Page 57 of Her Soul for a Crown
Reeri gifted another glare.
He chuckled. “If you are so angry with her, why not lock her up? Let Kama watch her until we are done. The distance between you two seems fine now; the tether has not tried to kill any of us in nearly an hour. Mayhap she was right—she only has to be near one of us.”
If Reeri were still made of shadows, his edges would flick and snap. Anula had been right. Proximity was necessary, yet proximity towhomwas interchangeable. At least he did not have to look at her today. While he and Calu searched the inner city, she and Sohon explored the outer city. It had been her suggestion, after she had tired of his silent treatment. Though he did not want to risk the wrath of the tether again, she refused to be in his presence any longer. Something about being too pretty to be ignored. He scoffed at her gall but had not argued. It was her skin on the line, and if he was being honest, he wanted time to consider her actions. If she was a threat, she must be subdued.
“You think walls will cage her in?” he asked Calu, as they made their way through the city streets. Another point on which Anula might be right: perhaps a market, not a shrine, hid the Bone Blade relic.
“Do you? You know her best.”
Reeri snorted. If the memory-nightmares and sparks ofthought he had seen when they touched were any indication, he did not know her at all.
Yet did he?
His hand flexed at the thought. At her bee-stung lips—the way they had crashed against the threat of the man in the dark alley. At the fear that filled his lungs in the night, the list of dead, the echo of Ratti’s screams.
They were not dissimilar.
“She acts for a purpose,” he said. “She believes she must have the throne to protect people.”
“Ah,” Calu said, touching smoothed stones and figurines on a table. “Love always offers the most outlandish things.”
“So does ambition and revenge.”
“But she tried to kill you last night. Why would she not do it again?”
Why, indeed? Anula’s soul was bittered and burdened. The wounds of her past drove her in ways he had not seen in another offerer. Fear of failure drove her more wildly. But would he not act with wild abandon if his plans were disrupted? Was that not what he was considering now?
“She only threatened death,” he said, chewing on the thought. “If she wanted me dead, there would have been no threat. She wants the bargain completed. She wants the throne. Now she knows there is only one way to her goal: the Bone Blade.”
“Are you sure? Because if she makes good on that threat, if she steals the relic or finds a way to kill you…”
“I know,” Reeri snapped. “I know what is at stake.”
“I am only trying to help.”
“No need,” Reeri growled. “I have it under control.”
He did not need the other Yakkas’ help, nor their shadows shredded from a whip in his hands if he failed.
“All right,” Calu said, hands up. He led them around a corner,a stretch of street revealing more vendors and a view of the main courtyard.
Prophet Ayaan carried a lantern through it, acolytes following in a line behind. They paused at each person, twirling smoke and spraying blessed water in their faces. Penance cleansing. Reeri had not witnessed it in centuries. It was a ritual performed leading up to the Festival of the Cosmos, a weeklong celebration of the Heavens’ mighty powers, their love and favor, beginning on the Maha Equinox.
A gust of wind chilled Reeri’s shadow. “Let us go to the shrine.”
“Why? We have only searched half the market.”
“Not for the relic,” Reeri said. “I want blood.”
***
Reeri and Calu needed only to touch the offerings in the inner-city shrine to hear their prayers.
“Great Blood Yakka,” an elderly woman crooned, “hear my prayer—heal my grandson of these bleeding boils. My husband has spent all our money on healers, but they cannot do the miracles you can. Please, we need help in the fields, or else we will all die. I offer the last of our Yala harvest.”
The scent of longing and heartbreak drifted on the air. Yet it was not the offering Reeri sought. He whispered back into the cosmos, where the woman would hear, either by faith or knowing. “You seek healing of the blood, so blood must be offered. First, bring a vial of your grandson’s blood, and your bargain will be accepted.”
The order for an elevated offering sang on the wind. Mayhap it would be as easy as that. Blood was simpler to find than a relic, especially when the wish was for a loved one. Those had been Reeri’s favorite bargains to make—the ones that brought joy andpeace. The ones that balanced the cosmos and tightened the sense of communion. That was what life was: beauty from darkness, and the thread of community through it all.
