A young man ran toward them as they descended the steps, followed closely by a fierce-looking older woman with silver hair.
“Karim-sen!” the young man said, crashing into the Red Lander with enough force to nearly knock him off his feet. It was then that Neff noticed the familial similarity between them.
“Gamil, thank God,” Karim said, giving the young man a slap on the back. “You’re not hurt.”
The older woman pointed to her eye and then at Gamil.No, because I kept an eye on him, she seemed to say.
Karim touched a knuckle to his nose in thanks.
“We’re winning, sen,” Gamil said, oblivious to the exchange. “The Khetarans are few in number, and soon we will prevail!”
Rae stared out onto the battlefield and focused on a particular dead young man who lay by the trench with an arrow in his chest. “Perhaps,” she murmured thickly. “But the price was high.”
Sitamun pushed past them toward a tall man with deep brown skin, clothed in emerald green robes that must once have been exquisite. He was battered and bruised, and he held a bloodied khopesh in his hand. “By Amun—Harsi? Is that you? What are you doing here?”
The man called Harsi stopped short and stared at Sitamun, bewildered. “Your brother abducted me and has been holding me ransom, Princess. I assumed you knew that, since you appear to be on his side!”
“I’m not on his side,” Sitamun countered.
“Then where is he?”
The princess’s nostrils flared. “He’s finished. As is the queen.”
Harsi lowered his khopesh. “Finished?” He turned toward the screaming, dying men. “Then who are they fighting for?”
Neff saw something change in Sitamun’s expression. Saw resolve grow there and harden. Without another word, the princess strode past the man in green and mounted the platform. The serpent staff at her side glowed with sudden white radiance.
“Hear me!” Sitamun shouted, her voice reverberating across the courtyard. “Lay down your arms, for this battle is over!”
Weapons stilled mid-swing as every man and woman stopped and turned toward her.
Sitamun’s next words rolled over them all like a great flood.
“The king of Khetara is dead!”
There was a moment of stunned silence, followed by the dull sounds of spears and swords and hammers falling to the ground,one by one.
Neff took in the scene and realized something about it wasn’t quite right. The courtyard had been awash in afternoon sun when they’d entered the citadel. They hadn’t been inside very long, and yet the light outside was different. Darker despite there not being a single cloud in the sky.
“Something’s wrong,” Neff said.
Tam nodded as she pointed west.
A black circle was sliding in front of the sun. It had already obscured half of it, and it was advancing before their eyes. The light around them was fading rapidly, transforming day into night.
Around the courtyard, there were gasps, shrieks of terror, and confusion as people turned their faces to the heavens. Sitamun jumped down from the platform to rejoin them and grabbed Karim’s hand.
“What is it?” he exclaimed. “What’s happening?”
Neff gazed at the spectacle above her, as if she were staring into the darkness at the center of a flame. The noise around her melted away and was replaced by an insistent whispering.
“Beware, for soon the Great River of Khetara will turn to blood,” she said, adding her own voice to the chorus of whispers.
Sitamun, Rae, and Karim looked at her, their faces pale with wonder and fear.
“Lies will grow fruitful as wheat in the fields, and where once there was order, chaos will reign. A secret shall rise from beneath the earth—”
Visions of an infernal army marching toward Thonis filled Neff’s mind, stone soldiers leaving slaughter in their wake, along with a name that sounded more like a curse.
