“It’s best if you don’t know,” I tell her. “So no one can try to get the information out of you.”
She brightens and nods, then races away. “Loyal followers,” she calls out. “To me! Our Mistress has orders!”
People flock toward her as she moves to the center of the temple plaza. They give me uneasy looks, making the salt-throwing gesture over their shoulders as I pass by. I’m getting used to it. I head towards Kalos’s sanctuary, trying to think of what I’ll say to him.
How do I convince a god that just wants to be left alone that he needs to abandon his sanctuary and flee with me?
“Mistress!” Kina races forward with Dingle prancing around her feet. She’s out of breath, her cheeks flushed and her hair mussed. As I watch, she hunches over, holding her knees as she struggles to compose herself. “Army. Heading this way.”
“I know. Thank you. We’re going to get out of here.”
She nods, eyes wide. “Will he join you?”
“He will,” I tell her with a confidence I don’t feel. “Help Jemet pack and get out of here yourself. Will your family be safe?”
“They are fleeing even now.” Her expression is worried. “We have our valuables and what food we can carry. I hope it is enough.”
I take off my three golden necklaces and the bangles going up my arm and put them on her. “Here. Sell these when you get to a safe town. Get what you can.”
She shakes her head, worried. “But, Mistress, you’ll need them?—”
“We’ll be fine. I promise. I’ll have a god with me, remember?” I smile at her with a confidence I don’t feel. “Now, hurry. Leave Dingle with me and get going.”
Her eyes fill with tears. “May the gods watch over you, Mistress Elsie. You are too good.”
The gods are the problem right now, but she means well. I hug her and turn toward Kalos’s doors. Jemet flutters at my side, all anxiety.
“You should go, too,” I tell her.
“I will wait until you are on your way,” she says staunchly. “It is my duty as his priestess.”
I nod and take a deep breath before I open the double doors and enter Kalos’s temple. It’s pitch-black inside, which is incredibly eerie. All the braziers are out. Of course they are; no one has been tending to them. Has he been sitting in darkness? For how long?
With an unpleasant curdling in my gut, I turn toward Jemet. “Do we have a candle?”
I don’t want to go in blind, stumbling all over myself. I need to seem calm and in control if I’m going to get him to listen to what I say. I wait as one of the servants finds acandle bowl and lights it, then hands it to me. I thank them and step into the darkness.
Immediately, they close the doors behind me. My candle sputters. My nerves flutter too. Did they have to do that? So quickly? I know they’re scared of Kalos. Hell, I am, too. He’s a god, and he might be apathetic right now, but that doesn’t mean he won’t change his mind. That doesn’t mean he won’t remember everything that happens. They want to please him, and my instructions were to keep his doors closed. Well…they’re closed.
Yet…the room looks exactly as I left it. It looks as if no one has been living here, and that makes me anxious, too. What if he’s gone and I’ve failed? What if he’s been gone for an entire month already? What if?—
The candlelight falls upon a pale white figure in the darkness.
It’s Kalos, yet seated on his throne.
I’m both relieved and unnerved at the sight of him. Striding up to him, I drop into a curtsy since that seems polite. “Lord Kalos?—”
“You lied.”
His words are bored. Disappointed. His gaze barely flicks over me as I straighten.
I still shiver. “I know. I’m sorry. I wasn’t intending on bothering you, I just…do you have something on your face?”
He doesn’t blink. Doesn’t reach up to touch his face. Just shrugs. He doesn’t care.
I move the candle closer, looking to capture that strange wisp I’d seen out of the corner of my eye. As I move in, I realize…it’s a spiderweb.
His face has spiderwebs on it. They trail down the front of his bare chest and when I look at his fingers, theyhave webs on them, too.
