Chapter 18 Chapter Eighteen

Naked, they intertwine and intertwine, as if they had become the same rock, as if a sculptor had carved them both directly into the same rock.They were so deep inside each other that they didn't move.They just let each other's fingers move quietly on the skin, causing a sweet feeling, and they enjoyed the breeze. They are completely immersed in happiness. All the past searches and twists and turns of fate have been explained at this moment. It turns out that all the past is a necessary process.At this time, they didn't need any explanation, and they were convinced in their hearts that they would never be separated from each other.Under the faint moonlight, their love fluctuates accordingly.

For a moment they were still in a pose so perfect that they almost held their breath, almost mistakenly thinking that they could turn into rocks like this.There was another moment when they slid so smoothly into each other, the two of them moved in a rhythm like flowing water, accompanied by voices - voices in their hearts. Their hearts communicate without words: words are like the touch of the hand, like the beating of the heart, like light and shadow-everytime, in this universe, the elements of the dancing of two bodies. Anna Maya left Jia Boye's body first. But Jia Boye didn't feel the slightest pain.

He watched her gracefully put on her ankle-length gown, and then handed him his gown. She sat beside him, her eyes fell on the other side of the mountain in the darkness, he thought, there must be several shrines carved into the rocks there. "I want to tell you about my journey," she said. Jia Boye listened to Anna Maya's story about the experience of passing through the rocks and flying over the mysterious city in the form of a big vulture. He listened to her tell about the rock and her story, and how the rock resembled the late Inca king Vanya Capac.He recalled that it had been a long time since she met him.

Anna Maya repeatedly repeated the words of the Inca king to Jia Boye, but all the words did not make him realize everything in a flash, but for some reason, all her words were deeply rooted in his heart; what she said could not be dispelled There was always a fog of prophecy surrounding them, but in her soft voice, he felt calm, more at ease than ever.He even felt joy: because he knew that not only had he laid down his arms, but the thought of war had gone from him. He knew that the war kept him moving, never resting, that he had been doomed to be a vagabond since the day the man he privately called his father smuggled him out of prison.

He felt soaring above his life with her, as she and Kadari flew above the Mysterious City and looked down.He looks at war, violence, impulsiveness, anger.He visited the past, but he did not look at it from the standpoint of a foreigner, but with a new tolerance. His whole body and mind felt at ease immediately, and he just said quietly: "Oh! It turned out that it was just because of this..." But This feeling has nothing to do with the concern for the only friend, and certainly not with the tenderness of the fire of love burning in the breast. He was almost dizzy as he probed its depth, measured its intensity; its strength was almost limitless.At this time, he felt scared.

Immediately after all the images disappeared, he heard Manco's uncompromising voice ringing in his ears: "Remember before dawn," the young vengeful king repeated again: "Remember before dawn." He seemed to see the summit of the Mountain of Ancestors light up slightly. Anna Maya hugged him tightly. "You know everything I know," she said, "I have nothing to hide from you. You just have to live through what you have to go through, and then come back and join me. We just need to wait for all the signs to appear... " "How do we know the signs are there?"

Anna Maya remembered that she had asked Kadari the same question when Kadari handed her the key of the stone. "We'll find out. You and I will know when the time comes." "Then we have to wait... for a long time?" The word "for a long time" he said sounded like a sudden and unpredictable worry, as if the child in his heart suddenly ran out and shamelessly asked for his happiness. When the child was about to stomp his feet in anger, Jia Boye caught him in time. Dawn has come. Pale yellowish sunlight swept across the top of the mountain, and the night had slipped away quietly.Every second was like a grain of sand, eroding his heart. Annamaya made a gesture to answer, but offered a long kiss.

They stood up at the same time, still embracing each other tightly, a few times as if they were impulsively wanting to integrate each other into themselves, and their movements were imprinted with pain and sweetness at the same time.In the end, Jia Boye hugged her so hard that it almost made her unable to breathe, and only then did he let go. "I love you," she said. He looked at her, and every smiling face and tearful face of her in the past turned into her in front of him.He let himself be caught in her calm lake-like eyes.From her eyes, he seemed to see the mountains reflected in the lake.

"Are we going to have to wait a long time?" he asked again, this time with endless tenderness. She put her finger on his lips. "I love you," she said again, more definitely. His eyes finally fell on the mountain of ancestors. "Stay in my breath, and trust the cougar..." These words echoed in his heart, giving him the courage to step in. He felt her standing quietly behind him, watching him start to run down the hill toward the road by the river. He didn't dare to look back, afraid that he would stop and be unable to do what he should do—now he knew, understood, and accepted all this from the bottom of his heart.

As he approached the quad, he quickened his pace. As he crossed the bridge, the first rays of dawn fell on his forehead, and he blinked.