Vessel

more . . .” She told them about Mulaf.

Gasps and whispers spread through the deities. Many did not believe her. Others suspected exaggeration. Only a few thought it could be truth. She scanned the amphitheatre, trying to spot the gods who had been inside Mulaf. She doubted they’d remained in his body once the lake water had forced him to leave.

“If you don’t believe her, ask Mulaf,” Jarlath said.

“Bring him before us,” one of the gods commanded.

Pia vanished for an instant. When she reappeared, Mulaf was with her. He blinked at the assembly of deities. “You!” He pointed. “Filthy parasites! Plague upon our world!” He spat on the ground before them.

“You will tell us of your experience—” one god began.

“I will tell you nothing!”

Pia vanished and reappeared again, this time with a woman.

The woman was as lovely as a bird, with a delicate face and soft hair that flowed over her shoulders. She stepped in front of Mulaf, and all his rage drained away to be replaced by naked anguish. Her hand touched Mulaf’s cheek, and he let out an inarticulate cry, like a small animal in pain.

“I would have avenged you, Serra,” Mulaf said.

Gently Serra said, “I never needed to be avenged. I went willingly into death.”

He looked as if she had stabbed him. “But . . . you had no choice.”

Her smile was sad. “There is always choice. I wanted to help our people. I believed, as did we all, that the death of the vessel was the only way.” She cupped her hands around his face and leaned her forehead against his. “My love, you have caused much pain in my name. I do not know if I can forgive you for what you have done or for what you almost did.” Her voice was as hard as her face was sweet.

Liyana put her hand on the woman’s shoulder. “He can begin to make amends right now. He must tell the gods how he nearly destroyed the lake.”

“Tell them, my love,” Serra said, still cradling his face in her hands.

He yanked away as if her touch hurt him. “Do not ask this of me! Please, Serra. . . . These parasites caused your death. Needlessly!”

Liyana spoke again. “Once the truth is known, no vessel will ever need to choose to die. Gods will never again freely walk the world in a stolen body. Isn’t that a kind of revenge?”

She saw the emotions play across his face.

She pushed harder. “Besides, doesn’t your story deserve to be told?”

“Indeed, it does.” Mulaf faced the assembly of deities. He pointed to six of them. “You, you, you, you, you, and you . . . I captured you inside of me.” He went on to describe how he had trapped them in false vessels, summoned them into his body, controlled them, and then used them. “Their power was combined and then magnified through me. Speak the truth to your fellow parasites!”

One by one, the six humiliated deities, including Somayo of the Falcon Clan, whose statue Liyana had held and not broken, confirmed his story with hatred in their eyes for how they had been used. After they sank into their seats again, Mulaf clasped Serra’s hands to his chest. “Now can you forgive me?”

She removed her hands. “With time. Perhaps.”

“It is fortunate, then, that we have eternity.”

Pia tapped Mulaf’s shoulder and he disappeared. Serra vanished as well.

“So here’s the trick,” Liyana said to the deities. She hoped Korbyn would approve of what she was about to do. She thought he would. “I return to my body. All of you come with me. And through me, we end this.”

Chapter Thirty-Four

Liyana took Jarlath’s hand. “You are coming with me.”

He raised her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. “My body is dead. I cannot.”

“You do not say no to the girl with the deities.” She wrapped her arms around his waist and then yanked him off-balance. Together, they fell into the pool of water.

Light swirled around her. Colors sparkled, shifting as they shimmered. She imagined the feel of her skin, the shape of her body, the throb of blood pulsing through her veins, and the rush of air into her lungs. It was the reverse of how it felt when she used to picture the lake. Carefully she poured her soul into her body.

Liyana? Bayla’s mental voice was stunned.

I’m not alone, Liyana said. Ready yourself.

The other deities filled her. Liyana was engulfed in wind, buffeted by a storm within. She clung to the familiar contours of her body, grounding herself in her muscles and bones. She drew on everything she had practiced in all the lessons with Korbyn, and she seized control of herself before the other minds could establish themselves.

The other souls jostled inside her, but she held on, not relinquishing control. All the pounding by Bayla had prepared her for this onslaught, though this was far worse than anything Bayla had ever tried. She felt as if she were being ripped apart inside out by wild dogs.

Bayla!

Yes, Liyana? Bayla’s voice rose from the vortex of other voices.

Slowly, painfully, Liyana reached into the chaos toward Bayla’s voice. She felt Bayla move through the souls as well, shepherding them into semicohesion. Liyana coaxed the spinning souls to swirl in the same direction. Together, the two of them swept the other deities into a single cyclone inside her.

Are you ready? Bayla asked.

Yes, Liyana said.

Voices spoke in unison, echoing her. Yes. Yes. Yes! She felt them speed up inside her, all their emotions and thoughts tumbling in a thick storm.

Feed me magic, Liyana ordered them.

She felt them all still for a moment.

And then the magic dumped into her, more and more, like an ocean pouring into a bowl. She pushed her soul wider, expanding it as fast as she could as the magic flowed in. She flowed through the valley. She sank into the earth and felt the life of the plants, the strength of the stone, and the heat of the dirt. She swept through the mountains, into their hearts and over their peaks. The magic surged within her, forcing her faster and wider and deeper.

Oh, sweet goddess, it’s too much! she cried.

You can do this, Liyana, Jarlath whispered within the deities. You are strong.

She pushed herself harder, and she became the wind in the mountains. It was her breath. She breathed out and spread into the desert. She felt the souls of the soldiers and the clans like bursts of fire in the wind. She felt their deaths as their souls flickered past her, en route to the Dreaming.

You must end this tragedy, Jarlath said.

She targeted one of the sky serpents. As Mulaf had done, she focused the heat of the sun on its glass body, and she intensified the heat rapidly, as if a year’s worth of sun pounded on it at once. The heart of the sky serpent heated to white-hot, and then the sky serpent cracked and shattered in an explosion that rained down on the clans and army below.

She focused on the next sky serpent. . . . But there were hundreds.

You’re killing them, Jarlath said. Our people. Find another way!

The shards that fell below were as deadly as the serpents themselves. She needed to make them vanish, not explode. Only then would her people be safe.

I need more magic, she said as an idea occurred to her.

Liyana stirred the wind high above the clans and army. She controlled the wind in a tight cyclone, keeping it from touching the humans, and then she widened her whirlwind. Pouring magic into it, she swept the wind into the sky serpents. She caught them in a net of air. The sky serpents tumbled head over tail. Their glass scales caught the sunlight and twisted it until the sky looked as if it were filled with thousands of jewels.