Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3) (33 page)

“
The goddess is asleep,”
he was told.

He expected Jow to show
great pleasure in telling him this, but she was perfunctory, her
gaze lowered. He thought of charging past Jow to Alayai's room. In
the end he turned and exited the temple.

When he returned home,
Tanu was sitting outside the house gazing at the stars. He did not
look at his father when he moved past him and entered the house.
Rutia was fast asleep with Essa in her arms, as she used to do with
Tanu. Akan lay awake that night, the snake in his chest moving
uneasily, round and round in a slow, nauseating circle. He had
expected something like this, but the pain of it still shocked him,
especially since he knew his son was sitting outside experiencing a
deeper, more wrenching pain.

Akan turned over onto his
side and stared at his daughter’s plump little face, his mind still
on Alayai.

Was there a chance Alayai
would continue to refuse to see him? Had he lost the child he had
come to love as much as this little one asleep in her mother’s
arms?

Akan heard Tanu enter the
house a few hours later. Akan was not worried about him having
snuck away to see the goddess, as he knew Tanu would never disobey
him. He doubted Tanu slept either that night.

The following morning Tanu
left for the fields, choosing to forego his morning meal. Rutia
watched him leave. She clucked her tongue.

“
So the two of you are
fighting over her now?”

Akan looked up
sharply.

“
You knew he was visiting
the goddess and you did not tell me or try to stop him?”

“
Do not take that tone
with me, Akan. This is because of you. How can you do one thing and
not expect him to follow?”

“
He thinks he is in love,
Rutia. Do you know what they would do to him if they ever caught
them?”

“
And you, Akan. Yet you
still take the risk.”

“
I am all she
has.”

“
Perhaps you should take
your own advice and spare yourself the heartache. This will not end
well. Mutata will soon find a reason to proclaim her a false
goddess and kill her. And there will be nothing you can
do.”

Her words cut painfully
into him and it was difficult to speak. Rutia spoke again, her tone
unusually gentle as if she were speaking to one of their
children.

“
It will not end well for
any of us. The real divinity sees and hears everything and knows we
worship a false goddess in her place. She will not let us escape
her wrath.”

“
I do not believe the
goddess of the moon would hurt Alayai or us.”

She snorted in derision.
“How would you know?”

“
I know because...because
I have seen her.”

Rutia came to a stop and
faced him, her golden eyes wide with surprise.

Akan rose to his feet, his
head lowered, his voice thick with emotion when he
spoke.

“
I believe in the true
goddess of the moon. She will not punish us or Alayai for Mutata’s
sins.”

He exited the house. He
could see Tanu in the distance, walking toward the fields, his
movements slow and lethargic, all strength and joy gone from him.
There was nothing he could do but let time heal him. In a few years
Tanu would fall for another and eventually marry, forgetting all
about Alayai. The child goddess had no such hope. Rutia’s words
remained with him, along with the words Alayai had spoken whilst in
the grip of the ekniwa.

You will watch them all
die.

He shuddered although it
was a warm day.

He returned to the temple
the next two nights and received the same message from Jow. The
goddess was asleep. On the third night Jow moved aside to let him
enter the temple.

Alayai sat before the
altar, her countenance similar to that of Tanu’s over the past
week, all strength, all joy gone from her, her small delicate face
bowed, her mouth puckered in anger.

He moved to the altar and
kneeled before her, something he had not done at night for many
years. When he straightened and met her gaze, he saw her mouth had
turned down slightly and it quivered as if she were struggling to
fight back tears. Indeed, he too felt the weight of tears he could
not give in to.

“
Alayai, my goddess. I am
sorry my actions have caused your displeasure, but you have to know
I am completely devoted to you. Not even the real goddess could
take away my devotion to you. What I have done is for your safety
as well as my son’s. What he has spoken to me of, what the two of
you wish, can never be. Mutata need only hear of your affection for
Tanu and he will denounce you a false goddess and kill
you.”

“
I understand,” she
said.

She did truly appear to
understand and Akan sensed no resentment from her for forbidding
Tanu to see her. And so things returned to the way they had been,
although he could not pretend the deepening sorrow he saw in
Alayai’s eyes from then on were just shadows cast by the scant
light within the gloomy temple.

The following year the
very thing Akan had been dreading finally came about. For the first
time in years, it rained consistently for most of the warm season,
the sky above heavy with dark storm clouds which hovered over the
village like a flock of vultures. The crops were certain to fail as
a consequence, giving Mutata a reason to proclaim Alayai a false
goddess. Akan had spent many years preparing for this day by
befriending each of the temple elders, finding out what their
motivations were. He had discovered that each of them, for whatever
reason, hated Mutata almost as much as Alayai. But her behaviour
over the years, the open malice she displayed toward Mutata, had
not helped his cause.

Ever since the rains Akan
had sensed impending doom, a hidden tide moving out of sight and
which he would be unable to halt. He just was not sure when or how
it would manifest. So when Akan reached the temple, having walked
through yet another thunder storm that had cast a punitive gloom
over the village, he felt as if he were entering into battle, but
blind and unsure of his abilities to avert disaster and save the
life of his child goddess.

Mutata was already on his
feet when Akan entered. He felt hatred curling within his stomach
even at the sight of Mutata, but his expression remained blank as
he moved to take his usual seat.

“
The crops will be ruined
if this rain continues,” Mutata said, his gaze fixed on Alayai, the
hatred in his eyes like sparks from a flint and iron. “Is that not
a sign the gods are displeased with the Enwa people,
Celestial One
?”

Alayai listened to it all
in silence, a taut smile on her lips, her eyes growing narrower the
longer Mutata spoke, a black light in them Akan recognised as rage.
When Mutata finished she stared at him in silence for a few moments
before she spoke.

“
Thank you, Mutata. You
spoke often of the gods and if they had destroyed the crops as
punishment. But you did not once speak of me, the living goddess
and why
I
have
seen fit to blight the crops. Perhaps it is as I said before. The
inhabitants of this village have grown too fat. Too pampered, too
used to ease. But since you speak of the will of the gods and
ignore my own, then perhaps you should look to the underworld for
your answers. For the first time in years, the ekniwa will be
performed.”

“
I asked you last month
about this same thing and you promised rain before the week had
ended. You can undertake the ekniwa once more but it will not save
the crops.”

“
I did not say
I
would undertake the
ekniwa, Mutata.”

She stared pointedly at
him. Mutata paled and his lip quivered.

“
You...you want me to
undergo the ekniwa?”

Her demeanour changed, the
taut smile softening, the black light in her eyes
waning.

Akan felt a prickling of
alarm.

Alayai’s voice was as soft
as fur when she replied. “No, of course not, Mutata. I do not
desire that you undertake the ekniwa.”

Mutata let out a deep
breath, visibly relieved.

“
That sacred honour will
fall upon your firstborn son, Seng.”

Akan felt his stomach drop
at Alayai’s words and nausea seized him. He stared up at her in
bewilderment, but she would not look his way.

At first Mutata was still,
all colour draining from his face. Then, almost in a daze, he moved
forward and it was only those close to him that prevented him from
lunging at the goddess.

“
You motherless runt! You
have taken enough from me. You will not take my son. I will
throttle the life from you before you take him from me!”

The mood in the temple had
grown decidedly uneasy and they all looked about in confusion at
what Alayai was proposing.

Akuna, a short, swarthy
elder who had been most against Mutata, moved to Mutata’s
side.

“
Divine One,” he said.
“You told us it is forbidden for a child to undergo the ekniwa. You
only survived because you are a god. Making a boy perform the
ekniwa means sending him to his death.”

“
Yes, it does,” she spat.
“I survived the ekniwa because I am a god, something Mutata has
clearly forgotten just like the rest of you. His son will undergo
the ekniwa and if it is my will that he lives, then it will be so.
Otherwise, he will be fed to the vacoma.”

She pointed to
Akuna.

“
Go and prepare the herbs.
We will not wait until nightfall. He will take the herbs
now.”

Akan got to his feet.
“Goddess.”

She rounded on him, her
body tensed like that of a scorpion about to strike.

“
Spare him.” Akan’s tone
was sharp with warning. “No child should ever have to endure such
suffering. If it is your will one of us undergo the ekniwa, then I
will take the boy’s place.”

For a few seconds she
looked shocked, hurt in her eyes. Whether it was at the fact that
he was challenging her openly, or because he was offering
himself—her only ally—to be slain, he was not sure. Anger soon
replaced the hurt.

“
Sit down! I decide who
will undergo the ekniwa and who lives and dies. I will decide if
the people eat or if they starve. You will not challenge me. Bring
the child to the temple!”

Akan remained standing,
anger churning through him, and for a few moments, fear passed
behind Alayai’s eyes.

It was that fear, even in
the face of the atrocity she was about to commit—the knowledge he
was all she had—that made him relent. For if he remained standing,
openly disobeying her, it might sound a silent call for others
within the temple to do the same, snatching away the power she had
over them.

Akan forced himself to
kneel before her, his jaw clenched. Then he sat back down and would
not look at Alayai as Mutata’s son was brought into the
temple.

Mutata was still being
restrained, his anger having long turned to abject
terror.

“
Poor Mutata,” Alayai
cooed, her smile alight with gleeful malice. “Do not worry. The
true, pure eye of the goddess will hold your son’s life in her
hands and decide his fate. I will even prepare the ekniwa myself as
a show of devotion to my loyal subject.”

True to her word, she
prepared the ekniwa herself. Akan was not the only one to notice
she poured twice the amount of the herb into the mixture. She moved
to Seng, a short, chubby boy. He stared at her with his father’s
arrogance and disdain. Her mouth spread into a smile so devoid of
benevolence it was a sneer.

“
Here little one. Drink.
Pain will purify you and decide if you are worthy.”

The boy took the drink she
offered. With one last lingering glance at Alayai that spoke of
utter contempt, he drank the potion.

With a triumphant smile at
Mutata, Alayai exited the main chamber of the temple flanked by her
attendants, leaving Mutata to pull his son to him, his body wracked
with sobs.

When the boy began to
vomit and go into convulsions, his eyes rolling into the back of
his head, Akan got to his feet and exited the temple.

***

That night Akan came
through the hidden tunnel to see Jow standing at its entrance,
blocking his path.

“
The divine one is asleep.
She—”

Akan pushed her aside and
entered the temple. He could hear Seng’s cries, his screams having
a liquid quality, as if he had screamed and screamed until his
throat bled. Akan moved down to the room at the back, Jow close
behind, threatening to call the guards.

He entered the tiny,
windowless room. Alayai was sitting in the farthest corner of it,
her face twisted in anguish, her hands over her ears to try and
block out the unending screams of pure terror that rang through the
temple. When she looked up and saw Akan standing in the doorway,
relief softened her eyes and a smile chased away some of the
anguish. That was until she saw the rage in Akan’s eyes. Fear
crossed her face. She sprang to her feet as Akan moved toward
her.