by Rin Chupeco
The boy coughed nervously. Haidee looked mildly curious.
“If the creatures continue to climb out of the Abyss as you say, then we must close off the gates to the Cruel Kingdom for good. Perhaps the other clans can assist us in that.”
“Mother would know more than we do,” Haidee spoke up.
“Not really sure she’d jump at the chance to help us,” Arjun said.
“She doesn’t have to. Mother kept letters that talked about the Breaking. Letters from my father, like the one I have. Maybe there’s more that she’s hiding.”
“Are you seriously suggesting we return to the Golden City?” Arjun growled.
“It’s a long shot, but it’s the only option I can think of. Unless you have an alternative to offer?”
Arjun glared at her, then crossed his arms. “If you’re planning on sneaking back in there, then I’m coming with you.”
He’d been rather vocal about not wanting to enter the city before, but I wisely kept my mouth shut.
Salla stood. “If you’ll excuse me, I must help the others—it’s been a while since we’ve been able to store this much drinking water.”
“We’ll help too,” Haidee said immediately. She got to her feet, Arjun following. She looked back at Odessa and then at me, her worry evident, and I nodded to reassure her that I would look after her.
“What do you intend to do?” Noelle asked me quietly, once the others had left.
“Haidee knows the lay of the land here, and I trust her to decide what’s best for us. Searching for more information about the rituals does seem to be our best bet.”
“Very well. I’ll go see if they need another set of hands.” Tact was Noelle’s strongest suit. When she’d left I turned back to Odessa, who was still staring into space. I settled myself more firmly beside her.
“How are you?” I asked, letting my patterns sink into her, exploring. The shadow around her heart was still there, though not as large as it had been, and for once I was hopeful. Perhaps the other gifts she had accepted from the galla had helped to alleviate her illness.
“This was the reason Mother did nothing when the galla first showed themselves to me,” she finally whispered. “Why she allowed me to steal away on the Brevity, while pretending to forbid me from going. Why she kept you on as my guardian. She went through the ritual herself. Whatever happened at the Breaking, she knew exactly how it was supposed to work.
“And when she learned about us, she did everything she could to throw us together. If I gave you up, then I would be saved.” Her head dropped. “She did everything she could to save my life. But she was willing to risk you for it. I’m so furious at her.”
Asteria knew that Odessa loved me. Yet she had gambled with my life, hoping for the best. I should be angry, too.
Odessa laughed bitterly. “She made a mistake, though. She did it because she assumed Haidee had died, that we were the only goddesses left. I thought we’d saved the world. I thought—” Her shoulders sank. “I thought we’d made a difference. A good difference, for a change. Instead, we might have made it all worse. I was thrilled to have my sister back. But one of us might still have to be sacrificed. Maybe it should be me. It should have been me all along.”
“Don’t say that, Odessa!”
“How can you forgive me, after everything I’ve done? I took you captive against your will. I actually considered killing Sumiko, and Noelle, and the other Devoted. I did k-kill . . . !” She began to cry. “How can you forgive me?”
I took her gently in my arms and kissed her—lightly, content to let my mouth linger against hers with no coaxing, no pressure to return it. She froze for a few moments, as if unwilling to believe I could stand to touch her still until, with a low cry, she gave in.
“I forgive you.” And I forgave Asteria too, if by risking my life she had meant to save Odessa from the Abyss. But Odessa was right: Haidee was alive, and that changed everything. “I will always forgive you.”
“I don’t know how you can. The thought that the galla can still affect me . . .”
“When Sumiko was helping me deal with losing my rangers . . .” I stopped myself from biting my own lip, from using that pain to distract from the fresh wave of grief I always felt. It was easier now to talk about them, but that didn’t mitigate the guilt. I still hadn’t told Odessa everything about what happened. “She told me it would help if I could concentrate on something familiar and positive. What if we talked about the things that give you joy?”
She thought about it for a few minutes. “Marianna and Dianae.”
“Who?” I’d been expecting her to recall night routines at the Spire, or a moment of affection between her and Asteria. Maybe even us.
“Marianna was bound for the Finae Islands to meet the fiancé her father arranged for her. But the ship she was on was waylaid by the pirates led by the lady captain Dianae. She’d taken up buccaneering after she was unfairly accused of the murder of . . . you’re going to make fun of me, aren’t you.”
“Absolutely not.” I was grinning. Romance novels. Romance novels were this beautiful, ridiculous little waif of a goddess’s happy place. I wasn’t sure I could love her more.
“I learned more about how Aeon used to be from those books, about people who could have lived and laughed and loved. I learned what summer meant. I learned about birds, and butterflies, and about balls and long dresses and dancing. I could almost imagine life like it could have been. Every story was a vow to me, that I’d one day see these places for myself. If that makes me silly—” She paused, stricken. “The Lady’s Pirate.”
“What?”
“That’s the name of Marianna and Dianae’s book. I was sorting through my things earlier, and I found it.” She sounded dismayed. “Apart from some clothes, that book was the only thing I was able to salvage. Why didn’t I think to bring the journal with the ritual instead? I was heading into the Great Abyss; what possessed me to bring a romance book with me, of all things? Why am I like this, Lan? It felt like I was on the cusp of insanity then, with all the voices swirling in my head, but then I go and do something ridiculous like—”
I kissed her again, just because I could, and she sagged against me, as if her own weight was suddenly too heavy a burden to bear. It didn’t matter; my arms were strong enough to carry us both. “It sounds like something you would absolutely do, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.” I had no answers still for so many things, but here, even in this strange cave in the middle of all this sand and heat, I could protect her. I would. “Tell me more about Marianna and Dianae, and what they framed—”
“Oh, goddess!” It was Imogen, and she sounded terrified.
We glanced at each other, startled, then scrambled toward the cave entrance and joined the others as they stared up at the sky in the far-off distance.
“What is that?” Millie gasped, arms wrapped tightly around Kadmos’s waist. The rest of Arjun’s siblings were terrified, clinging to each other. Mother Salla was pale, her mouth open.
“Why is the sun going down?” Imogen choked. “Is it dying? Are we going to die?”
“Is this an attack?” Arjun asked us, stupefied. His Howler was raised, but he was at a loss as to who or what to point it at. Finally, he trained it on the now bloodred sun, which was disappearing from view over the horizon. “Do we fight? How do we fight?”
I couldn’t answer him, could only hold Odessa tighter with my hand on my sword, ridiculous as it was. I hadn’t been under the sun long enough to know why it was waning. But the skies were turning dark above us, and I knew what that was. The night had been too much of a fixture in our lives for us not to know when it stared us back in our faces.
“No.” Salla sounded fearful. “This isn’t an attack. Aeon’s turning, and this is the result. Oh, goddess. It’s a sunset.”
Silently, not knowing what else to do but huddle close together, we watched the sun fall for the very first time.
At least I would no longer have to complain
about the heat.
Chapter Three
Odessa and the Clans
TWO DAYS AFTER WE WERE offered shelter by the Oryx clan, three desert tribes from the Skeleton Coast arrived: the Fennec, the Dorca, and the Gila.
As the goddess of Aranth, I did what came naturally: I hid behind one of the larger sand dunes and watched them alight from their rigs. Mother was the orator, and I’d never been comfortable in crowds. Romance novels hadn’t exactly prepared me for what to do in situations like this. And I sincerely doubted the clans would welcome me, even if I did know what to do.
While Mother Salla had said they were allies, the tension was obvious. Men and women nodded briefly at the Oryx mistress in acknowledgment, then turned their energies toward setting up makeshift camps without further conversation. Alliance or not, life in the desert prized caution as a survival trait. Three people I assumed were the tribe leaders sought out Mother Salla without delay, all of them disappearing inside one of the tents without another word. Nobody paid me much attention. Even if they’d seen me, they would have thought that I was just another one of the nomads, if a little awkward.
They must have seen the sunset, too. The night had fallen everywhere. Arjun’s siblings had been terrified, convinced that the darkness would be permanent. That the sun had risen again both times had yet to convince them of its now-cyclical nature, and I suspected that fear would also be common among the newly arrived clans.
For me, the last couple of days had been a blur, and the nights brought disturbing dreams where swarms of galla had converged on us; for every wave we defeated, still another appeared, stronger and more numerous than the last, and I knew with fearful clarity that they would keep doing so until we were all dead.
And then there was a shapeless void before me, of such horrifying asymmetry that it triggered my nausea just to look at it. While my friends fought the galla army, it slid toward me, enveloped in a foul miasma that pushed and prodded against my chest. Death, it said, reaching for the shadows clustered beside my heart, and I came awake, panting hard and relaxing only when I spotted Lan curled in her bedroll several feet away from me, sleeping undisturbed.
Now I reached up to lay two fingers against my breast, wondering. The dizzy spells and the exhaustion that often accompanied my illness had not resurfaced. I had tried to return the galla’s gifts, but was refused. Was this another vision? I didn’t want it to be, but it was getting harder to ignore it.
Instead, I tried to focus my mind on the details Salla had provided us about the clan meeting. The neutral ground was located several miles outside of Oryx territory, situated near several small caves along the rockier territory of the Skeleton Coast; like the Oryx clan’s, these were made of what Millie told Haidee and me was limestone, proof that water had been abundant here in ages past. Some of Arjun’s siblings were already on patrol duty, keeping an eye out for hostiles, and they were joined by soldiers from other clans without any discussion, like they’d trained together before.
Even that was enough to bring my old insecurities bubbling back up. What was the point of patrolling for lurking vermin, I thought fiercely, when a far worse thing stood before them? It would be so very easy for me to render each and every one of them into ashes. It could be quick and painless. Or it could be slow and excruciating. I could draw a line in the air, tear out their bleeding—
No. Stop it, Odessa.
They still lingered, those voices. When I forgot to concentrate I found myself falling back into old habits, into the aberrant whispers that told me I was better, that everyone around me was plotting to keep me from my birthright, those spiteful traitors always seeking to betray me; I should kill them before they—
Queen Rose, too, had plotters and schemers for her throne. Many at the royal court lusted for the power she wielded and sought to eliminate her with poison and assassins and war, but it was her most beloved lord, Leopold of Sa’angley, who won her heart and fought to keep her safe from—
The fiends within my mind retreated, sanity regaining a foothold. I could quote most of my novels almost from memory now. Turns out that even demons had little patience when it came to a girl chattering on about books they took no interest in. I was asserting better control than I had before, but every inch gained was a battle.
I wrapped a cloak around myself and kept my hood up; Mother Salla had no way of informing the other clans in advance that two goddesses would be taking part in this general council, and she suggested that we stay hidden until she’d made her case before the others. That meant hiding our color-shifting hair. I didn’t know if any of the tribes had ties to the Devoted the way Mother Salla did, or if they would hate us on sight. I hoped she could intercede for Haidee and me, even if she couldn’t for our mothers.
Our mothers. That wasn’t completely true. Latona was our mother, but I had always believed Asteria to be mine. Mother Salla’s confirmation had left me mercifully numb after that initial hurt. Perhaps a part of me had known all along; Asteria played the part of a parent well enough, but there had always been something between us that I found lacking, though I didn’t know how to put it into words. I wasn’t her daughter. She treated me more often like I was her ward.
I knew Lan and Noelle were worried about me. I knew Haidee was too. I’d said little in the days after the revelation, was grateful no one chose to press the matter further. I welcomed my strange apathy. It was freeing, not to have to feel.
I opted not to bother Lan, who was bent over one of the newcomers, checking their pulse. Word had spread about the dark-haired Catseye and her offer to delve and heal for injuries old and new. None of the clans had natural healers, and they flocked to her care in no time. Noelle was by her side, serving as attendant. My irrational jealousy toward the tower steward, the suspicions that the galla had clouded my mind with regarding her relationship with Lan, had disappeared, but I avoided her out of shame, not knowing the right words to apologize with.
Arjun was clearly on edge; he’d perched himself atop the highest dune in the area, and occasionally pivoted on his haunches like he wanted to scan every possible direction at once. Occasionally he would stare at the sky, as if daring the night to come again. The scowl never quite left his face. He’d been in a bad mood since Mother Salla had informed him about the gathering.
Everyone was on edge. It had only been three days since Haidee had confronted her mother—our mother, I thought, though I wasn’t ready to say that aloud yet—and I’d been tense, expecting the woman to attack us. In Latona’s place, Mother would already have marched with the full might of her army, ready to attack the Oryx’s lair and take Haidee back by force. Latona’s odd silence brought some relief, though Haidee had responded to it with mild anger at being ignored. Kadmos and Faraji had taken to scouting near the Golden City, but had found no escalation of the military activity that had surprised us a few days ago.
Her patients treated, Lan began helping the new arrivals set up camp in her usual efficient manner, like she, too, had lived in the desert all her life. Occasionally she would glance back at me, ready to abandon them at a moment’s notice if I required anything. Each time she did I would smile, wordlessly assuring her I was fine. She was giving me space without my needing to ask, I knew, but some of my old insecurities bubbled back up to the surface. What if she no longer loved me? I’d taken her, and all of Mother’s Devoted, prisoner. I’d killed a man in cold blood. I’d opened my arms to darkness, invited the galla in. I couldn’t be trusted, by any objective standard.
“You should wait inside one of the huts,” Arjun rumbled, and I realized I’d wandered far enough from camp to be near his post. He indicated the freshly constructed boxlike tents made from tightly packed sand, shaped by clan Mudforgers. The rain was sporadic, leaving and returning at the most unexpected times, but it had finally stopped and the sun was doing its best to eradicate all previous instances of the damp. “You’re not used to our weather, and even some of our most experienced can get heatstroke if they’re not
careful.”
I wriggled my fingers at him. “I don’t mind. I can make it a little cooler for everyone, if you’d like?”
“Not necessary. You’ll need your strength for more important things, and I’ve gotten used to the desert trying to kill me.” He looked back up at the sky and shuddered.
“It’s not so bad, the darkness,” I said. “It takes getting used to, though.”
“I don’t know how you lived like that. I’d have gone mad. I still want to barricade the cave every time it happens. And now you tell me it’s gonna happen every twelve hours?”
“I’m sorry.”
A wry smile teased out of his mouth. “You look so much like Haidee. I still find that . . . strange, for lack of a better word.”
“Is that good or bad?”
“I don’t know. You’re a lot more polite than she is, and I’m not used to it.” He paused, looked a little pained. “Would appreciate it if you didn’t tell her I said that.”
“You have my word.” It was easier to talk to Arjun. He didn’t know me well enough to judge me, or make me think that he would. “What are you watching for?”
“Mirages.”
I remembered the cloaked figure that had appeared before Latona’s army shortly before the rain fell. I shivered despite the heat.
I didn’t want to talk about it, but the Oryx clan had every right to know. They’d extended their hospitality toward us. “One of the gifts I received from the galla involved . . . raising the dead, much like them.”
He looked back at me, interested. “I can’t imagine that’s a skill you’d like to have.”
“I don’t. But at first I thought I could . . . bring them back to life for real. I couldn’t.”
“If you want to know how these ones were resurrected, I’ve got nothing. They’ve been haunting these parts for as long as I can remember. We try to get out of their way. You don’t get them on your side of the world?”