“Here, buddy, chew on these bones.” I pointed at the headless skeleton. “I’ve got the piece I need.”
While Fang was crunching the skeleton’s bones between his massive jaws, I took the skull over to the cairn and placed it on top.
“Is there any symbol more perfect for the God of Death?” I asked. “Simple, understated, stylish, and timeless. A symbol that crosses boundaries of language and culture. Soon, there’ll be skull sigils across the whole damn world.”
“To the God of Death!” Rami cried as she knelt in front of the cairn.
“To the God of Death,” Isu repeated coolly with an almost reverent expression. She, too, knelt in front of the shrine.
Grast clambered off the wagon, lurching from side to side with drunkenness, and stumbled over to us.
“That was a bloody battle to remember,” he declared. “I’ll be telling this story in taverns for years to come. The time I witnessed the God of Death and his army win their first real battle, aye! It’s a bloody privilege to have seen you in action, Soultaker, a privilege indeed. I’ll gladly kneel at your cairn, I will. It’s an honor, aye, a real honor.”
Puffing and blowing, he lowered himself to his knees. Cranton had passed out in the back of the wagon, having slept through the entire battle, which was probably a good thing, as he would only have gotten in the way.
Only two people were left standing now. Myself and Elyse.
There was no reason for me to kneel before a cairn dedicated to myself, but Elyse had a choice to make.
“I’m not going to make you kneel,” I said to her. “It’s entirely up to you.”
“You know I serve the Lord of Light, and the Lord of Light only,” she said. “But up until the past few days, I’d never known that any other gods still drew breath. I won’t say that my faith is shaken, because my faith in the Lord of Light is as strong as ever. But I will say that I’m perhaps more open to new ideas and different ways of thinking about gods and devotion.”
“It’s good to see you’re capable of change.” I gestured for her to kneel.
She shook her head. “I have something else I want to say. The Lord of Light didn’t take Nabu’s powers away, even though he was making sacrifices to the Blood God. I don’t know if that’s because the Lord of Light isn’t as omniscient as some of the priests say he is, or whether he doesn’t mind his followers worshipping other gods. The sacred texts seem clear that no other gods should be worshipped, but maybe those interpretations are incorrect. Regardless, I must stay strong.”
Elyse remained standing, and my stomach stirred with pride.
“I can respect that,” I said. “Besides, you not kneeling gives me something to work toward. I’ll convince you that I’m a better master than the Lord of Light.”
“We shall see.” Elyse stared into my eyes, and I couldn’t help feeling like I preferred her to be an ally rather than a servant. Still, I wasn’t going to let her know that was how I felt.
I walked up to the cairn, unsure of what would happen next, and placed my hands on the stones. I closed my eyes, and a deep, paralyzing cold surged out from my heart. The frigid sensation ripped through my arms and bled out of my palms. The stones beneath my skin turned from dull, rough gray to jet black and shiny, like the blade of my kusarigama.
“I hereby consecrate this cairn with my power,” I said, the words rolling off my tongue like I’d said them a thousand times before. “All the living must die, and all the dead must serve.”
“Would you look at that?” Grast marveled at the gleaming black cairn. “The first shrine to the God of Death. And when you’re one of the most powerful gods around, I can say that I was here. What a day, what a bloody day! Come on, let’s all have a drink. I bet you lot are mighty thirsty after all that fighting. There’s plenty of wine to go around!”
“I’ll have a quick drink to wet my whistle,” I said, “but we still have to go check out the village or town these assholes raided. The day is far from over, so don’t go drinking yourself into a stupor just yet, Grast.”
“All right, all right,” he said with a sigh. “Just a nip.”
The others headed back to the wagon, but Isu hung back. She obviously wanted to speak with me alone.
“Remember when I helped you with the sentinels in Xayon’s temple?” she asked. “You said you’d owe me a favor. And now here I am, doing yet another favor for you. It seems that you owe me two favors now.”
“I didn’t ask you to do this,” I said. “It’s not a favor if you freely do something for me.”
“Perhaps, perhaps not,” she said with a shrug, her true feelings hidden behind a mask of cool indifference. “But the fact remains that you owe me at least one favor, which is due to me whenever I ask for it. Remember that, Vance. Remember it well.”
“Pleasuring you with this doesn’t count as a favor?” I grinned as I wriggled my forefinger.
Isu growled. “Of course not.”
I couldn’t help noticing her ass cheeks shift beneath her sleek black dress as she walked away. I enjoyed the view for a bit before wandering back out to the road. There were dead horses and dead soldiers everywhere, and I figured it was time to add a few mounted troops to my ever-growing army.
Now that I was a god, and Isu wasn’t, I didn’t have to ask her for powers when I wanted new abilities. The downside of this new arrangement, though, was that I didn’t exactly know how to grant myself new, upgraded powers. Then again, I hadn’t
