At the Great Gate of the Garden itself, lines of grateful citizens, from stricken to internoders, waited to press material goods upon the Gatekeeper. Aoun ushered them in towards the egg and moat that Unar would never see again.
Tears blurred her vision in her uninjured eye as she stepped out onto the branch where she had planned to descend. Before she could crouch down and order Sawas to climb on her back, Aurilon stepped out of a shadow, tall and scarred and graceful and deadly.
Sawas whimpered and clung to Unar’s clothes the way she had clung to Wife-of-Epatut’s.
“Odel is dead,” Aurilon said without preamble.
“I know,” Unar replied hesitantly. “At least, I didn’t see how he could have survived. I’m sorry.”
“I do not want you to be sorry. I want you to find him again.”
“Find him again? But he must be just born, and besides, I’ve had enough of taking babes from their mothers. I won’t do it.”
“I will not take him. I swear to you on his soul. Only watch over him. Wait for him. You found Audblayin. Do not pretend that you did not. You can find Odel.”
Unar was so tired. So close to being allowed to rest.
“I can find him,” she said. “What happened to Aforis? Do you know?”
“Ehkis returned him to the second-tallest tree in Airakland. Airak did not die when his Temple fell. His Servants have approached the wood god to help build them another Temple. When Aforis tells his story to the other Servants, I cannot say whether he will be punished or rewarded.” Aurilon’s expression showed little concern.
“Let’s hope for a reward. He’s been punished enough. What of Ilan?”
“She was a casualty of the fighting in Ehkisland.”
“So. Three gods did die at once. I’ll come with you in just a moment.”
Unar gathered her magic. Seeds sprang to life, soaking up water and sunlight, infiltrating the bark with their roots. Vines writhed along the tallowwood’s branches and then fell away, forming a rope ladder that led down; a long way down.
Unar stood at the edge, looking down at the ladder, not moving. She had planned to escort Sawas down, but after agreeing to help Aurilon, it seemed she had a Canopy-wide search to accomplish first.
“Thank you,” Aurilon said. “I would not ask it of you, but I still fear the soul-changer. This is what the Lakekeeper conveyed to me of the One Forest henchman, prince of Airakland. He was by the lake at the Temple of Ehkis. Ilan had been cut from the straps on his back by one who did not recognise her true nature. She was dumped into the lake, sleeping even as she sank into the water. The prince slew the man who had cut the straps, and turned as if to dive and retrieve her, his best key to unlocking the barrier. But then his body shuddered. He fell to his knees. He lifted his hands and gazed at them. The whites of his eyes showed. ‘No! Sikakis, no!’ That is what he screamed, over and over.”
“Core Kirrik,” Unar said flatly.
“Indeed. He was no longer the prince Sikakis but the sorceress, Kirrik. She saw the Lakekeeper skirting the lake, coming to kill her again, and she dropped, climbing with her spines down the side of the tree. By the time the Lakekeeper reached the place where she had begun to descend, she was gone, and the child, Ilan, drowned.”
All Unar could think was If Ilan is dead, Kirrik can’t come through the barrier again. Even if she has taken Sikakis’s body.
True, Unar had sent Audblayin below the barrier, but nobody else knew of Ylly’s true nature besides Aurilon; perhaps Sawas, if she’d been listening closely, but Sawas was even less likely to jeopardise her daughter than Aurilon was to endanger Canopy.
“Sawas,” Unar said. “Go down the ladder. It will take you home.”
Strangely, with Aurilon staring at her, Sawas didn’t argue. She climbed down nimbly until Unar couldn’t see her anymore. When she passed through the barrier, Unar’s sense of her life force faded.
“Three hundred boy babies were born in Odelland last night,” Aurilon said.
“Lead me to them,” Unar answered thickly. She drank water from a gourd that Aurilon put to her lips, and let the Bodyguard take some of her weight. “I’ll listen to them cry. And then I’ll find the goddesses who died. You must watch over them, too, Aurilon.”
“It will be my pleasure. They will not even see me. I have a new chimera skin, and this one I do not intend to mount for display.”
*
THREE DAYS later, Unar parted ways with Aurilon and went into Understorey.
Aurilon was content. She’d knelt at the feet of an out-of-niche woman who was beatific in her status as a new mother at the age of fifty-two. Odel’s newborn head had been spotty and squashed-looking. He’d had hair on his forehead that the midwife assured them would fall out soon enough.
The Lakekeeper, one of the rain goddess’s Servants, hadn’t been best pleased to see Unar, but she’d forced on him every detail she could remember of Edax’s fate. Aurilon’s mildly threatening presence had convinced him to come with them to the House of Itit, where a jeweller’s daughter, only one day old, already preferred blue gemstones to green.
How can you be sure she’s Ehkis? the Lakekeeper had asked, fists on hips.
Unar is the Godfinder, Aurilon answered. She crosses into all niches. Canopy is hers now.
It wasn’t the title Unar had yearned for, but the Lakekeeper had repeated it with bafflement and a little awe. His respect meant nothing. He wasn’t Aoun, or Isin, or Audblayin.
He was nobody. Unar would have despised him if she hadn’t been numb on the inside. She would have flung the undesired bestowment back in Aurilon’s face.
I’ll find one more goddess, Unar had said. Then I’m done.
She found that child, the child that would be Ilan, goddess of justice, in a prison cell in the queen’s palace in Ilanland. The child’s mother, Ear, despite being heavily pregnant, had been arrested for insulting the royal heir, and had given birth that night in her cell.
I would have protected my baby anyway, goddess or no, Ear said earnestly. I would have bought Odel’s protection if I’d had to lie with the jailer to earn it.
You don’t have to, Unar had said. Aurilon, can’t you—?
I can, Aurilon sighed, and filled Ear’s cupped hands with coins of silver and gold. This is for you. We had it from the Servants of Ilan, when we brought them the body of their drowned goddess. The Servants are no longer starving themselves because they cannot find the one they serve. Call on me in Odel’s Temple if you need more. You are free to go.
Unar rolled up her sleeves and carefully set her spines in the side of the tallowwood tree.
She, too, was finally free to go.