Page 67 of Lucifer's Mirror
Then she looks straight at me. “Thanouq told me your people believe they are gods,” she says. “Are you really a god?”
There’s a challenge in her voice, and the question takes me by surprise. It’s not something I think about much, since I spent most of my life on Astrali, where my people are all descended from the gods. I shrug. “Many believe so.”
Beside her, Zayne says something quietly, and she replies, “We’re just discussing whether Khaosti is a god. Apparently, a lot of people believe he is.”
Zayne sniggers. Clearly, it takes more than being a god to impress him. But then he doesn’t like me. He wants Amber for himself, and that’s not happening.
She turns back to me. “That was a lame-ass answer,” she says. “What doyoubelieve?”
I give another shrug. “What is a god?”
“And another total cop-out. If I didn’t know better, I’d think you might be a little embarrassed by the whole god thing. But to answer your question, I suppose a powerful, supernatural being who creates worlds and stuff like that.”
“Then we could be classified as gods. We’re powerful, supernatural, and if the stories are true, then this world and others were created by our forebears.”
“Wow, we are in illustrious company.”
Thanouq chuckles, and she turns to him and asks, “What happened after you escaped the slave camp? How did you get from there to here?”
She’s clearly continuing a conversation they’d had that night. And I find myself intrigued by the answer, even though I hate the asshole. I know so little about this world, and that makes me feel… guilty. It’s not an emotion I’m familiar with. I once asked my father why the army didn’t fight in Valandria. He told me it wasn’t our war, and we were doing enough by sending the guardians. Then, he sent me and the army to put down an uprising in the north, and I was too busy fighting to think of a world so far away.
Thanouq reclines back on his blanket, leaning on one elbow. “Once we were free, they told me I was heir to Valandria. Heir to a dying shit hole of a world. A world abandoned by the gods.” He casts me an almost challenging look, which I totally ignore. “It was a shock,” he continues, “and not a good one. Therion and I had planned on going far away and finding a place where we could live without anyone’s interference. We had it all planned. We’d live in a treehouse and hunt and fish…”
“Good luck with that,” I mutter. I’d had similar dreams before Khendril had disappeared and my life had turned to shit.
“It was only ever a dream but one that I never got a chance to fulfill. Because now I was supposed to put everything to rights, get back my crown, save my world.” He snorts. “I was eleven years old.”
“What did you do?” Amber asks. “Sorry I’m being so nosy, but it’s fascinating and better than just sitting here thinking about everything that’s wrong with the world. I want to understand.”
“That’s okay. I don’t get much chance to tell my life story to pretty girls.”
I snort at that one, and she grins. Thanouq is flirting with her, and she clearly likes it. Fury growls, and I don’t shut him up.
“So tell,” she says.
“Well, saving the world seemed too big a task for a kid, so I started small. We went after the slavers. We attacked the slave trains, freed the slaves, then moved on to the camps. Our numbers swelled, and before long, I was the head of an army. But we had no real long-term plan. Then, when I was fifteen, I was bitten by the shadowguard during an attack on one of the camps. I would have died, but a man saved me.” His glance flickers to me. “Khendril. He brought me to the Crone, and she healed me.”
He pauses and takes a sip of brandy. “Between them, they educated me or at least started the process. I’d never had any schooling. The only thing I’d learned was how to be a slave and then how to fight. They taught me to read and write and about the history of our world. It was quite a revelation.”
“In what way?”
“I’d always thought my relatives were great leaders. It turns out they were pretty much all assholes.” His glance goes to me again, but this time he’s grinning. “Probably assholes like Khaosti’s. But then it’s believed the ruling family is descended from the Astralis. So I guess we’re part gods as well. That’s why I survived the bite, because I was part Astrali. Khendril also taught me how to control my beast. He was a good man. The best.”
Yet he walked away from me and never looked back.
“But you eventually went back to your army?” Amber asks.
“Of course. But this time with a plan. Khendril told me to take back Zandar Aurion—that we needed control of the city.”
Which he’d clearly accomplished.
“So you’re getting there? You’re saving the world.”
He shakes his head, his expression somber once more. “No. While Lucifer has been missing for thousands of years, his followers grow stronger and the shadowguard multiply. Most of this world is under their control. Without outside help, Valandria is lost.” He sighs, then gives me a searching glance. “Khendril told me not to give up hope. That there was someone coming who would fight Lucifer. Someone destined to destroy him.”
My gaze turns sharply to Amber. Could she be the one he was referring to? She doesn’t look too happy with this turn in the conversation.
As if sensing her discomfort, Thanouq says, “Enough stories for one night. Tomorrow we have many miles to travel.”
