Page 88 of Sun Warrior

“It is really quite simple. Our path has not changed. We are going to lead the People from this poisoned City and claim the City in the Trees for ourselves. Now we don’t have to wait to groom an army. Now the People are being led by the God of Death Himself. Our victory is assured,” Dead Eye said.

Dove said nothing. She felt as if she was losing everything—her lover, her People, her world.

“Precious one?”

“I cannot be the Consort of Death!” Dove heard herself blurt. Immediately she regretted speaking her thoughts aloud and she pressed her lips together, readying herself for Death to return and wreak vengeance upon her.

Instead, she felt Dead Eye hold her closer, stroking her back gently, intimately, lovingly, as he had done so many times before. She had begun to relax into his embrace when he spoke and shattered Dove’s brief illusion of safety.

“I know you cannot, my precious one, and that is why you must merge with the Great Mother, the Goddess of Life. She is the only Consort worthy of Death.”

Dove didn’t want to ask. She wanted to cover her ears and curl back into a ball and pretend her Champion still belonged to her and not to a dark, dangerous God.

But she had to ask. She had to know Death’s plan for her. She hadlearned one lesson very well in her short, difficult life—knowledge was a weapon sharper than a trident and more dangerous than an army of ignorance.

“And how am I to do that, my Champion?” she asked in a voice deceptively calm.

“As I did.” While he explained it to her, his fingers traced a path over her flawless skin, stopping to caress the delicate places at the creases of her elbows and wrists, knees, and waist. “You must be infected with the skin sloughing sickness. Once you become ill and your skin blisters and cracks, the God and I will sacrifice a doe—a magnificent, beautiful queen of the forest. We will flay her alive and join her flesh with yours, as I joined with the mighty forest stag. As the doe awakens within you, so will the Goddess. Think of it, precious one! You and I will be immortal—Consorts for eternity! Life and Death will reign over the forest, enslaving all who oppose us and living in the clouds as is our divine right.”

At first, Dove could not speak. She pressed her face into her beloved’s chest, struggling to contain the panic that boiled within her. When she was sure she could form words and not screams, she said, “Dead Eye, my Champion, my love, what if I do not want to become a Goddess? May I not remain as I am—your lover? May I not serve in truth the role I have been pretending for years, and be a true Oracle to the God?”

Dead Eye took her face between his hands and spoke clearly and carefully. “Listen well and heed me. Do noteverrepeat those words. You are precious to me, and the God acknowledges that. But a human cannot be the Consort of a God, and a living God does not need an Oracle. You must choose. If you want to remain by my side, you must become the vessel for the Great Mother, the Goddess of Life. If you do not, He will replace you with someone who is more willing.”

A terrible shudder of fear skittered through Dove’s body. “You would let Him do that?”

“I would have no choice,” Dead Eye said in a voice as devoid of emotion as death.

“When must I become the vessel for the Goddess?” she whispered.

“Oh, precious one!” He laughed, hugging her close. “You sound as if it is a terrible thing that is going to happen to you and not a miracle. But you shall see; you shall see. You will understand when the Goddess begins to stir within you.”

“Forgive me. I am just a girl. I—I cannot imagine being divine.”

“Start imagining it! It is your destiny. There is no one I want by my side for eternity except you.”

“When?” she repeated in a small, frightened voice.

“The God will not awaken His Consort here in this poisoned place, but will wait until after we take the City in the Trees from the Others.ThenI will infect you and begin hunting for the queen doe. High above the forest floor you will become a Goddess, Consort for eternity to a God!” he finished joyfully as he bent to claim her lips.

Dove responded to his kiss. She would always respond to Dead Eye’s touch. She knew she would love him for as long as she drew breath. But her Champion was fading away. She had already witnessed the possession of the Death God. No matter what her Dead Eye had been led to believe by the God, when Death was present he was absent. And she knew that one day very soon her Champion would be gone for good and in his place would be only the dreadful God of Death.

Dove loathed Death. She’d spent her short life fighting Him—fighting to survive despite being born sightless, surrounded by danger and disease. To accept Death—to become His Consort—went against the very core of her being.

She would never allow herself to be used as a vessel for anyone—be He God or Goddess, Death or Life.I have already lost my love. I will not lose myself.

“Have you no words of gratitude for what the God offers you?” Dead Eye asked, and though his voice was his own, Dove could hear an edge to it that had not been there before—an annoyance barely concealed just below the surface of his words. She knew she must be very, very careful.

“I’m sorry, beloved. I’m overwhelmed. I—I hardly know what to say.”

His body relaxed against her and his chest rumbled with his deep chuckle. “I forget that you have not yet felt the power and the glory that the touch of a God brings. Do not fear, precious one. Soon enough you will understand.”

“Soon? I thought you said the Goddess would not be awakened until you conquer the City in the Trees. We have already spoken about the army it will take to defeat them—that the People must be made ready, that there are too few Harvesters and Hunters to attack even a weakened Tribe successfully.” She spoke slowly, carefully, focusing on logic and keeping the dread and panic from her voice.

“There will be no more Harvesters and Hunters. There will only be Reapers—those chosen by the Death God to follow Him, to do His will.”

“Surely that will take some time. You only have nine Reapers. They cannot take a city filled with the Others,” she said.

“Theycouldnot take a city filled with the Others. That was in the past. Now a God leads our People. What chance does a wounded city have against Death Himself, especially when they created the fire that called Death to walk among them?”