Mountains of the Gods by D.T. Read

Author:D.T. Read [Read, D.T.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Theogony Books
Published: 2022-11-14T16:00:00+00:00

* * *

In Elsu’s washroom I peeled off my uniform and removed my rank tabs and medals from the tunic. I examined them on my palm, bent, scratched, and bloodstained. The uniform would have to be burned, but I wrapped the rank and medals in a shoe-polishing cloth from my hygiene kit.

I scrubbed blood and sweat away with tepid water, and I flinched each time I discovered another bruise the hard way. It took a while to wash all the blood and grit out of my hair.

Afterward, I sat on a spare floorbed in my sweatpants while Gram applied salve to my face, my elbow, my leg, and several other abrasions. I stared at the floor, my mind churning with the day’s events.

“You have things on your soul,” Gram said, dabbing salve to my swollen lip. “Do you want to talk about it?”

I winced at the astringent taste of crushed raincup mixed into python-tree oil. “Not here.”

Elsu’s wife brought in mugs of bitterleaf tea, the only nourishment allowed during mourning fasts. I downed mine in a few gulps, but my stomach clenched when Elsu arrived a few minutes later. His wife and Gram left the room when he settled on the rug. I lifted my sight to his face.

“The incident with the widow,” he said. “There’s more to it than what you said yesterday morning.”

“Not much, Chanter.”

He didn’t press for details. Didn’t ask questions. He simply leveled his eyes on mine and waited.

I sighed. I recounted briefly how I’d met Derry and her mother and helped them out, how Derry and I had spent a couple days together, how Derry had given me the pendant.

“I never expected to see her again after I left,” I said. “She hadn’t met him yet. Like I said, I threw the pendant away when she did.”

“Were you interested in her?” Elsu asked.

I lived for her, I realized. Wondering at Elsu’s purpose, I said only, “Yes, Chanter.”

“Did you two have a sexual relationship?”

I held his probing gaze. “No.”

“Is there any truth to your stepmother’s accusation?” he asked next.

My stomach roiled in a milder version of the blow from the day before. Which accusation? I thought. That I let Huk die, or I’m Death Bringer? I said again, my voice hard, “No, Chanter.”

Elsu studied me a long while before he said, “I believe you, Akuleh, but know that many here don’t.” He paused. “Would you like a chant to relieve pain?”

“Yes, please.”

He drew the pain glyph in oil-paste on my forehead, placed his right hand upon it, and began to chant. I couldn’t help wondering what kind of Machitew dream it would provoke.

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