36

Outside Veril’s cracked bedroom window, countless moths swirl and wheel and strike the glass, but not as hard as the battabies had struck this same window. Beyond them, mist curls around the grass, and thin clouds drift across a sky tinged pink by the rising daystar.

Veril and I sit quietly in the bedroom while I wash the mud and poison from my hands in a basin of soapy water on top of the large trunk at the foot of the bed. “Her name is Sybel, the woman I saw in the cave. I don’t care if you believe me. I saw what I saw—”

“I believe you, dearest.” The Renrian shifts on his stool, sighs, and crosses his legs.

“She told me that the battawhale was the last of his kind. That if I killed him, I could never come back from that. I don’t know what that means.” I scrape some dirt from under my fingernails with my thumbnail and wash once more. “Does she mean that I’ll never be good again? That’s what it sounded like. My path would never lead to good.”

Veril says nothing. Just stares out the window at those moths. Beyond them, near an ancient willow, Olivia and Philia gawk and gasp while Jadon recounts the battle in the cave.

I close my eyes and—

The dead lie everywhere, heaped against a rock wall and in pits gouged into the earth. Towers of bloated corpses, man and beast, surround me, and the incessant buzz of corpse flies renders me nearly deaf. On the far side of this sea of bodies, a giant of a man stands shrouded in shadows. A sunabi, its smooth gray skin streaked with blood and gore, scrambles over the still-growing mounds of the dead. It clutches my ankles and rubs its head against my calves, like a housecat greeting his mistress. The sunabi bares its sharp teeth and hisses before croaking, “Danar… Rrivae… Devour.”

I startle awake.

Jadon is still talking.

Did I fall asleep or…?

“Kai, are you okay?” Philia asks, squinting at me.

I nod and swipe my eyes. “Just a bit tired.”

Copperhair nods and says, “We should let you rest, then.”

Soon, the girls, the moths, and the vision of the sea of bodies drift away.

My mind floats to Jamart’s hidden altar behind his sitting room. “Is Sybel the Lady of the Verdant Realm?”

“Sybel,” Veril muses, “is not the Lady of the Verdant Realm. Remember: Kaivara is the Lady of the Verdant Realm. This woman you met—others have described her to me as well. She wears gowns of light and gowns of chain. She often appears walking from the east, with the rising daystar at her back. Then she’s seen walking west as the nightstar takes position in the heavens. She is known as the Lady of Dawn and Dusk. She and the rest of that order tend the forests and the animals…every living thing, including us mortals. She is a Grand Steward and daughter of the immortal order known as Eserime.”

Eserime. My mouth moves to repeat the word. “Immortal. So how does that order fit into the pantheon of Supreme?”

Veril rises from the stool and shuffles to the tall wardrobe closest to the bed. “Mortals, we craft our own myths and gods from their enigmatic existences. What humans perceive as divine is but a sliver of their truth. Though they are not the most powerful, Eserime have great abilities that they use to protect their wards. They never use their powers for destruction. If I could use only one word to describe the Eserime, I’d say, ‘merciful.’”

He opens the cabinet doors and pulls out a small white towel, a larger gray towel, and a bottle of soap. “Eserime bless their charges with immediate good health if that is the will of Supreme. And that battawhale—he wasn’t supposed to die, but then you came.”

She will bring each of you death.

But the battawhale didn’t die—I stare at the window webbed with cracks from the battabies—and neither did Jadon.

Veril hands me the small towel, and I dry my hands. “Now, let’s work on getting the rest of you clean.”

“Getting clean. I approve of this plan.” I follow him from the room, formulating a plan of my own to enlist the very alive Jadon Ealdrehrt to help me with this task.