Would he have told me the truth about the shadows, had he lived? she wondered.
Tiyana closed her eyes and waited for more tears to flow. When none came, she opened her eyes again ... and found that she was no longer in Almovaar’s Realm. She was back in her bedchamber, the Moon Stars’ pale light streaming through the window. Looking down, she saw that the sheet that had blown away in Almovaar’s Realm had returned to enfold her. But when she sat up in her bed and let the sheet fall away, her eyes widened when she saw the light of the Moon Stars reflecting from the grains of sand that covered her skin from head to toe.
Even as she reached convulsively to brush the sand of Almovaar’s Realm away from her, the grains suddenly dropped in a whispery cascade. Tiyana shook the sheet, and the sand fell to the floor.
Then Tiyana sank back onto her bed. She knew sleep would elude her now. She still had her sorrow. But she had no more tears to shed. And she had no answer to Almovaar’s question.
EPILOGUE
Nama-kwah swam in swirling spirals in the waters of her Realm, leaving a silvery trail in her wake. She was in the part of her Realm that was closest to the Beyond World, but she did not look past the barrier that separated the two. Her Children followed, their movements mirroring her agitation. They were capable of sharing her mood, if not her thoughts.
The goddess could not confide her worries with her Children, for they were incapable of understanding her in that way. Nor could she speak of them with the other Jagasti. They would understand her far too well; and in such understanding, they would condemn her as Legaba had been condemned so long ago, as the people of the World Beyond conceived of time.
Had she done right with her latest intervention ... an act that forbidden by an accord among the Jagasti? Was she, in truth, no better than Legaba, or this new god, Almovaar, who now held sway in the land once favored by her and the others? And had the Jagasti been wrong to distance themselves from the Matile?
Nama-kwah had no answers to those questions. She knew only that she could not fully sever her connection with the Beyond World, as had the other Jagasti. She could not be content to spend her eternal life in her Realm, with occasional sojourns in the Realms of the other Jagasti. The Beyond World was ever-changing in ways that were outside her power, unlike her Realm, where she controlled all and could change its entirety at a moment’s whim.
She had done something small in the World Beyond ... something slight enough to fall beneath the notice of the other Jagasti, if they even deigned to direct their attention beyond the boundaries of their Realms.
Nama-kwah had found a new Vessel.
Never before had a Jagasti bonded with as unlikely a Vessel as the one into whose hands her Mask had fallen. This Vessel was not a trained Amiya, but a thief-girl who possessed no understanding of the significance of the object she had stolen. For a time, Nama-kwah would not even allow the girl, Kalisha, to don the Mask, for she was not certain the thief could comprehend what the wearing of the Mask would mean, and what it would require from her.
As time passed, though, Nama-kwah sensed a quality in this Kalisha ... something much different from that of her previous Vessel, Tiyana, who had been born to be an Amiya and whose life had been set in that direction since her childhood. Yet in her own way, Kalisha, too, had been born to be an Amiya. But neither Nama-kwah nor Kalisha had been aware that she was so before disaster had struck the Matile, and the thief-girl had stolen the Mask.
When she was satisfied concerning Kalisha’s capabilities, Nama-kwah had induced the girl to don the Mask and become her Vessel. And she had directed her new Vessel to find and free the Fidi-thief, for he, too, would play a part in the events that were unfolding in the Beyond World.
Two thieves ... one destiny.
Nama-kwah continued to swim in circles. She had done what she could; now, once again, the World Beyond would continue in its own way, separate from the workings of the Jagastis’ Realms.
When the others discovered what she had done, they might well ostracize Nama-kwah in the same way they had isolated Legaba. And she well remembered that her own voice had been among those that had been raised against the Spider God. She had been convinced of the rightness of her cause then, and she was just as convinced now ... perhaps even more so.
Abruptly, Nama-kwah swam in a straight line toward the center of her Realm, far away from the border with the Beyond World. For now, she had done what she could. What was to come would be in the hands of her new Vessel ... and her previous one.
APPENDIXCHARACTERSOf the Matile:
Dardar Alemeyu, the Emperor of Matile Mala.
Issa, wife of Dardar Alemeyu and Empress of Matile Mala.
Makah, Emperor Alemeyu’s pet cheetah.
Jass Gebrem, the Leba, or High Priest, of the Matile Mala Empire.
Membiri, deceased wife of Gebrem.
Tiyana, the Amiya, or Vessel, of the Jagasti Sea Goddess Nama-kwah; daughter of Jass
Gebrem and Membiri.
Keshu, the Amiya of Halasha, the Jagasti God of iron and war.
Yemeya, one of the double-twin sisters who sing during the First Calling ceremony, and
friend to Tiyana.
Jubiti, Tamala, and Zeudi, Yemeya’s double-twin sisters.
Jass Eshana, the Dejezmek, or supreme commander, of the Matile military.
Jass Kidan, commander of the Matile archers.
Jass Kebessa, a minor member of the Degen Jassi.
Jass Hirute, a rural Imba Jassi noblewoman.
Jass Kassa, a member of the Imba Jassi, deceased husband of Jass Hirute.
Jass Tsege, a member of the Imba Jassi.
Jass Fetiwi, a member of the Imba Jassi.
Jass Shebeshi, member of the Imba Jassi and ill-fated ruler of
