The Destroyer Goddess by Laura Resnick

Author:Laura Resnick
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi

Chapter Sixteen

Dar is my goddess and the queen

of sacred darkness and light.

—Zanar Prayer

"What in the Fires is happening here?" Ronall asked as their two-masted vessel approached a vast cluster of bobbing boats moored just off Sileria's eastern coast.

Due east of Gamalan, Tansen thought, looking up at the looming cliffs beyond which lay the mountains where he had been born and the humble village where he had been a child.

He wanted to tell Zarien. He wanted to point out to his son the summits that he recognized and take him to explore the coves where he had once smuggled Kintish contraband with his grandfather. He'd like to show him the abandoned ruins of Gamalan and tell him stories of the clan which had lived and died there.

However, there was no time for such indulgences now. And even if there were... relations were currently, oh, a little strained between Tansen and his son.

Zarien had been apprehensive ever since boarding this boat. The boy had watched Tansen with relentless suspicion, day and night, as if expecting him to transform into the sea king and sneak off with Sharifar the moment Zarien looked away. Tansen tried very hard to be patient and reassuring, but after almost two straight days and nights of the boy's dark, unwavering, vaguely hostile stare... Tansen lost his temper in a flare of exasperation that made the boat they were on seem even smaller than it really was.

Oh, yes. Much, much smaller.

After that, Tansen suspected Zarien's obsessive fear that Sharifar would claim him was replaced by a heartfelt desire to push him overboard.

Meanwhile, the sea-born family who were giving them transport stared as hard at Zarien as Zarien had been staring at Tansen. Or, rather, they stared at the tattoos that identified Zarien as sea-bound. Zarien was distressed by it, which in turn distressed Tansen—who suggested to the family that they stop it. And since he was already feeling irritable from the quarrel with his son, the advice came out sharply enough to ensure that the family now also probably wanted to throw him overboard. In addition, far from being grateful, Zarien was embarrassed by Tansen's interference, and so they fought about that, too.

The boy had been sulking ever since, which got on Tansen's nerves; and his irritability, in turn, only made Zarien sulk more. All the tension inspired Ronall to drink even more than usual; then the toren spent a lot of time with his head hanging over the side of the boat while his stomach rejected almost every drop of liquor he put into it.

If this journey didn't end very soon, Tansen wouldn't really mind being pushed overboard.

He was also in no mood to humor Zarien's moods now that the fate of eastern Sileria—and probably the outcome of the entire war—depended on whatever Tansen did next. He knew that being snappish with his son wasn't helping either of them, but he couldn't seem to help himself.

Darfire, I wish Josarian were here.

Now Ronall, who was very nearly sober despite

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