Dark Requiem (The Darkling Trilogy, Book 3) (32 page)

Akan thought often of
taking the child goddess away one night, along with Rutia, Tanu and
the child Rutia had borne a few years ago, Essa. He thought of them
all disappearing into the woods and getting as far away from the
village as possible. But he knew it would be suicide. On his own,
he could easily elude and outrun his pursuers. But with his wife
and children, their pursuers would soon catch and slaughter them
all. And the goddess would be taken back to the temple, bereft of
even the brief respite Akan’s presence provided. Fleeing was not an
option, but it was sometimes difficult to talk himself out of
rescuing Alayai from the life Mutata had trapped her in.

Alayai seemed to deal with
her isolation by focusing her feelings of frustration and anger on
Mutata and she found new and ingenious ways of humiliating him
whenever she saw him.

On one occasion the chief
priests were performing rites of thanksgiving to the goddess for
yet another abundant harvest. Alayai’s gaze had been on Mutata the
entire time, shards of icy malice in her eyes.

“
Clearly Mutata is
enjoying the abundant harvest, if we are to judge from his
increased girth,” she said the moment the rites of thanksgiving
ended. Her laughter, like the tinkling of bells, rang out through
the temple.

The strain of the past few
years had seen the lines on Mutata’s face increase in number, along
with his waistline, and his hair was thinning rapidly. Alayai
leaned forward, her eyes narrowed, her lips spread in a
sneer.

“
What does your wife think
of your fat stomach, Mutata? But I suppose it is of no consequence,
for it has been a long time since your weapon has been able to rise
to the occasion.”

Gasps rang out in the
temple chamber. Mutata turned a bitter shade of red. Alayai
laughed. Mutata stood, his hands clenched into fists. He stared
long and hard at the child goddess and then stormed out of the
temple. Alayai continued to laugh long after he had
departed.

That night Akan went to
see Alayai at the temple. She was speaking about Jow, who had long
found ways of dealing with Alayai’s sometimes waspish tongue. Each
time the living idol came into contact with another, a series of
prayers lasting an hour long had to be performed to cleanse her
from their tainted touch. So whenever Alayai did something Jow did
not approve of, she found ways to touch the goddess seemingly by
accident—her fingers grazing against Alayai’s when she passed her a
plate of food, or some other method—just so Alayai would have to
endure the hour-long cleansing rites. Jow had done it twice that
day and Alayai was furious but, of course, she could say nothing to
Jow or even have her replaced, as Jow made it possible for Akan to
visit the goddess without being discovered.

When Alayai broke off from
complaining about Jow, Akan brought up the matter that had taken
place earlier on that day.

“
Alayai. What you said to
Mutata. Do you know what those words meant?”

“
It humiliated him. I will
be surprised if he can bear to show his face at least for the next
week.”

“
Yes, but do you know what
it means?”

“
No, Akan I do not,” she
snapped, growing a warm shade of pink. “What does that
matter?”

“
Alayai. The spirits may
tell you things, but that does not mean you should repeat them. For
a child to speak of a man’s private matters—it is simply not
done.”

“
I am not a child! I am a
god! I have prevented the destruction of the Enwa people and so I
will treat them as I see fit. Do not tell me what I can or cannot
do, Akan!”

He leaned back, raised an
eyebrow, and waited. The silence within the cool temple stretched
to a taut band before she looked away and at the ground.

Akan may not have had the
cleansing ritual to use as a punishment for insolence, but he found
those silences just as effective, if not more so.

“
As I was saying,
Alayai
. There are things
concerning a man’s business grown men do not speak of, much less a
child. Never say anything like that again. Do you
understand?”

She was silent for a few
moments and then nodded.

As had been the case for
years now, she would heed Akan for a few days, maybe even weeks,
before she found another way to humiliate Mutata. In that way she
was a beautiful little bird, slowly pecking her enemy to death. But
Mutata was like a fat alligator sleeping in the sun. It would only
take one strike and he could kill the little bird.

Akan got to his feet. “I
should go. Essa usually awakes at this time. She is a sweet child,
but troublesome at times. Not unlike someone I know very
well.”

He had said the words with
a gentle smile. But at the mention of the baby, Alayai’s face
tightened and she blinked rapidly as if some pain touched her
heart.

Alayai had been like this
about the child since the day Akan told her Rutia had given birth
to a girl. He had asked to bring the child to the temple at night
so Alayai could see her, but Alayai had always refused.

“
My children—all of
you—mean much to me. I hope you know this, Alayai.”

She didn’t answer, her
face still a taut mask. He exited the temple, feeling again his
desire to take Alayai and his family away from the village. But he
had already resigned himself to the fact that it could never
be.

***

Akan had been so entirely
focussed on trying to protect Alayai from Mutata’s wrath that when
danger arose from another direction, he failed to see
it.

Tanu was now at the age
where he was permitted to enter the temple. For the first few
months he had gone every day, his enchanted gaze on the goddess,
his mouth hanging open as he stared upon her beautiful visage—much
to the amusement of most of the temple elders. She was all he spoke
of at home. Her voice, how beautiful she was and, of course, the
charcoal-coloured eyes with a ring of blue surrounding it. She
seemed to take a special interest in Tanu, her gaze meeting his
love struck one much more than was necessary, and Akan had
cautioned her not to show anyone any special favour. She was a
living idol and above all her subjects. She had heeded him,
trusting him in everything in the role he had assumed without even
being aware of it; that of the father she had been snatched
from.

A few months after his
warning to Alayai, Tanu swiftly overcame his obsession with her. He
stopped going to the temple and the constant stream of talk about
the goddess abruptly dried up. Akan laughed at the boy.

“
Tanu, you have talked
nonstop about the goddess since you were four only to lose interest
in her in just a few months? Has someone else caught your interest?
Tell me who.”

A lean, sensitive child by
nature with gentle brown eyes and a generous mouth, Tanu had merely
smiled, almost sadly, in response but said nothing more on the
matter.

Not long after, Alayai
requested Akan’s visits be decreased to once a week. It did not
seem to be an unusual request as she had found a way to have Akan
in the temple daily. He missed those nightly visits, but accepted
she was growing older and was less in need of his guidance. She
also seemed to have mellowed over the past few weeks, her lips
quick to bless her subjects with a smile, her attacks on Mutata
ceasing entirely. Perhaps she had fully accepted her role as
goddess and the limitations it placed on her life no longer
tormented her as it had done. Still, he missed their nightly
visits.

One night he awoke, and
finding himself unable to sleep, decided to sit outside in the cool
night air in the hopes it would help pull sleep to him. He moved
past Tanu’s sleeping quarters toward the exit only to come to a
stop. His instincts were pricking him, and never being one to
ignore those instincts which had saved his life on more than one
occasion, he returned to Tanu’s sleeping quarters. It was empty.
Frowning, he exited the house. Tanu was not outside. Akan would
have returned to bed and questioned the boy in the morning, but his
instincts were still pricking him, letting him know all was not
well.

He moved out of the
courtyard and into the night. He did not even know where he was
headed until he found himself halfway toward the temple. He entered
the hidden tunnel, and emerged at the secret entrance. Jow was the
only one to notice him enter the temple, nearly hidden by the
shadows. She glanced at him, sorrow in her eyes, before her gaze
returned to the altar.

Alayai was not asleep in
her room as Akan had expected her to be. She was sitting with her
legs crossed at the foot of the altar.

Sat beside her was Tanu.
They didn’t notice Akan, as they only had eyes for each other,
their heads bent as they spoke, their whispers barely disturbing
the silence in the temple. Akan’s gaze returned to Jow. He expected
to see anger in her eyes, for in a way this was his fault. He only
saw sorrow. He disappeared into the secret tunnel.

He sighed when he got out
into the night, his emotions conflicted. When he first saw Tanu
sitting beside Alayai, he felt only joy. It had quickly been
replaced with anxiety. He sighed again and made his way back
home.

He waited for Tanu outside
their home, hidden in the shadows by the side of the house until
Tanu returned many hours later.

“
Where have you been,
Tanu?” Akan said, moving out of the shadows and into the
moonlight.

Tanu came to an abrupt
halt, his eyes like that of a startled bird in his slim, girlish
face that was only just beginning to show the hardness of a
man’s.

“
Father,” he replied, his
expression becoming closed, a sly look in his eyes. “I could not
sleep, so I—”

“
Do not lie to me. I know
where you were.” He closed the space between him and Tanu and
caught the boy by the shoulders in a rough grip.

“
Do you know the danger in
what you have been doing? Do you understand it could get you killed
if they ever find out?”

Tanu’s lip quivered in
fear, but he tilted his head back in defiance.

“
Do you?” Tanu shot
back.

Akan released him and
stared at him for a few moments, the boy shrinking under his gaze.
Akan struck him. The boy merely stood there, his jaw clenched,
fighting back tears.

“
Do not speak to me so. I
am a man. I am able to deal with the consequences. You are only a
boy.”

“
You’re a coward,” Tanu
said, his lip quivering once more, the tears he had been trying to
fight back falling down his cheeks. “Why don’t you tell them she is
just a girl, not their stupid goddess? If you were a man, you would
take her away from that temple.”

Akan was silent, shocked
by the words along with the strength of the boy’s
emotion.

“
Do you think I have not
thought of it?” he said. “But what do you think they would do? They
would kill you, your mother and sister as punishment. Then they
would find us and kill me, too, before they took her back to that
temple to continue being a prisoner.”

“
No one could kill you,”
Tanu said. “You defeated one hundred men in battle singlehandedly.
No one could kill you.”

“
That is a child talking.
I am one man. I cannot defeat every warrior in this village. Alayai
is the living idol. She can never marry. That will always be the
case. This stops now. Tomorrow you will tell her this.”

Tanu stared at him aghast,
fresh tears spilling down his cheeks.

“
But I love
her.”

Akan felt his heart
tighten into a tiny ball, the two headed snake like ice against
it.

“
Those words mean nothing.
Nothing! Do you understand? After tomorrow you will never see
Alayai again unless you go to the temple during the day to worship
the goddess like the other villagers.”

“
I will soon be a man and
you will not tell me I cannot go to her. I will be the one to take
her away from the temple and not even you will be able to stop
me!”

He walked away and into
the house, leaving Akan alone in the night, the two headed snake
like a lump of ice in his chest so he was sure he would never feel
warmth in his heart again.

If only what Tanu wished
were possible, but it was only the dreams of a child.

***

The following night Akan
was waiting outside their home when Tanu returned from the temple.
Tanu’s face was set, his eyes red, the skin around them rubbed raw.
He did not look at his father but entered the house without a
word.

In the morning Tanu would
not even look at Akan let alone speak to him. Rutia merely looked
at the two of them, shook her head, and pretended to be unaware of
the tension.

At the temple, the goddess
did not glance Akan’s way once. The softening he had observed over
the past few weeks was gone. Her gaze was hard, the skin between
her eyebrows pinched, her responses a lot sharper than usual.
Mutata, as always, bore the brunt of her ill mood.

A few nights later, Akan
dared to go and see Alayai at the temple. When he arrived in the
main chamber, he was met by Jow.