It squealed on rusty hinges, the sound seeming to fill the whole prison. She dragged it back until it cast the corner in darkness. “Now,” she said and dipped her head at the board. Yemoja poured out the contents of the bowl. It was a dark, watery soup and it floated on the board long enough for Leodora to spill a drop from the phial onto it. Distantly, she heard someone yell, but she stayed focused on the rainbow colors swirling across the water, expanding as it ran off the board and onto the floor.
Taking hold of Yemoja’s hand, she watched for the dark liquid to form shapes. After a moment, she could see people distantly, black hair and blue skin. “There!” she cried and leapt into the pool with Yemoja following.
They sprawled onto a hard dirt floor and she thought, It didn’t work!
A pair of sandaled feet strode up to them. Expecting the guard, Leodora raised her head to find the king of Epama Epam standing over her and holding a silver chalice.
“This is quite unorthodox,” he commented.
“Perhaps so,” said a female voice behind her, “but she rescued me.”
The king gasped, and Leodora realized that the voice belonged to Yemoja, which she now understood as if they spoke the same language. She got to her knees and glanced back. The woman had turned greenish black, and her eyes burned orange. She was tearing off the rags that clothed her.
“Goddess,” said the startled king.
“Oceanus,” she replied.
The surroundings bemused Leodora. Everywhere, the walls were old and made of rough stone, the ground was dirt, and it seemed as if everybody on this street lived in flat-roofed houses like those she’d seen through the bars of the cell. “This can’t be right,” she said, but no one was listening.
“This girl’s been here before,” the king was saying querulously. “She disrupted everything, refused to enter the pool of true desire, refused to accept the offer of our eternity, and what’s more, her companion—who also escaped, I might add—caused the deaths of two of us in making his exit.”
“Really?” The goddess’s orange eyes considered Leodora anew. “Good for you,” she said. “He really is a bastard, you know.”
“Goddess—”
“Oh, shut up about your petty issues. Would you care to hear instead how mortals caught me, trapped me, and put me in a prison where the guard clutched at me every morning? A dry, dusty prison without any moisture? Without any way out and none of you knew where I was nor came to my aid? Prison, where I wasted away for more than a year, subsisting on the tiniest cups of liquid that hardly deserved to be called water? Living in my own filth in a space the size of one of your glorious pots?”
“We couldn’t have known.”
“Indeed not. She rescued me from there. So you will afford her every courtesy, help her with everything she needs from now until eternity, and you will not so much as grumble or try any slyness at all.”
“Goddess,” he importuned.
Yemoja touched her shoulder. “Leodora. Oh, yes, I know you, and I know why you’re here. So does he. Epama has something you need, a story you must hear before you can leave. It was why you were sent to us in the first place by another demigod.” She shot the king a severe look, and he hunched up like a child. “Oceanus ought to have told you that story before, but he’s an inveterate trickster and a liar by nature and would withhold what you require until you’re driven mad by the need and then give it to you as if the whole matter is your fault.”
“I’m insulted,” said the king.
“I doubt that’s possible,” she replied.
Leodora dusted herself off. “I have to go back to Colemaigne. They’ll think I’ve died by now.”
Yemoja shook her head. “You must take what he has for you. You dare not refuse it.”
“Can I . . . can I go back first and then return for it?”
The goddess considered Oceanus. He shrugged. “It would seem you can do whatever you like.”
“Indeed, she can, but she is best advised not to refuse this gift here and now.”
Leodora considered this and finally nodded. “All right, then. A little longer. I would like my clothes returned to me, too.” She turned to the goddess. “Thank you.”
Yemoja laughed. “You save my life and thank me. You’re too good for your own world, child. Come. Let’s swim and feast and hear what he has to