Breaking Hel by Cameron Miles

Author:Cameron, Miles
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781473232594
Publisher: Orion
Published: 2024-08-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Twenty-Four

Heaven/Auza

Enkul-Anu

‘And?’ Enkul-Anu asked. Then he turned his head. ‘Have we taken Lazba?’

Illikumi bowed. ‘I have taken the liberty of sending the relief fleet intended for Narmer to Lazba. It is ours. There are a few holdouts in the hills, but we control the cities and the plains.’

Enkul-Anu remembered agreeing to that, and smiled.

And just like that, everything was going his way. He had Laila back, and he had Kursag out there, willing to do his bidding, raising new armies in Hannigalbat. And Illikumi, who had a head on his shoulders, even if it was a snake’s head.

‘And Weshwesh?’ he asked.

‘Gul has sent a host of the dead,’ Illikumi said.

Enkul-Anu slammed a massive red hand on the arm of his white marble throne. ‘That is not what I ordered!’

Sypa emerged from the end of the hall, where she had been sitting with Laila. ‘Great Storm God,’ she said carefully. ‘Gul has taken action. The other cities will see the lesson clearly.’

Enkul-Anu sat back. ‘What fucking lesson is that, Sypa?’

‘Everyone in Weshwesh will die,’ she said. ‘Surely that lesson is clear.’

Enkul-Anu shook his great head. ‘The slaves revolted against the godborn. Now all the slaves are dead.’ He looked at Illikumi. ‘What fucking lesson do you take from that?’

The snake god’s tongue shot out for a moment; Enkul-Anu had learned it was the equivalent of a raised eyebrow. ‘Great God,’ Illikumi said, ‘If it wasss me, I would learn that if my slaves revolt, I will be punissshed.’

Sypa nodded. ‘Exactly.’

Enkul-Anu had stopped saying ‘I’m surrounded by idiots’ out loud.

‘Great Lady, Consort, Queen of Lust …’ The Storm God’s eyes were mild. ‘Do you know that since this fucking revolt started, we’ve lost three cities, the whole nation of Noa, and most of the island of Lazba?’

‘Lost?’ she said. ‘Or punished?’

He chuckled bitterly, and a little fire came from his brazen nostrils. ‘Well, they’re dead. They won’t provide worship or taxes. I’ll give you “punished” if you’ll allow me “lost”.’

She smiled. ‘And all the others will come in line when we destroy Narmer.’

‘I will need an army to destroy Narmer. And we don’t have one right now.’ Enkul-Anu was looking out from his throne over the world. ‘Seti-Anu is about as useful as a measure of sand in a desert, and if we destroy Narmer, the most populous nation we control …’

‘We have Gul,’ she said. ‘And anyway, that heretical bitch Maritaten is as good as dead. Laila says she’s stuck in some magical limbo and she’ll never recover.’

Enkul-Anu chuckled. ‘I admit, that was a master stroke. Although Laila missed the fucking sorcerer.’

‘She got the general. I think he was behind the whole revolt. And now he’s just a plaything for Gul!’ Sypa was excited by the capture of the mortal so-called ‘war master’.

Enkul-Anu was mildly concerned that, after months, the man still wasn’t dead. He kept that to himself.

But it wasn’t his problem. Gul had demanded the man as restitution for the loss of his son, and Enkul-Anu had conceded that the God of Death had a point.

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