“How else would I know your name—or know that you have slain 36 souls in my name?” She was only an arm's length away from me now, and I could make out each individual tile that made up her body.
“I’ve never prayed to you.”
“There was one time,” she whispered, her fingers touching my chin and forcing me to look into her eyes. “In Vargos.”
My heart constricted as I remembered my room in the Vargos inn the night I’d stolen Grave Oath.
“Yes, now you remember. You asked for my help. You hoped I would hear you and entwine your fate thread with my own. I was too weak to grant you this request, but not too weak to hear your prayer. Nor was I too weak to lead you to the path of that filthy merchant. His was the first soul to enter my dagger for many, many years. With each new soul you retrieved, I grew stronger—until I was strong enough to lead you here.”
“No one leads me,” I said through my teeth. “I came here of my own free will.”
“Of course you did. I merely nudged you in the right direction. Now, the choice is yours.” She gestured at the font. “Will you kill me, kill yourself, or walk away?”
The first sounded like a bad idea if she was truly the goddess—and I figured her knowledge of Vargos and the merchant meant she was at least some form of divinity, if not Isu herself.
Leaving the crypt now would mean throwing away an opportunity I’d longed for ever since I’d met with the God of Light in his Golden Temple. He’d cast me out, laughing all the while. I’d always wondered why he’d wanted me dead. Perhaps this was the reason why? It was said the God of Light could see into the future. Had he foreseen this meeting between me and Isu?
But the goddess had only given me three choices, and none of them involved joining her or allowing our Fate Threads to cross. The only other choice I hadn’t yet considered, because it seemed so foolish, was killing myself. What purpose would it serve?
Except, if this woman was truly Isu, then she could always resurrect me. Would I come back to this world as a zombie? A skeleton? Or perhaps even a lich?
I looked up and met her stare. Her pupils were as black as the flags hanging from Deadman’s Cove. I almost lost myself in their depths. I shook myself out of it and opened my mouth to ask a question, but she silenced me with a finger held gently against my lips. Her touch was colder than a frost dragon’s breath. I couldn’t pull away from the finger, and my knees shook as I struggled to keep myself from stumbling.
“I can give you no answers,” she said. “First, make your choice. Kill me, kill yourself, or leave this place.”
I pondered killing myself. I had the acid in front of me. It would be easy. But was that how I was meant to solve the riddle?
No, the acid was meant for killing the mosaic woman. Undead were not nearly as vulnerable to acid as trolls, but it was one of the only elements they were at least a little vulnerable to. Northern crypts were not impossible to conquer, and, for that reason, each item only served one purpose. If this woman was Isu, then the font was the only way I could kill her. So, killing the Death Goddess was the singular purpose of the font.
The woman was obviously trying to test me, but what if I could test her?
I turned my dagger until the blade’s point was touching the center of my chest. I studied the mosaic woman’s expression and noticed her lips curl slightly upward—either the expression of a victorious trickster, or the smile of a woman who was proud of someone who’d deciphered her riddle.
I pushed the blade a little closer, and its sharp tip pierced my leather cuirass. I didn’t take my eyes off the woman, and her smile grew ever so slightly as she leaned closer to me.
In a flash of movement, I turned the blade in the other direction, grabbed the woman, whirled her around, and pressed my dagger against her throat.
“You know, I’ve always hated riddles,” I said. “Now, if you are Isu, then you are weak. You were meant to be dead, but this dagger has made you stronger. Strong enough to take physical form on this plane. I bet it would really ruin your millennium if I killed you with precisely this weapon, wouldn’t it?”
“You please me,” she whispered, as she licked her lips and craned her neck backward a little. “I was waiting for you to surprise me. Now, would you like our fates to cross?”
I didn’t remove my blade. I didn’t trust her in the slightest.
“Of course. Isu would know that I have been searching the continent for a god who survived. All I found were useless relics, forgotten temples, and a whole lot of nothing. This crypt was my last attempt. All of Rollar’s expeditions have failed. And I know; I have followed him and his men on every last one of them.”
“And yet you have been holding a relic in your hand ever since you left Vargos. And you are face-to-face with the divine you have sought all this time. Put away your blade, and I will give you what you desire.”
Another test? Or the truth?
I shoved her forward with a twist, and she stumbled and straightened up again at a few feet from me. She still looked composed, though, and looked at me as she had when she first appeared. I kept my
