by M. M. Perry
“For what?”
“For the gods to turn on each other.”
Chapter 6
The gods milled about in the large temple at the head of the River. Issa sat on a raised dais, silently keeping track of who arrived, who hadn’t yet arrived, which gods showed their support quickly, which seemed reluctant to be there and those who kept to themselves. Natan shot her a look from the edge of the group. He was with Freesus, who glared at Issa with open contempt. Issa did not expect Freesus to act on her jealousy and rage just yet, but she kept track of Natan’s cuckolded wife anyway, fully aware just how dangerous Freesus was. It was not a task she relished. Secretly she blamed Natan for this trouble. She had little interest in the slithering old god, but he had given her plenty to mull over while she awaited Timta’s return. Issa had yet to decide where she should align her allegiance. She swore to herself she would not be caught out of power again.
This time, Issa thought, I will be among the victors. Whoever that proves to be. We’ll find out soon enough.
“What is taking so long? We are too vulnerable here. They can find us so easily,” a voice rang out from the group of gods.
Issa recognized Kepsos’ voice. She paid his grumblings no heed. He was a well-known coward. She knew his panicked ravings would do little to sway the group but remind them how spineless he always had been. She surveyed the group, and saw many of the other gods rolling their eyes and snickering. She allowed herself a small smile as her assessment proved true. It would do her mother well to keep minor, sniveling gods like Kepsos around, she reflected, as the rest would puff themselves up and try all the harder to prove how fearless and powerful they were, if only to distance themselves from Kepsos and his ilk as much as they could, proving that they were nothing like him.
Issa felt her mother arrive before she saw her.
“Silence, Kepsos. You need not give voice to your fear. It is so overpowering you reek of it. I could smell it beyond the River. It would be best you collect yourself lest you draw any predators to yourself.”
Timta’s words echoed around the chamber with authority, and the other gods immediately fell silent. From his momentary wide-eyed reaction, Issa could see Natan had also felt her mother’s overpowering aura, surprised by the sudden influx of power Timta brought to the room. Issa was aware this effect would not last. Soon all the old gods would have access to their full power again, and Timta would no longer inspire such awe. She wondered if this was how mortals felt around gods. Issa pushed the wandering thoughts from her mind as she focused on her mother.
“I know some of you,” Timta stressed the word “some” in a way that most in attendance were sure she was not including them, “are fearful. But let me remind you how our children defeated us before. It was not by innate strength or overwhelming numbers. It was by trickery. It was by exploiting our trusting nature. They were our children.”
Timta stopped a moment, letting the words sink in around her as sun drenched water into fertile soil. She knew that she must say as little as was possible, letting the thoughts of her brothers and sisters grow within them without too much guidance on her part. They had to choose to fight back. She could not force them herself. She knew she lacked the charisma to compel them to take up arms at her side. They had to want to overthrow their children for themselves.
“We trusted them.”
Again she paused, letting the feeling of betrayal well up within the crowd.
“Perhaps they are our children no more.”
Issa watched her mother’s face. She knew, as must all the old gods in attendance, that she was not one of the children Timta referred to, or she would not have been allowed at this gathering. Yet she could not shake the feeling that her position was precarious. She let her eyes wander over the crowd. A few glances flicked her way. Not many, but it was enough to make Issa concerned. Natan caught her eyes and held them. Natan could be tricky, Issa knew. She could not let herself become a pawn in whatever game he was playing. She pulled her gaze from his and looked back to her mother.
Let him think I’m considering his plan, she thought. It will be safer to let him think I am considering but uncommitted than to refuse or ignore him. Then there is a chance at least that he will keep me informed of his plans.
Issa could see that Timta was done speaking. Her mother had done well not to talk on for very long. She had neither the skill nor the presence to hold her fellow god’s attention for long, despite her temporary supremacy, let alone control them. She had said just enough to get their emotions flowing in the direction she wished. Issa could see that the old gods were already spurred on more by their own thoughts than by anything Timta said. She could easily imagine their anger, as she harbored just such a rage against her mother for so very long during her own exile from power. Tapping that long-seething hate would be enough to hold the old gods together for now. But if her mother was to command the old gods in battle, she’d need a lot more help. Issa knew that in this moment, her support could prove decisive to either her mother or Natan. Issa knew she held a lot of power right now, but also that it wouldn’t last. If she waited too long to cast her lot with one or the other, it would be another stone in the avalanche. But if she threw in now, she thought, she could be the pebble that started it. It was time, she thought, to choose a side.
Timta had more to say, but Issa had only heard her mother’s words as a droning buzz in the background, too lost in her own thoughts. She hadn’t even noticed everyone leave, or her mother approach her.
“Issa,” Timta said commandingly.
Issa’s eyes snapped up to alertness. Timta, she could see, was slightly angry about something.
“It would be good if you at least paid attention. It has taken a lot of work convincing my brothers and sisters you are with us, making sure you are safe here among them. If they should suspect you are not fully committed to this,” Timta gestured around her.
Issa interrupted her before Timta could finish her thought.
“It was a momentary lapse, mother,” she said. Deciding a modicum of truth was her best defense, she continued, “I was lost in thought, thinking about my own place in all this.”
“It is by my side, of course. I will not forget your part in rescuing us. Do not fear it.”
Issa nodded. Her mother seemed placated for the moment. She knew things would become rapidly perilous for her if her mother had the slightest suspicion Issa was considering betraying her once again. Timta would not risk falling for the same ruse twice.
“What do you need me to do?” Issa asked.
“Cass. She has been calling me. Begging me actually. Oshia has been tormenting her,” Timta said.
Issa stifled a triumphant smile. She had been feeling increasingly hostile the more she thought about Cass in the last few days. Something Natan had mentioned to Issa only strengthened the resentment.
“Your mother trusted a half breed to rescue her,” he’d said. “A forbidden half breed. You know we do not let them survive. Do you realize the favors she’s had to call in to keep that thing alive? When I think of the trouble she’s gone through for it… the risks she’s taken…” he had shaken his head sadly. “When she could have just asked you to rescue us, once you realized Oshia had tricked you. You were not his ally anymore. Everyone could see it. Yet still she chose that spawn of a mortal to work her will through and left you to grub on the mortal plane, no better off than a human. It’s an insult.”
Issa saw Natan’s naked attempt at manipulation for what it was, playing on her anger, but he had given voice to things Issa had only dared think. She would have helped Timta get the sunstone back. Timta hadn’t even asked. Issa pushed the memory and emotions it conjured to the back of her mind, and focused on responding to her mother.
“I imagine Oshia is needling Cass every chance he gets. He hates her, you know. Now that he knows she’s half a god. He thinks she led him on, presenting herself as a mortal so that his guard would be down, so she could use divine power to manipulate him,” I
ssa chuckled, studying her nails. She found the thought of Cass bringing a celestial might to bear as laughable as a dog wielding a crossbow.
“It matters little why he does it,” Timta said, a little disconcerted at Issa’s tone. Her daughter was beginning to sound as she had all those years ago right before she’d stolen the sunstone from Timta. Combative, dismissive. It was a dangerous attitude. Timta wrote if off for the moment as sibling rivalry, but she decided to keep more of an eye on her daughter nonetheless.
“So stop him. It’s easy enough to do that,” Issa said, confused.
“No. He needs to continue to believe she’s not important. I don’t want him questioning that. Right now, the bulk of his attention is elsewhere, and he pursues his revenge half-heartedly, out of pique. I don’t want him thinking I harbor feelings for her, lest he focus on her in earnest,” Timta said simply.
“Well, you don’t. Do you?”
Timta sighed, “Not especially, no. But she has those dragons at her call. That’s really the issue. I’d rather Oshia not find out I don’t control them directly, which we risk him discovering should he focus the bulk of his attention and will on her. If I could speak to the dragons directly, as she does, I could dismiss her properly.”
Issa was relieved to hear the words said out loud.
Point for siding with mother, she thought.
“Well, then let him have his petty revenge. That oafish woman can handle it,” Issa said cheerily.
“I wasn’t planning on stopping it. Cass is entirely too useful as a distraction for Oshia for me to remove her from his attention entirely. But now she’s asking for protection, insisting she needs it before she can venture out of that little gossamer-spelled castle she feels so secure in to do whatever it is she thinks she needs to do.”
Timta stopped suddenly and clutched her side as if a great pain had struck her. Her whole body shook with a violent convulsion. Issa watched in horror. She’d never seen a god behave in such a manner. Timta rose quickly, wiping sweat from her brow.
“Mother,” Issa said, “what is it?”
“It’s nothing,” Timta said, turning from her daughter as she composed herself. “The sunstone. I’ve been without it for a long time. It’s sudden return… I just need to go to a temple. I need to rejuvenate a little in the strength my followers give me. It is nothing, truly. Do not think on it. You must concern yourself with your sister now.”
“What is she doing?” Issa asked, narrowing her eyes in suspicion. She could see clearly that her mother was keeping something very important from her. Gods did not sweat. Timta still did not fully trust her.
Point for betraying mother, Issa thought.
“I think involving her in our affairs has given her an inflated sense of self-worth. She thinks she’s performing some essential quest to save the world. Something to do with seers. It matters not. Mortals have nothing to do with all,” Timta gestured around her at the god’s place of refuge, “this. She doesn’t know Oshia can’t kill her outside of Xenor. If I go to her directly she’ll question why I’m not stopping Oshia from his nightly visits. If she knew, or even suspected, that I’m using her as a colorful distraction for Oshia, she might even send the dragons away. You can see my dilemma.”
Issa crossed her arms and narrowed her eyes.
“You are about to ask me to do something.”
Timta frowned.
“You just asked me if there was something you could do.”
“I meant with us. Not with her,” Issa spat out the word.
Another point for betraying mother, she thought.
“Just tell her the truth. Tell her he can’t hurt her, not physically, unless she returns to Xenor. Then I’m not a part of it directly. And don’t let her ask about stopping Oshia. Leave before she has the chance. Please, Issa, this is important.”
Issa pouted her disappointment then disappeared. Timta stared at the place her daughter was.
“She’s going to be trouble again, that much I know.”
She shivered violently before getting sick all over the impeccable marble flooring. She stared at the slimy pool of effluvium in horror. Timta wiped a trail of the stuff from her mouth. It had taken all her strength to get her body under control while she was before the convention of old gods. Now, she realized, just how close she had come to letting them all see this new weakness.
“I just need another sacrifice, before I speak with them again. Then all will be fine,” she said softly to no one.
Cass was in the garden again, looking up at the small statue of Timta without actually seeing it, lost in thought as she wondered how she would be able to get to Ledina, or if she might have to send the others without her. They needed to go there, to find the seer, and soon. Everything was ready for their departure, except for her. They had even managed to convince Chort, though that had taken more than a day of flattery and cajoling. But Cass couldn’t risk leaving the relative safety of Faylendar until they found a way to protect her from Oshia or, barring that, at least hide her from him. The close call they had with him on Xenor had finally convinced her of that. She rubbed her arm where, though the physical mark had faded, she thought she could still feel his touch.
“Praying won’t help,” Issa’s voice rang out behind her, snapping Cass back to the present. For a moment, she didn’t recognize the voice. It was so harsh and angry, strikingly different from the last time Cass had spoken to her.
Cass turned away from the statue of Timta to her half-sister. Issa’s raven locks were tied up this time, curls gently dripping from the hair piled high on her head, encircled with silver bands. Amber colored eyes, the same as their mother’s, glared down at Cass.
“Timta won’t answer?” Cass asked, deciding direct and short was the best way to deal with Issa when she was in such an obviously foul mood.
“No. She’s busy with other things,” Issa said spitefully, managing to imply without stating it that those other things were far more important than Cass.
“I see. Then maybe you can help, sister,” Cass said pleadingly. She hoped there was some part of Issa that cared at all about her. Once before, Issa had come to her aid, to warn her that Oshia had discovered Cass’ half divine lineage though, now that Cass thought on it, Issa had never told her how Oshia had found out.
“Can’t you do anything on your own,” Issa sneered.
Cass bit back the sharp retort she wanted to give, regarding just how much she had done, and how comparatively little Issa had, instead playing the humiliated, ineffectual human, humble before a god.
“I’m not strong like you. I can’t get to Ledina without help. Oshia will kill me, or worse, if I stray from the protection of the old gods.”
“He would love to do that, yes,” Issa said with a deeply satisfied smile.
Cass clasped her hands in her lap and did her best to look contrite.
“Oh stop it. You’re such a stupid child. He can’t kill you, not between here and Ledina. Xenor was different. It is full of djinn who have sided with him. They could have shielded him from any intervention by the other gods while he plucked the limbs from your body. But outside Xenor, he’d need the new gods help, and none of them care about you or Oshia’s grudge against you. They won’t come help him with some petty revenge against a mortal. They don’t yet know you control the dragons. And even if they did, I think they’d be less likely to let Oshia kill you if there was even a chance they could compel you to order those lizards to back them. You’re safe either way. Unless you go to Xenor again. Don’t do that. Or do. I don’t care. I’ve delivered my message.”
Then she was gone. Cass looked at the empty space Issa had just been. She had thought Timta’s reticence to answer her prayers was because she didn’t have the power or influence to protect her—admitting the limits of their power was something all gods were loath to do. But this whole time, Cass had nothing to fear. On Xenor, she had accidentally stumbled into the single situation that she was at risk from Oshia. She wondered why Tim
ta hadn’t come to tell Cass that herself. She could come up with no reason that spoke well of the old god.
Issa returned to the River, hoping she’d finally have some time to think on her own. She had hoped Timta would still be with her followers, refreshing herself in the warmth of their worship. But almost as soon as she finished materializing, her dream of solitude was dashed. She felt her mother’s familiar presence pervading the air and grimaced.
“Mother,” she called out as she approached the temple, where she spied Timta alone, just outside the entrance. Issa wondered why her mother would be loitering outside the temple, when there was still so much to be done, and recalled her earlier strange behavior, beginning to feel concerned. She decided she’d ignore the feeling. Everything was going so well generally, she reasoned, and one oddity was an aberration. Two could still be just a coincidence.
Timta looked up, startled and crazed. Her eyes were unfocused. Issa began to worry a lot more. She spied an odd looking pool of something foul smelling and viscous on the marble flooring nearby. She never seen anything like it before. At the sound of Timta’s voice, Issa looked back at her mother.
“Issa. Have you done as I asked?”
“Yes, mother. It is done. Now you must tell me what is wrong. You cannot hide whatever this is from me. If you do not confide in me now, another god will certainly find out and then, it will be too late for me to help. You must know by now that I’m on your side. I’m done deceiving you, forever, Mother. Please,” Issa said gripping her mother by the arms.
Timta looked up at Issa. She tried to focus, but her eyes remained blurry. She shook her head, trying to clear her vision. Issa touched her face lightly, sending a small shot of strength into her mother on instinct alone. When she pulled her hand away, Timta straightened and looked at her, clear-eyed and composed.
“Thank you, daughter. I… I have been feeling a little off. I… I must confess something. And you are right, I should trust you with the information.”
