Page 31 of Winds of Destiny
Kai
The first thing I do once I know Turo’s not going to throw himself into the water after Camrael again is let the rams go. We’ve held onto them for long enough, almost too long. They can do no more for us except take us away from here, and Turo isn’t going to allow that.
“You’ve been so good,” I tell mine, stroking its shaggy nose with my hand and following it up with a scratch right in front of its horns. “So good. You’ve carried us well. It’s time for you to go home.” I give Turo’s the same treatment, then step back. My ram turns around immediately and starts trotting across the Plains, but Turo’s doesn’t move.
I sigh. Stubborn beast. “Turo,” I call out to him. “Come here.”
He’s crouched by the edge of the water, holding on to a javelin he fished out of it just before we lost sight of Camrael. He’s not as out of it as he was last time, but there’s a stillness to him I dislike. It feels like he’s on the verge of doing something drastic, and I don’t want to have to fish him out of these venomous waters if I don’t have to.
“Why?” he finally asks.
“Because you need to tell your ram it’s all right for him to leave.”
That gets his attention, and I’m relieved to see a flicker of curiosity in his eyes. “But he’s not mine,” he says.
“Well, he’s definitely not mine . You’ve been riding him for the past week, not me.”
It doesn’t take any more coaxing than that. Turo gets up and walks over. He stares at the sodden, smelly, oversize beast for a moment, then leans in and winds his arms around its neck. “Thank you,” he says thickly. “Thank you for everything. You can go now.” He lets go and steps back. The ram slowly backs away, not taking its eyes off Turo until it’s a good ten feet distant before finally turning and breaking into a run to catch up with its brother.
I decide to risk wrapping an arm around Turo’s shoulders. To my astonishment, he lets me—and even turns into the hug a moment later. “Fuck,” he whispers, pressing his face into my shoulder. “We almost had him.”
“I know.” It’s painful to have come so close to success only to fail within sight of Camrael. “But at least he’s able to use his power.” Speaking of which—I might have hidden my status, but Camrael was guilty of keeping secrets himself. That wind… It was the strongest I’d felt since childhood. The things Camrael will be able to do with that power make my mind spin.
No wonder he didn’t want to tell me until he was sure of me. If my father had known I was engaged to someone with such a powerful ability, he’d have suckered us back to Huridell for certain. I don’t want to think about how he’d have used Camrael once we got there.
I use my free hand to grab my pearl. I get only a feeling of quiet from it—he’s asleep. “For now, we’ll have to be satisfied with that.”
I’m already thinking about the next steps. It would take far too long, even if we’d kept the rams, to go back to Fremont’s Height and bring a boat of our own back here. I don’t know how long it’s going to take Camrael and his captors to reach Inarime, but every passing minute makes us fall farther and farther behind. “Do you think we can rig some of those chariots into a raft? It won’t be easy, and we don’t have the best equipment for it, but they could make a decent base.”
Turo lifts his head and looks at me. I’m stunned to see a smile on his face. “It’s a good idea,” he says, “but I’ve got another one for us to try first.”
He pulls back from me and I let him go, watching silently as he gets down onto one knee and knots his fingers together. Ah. He’s calling on his god. I feel both curious and a little guilty—this seems like something too intimate, too private for me to witness. Turo might be the only person in the world who remembers the little god he told me about. Surely they deserve to be alone. But I find I can’t look away.
Turo’s eyes are closed, graying hair loose and lank around his face. In all my life, I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a humble priest before, but at the same time, there’s something incredibly powerful about him. He’s lost in prayer, whispering so softly I can’t understand the words, but whatever he’s saying, it’s from the heart.
Slowly, so slowly I almost don’t notice it as the shadows of evening fall, an inky blackness gathers in front of Turo’s feet. The ink curls around his leg, slides up his back and over his shoulder, briefly resting there before slipping back down onto the ground in front of him. Eventually, it manifests into a little black cat with eyes the color of fire. It nudges its nose into Turo’s linked hands.
He opens his eyes with a relieved sigh. “There you are. I was afraid you wouldn’t be able to find me.”
The cat makes a little “meep” sound and rubs its face over his fingers again. He frees his hands and strokes it behind the ear. “I’m happy to see you, too,” Turo says, then looks up at me. “Not exactly as dramatic a summoning as setting yourself on fire, huh?”
“I already apologized for that,” I remind him. “May I…” It’s probably impertinent to ask, but the truth is I’ve never been this close to a small cat before. We have some in the mountains, massive stripy cats large enough to rival Antasa’s lions, but they’re shy of people and keep to themselves. Apart from a few cats in settlements I’ve seen here and there, always too quick on their feet for me to approach them, this is the first little one I’ve really seen.
“What, pet her?” I can’t see his smile in the dim light, but I can hear it in his voice. “You can see if she’s interested. It will probably make things much easier if she is,” he adds. “Get low and extend your hand toward her. Don’t push—if she wants to come, she’ll come.”
I get down next to Turo, heedless of the cold, muddy ground beneath my knees. I slowly offer my hand out to Turo’s god, barely even breathing as she catches sight of it. She makes another little sound and, after swiping her face over Turo’s wrist once more, struts over to me. She sits down, stared at my hand for a moment, and then…
She starts to lick one of her paws.
“Um…”
“She’s got the mannerisms of a cat. This is normal. Give her a moment.”
I wait as patiently as I can, and after perhaps a minute, the god finishes with her paw and, oh so delicately, leans forward to touch her nose to my fingertips. A second after that, her head is beneath my palm.
She’s so soft. She’s so small . But under the surface, I can sense the power in her. It isn’t the heavy, forceful nature of Carnuatu or even the immense power—marred by sadness—that I felt when Ophiucas blessed my marriage to Camrael. This little god has a fleetness about her, an incredible sense of lightness , as though if my hand wasn’t holding her head down, she might skip right off into the air.
“She’s incredible,” I murmur.
“I’ve always thought so,” Turo says. He knots his fingers again, braiding them in a way that reminds me of the little cat god’s head, with two pointy ears and spaces for her eyes. “We need your help,” he tells her.
She doesn’t look at him, but I can tell from how her ears swivel that she’s paying very close attention to him.
“Cam’s being taken to Inarime. We don’t have time to get a boat, we can’t swim it, and anything we make is as likely as not to fall apart on the way there. We need to find Cam, though.” His voice is full of surety. “Whatever he’s been pulled into, it’s going to affect all of us. We need to find Cam and help him stop Embros.”
It shouldn’t surprise me that Turo is already thinking three steps ahead of me, but as soon as I hear him say it, I understand how right he is. At this point, it’s not just about getting to Camrael—it’s about finding out what Embros wants him for in the first place and what he’s got planned for the drowned city.
I hope it’s not really drowned. If it is, we’re in trouble.
“Can you help us cross the water?” Turo asks. “Can you help us find Cam?”
The little cat god, whose name neither of us knows, leaves me and goes back to Turo. A sheen of light flickers down her fur, from her nose to the tip of her tail. She glows like a star, small and humble and yet more beautiful than anything I’ve ever seen before. Stepping forward, she rises up onto her back paws and leans against Turo’s chest. Then she licks his nose, and the same light rolls over him.
Oh, he’s glowing. He’s not as bright—it’s more of a subtle blue light than the cat god’s starlight shine—but he looks amazing.
Then, all of a sudden, she hops down, comes to me, and does the same thing. Her tongue is unexpectedly rough, enough that it makes me want to flinch for a moment, but then I feel the change come to me as well. It’s as though the little god has just taken all of the weight I carry—real and in my head—onto herself, leaving me as light as a whisker.
The god turns then, darting across the mud toward the sea. Turo stands up and starts to follow, then stops. He turns to me and offers me his hand. “Are you ready?”
I’ve got my sword, my pack, and the blessing of two gods. I’m up for fucking anything .
“I’m ready.” I take his hand and let him lead the way to the water, where his god is waiting…literally on the water, a dozen feet out into the depths. Her paws don’t even make ripples. Neither do Turo’s feet as he takes two steps without hesitation, the water holding him up like solid land.
I balk at the edge. I can’t…this isn’t…
“You can do this,” Turo says firmly, giving my hand a squeeze. “For Cam.”
For Camrael. I use my free hand to hold onto my pearl pendant, then step forward. I almost lose my balance, my mind still expecting me to fall through despite what my eyes are seeing. But when I stumble, Turo is there to catch me.
I lean in and press a kiss to his lips. He gasps, clearly surprised, then cups my face and deepens the kiss. We stand there in the light of the moons, on top of treacherous waters, taking our pleasure and comfort until his god finally gets to her feet and meow s with impatience.
“Let’s go get him,” I say when I can breathe again.
Turo grins at me, then turns and, still holding my hand, begins to run. I follow, and it’s the easiest thing I’ve ever done, more like gliding than forcing my bulk to speed up. No vipers can bite us and no lions can hunt us.
Tonight, we’re blessed with a path forward.
Tomorrow, hopefully, we’ll be blessed with a way to save Cam.