“Your people shot at me,” I point out.
“I’m so sorry that happened to you; it should never have happened on my watch. I never permitted them to do that, and I promise you that those who shot at you have been heavily disciplined.”
Her sweet voice just irritates me more. “What do you want?”
“Our land has been stripped?—”
My attention strays from her when I see one of her guards move forward, almost like they were one person before splitting into two. A chill rushes down my spine as I realize that Famine has been in the room this whole time and I was completely unaware of it. She could have attacked us with ease, and we were just sitting here oblivious to her presence.
“What are you doing here?” I ask, reaching for my pendant and ready to fight the second she tries anything.
“I was just explaining that,” Onyx replies.
“Not you,” I say. “Famine.”
Torin’s hand tightens on my arm as he leans in to whisper in my ear. “I can feel her, but I can’t see her. I have to assume no one else in the room can either.”
And I remember how no one on the roof reacted to her as well.
“You give me too much credit, Brother,” Famine says, and the way no one is reacting to her voice tells me that I’m the only one who can hear her. She steps up to Onyx and sets a hand on her shoulder. “I’m just here to observe.” She leans down and puts her face close to Onyx’s and smiles at me. “They’ve done all of this on their own. They’ve turned their backs on eachother and torn each other apart… all for what? Humans are such fascinating and weak creatures.”
“We will trade what we can for food,” Onyx says, her words cutting through Famine’s quieter voice.
Famine smiles as she pushes Onyx’s hair back and she still doesn’t react. Then she straightens up and kisses the top of Onyx’s head before walking out of the room.
I shove up from my chair and rush through the door, but by the time I reach the hallway, I find that she’s gone.
“What’s going on?” Mickey asks as he meets me in the hallway.
I feel uneasy not knowing where she went. “Famine was in the room, but… I guess I was the only one who could see her.”
“I sure didn’t see her,” he says. “Where is she?”
“I don’t know. She’s gone now.” Kit stares off in the distance before I turn back toward the door. “Mickey, be careful.”
He gives me a pat on the shoulder as Toast snoozes away. He’s as sleepy as Mickey is. “It’s okay. I have a raging hunk of a god standing next to me in that room prepared to crush skulls and scoop out eyeballs while berating me for desecrating the undead. I’m all good,” Mickey assures me. None of that sounds good, but I head back into the room.
“I see that your eyesight doesn’t bother you here,” Onyx remarks offhandedly while I take a seat.
“It’s fascinating how many good things magic can do,” I say.
She merely smiles at me, not taking the bait, which annoys me for some reason. It’s not like I want to fight her, but if I have to let Vero crush her skull a bit, I wouldn’t mind. My problem is that I don’t know where Famine went. Is she protecting Onyx?
“We simply want to make a trade for food,” Onyx says. “Our people are suffering and I’m afraid they will soon begin to die if we can’t properly feed them. A vicious goddess destroyed our land, and every year it dies more and more.”
Torin gives her a cold laugh. “I would pity you and your people if I hadn’t seen what you are doing. I was told that all of this started when a leader from your past bound and tortured the goddess because he wanted more power, andthatis why you must live this way. You’re using those you’ve branded, forcing them to labor only to use their work to feed those inside the capital walls but starve the ones outside them. If we give you food, I can only assume you’ll give it to those in the capital while exploiting those outside it.”
“I fear you might have been misled by information that came from an unreliable source,” Onyx says. “We would never let those who have been branded starve to death. And you seem to believe we branded them to hurt them. We aresavingthem.”
“Then if we bring food, we want it to go to the ones outside the capital walls,” Torin states.
“Allof our people are hungry,” Onyx says. “We would want to share the food equally.”
Torin stares her down. “You’ve never treated them equally since the moment you threw them outside of those walls.”
I suggest, “We could give them the food and the people from within the walls could come out and get some, could they not?”
Onyx still doesn’t grow annoyed, she only smiles. “I see that we’ve upset you and for that, we apologize. I know it can be hard to understand how traditions are different in each realm. Please consider our offer. If you decide to help, simply step through the Door, and I will have someone send you to me immediately.”
