“Kaes sent you to me, because you can’t reach the Dead God without me.” She stopped and bent so that they were eye to eye. The scent of lavender and orchid filled his nose, and he relaxed against his will. “You need my brother Nyx if you’re to survive what’s coming.”
Shaking his head, Caelan fought to order his thoughts. It was like being put under a hypnotic spell. He couldn’t think. The compulsion to do exactly as she asked was overwhelming. And why wouldn’t he? She was the Goddess of Life, the protector of all living things. Of course he wanted to do exactly as she said.
“Dead God. Nyx. That’s…that’s in Zastrad, right?”
“Yes, he’s waiting for you,” she whispered, and he was blasted with another wave of lavender.
Caelan stumbled, smacking himself on one cheek hard enough to make pain blossom across his face. It helped to clear his head. Why was she trying to control his mind? He’d do whatever he must to protect his people.
“Stop it!” he shouted. “Who is the woman? How is she trying to destroy Thia? All I could get out of Kaes was that a storm was coming.”
Tula laughed and it was like the twitter of birds. “Everything with Kaes is a storm.”
“Please, Goddess Tula, what’s going on?” He carefully turned toward her to find that she was back where he’d first spotted, nearly lost among the other plant life. There was a frown on her face, but it looked frozen there as if she didn’t move, didn’t even breathe.
“The Goddess of the Hunt is close to breaking free. The woman belongs to Zyros.”
“Zyros, Goddess of the Hunt. The one locked in the Blood Stone in the Ordas?” Just that little bit felt as if it were going to break his brain. “Do you mean she belongs to Zyros like how I belong to Kaes?”
Tula nodded and Caelan’s knees nearly gave out. Somehow this woman had bonded with the Goddess of the Hunt.
“How? How is that even possible?” Caelan asked, but Tula didn’t reply. Maybe she didn’t know. Or maybe she didn’t deem it as important. Caelan shook his head. “So, this woman has bonded with the Goddess of the Hunt and is using New Rosanthe to get access to all the godstones. She wants to rule Thia?”
“No,” Tula replied softly. “If she belongs to Zyros, her goal is only one thing: to free her goddess.”
Caelan took a careful step forward, his eyes narrowed, trying to read the subtle shifts in her expression. It was as if the goddess were afraid. Not just worried about the people of Thia, but genuinely terrified.
“How did the Goddess of the Hunt become trapped?” he inquired so very carefully.
“Zyros became too bloodthirsty and cruel. She was killing all the humans and needed to be stopped,” Tula explained, her voice a soft, burbling stream. “We fought and she nearly destroyed us all. It was only when the five of us banded together that we were able to trap her, but it required us all to be trapped in the same crystals as well.”
“And that’s why you can’t be moved. It’s part of the trap.”
The goddess nodded. Her gaze had grown distant as if she were staring thousands of years back to that moment, lost in a battle that had doomed her to an existence of sleeping in a crystal. His heart lurched and ached for her.
“But if she’s trapped, how is she in danger of getting out?”
Tula’s gaze softened as a sad smile crossed her lips. “She is that powerful, Caelan. It took five gods to stop her and even now, we are barely holding her. The Ordas exists as it is because of her. If one of us falls…”
Rubbing his head with the heel of his palm, Caelan straightened. He could do this. “So, I bond with you and then travel to Zastrad so that I can meet with the Dead God. From there, I can work on getting rid of this crazy woman bonded to Zyros, the Goddess of the Hunt.”
“That’s the hope,” Tula murmured.
And that wasn’t reassuring in the least. Hope? They were working on hope right now? Fantastic.
“Okay, I’ll travel to Zastrad as soon as I can get things settled in Stormbreak.”
“It cannot wait, Caelan,” Tula warned.
“And my people can’t be left to suffer,” he snapped at her. “They’ve lost their queen, people have been killed. You’re telling their king and Guardian of the Godstone to run across the world to meet with the Dead God. I can’t just walk out on them.”
Tula didn’t move, but wood creaked and leaves shivered loudly with no breeze. The air became heavy and difficult to breathe. Even the golden sunlight seemed to dim and flicker. “You are more than King of Erya, you are the Guardian of the Godstones. You are the Protector of Thia. Your duty is to all of this world. You linger too long in Stormbreak, and you will fail all the people. There will be no Erya, Caspagir, or even New Rosanthe. Only the Ordas.”