“I took my share of innocents. This world didn’t deserve them. The goddess’s smile had too many teeth. “But you need not join them. Give me this city, and you’ll never lack for power again. Not the vials that the scion of Clan Kader swears by, but true power.” Faragathe watched her unblinkingly. “I can rearrange the very essence of your being to make you a Twelfth-Tier lightning magus. You could surpass your Magus Supreme in a heartbeat.”
Blood rang in Sarai’s ears. The country would deign her the same respect that Kadra enjoyed. A week ago, in the rubble, her answer might even have looked different.
“It doesn’t need to change.” Reading her mind, Faragathe angled her head in the way of a curious owl.
It has to. It was one thing to crave power. But her goal wasn’t power for power’s sake but to feel secure, unthreatened.I won’t earn that at the cost of the lives of everyone in Edessa.
“Dull,” Faragathe pronounced, nearing her. There was a quiet horror to seeing the goddess up-close, all eyes and horns. Unfathomable power leaked from her in waves to lick at Sarai’s skin. She flinched back. Any hell she presided over would be monstrous indeed.
Faragathe grinned. “Everyone’s in a hell of their own, child. I just make it real.”
She closed in right as footsteps sounded on the staircase up to the ballroom.
A bloodied Anek emerged, clutching what appeared to be a broken elbow. They flinched at the sight of the goddess. “Wrath’s blade, you again.Does it strike you that this entire business will really besmirch your name going forward?”
Faragathe glided past Sarai and into the ballroom to give them a pitying look. “I’m inevitable. And now this land will remember that when they sleep, I rule the roost of their mind.” She smiled. “Good devotees are so hard to find.”
Sarai shuddered.Gods, no wonder they’re called the Wretched.The general theological consensus was that devotees of the High Elsar became Saints. Those of the Dark Elsar became the Wretched. How cruel had this former Seer been thatTimehimself hadn’t been able to push her into Sainthood.
“I could kill you for that thought alone,” Faragathe mused, examining her claws.
“And you wonder why I had it,” Sarai said, voice hard.
More footsteps struck the stairs. Black and gold swept in before he did. Sarai relaxed at the fierce glitter in Kadra’s eyes. Noceo looked no less cowed by the goddess.
“My, we’re getting a crowd.” Faragathe didn’t sound irritated but oddly thoughtful when Méherre came up the stairs as well, sweating from the exertion. Anek rushed to the Bridger. “I’ll ask you again. Power and your friends’ lives in return for this city.”
Sarai stiffened at the addendum. “My friends’lives?”
Lightning flared to life and encased the small group and Sarai to separate them from Faragathe.
“That won’t happen.” Kadra’s voice was dangerously quiet.
The goddess perched atop the balcony’s railing and grinned. “Why did you think that the threat would come fromme?”
A loud, startled wheeze sounded behind her. Sarai whirled around to find Méherre gripping Anek’s throat, fingers pressing hard around their windpipe. Her eyes weren’t glazed. Kadra halted Noceo when he stepped forward. Realization hardened his severe features.
“Well,” there was an eerily familiar blankness to the Bridger’s voice now, “this has probably gone on long enough.”
Her short hair lengthened in a smooth rush, lightening until it reached an ephemeral brightness that went beyond white. Her features sharpened, turned graceful. Dalvia’s nails bit into Anek’s skin and forced them down. Wordless and pale, they sank to the ground, kneeling.
A True Illusionist. It had been an easy thing to overlook in the chaos of fighting battles at multiple fronts.Especially when I ruled you out as a suspect from the start.
Pieces fell into place with devastating rapidity. Méherre’s convenient appearance at the start of Edessa’s woes. How she had seemed to always know so much about her. How much she had known about gods and Summonings. For all the rarity of Bridgers in the country, Sarai hadn’t questioned meeting two in short order.
“You seem surprised.” Dalvia spoke to Sarai. She didn’t release Anek. “I’d actually hoped you’d put it together.”
“We’d have to know you for that.” Anek vibrated with rage, uncaring of the threat to their life. “You acted righteous among us but you treated theinjuredof your own city as cattle!”
“There was no saving them.” Dalvia considered them with a perturbed frown. “The goddess told me which ones were worth saving and which ones weren’t. Most really weren’t, and it worked well for him.” She leveled an assessing glance at Noceo. “Farmed him more power.”
Sarai stilled at the memory of the yellowish liquid in the vials Noceo had retrieved from the Institute. And the boil beetles’ yellow venom sacs.
A raw sound left Noceo. He seemed to be seeing her for the first time. “Is that what I’ve been injecting into myself for five months?Venom?” Fury built in his silver eyes.
“You wanted power.” Something turbulent roiled in her eyes. “I provided it. You never asked why or how so long as you had it, and I was only useful to you so long as I kept you supplied.” Another empty smile. “Why act angry about the cost now?”
“I wouldneverhave agreed—”
