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“Sacrifice is always the deepest desire and sustenance of the gods,” I agree.
That’s why the Idugu had those girls killed on that platform in Zhúshan, the Eastern city where we first encountered the Idugu; why the Gilded Ones kept all those male deathshrieks hidden underneath their chamber.
The gods of Otera can proclaim all they want that they desire only worship, but their purest nourishment comes from the deaths of their followers.
“They’re desperate now,” Britta observes, shaking her head.
“Which is why they’ve given all what power they have to create this place,” I reply, glancing around. This place—it’s like being in the end times. Like experiencing what it will be to exist if my premonition about the destruction of Otera comes true.
I shudder. All I can do is hope there aren’t more of these places…
“Not to mention all the proxies,” Belcalis adds.
“Can’t forget those monsters,” Britta says with a sigh, referring to all the strange new creatures the gods have created to help them feed on the life force of humans. She turns to us. “I almost pity the gods, ye know. They used to be all-powerful, an’ now killin’ people is the only thing they can do to get their power back.”
Unless, of course, they discover I’m here. That their greatest enemy, and the key to regaining their power, is already in their grasp.
Just the thought terrifies me.
When I die, my kelai will somehow seek me out once more—that’s what Anok all but implied when last I spoke to her. And if there is a god or group of gods nearby, they can snatch that energy before it reaches me, steal enough raw power from it to rule Otera from now until infinity.
“All the more reason we have to get out of here,” Belcalis says, urging her gryph onward. “We have to find the way back to Gar Nasim. Preferably before we’re eaten by whatever monsters lurk in these sands.”
“Wait, there’s something here?” Britta looks startled as she surveys the area.
I sigh. Britta might be the physically strongest among us, but her senses have never been as sharply developed. They haven’t needed to be. Britta hasn’t experienced as much trauma, as much pain, as the rest of us. That’s why she isn’t as wary of her surroundings. It’s both a blessing and a curse, this lack of awareness. She can’t see threats coming the way Belcalis can, but she also doesn’t immediately suspect that everything is a threat—a failing Belcalis and I are guilty of, as is Keita, who’s held a sword since he was nine.
“Yes,” I reply, glancing at her. “More proxies.” Even now I can feel them, thrumming under the sand as they have been since the moment we arrived. “If they manage to eat any of us, it’ll give whatever group of gods who made this little pit of monstrosities the ability to materialize.”
“And capture you,” Belcalis mutters.
“And capture me,” I acknowledge.
“I mean, us they’ll probably torture, but you…” Belcalis’s eyes narrow as she considers the proposition.
“Best we get going, then,” Li says hurriedly. He’s finally shaken off his daze and made his way to Britta, as is his habit. Ever since they became sweethearts, the two can’t stand to be apart for too long. “Probably in that direction.”
When he points in the direction opposite of where I felt the presence, Belcalis nods approvingly at him. “Your combat senses are expanding, I see.”
“Combat senses?” Li frowns at her. “What combat senses?”
He looks bewildered, and I sigh. Perhaps he isn’t as alert as I thought.
I close my eyes, already sinking into the combat state. What I’m about to try is risky, but I won’t just wait helplessly and allow my companions and I to fall prey to the gods. I have to act. Holding on to this determination, I reach deep inside myself, trying to locate whatever remaining power I can. If I can just create a door out of here, we can be safe. We can find Mother, and then my kelai.
All I have to do is make a door and go through it, and though I’ve never done so successfully before, the knowledge is somewhere inside me.
If there’s a time to unlock it, it’s now. My abilities have always blossomed when I needed them most.
But even as I breathe in, the pain begins surging, an upwelling of agony that rises from the depths of my belly. It crashes over me, my entire body jolting under the force. Even Ixa’s presence isn’t enough to absorb it completely.
Deka all right? he asks, alarmed.
It takes me some time to reply, I’m so busy shaking.
Fine, I finally manage, my teeth clattering. I’m fine.
There are now three jagged lines of sores up and down my back, lightning bolts of pain digging their way deeper into my muscles. They’ll join the rest of my wounds, become part of the broken pottery that is my skin.
