This time I don’t answer. This is not my first negotiation. He is fishing for useful information to use against me.
“The night after tomorrow will see the start of the Resurgence. All the gods will attend,” he says with a second tip of his head. “There? See? I have given half of what you want for free. Bargain with me and I will tell you how to get there and how to kill a god and keep him dead.”
I swallow. “I have heard of this Resurgence. I am told I must throw a finger into the sea to attend.”
He barks a laugh. “Someone doesn’t like you very much, mortal. Whose sandal are you sticking to, hmm?”
I shake my head. I am not so much a fool as to give him more information than he needs. He shrugs, acknowledging that, and peers at me for a long moment.
“You can certainly buy your way with blood and sacrifice. But there are other ways. Did you marry recently?” he asks with a feigned casualness that doesn’t suit him at all.
“I did,” I say warily. “I married a fisherman.”
He nods, face blank. “Have you been much in the sea since then?”
I shrug, giving him no more than he is giving me.
He nods again, leaning against the rough statue with one elbow and looking out to sea.
“These are my terms, then,” he says, and his voice takesa firmer tone. “I’ll give you a way to get to the Resurgence without losing a finger and I will tell you how to kill a god. In return, you will kill the oneIwant dead. If you kill more, I care not. Only find for me the vengeance my heart longs for and our bargain will be complete.”
I clench my jaw. I don’t like the little voice in the back of my head telling me that I ought not to work with this creature. And also that I probably shouldn’t be agreeing to murder two gods. But shall I really say no to the only one who can give me what I’m asking for?
“If you are really the soul of a dead god, why don’t you do this yourself?” I ask him, and he raises an eyebrow.
He shakes his hands and they ripple in the light. “I lost my corporeal form with my death, though my soul is trapped in that bauble you hold. I can’t kill a god. You’ll have to be my hands for me.”
“What god would you have me kill?” I ask, finally driving to the heart of the matter.
“He who put me in this pearl. He who ruined everything,” he says, stalking forward on his rippling tentacles. “Okeanos.”
I shiver, but I keep my face straight. How is it that this is so convenient for me? There must be a sting in all this honey. But I cannot divine it.
“The sea god is powerful,” I hedge, trying to keep my eyes and face blank. “It will be no easy task. What if I fail in doing it?”
He smiles like he was expecting this. He caresses each word of his reply with his tongue like he is savoring them.
“If you fail, you will find the tides turn against you, the seas will forever spit you out, the waves drag down any craft you set out in. She will be your enemy in every way and drown you and yours forever. You say you wore a crown? Then that means your people, too, for their fate is bound up with yours.”
“Then why bargain with you at all?” I ask coolly.
“To get what you want,” he says as if I am a fool to even ask. “Or are there other dead gods offering you the means and opportunity to slay the divine?”
I take a long moment to think about this and he does not disturb my silence. I try to think logically. He is certainly hiding things from me, and given the chance he will absolutely work against me, will even kill me if he can. But he is right. There is no one else I can work with to get what I need. I try to weigh out the consequences against the necessity, but I’m looking at the green tossing sea and all I can see is Delarte streaked in blood. All I can see is Lieve sinking below the waves. All I can see is mad Turbote with his wild eyes and stories of killing innocent girls.
And it hardly takes any effort at all to say, “I will kill Okeanos, only tell me how it may be accomplished.”
He snorts. “It’s easy enough if you know the trick of it. You’ll need to kill him with the weapon of a god.”
I don’t know if I’m more stunned or more furious at this. “Easy?”
“Once you’re at the Resurgence and surrounded by gods, grab one of their weapons. They’ll keep them close, but thereare ways that mortals might come close to the gods. Let one of them make you their pet if you must. And when you have it, you’ll slay him like you might slay any mortal. The weapon of a god will part his flesh and make him as easy to kill as any man. Then—and do not forget this step—you will reach into the wound and draw out the pearl you find there and keep it. He will be entrapped as I am now. He will be at your service for all time. And your bargain with me will be fulfilled.”
“You make it sound so simple,” I say wryly.
He shrugs. “It is simple. In theory. It’s the practice that’s such a challenge.”
“I should say so,” I say, my lip twisting without meaning to, but my distaste only makes him mock me all the more.
