As if in response, another heavy throb sang through the cave, shaking the building beneath them and echoing from the oily surface of the water.

“What is that?” Nomi asked, but Ramus was sure she knew already.

Heartbeat, he thought.

Steam rose from the hole. A smell as well, like time gone off or life long forgotten.

Ramus sat back, wanting to see into the hole more than anything he'd ever wanted in his life. Yet he was also more terrified than he had ever been. The thing in his mind opened up into a grin, and a flash of agony coursed through his cancer as if to remind him of mortality.

“You should go first,” Nomi said.

Ramus locked eyes with her and leaned forward, falling toward his future.

Chapter 22

Chapter 22

RAMUS HAD SPENT a long time trying to imagine a Sleeping God, but he knew now that they were unimaginable.

He fell, struck a warm, leathery membrane and slid down its side. He hit one of the fleshy pipes that came through the ceiling and penetrated the huge sac at the building's center, turning upside down and striking the soft floor with his shoulder. Pushing with his feet, pulling with his hands, he was soon pressed back into a corner of the room, staring at what sat before him.

It did not move, yet he knew that it was more than alive. The age of this thing hung in the air, a miasma of smells and sensations that he could not escape even if he closed his eyes. Its surface was hard and tensed, testament to the pressures within.

“I'm here,” Ramus whispered. His whole life had led to this.

There was more steam in here, but not as much as he had expected, and the open roof allowed some of it to vent to the outside. The walls and floor were warm, and not made of stone. The strange pipes strung across the cavern outside ended here, piercing the leathery surface and pinned there with the stitching of shiny metallic clips. What metal they were made from, he did not know. Who had fixed them there, what had handled those clips and why, all were mysteries to him. But Ramus knew that his time of mystery was drawing to a close. Everything was about to change.

Nomi lowered herself through the hole. She was straining on her arms, looking down at what lay beneath her and sweating as she struggled not to step on it. But there was no alternative. She slipped, crying out as she fell, rolled and struck the floor across the room from Ramus. Out of sight, she spoke.

“What do we do, Ramus? What now?”

“Now it wakes,” he said.