Maicu sighed, and then his hand wrapped around the back of Nina’s neck. There was a tiny prick of pain, and the world around her began to soften. Her body grew heavier, her arms weaker. They barely held her up as Maicu grasped her chin and spoke. “Soon, you will be free of this world’s worries, my love. With the gods’ favor and Sacha’s Seeing, our enemies will be defeated. She will be a savior to our people.”
And then he let her go. Nina fell to the floor and it seemed to swallow her, to pull her down as she tried in vain to crawl to her sister. She heard the clang of metal, the scuff of boots against stone. Master Wara’s body was being dragged away.
No, not Master Wara, she realized.Kasik.A trail of blood was left in his wake. Nina screamed his name, then Sacha’s. Her fingernails bent back and snapped as she dug them into the stone.
The room had fallen quiet enough that she heard more than saw Kunay Atik crouch before her. “You have lost,” he whispered through the havoc of her mind. His eyes were wide, wild, the whites even darker than she remembered, as if he was being consumed by the void of his soul from the inside out.
“I am still alive,” she spat at him. “It is not done until my soul has left this realm, and even then, I will hunt... you... down.”
Atik searched her eyes for truth. Nina wondered what he saw andif it worried him. Firm hands slid under her arms and scooped her up. She hung suspended between them, much like that first day they had dragged her through the halls.
She was weak. Powerless. Consumed with thoughts of Sacha and slaughter.
“I will huntall of you,” Nina screamed into the quiet.
She heard Maicu’s nervous laughter, and then she finally lost her fight to the darkness.
44
Kasik was made of agony and sorrow. Failure flowed beneath his skin. His bones screamed and his heart ached and there was nothing else as he lay in the dark and dank cell in the dungeon beneath the earth.
“Fitting,” a voice said from the other side of the barred cell, “that this is where you should die. It’s where your mamay brought you into this world.”
What heinous thing had he done to deserve this kind of torture, that his last living moments would be filled with the face of his tayta smiling with smug satisfaction, and the vision of his mamay suffering alone? It appeared the gods wouldn’t allow him to slip into a peaceful death. He might as well indulge in the pain.
“For someone who claims to want nothing to do with me,” Kasik rasped, “you spend a lot of time seeking me out.”
The shadow of his tayta chuckled darkly. “I’ve only come to see how far the mighty fall. It’s a long way down for you.”
The bars clanked open and then bootsteps echoed closer. Kasik opened his eyes, unaware that they had drifted shut, to find Atik crouched and peering at him through strangely dark eyes. A hand pushed his hair back, and Kasik thought his tayta meant to offer a comforting hand in his last moments of life.
But then that hand tightened into a fist at his scalp, making his eyes water with the sting of it, and he realized there would be no comfort. Only gloating and suffering.
“My tayta died when I was young. He was gods-touched. Did you know?” Atik continued, voice low, barely a murmur. “They hadbestowed their will upon him, and his tayta before him, all the way back to Dimas himself. So much of that history has been lost, but not this gift. I inherited it when he died, and I thought it would change everything. I wasgoodandobedient,just like you.But I spent my life serving others—the gods, Emperor Yachua, his pathetic sons—as if it wasn’tmewith the power. Yachua was a man felled by a mortal man’s disease. But me? I am blessed by the gods. I aminvincible.” Atik released Kasik’s hair with a shove.
“You killed a woman,” Kasik paused to cough, “because you were afraid of yourfeelings. You are nothing... but acoward.”
Whatever strength Kasik had been able to muster to throw that insult was stolen by Atik’s boot. It flew into his stomach, the force of it enough to make Kasik’s vision blur even further, but the pain was already there. It was like adding water to a full cup.
“And look where bravery has gotten you,” Atik said. “I knew Maicu’s love for you was conditional. I knew it would take only the smallest amount of pressure for him to turn against you, just as he did his brother. Just as he believes that sacrificing Nina will save our people. He is afool, as are you.” Atik grabbed the cord around Kasik’s neck and twisted. It bit against Kasik’s skin. “This stone you wear wasn’t even hers. You are so desperate to be loved that you convinced yourself she would leave something behind for you.”
There was physical pain, and then there was emotional pain, and Kasik hadn’t known until that moment how different the two were. One was manageable while the other was not, but they heaped atop one another, driving him deeper into a dark pit of despair.
“And Master Wara? What was it he was guilty of?”
“Getting in the way,” Atik spat. “But everything is falling perfectly into place. A few more steps, and it isIwho will rule Tawantinsuyu with the favor and power of the gods at my side.” His voice floated in thedarkness, surrounding him like a vengeful spirit, and then Atik was whispering in his ear, a detached voice that he knew would follow him for eternity. “Butyouhave been measured, and you have been found entirely lacking.”
The next time Kasik opened his eyes, he was alone.
“Well, this is pathetic,” intoned a voice from the depths of the dungeon. Perhaps it was his tayta coming back to mock him some more.
Keys rattled, followed by the clank of metal.
Another prisoner, come to keep him company?
A hand on his shoulder, firm yet gentle. “Drink this,” the voice said.
Kasik obeyed; what else was there to do when a god commanded you?
