He stared at my hand before transferring his eyes to my face. “I know you,” he said slowly, ignoring my proffered hand. “Emmanuelle? You were chosen to serve Blesswood.”
I shook my head. “Nope, but you’re close. I’m her sister, Willa.” I wasn’t surprised he remembered Emmy. She’d been the star of the seventh ring. “Leader Graham,” I said quickly. “I have to tell you something of the utmost importance. I need you to listen very carefully, and then I need to you move your ass and get everyone out of this village.”
His eyes narrowed as he scrambled to his feet. “I’m sorry, but on what authority are you even here? You are supposed to be serving in Blesswood now.”
I drew on my limited power and brought twin flames to life in both of my hands. The Abcurses also stepped up then, and for the first time Leader Graham seemed to realise that they were there. He was completely unobservant, the self-centred bullsen ball.
“I’m a god now,” I told him, cutting off my flames. “And we’re here to warn you about what is heading your way now.” My voice lowered, and I hoped my words were registering with him. “It’s bad. The gods are sending an army after you. You’re vulnerable out here, ready to be picked off by this army of undead servers that is heading this way. You need to get all of our people and take them to Blesswood.”
He started to splutter, shaking his head. “Are you kidding me? How dare you come here and spread rumours about the gods. What you’re saying is impossible. If this is some sort of revenge because Blesswood rejected you …”
He trailed off, narrowing his gaze on me. I remembered that look all too well, the way he stared you down like you were a dead rodent that had crawled into his bed. His bed made of tokens that he didn’t share with the rest of the village.
Rome must have taken offense to the tone of voice, because his voice was a growl when he said, “Willa was not rejected. She is as she said,” he paused, “a god. And you need to listen to her. Grab whatever shit you can carry and start walking. If you don’t leave, you will all be dead within two sun-cycles.”
Leader Graham took Rome much more seriously than he took me, which was kind of annoying, but as long as he got on board with the plan, then I really didn’t care. At this point the door to my former house opened and a dressed couple walked out, hand in hand.
They had the sort of look on their face that indicated someone had interrupted them before they got to the good part of their morning. Whoops.
“We have to go now,” I told Leader Graham. “We’re heading for the ninth ring to warn them as well. I promise, I am here with the best of intentions. This was my home once, and I don’t want to see any of you destroyed.”
There was a softening in his face then, just a minute one, but I thought I might have gotten through to him.
“We’ll be back here in a sun-cycle,” Siret told him, grinning in a way that would make me want to run. “It would help us if you could spread the word through the other rings as you head toward Blesswood. Make our job a little easier.”
Graham nodded, his head moving so rapidly that his chin was quivering. “I just can’t believe it’s true, but … I suppose the gods have never favoured us.”
I gave him a rueful smile. “We favour you now.”
He almost returned my smile with one of his own, before he turned and quickly conferred with the couple we had interrupted when we arrived.
I turned my back on them to face the Abcurses. “It will take us about half a rotation to walk to the eighth, and then another fifteen clicks on to the ninth.”
“The ninth is the final?” Yael asked, his head already lifting to stare out across the desert land.
I nodded. “Yes, except for the temples where the servers are made, but I’m guessing that they’re long gone.” Judging by the one we’d had in our possession who hadn’t lasted past the first rush of water. I led the way out of the village, dodging between houses, and as we moved, the noise behind us picked up in intensity. Leader Graham was rousing the village.
We ran most of the way to the eighth ring, and I was still astonished at the fact I could do that. I was guessing the Abcurses slowed their pace to keep with mine, but no one had to carry me this time. Even though they all offered more than once.
“I’m fine,” I told them for the tenth time. “I’m stretching my god energy out.”
Some of the balance that Cyrus had been talking about was starting to become apparent to me. I could feel my energy levelling off. For once in my life I felt like my equilibrium was right where it was supposed to be.
When we reached the eighth ring, it was to find a village even more desolate than mine. “Do you know the leader here?” Coen asked, when we were standing in the centre of the main marketplace, which was where the only water source was situated.
I hadn’t noticed, but there were guards stationed around their water well. The moment Coen spoke, they jumped to attention, charging forward. When they were a few dozen feet from us, Rome stepped up and took point position. The two men skidded to a halt; the bullsen horns they’d had in their hands as makeshift weapons clanked to the ground as they dropped them.
“G-gods,” one stuttered. “The gods are here to kill us.”
His voice rose higher, howling out through the village. It was a little later in the morning, so there were more dwellers about here than had been in the seventh ring. Screams started to ring out, along with other shouts that sounded … excited, almost.
Three girls stumbled out into the street wearing long nightgowns, their hair curled up around what looked like multiple-sized twigs.
“Ah, shit,” I muttered as they sprinted in our direction.
“Brace yourself,” I warned the others, and I could see the confusion on the Abcurses faces. “These are the godsters. They’re kind of a little god obsessed. We had a few in my village as well, but I tried to steer clear of their meetings.”
Obsessed might have been an understatement. The women who were part of the godsters were literally waiting for a god to come and sweep them away. They chose favourites and worshipped them to a fanatic level.
