She’d been talking to Nemini, but it was Drox who answered.Because only you were judged,her sword said, his deep voice tight with worry.I don’t know how Gilgamesh got it in here, but that is absolutely the Bull of Ishtar, a monster crafted by the goddess’s own hands just like she made you. Unlike her queens, though, who were built to rule, the bull was created only to destroy.
“If it’s Ishtar’s creation, why is it targeting me?” Bex demanded. “Haven’t I got a big enough crown?”
She pointed up at her new horns, but Drox’s ring trembled on her finger.
I think your horns are the problem, he said.You’re wielding powers no queen should have, and Ishtar’s Bull was built with a simple mind. It probably thinks you’re a traitor.
That made sense, but the real kicker came from Nemini.
“Your fire is still tainted with the death of Enki,” the other queen reminded her. “That’s as good a reason as any for a weapon of the gods to turn on you.”
“Fair enough,” Bex said with a sigh. “Do you think the Bull of Ishtar would listen to my side of the story if I talked to it?”
No,Drox replied immediately.
“Then we do this the hard way,” she muttered, peering through the dovecote’s window at the dim outline of the city beyond.
If her night vision hadn’t been so good, she wouldn’t have been able to see even that much. Now that her fire was out, the sealed cavern was pitch-black. Fortunately, Bex’s eyes had always been excellent in the dark. Even with nothing but her own ember glow to work with, she could still make out the bull’s giant shoulders poking over the flat tops of the single-story buildings one street over. It was weaving from side to side, methodically shoving its giant horns through each building as it searched for her.
“Looks like the bull has no problem seeing in the dark, either,” Bex whispered as she called the Blade of Wrath to her hand. “It doesn’t seem to know where we are, though, so now’s our chance to catch it by surprise. Nemini, you stay here and grab me if I get into trouble. I’ll run along the rooftops and hit it from the…”
Her voice trailed off as she looked down at her empty hand. The one sheknewshe’d just called her sword into, but Drox was still in his ring on her finger.
I’m so sorry, my queen,he said before she could ask.I’m trying to obey, but something’s—
His voice cut off as the ring started shaking harder against her skin.It’s no use,Drox said in a furious voice.I can’t get out! There’s an edict blocking me that I never realized was there, a sacred command that forbids me from being drawn against Ishtar’s personal weapon.
“Well, that’s just great,” Bex muttered as she curled her empty hand into a fist. “No fire, no sword. What am I supposed to do? Punch it to death?”
“Maybe it will pass us by,” Nemini said calmly from her crouch on the dovecote’s dropping-covered crossbeam. “If itcan’t find us when your fire’s out, maybe we can just sit here and wait for—”
The rest of Nemini’s reasonable advice was drowned out by a deep animal bellow. The noise roared through the cavern, shaking the buildings like an earthquake. The sound had no variation, nothing that could possibly be labeled as words, but the message it caried was clear nonetheless.
Reveal yourself, Godslayer!
Bex flinched as the command vibrated through her bones. She’d done her best not to make a sound, but one slipped out anyway. The moment the squeak of surprise left her lips, she felt the bull’s gaze land on her despite the wall that should’ve been in the way.
There you are.
“Run!” Bex shouted, grabbing Nemini and leaping out of the dovecote seconds before the bull’s giant horns smashed through it. The two queens landed on the road below in a shatter of smashed mud bricks, but while Bex could no longer see Nemini’s snakes in the dark, they must’ve been already busy. She barely had time to crash into the ground before something giant yanked Bex back to her feet and shoved her after her sister, who was already running down the narrow alley.
Bex sprinted after her as fast as she could, not even taking time to glance back at the sounds of destruction filling the cavern behind them. If the buildings were slowing the bull down at all, Bex couldn’t tell, because the explosion of shattering stone didn’t let up, and neither did the roars.
Traitor!the bull bellowed as it smashed through the city after them.Godkiller! Unclean!
“You’re one to talk!” Bex yelled as she pumped her legs faster. “You’re rampaging for Gilgamesh, you idiot!”
The bull didn’t listen. Bex didn’t even know if it understood human speech, but it didn’t slow down at her words,or even to turn. When Nemini whipped them around a corner, the bull simply smashed into the buildings on the other side, using the bricks to slow its momentum and bounce it back the right direction with no concern for its own safety.
After three of these collisions, Bex realized the bull didn’t need to be concerned. No matter how big or pointy the buildings it crashed into were, nothing seemed able to pierce its black hide. Bex didn’t know what that damn thing was covered in, but the bull went through the city like an icebreaker through a frozen sea. She and Nemini, however, were rapidly running out of cover.
“How does Gilgamesh even have a capital anymore with that monster smashing through it?” Bex shouted over the destruction as she chased Nemini down yet another twisting alley.
“I think we’re the first ones to come here in eons,” her sister observed in a voice that sounded far too calm for someone running for her life. “There’s no dust or signs of age on anything. It’s like this whole place was baked in clay and cut off from time.”
“We’reabout to be cut off from time if we can’t find a way out of this,” Bex reminded her, glancing over her shoulder at the pile of broken buildings the bull’s horns were driving in front of it like a bulldozer.
“Okay,” she said, forcing herself to calm down andthink. “My fire won’t burn and Drox is stuck in his ring, but your powers still work. Is there anything you can do to help? Knock the bull over with your void touch or something?”
