"Does it match up?" I ask her. "What he told you about what happens afterward?"
Margo grimaces. "Of course not. Like I said, he's a liar. Good thing he's trying for god of knowledge and not truth, or he'd really be fucked." She pats her hands against her sides, as if she doesn't know what to do with herself, and then looks at me. "He told me that the moment he ascended, I'd automatically be sent home. It sounded a little too good to be true."
"He might not be wrong?" I venture.
"Yeah, but now we both know he's guessing." She snorts and then pulls her hood back over her hair. "Well, I'd better run back before he notices I'm gone. I'll get those scribes sent over and let Seth know that we're delaying. Day after, you say?" At my nod, she gives me a big, genuine smile. "I wish he hadn't fucked this, Carly. I'd have loved for us to be friends. I could use one right now. I'm over my head and the water keeps climbing higher every day." Her bright smile wavers. "But if you ever need to talk, well, you know where I am."
I return her smile, but that's it. I wish we could be friends, too. But even though Seth and Kassam are supposed to be on the same page, we clearly can't trust each other. I can't be sure that she won't turn around and race back to Seth's side with everything I tell her. I like Margo, but I don't trust her.
In fact, the only person I trust in this world is Kassam.
Margo gives me one last sad-eyed look, then turns and leaves. "I'll send the scribes over shortly." She traipses back through the woods, her footsteps as heavy leaving as they were when she arrived. I watch her as she disappears, feeling a little guilty for not being more welcoming. I'm a bartender. I'm used to being a friendly type. But I touch the stitches between my breasts and wonder if she's going to take what I told her and confront Seth, or if she's playing her own game.
If Margo's wise, she won't trust Seth at all.
The moment Margo disappears, Kassam melts out of the woods, his antlers twined with fresh vines. It's like he was lurking nearby, just waiting for her to leave, and I give him a skeptical look. "Your timing is convenient."
"Isn't it just?" He grins at me. "I was busy scavenging food for your guest." He holds out a withered leaf with a sly smirk. "Mmm, delicious."
"You're ridiculous," I tell him, but I'm grinning. I pluck the wilted leaf out of his hand and toss it to the ground. "You're supposed to be the bigger man here."
"Oh, I am much, much bigger," he purrs, sliding an arm around my shoulders and pulling me close again. "Shall I show you just how big?"
I poke his abdomen. "I've seen it a dozen times already." I glance back where Margo left, and I can't help but wonder. "Do you think he sent her over to suss us out? Or was that genuine?"
"It is impossible to say. We will not trust them. Not in the slightest." He says it easily, as if it's as simple as hitting a switch.
I'm not so convinced. "How do we know he won't turn around and betray you with Riekki?"
Kassam shrugs. "Because he needs her gone. And we cannot trust him. But we can keep him close. You know how to hold a snake, do you not?"
I bite back a laugh. "Of course not. I'm a bartender from Chicago. Why the heck would I need to know how to hold a snake?"
The god of the wild grins back at me. "If you grab them by the tail," he says, nudging one of my boots with his bare foot, "you might think you are safe because you are giving yourself enough distance, but you're also giving them enough room to attack." He moves forward and curls one hand around my throat. "But if you take them by the jaw, as close as possible to the fangs, you give them no room to strike. Understand?"
I think I do. We're keeping Seth as close as possible so we can control him. "If that's the case, then Margo should ride a griffin with me on attack day, don't you think? As extra security? It'll be the safest place for her." I flutter my lashes innocently. "And of course, if anything should happen to you because Seth betrays you, she can be griffin food."
"I like the way you think, my little light."
I don't. I'm actually sad that I have to put Margo's life on the line like that. But this is a desperate gambit, and there's no room for another betrayal. My heart has not only been stabbed, it's been hardened. If it gets Kassam through this, though, I won't care. All that matters is getting him back to where he belongs. He's waited long enough for his return.
46
Despite our scribes and their best efforts, no one leaves Hrit Svala.
"She will not let them go," Kassam says to me from atop griffin-back the next evening, as we circle the city over and over again, looking for trails of people abandoning the city, but there are none. "Either she has reassured them they are safe, or they are too afraid of her wrath to flee."
I hate it. I hate that everyone is staying, because I know innocents are bound to get hurt. We have two armies waiting at their doorstep, one full of wild animals, and the other of soldiers looking for a fight. I want to scream with frustration at the tiny plumes of smoke drifting up from the trees—cookfires from a thousand chimneys. We've warned them that they're on the verge of attack, and they've ignored us like we don't matter.
It makes me worry. Does the goddess Riekki know something that we don't? She's the goddess of knowledge, after all. Does she already know that we lose this and thus has told everyone to stay put? Or is this all a ploy to make us think twice?
"You are overthinking it, my Carly," Kassam says to me as the griffin circles around the city nestled in the trees once more. "You are assuming that these people mean something to her. They mean nothing to her, so she will keep them close and use them as a shield to protect herself. She thinks that as long as there are innocents in her city, there is a chance we will hold back."
"And is there a chance?" I ask, because I have to.
"No." Kassam's voice is flat. "We have warned them. If they stay, they know the consequences. They would rather stay than risk Riekki's wrath, so they will feel mine instead." He steers the griffin away from the deepest part of the forest city with a touch of his hand, flying us back toward the waiting army.
I hold tight onto his waist as the griffin wheels about, and try not to get upset. We did offer them a choice. We've done what we can, haven't we? Even so, I hate this. I hate that everyone is nestled down in their homes with two freaking armies camped at their doorstep, and no one seems to be moving. "So what do we do now?"
Kassam is quiet for a moment, then glances over his shoulder at me. "Normally I would not ask, but you are my wife, and I value your opinion. I can be swift but brutal, or I can take a slower approach that might cost more of my army's lives but might save humans…humans that did not choose to flee when given the choice, I remind you."
I'm almost afraid to ask what he means when he says “swift but brutal.” "Go on."
"If I am swift but brutal, I harness my magic and use everything I can against them. I wilt the trees so their homes tumble from the branches. I turn their livestock against them. I speak to the worms that live in their guts and demand that they chew their way out—"