Page 69 of Damned and Broken Gods
“What’s happening?” Bina asked.
“The Vainari are returning,” Ramashi said, joining us. “Fragments of memory that Vairanya shed over the centuries. They’ve been summoned, and they have answered.” He looked down at me, his eyes glittering with unshed tears. “Vairanya is awake, and soon she will be whole once more.”
And as he said it, a low hum reverberated across the deck, coming from beneath, from the heart of the creature we rode. The vibration found its way into my solar plexus, buzzing there as if in communion. A melody rose in the air, low and aching. Calling. Forever calling. Pain lanced through my temple, and I sucked in a sharp breath.
Araz’s grip on me tightened a fraction, his breath warming my forehead. “Leela, you’re in pain. Let’s get you back to the cabin. I’ll get you more tincture.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I…I want to stay out here for a while. I want to listen…”
“Listen?” Ramashi asked.
“To the music. I want to listen to the music…”
Araz and Ramashi exchanged glances, and it was Ramashi who spoke, his voice low and reverent.
“Leela…there is no music.”
There wasno explanation for my auditory hallucination. I spent the next day in the cabin, healing. Sleeping a lot. Araz was always there when I woke, and each time I was overcome with the sense that I was forgetting something vital, as if some important message had been passed to me in my dreams, one I needed to remember.
My knee healed quickly, thank goodness, and I was back on deck by the sixth day of our journey. There was no way I wasn’t pulling my weight if I could.
“You can wax the portside,” Ramashi said. “Make sure the wood stays watertight.”
Alia joined me for this chore. We hadn’t spoken much yet, so it was a good time to get to know her.
She was tight-lipped at first. Almost wary. But I kept chattering, telling her about the mortal world, and after a while I couldn’t keep up with her questions.
“So you have houses just for coffee?” she asked, wide-eyed.
I bit back a smile. “And some places have housesjustfor waffles.”
She sucked in a sharp breath. “Ilovewaffles.”
The waffles here weren’t exactly like the ones back home, but they were still delicious.
“Tell me what else you have,” she asked.
I told her about television, Wi-Fi, and mobile phones. She drank it all in eagerly.
“You had so much,” she said finally. “It must be so strange to have it all taken away.”
I paused in my polishing, her words striking a chord inside me.
Yes, I’d had a lot. So many conveniences, so many material things, and at the time they’d mattered. I’d obsessed about money and bettering myself financially. Of what others might think if I didn’t have the best gadgets or clothes or hadn’t watched the most popular shows or read the award-winning books. I’d made sure to have all the things I needed in order to fit in, but even then, there’d been a restlessness inside me. ThatsomethingI couldn’t name that was missing, like…like being fed but never being full. And now that I was here, all the past felt trivial. It all feltmeh.
I smiled across at Alia. “I guess it was strange to start with, but I don’t miss it anymore. Not at all. I like it here. It feels like…like coming home.”
She grinned at me. “In that case, welcome home, sister.”
“Alia…” Armin, her drohi, joined us, his gaze soft as it settled on his demigod. “Lunch is ready.” He looked over at me and smiled. “Araz has made a feast, and he asked me to summon you.”
Summon me. I loved the way they talked here. “I’ll be right down.”
The two of them left hand in hand, and I turned back to the sea, my palm resting lightly on the wood of the ship’s hull. A low vibration hummed against my palm—a welcome. A hello.
“Vairanya, is that you?”
The hum intensified, and a memory stirred in the back of my mind. A voice, low and feminine. But the words…The words remained a mystery.
