Ode turns her eyes, of hues scarlet and black, onto the realm of Rahasia. She watches as the snow-white caravan crosses the everlasting desert, making their steady way with stallions all in silver plumes. Their silky-fox furs, though beautiful, don't fare them too well in the scorching heat of the sun. Diamonds and silver drip from the reigns, spears of the legionnaires, women and men, pointed towards the Lioness Gate.
One of the legionnaires breaks away from the rest. From the way he smiles at the queen, Ode can see he's the lover of the young Northern Matriarch, the ruthless Cassia, owner of countless precious gems, of glittering wealth. A woman sculpted from the unbreakable ice of the North.
The pretty boy stands with little armor, most of his dress is ornamental in design, with beads of glass forming an "x" over his chest, a tunic of spun-gold silk. Cheeks blooming the color of roses, a hard edge of arrogance to his brows. A lethal boy-toy.
Made to be loved.
Made to humiliate his enemies, ridiculed in their ugly defeat.
Queen Cassia, teenage matriarch and overseer of her shining legionnaires, swoops down, kisses him lightly on the cheek as he marches on, proud and strong.
"The tournament for hand-to-hand fighting," the still-teenage Queen Cassia informs her slightly younger lover, "I want you to win it. The Northern Kingdoms and Rahasian Empire might be at peace, but a show of strength is never worthless." She whispers near his ear, inciting him to hot-blooded violence. "Win for me, Valens of Valentia. Maybe then, I'll finally have found a warrior worthy of bearing children with. The last one was so close... but ultimately lacking. Shame the Emperor of this desert's taken. He was a looker, but alas," she sighs, throwing one arm dramatically over her head, plunging her face in shadow, "I can't stand up to consort Ryu's prettiness."
Damned right you aren't as pretty as my honorary brother.
Ode casts her jealousy away. Cassia's done nothing to deserve this ire, as supporting of Elio and Ryu's union as she is. But still, something about gladiatorial combat. Of a competition.
It makes Ode's warrior blood boil.
In the Before, wrapped in the power of the endless night, of life and death outside of mortal time, Ode raises a brow.
Valens is a mortal. It wouldn't be a fair fight if Ode came down to thoroughly clout him.
But Ode knows someone who is a mortal, someone she trusts.
A certain Queen of Thieves, for instance.
***
"For the last time, Ode, no. You might have eternal youth and all that, meong, but I'm getting too old to go on crazy adventures."
Ode, arms crossed, stands over Ratu's sleeping form on her Jiwanese mattress. The death goddess lifts Ratu's coiled arm, hugging several daggers to her chest. "You hug your knives like they're your lovers. You aren't made for domestic life, Ratu. We're warriors."
Ratu's dream form, invisible to any mortal eye, shakes her head at her old charge. "You're a warrior, Ode. I'm just a thief."
"Queen Cassia and that pretty boy Valens want to humiliate the Rahasian Empire. I know you could beat him at the Heart-Render's Tournament." Ode gets on her knees, a humorous sight, to see the embodiment of death pleading. "Please."
"The Heart-Render's Tournament?" Ratu snorts at that one, her dreamscape form flickering with her laughter. Her sleeping, physical form snores extra loudly.
YOU ARE READING
A Priestess for the Blind God (Legends of Rahasia Book 1)
Fantasy"The Blind God walks around me, and I feel my mind prodded again like it was in the cavern, a spider weaving a tangled web. "Would you do anything to be remembered, Ode, even play a villain, the one who rises against the Chosen One?" In answer, I dr...
