My mother often helped my father with the chore, and I remembered how happy they were to serve one another in such small ways. It was one of the reasons I liked lying in her lap or brushing her hair. It was my special time with her. I guess shaving was my father’s time.
I’d once asked Ana if it bothered her, me having a beard, and she’d just snorted as if the question was ridiculous. True, she’d commanded an army, each soldier having his own preferences regarding facial hair, but I was different than the typical soldier. I was hers. At least, I thought I could be. Would she have a different opinion now? Maybe I’d trim it in the way I’d seen men of Kelsey’s time do, with just a bit around the mouth and chin. If I kissed her with a beard, would she squirm away or would she enjoy it even more? I found I liked thinking about it, even if my fantasy was farfetched.
If things went well with Ana, maybe I’d have reason to broach the subject and we could decide together. Maybe experiment with different possibilities. I smiled, imagining her reaction to such a suggestion, then frowned. Of course, before I could even think about trying to kiss her again, I’d have to find her.
Why would she be here? I wondered. Then it hit me. Ana must have continued working on the list while I was gone. But Bodha wasn’t until later. The City of the Seven Pagodas should have fallen next on the list. She was going out of order. Ana had the document, not me. I’d only jotted down a few things I could take care of on my own. She should have waited for me, and even if she hadn’t, it should have been clear to her which one was next.
I ticked off the items on my hand. We were to help Kells cross the barrier to meet Lady Silkworm, stop the car from killing Kells at the play, send the jellyfish to take Kelsey, Ren, and my old self to the surface of the ocean, then there was something about Mt. Fuji, then create the seventh pagoda, and greet Kells, Kadam, myself, and Ren at the Shrine of Water. Creating Bodha was way, way down the list.
Maybe she wasn’t creating Bodha, I thought as I walked through the trees. Maybe she was only visiting for a while. Why she’d go to Bodha, though, I had no idea. It wasn’t like there was anything of interest in that realm. I guess she could have talked with the phoenix, but surely she’d want to avoid the rakshasa demons and the volcano gods.
My heart fluttered when I considered the twin gods who’d captured Kelsey in the name of searching for their long-lost love. Did they have something to do with her disappearance? Maybe the rakshasa demons caught her. Or even worse, maybe she fell asleep in the Cave of Sleep and Death. I picked up the pace and started running.
There was no way to tell where I was going. I stopped when a familiar scent tickled my nostrils. Crouching down, I studied the ground but could find no tracks. Suddenly, a comet shot across the sky and the trees went out. It was nighttime in Bodha. The ferns, trees, and flowers that had been flickering dimmed suddenly. Putting my hand on a tree, I squinted through the dark forest ahead, trying to get a sense of where I should go.
The trees looked young. Much younger than they were when Ren, Kelsey, and I had been there. I stroked the trunk of a sapling and felt a vibration against my palm. That’s when I remembered that Kelsey was able to speak to the trees using the power of the fire amulet. I touched my palm to the trunk and then said, “Can you help me?”
A thin tendril at the end of a branch brushed against my neck. My first impulse was to bat it away, but I let it stay there, and though it wasn’t fully alert, it gave me a rough idea of where I should go to find Ana. Unfortunately, she’d traveled all the way across the forest. I had a long way to go to find her.
Instead of crossing Bodha old-school style like I had with Kelsey, I used the power of the amulet and gathered the winds. Rising above the trees, I soon came upon the mountain of the phoenix. I searched for signs of firefruit, eggs, or the glowing bird but found nothing. The cave either didn’t exist yet or was hidden.
Scaling the mountain was tricky as the winds buffeted me, but eventually, I rose above them and then headed down the other side. I stopped there to try to catch Ana’s scent or ask the trees for help. They confirmed my fears. Ana was at the diamond temple. I wasn’t sure if she had created the temple or if it had always been there, but I remembered the volcano gods well. They were hard to defeat, even with Ren at my side.
Dropping down at the edge of the tree line, I phased out of time and walked into the city. There was music, celebration, and dancing much as there had been the last time I’d visited. I knew what that meant. A girl somewhere on earth was being sacrificed to a volcano. I grimaced and began searching the crowds for Ana, but then I froze. Rakshasa demons were mingling freely with the Bodha.
Right before me a Bodha girl was running her palm up the bare chest of a rakshasa demon. His tattoos flared to life as she whispered in his ear. The two of them, holding hands, wandered off. Another couple, this time a rakshasa girl who looked a lot like Kelsey did when she took on the disguise of a queen, was surrounded by a group of men from both races.
I watched, dumbfounded, as the rakshasa sipped from goblets and nibbled on fruit, bread, and cheese. Where were the cold-blooded killers that I remembered? The ones who drank blood, devoured their injured, hunted the dead, and conjured poison from their fingertips? Where was the fear on the part of the Bodha? Turned out, I didn’t have a lot of time to ponder on the subject, as the men of the hour appeared at the opening of the pyramid.
“Welcome, citizens!” one of the creepy twins cried. They looked pretty much the same as they did when Kelsey and I had been there before. Their gold skin was enhanced by their white hair. One of them wore plumes of red and orange in his braids and the other had blue and green.
“As you all know, you’ve been brought to this realm by a very powerful and, I’ll add, very beautiful woman. And we’re happy to report that tonight she’ll become a bride!”
The crowd cheered raucously. My stomach sank. I had a very bad feeling. The last time I’d been here, the twin gods had captured a girl and given her a test to see if she was an incarnation of their beloved Lawala. Then they set their eyes on Kelsey. We’d barely escaped with our lives. I shook out my arms and cracked my neck. If they’d done something similar to Ana, I’d kill them. They weren’t dealing with the same tiger they fought in the past.
I started moving through the crowd, bumping some of them as I did. Though they couldn’t see me, several of the rakshasa stopped and lifted their noses in the air. I snapped my fingers to mask my scent, and the few that started trailing me stopped and looked around as if confused. I’d just made my way to the base of the temple when a rumbling shook the ground. Was it a volcano?
The wall on the far end of the temple cracked open, and one of the long-haired gods above shouted, “Behold, your queen!” Four men, two Bodha and two rakshasa, their bodies bare except for a small sarong tied about their waists, carried a litter strewn with fire flowers. Their arms bulged with muscle as they carried about the woman who lay on top.
She was hunched over, her face hidden and her palms splayed out so her fingers touched the end of the woven bed. The bare skin of her back was painted with glowing tattoos, and her blue-black hair was untamed and wild though it was braided with lengths of flowers, feathers, and leaves. It hung over the sides, and the people who knelt as she passed reached up to touch it with their fingertips.
When the men came to a stop before Shala and Wyea, the twin gods raised their arms to hush the crowd. “We’ve kept her face hidden from you though all of you have heard her voice and responded to her call. She is our savior. Sent by the ancients who have gifted us with a new home. And now she has descended to this plane to serve and live among us. Meet our love. Our Lawala newly sprung.”