Her voice is the scream of the dying.Her touch is the cold of the grave.From her tears comes the great river of the Udamili.From her laughter emerge the Titans that roam the world.
Over and over again, written in deep scribbles, scratched with stone, repetitive, incessant, overwhelming.Was the pounding from within her heart?Or a sound externally?
To invoke her is to invite death.To be chosen is to be marked.To wear her crown is to carry her hunger.
Her eyes shot open as a hand touched the small of her back.
"Khatun, we should leave."Ragnar’s voice grounded her, the ringing in her ears fading as soon as it began.
Azul found her voice hoarse.
"What god did they invoke?"
The question hung in the air.
Borji stared at her."What?"
"The ritual is an invocation.A sacrifice to call a god's attention."Her eyes moved from Borji to Ragnar."What god were they trying to reach?"
Ragnar's jaw tightened behind his mask."You recognise the markings?"
"I've seen them before."Her voice didn't waver.
No, she'd seen that room before; she'd been in that room before.
Borji entered, forcing himself to look at the circle, at the symbols, at the horror of it all.
The words that were written on the wall were enough to form the vague outlines of what seemed to be a viper.One with six legs and six eyes, one with horns and large scales.
The more they looked, the more vivid it seemed.
“Ekesi Akilli,” Borji hissed."The chant, it's Ani's invocation chant."
Ani, the mother goddess of all.
Azul could only stare, her lips pressing into a thin line.
“This was the answer Ani gave them,” she whispered.“But what question was asked?"
She knew the question that was asked.
But she couldn't bring herself to admit it.
After the lizard, when the ritual was failing, what did she do?
Azul grimaced, trying to remember.This was the room Kamsi carried out the ritual.This was the room where the ritual failed.
If the sacrifice were insufficient and one were calling on a great god, they would die.
Kamsi—her sister—was too precious; Azul was unwilling to see her corpse at her feet.
So she took a blade, and looked for a more satisfactory sacrifice for Ani.
But why was she here?Why did Kamsi have access to this place?Her father seemed to have dipped his hand into the pockets of the wealthy.
That night, the council chamber was packed and overflowing.
Torches blazed along every wall, chasing shadows into corners, illuminating faces that ranged from furious to fearful to fearfully blank.Rain accompanied them, beating fiercely against the roof of the palace.Word had spread through the palace like fire through dry grass: the Elder of Justice had called an emergency impeachment.The Iyom's father—a man whose name had been whispered in connection with every manner of corruption for years—was finally being called to account.
