“That’s right,” the girl said. “Derger is strong. He took the beautiful woman, as is his right. The potter should’ve been humble and found someone more suited to him... an ugly woman.”
Sankesh didn’t argue. He had tried to contradict the child once and remind her that, despite Derger being strong, the potter and the girl had suffered greatly because of what he’d done. Alas, Ragar had been walking by at the time. Sankesh had been whipped badly that day.
“And so, the potter went on his endless journey. He visited many places, looking for an island floating in the sky.”
“Why? Why? Why?” The boys cried.
They were rather rude. Their mother had no time to discipline them, and Aisha would’ve been beaten if she’d ever tried to teach them manners. The lashes that were meant for the nanny always punished Sankesh instead. Fortunately, this happened very rarely.
“Because one of the goddesses left an elixir there for him that, according to legend, could make him as strong as the gods, allowing him to break into the Seventh Heaven and take his beloved away from Derger. He wandered the earth for hundreds of thousands of years, trying to find this island, but he didn’t know that Derger had cast a curse on him. Even if he’d walked right past the flying island, he would’ve never seen it. While the gods can’t interfere with the lives of mortals, after the elixir was created, the Jasper Emperor allowed Derger to blind the immortal potter just to be safe.”
Sankesh finished carving the desert raven and handed it to the girl. She accepted it gratefully and hugged it to her chest. The northerners couldn’t make toys, and people from the surrounding villages sometimes came to the chief and bought Sankesh’s toys, who then received an extra portion of meat as a reward.
“The legends say that the Immortal created hundreds of toys. Just like me. He gave these toys eyes so they could help him look for the island. Alas, our world is so huge that even after hundreds of thousands of years, he couldn’t find the elixir and free his beloved. And the girl couldn’t love Derger, who then turned her into a stone as punishment.”
“How did he become an Immortal?” The absentminded boy asked. “He was just a potter, and Immortals are the strongest people alive.”
“No one knows,” Sankesh shrugged. “Some say that he devoted himself entirely to the path of cultivation, went on the most terrible and amazing adventures, and saw all the wonders of the world. Others say that it’s all just a myth, and that the potter died of grief.” Sankesh lowered his voice to a whisper. “But some, in the darkness of night, when no one is listening, claim in hushed whispers that he made a deal with the Demon Emperor himself.”
“The Demon Emperor,” the children drawled. “Who’s that?”
Sankesh was about to tell them the legend of the demons and their Lord when the door opened and Aisha appeared on the porch. By the Evening Stars, she was a vision. She had a thin waist, long, braided hair, lush breasts and hips, big, beautiful eyes, bronze skin, and high cheekbones. Back in the Sea of Sand, every sheikh and sultan would have tried to woo her.
Even here in the north, where the people had different standards of beauty, free men often gazed at her with desire.
“Come back into the house,” she called in a velvety voice. “Your grandfather is here, and he brought guests with him.”
“Grandfather!”
The children leapt to their feet and ran into the house. Sankesh followed. He paused on the porch and took Aisha’s hand in his while no one was looking at them. She responded with a smile and kissed his cheek. They had been together for two years in secret. The chief would’ve never approved of their love. In the future, when his grandchildren grew up, he was going to give Aisha to one of his neighbors as a precious gift.
Their love had only one chance — Aisha needed to have a baby. But both of them were weak practitioners. Conceiving children was always difficult for those who followed the path of cultivation. Unfortunately, the Evening Stars hadn’t blessed them with a baby.
“Is everything all right, my love?”
Aisha smiled and nodded.
“I have a good feeling about last night.” She stroked her belly tenderly.
“I’m talking about the master’s guests.”
She looked worried as she shook her head.
“I don’t know. The chief of the Snow Giant Village and his son are visiting…”
Sankesh paled. Roslar was the son of the chief of their nearest neighboring village… He’d been here twice before. Both times, Aisha had had to stay near their chief. All the surrounding villages knew that Roslar had an unhealthy obsession with bronze-skinned women.
By the Evening Stars, if Sankesh had known… If only… He would’ve taken her away at once, and they would have plunged into the snowcapped mountains together, going where even the bravest of the northerners didn’t dare venture. That way, at least a few more moments of happiness would’ve awaited them there.
Chapter 420
“HA-A-A-A-A-DJA-A-A-AR!” Sankesh roared again.
Hadjar, clutching a piece of his broken sword, stared at his opponent. The ancient flying island was crumbling all around them. It was plummeting toward the ground. The wind whistled, fluttering his clothes. At first, Hadjar thought Sankesh would attack him, but Sunshine looked like a defeated giant. The energy was oozing out of his emotional wounds. Not new ones, either, but old wounds that had suddenly reopened.
“Hadjar,” Sankesh repeated, much more quietly, “what have you done, you fool... what have you done…”
The sun was setting. Reflected by the drops of the elixir, a stray sunbeam illuminated an old slave brand on the back of Sunshine’s pale skin. Hadjar had no doubt that Sankesh had been a slave before becoming a true cultivator, which meant that… The scar wasn’t on his body, or even his soul, but somewhere deeper. It was so deeply ingrained into his very core that it had survived even Sankesh’s complete transformation.
Sankesh’s halberd fell from his limp hands. He dropped to his knees, forgetting his pride and his delusions about being the strongest, and he crawled over to the shards. He lifted them gently in his arms and rocked them like a child.
“Aisha.” He whispered.
Hadjar watched in horror as the Halberd Spirit hovering behind the strongest warrior he had ever fought cracked. Sankesh was dying. Not from physical wounds, but from wounds to his very soul. Golden energy seeped out of those wounds and flew through the air, disappearing in a shower of sparks.
***
Sankesh and Aisha went into the hall, and from there, into the dining room. The chief’s house was so large that it could comfortably accommodate his entire retinue.
The dining room was often used to host feasts, joyous occasions when the whole village would gather here, but now it was almost empty. Only a few people sat at the long table: the chief, his son and daughter-in-law, with Goonar, the chief, on one side and the guests on the other.
The chief of the Snow Giant Village was a short, skeletal old man, even by the standards of the Sea of Sand. He was leaning on a staff. He had two sons: Dokie and Roslar. Both looked like mountains made flesh — tall and broad-shouldered, with thick red beards and long ponytails with charms woven into them.