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Every sentence was an arrow loaded with guilt.
If I could have gotten my hands on my father right this second, I would have shaken him until his teeth rattled in his head, while pointing at the vampire and yelling, “Look what you did!”
“You would be better off paying your respects to my aunt.”
“Errahim has her own people. We’re not welcome there.”
True. Even before my father and aunt had gone to sleep, they maintained separate administrations and staff. Namtur and co. wouldn’t react well to Akku and his family butting in.
“Besides, your aunt has chosen to bow her head to a different power. It’s not a power we wish to serve.”
They knew. How in the world had they found out? Erra’s involvement with the federal government was so well hidden, those closest to her didn’t even think about it.
“I’m sorry that my father brought you here and left you to fend for yourselves. He is a flawed man, who felt crushing guilt over the demise of his kingdom and became blinded with power and desperation. You’re right. He is gone now. This is a new world. The time of our fathers has passed. You don’t need to serve me, Rimush. You don’t need to serve anyone. The Shinar is over.”
Rimush smiled with the vampire’s mouth. “The Shinar we knew was over when your father took the throne.”
“Then why are you here? Why are you trying to follow our faulty bloodline? Don’t you want to be free?”
The vampire looked up at the sky. “It is because I’m free that I’m here.”
“I don’t understand.”
“Shinar began in a time of great darkness, in a land torn by war and besieged by monsters. It was a beacon of hope and light, where the weak were protected and the strong found the purpose of their lives. I grew up with legends of that time, of heroes who selflessly fought, sacrificed, and struggled to find a better way to live. They were everywhere, in our lullabies, in our great poems and sagas, in our paintings, in the stories told to children. And here we are again, in a time of great danger and encroaching darkness, when the weak are suffering and the strong prey on the rest.”
Well, he had me there.
“My father told me that when your father was young, he was not the same man I knew. The Shinar had become warped long before I was born. Before he left for the final battle with the dragon, your father had written your name in the Book of Kings as the Heir, the one who came after him. My father and I and ten others witnessed it.”
Yet another thing Dad neglected to mention.
The vampire turned to look at me, its eyes glowing with ruby fire. “That means nothing to me.”
Oh.
“You’re right. The old kingdom is gone. Dittalim ushemi.”
Gone to ash.
“I understand it, and so do my father and my siblings.”
“Then why are you here?”
“Because I want my life to matter. I want to be the one who holds back the darkness. I want to dedicate myself to something greater. Every man must have a purpose. I have found my legend. I have found a person who is a beacon of light.”
Uh-oh. I needed to put an end to this once and for all.
“Look, I’m not qualified to be a queen or a legend. I don’t want to rule. I don’t wish to impose my will on anyone. I don’t need fame or lullabies with my name attached to them. Right now, I just want to get to where I’m going and rescue a kid from some dickhead who may or may not be a god.”
The vampire gave me a big smile.
“What?”
“Asul, the Revered One, the first Sharratum, was the guardian of children. Parents lit incense and fragrant oils in her honor, for when a foreign invader had raided our lands and taken an entire generation of children for their slave pens, she rode into their capital, plunged her sword into their king’s heart, and brought the children home.”
I groaned.
“Fight against it, rage against it, it doesn’t matter. You cannot stop people from following you, no more than you can turn down people who come to you for help. Everything you have done exemplifies the standard to which a queen should aspire, for you are the servant of your people. You help them selflessly without restraint.”
“For the last time, I do not have a ‘people.’”
“The nephew of a craftsman who is working on your house is taken. You will recover him asking nothing in return, and his family will be loyal to you for all eternity…”
“You are seriously misinterpreting this.”
“They will tell stories about you to their children. You will inspire them, so when they see injustice, they will choose to make a stand just as you have done. Try as you might, you cannot change who you are.”
