A muscle in Saros’s cheek feathered.“I was just bringing the rest of our company up to speed about your little field trip to Soliz.”
“A huge success, if I say so myself,” Kai said.“Or it would’ve been if I hadn’t gotten punched in the head.”
“The situation called for it,” River said.
“Aye, and I appreciate it,” Kai retorted facetiously.“I still maintain that my being there indirectly helped Ione escape.Distractions and all.”He rested his elbows on the table and caught Penina’s eye.“Ineen’s well?”
“She is.”Indirect help or not, Penina Artem still looked at Kai like he was peddling snake oil.“Although she is resting and not seeing any visitors.”
Admiral Malia leaned forward.“As we’d hoped,” she said placidly before Kai could further annoy Penina, “we learned some pertinent information from Soliz.Not least of which regarding the Moths’ summoning of Sowelan.”
Some priest from Sterlingdale stirred, an elderly man with long grey hair.“Demons,” he rasped, a fist pounding against the table.“To wrest a god from the holy plane!Those at Soliz will rot for this sacrilege.”
“They dared imitate what Menon blessed us with,” an investor from Polaros said, scowling.“Sowelan has no love for us, but the Moths surely know they’ve damned themselves by forcing Him into a mortal body.”
“Soliz trapped Sowelan into one body.”Malia’s cool gaze slid back to her son.“Perhaps He can be moved to another one.”
Kai’s jaw tightened at that, and even River tensed.After the hell Kai had gone through acclimating to Menon’s presence, locking another god into him would surely kill him.Malia was known to be ruthless in her control of the southern seas, but was she so power-hungry that she would risk her son’s life?
“Better to just kill the girl while she’s fragile than trifle with the gods,” a priestess from Sterlingdale said sagely.She laid a hand on Kai’s arm, leaving it there a mite long as she asked, “Is it true that Sowelan’s vessel couldn’t wield Him properly?”
Only after Kai’s eyebrow twitched with irritation did River recognise her, one of the many young priests and priestesses who clung to him at his lowest, yearning for a dance or a blessing from Menon.Without a word, River clamped a hand over the woman’s shoulder, keeping it there until she turned her gaze up at him.
Balking, she let go of Kai’s arm.
“Thank you, River,” Kai said.He swallowed and laced a disinterested edge to his voice: “My seleneschal understands that I don’t like to be touched.And to answer your question, the girl was fighting Sowelan’s influence.I won’t kill her without just cause or we’ll be just as barbaric as the Moths.She is innocent in this.”
“No Moth is innocent.”Saros folded his hands together before him on the table, his chin tucked and blazing eyes locked onto Kai like they were the only two in this meeting.“I understand from Nalu that the girl is young and blonde and lovely, but you cannot let yourself be blinded by your mortal sensibilities.”
River’s gaze flicked to Penina, a pit forming in his stomach when she frowned.It was a thin description, but it still fit the attendant that Ione had gone to Soliz to save.
“I see Nalu still doesn’t know his colours,” Kai countered blandly.“Before we slaughter every blonde woman in the country, do corroborate his story with mine, especially seeing as he spent half the battle maintaining an ice dome with his back to us.”
“There does seem to be some variation in memories,” Saros said, his smile widening.
“Regardless of what the girl bloody looks like,” the Polaros investor cut in, “her existence is a threat to us.”
“But why haven’t they used her yet?”an Oseidos priest asked.
“We’ll need to be prepared for when they do,” one of the Coralpool officers said, tapping her chin.“They could lay siege on us at any moment.”
“The wards are a start,” her partner agreed: “But we’ll need more bodies, more supplies, if this draws out into another full-on war.”
“It won’t.”Saros stood, hands clasped behind his back, and paced.“Sowelan,” he announced, eyes skyward, “is a brutal god hell-bent on conquest and bloodshed.The God of the Sun, of War, of Fire; He cannot be underestimated, even if He happens to be locked within the body of an unassuming young woman.”
Saros patted Penina’s shoulder as he passed.“Why, then,” he went on, “haven’t they used their newfound summon against us?”
“They’re training her,” piped up one of the guard captains.“Ensuring they have proper control of Sowelan’s vessel.”
“As has been our problem,” the elderly priest from Sterlingdale murmured.
Saros laughed airily.“It is no small thing to control a god, my friends.”He lifted one finger, a scholar to his class of mindless followers.“Our Menon has done his best, but I’ve been researching ways that I may help him.”His gaze locked onto Kai, sending a chill up River’s spine.“Although I do hope you’ll work things out with Menon on your own.”
Kai managed to look unimpressed.“I’ll have a word with Her,” he said.
“Good lad.”Saros braced his palms against the table, leaning in as though he was letting them in on a piece of gossip.“Why haven’t they used Sowelan?It’s natural to assume Soliz has been having as much trouble controlling their god as we have.”He straightened, his smile turning almost childish, giddy.“We may be sequestered here in Caelos, but I’ve still some little birds flying around in Lodestone.And those little birds have told me that Soliz’s guards have been running around like headless chickens, asking if anyone has seen a girl – ” He winked at Kai.“ – fitting the description Nalu gave.”
Murmurs rippled around the table.And at one end, Penina Artem went very, very still.
