“Is that you?” Ramus asked. The thing in his mind shifted, sending ripples through his thoughts like shockwaves through a deep lake.

The walls of the building looked uneven, and though Ramus squinted he could not make out why. Rough stone? Carvings? He would have to cross the lake to find out. There were also eight or nine heavy, thick tubes protruding from the building, a couple of them curving out and dipping into the lake, the rest twisting and rising through the cavern and disappearing into the walls or ceiling. They looked to be made from stone, but he was certain they pulsed.

“Are you in there?” The building suddenly drew all his senses, made itself the center of his world, and the astonishing cavern and its flora and fauna faded away to the memory of a dream. There was Ramus and the building, and inside that building slept a God.

“I'll wake you,” Ramus said. His voice left him, and beats later it came back from the walls and ceiling of the cavern as a continuous whisper, an endless promise.

“Ramus,” a voice said.

Ramus blinked several times before remembering he could turn around. His muscles obeyed slowly, and he saw Nomi standing at the entrance to the tunnel. Steam flowed and twisted and made a wraith of her. It was only the blood on her face and the way she stood that confirmed to him that she was truly still alive.

RAMUS LOOKED AS though he had never seen her before. Nomi tried to stand up straighter, not sure why she wanted to hide her injuries from him. She certainly did not expect pity. For some reason, she felt the need to seem strong.

“Ramus,” she said again. She looked past him into the cavern, saw the lake and the island and what was built thereon, and she knew they had found it. “We have to go back.”

“You can't go back,” Ramus said, and she was not sure what he meant. He would not allow it? Or she could not?

I can, she wanted to say, but then she looked at the building again and realized how close they were to something remarkable. No one ever meets their gods, she thought.

“I'm going out there,” he said, pointing behind him without taking his eyes from Nomi's. “I'm going to see what we've found, and I'll go inside and touch it, and . . .” His gaze shifted slightly to the side, his attention suddenly elsewhere. Somewhere far beyond here, or deeper inside.

“No one ever meets their gods,” Nomi said. “Don't you wonder why?”

Ramus frowned and looked back at her, and she thought she had gotten through to him at last. But then he smiled. “Because they never give themselves the chance.”