Chapter 14
Chapter
Fourteen
My first thought is panic.
We’ve been found out. Someone noticed Kalos’s lithe build and grace, his silvery hair and the otherworldly vibe to him. They know he’s a god. They’re all far cleverer than I’d realized and we’re totally obvious. Or they saw the other Kalos and realized that my Kalos is the same guy.
But the barkeep lobs that bomb at me and casually picks up a bracelet on the counter, scratching at it with his thumb. He grunts, pleased. “Real gold.”
I remember to breathe again. If it was Kalos they were referring to, he’d be a lot more worked up. No one wants the god of disease lurking around. I somehow manage to keep a straight face, hiding my panic. “Yes! All of it is real gold. Did you say an Aspect is here?”
“Aye. Why do you think everyone’s so busy? And the little ones shoving flowers for sale under everyone’s noses?”
“I thought it was a local thing,” I say, glancing at Kalos.
“My wife is from a very small village,” Kalos adds. “They are exceptionally crude and uneducated.”
Carefully I step on his foot, still smiling, and turn my focus back to the barkeep. “So which Aspect is it? Who are we blessed with?”
“Oh, you hadn’t heard? Lord Gental is in the city. It’s why everyone’s in such a festive mood.” And he gives Kalos a rather gross wink.
“Not Hedonism,” Kalos says, his expression repulsed.
The barkeep laughs. “Exactly that. Bar sales are through the roof, too.”
I search my memories for who the heck Lord Gental is. The pantheon here has twelve gods according to what Jemet told me, but for some reason I can’t recall who Gental is. It’s a bad thing that he’s hedonism? “Why is that bad? Better than some of the other Aspects, isn’t it?”
Now both Kalos and the barkeep give me pitying looks. “She is innocent, isn’t she?”
Kalos just shrugs. He focuses on the barkeep. “No army, then?”
“An army of concubines, perhaps. You might wish to tie down your wife before he sweeps through the town again. He’s collecting all the women for his personal harem.”
Ew. “Shouldn’t someone stop him?”
“Stop him?” The barkeep gives me an incredulous look. “The women are practically throwing themselves at him. The men, too. Who wouldn’t want to fuck a god?”
Big yikes. So much yikes. I guess he doesn’t view mortals like Kalos does, like we’re the equivalent of footwear.
“Don’t worry,” Kalos says, and to my surprise, he drapes an arm around my shoulders, pulling me close. “I’ll keep her tied to me on a lead like the goat if I must. He’s not getting my wife. Now, about that room…”
The room is a paradise compared to everything we’ve been through for the last while.
It’s not a swamp. It’s not a stinky fisherman’s cabin with a dead body on the floor in a puddle of water.
It’s a plain, simple, small room with a low ceiling, a lumpy bed with a hay tick mattress, and a tiny window with thick, opaque glass that lets in very little light.
I love it so much I could cry.
I set my pack down on the end of the bed.
Dingle hops up next to it, prancing around atop the bed with the zoomies.
Sighing with contentment, I kick off my nearly destroyed sandals and sit down next to my pack.
I rub my neck, and my gaze catches on an earthenware jug and bowl on a rickety table in the corner. For washing, I assume.
Washing sounds lovely, too.
With a yawn, I glance over at Kalos as he paces through the small room.
“We’ll probably have to get food downstairs later.
Then we can probably go out looking for supplies.
” We’ve got a fair amount of coin now, thanks to the innkeeper, and while I’m pretty sure he ripped us off, we didn’t have a ton of options.
I’m just glad to have some money instead of a random assortment of necklaces.
“Shopping can wait, though. I need a nap first.”
But Kalos doesn’t settle in. He paces the length of our tiny room, pausing at the door and looking over at me. “No shopping. We should leave.”
“What?” I protest. “Why? We just got here.”
“Did you not hear the mortal man behind the bar?” He gestures downstairs. “Gental is in this same town.”
“I heard. I thought it was interesting. Who’s Gental again? What’s his job?”
“He oversees the family. The home.”
“That doesn’t sound so bad.” I have to admit, I’m curious about the other god.
I want to see what he looks like. I want to see if he seems as otherworldly as Kalos does, at least to me.
How people don’t stop on the street and stare at him is beyond me.
How can they not see a god walking amongst them?
He’s got freaking silver hair, for crying out loud.
Pretty, soft, floaty silver hair.
Whatever the opposite of blending in is, that’s what Kalos is doing, at all times.
Striding across the floor, Kalos snorts in disgust. “He’s a fool.”
“Okaaaay.”
“Thinks he’s too good for the mortal plane.”
I tactfully don’t point out that Kalos himself has thought the exact same thing. “What a monster.”
He shoots me a look. “You haven’t met him. I despise him.”
“Is there anyone you don’t dislike?”
He pauses. Thinks for a moment. “No.”
“Even your brother? What’s his name? Rhagos?”
Kalos shoots me a scathing look. “He’s the worst of them all.”
Okay, so they’re not close like David and I.
Thought as much. I’m not ready to get up from my spot on the bed, though, because it feels far too good to sit and relax after what feels like weeks of swamp walking.
I probably still smell like swamp, even.
“Let’s think about this and be logical. You don’t want to be here, fine.
But before we go, we need supplies. I need to eat.
Dingle needs to eat. We need weapons. We need clothes that will help us blend in with the people around us.
Look at how we’re dressed compared to everyone else.
They’re wearing warm clothing, with cloaks.
We’ve got thin, impractical clothing that was fine for the warmth of the swamp but not here on the coast, where it’s chillier. More than that, we need to blend in.”
His expression sets in a mulish frown, but he’s not arguing.
I continue on. “We need better shoes, especially if we’re going to keep traveling.
Mine are destroyed, and I imagine yours are, too.
So yes, we can keep on going, but we need to be smart about it.
Give me one day to get supplies and better clothing for us, and we’ll continue on. The plan is still Balsingra, right?”
He crosses his arms over his chest, a hard frown on his soft, pink mouth. “It seems as good a place as any.”
“Great. So we take a day. We stock up on supplies, and we sneak out of town and leave and head for Balsingra.”
To my surprise, he moves to my side of the bed. Kalos sits down next to me and flops onto his back, staring up at the ceiling.
“You okay?” I venture.
“This just all seems very futile.”
And here Apathy raises his ugly head again.
I’m getting used to Kalos’s mood swings, his sudden veering into depression and angst. Haven’t I always been the one to pull David out of the darkness when he was at his lowest?
I feel a sad twinge for my lost brother, but I can’t think about that now.
I have to focus on Kalos. I lie down next to him, not touching, and look over at him. “You want to talk about it?”
“No.” His flat answer echoes in the room.
Dingle trots over next to my head and nibbles on my hair, and I pull it free from his mouth. “Do you want to change plans? Skip Balsingra?”
“It is a town just like any other,” he states, tone sour. “We will get there, and we keep running, because that is our only option. Either we run and hide, or we let a more aggressive Aspect destroy us and end this farce.”
I reach over and take his hand. “There’s always more options.
We just need to be smart and think things through.
” He doesn’t pull away from my grasp, and I rub my thumb against his palm, a wave of sympathy for him moving over me.
“I know you’re struggling, but you’re not alone.
I’m here with you. We’ll get through this together. ”
He looks over at me, his expression bleak. “There is nothing to ‘get through.’ All existence is pain.”
How very emo of him. I shoot him a bright smile. “That’s not a very productive mindset for an all-powerful god.”
One corner of his mouth pulls up. “I’m disease and despair, remember?”
I turn on my side to face him, keeping our hands linked.
He hasn’t pulled away, so I’m hoping that’s a good sign.
“As it was put to me when I agreed to this job, you are disease and decay, but you are also rebirth and renewal. You clear away the old brush to make room for new trees and all that jazz.”
He eyes me. “That is a very rosy perspective of my job.”
“Rosy perspectives are what I do best.” I nudge him with our joined hands. “You don’t have to be the bad guy, you know. You’re allowed to be whatever and whoever you want. There are two sides to your job, yes? Maybe you lean into the rebirth side instead of the pestilence side.”
Kalos just makes a face and returns to staring at the ceiling. “That is what my enemies would love, and that is precisely why I won’t do it.”
Well, I tried. “Look, you be whoever you need to be. I’m not here to change you.
I’m just offering some perspective. I’m here to support you, and if that means I get to be the sunshine to your cloud, then so be it.
” I notice he hasn’t pulled his hand out of mine just yet and give it another tentative squeeze.
“Is it possible that Apathy is what’s causing you to be in a bad mood right now? ”
“No, I am quite certain that it’s the presence of Gental.”
Despite myself, I laugh. He sounds so very disgruntled. “Why is it so bad that we’re here when he is?”