The Dread Goddess by Jillian Kuhlmann

Author:Jillian Kuhlmann [Kuhlmann, Jillian]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781682303467
Publisher: Diversion Books
Published: 2017-04-03T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twelve

Lista returned me to my chamber, making plausible explanations to the two soldiers we encountered on our descent. She hugged me, and I allowed myself to relax into the embrace. Captivity, the war, both had changed her. She was like silk that has shredded in a strong wind, whose fibers go on to feed a strong rope.

Dawn could not have been more than an hour off, and I fell straightaway into my bed, not even bothering with the little lamp. But it flared to life no sooner than my head hit the pillow, and I shot back up, my fright transforming quickly to shock.

“What are you doing in here?” I hissed at Gannet, who leaned against the far wall, back stiff as the stones themselves. I snatched at the loose collar of my dress before remembering that I hadn’t bothered undressing before falling into bed.

“I was waiting for you.”

“Obviously.” I bit my tongue to keep from being so obviously baited. “But why? If my brother or father, or gods forbid, my mother, learn you’re in here, you’ll find it impossible to scout the ruins tomorrow as you’ll be without the use of your legs.”

Gannet stiffened. “I know how to go unnoticed when I need to.”

“You’re the least noticeable masked man of my acquaintance.”

“Eiren, what happened on the stair?” He fought the urge to grin, his determination always easier for him than his long-neglected sense of humor. “I felt you change, but it was gone again as quickly as it came. I came to ask you about it and you were gone. So, I waited.”

I sat up, and before I could think better of it, beckoned him to join me at the edge of the bed. He didn’t fight the request, but he didn’t sit near enough for us to touch, either.

“It was another vision of Re’Kether as it was. But this one was different. I became somebody else. I walked through a moment in her life, knew the people that she knew.”

“Was it a story that you remember? Did anything look or sound familiar?”

I shook my head. It wasn’t an unreasonable line of questioning, but I didn’t know any stories about any Ji, or Mara.

“I don’t even remember it all now. But maybe you do?” I told myself I didn’t only want to touch him because I could now, because he was there, but because he might be able to help. I laid a hand on his cheek and tried to share the strange vision with him, but there were no memories to transmit, just snatches of detail clouded as though with sleep, like a dream. For the first time, I didn’t have to try to hide something from Gannet; he simply couldn’t see. I let my hand drop reluctantly to the thin blanket and retreat to my lap. “I saw a strange figure, like a ghost, on the stair. And when she touched me, I was transported.”

“But you didn’t go anywhere,” Gannet observed, eyes worrying the air before him with thought.

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