Total pages in book: 169
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 161535 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 808(@200wpm)___ 646(@250wpm)___ 538(@300wpm)
I need to stay.
The next morning, I head back out to the swamp and the temple there with Kina as my guide. We both carry heavily laden packs, since I’m determined to live out there instead of staying at the comfortable farm. My job is clear, and I can’t avoid it. More than that, I don’t want to. Kina and her mother are distressed at my decision, but I remind them that it’s my divine calling or something, and they’re eager to make the gods happy. Going with us are a few changes of clothes for me (more of the plain, cool linen slip dresses), dried fish and meat, cheese, bread, and some other foodstuffs I don’t recognize. Kina’s pack has a rolled-up padded mat for me to sleep on, along with a pillow, blankets, and a trunk full of “necessities.” Her bag looks heavy enough to drag me to the ground, but Kina carries it easily and I’m reminded that she’s a farm girl and made of sturdy stuff. I’m the wilting flower that knows how to make coffee and not much else.
Also with us?
Dingle the goat, the one I saved from sacrifice.
The farmer showed up with him late last night, and now he’s mine. He’s adorable and small, with two tiny buds for horns, cute little hooves, and a black and white coat. He trots at my side, tiny hooves clopping merrily, as if he wants nothing more than to venture into the swamp with me.
The walk back to the swamp is slow-going. We take a flat, muddy road with wheel ruts going down the middle. Off to both sides of the road are thick clusters of trees, some of them evergreens, some tall and spindly, with a high canopy. There are birds everywhere, and the smell of rot and fetid water grows the closer we get to the swamp itself.
Kina talks endlessly about things I should expect living at the temple in the swamp. “You’ll want to keep your food covered at all times and off the floor, so crawling things stay out of it. Keep the goat close to you because of alligators. Oh, and don’t drink the water.”
“The…swamp water?” She really thinks I would drink the swamp water. Seriously? Do I seem that helpless?
“Aye. There’s a blessed fountain inside the temple that has flowing water. Drink and use that one to bathe. Any other water, like from the bowls to catch rainwater, might be full of worms.”
Delightful.
“And remember to set up the netting over your bed so the mosquitos don’t feast upon you. Though perhaps when the god arrives, you can ask him to make them ignore you. I imagine he’s the sort that likes mosquitos.”
I imagine he is, but I also don’t plan on asking him for anything. I haven’t thought about what I’ll say or what he’ll be like. I’ve just been taking things one day at a time, but now Kina’s words remind me that I don’t know anything about the man-slash-god that I’m going to be serving for the rest of my days. A lump forms in my throat at the thought. Have I made a mistake?
No. He could be the most awful person imaginable and I’d still have volunteered just to give David his life, his future. He deserves it.
“Tell me about Lord Kalos,” I say to Kina. “What’s he look like?”
She spits over her shoulder, nearly hitting me. “We don’t say his name. We don’t want his attention.”
“Right, of course. Tell me about him, then. What’s he like?”
Kina thinks as she walks, her steps brisk despite the muggy morning air. Me, I feel like I’m drowning in the heat, and my skin is slick with sweat. “Like his statues, maybe? I don’t rightly know. He is the Vulture God. All the stories say that he’s as handsome as he is terrible, but not much more than that. The gods are always beautiful unless they choose to be otherwise.” She thinks for a moment as we walk, stepping to the side to avoid a rotting branch along the side of the rutted road. “Though the Lord of Disease does seem like the type to choose otherwise.”
He might indeed. I need to brace myself for that. He might be covered in pustules or something awful. He might be a leper. I don’t know what to expect. “Can you tell me anything else about him?”
“No more than what I’ve already told you, Mistress. One of his aspects always shows up at the temple here, and the others at temples in other lands. He picks the same spots every time. We are lucky for him to bless our people, and we’re lucky to be on the eve of an Anticipation.”
She doesn’t look like she feels lucky. She looks terrified. I can’t blame her. If all the gods in my world were coming back to Earth for bad behavior to fight it out in some Hunger Games-style contest, I’d be a little freaked out, too. “Have any other gods ever shown up in this area?”