Page 3 of Ensii
It was a kind of revenge, she supposed. Her grandfather had taken his city, murdered his parents, and killed or enslaved everyone he had ever known. Now he came to Ilios with their ensaak as his wife and a promise to co-rule over the city. It was turnabout fair play in the rawest sense.
Zula blinked at her. “Why did you give him what he wanted?”
Talitha shook her head. “Because…” Ashek spoke lowly to Saorin with a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “It was what I wanted, too.”And it was what the Lonely God wanted.She needed a strong joint ruler, she had said it many times herself. Not having one left her vulnerable to a thousand insinuations and rumors from all sides. Having one gave her a shield and a sword.
“Who is he?” Zula whispered. “Who are his people? Do you know?”
“A Hudspethite.”
Zula’s brows rose out of the corner of Talitha’s eye. “Really?”
“Yes.”
“So this is his revenge?”
“Of a sort.”
“Talitha.” Ashek called for her, gesturing.
“Your lord summons you,” Zula said, just a hint of anger in the words.
“So he does.” Talitha inhaled. There seemed to be something else she should tell Zula, but nothing came to mind. “Zula, my friend…” She grasped for the right words, but she didn’t have words for all the things she wanted to say. How could she express something she couldn’t even grasp herself?
“I hope you’ll forgive me,” Talitha said at last. “Will you help me take back our city?”
“Is it still our city?” Zula jerked her chin in the direction of Ashek. Waving her hand, she cut off Talitha’s reply. “Yes, my ensaak. Of course I will. I just…” She let a slow breath out her nose. “I will ready our warriors.”
Talitha nodded. “Thank you, Zula.”
“I’ll even pass on the order about icons.”
“Thank you.” Talitha didn’t know what else to say. She had the distinct sense of being unworthy of the other woman’s loyalty.
Already, there was a fire going in the center of the courtyard. Several of Ashek’s Dunedrifters—Ashek’s Hudspethites—were already having Ilians cast their charms and icons into the fire. After Nehemian had ordered them into chains and many of their families murdered, it wasn’t as hard a sell as it might have been.
“Talitha.” Ashek caught up with her, impatient. “It appears that the city has been disgruntled. Naram has isolated the people and sealed the—”
A roar sounded over the courtyard like nothing Talitha had ever heard and shook the ground.
“What was that?”
No sooner had she drawn her weapon than the wall burst. There was no other way to describe it. One moment, the courtyard was sealed and the next a great mass of sinew, muscle, and teeth exploded through the stone.
Rock flew in all directions and Ashek tackled her to the ground. They hit the stone, the wind knocked out Talitha’s lungs, but out of the path of the larger stones. Dust filled the air like a smog, choking and blinding.
Ashek released her and the two of them scrambled upright, swords drawn.
“What is this?” Ashek growled, halfway between annoyance and anger.
Coughing on grit and dust, Talitha blinked against the cloud as the shape charged over the wall, pouncing on the nearest bodies it could find. Talitha could just make out the prone shapes of those who’d been too close to the wall when it erupted. Whether they were Hudspethites, Ilians, or northerners, she couldn’t tell.
The shape crouched over the bodies like an animal, tearing at the corpses with all the fervor of a starved warrigal. Teeth flashed and screams rent the dark as it bit and snapped and tore.
It was roughly the height and shape of a man, but far thicker. Muscles and joints layered on and doubled along its body in no discernable design. Talitha had never seen or imagined anything like it, but she could have sworn it belonged to nightmares.
“What is it?” Talitha shouted, echoing the cry of a dozen others around her.
“I don’t know, but we’re going to kill it.” Ashek looked through the dust. “Kurzik!”
