Page 3 of Kissed By the Gods
She’s screaming it as she pushes with all her might against him. He’s only 19, but Seb takes after our father and is already a mountain. He doesn’t budge. He brings his hands up to hold her, restraining her with surprising gentleness for someone of his size. I’ll never understand where he finds the strength to nurture that inner peace.
He leans down to kiss her forehead. “You know I can’t.”
And he won’t. Seb would never leave us here to face his punishment. Each of us in turn would be strung up in the village center and left to die of thirst or exposure, whichever came first. The soldiers would eliminate our whole family and then work through every man, woman, and child in the village until Seb turned himself in.
Little Leo’s lips are quivering now. He doesn’t understand. But then, I don’t understand the cruelty of the Collection, either. The soldiers take all the boys before they reach maturity and force them to work the Faraengardian mines. Some of them, like Father, come back to the farms five years later. They are changed, beaten, and defeated—but home. Others, like our older brother and my beau, die in the mines, and their bones rot in the depths of the earth.
The Kingdom of Faraengard tells us it’s our debt to pay for their protection from great evil. From the Kher’zenn, people whisper in low tones, like saying the name of the death demons from across the Ebonmere Sea too loudly will summon them to your doorstep.
I return my gaze to the horizon, where the four riders steadily approach. I imagine everyone has spotted them now, but I see the two swordsmen and two archers in perfect detail, even from this distance. The man in front already has a smirk on his face, like he’s going to enjoy wrenching us apart. He carries a sword sheathed at his side, but the shield he’s holding is what draws my eyes. It displays the royal crest of Faraengard. A faravar—thedivine winged warhorses the Altor warriors ride—rears between two lances crossed at the top. That hot rage flares.
Father leans down and whispers something to Leo, which sends him scampering into the house. He’ll hide under the bed like he’s been taught. Failure to run to our hiding spot fast enough is the only time Father has ever taken a switch to any of us.
Father turns to me. “Leina, take your mother back to the house and stay with Leo.”
Mother is weeping helplessly now against Seb’s chest, her hands twisting great fistfuls of his shirt. Yes, Father is right. I should take her back to the house, so she doesn’t have to watch. The king’s soldiers won’t tolerate insolence.
Nevertheless, I can’t tear my gaze from the approaching riders.Threat, something whispers from inside me.
“Leina!” My father shouts it at me, and I startle. It’s so unlike him to raise his voice. “Now, Leina!”
Yes, I need to help my mother. She’ll be hurt if she’s out here when the soldiers take Seb.
Seb sends me a soft smile. “It’s alright, Leina.” He starts to pass Mother to me, but he’s having a hard time escaping her grip.
I’m frozen to the spot. Seb lets out a mirthless laugh. “Come help me,” he says and nods his head toward my hand. “And let go of your death grip on the scythe. It won’t do us any favors if they think you’re holding a weapon.”
My gaze falls to my scythe. It’s as long as I am tall, with a blade I sharpened myself until my fingers bled. A sharp blade cuts through the wheat faster, I reasoned as I sat hunched over the whetstone hour after hour grinding the blade into a razor. But … I relax my fingers and roll the snath around in my hand, sending the bladed hook at the end swirling.
A weapon. Yes.
It’s the key unlocking this new, dangerous part of my mind, and I start moving.
But not toward my mother.
“The Selencians are a sullen, stubborn breed. They work the fields well enough when driven, though they complain of hunger as if such things matter in baseborn creatures. Best to keep them busy; idleness breeds discontent. How are the children? Tell little Warren to mind his lessons and kiss Kaelis for me.”
Letter from Captain Vorrine Lance to his wife Lastelle in Year 582 of the Eternal Wars
CHAPTER TWO
“Leina!”Father’s voice is still urgent, but he’s lowered it from a shout to a whisper. The soldiers are close enough to hear us. Their horses’ thundering hooves make the earth vibrate beneath my feet. It’s a sound that sends Selencian serfs running for whatever shelter we can find—a house, a barn, a forest, a bale of hay. But right now, fear isn’t what moves me. That vibration powers something potent within me. I’m almost … aroused? That can’t be right, but I keep moving forward.
Time itself seems to still, even as I keep walking to stand in front of my family. Mother has quieted as she watches me stride forward, her mouth agape. I can taste the fear emanating from her, and it leaves a rotten flavor on my tongue. It’s both acidic and cloying, like I’ve swallowed spoiled tomatoes.
Father and Seb are coming toward me, radiating anger, confusion, and fear. The anger is spicy, the confusion metallic. Without turning, I swipe my hand in the air behind me, a command for them all to stop.
Don’t come any closer. You’ll get hurt.
I can’t say the words out loud. They’re stuck in my head.
The soldier leading the group—a captain, according to his insignia—has narrowed his eyes at me, but not like I’m a threat. Like I’m a bug beneath his boot.
In some distant part of my mind, I know why he’s looking at me like that. I take after our mother. I’m petite. Seb could wrap his hand around my wrist twice over and snap it with ease. My dark hair is sheared short in the Selencian mourning tradition, and my face is no doubt caked with dirt and sweat. My only weapon is a rusted scythe with a wooden handle.
