child would open the gate and allow our people to worship in the house of our father once more. That day, my brothers and sisters, is today.”
I had expected a burst of applause, but, instead, there was a storm of clicking sounds from the merfolk’s mouths. It sounded like rain hitting stone.
“Please let us have silence as the sacred seal is undone.”
Then, the crowd hushed, their eyes on me. The king stepped aside to reveal a small, silvery plaque set into the gate. He beckoned for me.
Slowly, not quite trusting my legs, I walked up to the wall. A tiny keyhole was barely visible in the shining material. I removed the key from around my neck, letting the ribbon dangle as I put it into the lock.
I turned it left, without result. I turned it right. There was no sound, no movement. My face began to heat up. This was supposed to work!
“Calm down,” someone who sounded suspiciously like Levent whispered from behind me, just loud enough for my sensitive ears to hear. I tried to do as he said, but blood was pounding in my cheeks.
Keeping my hand on the key, I took a deep breath and closed my eyes. Why would Readminia specifically instruct a faun to open this temple? What was the only thing a faun had that the merfolk did not? My eyes snapped open.
The only thing keeping the merfolk from opening this gate themselves was a certain type of magic.
I pushed some energy down my arm and through the key. Something inside the lock sucked it in greedily, and so I concentrated a little more. Something moved, my magic flowing down the key and into the lock.
Above me, the ornate designs on the door were moving, coiling back and letting light shine through from the other side. More and more pinpricks of light