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“Entimon, god of healing? Godsworn?” I echo. Every one of my senses is on the alert now. I’ve never heard of a god named Entimon, much less a godsworn, whatever that is. Who is this person, this…girl? And why is she speaking of a deity I’ve never heard of before? “Who are you?” I ask again. “Why did you heal me?”
“You are Deka of Irfut, correct?” When I warily nod, she walks closer, imperiously demands: “Present the key as proof.”
“The key? What key?”
When I still don’t move, she growls under her breath. “The key, Deka—the one your mother gave you.”
My heart leaps into my throat. “My mother? You were sent by Mother?”
“Of course I was,” the girl huffs, annoyed now. “I’ve been waiting for a month now. All you had to do was present the key and it would have summoned me. Thank the gods I heard your fighting, or I never would have found you in time. Then Umu would have had my head.”
Umu. Everything in me stills. That’s Mother’s name, the name only her dearest friends and family know.
I swiftly fumble under my armor, taking out the necklace that’s been hidden here all this while, the one Mother gave me all those years ago. It’s a tiny gold chain, the orb dangling from it engraved with an eclipsed sun whose rays have been curved into wickedly sharp daggers. An umbra, the symbol of the Shadows, the secretive group of assassins to which both Mother and White Hands once belonged.
“You mean this?” I say, raising it. The moment it catches the moonlight, a beam of light erupts from it, one that swiftly splinters into a rainbow. Shock erupts from me in a gasp. “What is that?”
“The signal I’ve been waiting for,” the girl says with a huff. “A month spent waiting in this uncivilized realm. An entire month, and all you had to do was expose it to the light!”
By now, my friends and I are all looking at each other. This was it? The way we summoned Mother? All this time spent looking and we could have just done this?
The irony is almost too much to bear, so I turn back to the girl. “Who are you?” I ask once more.
To my surprise, the armored girl kneels begrudgingly, then says: “Most honorable greetings, Angoro Deka of Otera. I am Myter, godsworn of Bala, deity of the pathways. The gods of Maiwuri humbly await your presence. As does your mother.”
7
“Deity?”
That’s the only word I can somehow form after the girl’s stunning announcement.
The entire cliff is silent now, everyone just staring at each other, bewildered, as am I. Myter just proclaimed herself a godsworn—whatever that is—of a god I’ve never heard of. And considering that Otera has only eight gods—four Gilded Ones and four Idugu—that’s impossible. There are no other gods in the One Kingdom, no other creatures that would even dare to consider themselves deities. I would think Myter mad except for the things I’ve just seen—the way she easily defeated Melanis and her hunters, the temple now surrounding us, even the fact that she knew Mother’s real name.
And then there was that strange tingling I felt, the one so very different from those I’ve felt before. Not to mention the fact that she healed me, that all my senses have returned, sharper than ever. In fact, except for the hollowness inside signaling my diminished life force and the pounding headache that must be a side effect of all the blood I’ve lost, I’m whole and hardy again, something I didn’t think possible.
As much as my entire being wants to discount what Myter said, I can’t. She’s unlike anyone I’ve encountered before. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over the years, it’s that creatures like her don’t just appear out of the ether. There has to be at least a kernel of truth to what she’s saying. Either that or she’s a very convincing liar. After all, I have been fooled before. Many, many times before. Myter could very well have access to arcane objects powerful enough to heal my body and let her read my mind at the same time.
I glance suspiciously at her armor and hammer as I walk closer to her. “Did you say a deity? Of the pathways?” I ask. “And what exactly are pathways?”
“And Maiwuri?” Belcalis adds, her expression blank the way it always is when she’s faced with an unknown enemy. “You did say something about the gods of a Maiwuri.”
“Never heard of a Maiwuri,” Britta mutters.
Of our entire group, only Lamin looks unsurprised, but then his expression is always stoic, never even a hint of emotion breaking through.
Myter glances from me to my friends, blithely unconcerned. At least, that’s what I assume, since I can still only see her eyes. “Indeed,” she says finally. “The entire pantheon awaits.”
Just like that, Li has had enough. “All right, what is this?” he demands. “Is this some kind of trick? Are you a creature the Idugu sent?”
“If I was, do you think I would identify myself as such?”
Li blinks as he considers this. “Well, no, but it never hurts to ask,” he mutters.
Myter just stares at him. Then she sighs. “This is infuriating. And pointless. Come, Deka.” She turns to me. “Your mother waits.”
“I just have a few more questions,” I reply. “You said ‘gods,’ plural, of Maiwuri?”
“Indeed.”
