I’ve missed this. The thrill of battle quickened her veins as Barbartu slid a few inches to the left, narrowly avoiding a blow that would have eviscerated her abdomen, and raked her claws across the man’s chest. Of course, she could have simply torn out his throat, but that would have ended her fun too soon.

  The man bore the pain stoically and, despite having overextended himself on the previous strike, recovered his sword in time to bat her next strike aside. He wasn’t prepared, though, for the tail that suddenly whipped over her shoulder and struck him in the shoulder, as her stinger pumped a numbing venom into his arm. There, that should keep him going for a while.

  Her opponent retreated a few steps, mumbling beneath his breath, and a sense of danger flared behind her. She spun to the side, keeping one eye on him, and greeted the gallu? he had summoned with a merry laugh. “Did you really think a gallu? could hurt me?” She struck a pose as the childlike creature approached and laid its icy hand on her thigh.

  Its vicious mana flooded into her, annihilation in physical form, but her divine essence overwhelmed it in an instant. With a laugh, she patted the void-eyed child on the head and turned in time to deflect a blow S?ar had aimed at her throat.

  She ducked beneath the parried sword and grabbed the man’s arm. A quick twist of her hips snapped it, and his sword clattered to the ground as, between the broken arm and the numbing poison, his fingers could no longer maintain their grip.

  He wasn’t out of tricks yet, though. With another mutter growl, the man’s body dissolved into shadow and ether, flowing out of her grasp, and reforming a dozen feet away. She laughed with delight and charged toward him, but her elation subsided as the man backed away and inclined his head in a gesture of submission. “You’re playing with me,” he accused her.

  Barbartu’s instincts screamed at her to pounce, to ravage her prey, to punish the arrogant mortal who had dared challenge her. But, the many long decades of being trapped in a weakened body on Corsythia had taught the fallen daughter of Anu a measure of self-control she hadn’t possessed before, and there were things she still wanted from the man. “You’re the one who chose to challenge a god,” she said, settling for a look of disdain.

  The man’s shoulders crumpled, and he allowed himself to sag against his greatsword, but Barbartu didn’t drop her guard. Defiance still lurked in his eyes, a spirit battered, but not yet broken. “You gave me no choice,” he growled. “I won’t let you take my daughter.”

  Daughter? She cocked her to the side, examining the man like a bug under a microscope. Yes, I suppose there is a vague resemblance there.

  A savage smile spread across her face as she approached him, her limbs coiled with the same energy as a tiger stalking its prey. “Tell me, S?ar, how can you steal what is already stolen?”

  He took a step back, sliding into a defensive stance, and met her gaze calmly. “I didn’t steal her. She’s my daughter,” he denied.

  “Ah, so you’ve perfected parthenogenesis?” she mocked him. “I must say, I didn’t take you for a hermaphrodite.”

  S?ar gritted his teeth. “So that’s it, then? Her mother sent you?” He shook his head and, though he did not abandon his guard, tension in his body eased. “I don’t know what she told you, but the girl took after me. Jenny inherited our people’s magic, not Jacinda’s. She needed to be trained, taught, protected, by someone who knew what they were doing. Her mother wasn’t happy about it, but she let me take her; I didn’t kidnap her, despite whatever lies she might have told you.”

  Barbartu said nothing, humoring his false assumptions as she continued to stalk toward him. True, she couldn’t give into her instincts and kill him, but nothing said she couldn’t indulge them a little.

  He took another step back, and beads of sweat formed on his brow, as he readied his sword. “Please, listen to me, daughter of Anu?! Why should you side with an offworlder against one of your uncle’s people? Whatever she offered you, we can match it - double it,” he added hastily.

  She stepped closer, and his sword slid forward, prepared to strike. I suppose I’ve had my fun. Holding her position, she offered him a toothy grin. “I’ve never met her mother and, frankly, I don’t give a damn what she wants.”

  She delighted in the look of utter confusion that flickered through his eyes, though the man was skilled enough to quickly school his emotions. “You mentioned another goddess,” he replied after a pause, finally remembering what she had said before they started fighting. “But who? What other god could have an interest in my daughter? Did one of Lord Nerigla’s descendants survive?”

  “Oh, nothing like that,” she smirked.

  “An enemy, then?” His jaw tightened, and he met her gaze with determination. “You realize I won’t be the only one to stand against you. Even if you can break through this barrier, our people will resist you; we will not let you slay one of our own.”

  Barbartu blurred into motion, knocking the sword out of his hand with such speed he could even perceive her movement and wrapped her hand around his throat. Her claws dug into his skin just enough to draw a few pinpricks of blood, but she didn’t squeeze. “You really need to relax,” she chuckled. “Nobody said anything about enemies.”

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  “Then who-” he rasped out - and then she saw the realization hit him. “That goddess - the one in the Void. Is that who you were working for?”

  “Working for?” Annoyed by the insinuation, however true it may have been, that she was working for Kas?dael, Barbartu’s hand tightened reflexively, and she cursed as a spray of blood hit her face. “Damn it.” She fixed the hole in his jugular with a bit of essence, but released her hold on him, lest she do it again.

  The man staggered back, his face pale from fear and blood loss, which she blithely ignored. “I don’t work for her,” she snapped. “I’m not even doing it for her - it’s a favor for someone who caught my interest, nothing more.”

  “So it is her, my son’s patron?” The man’s face darkened, but his confidence had been shaken enough that he chose his words more carefully. “I admit, I’ve encountered her once before, but she didn’t seem particularly threatening. Why help her?”

  Barbartu couldn’t hold back her snort. “You think she’s weak? Do you have any idea who she is?”

  “A minor goddess of the void? A psychopomp perhaps?” he offered hesitantly.

  “That ‘minor goddess’ is the Lady of Last Light. It’s true she’s weak in certain conditions - a quirk of her particular divine domain - but at her peak, she is the strongest in their pantheon,” she replied, not feeling the need to mention that was after every other god had already died, and a little thrill of joy tingled down her spine as the man visibly gulped.

  “She didn’t seem that strong.”

  “She’s generally not the wrathful type,” Barbartu said dismissively, “but due to her particular role in the pantheon, she doesn’t have a lot of followers. But, for those few followers that she has…”

  She let the sentence linger, allowing S?ar time to grasp her meaning. “She’d really go to all this trouble simply for him?”

  “Your son slew a demigoddess on the brink of true ascension - you couldn’t even hold your own against me,” she replied, rubbing his weakness in his face. True, the man was still far stronger than his son, but she failed to see a good reason for his obvious disdain. Perhaps things will be clearer once I meet the girl. “Now take her to me. I mean her no harm, but I shall not allow you to hide her any longer.”

  The man hesitated, the last embers of his defiance not entirely stomped out, but what saw in her eyes dissuaded him. “Fine. I’ll let you pass through the barrier,” he agreed. “As long as you promise not to hurt her.”

  “I already told you, I meant her no harm,” she countered, annoyed.

  “Promise.”

  Barbartu rolled her eyes but spoke the words he asked for. “Anaddar ana melammi? s?a ana?ku la? amahhasus?i.”

  “What about other types of harm,” he pressed, and Barbartu fixed him with a glare.

  “You’re testing my patience, boy. Perhaps you need another lesson on the proper respect due a god.”

  He blinked first, and raising his hand, he cast the spell that lowered the shield. “Welcome to Birat-Ah?is?, my lady.”

  She shot him an odd look as she stepped past him. “Fortress of Solitude? Don’t tell me you named this place after Superman?”

  The man’s jaw flexed in annoyance. “That’s a rather free interpretation, my lady. You know as well as I that ‘the lonely fortress’ would be a better translation.”

  “Agree to disagree,” Barbartu shrugged. “But lead on - I’m dying to see what my uncle scarfed away out here. I always thought these mountains were uninhabited.”

  He brushed past her with a sigh, heading down the path that led toward their settlement. “It’s no surprise you thought that. According to our elders, Lord Nerigla had long foreseen the possibility that war would break out. He discouraged settlements in the mountains so that he could prepare Birat-Ah?is? in secret, a second capital in case Es?kinna fell.”

  “A second capital?” The pointlessness of her question became apparent a moment later as she rounded the corner and caught sight of Birat-Ah?is?. A ‘second capital’ was a touch hyperbolic, but neither was the settlement the mere hide-out she’d expected. A full-fledged city nestled in the hollow of the mountain, large enough to accommodate at least a million souls, not including the subterranean sections she felt certain her uncle would have excavated.

  Unlike the ruins of Es?kinna, Birat-Ah?is? boasted a curious mix of ancient and modern architecture. In one corner, a pair of sleek skyscrapers stood good over a stately ziggurat; in another, an ominous castle, whose black walls shimmered with the protection of a ward, hosted an airstrip just outside its walls.

  Yet, although touches of modernity had infiltrated the city, it was clear that the ancient ways remained supreme. There were no cell phone towers, no flashy billboards, no cars in the streets. Her eyes focused on a temple in the distance, from which the babble of offered prayers brushed against her ears, prayers offered in the traditional tongue.

  Realizing she had frozen in place, she tore her eyes away from the city to look at her guide. She read the unasked question in his expression and offered him her first genuine smile. “My uncle would have liked this place,” she said. “Well, he may have been a bit grumpy about the skyscrapers, but only until he realized the opportunities a building made of glass offered him for enchantment. Then he might just have torn down all the other buildings.”

  “Well, if that’s what Lord Nerigla wants-”

  And Barbartu laughed. “I think when he awakes he’ll need a touch of familiarity; your city is fine as it is. Come, give me the tour,” she demanded imperiously, offering her arm.

  And give her the tour he did. After the third hour of roaming the streets, stopping at any and every site of significance, Barbartu begin to suspect that the behind-the-scenes tour was S?ar’s way of avoiding introducing her to his daughter. It was a foolish attempt; time meant little to her, but she got a little thrill out of making him waste his time, so she feigned obliviousness, happily feasting on his misery.

  But, fate, it seemed, had other plans. As they left the shrine of Nungal, one of Nerigla’s fallen children, a voice called out from behind them. “Dad? Wait up!”