Chapter 4
Chapter
Four
Interrupting a ritual sacrifice isn’t the way I wanted to introduce myself to anyone in this world, but here we are.
I’ve chosen this path, and as they all stare at me, agog, I stride through the room to the altar and take the baby goat in my arms. It bleats and kicks, trying to get away, but I hold onto it, because I just saved the little shit’s life.
“Hi everyone,” I say. “I realize this makes me a jerk, but if you’re sacrificing to the god to make him show up, it’s not necessary. He’s going to be here any day now.”
They continue to stare at me, mouths open. I glance down at myself and, okay, I do look a bit strange. I’m covered in swamp mud from head to toe, and my work clothes are clinging to my body and probably seem alien to them.
“Did you…come from the swamp?” the woman with the sacrificial knife asks.
“I mean, temporarily, yes. But I was sent to come here. This is where the god of disease is showing up, right?” I beam at her since I was sent here to be sunshine and get-shit-done.
Immediately, my words elicit a response. Someone moans and spits on the floor. People make flicking gestures over each shoulder, muttering what sound like prayers.
“The…dark brother? He is coming, then?”
I juggle the goat in my arms. “Yes. I thought everyone knew.”
The priestess steps forward. “Kalos only arrives here when there is an Anticipation. The portents have spoken truly. The threads spoke of an Anticipation, but we did not realize it would be so soon.”
“Totally soon,” I agree, even though I’m dying to ask what she means by “threads” and “anticipation.” I pat the goat’s hind quarters awkwardly. “No need to sacrifice the little buddy here.”
“But Kalos the Destroyer is the most terrible of all the gods. We must appease him so he does not wither our crops or sicken our children. We must flatter him with sacrifices and offerings if he is truly arriving.” Her expression is desperate.
Behind her, someone starts weeping loudly.
“Oh, gosh, there’s no need to cry,” I say, turning around and giving them my best, most confident expression. “I’m going to make sure Kalos isn’t like that this time. I’m here to take care of everything. It’ll be fine.”
The priestess—at least, I assume she’s a priestess—gives me a strange look. “You were…sent here? By whom?”
“Does it sound weird if I say it was one of the Fates?”
A ripple of gasps moves through the audience. Okay, maybe it doesn’t sound weird to them.
“Is this true? Can you prove it?”
How do I possibly prove that a goddess showed up at my work and pulled me through to another world? “Ummm…”
A wild breeze rushes into the temple, and just like that, all the braziers go out. Every single one. The temple is plunged into darkness.
I hear the sound of more spitting.
“There you go,” I say brightly, hoping that was a sign from Lachesis and not something far more terrible. “Does this mean I can keep the goat?”
“If you were sent by the gods, you can keep whatever you like,” the priestess says in a hushed voice. “You were truly sent to defeat Kalos?”
Oh boy. “So… defeat is a strong word. I was thinking more like…be his friend?” I wince. “I was told he needed a caretaker of sorts.”
Her eyes widen. “His Anchor.”
“That’s it, yes.” I juggle the goat, who’s getting heavier by the moment. “I’m sorry I don’t remember everything. I’m just really tired. I’ve spent the last day in the swamp.”
“Of course, honored one. Let us help you.” The priestess waves at the others, and two more people—a man and a woman—jump to their feet. “My attendants will escort you back to our village, where you can rest and refresh yourself.”
Resting and refreshing sounds pretty wonderful at the moment. There’s no sign of the god I’m supposed to babysit, either, so I’m guessing it’s safe to take a break. “That would honestly be lovely. Thank you.”
The attendants move to my side. The man takes the goat from my arms, and the woman grabs a basket and starts flinging flower petals down at my feet.
“Oh, wow. Um, that’s truly not necessary,” I say as the man bows to me and gestures that I should follow after them. “Really, I don’t need rose petals.”
“The gods have sent you,” the man says as we leave the large temple room behind and step back into the humid morning air.
I guess they did. But I’m really no one special.
I’m just the person being given a job apparently no one else wanted.
They head down through the broken plaza, toward a large series of low steps that lead off to a dirt road and actual, honest-to-goodness land.
I could weep with joy at the sight of it.
They don’t live in the swamp, then. They just came here to sacrifice a goat because they’re afraid.
As we head down the steps—the woman throwing flower petals as she races ahead of me—I glance over at the man.
“I’m really sorry I interrupted your animal sacrifice. ”
“You have spoken, and your word is the word of the gods. He is yours now, and we will hold him as sacred as you.”
I wince at the ‘sacred’ thing. “Yes, well…I appreciate it.”
He glances over at me. “You were very brave to travel through the swamp.”
It wasn’t my choice either, but I’d figured that Lachesis wouldn’t let me come this far just to die in a swamp. Plus, there were no boats waiting to take me out, so it wasn’t like I had options. I pull a chunk of drying mud off my arm. “The worst were the mosquitoes, for sure.”
The stranger grunts. “For me, the snakes and the leeches are the worst.”
“I… I’m sorry, did you say leeches?”
“Indeed.”
I… didn’t see leeches. But then again, I hadn’t been looking for them. I pull my soaked, muddy shirt away from my chest and sure enough, there’s a fat leech tucked into my bra. I whimper, and on a horrible whim, pull my stretch waistband of my slacks out and look down.
Leeches. Leeches everywhere. All over my legs and thighs, and far too close to places I would never, ever want a leech to go.
A sour taste fills my mouth and blackness rushes into my vision.
I wake up to gentle touches and the sound of splashing water. My eyes flutter open as someone bathes my arm. I try to make out my surroundings, but it’s dark. All I can tell is that there’s a roof over my head, and I’m lying on a soft bed of some kind.
“Do you feel better, Mistress?”
“Elsie,” I murmur. My tongue is thick, and my throat is dry, but otherwise I feel all right. “I’m sorry I fainted.”
Then I remember why I fainted, and my hands go to my abdomen. I’m naked, my skin clean. No leeches. I let out a sigh of relief.
“I removed them from you, Mistress,” the woman says even as she bathes my arm. “I’ve removed most of the mud and am getting the last of it. I wasn’t sure if you wanted it on you or not. Please forgive me if I’ve done wrong.”
Her tone is far too subservient for my liking. “No, I’m great. Thank you for everything. I… didn’t think about leeches for some reason. And please, call me Elsie.”
“Very well, Mistress Elsie.”
Oof. I turn to look over at her and it’s the same young woman with the flower petals from the temple. She smiles shyly at me, as if hoping for approval, and picks up a folded gown and offers it to me.
I take it from her and pull it over my head, wincing at the crunch of some of the mud still left in my hair.
I’ll have to work on that. Later. There’s only so much you can do for an unconscious woman and I’m just grateful the leeches are gone, honestly.
The garment skims over me, a loose sleeveless tube of a dress with what looks like a gathering at the neck.
It’s a soft blue and made of thin cotton, which feels nice in the humidity. “What’s your name?”
“Kina.” She tucks her chin, as if bowing.
“Where are we, Kina?” I eye the room I’m in.
There’s no window to let in light, and the only illumination is from a doorway covered with a beaded hanging.
The walls look like they’re made of a strange stucco and the floor that Kina sits on is hard-packed dirt.
Either she’s very poor or a dirt floor is normal for these people.
I remind myself that this is a different world, and they might not be as technologically advanced as us back home.
Given that I came across a goat sacrifice in a temple, they don’t strike me as a cellphone-loving sort.
“You are at my family’s farm. I hope that it’s all right that we took you with us. We only travel to the temple to say prayers.”
As if I’d be mad that I’m out of the bug-and-leech-filled swamp? I’m relieved. But at the same time, that’s probably where I was sent for a reason. “How far are we from the temple? In case I have to go back?”
“Just an hour or two by woale-back.” She beams at me. “We can take you back at any time.”
“Okay.” That sounds all right to me, provided a woale is a horse or something. I can rest up, get my bearings, and return to the temple just in time for the god to show up and I can begin my babysitting career. “Can you tell me more about where we are? What is this land?”
Her eyes widen and she nods. “We are on the edges of the Ghosthollow Murk, north of Sunswallow. You truly do not know where you are?”
I shake my head. “I was sent here from far away.”
“Because of the gods,” Kina whispers. “Of course. Are you thirsty, Mistress Elsie?” She gets up and dips a wooden cup into a bucket of water in the corner and brings it over to me.
I’m so thirsty that I drain the whole thing and hold it out for a refill before I even think about parasites or giardia.
Hopefully Lachesis will save my innards from rebellion considering she wants me here.
As I drink, Kina tells me about the cities that we’re close to, but that her people live in the plains called Farneath, near the edge of the enormous swamp.
All the names she tells me are a blur, but I should have known better than to ask.
All I need to know is where the god is and when he’s showing up.
“This is great, thank you, Kina,” I say after my third cup. “I think I know where I am now. Your family goes to the temple in the swamp? To pray? Do others? It looked very…old.”
She nods, her hands delicately clasped in her lap. I notice she’s dressed the same way I am, in a simple sheath. Her skin is tanned and warm. She wears a thin silver armband high on her upper arm, and a comb pulls her thick blonde hair back from her face.
“Oh, that temple has not been in use since the last Anticipation. We go there for prayers, as the lord of disease is one of the few gods that returns to the same place every time. He never changes where he arrives, and so we send prayers to him and ask that if he returns, that he be merciful to us, his faithful.”
Merciful? “He sounds fun.”
Her eyes widen in horror. “Oh no, Mistress. He’s dreadful!”
Clearly Kina missed my sarcasm. “I see. But you pray to him?”
“We pray to all the gods, but because Lord Kalos chooses to return here every Anticipation, we pray for his mercy and benevolence.” She hesitates and adds, “The signs and portents say he will return to this world soon.”
That matches what Lachesis said, so I simply nod. “Very soon. Like today or tomorrow. And… then what happens to the world when the gods appear?”
Her expression is solemn. “We pray for them to have mercy upon us.”
Greaaaat.