Eira froze. She shifted, half turning, eyes meeting the Pillar’s. The woman wore a somewhat skeptical, probing expression. She was suspicious of them. What had given them away? Was it their clothes? Had she seen that they hadn’t spoken the prayers?
Or was this simply something that was said whenever a Pillar was passed? And the longer Eira remained silent, the more suspicion she drew to herself, and to them?
Her mind moved faster than a light ship in a gale. She was back in that forsaken throne room deep beneath Risen. Pillars surrounded her. The first time she had seen Ulvarth.What had they said then?
“Respect, revere, fear,” Eira said as soon as it popped into her mind. It had to have only been a second that had passed.
The woman’s eyes widened. “May you be worthy,” she whispered, as if correcting. Eira saw realization dawn on the woman’s face that something was out of place about them. The Pillar took a step forward, a sinister smile curling her lips. In another moment of time, Eira saw Ferro approaching her.
Her stomach curdled but Eira remained calm. “May I be worthy,” Eira repeated and lowered her eyes. “Forgive me.”
“Are you new to Hokoh?” The Pillar shifted and then slowly approached. “If so, you should come with me. I will take you to our Temple. Once you say the rites, you will be part of our glorious family of Meru. One, holy, triumphant kinship in Yargen’s name and for her Champion.”
“Apologies, we have somewhere to be. Perhaps tomorrow.”
“Once you are part of the fold, you will never know hardship again.” She continued forward, even as Eira took a step back. There was a coaxing coo to her words. Not an outright order, but the threat of danger was present should Eira refuse. “Under his loving gaze, no one on Meru shall go hungry. There will be no crime, no suffering. Come, let us feed you and give you warmth and shelter. We shall show you his way.”
“Perhaps later.” Eira instinctively positioned herself between the woman and her friends. Yonlin had shifted his stance, hand on his hip by the pistol. Olivin and Cullen were at the ready. Ducot was still in his mole form, perched on Olivin’s shoulder. But he could be back to his normal self in an instant. Alyss already had her palm braced against a wall. “We would be most enthusiastic to worship at his temple once our matters are handled.”
The woman lifted her hand, resting it on Eira’s shoulder in a friendly gesture. But her eyes were all sinister. Eira could see nothing but a Pillar looking to drag her back to their forsaken houses of worship.
“If you are not one of our holy family, then you are a scourge on these lands that must be removed. Are you a scourge, my sister of Yargen?”
There was only so much a woman could abide. Eira never broke her stare with the Pillar. She hardly moved most of her body. But her arm was faster than the woman had been expecting, Eira’s movements sure, confident. With one thrust, she plunged a dagger of ice through the woman’s gut.
She barely had time to crack her lips. Eira doubted the first wave of pain had crashed against her awareness when she moved with her other arm, the Pillar’s hand falling from her shoulder. Before the woman could scream—before she could even gulp for air—Eira gouged out her throat without so much as flinching.
The Pillar collapsed to the ground, dead, instantly.
Eira stepped back, dismissing the daggers of ice. They fell as bloody rain from her hands, collecting in the cobblestones. Turning, she faced her friends and said calmly, and simply, “We should move.”
28
The others stared down at the Pillar even as Eira walked away. Wordlessly, they fell into step.
Alyss caught up with Eira. “What happened to caution and not rushing into things?” she murmured, glancing around. They were moving faster now through the back alleyways.
Eira kept skimming over the streets, debating whether it’d be less suspicious to walk out in the open where they could move among the crowd. “She gave me no choice.”
“We could’ve knocked her out,” Alyss said under her breath, soft enough that she might not have been intending for Eira to hear.
“So she could wake up all the more suspiciousandknowing our faces?” Eira couldn’t fathom her friend’s logic.
“We’re concealing ourselves; she didn’t get that good of a look.”
“Why are you defending one of them?” Her question was harsher than she might have otherwise intended. But Eira couldn’t fathom what would ever make Alyss argue for a Pillar’s life. “You know what they did to me, to Olivin and Yonlin, all of us.”
“Of course I know.” Offense was written in the deep lines of her furrowed brow. “Butthatwoman didn’t do any of those things. She didn’t deserve to die.”
“Alyss, you’ve seen me kill. You’ve killed, too.”
“Maybe she wasn’t one of them.” Alyss’s musing was even more faint.
“What do you mean?” Eira wasn’t letting the doubt be swept away. She wouldn’t tolerate mutiny.
“You remember what your uncle said, don’t you? That people didn’t have a choice when the Pillars rose to power. They were forced to join or die.” Alyss shook her head. “She might have been innocent.”
Protecting the innocents… Eira knew that was what Alyss would cling to.
