"Of course, mistress." Okidu bowed. "I shall take Mistress Allegra to watch her show."
"Thank you," Syssi said.
"Bye-bye!" Allegra waved enthusiastically as the butler took her out of her highchair.
A chorus of goodbyes followed her out, and Eluheed felt the shift in the atmosphere. It was adult time now, and he needed to decide whether he trusted Syssi with his secrets.
His gut said that he could, and not just because she seemed genuinely kind. There was something about her that inspired trust, but he couldn't put his finger on what it was. It was like he was in the presence of a head shaman, even though she bore absolutely no resemblance to Saphir Fatewever, the head shaman of Eluheed's time, not in appearance and not in personality.
It was the sense of otherness, of that something extra that Saphir had.
"You are probably eager to speak with Syssi," Kian said. "But before you present your case to her, I need to ask you about the visions you provided for Navuh."
Eluheed was taken by surprise because Kian hadn't asked him about that when they'd talked on Tuesday. "What would you like to know?"
"Where Khiann is buried."
That came out of the blue. Eluheed remembered the name from what Tamira had told him about Annani and what had led to the demise of the gods, but there was no reason for Kian to think that he had seen where Khiann was buried in visions that he'd presented to Navuh. Those had been aimed at identifying possible traitors, not reminiscing about ancient history.
"I don't understand."
Syssi leaned forward. "Perhaps Eluheed needs some context first. Some of the history of Annani and Khiann."
"I know some of it," Tamira said. "And I told Eluheed about their great love story. I never met Khiann because I was in Mortdh's stronghold up north when Annani chose him for her mate, but we got the rumors even there." She chuckled. "We weren't supposed to know, of course, but it was impossible to keep a juicy rumor like that contained. Besides, Mortdh couldn't help himself and started raging about Annani's betrayal."
Kian leaned back in his chair. "What did he say?"
Tamira looked uncomfortable, and rightly so. Eluheed could only imagine the profanities the angry god had spat out.
"The humiliation of it consumed him," Tamira said. "He wanted to kill Khiann just to make Annani suffer. He didn't care about the minor god himself, and he didn't blame him for what Annani did. He considered Khiann a clueless youth who had beenmanipulated by Annani so she could get out of the engagement. Mortdh just wanted revenge."
Eluheed had heard parts of this story and knew that the gods' demise was the result of the young heiress to the gods' throne choosing love over duty and starting a war, but he hadn't known the details.
Could Mortdh have been right?
Had Annani just used Khiann to break the engagement?
Perhaps he hadn't been her truelove mate?
That would explain how she had been able to keep on going after his death. According to the gods and immortals' lore, the bond between truelove mates transcended death, and when one died, the other usually followed, ending his or her own life.
"Annani had to do it," Syssi said. "It was a political marriage arranged by her father when she was an infant, a way to appease an ambitious god who had managed to accumulate too much power. What Ahn didn't take into account was that after he stepped down, Mortdh intended to kill Annani so he could be the sole ruler over the gods."
"Did he say that?" Eluheed asked Tamira.
"Of course not. Annani was the beloved heir, and the gods never would have followed her murderer. He would have arranged an accident or an ambush and claimed innocence."
Kian nodded. "Exactly what he planned to do to Khiann. The only reason he didn't was that the earthquake beat him to it, and the only one who knew that was Navuh. Everyone else believed that Mortdh had killed Khiann, and there were even witnesses who testified to seeing Mortdh behead him in the desert."
"Annani herself believed that story until recently. But then Wonder was found and told us the story of how her caravan had fallen into a chasm caused by the massive earthquake. She spent five thousand years in stasis and was awakened by a lucky coincidence. Clean water is all that is needed to revive someone from stasis, and a pipe burst near where she was buried."
"That was the first seed of doubt that got my mother thinking," Kian continued. "Other clues followed, and she started suspecting that the witnesses had been compelled by her father to provide false testimony to incriminate Mortdh. It was a convenient way to get rid of a troublesome adversary. She had no proof, though, not until Navuh was caught and offered her Khiann's location in exchange for his freedom."
"Do you think he really knows?" Eluheed asked.
"I'm not sure." Kian reached for his glass of wine and took a sip. "Navuh is a master manipulator. My mother shared her suspicions with Areana, and he could have heard it from her. Areana claims that she didn't tell him, but I don't know if I believe her." He leveled his gaze at Eluheed. "You've gotten to peek into Navuh's mind. Have you seen anything that might indicate he knew Khiann's location?"
Eluheed let his mind drift back to the visions that had flooded through him when he touched the lord.
