Page 36 of Sun Warrior

“Of course.” Dead Eye spoke as he worked. “The group of you have given me your oaths of loyalty. As long as you hold to your oath, you need never fear asking anything of me.”

“You said tonight the People feast in celebration. What is it we celebrate?”

“An awakening.” Dead Eye spoke the words without willing himself to, as if they had escaped from a place so deep within him that he was no longer Dead Eye. But instead of being frightened by this strange,powerful force, Dead Eye embraced it, accepted it, and found he longed to join with it even more fully.

***

Bearing the hunks of butchered boar meat between them, Dead Eye and his Reapers returned to the Temple to the cheers of the grateful People. On the hike back, Dead Eye noted that the men’s bodies were already beginning to absorb the boar’s flesh and the group of men walked with stronger steps, showing little strain from carrying their allotments of the huge animal’s carcass.

Dead Eye dropped the meat in the courtyard. His attention had left the Reapers and even the excited, welcoming People surrounding him, celebrating him, worshipping him. His eyes were scanning the God’s balcony, looking for Dove.

Suddenly her Attendants appeared all along the balcony’s ledge. The People caught sight of them, and as one they turned to look up.

Like a gently rippling pool, the Attendants moved, lifted, and Dove was standing on the ledge. The firepots were lit all around her, and their orange and yellow flames threw strange, undulating shadows across her half-naked body, as if the dark caverns of her eyes were shifting from her face and moving along her skin.

“Does our Champion return?” she asked in a sweet, soft voice that somehow filled the world around them.

“I do, my Oracle!” Dead Eye called. “I return with an army newly reborn. Henceforth, they are not Harvesters or Hunters; they are all Reapers of the God—mighty and terrible to behold!”

“I celebrate with you!” Dove raised her arms and shouted with joy. “Come to your God and to me!”

Her call vibrated through his body. He did not try to resist it, even as he realized hecould not resist her. The People parted, opening a pathway for him to the Temple. Dead Eye swaggered through them, feeling swollen with strength and need as he drew closer to her. Instead of entering through the Temple courtyard at ground level and taking the crumbling stairs, Dead Eye gathered himself and leaped, using the vines and broken tiles that covered the outside wall of the Temple to climb up and upand up, until he reached the God’s balcony, where he gathered Dove in his arms and kissed her passionately while the People cheered. Lost in the kiss, Dead Eye almost did not notice that behind them the arm of the Reaper God that beckoned down to the People changed, rippled, and with a delicacy that others might mistake for shadows cast over Her metal skin by the blazing firepots, the massive copper statue drew Dead Eye and Dove more intimately within Her embrace.

Dove gasped against his mouth, her lips hot on his.

“You feel it too, my precious one?” Dead Eye whispered. “The God moves!”

Dove’s eager lips kissed a path along his neck to his ear, where she whispered words that would alter their world forever.

“I do, but that is not why I gasp. What I feel more truly is the God moving withinyou.”

Dead Eye leaned back, so that he was pressed against the arm of the Reaper with Dove in his embrace. He lifted his face to the sky and bellowed a stag’s mighty roar of power and pleasure.

CHAPTER 9

Mari had never been so tired or wet or miserable. When she’d carried her mama’s body all the way from Crawfish Creek to bury her above their burrow near the image of the Great Goddess, Mari had been exhausted and filled with grief, but she had felt like herself. A sad, broken version of herself, but she’d still been Mari.

But not this day—not after she’d called down sunfire and created a blaze so fierce that it had stopped a forest fire. This day Mari wasn’t entirely sure whoor whatshe was.

Beside her, Rigel whined, looking up at her with an expression that was so clearly filled with worry that Mari didn’t need to use their Companion bond to know what was bothering the young canine.

“I’m going to be okay,” she tried to assure him as she kept staggering forward, placing one foot before the other while she focused all her remaining energy on staying upright and in motion. But her voice sounded as odd and weak as her body felt, and Rigel barked fretfully, causing Nik, who was walking just in front of them, to hurry to her side.

“Do you need to stop?”

His expression was as worried as Rigel’s. Mari shook her head and put a hand on his arm. “I’m afraid if I stop I’ll never start again.” She’d meant it as a small joke, but she realized as she spoke that it was thetruth. If she sat down she honestly didn’t believe she would be able to get up again.

“I’m sorry it’s taking so long. I know you’re in bad shape,” Nik said, wrapping her arm through his. Laru trotted to her and sniffed Mari, then licked her hand encouragingly.

“We all agreed to take the path along the gorge. It’s farther, but so close to the edge of Skin Stealer territory that we’re pretty much assured we don’t run into any more of the Tribe,” Mari said. It was hard for her to talk—hard to formulate words—but as she spoke with Nik she decided that it was good for her to get out of her head, even if it took more energy than she wanted to spare.

“That plan’s worked, and I’m glad. We haven’t seen anything or anyone except for the animals running from the blaze,” Davis said. He’d been following behind Mari, keeping watch on their rear while he hunted, but the trail had widened enough for him to join Nik walking beside her. His Terrier, Cammy, hurried to Rigel, huffing happily as the young Shepherd gave him a good sniff and lick, and then both dogs shook heartily, which did little good, as the rain remained steady, soaking the small group over and over. “Which turned out to be really good for dinner tonight!” Davis held up the half dozen rabbits he and Cammy had caught and killed on the journey.

“Sora will be glad of them.” Mari tried to smile but thought her expression probably looked more like a grimace.

“Maybe we should rest. Just for a moment. Mari, you look—”

“Nik, Mari, you need to see this!” said Antreas, who had been scouting ahead, as he and Bast, with their preternatural sense of direction, materialized silently from the forest before them.