A Priestess for the Blind God (Legends of Rahasia Book 1)

Chapter Twenty-Three

"Before the Divine Contests begin, I have an announcement to make. A call to prayer," Elio stands on the podium, looking every bit the hero of legend with his shining golden armor. The plating is more for show since everything will just melt when he uses his sun-god power, like putting an already beautiful flower into a stuffy, ornate urn. "A call to prayer," he lifts his arms over his head in a graceful swoop, "for our brother Alef."

            He looks over the crowd, hardly turning in my direction. Ryu stands, rubbing sleep from his eyes, donning his regular exercise robes for the fighting part of the tournament. He still looks roguishly fetching despite minimal effort.  "I wonder what happened to that brute."

            "Good riddance..." I mutter.

            "He was set upon by bandits in the late hours of the night. Patrolling made him weary, and his mind was addled by the shadows. He thought that these mortal criminals were ghouls, and now my father's physician is giving him a concoction of mint and soul stone powder to heal his temporary madness. Alef has served well, but will not return to oversee the contests at my side." Elio turns to me then, and all the images of the last night flooding back.

            "Ode, what is happening here?"

            I screech as the ghouls crawl slowly toward Alef, the brute's body paralyzed by their deadened, blood-moon eyes that mimic mine. "This scum was going to murder Ryu. He tried to kill me instead when he found Ryu was staying in your tent."

            Elio narrows his eyes. "Alef, is that true?"

            Alef can hardly stutter out the words. "N-no, my prince. I w-w-was d-drunk. I said things I shouldn't have. But it was the c-c-cider speaking."

            Elio, seemingly possessed by the power of the Elder one, gazes down at the squirming traitor in judgment. His fists clench and then unclench, his jaw working furiously as he stares at the earth. "You are my god's former protector. I cannot kill you without risking his favor." He looks up then, the full intensity of his gaze on me. "But my god is one for justice. When Cato the Elder discovered Kane trying to overthrow the Three Gods, he gouged out his own brother's eyes and threw him from the heavens over Rahasia."

            "N-n-no." Alef's eyes go wide in realization. "P-p-please, my prince, mercy!"

            "You, Alef, tried to kill a dear friend of mine. By extension, that means you tried to murder me. That is treason of the highest degree." Elio gets lower to the earth, his hands pushed out in front of him, large fingers splayed. "I'll give you a choice. You are my guard and protector. You can either do your job and protect me from Ode's monsters to regain your honor..." He waves at my ghouls, slavering with my blood dripping down their mouths, their eyes ringed by milky yellow, their hair falling out at the root. "Or you can be executed by me for treason." Elio's eyes start to glow, his fingertips and arms burning with an inner light that floods this part of the encampment as though it were day. "Choose."

            Alef looks at the both of us. Me with my ragged mane and bloodied ghouls, and Elio with his eyes as bright and merciless as the sun.

            "Say it was bandits." Alef unsheathes his blade, his knuckles bruised and torn. "If you say it was ghosts, they'll think you've gone mad, my prince. I'd rather be the mad one between us. It is your empire, Chosen One. Your choice."

            When Elio looks at me, his eyes are no longer burning. But there's something in his gaze, in the uneasy tension around his mouth. Do you fear me now, my prince? I move my fingers, feeling the tightness of the bandages from where my ghouls fed. I was forced to offer them extra blood to get them back into the mirror, to appease them as I called them away from totally murdering Alef. I'd devoured an entire rack of lamb this morning, a pitcher of wine to wash the horrors from my system. You, who control the sun, could so fear this daughter of the night?

            He didn't look at me again last night. He avoided my eyes entirely.

            "You finally decided to show your true powers, did you?" The prince lifts an unconscious Alef in his arms, dragging him into the relative safety of the tent.

            I squeeze more blood from my wounds, watching it drip down onto the mirror, vanishing like the surface is water. The ghouls follow it, their bellies protruding from what they received from Alef. "I never summoned them before." I blink a couple times, weak from blood loss. "I suspect it was the madman priest. He touched the mirror, and it went violet. And then he just vanished, like he went into thin air."

            "Vanishing, madmen priests? Violet light? Let me guess, he granted you three wishes too?" The Chosen One places his fingers against Alef's neck, feeling for a pulse. "I sheltered you. I fed you. I trained you in that arena, and you still do not trust me with the truth?"

            "I would not lie to you." I look at him, and the prince turns to me. I can see my blood-moon eyes reflected against his brilliant gaze, my bloodied eyes staining his golden stare like the moon eclipsing the heavenly sun.

            "I'm sure the Blind God told Cato the same thing," he looks at his hands, grimacing at Alef's blood staining them, "before he attempted to overthrow his Divine kingdom."

            Elio snaps away and gestures to the heavens. The moment is over.

"Let the contests begin!"

***

Hello my Champions!

Any suspicions for why Elio is acting this way?

-Sophia