Black Sun (Between Earth and Sky, #1)(107)

He reached out with shadow, a tendril of power that penetrated the priest’s chest like the sharpest blade and sought the essence of the sun god within. But he found nothing.

His nostrils flared. The black veins in his neck strained, and darkness leaked from his eyes like pitch.

“You are not the Sun Priest.” His voice was thunder, dark with rage. It was the cry of a murder, thwarted. “You are a lie.”

“Please!”

He cocked his head, seeking. She was here, somewhere. Not too far for a crow to fly, not so hidden he could not find her. But his time was short and this body he rode was failing. He must reconsider.

Something pricked his side. He turned his attention back to the false priest. He had broken a metal piece off his golden mask and used it to stab him in the stomach. He pulled the projectile out, examined it, tossed it to the side.

The false priest fell to his knees, and for the insult and the lie the Odo Sedoh used his obsidian knives to take his head.





CHAPTER 40




CITY OF TOVA

YEAR 325 OF THE SUN

(THE DAY OF CONVERGENCE)

A smart Teek survives the storm, but a wise Teek avoids storms altogether.

—Teek saying



Xiala stood on the balcony of the Standard Dog with the other patrons and watched the eclipse obfuscate the setting sun. The servants moved through the room, extinguishing all the lights, torch and resin alike. And she saw the same happening on the streets and, from her vantage point on the balcony, the next street and the next, until the whole district was dark. And then the districts around it, the one barely visible across the canyon and even Sun Rock itself.

She shivered in the darkness. It was like being at sea under a black cloud at midnight, save for the thinnest crescents of red that glowed on either side of the black hole that had once been the sun. People began shouting around her, yelling for the sun to come back.

She tapped the nearest woman on the shoulder.

“What’s happening?” she asked. “Why did they smother all the lights?”

“It’s part of the ceremony,” the woman explained. “All light must be put out with the end of the year. But don’t worry. Even now the Sun Priest is lighting a new fire on Sun Rock. Runners will take the fire to all four districts of the city, and all new fires will be set by her fire. A new year!”

Xiala nodded her thanks and moved away. Her hands trembled as she took a drink from the bottle she clutched by her side. She had been drinking since she woke up and came here, determined to find Aishe and forget last night. But she hadn’t worked up the nerve to ask about her friend, and the only thing in her head was the memory of Serapio’s hands on her body, his mouth as he sucked the honey from her fingers, the touch of his lips against her head.

She tried to remember why she had let him go. Why she hadn’t fought harder. She was Teek, and Teek were stubborn. Teek didn’t give up. And she had her Song, a power that could change a man’s will. Why hadn’t she ignored his protests and just forced him to stay?

The crowd was singing another song, and someone had begun stamping their feet impatiently, calling for the return of the sun. She looked around at all these strangers. She used to like a crowd, love a cantina, but all of it seemed sour now. Empty.

“Fuck this,” she said. She grabbed the nearest patron, a man in a flowered cape, and shoved the bottle at him.

“Here,” she said. “My treat.”

The man looked confused at first, but when Xiala smiled and insisted, he took it and thanked her.

Xiala wound through the balcony crowd and down the steps until she was back on the street. Crowds of people milled about in the darkness or gathered by bonfires that were waiting to be lit with the new year’s fire. She could feel her Teek eyes widening, shifting to take in what light they could, but it was so dark she had difficulty seeing her feet before her. She muttered apologies as she bumped shoulders and avoided obstacles, moving through the crowd. She didn’t realize where she was going until she was at the landing of the bridge to Sun Rock.

She hesitated, looking out at the expanse. She could see something was happening on the Rock. Darkness, darker even than the false night around her, roiled over the mesa, churning like a living thing. She thought she heard screams, faint and distant. She couldn’t be sure over the singing and shouting. The woman on the balcony had said that a runner with a torch would come over the bridge, so she squinted into the blackness, looking for any sign of an approaching light.

Something was coming. Something big and churning that set the bridge swaying. The thick braided cables rocked and strained against their stone bases. Screams—she was sure there was screaming now—grew louder.

The churning mass revealed itself all at once. Dozens, no, a hundred or more people were running toward her, shoving and pushing to get across the bridge. She watched in horror as the great span tilted, and a woman dressed in a bright blue dress toppled over the edge. Another followed her, a body too dark to identify.

Xiala blinked. It had happened so fast she couldn’t be sure she had actually seen it. The shadows were thick, even with her improved eyesight, and no one had stopped or cried out. The mob was still coming, and she ducked to the side just as bodies streamed across the bridge. Their solstice finery was torn and bloodstained, eyes wide in shock or broken by fear.

Her mind tried to take it in, tried to process it all.