Telsa Channel; their two remaining fishing ports; and their glass trade.
All the resources that were at stake in this war.
Ash’s chest seized. “They’re bleeding us dry,” she breathed.
“Who?”
“Geoxus.” Ash frowned up at Cassia. “Biotus. Aera. The other gods.”
Leave me out of his squabbles with Geoxus, Biotus, and Aera.
This wasn’t a squabble. This was a targeted effort to strip Kula of resources.
Cassia made a noise like a laugh. When Ash didn’t relent, she squinted like she had thought Ash was telling a joke. “Geoxus is a peaceful god. Or he would be, if he wasn’t surrounded by warmongering siblings. Ignitus has caused all the wars Geoxus declares against him, and the other ones were started by Aera and Biotus. Ignitus deserves everything he gets.”
“Yes,” Ash said by instinct. But—
She glanced over the entries again. She remembered a few of these wars. One, Ignitus had definitely caused—he stole a cargo of goods bound for Deimos. But years ago, a fleet of passing centurions raided a coastal village in Kula, and when people fought back, Geoxus declared war for the offense of murdering his elite soldiers. In a second instance, a landslide decimated a mountain town in northern Kula—while Geoxus just happened to be in Cenhelm, Kula’s northern neighbor. When Ignitus had accused Geoxus of causing it, Geoxus had declared war, aghast at the offense to his reputation.
Ash would have been able to reason it away like she always did, the gods just being petulant children. But her eyes went back to the list.
When Ash went to Lakhu, Cenhelm, and Deimos for arena fights, those countries were prosperous, their people cared for, even though warmongering gods also ruled them. Why were Kula’s resources the only ones running out?
She thought again of Hydra’s message. Leave me out of his squabbles.
Was it possible that Ignitus had been asking Hydra for help?
Ash dropped to a seat on the bench, the scroll held limply, horror stabbing her in the stomach so hard she gagged.
A horn bleated through the arena. Her fight would be starting soon, another bloody match she would have to devote herself to in order to please Ignitus, to get close to him—to destroy him.
From the look of it, Geoxus, Biotus, and Aera were trying to destroy Ignitus too. But their version of destroying Ignitus meant destroying Kula.
Could there truly be a larger conspiracy that Geoxus, Biotus, and Aera were playing out against Ignitus that could actually kill him? Or was there only a mystery woman killing Deiman gladiators, a rumor that made Ignitus tremble, and a gladiator he had mentioned offhandedly?
Ash let her head loll between her slumped shoulders, her chest deflating. Dead end after dead end. She was so tired.
The bench groaned as Cassia eased onto it. Ash jumped. She had forgotten Cassia was even here.
“We’re done,” Ash said to the floor. “You brought me the records. You should go.”
The crowd erupted above them. The warm-up matches must have been ending.
“Is your country struggling?” Cassia asked.
Ash huffed. “You could say that.”
“You blame your god for these wars,” Cassia said. “That’s why you tried to get Madoc to help you pin Stavos’s disappearance on Ignitus.”
Ash whipped a look up at Cassia. No one else had been able to so easily see through her lies before—the default with most people was devotion to the gods. No one would think to accuse someone else of disloyalty.
Curiosity surged through Ash’s veins.
After a long pause, Cassia spoke again. “My father got sent to debtor’s jail, but when he couldn’t keep up with the work, the tax collector who arrested him sold him off to an arena. A gladiator killed him. In a practice fight.”
Ash’s knee bounced.
“I was so angry,” Cassia whispered. “I blamed Geoxus for the longest time. But my mother took me to one of his temples, sat me down before his statue, and asked if I knew what Geoxus was thinking at that moment. Of course I didn’t. She said we can’t know what the gods are thinking, but we have to believe they know best. The gods aren’t to blame.” Cassia landed a hand on Ash’s shoulder. “People are to blame. Every choice the gods make, they do so trying to give us a good life. Corrupt people are the ones who mess it all up.”
Like Stavos.
Ash’s body heat spiked, and she knew Cassia felt it when she drew away with a jerk.
Ash was glad Stavos was dead for what he’d done to Char—but it was Ignitus who had caused Char’s death. Ignitus who bore