Teeth of the Gods

by Sarah K. L. Wilson

  We’d found the Teeth of the Gods and now we were going to ride one to their home.

  Read more of Tylira’s story in Lightning Strikes Twice.

  PAINT THE NIGHT

  What lengths would you go for someone you love?

  When Amandera Mubaru set off to marry the High Tazmin of Canderabai, she never expected to fall in love along the way. But when the magnetism of her travelling companion becomes too powerful, she must decide where her future lies and how to achieve it. Will she dare to gamble with her future?

  Paint the Night

  “You marry him the day after you arrive, but the journey takes two weeks. You know all this, why are you asking me again?”

  My grandmother sounded irritated, but her eyes were misty as she pretended to rearrange how my sarette fit. I glanced around the palm oasis, the last village on the edge of our tiny jewel of a kingdom.

  “They’ll be safe here, grandmother. Safe to live at peace for another generation.” It was why I was marrying, after all, to keep my kingdom from being gobbled up by the Empire of Canderabai. To keep my family safe. Although, it wasn’t like they’d given me a choice.

  “Stop looking so upset. Girls marry older men all the time. They marry for political reasons. They move far away. What did you think would happen here?”

  I hadn’t thought it would happen so quickly. The Lesser Tazmin Farida came during the Feast of Lights and when he met me he smiled. Two weeks after he left, a messenger came with a demand: turn over the princess Amandera as a tribute bride to the High Tazmin of Canderabai. My mother packed up all the finery we had and after a lengthy explanation of everything I needed to do to prepare, she sent me off to Vastette on the edge of the Empire. Now, here I was, waiting for the elephants of Canderabai to come and bear me away.

  “They didn’t even spare me a retinue. Not a guard. Not a maid. If you weren’t dead you wouldn’t be here,” I said, toying with the glowing red stone that hung on my forehead. If it wasn’t for my connection to the Common and my ability to enter the meditation world, I wouldn’t be talking to my ancestor. I would be standing alone in an oasis with only my elephant and my baggage to keep me company. Wouldn’t that be nice, freedom from the constant judgment of a dead woman.

  “Stop whining. Hold your chin high. You’ll be a High Tazminera of Canderabai in two weeks and the one thing you must never compromise is your dignity. Remember, you are more than where you came from and more than the circumstances you were forced into. I have big expectations for you, Amandera.”

  That’s what she always said – big expectations – like I was a horse in a race. Wait ... was that a dust cloud I saw in the distance? Yes. My future was on the way.

  I smoothed my fine garments. I wore red to make an impression, my eyes lined in kohl, my heartstone glowing bright on my forehead and my hair smoothed perfectly. I stood straight and tall, my shoulders back and my chin tilted at the correct angle. I was going to marry their ruler. They needed to respect me from the moment they met me.

  I saw him first, his head and shoulders emerging from the dust cloud like a thunderhead in a clear sky. I couldn’t take my eyes off of him. He was huge, at least a head taller than the others and riding an elephant as black as he was. His heartstone – the only familiar looking thing about him – was not familiar at all. It flashed and crackled like a tiny thunderstorm raged inside it, and with every crackle the expression on his face seemed to change. One moment he seemed kind, the next harsh, the next sorrowful. Along his bare arms, golden tattoos swirled.

  He had companions, but I didn’t see them. My eyes were drawn to their leader, unable to look away. Could it be possible- but, no. Of course, my future husband wouldn’t come to claim me on his own. He would send someone ... wouldn’t he?

  I coaxed Rantoom, my own elephant, to kneel and then I climbed up into the high saddle on his back. Whoever this man was, he needed to see that I was no rural princess to be pushed around. I was Amandera Mubaru of the Kingdom of Aradivia and I would not be made to feel small by the grand people of Canderabai.

  He pulled his elephant up to where I was stationed on Rantoom and crossed his arms over his chest. Another man rode on the elephant behind him – old and grizzled and with the close-cut hair and careful precision of dress that suggested he was a military man. Was he a body guard?

  “I am Lesser Tazmin Catane Nyota,” the tattooed man said. “Son of the stars, thirteenth son of the High Tazmin and I have come to transport you to our capitol city, Azaradi.”

  As if I didn’t know the name of their capitol! Did he think I was a simpleton?

  “What sort of magic do you use? I’ve never seen a heartstone flash like lightning,” I asked.

  “You’ve never seen anyone like me before.” His face was deadly serious. There was no joking or self-deprecation in the bravado.

  I allowed myself a tiny smile. I liked men who knew their own worth.

  “I’ve seen more things than you might expect.” If he thought he could out maneuver me with words, he’d need to think again.

  “Just try to keep up. I’m not your nursemaid.” He spat in the dust and turned his elephant around.

  I gritted my teeth together. So much for making him respect me. If I couldn’t win the respect of one of the High Tazmin’s sons, what chance would I have with the High Tazmin?

  WE RODE ALL DAY THROUGH the narrow ravines of the Canderabai wilderness and I felt a heaviness grow in my belly with each passing mile. The lush oases of Aradivia ebbed and were swallowed by the spiny, harsh vegetation of Canderabai. Our grim leader was one with the landscape. Where it was hard, he was granite. Where it was inhospitable, he was dismissive.

  “I hope his father isn’t much like him,” I griped to my ancestor, Drusica.

  Catane chose a rocky hillside beside a stream for our camp. I tended to Rantoom and set up my small silk tent as quickly as I could so that I could spend some time alone. Why didn’t other people find so much time with people exhausting? You always had to pretend to be something you weren’t.

  “Focus on weaving the Common, child,” Drusica said. My body was sitting on my bedroll on the ground in a lotus position, but my spirit was in the meditation world with Drusica.

  I turned my attention back to the massive shield of air I was weaving, but I still had more to say. “The High Tazmin must be very old to have thirteen sons. And this Catane is as old as I am.”

  “You knew he was old. Concentrate on the weaving.”

  Deftly, I pulled on the thread I’d created and the shield fell into place as seamlessly as a blue sky in summer.

  “Why do I need to keep practicing, ancestor. He won’t love me for my magical strength.”

  I turned to the next exercise of our daily practice, weaving painful flecks of fire that would send an enemy to the ground writhing in pain. I was so used to weaving them, that I had to be careful not to accidentally set them loose on every person who annoyed me. Maybe I should let that iron self-control down a bit and show Catane how much fire I could put into something. Then he’d see something he’d never seen before.

  “He may not love you at all, but he will certainly value your strength. A good consort to an Emperor has value beyond her attraction. We will make you so useful that he cannot deny you the power you deserve.”

  “I-”

  My words were cut off by a ripping sound, the boom of thunder and the smell of burning silk. I was ripped out of the meditation world and into the real world so suddenly that my head spun. It was not the only part of me spinning, I was barrel-rolling across the ground, wincing and grunting with every bump and bruise.

  My momentum stopped as I crashed into a thorn bush. I pulled myself back to my feet, spinning to see what had happened. My tent was in fiery shreds. Behind it, Catane stood, lightning streaking from his hands. I flung my hands up and wove a shield from the Common and thrust it between us. Was he trying to kill me? He should realize that I was capable of defending myself.

  His ligh
tnings crackled and vanished. Around us, cries and startled exclamations were still sounding from around the camp. The elephants bugled from where they were picketed and grooms rushed to calm them. Catane strode towards me, the campfires and moonlight glinting off his golden tattoos. Behind him, the older military man strode, muttering and scowling.

  Catane wore no shirt, and the right half of his chest was closely detailed with the strange tattoos. How did you even get a gold tattoo?

  “If you want to kill me, there are easier ways to achieve your goal,” I said, refusing to let my voice waver.

  “Are there?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “That was easy enough.”

  “It won’t be so easy again,” I warned.

  “It isn’t wise to toy with your father’s bride,” the general said. I realized that he was a general now that I saw the segmented silver chain that led from a cuff on his hand to a cuff on Catane’s. I’d heard legends of the san’lelion of Canderabai. They were always defeated generals that the High Tazmin’s army had captured in battle. He gifted them to his children, binding them by a silver chain and demanding that they teach wisdom until their charge was fully trained. I peered at the general curiously and he glared back at me. “Look all you want, pretty asp. I’m a site for a wonder-show, aren’t I?”

  I licked my lips, irritated that I’d shown my curiosity and the general smirked. He could read what I meant, even in that tiny expression. I’d have to keep a close eye on him.

  “I’m not toying with her,” Catane said. “I’m testing her.”

  “And did she pass? I only ask because these old bones want their bed and you’re keeping me from it.”

  “She passed,” Catane said, and his eyes searched mine like he was looking for gold in a creek.

  “And where am I supposed to sleep now that you’ve destroyed my tent?” I asked.

  “That’s the second test.”

  For the first time, he smiled.

  I PRACTICED MY MAGIC the next day while we rode. I was not going to be caught off-guard at night this time, and I also wasn’t willing to give up my disciplined training. Drusica said that with effort and determination, I could be the most powerful of my generation. It wasn’t like I was missing anything practicing during the journey. None of Catane’s people spoke to me. There were about twenty soldiers and five servants and they all kept a wide berth.

  “Your exercises are progressing well, but you’re forgetting your mother’s instructions,” Drusica told me as I finished my drills.

  “I have forgotten nothing.”

  “She told you to practice your dancing. You’ll be expected to dance for the High Tazmin on your wedding night.”

  “And do you expect me to practice that on the back of Rantoom?”

  “You promised her you’d practice.”

  Drusica’s ghostly form fluttered in an out of my vision, but her disapproving expression remained unchanged. I blew out a gust of breath. What would it feel like to be a common person without magic, and without a demanding ancestor like a second conscience in their mind?

  When we pitched camp, I tethered Rantoom and snuck off around the edge of a hill. It was far too dark and cold to dance without a fire, and I had no tent anymore for privacy. I should set Catane’s tent on fire to see how he liked it. I should, but I wouldn’t. I refused to sabotage my own future.

  I gathered dried out wood for a fire and set a blaze, shaking out my waist-length black hair and stretching my limbs. Everyone else would be too busy to follow me here. I closed my eyes, hearing the sounds of the drums and the snap-flute in my mind, and then I began to let the rhythm move my feet in the shuffling steps and rolling hip movements of the lasharanta. It was the dance of seduction, the dance that painted the night with tantalizing movements and scintillating hands. My mother had taught it to me, as her mother had taught it to her and I would dance it on my wedding night. Hopefully, it wouldn’t be as cold as it was here in the Canderabai wilderness. Who would have thought a barren desert would be so cold once the sun sank over the edge of the world?

  I danced it through and then prepared for a second dance, opening my eyes to check the fire. Did it need fuel? A flicker of movement caught my eye and I startled. On the other side of the fire, leaning against a man-high boulder, Catane stood with his arms crossed over his chest. He was watching me with a look in his eye both hungry and desolate. I pulled the scarf of my sarette around me, not that it would cover me. The sarette was not designed to hide, but to highlight the figure.

  Our eyes met, and my lips parted. I felt like I’d been caught stealing bananas from the kitchens. My heart was racing, my cheeks grew warm as I was caught in his golden, piercing gaze. I couldn’t tell if he approved of or despised me. I felt, suddenly, that it mattered. I wanted to see approval in those hard eyes. He took a step forward, his hands creeping just a little bit forward, as if he were thinking of touching me, and then a gravelly voice broke the spell.

  I hadn’t even seen the general until he spoke. He was sitting, back against the boulder and hat drawn over his eyes. I wouldn’t have thought he could even see us like that.

  “Are you just about done here? I don’t know why you bother watching. You’ll only torment yourself. Even if you could bring yourself to steal your father’s viper of a bride, you’d still be chained to me.” He shook the chain. “And it’s hard to show a woman you appreciate her when you’re chained to another man.”

  If my cheeks had heated before, they must be fiery now. I kept my gaze level and cool, but the spell was broken.

  “As you say, old man,” Catane said, waiting for the general to stand before disappearing into the night. His mild tone had sounded almost affectionate.

  I TRIED TO AVOID CATANE’S gaze as we traveled the next day. I could feel it following me as I rode Rantoom. I didn’t even enter the meditation world to practice my magic. Every time I closed my eyes I could see his expression – hungry but desolate. What kind of man lived behind those eyes?

  We were two days journey from Al’Karida. I’d heard tales of the fantastic city, with its woven gold bridges that crisscrossed between ivory towers. I hoped we’d stop there so I could catch a glimpse of how the women were wearing their sarettes. There were no other women on the journey, and I didn’t want to make a fashion mistake when I met the High Tazmin.

  Our elephants walked in single file, and mine was second from the end, with a lone guard trailing me. One long dusty mile blended into the next until noonday. I looked around, hoping we’d come to a creek or hill to stop for a mid-day break, when suddenly the world began to rumble. Rantoom trumpeted in fear, swaying and bucking. I yelled at him to be still, but the earth opened up in front of us and he tripped, stumbling forward. I threw myself backwards, flipping and rolling as I fell.

  Rantoom disappeared into the cavernous gash in the still-shaking earth. I fell from him just in time, falling into a cleft on the rock and clutching at the earth with all my strength. The ground heaved and bucked, making me unable to turn my head to see what – or who – else had fallen into the crevice. Screams and crashes filled the air, and then as quickly as it began, the shaking ended and all was still. I moaned. My ribs ached, I could see nothing but the earthen wall beside me, and no matter how I struggled I couldn’t turn around. How deep was the crevice? I heard a final liquid thump, and then nothing. It must be deep.

  There was a scuffling sound above me, and a voice.

  “Can you see any survivors? Anyone?”

  “There! She’s there.” That was the general.

  “Hurry, we can get there if we skirt around the edge.”

  Everything was quiet again, and then there were sounds above me and something slapped across my shoulder.

  “Grab hold of the rope and I’ll pull you up!” Catane’s voice called to me.

  I struggled to breathe. My ribs hurt. I flinched from the pain, twisting around to catch the rope. The rope pulled upwards, but my hips were wedged. I yelped as the rope slipped thr
ough my hands.

  “She’s stuck,” the general said. “See if you can loosen her. No! Wait until she has the rope again! I can’t believe this happened again. It’s like it is connected to you somehow.”

  “These earthquakes? Connected to me? You’re crazy,” Catane said, and then yelled down to me. “Grab the rope, Amandera.”

  It hit me on the shoulder again and I caught it, wondering how it could be any different this time.

  “Hold on tight. Tighter!” I gripped the rope with white knuckles.

  The rocks holding my hips in place let go as if they had been ripped away by a giant hand. They fell, knocking and crashing against the ravine walls, as I was left dangling by my white knuckled grip. If only my magic had a solution for this! But ways to prevent falling into sudden ravines had never been on our list of studies. Poor Rantoom. I hope he died quickly.

  Catane hauled me up quickly, reaching over the lip of the ravine as soon as he could to grab my shaking arms and pull me to safety. On the other side of the ravine, four elephants and the remaining guards stood huddled together.

  “Just like the rumors from Wexler and Gervaine,” I gasped. The news from abroad was rife with news of rips in the earth and shaking. I hadn’t believed it. No one had.

  “See, I told you. Everyone else can see that these events are following you.”

  Catane’s golden eyes studied me, as if he was looking for any tiny change in my appearance.

  “They aren’t following me,” he muttered, but his eyes never left mine.

  His expression was ... soft? As if it was made of wax and a fire burned behind it.

  “Don’t do it,” the general said.

  I couldn’t stop shaking. I couldn’t stop thinking that it could have been me at the bottom of that ravine, and at the same time I couldn’t stop staring at those golden eyes burning into mine, the look of concern etched on the hard planes of his face.