Page 36 of Ensii
Talitha followed. They had come so far only to retreat? She wanted this over. All of it.
“Morzei saw the power in Sargon!” The thing that had been Nehemian screeched, smashing its body weight into the nearest pillar again, sending rock and chunks of stone flying in all directions. “He snuffed that power out! But he didn’t see the power in Naram until it was too late.”
Talitha’s heart pounded faster. Had her grandfather really killed her brother? She grabbed a soldier—a young man who had been struck in the back with a flying piece of stone. She thrust him toward the doors, her hand wrapped around his forearm like a vice.
“Anakti had great plans for Sargon,” the monster Nehemian roared. “His death brought her wrath!”
Talitha rushed out of the throne room with Ashek and Kasrei, the last ones to leave. “Bar it up!” Talitha ordered, surprised she had the breath for the words. “Bar it upnow!”
Shaza was the first to find her. “But we just finished getting it open.” He peered past her to the great black shape stalking after them and his face washed pale. “Father?”
How he recognized that thing as his father, Talitha would never know. The next moment, Gilsazi’s troops were bolting the doors shut as fast as humanly possible.
“Quickly!” shouted the lieutenants and footsoldiers alike.
Talitha didn’t realize she was shaking until she went to check her sword and found she couldn’t make her hands move.
“What happened?” Ashek demanded. “You said the victory was ours.” Ashek didn’t threaten her, but he faced Debrei with flaring nostrils and a rigid back.
Debrei met his wrath—for her or not—with a calm that was slightly unnerving. “I said that if you renounced the war goddess you would. One of you brought her into battle and you have made her stronger.”
Talitha’s heart pounded. What did that mean? After the past few minutes, any skepticism that might have been left in her was long gone. “How do you mean? Who brought her?”
Ashek spun to the soldiers before him. “Idols. Charms. Spells. You told me you burned them. Who still has them?”
What else were they supposed to do? They had nothing to lose and the old priestess hadn’t led them astray this far. Talitha straightened. “If any of you has baubles from Anakti, speak now.” The ensaak flicked her gaze back and forth, but no one moved. “If you won’t confess, I will personally strip each of you right now.” The memory of the demon’s pulsing shape, its contorting face, had made her afraid. Fear translated into anger. “Tell me now!”
There was no sound but Nehemian roaring on the far side of the doors. The last sun had set, leaving them in darkness save for the torches. The flickering light cast shadows and shapes not unlike the monster’s ghostly form.
Talitha’s heart pounded faster. They couldn’t die. They needed to get to the bottom of this. Death was not an option any more than failure.
Shaza frowned.
Several others looked to the left and Talitha spun around.
Kurzik refused to meet her gaze or the eye of Ashek. The young man hung his head, studying the floor.
“No,” was all Ashek said. For a long moment, there wasn’t a sound but the wailing of Nehemian on the far side of the door.
The monster’s calls sent chills down Talitha’s spine. An image flashed across her mind—their disemboweled corpses splayed on the ground while the monster tore at their intestines.
“Kurzik?” Talitha finally managed to say.
The young man reached into the pouch at his hip. He tugged out an icon, no bigger than the length of his thumb. From the way he handled it, it was weighted. Solid gold—not the plated wood that most idols were made out of. This was a truly valuable prize, worth more than the average fieldworker’s wages for a year.
Ashek groaned, looking to the ceiling.
“Ashek, I’m sorry,” Kurzik said. “I didn’t think—I don’t pray to it.”
Talitha looked to Debrei. The only woman was silent, lips pressed together in a grim look of acceptance. There was a sadness there that made Talitha’s gut pool with dread. She hadn’t thought she had room for more dread, but there it was.
“You have to believe me.” Kurzik took a step closer to his leader, hand wrapped around the idol so tight that his knuckles whitened. “I didn’t think this would happen.”
Ashek let off a long exhale. “I know.” He rested a hand on Kurzik’s shoulder. “I know.” He pressed a kiss to the top of Kurzik’s bowed head—it was a kiss like a farewell. “I bless you to the heavens, brother.”
Talitha should have seen it coming.
Then Ashek had a knife in his hand and with one sharp thrust he drove it straight into Kurzik’s throat. He stabbed up, jabbing through the young man’s vocal cords, jugular vein, and the base of his skull with one blow.
