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  So many hours had passed since I'd entered the hospital that when we left it, evening had fallen. The night sky was more massive in Eteri, it seemed, with so many thousands of stars winking seductively at us from all directions. The thick fog from Ciro's powers evaporating the ocean had dissipated only slightly. Beneath the white and cream light of the double moon, I could see that the ships in the harbor were still sitting on the sand. The queen's decision to test me here was going to have a lasting effect on Tal's economy and production. None of these ships could move until the ocean rose again.

  The inn we'd been staying at in Tal had a bottom floor meant for leisure. It was not a full tavern, as many lodges had on their first floor. Perhaps that was because Tal had many other bars throughout the town that attracted its workers, and the inn did not appear to ever be busy enough to warrant adding a further arm of the business. With the wildlands cut off to the south by a border wall, the town had few travelers come through it other than traders and merchants from Eteri's other cities.

  I wasn't surprised, then, when the only people on the bottom floor of the inn were those I knew. Altan appeared utterly worn down, so I knew he'd been getting a verbal beating from the others. He'd been so withdrawn since coming to Tal. It was possible he was being honest with us about hating some of the queen's orders because it was as if all of his optimism had been zapped out of him since we'd seen him in Mistral.

  The Sentinel's red eyes lifted to mine as Cerin and I approached. “How did the surgery go?” He questioned.

  “Well enough,” I replied. Most of the anger was gone from my voice, if only because I didn't have the energy to keep it there. “Now we have to wait and see if his sight returns to normal.”

  “I hope it does, Kai,” Altan said, his eyes troubled. “I truly hope it does.”

  “Why do this to us in secrecy, Altan?” I asked him, my tone pleading. “The queen could have simply told me she wanted to test one god's powers against mine. I could have gone out there alone. Azazel would have never been hurt at all.”

  Altan blinked slowly, before exhaling with great stress. It appeared he would dodge answering my questions again, but the day had taken its toll on him as well. “You have killed many gods, Kai. We could not let you know Bhaskar's true identity until we knew your shields would even work against him. As for the others...the queen requested all of you be out there. Those were my orders.”

  “Why? Why did we need to be out there?” Nyx glared at Altan from across the table. “Or did you simply not question your orders?”

  “I did not question them, but I know the queen.” Altan's eyes fell to the table. “If Kai's shields did not work and she was killed during testing, Eteri cannot risk retaliation.”

  “So she meant for all of us to die,” Cerin seethed.

  “If Kai's shield did not work as she said it would, yes,” Altan admitted.

  “With all due respect,” Anto began, “Eteri is doing everything it can to convince us to retaliate. This is not how an ally is supposed to act. It's little wonder why your country has always been isolated.”

  Altan's bronzed fingers ran over the stone table as his eyes watched the movement. “I understand your concern. I have my own issues with the queen. Why do you think I pleaded with you today, Kai, to ensure your shields would work? I don't wish any of you harm. I feel immense guilt over what has happened to Azazel. But my life is on the line if I don't follow Tilda's orders.”

  “Maggie told us the queen's decisions have cost the Sentinels their lives before,” I commented. “Do you truly believe she would hurt you if you did not follow her orders?”

  “In a second,” Altan replied, frowning. “Not outwardly, of course. The queen is good at setting up accidents.” Altan made quotation marks with his fingers.

  “Like what?” I asked.

  The Sentinel shrugged, stressed. “Too much to go into now. They are mostly conspiracy theories, more than anything. There have been rebellions and dissent in Eteri before. Those responsible are killed off in convenient fashions. It is a story as old as time.”

  “Eteri is an awful lot like Chairel for claiming to hate them,” Nyx pointed out.

  “You aren't the first to say that,” Altan replied, before looking at me. “Kai, be honest with me. Are you willing to work with Bhaskar?”

  “You say he means me no harm,” I reiterated from earlier.

  “He has no qualms with you. In fact, you share a common enemy.”

  “Then yes, I'm willing to work with him.” I glanced at the others. “What about all of you?”

  “You said he was a pawn in all of this much like you, right?” Jakan questioned.

  “...yes,” Altan said.

  “Then yeah, I'll at least listen to what he has to say,” the thief said before he smiled. “After all, I owe him for all the gold I stole from his temple as a child.”

  Altan scooted his chair back from the table. “I will go fetch him, then.”

  As we waited for the Sentinel to fetch the god, Jakan asked, “Why does Ciro insist on being called Bhaskar? Altan and the others know his true identity as it is.”

  “Probably because Eteri keeps its people in the dark,” I replied. “Maggie didn't know the gods were alive. When I confronted Altan earlier in town, everyone around us was shocked to hear me talking about gods.”

  A few minutes later, the front door of the inn opened again, and Altan came in first, watching us carefully as he ushered the god through the door.

  Ciro was the god of the sun, and he fully embodied it. He stood at about seven feet tall and was dressed in golden steel armor with red trim. His skin was so golden it shimmered in the nearby firelight, and it was smooth with youthfulness and perfection. Dark golden hair hung over sharp metallic eyes that matched my own. Both of his hands were full of jewelry. He had ten rings for ten fingers and seemed to favor the warmer metals, for they were all gold, copper, or bronze.

  Ciro's main concern appeared to be me. I stared into the eyes that mirrored my own, sizing him up. I sensed no animosity from him, only curiosity. After a moment, the god smiled, pleased.

  “Kai Sera.” He reached out a hand, and I took it, finding his to be warmer than most. “You are the only god in the world to have survived an attack by both my brother and me.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Your brother?”

  Ciro chuckled, before glancing over to Altan. “You have left her in the dark?”

  “Only on things which are not mine to tell,” the Sentinel replied.

  The god looked back to me. “How much do you know about the history of our people?”

  “Not much at all,” I replied. “I found most myths to be bullshit until I met my mother.”

  Ciro smiled happily. “Ah. Because you were not there to live it. I was.” He hesitated a moment. “My parents were both gods who were created by the Ancients, Kai. Put here near the beginning of the Golden Era over six thousand years ago, when Arrayis was little more than a mish-mash of lands waiting to be developed. My father was Emil, the god of envy, jealousy, and zeal. My mother was Ziarre, the goddess of the skies. My mother was in love with Hades, the god of the dead, for a good number of years before my father wanted her for himself.”

  “I know this story,” Nyx commented. “My people worshiped Hades. The Alderi claim the underground is superior because it doesn't have the skies, which Ziarre was the goddess of. They found them weak because of her betrayal.”

  “Betrayal?” I questioned, looking back to Ciro.

  “Yes, well...” the god trailed off. “I don't know how much you are aware of our blood, Kai, but it is immensely difficult for gods to breed, even amongst themselves. My mother and Hades were involved with one another for over two thousand years, and they never had children. My mother appeared Vhiri, like myself. Hades is Alderi. It made it easy for my father to take her from him because he appeared Vhiri as well, and my mother wanted children. Lo and behold, my parents were together for only a few hundred years before they ha
d twins. Me and my brother, Vertun.”

  I nodded slowly. “Ah. The god of envy and the goddess of the skies had children who rule the sun and the weather.”

  Ciro nodded. “Good, you are following. Yes, and like all children, we have bits and pieces of both parents in our veins. My mother's powers were great, and split into two with my brother and I. Vertun can call upon the weather and change the seasons at will. I can call upon the power of the sun. My father, on the other hand, lives on in each of us. Vertun and I have fought with one another since we were born nearly three thousand years ago. We are both cursed with his constant envy and pettiness.”

  “What happened?” I asked. “To your parents?”

  “My mother never loved my father like she loved Hades,” Ciro explained. “She raised us and set us free, and then left to go back to the god of the dead. As you can imagine, this enraged my father. He requested the help of the more able gods to have her killed because his powers did not stand a chance against Hades. My mother was murdered by Nemesis, the goddess of vengeance, following the orders of my father. Hades retaliated, of course. He not only killed my father, but he and his undead army also ruined my home city of Chai and the land it sat upon. A once beautiful land of forests and plains was turned into what is known as the wildlands today. It is a wretched, ruined land. Only one of the original trees of Chai still stands.”

  Tenesea, I thought, finding all of this fascinating.

  “Nemesis is your grandmother, by the way,” Ciro went on. My heart thudded in my chest at this new information. “She was an extremely sexual goddess who killed all of the men who wronged her or even looked at another woman the wrong way.” His golden eyes rolled over me in intrigue. “You have that same lust for vengeance running through your veins, Kai.” He glanced knowingly over to Cerin, who still stood beside me like a lover. “And I'm assuming you are highly sexual as well. It is all a part of the bloodline passed to you from Nanya. Though I have to say, given the people you surround yourself with, I suppose you do not have that same love-hate relationship with men.”

  My mind swarmed with these new connections. I had merely assumed Nanya was one of the goddesses created by the Ancients because she had never clarified. To know my bloodline went further back than that intrigued me. “Who is my grandfather?” I questioned.

  “Ahebban,” Ciro replied. “The god of conflict and bloodshed.”

  An ache waved through my stomach. Theron's words to me from over three years ago ran through my head, mostly unwelcome. “We may parade around during our lives claiming we are beholden to no one, but the truth is, at least a small part of ourselves are born from our backgrounds. Our mothers and fathers, our family trees.” I only realized I was holding desperately to the bottle at my neck when I felt its coolness on my fingers.

  “Which is also fitting,” the god went on after I'd stayed quiet. “Your whole family has a history of killing each other. Your uncle killed both of your grandparents in a feud before Nanya escaped and built Whispermere to hide away in.”

  I frowned, looking up at him with hesitation. “My uncle?”

  “Yes.” Ciro chuckled, amused by my ignorance of my own family. “The one you killed as if continuing on with the family curse. Malgor, the god of war.”

  Ten

  “You had an archer whose arrow passed within a foot of my face before I released my spell.” Ciro looked over at all of us. “Which one of you tried to kill me?”

  I did not answer him. My mind was too cluttered with thoughts of self-reflection and new information. I barely glanced up as Altan came back from fetching food for us all. We could not go to a tavern tonight, for much of what we spoke of would cause chaos throughout Tal. The only person other than us in the inn was its keeper, who appeared to know Altan well and did not seem surprised by anything we spoke of. Perhaps there were people in Eteri who knew more than most out of necessity or circumstance.

  “That would be Azazel, the friend of ours you nearly blinded.” Cerin stared at the god from across the table. “He was defending us.”

  “Oh, I don't blame him in the slightest,” Ciro replied. “I wanted to congratulate him on his skill. We were farther away than most archers could shoot, and I'm pretty sure his aim was off because of the brightness of my magic.” The god tilted his head. “You say I nearly blinded him?”

  “His eyes may never be the same,” I said softly, watching as Altan pushed a covered plate of food before me. I didn't lift up its cover to see what it was yet. I hadn't eaten all day, but I wasn't really hungry.

  “Hell, I apologize. For that, and...” Ciro nodded toward all of our sunburnt arms upon the table, where my friends opened up their containers of food to start eating. “...all of your injuries. I thought you knew the reasons for which you were out on the sea.”

  “They were told the shields were being tested,” Altan explained, finally sitting down beside the god. “They didn't know what kind of magic it would be. I'd never seen you wield your power until today. I had no fucking clue it would be that bad.” Altan threw a finger toward the door as if pointing at the harbor. “Our warships are going to be out of commission for weeks.”

  “I told the queen what it would do. We ran the risk of demolishing Tal entirely,” Ciro retorted. “That's why she told me to do it farther up the shore, to minimize the risk.”

  “Most of the fish in this part of the Servis are dead,” Altan continued, taking a bite of a dish that looked as if it combined strips of fish with a seaweed salad. It smelled of oil and vinegar and reminded me much of the foods we had once eaten on the Galleon Stallion. “If they weren't scorched by the heat, they suffocated in the air. It will take some time for Tal to recover.”

  “Why in the world would the queen risk all of this to test Kai's shields?” Anto asked. “It wasn't just us she could have killed. The entire town is now at risk. The shields could have been tested with your magic, Altan. Why use Ciro?”

  “I don't know,” Altan replied honestly. “She is planning something that I am not privy to.” He looked to the god. “Has she told you anything?”

  “All I know is that it has something to do with that crazy bastard of a god who sought her out,” Ciro replied.

  “Another...” I trailed off, exasperated. “Another god? Who?”

  Ciro shrugged. “Don't know. I'd never met him before, myself. I only knew he was a god because he has our eyes. He gave us a few dozen fake names before we stopped asking. He's batshit insane. Got a few of us to start believing every word he said before we realized he was using mind-altering magic on us like it was going out of style. I told the queen not to trust him, but apparently, she decided to. Told me I'll be happy with the results of her talks with him.”

  “Why?” Nyx asked.

  “Because he claims to have information on where to find my brother, and I want him dead.” Ciro glanced at me. “As do you. The queen has a plan to eliminate Vertun by combining our powers, Kai. I just don't know what it is yet.”

  I pondered this a moment. “A plan involving the seas, given our test today.”

  “Evidently.”

  I found Altan's eyes from across the table. “You said Vertun treats this land as if it is his. Your queen said she has eyes all over Arrayis. Why can't you find him?”

  “Ha! Fucker thinks the land is his! We were both born here,” Ciro seethed in a sudden burst of anger.

  “We can't find him because he left,” Altan replied, ignoring Ciro's outburst. “Succeeded in stealing a ship with a handful of supporters in Makani. We only had eyes over Arrayis because Vertun had a way of knowing events across the world without being there. He never told us how, because he knew the day might come where we could use it against him.”

  That could explain how the god was able to find me along the coast of the wildlands when no one should have known it was where we would be. “Does Vertun have powers having to do with...” I shook my head, trying to think of explanations. “Knowledge? Travel? Something?”

&
nbsp; Ciro shook his head. “If he ever did, he didn't find out about them until long after we started trying to kill each other.”

  “Why do you two hate each other so much?” Jakan asked the god.

  Ciro stared back at the thief. “Vertun's an asshole. He was born a couple of minutes before me, so he thinks he is superior. His powers are many and varied, and he can call upon them more often than I can call upon mine.”

  “You can't use your powers whenever you want?” Jakan inquired.

  “Technically, I can. But the power of the sun is immense. It takes time to charge if I want the effects to be devastating.”

  “How long does it take to charge?” Nyx asked.

  “Centuries,” Ciro replied.

  “Then...you've ruined any chance of using your powers against Vertun,” Jakan insisted.

  “Today was nothing,” Ciro retorted. “The power I used today can regenerate in a manner of weeks. I have been saving my power for almost a thousand years because I've been waiting for the chance to kill Vertun. I wouldn't use it so frivolously.”

  “If today was nothing for you, then we need to proceed carefully,” Cerin pointed out. “Don't let Queen Tilda try to control you. You have the power to devastate much of Arrayis.”

  “I could blow this world up in smoke if I wanted to,” the god replied. “But I won't. Because I want people to remember I bested him. Vertun has so many more followers than I do. If word gets out that I've killed him, I will go down in legend.”

  A smile threatened to raise my lips as I heard the other god talk. The arrogance of the gods truly knew no bounds. Ciro was right; envy and the determination to do something about it ran through his veins from his father.

  “How do you know your brother has more followers than you?” Jakan questioned.

  “Because his temples pop up all over the damned world,” Ciro spat. “And where are mine? I have two. Two! In the entire world! And the statues look nothing like me!”