Page 133 of Heir

Tiral rose from the Tel Ilessi’s throne to the speaker’s lectern.

Aiz could kill him now. Knock him off the dais and use the wind to dash his brains against the earth below. Her body yearned to do it, so much that she’d half lifted her hands before remembering she must first accuse him of his crimes. She could not have him become a martyr.

“Are you with me, Mother Div?”

The cleric seemed to swell beside her. “Always, Aiz.”

Aiz took careful aim and blasted the lectern to pieces. Tiral screamed and scrambled back, cowering, and Aiz landed on the dais, bringing a vicious wind with her, pinning him to the throne he’d stolen.

In the crowds, some cried out, some gasped. Clerics cloaked in gray knelt, praying to Mother Div. She was at Aiz’s side, looking at the Triarchs with interest that bordered on hunger.

“They are powerful,” Div breathed. “Such magic! But their minds are too cruel. They would not make good sacrifices.”

“No,” Aiz murmured, looking from Triarch to Triarch, remembering the last time she was here. Remembering how they treated her like offal.

Aiz raised her voice and called on the wind to carry it to her people.

“I am Aiz bet-Dafra, of Dafra slum,” she said. “I am a child of Kegar and daughter of the evening star. You, Tiral bet-Hiwa, are a traitor to your people and your faith.”

Tiral bared his teeth like a feral dog and tried to rise from the throne where he was so ungracefully pinned. But Aiz held him down, Div’s power pouring into her.

“You have sacrificed countless children and clerics and Snipes to furtheryour warmongering.” Aiz’s voice boomed across the silent crowd. “You have imprisoned innocents in the Tohr and killed them with your own hands. Most foully, you have claimed the mantle of the Holy Tel Ilessi. You have blasphemed against Mother Div and thus do I declare you apostate and transgressor. For this, you deserve death.”

The Triarchs appeared stunned into silence. But Tiral?

Tiral laughed.

“Haven’t you eaten enough dirt, Snipe?” He called up his own wind now and shoved against Aiz, grinning when she held firm. “Are you hungry for more?”

Aiz siphoned more power from Div, pushing against Tiral. But she’d forgotten his strength, and he anticipated her force, spinning to the side so Aiz staggered forward on the dais. He struck her from the back, knocking her to her knees, wrapping a tight noose of wind around her neck.

Aiz gritted her teeth and sent a missile of air straight into his forehead. Tiral’s hold loosened and she lurched to her feet.

“Fight harder, Aiz!” Div’s sweetness had soured to impatience so swiftly that she sounded like someone else entirely. “You cannot die, else I will be left with no anchor to this world, a lost spirit.”

“More power!” Aiz screamed, for Tiral had compressed the air around Aiz into hot needles, and Aiz struggled to hold them back. Div complied, and Aiz repelled the attack with a shield like the one she’d used to save Quil weeks ago.

She struck out at Tiral with knives of air, hoping to end him quickly. He threw his own shield up, and Aiz fell back, her will flagging, her windsmithing sputtering. How was he able to resist Aiz, even with Div’s power?

“I told you we needed more!” Div said, her implication clear.More children. Kegari children.

“The Triarchs!” Aiz gasped as Tiral flung his own throne at her. “Take them!”

“Their impurity will weaken me! Let me feed and I shall funnel such power into you that you can shred the skin from Tiral’s bones.”

“Not Kegari!” Aiz whimpered. “Not our children.”

“We have no time, girl! Would you rather that they suffer under this tyrant?”

Aiz screamed her defiance and used the last of her strength to roll away from Tiral’s attack, a blast of wind that nearly spun her off the dais. Her nails scraped against the wood as she scrabbled desperately to hold on.

“You cannot withstand another strike,” Div said. “If you wish to win, Aiz, you must let me help you!”

Death was inches away. Seconds. If Aiz offered up the children of Kegar to Holy Div, she would be sacrificing her own people. And if she didn’t, Tiral would remain Tel Ilessi, and Spires only knew what hells he would wreak upon them.

“He’s coming, Aiz,” Mother Div said. “Decide!”

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