Chapter 50

50

Sirsha

The first thing Sirsha noticed when she regained consciousness was the roar of the ocean, so loud she wondered that it hadn't consumed her yet. Sand crumbled beneath her fingers, dry and cold. The sky gleamed like onyx. On the water, she saw no fishing boats. On the shore, no lights. No huts. Nothing to indicate that she was near civilization.

But that made sense. She was dead.

Her body felt peculiar. Light. She grasped at her necklace—only one coin remained, intricately patterned, laced with diamonds—Quil's coin. Elias's was gone.

She'd done it. She'd destroyed Div.

Relief flooded her and she whooped, the ocean swallowing the sound. For a moment at the end, she'd feared the binding wouldn't work. That Div would break free and claw out her heart. But the coin wouldn't have disappeared if Sirsha hadn't succeeded.

Though why Sirsha still cared about her oath if she was dead, she didn't know. Come to think of it, why would she have her coin with Quil if she was dead? The Raani always said the Adah oath transcended death. Perhaps this was what she meant.

A cool wave lapped at her feet, followed swiftly by one that slapped her in the face. She crawled up the beach, hacking up seawater.

"Not dead," she rasped, for she was certain that death wouldn't be quite so undignified. "Got it."

Somehow, she'd destroyed Mother Div without killing herself. A neat trick. She'd laugh at herself for her maudlin thoughts about self-sacrifice if she wasn't sopping wet and beginning to shiver. Where the skies was she?

She had sand in unfortunate places, so she shook off what she could, grumbling all the while. Then she dug her hand into her pack, still slung across her body. And still, thankfully, heavy with gold marks. Her wrist flashed—she still had Quil's bracelet.

"Quil?" she called out. "Sufiyan? Arelia?"

Only the waves responded with their endless roar. Perhaps she was near Burku. As she looked around, she spotted a rutted path that led away from the water. There might be a fishing village nearby, or a hut.

Her legs were unsteady, and it took long minutes for her to totter up the path. She spotted a strange glow—a fire? Her stomach rumbled. Hopefully it was a cookfire.

But the closer Sirsha got, the more uneasy she grew.

There didn't appear to be anyone around the fire. Yet a whole animal roasted on a spit over it. A fox, she realized as she got closer. Its mouth was open as if it had died shrieking.

"Qu-Quil?"

The glow of the fire weakened as if cowed. A figure silhouetted in dim blue light watched her. Sirsha's stomach clenched. She reached for her magic, not to protect herself, but to see. To feel what the hells was sitting in front of her. But even as she called on her power, she flinched back. Something about it felt tainted. Other.

"Greetings, S'rsha Inashi-fa." The figure stood, pushing back her hood—her face was Sirsha's, but of course it wasn't her at all. It was Div, and now Sirsha felt the link between them, a tie binding them as surely as if they'd been fused together in a forge. The moment she felt it, a vast hunger filled her. A ravenous need that had no end. She saw a roiling sea and yellow sky, the massive waves seething with shadows beneath the surface. Owa Khel. The Empty.

"I have been waiting for you to wake up, dear child," Div said. "Now that we are one, we are going to do such beautiful things together."