51

He's talking about his father. To him it's not Thor, the God of lighting. To him it's just dad. That's what D'ziko says. Just dad.
I don't have just dad. I have a father I barely know. If I could, I would exchange fathers with D'ziko. Make his dad come here and send my father to the heavens.
I rest my forehead against his and listen to our heartbeats, a slow, steady rhythm.


Chapter Twenty-One

"There's something familiar about this guy," D'ziko says, but he's not paying attention to me, instead taking a photo of my father out of the family album. "Who is he?"
I shake my head numbly. I don't understand what this means. Where could D'ziko possibly know my father from? I barely know my father. Before I came to the royal palace I saw him only twice a year. First, when he came to make the orders and second when he came to get his orders and that was it. D'ziko lived in the forest, away from civilisation, where would he see my father often enough to think my father looks familiar. Familiar to what?
I skim my hands over the glossy photo and say, "Papa. That's my father."
"That smirk reminds me of something but I can't pinpoint what that is," he says, his eyes narrowing.
I shrug and walk to the window to watch the sun rise. Out the window, the day is cold and perfectly still. Every single living thing seems to be at peace. Sleeping. We should be sleeping.
D'ziko stands behind me, his arms around me.
"Beautiful, isn't it?" I point to the horizon stretching in all kinds of orange and red and yellow and pink.
"It is," he says but he's looking at me.
Today is Saturday and I'm so glad I'm not going to training. I need a rest. D'ziko is so silent behind me that I'm forced to look at him.
I immediately step back. "What's wrong?"
"Something ya said has been troubling me." He walks over to the desk and claims a seat. Once he's comfortable, he shifts and pats the spot next to him.
I only hesitate a second before sitting down beside him.
D'ziko is quiet and he stares at me. At my lips. I feel a sudden, compulsive need to fill up the moment with speech. "I didn't hurt yer feelings did I?"
"No not something like that but remember when we were talking about Whele?"
I take his hand, examining the lines of his palm carefully, and my stomach does a backflip. How have I never noticed before? D'ziko has the warmest hands. "What of it?"
His smile lights up his eyes and heat spreads through me. "ya said ya drugged him with izora."
I nod, curse myself then say, "Ja...?"
"I find that strange because all the gatekeepers are immune to izora or any drug at all."
My heart starts beating madly and I stop breathing. "Ya sure?"
He looks at me for so long that I shiver--half cold, half nerves, and half something else.
"Think about this... if the guardians could be be drugged, someone would've found our nation by now. We've managed to stay secretive because the gatekeepers make sure of that. In Noddon they're the only creatures that are immortal, except the Dumas." His dark eyes never leave mine. "If not even a drug like merryz from the Tree of Life can affect them, how could a human made drug like izora do that?"
I struggle to think with D'ziko looking at me like that. "Nothing is stronger than the merryz."
But if all the gatekeepers knew what I was after. If they pretended to be passed out...
"Why did they help me? Why didn't they report me to King Father. Why aren't they saying something now? I'm a Goddess. I'm sitting at a throne that is not my own. They know of this. They've always known yet they keep my secret. They helped me deceive Noddon. They wanted me to deceive Noddon. I must find out why."
"Imani?" D'ziko blinks up owlishly at me. "What if the Essence Thief is the same person that lied about me?"
A reasonable question, and one to which I don't have a reasonable answer.
"Er..." I sit up straight, push my hair out of my face, feeling as conflicted as D'ziko looks. "What led this on?"
"Look at it this way... even if I wasn't the Bakantwa sword owner, I'm still a God. A leader."
He's right of course.
My head jerks up. "Hmm... so if the Essence Thief's goal has always been to lead, he lied to get people to kill ya and now he--"
D'ziko's stare interrupts me. "Knows I own the Bakantwa sword and that soon people will find out and he's acting fast before I can reveal who I am."
"If he knows ya're still alive and he found ya in my bedroom the other night. Why hasn't he attacked? What is he waiting for?"
"That's the million Fons question," he says, looking stricken.
"Actually," I say, crossing my fingers over my lap. "If he kills ya now, it'd be like killing two birds with one stone. I mean, if he killed ya and me in my bedroom or if he's taken a picture of us together, that would discredit me. I'd be the Goddess who betrayed her people with the God killer."
"What if when he came here it wasn't to steal our gifts." His eyes glint strangely. "What if he already knows ya haven't collected yer gift and so he was here for our necks."
I've never thought of it this way. "ya really think so?" I ask. "Suppose ya're right and he was here to kill us, how then would he explain stealing other people's gifts."
"He isn't the thief, ya are."
I stiffen, sensing that I'm walking into a trap. "What? No, I'm not."
"Just weeks before ya flew over their heads. ya healed Sir Ayize."
"Oh. Oh." It's beginning to make sense. "So how could I have done that when my blood runs red."
This should've been clear to me a long time ago. How can I possess the power of Bakantwa when my blood is red? How did I manage to fly over their heads? How did I manage to heal Sir Ayize? How did I manage to hold the Bakantwa?
I know what people would think. I steal the Bakantwa and then suddenly people start losing their gifts as well. If I can steal the Bakantwa, the most powerful sword in Noddon, how is anybody's gift safe from me?
They'd know about my schemes and plotting. They'd know I'm not really powerful. They'd know I'm no Goddess--I'm just a fraud. I'm just pretending. They would know I'm just as ordinary as the rest of humanity. I'm nothing special, just another girl who took it too far.
Everyone knows that the real Bakantwa owner's blood is supposed to be silver. It's supposed to glitter when it catches the glare of the sun. Mine would sink into the sand, dry up against the sun's heated assault. Turn a disgusting reddish brown, much like the blacksteel I am. If someone where to behead me, I'd die. If someone were to behead D'ziko, his silver blood would stay warm, find its way back to its host and heal him. He's a God, alright. I'm mortal.
"Exactly," D'ziko says. "yer blood should be silver, like mine."
I am paralysed. "So it'll look like I stole their gifts in order to trick them into believing I'm the Bakantwa sword owner." My next words clot my throat but it's the truth, though I wish it weren't. "The Essence Thief is smart."
"It wouldn't be hard for him to prove ya stole the Bakantwa sword," he says, waving a hand toward our swords sitting side by side at the table. His glowing blue and mine as silver as his eyes. As normal as any sword. The difference is overwhelming. "Even when ya're dead, if they put the Bakantwa in yer hands, it'd still burn ya, turning ya ablaze."
And that's not suppose to happen. If it were mine, the Bakantwa would bring me back to life.
I stare at him in disbelief. "If he proves I'm not the real Goddess. He can then claim the Bakantwa sword for himself."
"And he has enough 'powers' to do so and lead without being questioned."
"So wait, say the Essence Thief was really here to kill us. Why didn't he?"
D'ziko gives me a blank look and bites his lower lip. "yer guess is as good as mine."
I open my mouth, but words die at my throat. I shake my head.
D'ziko runs his chin in thought.The constant movement is driving me crazy but I don't ask him to stop. The silence would be even more maddening. Instead I get up to join him so that now we look like two mad cows. He sits down, foot tapping rapidly on the floor beneath. I skid to a stop right in front of him. He doesn't look up.
I try again, desperately trying to make sense of the situation. "ya say when ya woke up everyone in the royal house was asleep? Unnormally so."
"Yes. Everyone." He still doesn't look up and unlike before, he doesn't invite me to sit down.
My stomach tightens. "So what if whatever protected us both from being hypnotised is the same thing that prevented him from killing us."
He doesn't say anything.
I swallow. "Thor...?" I ask.
Now his head snaps up. "No. Although my grandfather turns a blind eye when father comes to see me, he'd never let it slide if dad interfered with something like that. My father would be executed."
All my muscles tense up but I force myself to keep talking. "So Leza then?"
"Now that's a possibility, but how?" His eyes stray from my waist to meet my gaze. "And who the hell tried to kill us?"
"And why did he get ya out of the house. Why didn't he just kill us both in here?"