Fevered Star (Between Earth and Sky, #2)(20)

“Respectfully, Auntie.” Esa’s voice was tight with exasperation. “You are here because I asked for your advice. It is my decision as matron, and mine alone, in the end.”

“You are not a queen unchecked, Esa.” Mataya’s words were bold, but she took a step back from Okoa, a clear acknowledgment of Esa’s authority.

Esa did not respond, only lifted her head a bit higher. “As I was saying, the Sky Made clans are not our enemies. Or at least, they weren’t until you slaughtered the priesthood.”

“I…?” Okoa gaped, the anger draining from him like someone had opened a sieve. Only then did he register what Esa had said to his aunt Juuna, about him being a beast. “You think I’m responsible for Sun Rock?”

“You fled after the Convergence. What else were we to think?”

“Not that I am capable of slaughter!”

“You’ve been in Hokaia for years at the war college. Who really knows you anymore, or what they taught you there?”

“All Shield captains attend the war college.” He gestured to his cousin. “Chaiya attended the war college.”

“What we do know,” Esa continued, ignoring his logic in favor of her escalation, “is that you met with the Odohaa after Mother’s funeral, and we know they attacked the tower the morning of the Convergence—”

“What?” This was news.

“A failed few,” Chaiya explained. “They didn’t even make it across the bridge into Otsa. A handful of the younger members had gathered at dawn with plans to attack the celestial tower. But there were Watchers on the bridge, and they retreated as soon as they were spotted. No one was harmed, and their own leader confessed it the next day, afraid they would be blamed for Sun Rock. But we know they didn’t kill the priests.”

“Which leaves you, Okoa,” Esa accused. “The only one seen arriving, and leaving, on—”

“I killed the Watchers.” The Odo Sedoh’s voice came from behind him. “I am responsible for their slaughter.”

Silence fell. The lanterns in the room flickered. The light from the windows, which had been weak before, now seemed to retreat entirely, casting them all into shadow. Esa, always so quick with a biting word, stared, mouth open. The guards who had rushed to block Okoa shifted at their posts but did not come close. One fell to his knees, spear clattering loudly as it hit the floor. Muttered prayers flowed breathlessly from his lips.

Okoa felt the Odo Sedoh at his back, his approach like the roll of a dark tide. He suddenly remembered the warnings of the Odohaa, that the Odo Sedoh was a storm, a force of nature, and Okoa shivered, the hairs on his neck rising.

One moment human and joking, the next this darkness, Okoa thought. How am I supposed to understand this man, this god?

The Odo Sedoh’s warning that the gods were unknowable came back to him.

Cool fingers against his shoulder made him flinch, but he only wanted to pass. Okoa stepped aside.

He watched Esa take the man in. The bloodstained pants, the wild waves of hair and liquid eyes, the brutal haahan that covered his bare chest and arms, and the fact that he wore Okoa’s beloved feathered cloak.

She met his gaze, undaunted, but her voice trembled. “Who are you?”

He heard Mataya murmur a prayer, and Juuna suck in a wet sob.

“You know who this is, Sister.” The lanterns had steadied, and the shadows had withdrawn, but he could not suppress the chills that rattled through his core.

Juuna dropped into a low bow, and Mataya followed.

“The Odo Sedoh.” It was Chaiya who whispered the name, his face drained of color, as if he witnessed a ghost made flesh.

Close enough, Okoa thought. For he is something unnatural.

The Odo Sedoh spread his arms wide. “Okoa’s only transgression is that he took me from Sun Rock and allowed me to recover from my injuries among the crows. If your Sky Made clans seek to place the blame on someone, let it be me.”

Esa swallowed and seemed to rally. “You are responsible for the fall of the priesthood? You alone?”

“The priesthood is responsible for their own fate. I was only the instrument of our god’s vengeance.”

“Our god…” Esa murmured.

“The crow god,” Juuna whispered helpfully.

Esa closed her eyes, and Okoa saw the muscle in her jaw tic. “How—”

Commotion from the hall cut her off.

Esa’s laugh was high and shrill. “What now?”

Okoa gestured for the guards to investigate the disturbance, and they hustled to the noise, slipping out the doors and barring them after they passed. There was shouting. It sounded like a dozen people, at least.

Okoa leaned close. “Can you understand anything?”

“There are many voices. Unclear who… someone named Maaka. He is requesting an audience.”

“Skies,” Esa muttered. “The Odohaa are bold. They have been clamoring at my door, yelling to see me, demanding that I do something. But I told them—”

“Not an audience with you,” the Odo Sedoh corrected. “An audience with me.”

The matron’s eyes widened.

Okoa could almost see his sister’s mind working. Her sudden realization of how easily the Odo Sedoh could seize power, her power, should she not get control of the situation quickly. A man who had slaughtered the Watchers. A villain to the clans but a folk hero to the Odohaa.