“That is not my father. It looks like him, but what made my father who he is has been destroyed or removed. Same with my mother. Whatever you did to them, reverse it.”
Father Sun laughed. It was an ugly sound, full of contempt, and K’lrsa had to fight herself not to cower at his feet and apologize for ever daring to challenge him.
“You’re just a child, how dare you speak to me that way?”
She bit her lip. “Because you need me.”
“Do I?” He turned his attention to where Vedhe stood, watching them. “Would you kill Aran for me, scarred one? And destroy the Toreem Daliphate? Burn it to the ground with my fire?”
She didn’t hesitate. “Yes. Give me the power of the sun and I’ll happily kill them all for you.”
“You can’t let her do that.” K’lrsa stopped herself just short of grabbing Father Sun’s arm. “She won’t stop with the Toreem Daliphate. She’ll kill everyone in all of the Daliphana.”
“Even better.” Father Sun’s grin was fierce and merciless. He turned towards Vedhe, dismissing K’lrsa entirely.
K’lrsa moved so he was facing her again. “She won’t stop there, you know. She’ll go after the tribes next.”
“Is that true?” He studied Vedhe. “Would you turn on us? After all we’ve given you? Kriger, a home, a chance at revenge…”
Vedhe sniffed. “I wouldn’t turn on you. Or the Trickster. Or the Lady. But the tribes didn’t want me. They still don’t. They think I’m weak. Flawed. They think I should die because of these.” She touched the scars on her face. “Why should I let them live when they don’t want me to?”
Father Sun crossed his arms and rocked back on his heels. “Because they belong to me and I’ve promised them my protection.”
Vedhe didn’t answer, but it was clear that wasn’t a good enough reason to stop her.
K’lrsa stepped closer to him. “What about the people of the Daliphana? Hasn’t some other god promised them protection? If you give us the sun orb, won’t that free their gods to act directly against you or us?”
A shadow passed across Father Sun’s face. It was just a flicker, but it made K’lrsa’s blood run cold.
He glared at her. “Don’t concern yourself with the ways of the gods.”
“Don’t concern myself? Isn’t that how Herin ended up tortured by Aran all this time? Because you crossed the line and she paid the price?”
His eyes burned like twin bonfires. “It was worth the risk.”
“Worth the risk? She lost her entire life because of you. So did Garzel. So did Lodie.” She searched his face for some trace of remorse. “Don’t you even understand what you’ve done to them? Don’t you even care?”
He backhanded her.
K’lrsa crashed to the ground, cradling her cheek where the flesh burned like she’d been branded.
She whimpered as Father Sun towered over her, growing taller and taller as she watched, his entire form limned in flame, his eyes black and empty.
Lodie hurried to K’lrsa’s side, a metal pitcher full of water in her hand and a pile of cloths tucked under her arm. “Get back, you overbloated fool. What do you think you’re going to do? Kill your chosen one?”
Father Sun glared down at her as she held a dampened cloth to K’lrsa’s burned cheek. Lodie ignored him.
K’lrsa stared up at him, trembling in fear. “Lodie…”
“Shh. I’m fine. What’s he going to do? Kill me?” She glared over her shoulder at Father Sun. “I stood up to Harley after he’d near beaten a slave to death, I can stand up to this one.” She closed her eyes and held her hand palm up. A small ceramic pot appeared in her hand. Opening the pot, she smeared a soothing balm against K’lrsa’s cheek, but frowned as she touched the tender skin.
She stood and confronted Father Sun. “Heal her.”
“No.” His voice rumbled, shaking the trees.
“Why not?”
K’lrsa tugged at Lodie’s leg, but Lodie ignored her, her attention focused on Father Sun.
“She needs a reminder of who she’s dealing with. I am her god.”
Lodie snorted. “You can’t force someone to worship you, you know. And…This? Is it any wonder some of us have chosen to turn our backs on you?”
His jaw clenched, and K’lrsa was sure he was going to burn Lodie to the ground right where she stood. Instead, he slowly shrank back to his normal size. The flames racing up and down his limbs disappeared.
Lodie still didn’t budge. “Are you going to heal her?”
“Later. After she’s had time to consider her choices.”
He looked down at K’lrsa. “I don’t need you to kill Aran or destroy the Toreem Daliphate.” He looked pointedly at Vedhe who stood nearby. “But you’d be the best choice to do so.”
He stalked away towards where K’lrsa’s parents sat, talking as if nothing had happened. K’lrsa held her breath as he approached them, unsure what he was going to do. He walked up to her mother and pressed his hand to her forehead, muttering to himself. He did the same to her father.
When he was done, he stepped back, arms crossed and waited. K’lrsa held her breath, waiting.
Her parents shook themselves as if awakening from a dream, and her mother reached for the knife at her belt, standing to confront him.
Father Sun flicked a finger and the knife went flying. “I see where you daughter gets it from. But I’ve had enough of people defying me for one day. Sit down, shut up, and be grateful.”
Against her will, K’lrsa’s mother sat. Her father wrapped his wife in his arms as he glared at Father Sun, but he’d already turned away, headed back to K’lrsa.
He glared down at her. “I’ll be back tomorrow for your decision. Make sure it’s the right one.”
He disappeared.
K’lrsa bowed her head for a moment, letting the fear she’d held back pass through her body in trembling waves.
What had she been thinking, to challenge a god like that? She was lucky he hadn’t destroyed her.
Or her parents.
She scrambled to her feet and ran to them. “Are you okay? Are you really back to yourselves?”
They smiled and nodded as she threw herself to the ground and hugged them.
She ignored the pain in her cheek as she clutched them close, her eyes closed, all the fear and worry of the last few days overtaking her as she wept in their arms.
Chapter 39
K’lrsa wiped the tears from her eyes, looking back and forth between her parents. “Are you okay? Really?”
“I think so.” Her father shook his head slightly. “I remember everything that happened after you left, but it’s fuzzy. Like it wasn’t really me experiencing any of it.” He smiled a rueful smile. “Not that all that much happened. This isn’t the most exciting place to spend a lot of time.”
K’lrsa’s mother rubbed at her forehead. “I remember wanting to be angry so many times, but then it would just disappear…” She looked towards Herin and Garzel. “Sorry. We weren’t the most enjoyable to be around, were we?”
“That’s an understatement.” Herin came closer, Garzel trailing along behind her, and sat down next to them.
K’lrsa looked around. “Where’s M’lara?”
Herin pointed her chin towards the trees where M’lara was hiding, peeking out from behind a tree twice as wide as she was.
“M’lara.” K’lrsa frowned. “Come here. Mom and Dad are finally back to themselves. Don’t you want to see them?”
M’lara crept closer, glancing around, her eyes wide with fear. “Is the scary man gone?”
“The scary…oh, Father Sun. That’s right. You’d never seen him before. Yes, for now. But he’d never hurt you. He’s our god.”
K’lrsa’s mother snorted. “Are you sure of that?”
K’lrsa opened and closed her mouth. Was she? What did a god care about the life of one little girl? Probably nothing. She gestured for M’lara to come closer and grabbed her hand when she was finally close
enough to do so.
M’lara put the thumb of her other hand in her mouth as she stared at her parents, leaning her weight against K’lrsa.
Her father reached towards them. “M’lara, sweetie. Don’t be afraid.”
M’lara stayed where she was, studying him.
“M’lara!” He frowned at her. “I’m your father. Come here and give me a hug.”
Reluctantly, M’lara let go of K’lrsa’s hand and moved forward to let her father give her a hug, but she was stiff and awkward in his embrace.
Her mother huffed in annoyance. “Take your thumb out of your mouth. You’re too old for that.”
K’lrsa flinched, worried that the angry tone would drive M’lara back into hiding, but it seemed that was exactly what M’lara had needed. She removed her thumb from her mouth and flung herself at her parents with a small cry. She clung to them, crying, “I missed you so much. You were so different. I didn’t know what had happened to you.”
K’lrsa watched, tears in her eyes. She kept forgetting how hard this must be for M’lara—losing her parents, traveling to this strange city, finding her parents so changed…
She winced. She hadn’t been a very good sister lately.
“Tell me you won’t leave again. Ever.” M’lara pulled away, looking back and forth between her parents.
“Honey…” K’lrsa’s mother shook her head slightly. “We can’t stay here. We need to go on. To the next life.”
K’lrsa met her father’s eyes and winced. Did her mother know they couldn’t leave yet? Did her father?
Her father leaned forward. “What was the vow you made, K’lrsa?”
“He didn’t tell you?” She looked around, wishing for some sort of escape, but there wasn’t one.
“No. He just said I couldn’t leave until you fulfilled the vow you’d made.”
K’lrsa took a deep breath, wondering how her father was going to react when she told him. He watched her, stoic and strong, no trace of disappointment or judgement.
Yet.
“I…” She couldn’t look at him. “I swore that I’d kill the man responsible for your death…”
“Which you did.”
She nodded. “Yes. But I also…” She glanced at his face and away again, unable to meet his eyes. “I also said I’d destroy the Toreem Daliphate.”
“You what?”
K’lrsa bit her lip as she finally met his eyes.
He stared at her, mouth half-open in surprise. “Why would you swear something as impossible as that?”
“I don’t know. I was angry. You were dead. And I thought they’d done it. I wanted them to die for what they’d done to you.”
He didn’t say anything, but the way he sat back, withdrawing somewhere inside, hurt more than if he’d screamed at her.
Her mother rocked M’lara—who’d crawled into her lap—softly side to side. “So how are your father and I a part of this?”
K’lrsa gulped. “Ummm…When I made my vow…I…Um…” She took a deep breath and said in a rush, “I swore on Dad’s soul.”
“You did what?” Her mother’s question struck the air between them like a slap.
“I didn’t…It’s just something you say. I didn’t…know. I didn’t realize that Father Sun would actually believe me or hold me to it.”
Her mother sighed, clearly disappointed.
K’lrsa chewed on her lip. “Can you blame me? I never really believed the gods were real before then. I mean, yes, I had the moon stone and it guided me to shelter or warned me about storms…But that’s not the same as a physical, living god standing before you and demanding that you fulfill your vow or he’ll keep your father’s soul for eternity.”
Her father shook his head. “What’s done is done. You made the vow, now we have to figure out how to meet it.”
He was clearly disappointed, but he pushed it away as he leaned forward. “So you have to destroy the Toreem Daliphate in order to free me. To free us.”
K’lrsa glanced at her mother. “Mom can continue onward at any time if she wants.”
Her mother reached out, lacing her fingers with her husband’s. “No. We will not be parted again. If your father is trapped here, then so am I.”
K’lrsa bowed her head, trying not to cry.
Both of her parents trapped and the only way to save them was to do something she didn’t want to do.
“K’lrsa?” Her father touched her knee, gently.
She met his eyes.
“Do you have to destroy the Toreem Daliphate to save us?”
She nodded, not trusting herself to speak.
Vedhe, who’d been standing off to the side, brooding, came forward. “I don’t think he cares who destroys it as long as it’s destroyed. I’ll do it.”
K’lrsa clenched her jaw, refusing to look at Vedhe.
Her father nodded. “Alright, then. Vedhe can do it.”
“You don’t understand, Dad. Have you ever been to the Toreem Daliphate? Do you know how many people there are?”
“How many?”
She looked to Herin who thought a moment before answering, “At least a hundred thousand.”
“A hundred thousand?” Her father shook his head. “I can’t even picture it. How many is that?”
“Too many.” K’lrsa sighed.
She glanced at Vedhe. “We don’t have to kill them all, though, to destroy the Toreem Daliphate. I didn’t promise to murder every man, woman, and child. I just said I’d destroy it.”
Vedhe shrugged away the comment. She’d already made it clear what she intended to do.
K’lrsa turned to Herin. “What would you do? Would you take the sun orb? Kill them all? Destroy just the palace? What?”
“I’d kill Aran. Horribly.”
K’lrsa slashed the air with her hand. “That’s a given. But what about destroying the Daliphate? Killing Aran isn’t enough to do that.”
She turned towards Lodie who’d quietly come to join them. “What would you do?”
Lodie spread her hands wide, palms up. “I prefer to heal rather than kill. I’d kill Aran, but no one else.”
“But if I do that, I won’t have fulfilled my promise. My parents will be trapped here forever.”
“So be it,” her father said, his voice strong and firm.
“But you could never leave this place.”
He shook his head, dismissing her concern. “I’d rather that than know thousands of innocents died to save me.”
K’lrsa glanced at Vedhe, but she had moved away, no longer concerned with the conversation. “Vedhe thinks none of them are innocent. That they are all a part of the system, so are all responsible for what it does.”
“Do you believe that?” Her father leaned forward, holding her eyes with his kind, brown one.
“I don’t…I don’t think so. But it’s so hard to know. It seems like such a reasonable argument when she makes it.”
“What about Badru?”
She frowned. “What about him?”
“Do you think he deserves to die for his role in that system?”
She hesitated for a brief moment. “No. He’s a good man.”
“Then think about it. How can he not be guilty but every young child is? He was the leader of Toreem, K’lrsa. If the leader isn’t guilty, then how can anyone else be?”
“But if I’m going to destroy it, some people have to die.”
“You don’t have to destroy it.”
K’lrsa bit her lip. “But then you’ll be trapped here forever.”
“I’d rather that than see you betray everything I raised you to be.”
K’lrsa stared at him.
What was she going to do?
Chapter 40
While the others ate their meal and talked and laughed around the fire, K’lrsa paced the edges of the room. She couldn’t let Vedhe have the sun orb—she’d burn the world to the ground with the hate that coiled in her soul.
But there was also a small kernel of truth
to what Vedhe had said.
Yes, Aran was the leader, the one pushing to attack the tribes and find the Hidden City. But he wasn’t acting alone. He stood at the center of a network of supporters and enablers who made the evil he did possible. Without them, he’d be nothing. Or maybe not nothing—he had access to knowledge and magical power not granted to most—but at least far less of a threat.
How many of those men (and women) who surrounded Aran and made his evil possible deserved to be destroyed, too?
Did any of them deserve a second chance?
Perhaps.
Maybe without the influence of a man like Aran they would be good, decent human beings. Maybe they were scared or felt powerless to say no to their hereditary leader, the man they’d always been raised to believe was the absolute authority in their world.
But…
She bit her lip.
What happened if she was wrong? If she spared too many and they stepped into Aran’s shoes? What then?
Spare too many and this would never end. The sickness at the heart of the Daliphana would continue to spread.
Kill too many and she became as bad as or worse than Aran.
Her father’s words echoed in her head. I’d rather be trapped here forever than see you betray everything I raised you to be.
She crossed her arms and leaned against a tree, watching her parents sitting side-by-side, laughing and talking, real and vivid and wholly themselves once more. They deserved the chance to move on, to go to that place beyond the Promised Plains that waited for them, whatever it was.
But to do that she had to not only eliminate Aran and those closest to him but also destroy an entire society.
It wasn’t fair. What did Father Sun get out of that kind of destruction? Why was he holding her to the impetuous vow she’d made in the throes of grief?
Didn’t he see that if she did that there would be consequences? The other Daliphana wouldn’t just stand aside and let her destroy the Toreem Daliphate without retaliating. Which would put the tribes in danger.
So her choice was to save her parents, who had loved her and deserved better than this nowhere place, or to save the tribes, hundreds of individuals, some of whom had done nothing to her, but some who’d turned their backs and believed the worst of her.
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