9. 8 #2
Ekris paused, and then his voice came out in a purr, as it often did when he was pleased. It rumbled through him like praise. “That was a risk of the deal you made.”
Any hope from his purr was cut dead by the words. He seemed happy that Robar had rejected me, but he wouldn’t change his mind. “Please. Please let me come back.”
“I cannot.”
“Ekris,” I called. “There must be some way. Something I can do. I am still pure, I am still yours.”
Ekris’ anger crackled over me like embers against my skin. “And yet, you let your heart be turned by another so quickly.”
I gasped out. “I will do anything.”
I heard a low murmur from one of the Ekrissians at the side, and another movement of robes.
This was taking too long, I knew that. Usually a visitor would kneel, and then within twenty seconds, steam would emit and the visitor would be able to make their selection.
I didn’t care about selecting someone, but soon, they would decide Ekris had disapproved of me, and I would be torn away from him.
I needed more time with him. I needed a way back.
I just needed him.
I cried out for him in my mind. “Ekris.”
He purred again, granting me a lick of pleasure that tracked up my spine, like he had touched me himself. Part of me thought of Davian in that moment, remembering the ghost of his touch against my back. Then I shoved that away. Thinking of Ekris and only Ekris.
I heard Talia’s voice, then. I tuned it out, knowing this might be my last few seconds with my God. They might not let me pay again next time, even if I could scrape together another gold.
“Find the God of Fire.”
“What?”
Ekris paused, and then his voice drew into my mind.
He sounded different now. Conflicted, uncertain, as I’d never heard him in the past. “This is the deal I offer. I will not offer another, and I should not be offering this. Find the fallen God of Fire. Find where he hides in the mortal realm. Do this, and I will restore you to the House.”
Ragnifort had Fallen from the Ten seventy years ago. The other Gods had cast him out. No one was allowed to pray to him, and he was permitted no House of his own nor any devotees. He had been sent to live here among the mortals in obscurity. Finding him was no mean feat.
But I did not care. It was a way back. It was a way to have Ekris as my God again. A way back to his grace, as I thought I might never be offered. I shuddered as my hands clenched at my sides. “Thank you. Thank you.”
Familiar rabbit-like footsteps hurried down the walkway towards me, and I knew this was it. They would pull me from this place now, pull me from his side.
I clung on to any fragment of Ekris I could feel in my mind, wishing him closer.
That same lick of pleasure coursed over me. “I have missed you. Do be careful, Annie.”
A hand hit my shoulder.
I called out in my mind. “I love you.”
“As I love you,” he whispered.
Then I was pulled away from the cushion, and my back hit the marble. I opened my eyes in a daze, losing the connection to Ekris.
But it was fine.
He had told me he still loved me. He had given me a way back. I had everything I needed and more.
Ben pulled me to my feet and looked down at me with a confused look. I realised I was smiling at him, and I tried to school my expression.
Talia stormed towards me, the light of the candelabras bouncing off her ebony skin, eager to get me out of the House as fast as possible. I could feel the lash of her tongue before she even opened her mouth, and yet she was cut short.
Behind me, I heard it. The sign all of the Ekrissians were waiting for.
Steam rose from the fountain at my back.
Talia stopped dead and Ben dropped his hand from my arm as the eight Ekrissians turned. Many of them inhaled, the noise the only indication of their recognition of me, and the uncommonness of the sight before them.
Usually, they turned to find an older man standing slowly from the cushion. Not a girl they had lived with for years, their Leader, and an usher, all poised without a clue for how to proceed.
Talia regained her composure, and folded her arms before her waist. “Ekris has given his approval. Select a courtesan, and may pleasure and love guide you.”
She was allowing it to happen. Talia was many things, but her loyalty to Ekris and its devotees would never be questioned. If he had given his signal, she would honour it, even if she hated my return.
I looked around the room until I saw a cheekbone under a veil that I recognised.
She gave me the tiniest hint of a wave, flexing her fingers out from their clasped position.
If I was permitted to take an Ekrissian for my pleasure, then of course, I would use the moment to speak with one of my oldest friends.
I pointed at Jusia. “I select her.”
Jusia pulled her veil off the moment we were alone in one of the sanctums. “You shouldn’t have come, Annie. Talia is furious at you for leaving.”
The sanctums weren’t bedrooms. Not truly, in the sense that none of the Ekrissians spent any time there or slept there outside of their service.
But they were fitted to be an approximation of one.
Each sanctum held all the necessities for pleasure.
A huge carved marble bath sat in one of the corners, bubbling with the smell of sulphur.
The House was set atop a natural heated spring, and water blessed by Ekris himself.
“I know,” I said. “I made a mistake. I need to return.”
In the other corner, a silver platter of grapes, cheese, and cured meats, and an oenochoe of good wine. I encouraged Jusia to eat with me. The Ekrissians weren’t allowed to partake in any of the food or drink unless asked by their visitor.
She nodded to me as she picked up a slice of hard cheese and poured herself a glass of wine. “She’ll never let you.”
We turned to look at the main sight of the room. In the centre against the other wall, a set of stairs raised up to four plain stone columns, supporting another low triangular roof carved just beneath the high ceilings. A bed with red sheets sat beneath it, waiting.
I looked at Jusia. “She’ll have to if Ekris does.”
Jusia was Meldoran. This, in itself, was a rarity.
Our Gods were picky when it came to their devotees, and they liked to choose from Craeterans.
There were only a handful of Meldorans, Unnish, and Aralaji represented in the Houses.
But Jusia was singularly beautiful, and I could imagine that any God would have trouble turning her down.
Ekris most of all, for he valued beauty almost as highly as he valued desire.
She shook her head at me, looking at me like I was crazy.
I studied her as though seeing her for the first time through the eyes of a patron and not a fellow sister.
She was paler than the moon itself, and her eyes were hazel, speckled with gold.
Her lips were always red, and I would think she had stained them with berries if I had not known it to be natural.
Her hair was the closest I had seen to a true gold. She was a treasure.
“Can I ask you a question?” I asked.
She jolted, as if she feared me, and I didn’t understand it. But she nodded, nonetheless. “Of course.”
“Do you know anything about a ‘Davian’?”
I had studied the Leadership of the various Houses, but when it came to the membership, I hadn’t delved much.
From the way Jusia stilled, watching me with those gold-flecked eyes, I figured she had been more diligent than me.
“Davian. As in, Davian of the House of Pain? The one who wears that mask?”
I nodded. “Yes, him.”
Jusia inhaled, touching the top of my arm. “Stay away from Davian. They say he is cursed by the Gods, and that’s why he wears that mask. The devotees of Pain should not be trusted.”
I sighed. “Who is to be trusted, now?”
She narrowed her eyes. “I mean it, Annie.”
“I know, I know.”