Liana winced but refused to step back. “You told me to call you.”
Morana nodded.
Liana breathed in slowly. Perhaps the gods could wipe the slate clean when it suited them, but Liana wasn’t so generous, not to the one responsible for Amron’s death in the first place. It was hard, very hard to look at Morana’s pale, grim face and not hate her.
“I made a bad deal. A rushed, desperate deal. And now I’m going to lose, and I will join my mother’s hunt, never to return to the mortal world, and I’ll never see Amron again, in this life or the next.” Despite her best efforts, tears welled up in her eyes. “And to make matters worse, the war seems to be inevitable now that the king is dying. When I leave this place, it will sink into a fiery chaos. Queen Orsiana thinks I should negotiate with my mother but Lela won’t listen to me. You’re the last one I can turn to, although I can’t see why you’d be willing to offer anything to me.”
Liana lifted her eyes to the impossibly high arches above her head, covered in glittering fragments that might have been a mosaic or fish scales. Although there was no water around her, she felt she was at the bottom of a lake. She tried to compose her thoughts, but bitterness seeped into her words as scenes of battlefields flashed through her mind. “So much death, so much grief. Oh, how they’re going to worship you, your name will be on thousands of lips every day.”
The goddess stood perfectly still, yet her hair and gown moved, as if floating around her. “You are as shrewish as your mother,I see. A little humility would serve you well, considering you’ve come here to beg.”
Liana bit her lip so hard the skin broke under her teeth. Sharp pain cut through the fog filling her head. “I am begging you to help me,” she said.
“And yet you resist me with every bone in your body.”
Liana wanted to turn away then. She was sick of divine games, sick of their tricks.
“Not so fast,” the Goddess of Death said. “Tell me what you want.”
A flash of anger, a spark of desperate resistance. “I want to stay here, with Amron.” The words flew out of her mouth, and even if it was possible to take them back, she wasn’t willing to.
The corners of Morana’s mouth lifted in a toothy smile. “That’s not what the queen asked of you.”
“No. But you asked me what I wanted, and I want that. Can you do it?” Liana paused, sensing the chains of a bargain forming out of thin air. It was dangerous to say your wishes out loud in front of the gods, but to make this wish come true, she was ready to give anything the goddess asked for. “Can you?”
“No,” Morana said after a long pause. “I cannot undo the deal between you and Perun. Other gods’ bargains are beyond my reach.”
Liana’s heart sank. “Then why tell me to call you at all? If there’s nothing you can do?”
“Oh, I can do many things,” the goddess said.
Liana took a deep breath and exhaled slowly. If she couldn’t stay with Amron, perhaps she could ensure he survived even if she wasn’t there to protect him. Perhaps the queen was right after all, and the only way to stop the war was to save the king. “The king is dying,” she said. “Can you spare him?”
Morana’s grin grew wider. “Now you’re getting closer.”
It had to be enough to stop the war. “Spare the king,” she said.“And tell me your price.”
The long black coils of hair reached towards Liana, like tentacles ready to wrap themselves around her. She stood still, staring into Morana’s eyes, black with golden swirls inside them.
“Three days,” the goddess said. “I’ll grant the king three more days.”
“That’s not.…That’s not enough.”
“And yet, that’s my offer,” the goddess said. “Take it or leave it.”
Would it be enough? Perhaps. Just to stop the Black Lord, to get Amril back to his wife.
“And what do you want in return?” Liana asked.
Morana stepped closer. “I take life, I don’t create it. To give it to the king, I need to take it from someone else.”
“Who…?” The image of Darin lying on the pallet, his face white as chalk, his shoulder bandaged, flickered before Liana’s eyes. “No, not my father. You can’t take him!”
“He’s already at my door. It’s a bad bargain for me, he’s got less than three days to live.”
“No! Leave him alone. Take them from me, take those three days from me, I don’t care,” Liana cried.
“Oh, but you have many more than three left,” the goddess said.
