Chapter 47 Sirsha #2
She watched as Div joined with her all those months ago, drawn by Sirsha’s pain and her memory and her magic. Broken children, Div whispered to her now. We are both broken, betrayed by those who were supposed to protect us.
Sirsha looked on in horror as she realized that Div had purposefully worn down her willpower, isolating Sirsha first from strangers, then from her friends.
Div whispered at her, manipulating her into strangling Kade.
She stoked Sirsha’s panic so that she killed Dolbra.
She tricked her in Thafwa so that Sirsha walked into the arms of the Jaduna, who had betrayed her when she was a child.
She saw Div’s true intent in manipulating Raani Sh’ban’s bond as a mother—to frighten Sirsha into breaking the only thing allowing her to use her magic safely. The Adah coin.
Div had worked slowly, methodically, wrapping around Sirsha’s life, slowly tightening until Sirsha’s loneliness was a garrote around her throat.
Why? Sirsha asked in her mind. Why did you do this?
“Because I have business with the jinn, little witch.” Div used Sirsha’s mouth to talk.
She stretched out her hands and wriggled her fingers, as if admiring the body she’d stolen.
“But I couldn’t simply tell you that. You would never had gone to them if I had.
You’re terribly stubborn, you know. I’d rather gnaw off my own foot than listen to anything you say. ” She mocked Sirsha with her own words.
“I had to guide you to every decision like leading a particularly stupid dog with crumbs, hoping that you’d be docile and continue lapping them up.
And you did. How can she love you and also hurt and fail you?
” Div pitched her voice high, like it had been when she’d asked Sirsha that question about her mother.
“Ha!” Div spoke normally now. “Do you think I’m a fool, little witch? I’ve known the answer to that question a thousand years longer than you.”
Sirsha tried to see deeper into Div, for they shared one mind now. But Div’s mind was confusing. A tangle. Voice upon voice upon voice. All screaming as if they shared the same wound.
Ik tachk mort fid lodra fi, Sirsha remembered. Death feeds the great wound.
“Stop that,” Div snarled, and now she began rooting around in Sirsha’s pockets, looking for the jinn coin, no doubt.
“Stop trying to get inside me. You will not succeed. Sit quietly until I have dealt with the jinn and no longer need an anchor. If you are cooperative, I will leave your body. If you are not, yours will be the first heart I devour.”
She found the coin, finally, tearing it from Sirsha’s pocket and breaking it in half.
“No, Sirsha! Wait!”
Arelia! Sirsha could only cry out her friend’s name in her mind. Div swung Sirsha’s body around. Arelia hurried toward her, Sirsha’s note in her hand. Sufiyan followed, and Sirsha wanted to cry out in relief. They were her friends. They would know it wasn’t her. They would do something.
Stupid little witch, Div said in her mind. No one will know.
“A note?” Arelia shrieked. “You said you would tell us and you left a note.”
“Forgive me, Arelia,” Div said through Sirsha’s mouth. “I did not want you to get hurt.”
Run, Sirsha tried to cry out. Run. It’s not me!
“I’m fine,” Div went on in Sirsha’s voice. “Please—please go. The jinn are coming—”
Sufiyan’s face paled as he looked at something behind Sirsha. A voice rumbled out of the dark.
“Sirsha Westering.”
Div turned Sirsha’s body, standing firm at the sight of the tall, cowled figure who stepped forward. In the shadows of her hood, two flame eyes glowed. She held a glaive in one ash-gray hand, and Sirsha knew her by her weapon. Umber.
“Where is it?” Umber asked. “The creature you have carried with you?”
“It’s near,” Div said. “It likes to hide. Where I go, it must join.”
Please see, Sirsha begged. Please look inside her and see me. But Umber merely peered over Sirsha’s shoulder at the humans staring at her in awe.
“And the prince of the Empire, whom we have sworn to aid? Where is he?”
“Not here,” Div said, and she sounded a touch impatient now. “I broke the coin on my own.”
Sirsha could feel Div’s rage, but beneath that, trepidation roiled. Div was intimidated by Umber, and that gave Sirsha hope. Sirsha strained against the bars of the prison Div had built around her.
Stop, little witch, Div whispered to her. Or I will eat your friends’ hearts with your hands and your mouth. I will feast upon them so you taste their blood.
Sirsha ceased.
“Very well,” Umber said. “You will follow me, child. My kin await. Together, we shall free you of this monstrosity.”
“We’re coming with her.” Arelia grabbed Sirsha’s hand. She could feel Div cringe back, wanting to shake her off.
“Maker,” Umber said to Reli. “Do you know where we must go?”
“Don’t really care,” Arelia said. “We’re coming. Right, Sufiyan?”
Sufiyan nodded and grabbed Sirsha’s other hand. When he did, he glanced down sharply, then up at Sirsha, eyes narrowed. As if he realized something was off. Yes, Sirsha thought. Because it’s not me, Suf.
“They must come,” Div said. “My friends.”
No! Sirsha cried out, but in their shared mind, Div simply laughed.
I will be hungry after I have my vengeance, little witch. I will need hearts.
Umber turned and lifted her hand to the rock behind them. Magic surged forth and a doorway appeared, glowing blue. A portal.
But at the sight, Div quailed. “No,” she said, and stepped back, using the moment to snatch away her hands from both Sufiyan and Arelia. “I do not wish to travel this way. I—”
A hand on Sirsha’s back. Sufiyan. He must have realized it was Div speaking—and that he should do the opposite of what she wanted.
He shoved Sirsha and suddenly, she was stumbling through the portal.
The sky turned yellow, the earth transformed into a roiling sea.
Distantly, she made out a dark shoreline with a lone figure on it.
Screams from ahead of her—Div, separated, bodiless, nothing but a cloud of ash, linked to Sirsha by a pale cord. But Sirsha could see through the ash, the pain, the anguish. She could see—
Darkness. They’d gone through the portal.
The pocked walls of a dark cave rose around them.
It was large, littered with boulders and pools of stagnant water.
The walls glowed an eerie blue. The place felt empty—horribly so, as if it were a void in the fabric of the world.
A gate stood on one side of the cave—it led to a long hallway.
The other end of the cave had only a single doorway to a chamber that glowed the same ghostly blue.
Within, something pulsed, like a heartbeat, but one that was not Sirsha’s own.
Sirsha had never been here, yet she knew what this cave was. Quil had described it to her in a halting voice months ago.
This was where Ruh died.
They have brought us to my prison, little witch, Div whispered to Sirsha. A vile place where I was trapped and used. They wish to trap me again. But I will not let them.
The darkness made it difficult to see, but after a moment, seven figures stepped forth, dropping their robes and flowing into forms made of smokeless fire. Jinn.
“You,” Div growled.
Her wrath swept through her like a fever, leaving her mind bare for a single mote of time. But in that moment, Sirsha perceived what she had caught only a glimpse of in the Owa Khel. She realized finally that Div was not one twisted soul.
She was many.