Talon tsked. “Yes … what?” Ola saw Talon’s hands change into something like claws, and she shuddered in terror.
Ola looked at the mimic who had once been her dearest love, the woman she had once dreamed of running away with to freedom. None of her dreams had ever gone like this. “Yes … Mistress.” She sobbed in shame.
“Good doggie.” Talon pulled Ola up from the chair. “And remember, bitch: if you don’t do exactly what I say, I won’t bother knocking you unconscious before I eat you alive.”
27: SISTER KALINDRA
(Kihrin’s story)
“I know the ceremonies can be a little dramatic, but we’re a nice group of people once you get to know us.” Kalindra had picked a native island flower and was idly shredding it to bits with her fingernails as we walked.
“A little dramatic? That’s what you call a human sacrifice to the Goddess of Death? Not creepy or terrifying? Just … ‘a little dramatic’?”
“Teraeth isn’t human.”
I rolled my eyes. “Semantics.” I paid no attention to where we were going. Somewhere in the jungle.
She smiled and looked away. “You must have questions.”
“A thousand. I just don’t know if you’re going to be able to answer them.”
She tossed the flower she’d been destroying off the edge of the path. “Try me.”
I ticked off the questions on my fingers. “Where are we? Who has my gaesh? Does Thaena really wander around the island personally, or do I still need to worry about Relos Var showing up to pay me a visit? What’s with the snake people? What’s going to happen to the rest of the crew of The Misery? Is Khaemezra a dragon too, and if she is, what does that make Teraeth?”
Kalindra cleared her throat. “When you said you had a thousand questions, I assumed you weren’t being literal.”
“This? This is just a warm-up. Wait until I really get going.”
She laughed and continued walking. “I don’t know who has your gaesh—probably Mother. You should ask her. ‘Here’ is the island of Ynisthana, Thaena’s personal sanctum of power, which means Relos Var won’t show up here if he knows what’s good for him. The snake people are called the Thriss, and they have lived here for centuries. Did I miss anything?”
“The crew of The Misery,” I offered. “And ‘Mother’ being a dragon.”
She paused for a moment, pursed her lips, looked off into the mist. “The crew will be offered a chance to join us or they may return to Zherias when the next ship arrives. They won’t be harmed; the only sacrifices we practice are voluntary. Khaemezra is not a dragon—but isn’t magic wonderful? She is the most powerful wizard I’ve ever known. Powerful enough to change into a dragon.” Kalindra grinned. “Which makes Teraeth exactly what you think he is: insufferably pretty.”
She winked at me and continued walking, now turning off the main trail to a narrow but well-used, winding path.
I let that last bit slide without commentary save a roll of my eyes and then ran after her to keep up. I didn’t think Teraeth was pretty. Insufferable? Yes. Pretty? No.
Definitely not.
“Go back to the part about this being Thaena’s personal sanctuary. If I stay, am I going to run into the Goddess of Death herself? How does that work? Is it polite to avert my eyes? Would I be expected to bow if we run into each other on one of the trails?”
Kalindra stopped and stared at me as if I were either a difficult puzzle or just being rude, and then continued walking.
“Hey, you said you’d answer my questions.” I chased after her. “Don’t stop just because they’re stupid questions.”
She moved aside the wide green leaves of a jungle plant, and beyond I saw a small clearing. The smell of ash and sulfur, as well as something dark and musky, hung thick in the air. The scent rose from steaming pools of water bubbling up from the ground. The pools sunk deep into the black rock in wide overlapping ovals. I suspected they had been widened and deepened by hand.
She moved over to the edge of a pool and waited for me.
“So how does this work?”
She raised an eyebrow. “The bath? It’s for cleaning.”
“No, I meant the part with a goddess walking around out in the open. The idea that a god has some sacred space where they can manifest…” I shook my head. “I’ve never heard of that, and I’m a minstrel’s son. Knowing those sorts of stories is of professional interest to me.”
“Or maybe you just don’t know everything. Try not to go into shock at the idea.” Kalindra picked up a stick and drew three lines in the ground. “So the world is divided into three states of being—life, magic, and death.”
“And two Veils that separate them. I know this.”
She tilted her head and acknowledged what I said. “And most people believe that the living stay here”—she pointed to the first line—“while the dead stay here,” she said as she pointed to the third line. “This area in between, the realm of magic, therefore is the home of the gods, right?”
I narrowed my eyes. “Is this a trick question?”
“In a way. Because it’s rubbish. It’s wrong. Yes, the gods can see into all the realms at once—that’s one of the things that makes them gods— but divinities still have physical bodies. Those physical bodies still exist in the land of the living. Avatars who walk and talk and do all the things that living beings do. Most people will never meet the avatar of a god, or if they do, they’ll remain blissfully ignorant of that fact.”* She pointed back to the first line, underscoring it deeply. “Before it was claimed by Thaena, this island was the sanctuary of the god-king Ynis, who loved snakes and reptiles so much he took his human followers and changed them into the Thriss. Ynis thought he was safe here, that no one could touch him or interfere with what he was doing.”
She broke the stick and tossed the pieces away, smeared the dirt to obscure the markings she had created. “That’s the danger of a sanctuary, and why smart gods don’t advertise where their sanctuaries are located. A god’s avatar can manifest in their own sanctuary, but that very strength makes them vulnerable. The only way to kill a god is to kill their avatar. Ynis died when Emperor Simillion came calling with the sword Urthaenriel.? Thaena is different, though.” Kalindra held out her hands toward the jungle. “She is always here, but yet you’ll never meet her, not unless you decide to join our order and dance the Maevanos yourself.”
I narrowed my eyes until comprehension settled in. I drew in a breath. “Because she’s the opposite, isn’t she? Her body, her avatar, isn’t in the land of the living at all, is it? She ‘lives’ in the third realm—in the Afterlife.” I blinked. “Can she die?”