The Other Side of the Sky - Amie Kaufman Page 0,115

in each other—Jezara in the girl who took her place, and Nimh in the woman who went before. They’re the only two people in this world who know what life as the living divine is like. The only two who have ever been alive at the same time to know it together.

Tension hangs between them, sharp like a taut wire.

Finally, Nimh breaks the stalemate and blurts, “How could you do it?” She swallows a sob. “Abandon your people, abandon us, for a man?”

Jezara’s eyes harden, the muscles in her jaw going tight. “I wondered how long it would take you to start blaming me.”

“No!” Nimh snaps, her eyes burning like I’ve never seen—I’m not sure I ever understood just how much her people must have hated this woman until now. “You don’t get to act like the victim. You didn’t choose to be divine, but you certainly chose not to be.”

“You’re just a child,” Jezara snaps back, an angry flush rising in her cheeks. “You know nothing about what I’ve suffered.”

“They needed you, and you left them so you could be happy.” Nimh pauses while she struggles to get her breathing under control. “Look how happy you’ve become.”

I flinch and glance at the older woman, who takes a step back as if reeling from a physical assault. Then her widened eyes narrow, her expression cold and sharp.

“Nimh,” I cut in, before Jezara can speak. “Nimh, we have to go.”

Nimh backs a few steps toward the escape corridor, though she doesn’t take her eyes from her predecessor. As if her flung accusations and questions have used up all her anger, she just looks exhausted now, eyes brimming.

“You did this to me,” she murmurs—though whether Jezara hears, I don’t know. Nimh shakes herself and ducks down into the darkness.

I turn to follow, leaving behind the cozy home that promised rest, but Jezara takes me by the arm. “They won’t kill her,” she says in a low voice. “Not right away. Inshara will want to publicly dethrone her. But they can kill you, and they will. You make her human, cloudlander, and so you make her vulnerable. Protect yourself—love will not shield you from their weapons.”

I’ve got my mouth open to protest—but Nimh’s already vanished down the corridor, and Jezara pushes me after her.

We make our way down a hallway shored up by more sky-steel beams. They remind me of the ribs of the concert hall back home, completely out of place amid the ancient stonework of Below. The hall ends in an old, half-rotten door. On the other side, we emerge into a long, dark tunnel.

Nimh casts her light spell with shaking hands. I fall into step behind her, and without speaking, we hurry through the winding turns of Jezara’s escape tunnel, the cat trotting ahead of us.

The sun is nearly setting when we stagger through the brush concealing the entrance to the tunnel. It lets out exactly where Jezara said it would—the cliff that rises ahead of us overlooks the valley, and behind us I can see the mountains on its other side where, somewhere, Jezara is holding the cultists at bay.

At least I hope she is.

Nimh hasn’t spoken since those low, tortured words she threw at Jezara before she fled. You did this to me, she said—and it’s true. If Jezara hadn’t given up her divinity for her lover, Nimh would be an ordinary girl, a riverstrider with her clan. Able to live her life as she pleased. With whomever she pleased.

I move up beside her, keeping my voice low. “Are you … ?” It would sound idiotic to say all right, so I trail off.

Her reply is soft. “They only threw her out when she was so far-gone with child that they could not help but see it. All those months, she was carrying out the duties of the goddess, and nobody knew. Her powers were not diminished.”

I consider my response as we match strides, carefully not dwelling on what my words mean about my own beliefs. “How do we know she’s telling the truth? She’s the only one who ever lost her divinity, right? So how do we know what that looks like?”

“If she still carried some hint of the divine, and passed it on to her child …”

I frown. “Is that even possible? I thought that this divinity finds someone random, not someone connected by blood.”

Nimh raises her eyes in a helpless gesture. “The living divine cannot be touched. None of them have ever borne a child.