Page 137 of Her Soul for a Crown
Trepidation chilled Anula’s spine. Perhaps Reeri was right. Perhaps she shouldn’t do this. She should throw him the relic and run. If she wasn’t ready for a crown, she couldn’t possibly be ready to set a Heavenly being to trial, force his confession, and mete out his punishment. She had no idea what the relic would do or whether Wessamony could fight back, let alone whether he would allow her to live long enough to hear his guilt.
But the sound of a door rattling, of her people desperately trying to escape another tyrant, pulled her from her doubts. She glanced at Bithul, forever at the ready behind her, and at Reeri, his promise to never leave her threatened.
The choice was simple. She had already made it, for the dead and for all those still living and yet to live. “I care because Eppawala and all her people were mine.”
“You survived.” A wicked smile spread, sharp teeth glinting in the Great Sword’s light. “Yet you offer your soul. What a waste.”
“Nothing is wasted when you seek your dreams, and I have long dreamed of this moment. Why kill all those innocents? You searched for the relic before, with only the seeker’s death.”
His horns burned blue. “Do not dare to think you know my ways.”
“Then tell me.”
“A bargain is a bargain. You know that full well. The seeker wanted to destroy the Polonnaruwans.”
She narrowed her eyes. “The village didn’t have to die to do that.”
Wessamony laughed darkly. “Violence takes whomever itwishes. Have you not noticed how it waits beneath the surface of all men? A mere whisper of fear and they turn feral. Anuradhapura feared Polonnaruwa, how their lives would change if their laws and faiths and families were taken from them. Kill before killed, is it not the balance of nature? All I did was strike a bargain and utter a whisper. Men did the rest, as they always do.”
Anula clenched a fist. Like Prophet Ayaan, he didn’t lie, but he wasn’t absolved either. Wessamony had been designed to destroy, yet he acted not out of balance, merely out of willful, sadistic, selfish choice.
“All that, and you still didn’t find the relic,” Anula pressed. “Was it worth it?”
A smirk grew. “Nothing is wasted when you seek your dreams.” He towered over her. One sharp nail lifted the edge of her necklace. “Is that not right, Raejina of Poisons?”
Anula’s chest rose and fell quickly. She didn’t dare blink. Wouldn’t give him the satisfaction.
“It is beautiful, is it not, man’s undying hatred for one another? Their unquenchable thirst for dominance? They are the reason the Bone Blade is hidden so well.”
The relic burned under Anula’s sari. This was it, her moment of vengeance, justice for the cosmos. He was so near—she only had to take it out and slash it across his being. As Fate had done to Destiny. Her fingers wrapped around the hilt, and with a deep breath, she returned Wessamony’s wicked smile. “I think you meanwas.”
Thrusting it between them, heavensong erupted in the amphitheater, a multitude of voices in chorus. A collective gasp echoed on the stairs. It nearly caught Anula’s breath.
“You found it,” Wessamony hissed, horns glowing brightest blue.
“Let the Yakkas go.”
“Hand me the blade,” Wessamony said, reaching, “and your bargain shall be complete. You have done well, seeker.”
“Let the Yakkas go,” she repeated. “All of them.”
“Anula,” Reeri rasped another warning.
“He will not heed you,” Kama said.
“Use it,” Sohon quavered.
“What about the other Yakkas? Your essence—”
“Too late!”
Wessamony’s flames flared. “Hand it to me now, soul offering, else all those in this room shall perish in a bloodshed more terrifying than your village’s.”
Anula shifted, placing herself between the murderous Lord and her people, including the Kattadiya.
“I am the Lord of the Second Heavens. You shall obey me!”
Anula raised her chin. “I am Anula of Anuradhapura. I obey no one.”
