Achilla, she realized as a chill worked up her spine that had nothing to do with the temperature and everything to do with the gods’protectioneager to seep into her skin. It was the same feeling Atik’s touch gave her. A bone-chilling emptiness. A thief of her soul.
“Remember what happens if you disobey,” Atik told her.
Nina turned slowly to meet his eyes. “All I have been is obedient, and yet here we are.”
“Patience, Nina. Your reward is coming.”
He left her standing in the center of the flat expanse. Nina’s legs were desperate to carry her to Sacha, but Atik got to her first, and then Maicu was blocking them from sight.
The snow gave everything a hazy, dreamlike quality. She was having trouble discerning what was real, and what was merely in her mind, which told her she was in danger, but her body wasn’t responding. Maicu was moving in spurts. Beside her one moment, then in front of her the next. When she blinked, a circle of people surrounded them.
They were pillars of flesh in the middle of the barren mountaintop. Walla in red, curved blades at their waists and hands folded in front of them. Atik and Sacha directly behind Maicu, the hem of Sacha’s blue dress fluttering in the wind. Nina couldn’t help but worry that her sister was cold. That the longer this took, the more danger she was in.
Unwittingly, she sought Kasik. He had always been there when she was in danger, but not this time.
Maicu took Nina’s hands in his. She looked down at the rings on his fingers, the achillas on each of his wrists.
“Do you understand why this must be done?” he beseeched her.
She looked up at him, at the eagerness in his eyes and the slighttremor in his hands. The only thing she understood was that she was willing to do whatever it took to ensure her sister was safe. Even if that meant exposing her throat and letting the gods have her blood.
“Your sacrifice will not be in vain.” Maicu dropped one of her hands and produced a small blade from the folds of his cloak. Nina glanced over his shoulder toward Atik and Sacha, heart in her throat. “There are those who seek to destroy this empire, to take our people and kill and convert and conquer. Wemustprevail, and we shall with the blessing of the gods.”
The tip of the blade was placed right over her heart. Maicu’s right hand joined the left on the hilt. “It will be fast,” he said. “You will feel no pain.”
But Nina knew it was a lie. Every sacrifice she had made thus far was painful, a sunderance that stole pieces of her soul. This would be the greatest one. Her final stand. Nina’s hands fell loose to her sides. They had been balled up and fisted so long, holding on first to her old life, then to her old self, then to the idea of Kasik and his promises. She was exhausted beyond measure.
“Keep her safe,” Nina whispered, eyes closed and tilted to the sky. “Make sure she—”
There was a strange sound. A deep inhale that might’ve been the wind, and a sputter of life that might have been the cracking of earth. Nina opened her eyes.
Maicu’s brow was furrowed, his golden eyes wet with unshed tears, his mouth opened in a silent circle. There was a look of betrayal so deeply etched onto his features that Nina thought she had accidently grabbed on to his threads, but when she looked to find them, they were there, a brilliant flare of gold that pulsed like a heart.
And beside the center of Maicu’s chest, where those threads began to dim, was the blood-soaked tip of a long blade right through his heart.
Nina’s attay surged in defiance. She stepped back, and Maicu’s hands fell. The small blade he had been holding to her heart clattered to the ground. The blade in his chest disappeared, and then Maicu fell to his knees. A shudder ran through the black stone. Blood formed a circle around Maicu.
The earth shifted beneath their feet, and then the world fell silent.
Nina looked up into Atik’s eyes, the blade he had used to kill Maicu dripping blood onto the ground at his feet.
“What have you done?” she whispered.
Atik smiled, a wicked tilt of his lips that was sharpened by the dark glint of his eyes. For a moment, she could see a flash of gold light at his chest. But it was gone with the wind and in its place was a hole devoid of life.
She remembered what she went to tell Master Wara the day she found his room in disarray. A part of his story that had not been right.
“I have finally taken what is rightfully mine,” Atik said. He stepped over Maicu’s body without a glance and prowled closer. Nina backed away. “Aht,aht, stop right there. Any farther, and he’ll bring her closer.”
Nina followed the line of Atik’s pointed finger to find a broad-chested walla holding Sacha, her head resting on his shoulder and a knife glinting at her throat.
Nina laughed. She couldn’t help it. “How can I believe anything you say when you’ve already broken your word? She isn’t supposed to be here. She was supposed to besafe.”
“And she will be,” Atik answered. “So long as you comply.”
“Just as Kasik complied. Just as Maicucomplied. We have all beencomplying, Kunay Atik.” Nina’s chest was heaving, her words echoing across the mountaintop. She saw men in red on the outskirts of her vision, their tunics like gashes of blood against the snow. She felt them lean closer. “What is it that you want from me?”
At this, Atik spread his hands. “I only want what I have been promised.” He spun the blade from one hand to the other. “We are gods-touched, you and I.Ikara.We are meant torule, notserve. I have given the gods their sacrifice, and so I will have their favor and rule over Tawantinsuyu.”
