Chapter 22 Hakara
Hakara
Langzu – on the road to Xiazen
Among the gods, there are promises and there are blood pacts.
A promise is binding, leading to the death of the god that breaks that promise.
A blood pact, if broken by anyone party to the pact, leads to the death of all the gods involved.
A blood pact can also be used to bind gods beyond those initiating the pact.
I could feel the difference in the two bonds, though I wasn’t sure exactly how.
I worried at it like a loose tooth as we made our way south.
It wasn’t that the bond with Thassir was slack and that the bond with Rasha tugged at the back of my mind the farther we traveled.
Each had something that was close to a taste when I focused on it – bright and tangy for Rasha, smoke and pine sap for Thassir.
After I’d hurt her and then thrown her back in time to save her life, I’d known I couldn’t let her leave again without knowing where she was.
Knowing that she was alive. It had been such a near thing.
I could still feel my blade entering her body, that moment of panic before I’d remembered the yellow gem and what Utricht had once said to me.
I’ve seen one used once. Took away a killing wound as though it had never been there.
Dashu’s hand wrapped around my upper arm.
“Careful.” He nodded to the hole I’d been about to step into.
“Ground squirrels.” He let go as I hopped around it, his gaze studiously focused on the distance.
Thassir wheeled above us, waiting for us to catch up before he moved unerringly southward.
Always south. Lithuas hadn’t slowed since we’d lost her in the lakebed.
And neither of my earthbound companions was speaking to me.
Yellowed grass cracked beneath my boots as I dodged another hole, clods of baked, uneven earth surrounding it. The vegetation rustled as squirrels darted away from our approaching party.
Sweat trickled between my shoulder blades. Each time I asked Thassir if we were gaining on Lithuas, all he would say was, “We’re close,” before his eyes narrowed and he found some excuse to walk or fly away. And this response, when I thought about it, didn’t really answer the question, did it?
We’d used some of the Unanointed coin to hop on various wagons on our way south, but sometimes our wayward shapeshifter led us too far off the road for us to ride in comfort.
As she had now. I wondered if she, in the form of some slinking cat, was grinning to herself as she thought of the trouble she was causing her pursuers.
For some reason, that was all I could imagine her as right now – a cat.
A troublemaking creature with little compassion for those it caused trouble for.
As though she could hear my thoughts, Rumenesca let out a small growl.
I was tempted to shake the basket I carried, but honestly wasn’t sure I had the energy.
“It’s my turn,” Alifra said, holding her hand out.
I pulled the makeshift strap over my head, noting the damp streak it left across my tunic. “I won’t argue with you.”
The scent of the ocean drifted over the hills, and I watched Alifra’s posture tense, her expression tightening. She tried to hide it with her movements, slinging the basket over one shoulder, tucking a hand over the lid.
I wasn’t sure what to say. She’d confessed to me, right before we’d raided the den, that her daughter had drowned when they’d made the crossing.
That she had nearly drowned too. I thought of her waking on the sand, her arms empty, the anguish – all mixed with the scent of decaying seaweed and the salt on her lips.
“If Lithuas takes to the sea—”
“I’ll be fine,” Alifra broke in. “As long as we find her.”
I knew that feeling too. The emptiness of the landscape, the still air – it made it all too easy to fall into your thoughts.
Moving helped. Doing things helped. But if I stayed still for too long, I thought about the stiff-backed way Maman had walked away from Rasha and me both, the slump of her broad shoulders, the stoic way she hadn’t even turned for Rasha’s tears.
She was going to make it through the barrier, she’d explained.
She was going to find her family in Cressima and then bring them through.
But she wouldn’t look me in the eye as she said it, only patted my shoulder as though that would help me understand.
I hadn’t begged. I hadn’t cried. Maybe I should have.
I took out my water skin, swished it, and swallowed hard past the lump in my throat. “We’ll find her. She may be an elder god, but there are only so many places in the world she can run to.”
And if she ran to all of them? If we cornered her at the ends of the earth, a place where we both were forced to stillness? No – I wouldn’t be still. I’d be fighting her. I’d kill her, and then I’d focus on protecting the Unanointed, on finding some way to help Langzu survive without restoration.
Alifra watched Thassir in the sky as he caught an updraft, becoming a spiraling speck.
“I used to start fights, back then. It helped. It brought everything into sharp focus, had me feeling an actual part of my body. Like I was here and present and away from everything that had come before.” She lengthened her stride, her gaze on the crest of the hill, where Dashu waited for us.
“I can’t do that anymore. I’m more sad than angry, see?
” One shoulder rolled in a half-hearted shrug.
“My sister—” I started.
She shook her head. “Don’t apologize to me.
I understand not being able to… let go. And Dashu – he understands too, though he might not say it.
” Her mouth quirked in a grin. “Let’s ask him about the feud between Barexi and Ayaz.
He cannot tell that story straight. It’ll give us both something else to think about. Hey! Dashu!”
I hurried to catch up to her.
“How did Ayaz end up cutting Barexi to pieces? Seems a bit extreme,” she said, shouldering him.
He frowned, a stern expression that only made his fine brow more noticeable. “I’ve told you this story many times,” he said.
“Hakara hasn’t heard it.”
A moment’s hesitation, and then his face brightened at the thought of a new audience.
“Well, it all began when Barexi argued with Ayaz that cutting things away never improved them.” He rubbed his fingertips against his goatee.
“But I suppose that doesn’t explain why Barexi argued with Ayaz in the first place.
Ayaz decided to murder a mortal Barexi was watching over and cultivating.
Not that he didn’t have his reasons – he said the mortal should be pruned for the health of his family lineage, which, of course, Barexi intensely disagreed with… ”
Alifra gave me a knowing look and I did my best not to crack a smile.
Thassir landed next to me just as Dashu was describing the way Ayaz had scattered the pieces of Barexi across the realms.
“She’s coming back this way.” His gaze was locked on the crest of the hill, his wings spread so that the feathers almost draped over my shoulder. I’d refilled my pouches, even if the one that had held the time gem was now empty. We could do this. We could fight her and win.
“Any indication of godkillers or aspects?” Alifra pulled her crossbow free, finger tapping against the metal ratchet.
“No.” Thassir flexed his claws. “But I didn’t see her either. She may not be in her human form.”
I strode toward the crest of the hill, drawing my sword, my other hand ready at my belt. “We take the high ground. Stay close.”
The port town of Xiazen opened up beneath us as we summited, a city that blanketed a gentle valley.
We weren’t on the road, but I could see it snaking out from between the buildings, a thread pulled loose from a quilt of blue tile rooftops.
And that quilt itself merged into the glittering sea beyond, white sails dotting the water, nearly invisible even when I squinted.
Here, closer to the sea, a breeze blew the yellowed clouds further inland, leaving free patches of brilliant sky.
Grass crunched beneath my boots with each step.
I didn’t see Lithuas. “Where is she?”
Thassir scanned the horizon. “I can’t be sure. I can only sense her when she shifts or uses magic.”
Alifra gave a little shrug, though she set the cat basket down and lifted her crossbow at her shoulder. “Could be she’s turned herself into a ground squirrel and is hoping to sneak past us. Maybe” – she eyed Thassir – “we should let the cat out. It could chase her down.”
Thassir’s wings pulled tight to his sides. “You are joking.” His voice was flat, the unspoken You had better not a heavy implication that came with a side serving of violence.
Alifra let out a small, delighted laugh.
I held up a hand. A dark speck had appeared in the sky, traveling rapidly toward us. I squinted against the sea’s reflected light. A bird. There was a brightness to it, a glow just underneath the wings.
I pointed. “Thassir?”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw him shake his head. “She’s still not used any magic.”
“Well what in all the depths is that creature then?” It drew closer, and I didn’t have to squint anymore to see the glow. Dread pinched at my belly. “Alifra. Shoot it down.”
She sighted with the crossbow. “Still too far. It’s got to get a fair bit closer if I want a good shot at it.”
The glow was orange and flickering; the wings of a bird took shape. It dropped lower in the sky. I suddenly understood.
It wasn’t magic the bird carried, nor any god gems. It was a branch. A branch that just happened to be on fire. And here we were, standing on an entire hilltop covered in bone-dry kindling.
“Oh shit,” Alifra breathed.
My heart jumped. “Thassir! Take her out of the sky.”
His wings swept out just as I started to run down the slope, the scent of the sea mingling with the sweetness of dried grass and old wood.
I’d be giving up the high ground, but how much would that matter if Lithuas burned us all to a crisp?
She wasn’t coming here to fight us. Why bother when she could let wind and fire do the work for her?
I remembered watching her train the Unanointed fighters, praising efficiency of movement, expending the least amount of energy for the biggest results. What did she care for a land that Kluehnn was hoping to restore?
“The road!” I called to Dashu and Alifra. It was wide, the surrounding area cleared of vegetation. If we wanted to have a chance, we needed to make it there and into the city.
I caught sight of Thassir above us, flying toward the falcon. Each beat of his black wings flattened the grass below him. My feet pounded against the hard-packed earth, grass brushing my knees, catching my bare elbows. I couldn’t stop to scratch.
Thassir dove for Lithuas. Even if he managed to seize her, she might drop the branch. A flash of white and she darted to the side, narrowly dodging his claws. Without pausing to recover, the burning branch clutched in her talons, she snapped her wings out and glided over the grass.
The branch grazed the top.
It was like touching a finger to a house of cards.
The grass collapsed into licking flames.
I skidded to a halt and Thassir rolled into the ground near me, unable to correct his momentum.
His black wings sent up clouds of dust. And then he somehow managed to get his feet beneath him and sprang from slope to air again.
But he’d lost time, and he simply wasn’t as quick as a falcon was.
A bolt zipped through the air, but a sudden gust of wind waylaid it. Alifra swore. Lithuas dropped the branch before Thassir could reach her, and then with a flick of her wings she was off toward the city again. Thassir pursued her.
“Hakara!”
Alifra and Dashu were trapped on the other side of the rapidly spreading flames, smoke nearly obscuring them from view.
I pointed downslope. “Make for the road! I have to go after her!” I didn’t wait to see if they obeyed.
I followed the dark shape of Thassir’s wings, sprinting toward the ocean and the dockside town that marked the very end of this realm – and our last chance to catch Lithuas before she ventured into the sea.