Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) by Anna Erishkigal

Author:Anna Erishkigal [Erishkigal, Anna]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Seraphim Press
Published: 2014-05-07T00:00:00+00:00

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Chapter 53

December, 3,390 BC

Earth: Village of Assur

Pareesa

Pareesa clutched the ceramic urn to her chest as she walked, as slowly as she could, flanked on either side by Siamek and Chief Kiyan. It was not an especially heavy urn … a year of war had reduced their numbers such that there were far fewer adults to cast a vote, but it might have well have been a boulder. The sky roiled with piss-yellow clouds, a sure sign there was a sandstorm brewing. She glanced to either side, wishing fervently some enemy would run at her that she could smite, but not even a sword could defeat the enemy she had to welcome now.

She hesitated at Immanu's door.

"Go inside, child," Immanu said. His eyes were serious and, for once, not tinged with that copper edge he'd possessed for the past few weeks. It made Pareesa almost want to forgive him.

Almost…

She knocked anyways, and when Needa did not answer, lifted the latch to let herself in. Pareesa glanced back at the somber group which had escorted her here to make sure she didn't shirk her duty. Why had they appointed her? She, who was most adamant that this was not the way things were supposed to be?

She stepped across the threshold into a room where Needa stood in front of a dying cook fire. Needa's expression softened when she saw they had assigned her to be the messenger. Cowards! Why had they all hidden behind a thirteen summer girl?

Neither woman spoke. Pareesa set the urn down upon the table and removed the lid. The scant light glistened off of the three white pebbles, arranged neatly on top of the hundreds of tiny black ones which made up the rest of the tally. Two had been cast by her, even though technically she was too young to vote. Needa had authorized her to cast her pebble in her stead. Nobody had caught her when she'd slipped two white pebbles into the tally instead of one. Needa's … and one she'd spent all morning searching for in the riverbed.

Who had cast the third white pebble? Ebad? No. Ebad said what they were doing to Mikhail was cruel. Yalda and Zhila? Maybe… But how one sister voted, the other always did, and Immanu had made them give evidence in his favor, weeping, as they related how very much Mikhail loved Ninsianna. No. In the end, Immanu had swayed them all. All except for one. But who? Who had cast the third white pebble? It wasn't Gita, because as an accused, she had no right to vote. They hadn't even allowed the girl to testify.

Needa's mouth tightened into a grim line.

"What lies did he say to get the villagers to agree with him?"

"He said it was a vote of mercy," Pareesa said. "That Mikhail was still alive because we had told him a lie, and without that lie, might he choose to join Ninsianna in the dreamtime. He asked…" Pareesa stared down at her hands.

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