he should have run from her instead of pestering her. Baru likely knew more than he let on, or knew more than he was aware of.
Leandra cleared her throat. “Who would want to pretend to be a cult? That would be an excellent mystery for a captain of the watch to solve.”
Captain Kekoa smiled weakly. “And I’ll be wishing to fish up a whale while I’m at it. But I will tell my goddess of what you said, though I suspect you might be seeing her before I will.”
“I think I might indeed,” she grumbled while motioning to Dhrun. “Captain, is there anything else you require of me? I have a royal summons I have to attend to, and I now suspect that it might be related to the ill news you have brought me.”
“No, my Lady Warden. Please pray to Dhamma for justice to find whoever is behind this.” He bowed.
She and Dhrun returned the gesture and then set off for her family compound. Holokai fell in beside her. She saw with relief that his eyes and teeth were humanoid. His expression was one of pained restraint. This was the trouble with gods of violence: a taste always made them want more.
“Hungry?” she asked. In truth, she was impressed that he had avoided touching any of the bodies.
“Enough to eat a whole pig,” he groaned through tensed jaw.
“Can you wait until your afternoon prayers reach you?”
“Not if you bring me anywhere near a pig,” Holokai grunted and then began to glare at Dhrun with eyes going all black. “Something amusing, four-arms?”
Leandra turned to see that Dhrun was looking at the other god with a smirk. “No, Captain Holokai,” he said in a calm tone. His hands were pressed together in supplication at his heart and his belly. “I am impressed that you’re able to suppress such instincts.”
Holokai brought his leimako up, grasping its long handle with both hands. “You’d be even more impressed if I stopped suppressing the instinct to saw off a few of your extra limbs, insect.”
“I have never wrestled a fish before,” Dhrun said thoughtfully. “Slippery, I guess you’d be. Might be a challenge, if you can control your tiny fish brain.”
“What makes you think you can talk back to me, bug? You hiding some reason to think you’re so important?”
“Kai,” Leandra said in a warning tone.
The shark god continued. “I mean it, four-arms, what are you hiding? Why did you convert yourself? What were you as a neodemon?”
The smirk fell from Dhrun’s face. All four of his arms flexed.
Leandra stepped between them. “Stop it, both of you, and start using the withered organs you call brains.”
The two gods stared at each other for a long moment. Then, slowly, Dhrun took a step back. “Ten thousand apologies.”
Holokai showed his serrated teeth for a moment but then looked at Lea and bowed his head.
The party continued their march in silence save for Leandra’s occasional grumbling about gods of violence and the stupidity of men.
Feather Island smoldered.
The mile-wide limestone island had been eroded at its southern end creating a shelf of land, which at its extremity erupted into one of two plateaued towers of rock. The tower that stood at the edge of the shelf was called the Near Tower; its twin, which erupted straight from the sea, was known as the Far Tower.
Nicodemus had visited Feather Island twice before. Then every flat surface had been covered with rectangular whitewashed houses. Into every vertical surface had been carved rooms adorned with boardwalks and palm-thatch awnings. There had been bright hyacinth flowers and bougainvillea vines. Between the two rock towers, rope bridges had stretched at three different levels.
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