Page 131 of Heir

Aiz looked askance at Mother Div when she said this. She’d seen her feed, and it was clear Mother Div’s prey sawsomethingbefore they died.

But Aiz didn’t ask for an explanation, for who knew what horrors Mother Div might speak of? Aiz’s sleep was already plagued by nightmares. Mostly of Quil staggering through a sandstorm.Ilar!he called.Ilo!In the dream, he discovered her trail and followed her through the blue-veined canyon, past the strange runes and carvings and into the Durani’s chamber.

Stop, she tried to scream.Do not look.

His steps quickened and he drew his scim. It fell from nerveless fingers as he entered the chamber. As he gasped in horror at the blood splattering the walls, Aiz’s scim abandoned, her pack sticky with viscera.

She watched as he found Ruh.

Oh, Idaka, if you knew the still horror of a child dying from starvation, she thought,or the terrible silence of a slum where every adult has been conscripted, you might understand why I allowed such a sacrifice.

As he held Ruh’s body, as he convulsed in grief, she longed to reach out to him. Hold him. She had used him, but she cared for him too. His grief rekindled her own, and she would always awaken with her face wet.

“Was it real?” she asked Mother Div the first night she had the dream.

The cleric nodded. “The last vestiges of the First Durani’s magic,” she said. “Haunting us still. Let me ease the dreams away, child. For I am a mindsmither and such a task is simple for me.”

But Aiz shook her head. The dream reminded her of her sacrifice. It hurt. And she deserved the pain.

A week after leaving the chamber, Aiz waited at the beach on the southern edge of the Empire as, thankfully, Mother Div found sustenance far away.

Aiz felt a tug in her chest—Div’s tether to her. It grew thinner the farther the cleric went, yet never wholly disappeared. When Aiz willed it, Mother Div would return. But she could offer Aiz no power unless she had fed.

It was a relief to have her gone. They couldn’t read each other’s thoughts, but each knew the other’s will, the tenor of her feelings. It was suffocating.

Right now, for instance. A piercing hunger consumed Aiz, the kind that stank of death, the kind that she had grown up fearing. It was followed by a sudden fullness, as if she’d consumed a marvelous, nourishing meal. The feeling faded quickly, but it happened again and again. Until finally, Div was satiated and returned to Aiz. As she approached, Aiz looked away from the blood on her hem.

“I brought you a gift, daughter.”

Something glimmered in Div’s hand, and she opened it to reveal a block of Loha as big as a goose egg. It was more than Aiz had ever seen at once, even in the Aerie forges where the metal was alloyed. Enough to innervate a hundred Sails.

“You took this from an Empire soldier? A Mask?”

“From two.” Div’s face glowed with pride.

Aiz reached for her patience, finding what little remained to her. Div, she’d noticed, had a propensity for doing things by force. The product of being imprisoned for so long, perhaps.

“We will not steal the Loha,” Aiz said. “We must still treat with the Empress of the Martials. If all her Masks are dead, and we come requesting the metal on their faces, she will not be inclined to hear our offer. Come. You have fed enough. We make for Kegar.”

Div bowed her head, and though Aiz watched for resentment, she felt none.

“You must eat too, my daughter,” the cleric said with a motherly attentiveness. “Let me bring you food, and then let us rest so you have the strength for the next leg of our journey.”

They made their way south, Div traveling far for her sustenance. Aiz felt every death. Over time, the deaths grew more plentiful. Though not more necessary.

Div, Aiz realized quickly through their bond, was taking more than she needed.

Not long after leaving the Empire, they reached the border between Diyane and Kegar, marked by the snowy blue pinnacles of a massive mountain range. Dawn approached and they spiraled down to a forested clearing before the first rays of light broke the horizon. Mother Div brought Aiz bread and fruit she’d pilfered from somewhere, then waited eagerly for Aiz to set her free to feed.

After Div disappeared, Aiz set the food aside and focused on the cord between them. She waited for hunger, then the satiation. The third time it happened, she yanked on the cord with all her might.

Div appeared almost out of the air, crashing to the earth, kicking up a cloud of dust and pine needles. Her face and hands were covered in blood, and a ravenous frenzy appeared to have consumed her.

“That’s enough.” Aiz tried to steady the tremor in her voice. “No more. I know your strength. Three hearts are more than enough to get us across the mountains.”

“I will not be strong enough for you!” Div warned as the bloodlust in her face faded. She wrung her hands. “What if you fall because I cannot keep you aloft?”

Aiz sensed no lie in the cleric’s concern, and she softened her tone. “I think you don’t realize how much you take, Mother Div. I blame the First Durani and what she did to you. She was truly a creature of spite,for these sacrifices are unnatural and counter to who you were in your first life. That’s why you have me. I’ll decide how much you need. And I say that you cannot feed in Kegar. The mother of our people cannot harm her children.”

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