Page 45 of Beyond the Shadowed Earth
“Because mankind wants power. We always have,and we always will. The gods have that power. They are that power, and sometimes we’re willing to make the sacrifice necessary to attain a piece of it.”
Eda gulped more tea. She wished her mother had come up here with them, but she’d gone to bed early with a headache.
Her father coughed, suddenly and violently, and it was a moment before he stopped. Sweat beaded on his brow.
“Are you all right, Father?”
“Just tired, I fear. Perhaps we should end early tonight, little one.”
“Not before you finish your story! What is the second way?”
He coughed again, but smiled at her reassuringly. “The second way is a little grim: take your own life.”
Eda shuddered. A wisp of cloud seemed to come out of nowhere, dimming the light of the stars. She didn’t want to admit it to herself, but she was beginning to feel unwell, too.
“And the third way?” “The third way,” her father said, “is to kill the god.”
Part Two
SHADOW AND BLADE
They forged the blade of iron,imbued it with Starlight,and crafted the handle from the Tree shard.
Chapter Nineteen
THE DAGGER BIT HARDER. BLOOD TRICKLED WARMand wet down her neck. She couldn’t stop staring at Ileem.
There was cruelty in his eyes and the curve of his lip. Cruelty that he’d hidden from her.
“What are you doing?” she whispered. She hated that tears pressed behind her eyes. She hated how weak she felt, when she’d fought so hard to be strong.
“I’m meting out my god’s judgment, accepting the gift he gave to me,” he said. “I’m taking the Empire. I’m avenging my father. And I’m making every last Enduenan dog bow at my feet and beg for Rudion’s mercy. That includes you, my traitorous, blasphemouswife.”
The ballroom doors burst open and Denlahn soldiers flooded in. Blades flashed in the light of the chandeliers. People screamed and fell to the gold and white marble floor, throats cut, blood gushing scarlet.
Eda stared with a kind of distant numbness, not fully comprehending what was happening. Ileem’s fingernails dug into her wrist and her own blood continued to seep slowly into the neckline of her gown.
She didn’t understand. Gods gods gods she didn’tunderstand.
“You’ve asked me more than once why Rudion speaks to me and not to you,” Ileem spat. “It’s because I’m his faithful servant—his voice, his hand. You are nothing but a blasphemous dog who dared to raise herself to the position of a goddess. And that, above every other thing you’ve done, is why you will die, here, tonight: a blood sacrifice tomygod, who laughs at your temples and scorns your offerings as he squashes you like the pathetic worm we both know you to be.”
She blinked and saw Tuer’s Shadow in the midst of the Denlahn soldiers, a blade in his outstretched hand that was wet with blood.
“Rudion is here,” she breathed.
“Of course he is. Who do you think guides my hand? Who do you think clothed my soldiers in protection and silence as they crept through the city unseen? Who do you think put the crown on my head?”
“I did that,” said Eda furiously.
“No. It is and always was my god. And now you will die, as he decrees, your miserable soul perishing forever in the black emptiness of the void.”
“But … but the treaty.” The words were more than foolish, and she knew it.
Ileem looked at her with obvious scorn. “The treaty was a ruse, YourMajesty,” he hissed. “Now come with me. It’s time our marriage was formally terminated.” He dragged Eda toward the dais where a Denlahn soldier waited, a naked blade in his outstretched hand—she didn’t have to imagine its purpose.
Her haze of shock broke, and she was suddenly glad she’d never demonstrated her weapons skills to Ileem.
She twisted out from under his arm, kneed him in the groin, and drove her own dagger into his leg, slipping and sliding across the bloody floor.
