Seri gave a wistful sigh. “Because she was death.”
Lady Junica nodded.
Kelir gave her a skeptical look. “Rani took a lover? I have never heard this part of the tale before.”
“That is because of what happened next,” she said. “For the gods don’t like it when the stories about them do not flatter, and try to silence the voices that tell them.”
That was true enough, especially for men who called themselves gods. But Aerax gritted his teeth, and also remained silent.
“In time, Varrin earned Koth’s crown and became a great sorcerer, whose only fealty was to the realm and her people—and to silver-fingered Rani. He cared not that he grew old, for he knew that when his life was done, finally she would be able to hold him in her arms. And although his advisors begged him to take a queen, his loyalty remained with Rani, so he used his magics to strengthen his seed and beget his heirs directly from his loins . . . and is also why his descendants still resemble him so strongly,” she said, which drew every eye to Aerax. “The seed of his line is so strong, little of their mothers are in them.”
“And a little of her is the best of me,” muttered Aerax, earning a quiet chuckle from Tyzen, who also had a monster for a father but had at least inherited his mother’s eyes.
“But Vela had not forgotten what Rani had done, for although the world was saved, the goddess was angered that she’d not been consulted. But her wrath was aimed at Varrin. She knew it was he who’d made the suggestion to uncover the sun god’s eye, and she began to whisper into the ears of the other gods that Varrin hoped to completely free Enam, stirring their rage and fear. Rani, hearing the rumblings that were echoing through the heavens, raced to him carrying the length of Nemek’s braid that had been untied from Enam’s binds, and knotted it into a belt around Varrin’s waist—so that if the gods tried to harm him, instantly he would be healed.”
“Healed?” Seri echoed, her eyebrows arching. “Could she kiss him then?”
Expression sorrowful, Lady Junica shook her head. “Far worse it would have been if she did, for Rani’s touch is not an injury that can be healed but death itself, and the braid was still a binding. So if Varrin died, the belt would have trapped his soul within his deceased flesh, and she couldn’t have carried him into Temra’s arms.”
Preter’s eyes narrowed. “He would have become a wraith—but in an unmoving and rotting body, not one that is magically animated.”
“I believe so. Varrin did not wish to wear the belt, because it meant he would not die—and so never would Varrin be in Rani’s arms. But he could not remove the belt or untie the knot she’d made.”
“So he would live forever?” Seri asked. “Is that how he became a god?”
“An immortal man is not a god,” Lady Junica said. “But as a thousand generations passed, Varrin’s knowledge and power became equal to a god’s. For he never stopped improving himself, until he was the keenest of all warriors, the strongest of all sorcerers, the greatest of all kings. From the stone of the highest peak of the Fanged Mountains, he built the crystal palace, which gleamed as a jewel beneath the sky, and through the years he guided Koth to become the finest of all realms. But all he truly wanted was for silver-fingered Rani to hold him in her arms at last—and he prayed to Nemek the Healer to come and untie the knot, so he might finally grow old and die.”
“Did Nemek answer?”
“They did. But even a thousand generations is only a blink to a god. Vela had not forgotten her anger toward Varrin, and the other gods had not forgotten their fear. So Vela sent war to the eastern realms, that silver-fingered Rani would be so busy on the battlefields, she could not come to Varrin’s aid. And when he looked out from his crystal palace and saw Nemek approaching from across the frozen plains wearing their withered face, Varrin knew that he had been betrayed.”
Lizzan glanced over her shoulder, frowning. “Their withered face?”
Lady Junica nodded before abruptly pausing, as if remembering she wasn’t supposed to have heard Lizzan’s voice.
Scoffing, Lizzan shook her head and looked forward again. Yet why had Nemek’s face surprised her now? Aerax knew she’d heard this