Page 32 of Sun Warrior

Dead Eye smiled, though she could not, of course, see him. There was nothing about Dove that he didn’t find pleasing, including her eyeless face. That accident of birth had allowed her to be claimed by the old Watchers and raised in the Temple as Oracle of their Reaper God. When Dead Eye proclaimed himself the God’s Champion, it was only logical that he also claimed Dove as his own.

And in return, Dove’s devotion to him was unconditional.

“Beloved? Is something wrong?”

He took her into his arms, holding her slight, soft body against his. “No, everything is completely right.”

“The rain has halted the forest fire?” she asked eagerly.

“I cannot tell if it is actually halted, but the smoke has definitely thinned.”

“And now you will go into the forest to the city of the Others.”

This time, she didn’t frame her words as a question, but Dead Eye answered her. “I will, but let us stop calling it the city of the Others. I believe soon it will beourcity, my precious one.”

“We must be wise about how we present this to the People. They will be reluctant to go where the God cannot follow.”

Dead Eye snorted. “If only they knew the truth.”

“Patience, Champion. All will come in time.”

“You are right, though. They will be reluctant to leave our City, little matter that it is poisoned and has been killing the People for generations,” Dead Eye said as he stroked her hair, as always fascinated by it softness.

“So, begin by freeing them of the poison of the City so that they might see the truth, just as you and I have,” Dove said.

Dead Eye bent to kiss her. “Of course you are right! I won’t tell them we are entering the forest to begin claiming the territory we deserve.”

“What will you tell them, beloved?”

“That we hunt. And from the hunt I will make Harvest, so that the People may begin to heal.”

“And as the People heal, they will follow you from the City to the forest,” Dove said.

“To live in the trees, subjugating the Others to do our bidding, far from this place of death and poison,” Dead Eye said. “There, you and I will truly live like Gods!”

“Indeed,” Dove said, sliding her hands up his strong arms to his shoulders. She cocked her head to the side in a thinking motion that Dead Eye found endearing. “Beloved, I can feel differences in your body.”

“Yes, as can I. I wondered when you would speak of it to me.”

She caressed his body. “Your shoulders are wider. Your arms thicker.”

“There is more.” He bent down so that he could guide her hand from his shoulder to the back of his neck.

She gasped, stroking the strange fur that had begun to grow there, thick and soft as a stag’s. “What is it?”

“Follow my spine with your hand.”

Dove did so, tracing a path down his back. “It’s spreading down your back! What is it?” she repeated.

Dead Eye was pleased that she seemed excited rather than repulsed by the changes in him. Should Dove ever turn from him—no—Dead Eye could not even finish that thought.

“It is from the spirit of the stag whose flesh I joined with my body. It lives on in me, strengthening me—healing me from the City’s poisons—changing me. Don’t let it frighten you. Don’t ever let changes in me frighten you,” he told her, staring at her sightless face, trying to read every nuance of emotion she was feeling.

“Oh, my Champion! You could never frighten me!”

“Then you accept the stag?”

“Whatever it is that is happening to you I accept because you are my fate, you are my Champion—you will eternally be my hero. Whatever it is you are becoming, I will accept because it isyou.”