The dam and unnatural lake were even more surprising close up. There was no shore that slipped gently into the water, but rather clumps of grass and twiggy bushes pushed up out of the lake’s surface, a reminder that they had been swallowed by an unexpected flood. The edge of the pool also bubbled out and dipped in odd places that didn’t seem to match with the surrounding landscape, but then Hattie waved distractedly at us from where she stood just on the edge of the water and I understood.

  Her blessing allowed her to make holes. Holes without a care for how much effort it would take to dig them and that she could make endlessly as long they were in the ground. I still didn’t know where the dirt went that she removed.

  Hattie’s finger twirled and twirled and twirled as she made hole after hole to hold all the water pouring in from the river without it spilling over into the delta. I wasn’t sure the goddess would approve of her changing Her territory so significantly, but perhaps Hattie had a workaround for that given that she couldn’t help it if she used her goddess given blessing.

  Morwen, the Beastwatcher second-in-command, and Esie patrolled the top of the dam. Now that we were closer I could see that a fight had happened here. Bodies of fish floated in the water on the delta side of the dam, bloated and unmoving. Some parts of the earthen wall looked scuffed but nothing was crushed or broken.

  Surprisingly, there weren’t more fish filling the water to replace the dead. The area was unnaturally quiet and still after all the turmoil I was used to seeing from the horde in the delta.

  Nix, the Hundred Eyes whisper woman who was known for solving difficult mysteries and puzzles, sat cross legged on the ground next to the dam, one hand dipped into the water. Perhaps she was the one keeping the fish at bay. It made me wish her blessing could cover the entire delta if that was the case.

  As I watched them, I noticed one of the damaged areas of the dam smoothed out as Morwen walked by and in another the dam noticeably thickened. She wasn’t just patrolling then. If she could influence or control the earth with her blessing, then it made more sense how they were able to put together dam so quickly and with enough strength that it didn’t immediately get washed away.

  The group of whisper women had already been impressive without taking their blessings into account, but it was clear that Esie had picked well if they had planned to do this dam and lake from the beginning. Kaylan’s ability to hear everything was valuable no matter the situation and if Ambervale hadn’t turned out to be a traitor her input about how to fight the horde could have provided an advantage few others had.

  Really, Esie was the odd one out. Despite the fact that I should have known her the best out of all of them, I still wasn’t sure what her blessing could be. Or really had any true hints. Her poison craft and influence as the Lady of Calm Waters’ intermediary were separate from her blessing, and she seemed to rely on her talents she had gained herself than any blessing she might have. No one else had hinted what it could be either.

  But it wasn’t something I could ask outright about either, not after all this time. Now it had become something I needed to figure out for myself or something that she decided to reveal of her own accord. Based on how it wasn’t as easily revealed as Hattie or Morwen’s blessings, it was likely something highly specific, something that did better with secrecy, or, more broadly, something that didn’t change the environment around her. Hopefully, in time, I’d figure out the real answer.

  While I doubted Esie had missed Kaylan and I swooping in on a giant storm bird, she only started making her way over to us when we started walking towards the dam. She met us a short distance from it.

  She gestured towards Nix. “Let’s let her concentrate. We can chat at the camp.”

  Esie led us up onto the narrow top of the dam. It felt more solid beneath my feet than I expected. Like it had always been there blocking the river rather than a new creation. Despite the gaps carved into the dam looking small from the sky, once we reached the first one I had to jump a little to reach the other side as the water churned underneath. For all that the water looked placid elsewhere, the force of it pushing through those gaps in the dam showed it’s true strength.

  When we reached where Morwen was on the dam I thought we were going to have to squeeze past her, but thankfully she had a better idea than that. Instead, she used her blessing to create two footholds in the steep side of the dam and stepped down onto those, so that we could walk past unhindered. As soon as we were past she stepped to the top again and the footholds smoothed back into the dam as if they had never been.

  The camp turned out to be five tents surrounding a cooking fire with a couple firestarters I didn’t recognize tending to cooking and other tasks. I knew I shouldn’t be surprised to see them since the whisper women couldn’t start a fire and I doubted all of our cooking skills, but I had gotten used to seeing only tribesfolk and the whisper women in the delta.

  These two couldn’t be mistaken for tribesfolk either. The tribesfolk moved like trained fighters and they were on alert at all times. That’s also what I had come to expect from firestarters after spending time with Mishtaw’s squad, but these firestarters weren’t like that. Instead, the firestarter tending the cook fire looked like he sampled every meal he made twice over and he didn’t so much as glance up at us from the food he was making. The other was a more wiry man and he scrambled up from his spot to greet us before he went back to repairing a torn shoe. He moved with a jerky uncertainty that reminded me more of Tike from the inner valleys rather than Creed.

  Esie didn’t stop in the camp. She stopped briefly to get a blanket from one of the tents and she strolled right past everything else to a spot out of earshot of the firestarters on the scrubby grass. The ground still squelched some in places from the sheer amount of water saturating the area, but the spot she found was dry enough. Close enough to get back quickly if anything went wrong but too far out for anyone to overhear without being caught, unless they were Kaylan.

  Esie pressed her lips against Kaylan’s temple and I looked away as thoughts of Prevna tried to well up. Now wasn’t the time for that. Then she spread out the blanket and gestured for the three of us to sit.

  They settled next to each other like it was the most natural thing in the world and I sat opposite of them, not sure what was coming next. Kaylan had already given me the background information I had been missing and Tufani had given me a little bit more with her requirements. They had to know about the crystals and Ambervale’s betrayal by now. I had finally made it tot he river mouth, but most of what I had been seeking to find out here I had found out before arriving. Now I wasn’t sure what else there was to say.

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  Kaylan leaned back on her hands and addressed Esie, “She knows.”

  A tension I hadn’t known to spot relaxed in Esie before it was replaced by something new. Anticipation? Excitement? Something of that nature edged with caution.

  Esie smiled at me. “You made it to us.” She gestured back towards the lake and dam. “What do you think?”

  “Impressive, but it won’t keep the fish back for long.” I decided to ask my own question. “What would you have done if the goddess hadn’t spoken to me?”

  Esie shrugged lightly. “Carried on as we were. There wouldn’t have been any need to pull you into this fight prematurely, if at all.”

  “It was four words.”

  “Four words more than anyone else.”

  I pressed further, “When were you going to tell me about the Succession War? This proxy war? Will I ever meet the Lady of Calm Waters?”

  Esie said, “You have many mentors now. You learned the information when you needed it.”

  “So you take no responsibility?”

  “I don’t underestimate your capability.”

  My jaw clenched. On one hand, that was a compliment I wasn’t sure how to accept and on the other hand, her evasiveness was a sign that she was shifting the blame. I kept note of the discrepancy in my mind.

  “And what about my patron?”

  Esie nodded, but it was small and slow. “You’ll meet her, but it will be on her terms. She has…Time weighs heavily on her.”

  “Fine.”

  The silence stretched between us. I sat there stonily as frustration coiled through my body. Esie was good at having an answer for everything even when it wasn’t what I wanted to hear. For her part, she seemed to be studying me, deciding what was best to say and keep to herself.

  “Everyone I picked, everyone but that cowardly traitor, is here to support you. To see what you can do, what you can become with their own eyes. Some might report back to their sects or other factions. That’s fine. All they need to understand is why the goddess chose to speak to you—so show them.”

  I raised my eyebrows back at her. “How? Stopping the horde and saving the delta?”

  “However you see fit.”

  So helpful. Basically, everyone was waiting to see if I could throw together some miracle solution when I had no desire to lean on the wish maker and they didn’t seem to have a clear idea themselves.

  I did have some idea. The delta couldn’t stay as it was—that would leave it too vulnerable. But the whisper women’s dam had given me an another piece to what it could become. How it could be defended. Part of me still wanted to see the delta destroyed and be done with it, take hold of that simple answer and run with it, but too many eyes were paying attention now. Besides, that would only delay the horde, not stop them. Not unless I truly found a way to poison the water against them. Otherwise, even with fins, they could work their way through and over waterways filled with debris and traps. With enough time they could force their way through the defensive undergrowth.

  That didn’t mean we were without any helpful options though. The crystals were already proving capable of pulling the fish where we wanted and the tribesfolk had their hunting methods they’d perfected over generations of practice. The pine trees filling the delta might be closed off now, but if it was possible to open up their shadows then it would be much easier for our side to save energy and address problem areas. If more dams could be built and maintained then we would have more options for defending against the fish and be able to control their movements further.

  “Why do you seek an audience with the High Priestess?” Esie asked. “She’s unlikely to go back on her word and freeze the shore now.”

  I shook my head. “That’s not why.” I met her gaze, unflinching. “I am reaching out to her because I can’t reach out to anyone higher.”

  Both of their eyes grew wide at that. Kaylan stopped pretending that she was only there to enjoy the lackluster scenery.

  She said, “Making requests of the goddess or Her Beloved isn’t something done lightly.”

  As if I didn’t know that.

  I countered, “Asking the High Priestess to freeze the shore originally was already making a request of the goddess. Not even the High Priestess has the power to freeze the shore without additional help. This time the goddess doesn’t want to interfere and save the day for us. That’s fine. All I would ask is that She accepts this place as part of Her territory, as it always has been, so that we might use our boons to properly fight her enemies.”

  I hadn’t prayed. Hadn’t pricked my wrist or blessing mark to try to gain the goddess’s attention with a bit of blood in offering. I was still sore and recovering, and had little time to truly sort through all the recent developments and things I had learned. I had only been trying to make my point to Kaylan.

  But that mattered little, if at all, in the face of the goddess’s will. I watched as Esie held herself carefully still and Kaylan’s expression went slack with shock as the air behind me shifted and changed as something rapidly filled it. I could sense the way the shadow unfurled with it and grew to cover me, but not the other two. I had new senses now compared to when it had happened the first time back in Flickermark.

  Slowly, I twisted to see what I already knew was there: a new pine tree, grown from nothing with a shadow as deep as those in the Seedling Palace. This time no hands reached up from the shadow, no whisper woman came to give me orders and steal all my things. This time the tree and its shadow was a summoning.

  I licked my black lips. This time I was bound by Her.

  I spared another glance for Esie and Kaylan. No doubt this would solidify their thoughts on my chances of becoming the next Chosen.

  “Go.” Esie’s voice was a hoarse whisper of itself, but I listened to her command and let myself sink into the shadow that had enveloped me.

  The shadow paths felt different as I settled onto the oil slick surface. The annoying tug that always came from the spot where I had left the death bringer in the shadows was quiet. Nor could I sense the other shadows that should have been within my awareness. I couldn’t even bring the Seedling Palace’s shadows into focus so I could anchor to them. Instead, there was only one shadow I could latch onto and it was one I was sure I had never had access to before. The prominence of it overshadowed everything else.

  Both regretting this entire situation and morbidly curious to see how it would turn out, I set my path and walked through the other shadow.

  I stepped out into a hall of woven branches and amber, lit by pine cone lanterns, and my body went cold. I knew this place even if I had never stepped foot into it before. It had been in one of the visions I saw when I gained my dark sight boon.

  At my back a pine tree stretched up to the rounded ceiling, but it was pressed flat into the wall, so that it was more like one of Shawsh’s sculptures than a living tree. Its shadow covered the floor in perfect mimicry of the tree despite the way the lanterns should have distorted it, and the shadow’s tip stopped ten feet short of where the hall’s floor rose several feet and leveled out again. On that higher level were two pools, one on each side, that glittered like the night sky. Ice spiraled and fractured out from them, only leaving a pathway between the pools free of the patterned frost.

  Sitting on a ornate red cushion near the lip of the higher floor was the Beloved. Dress as red as blood, dark hair tumbling to her waist except for where three tight braids held it in place over one ear. Bless mark trailing from the corner of her right eye down into her collar, black lips, red and white ear cuff curling around her entire left ear.

  She was staring right at me.

  Pine tree and shadow, night and cold. Blood. All of the goddess’s aspects displayed within a single room. I was so overwhelmed by it all, by the fact that the Beloved was looking at me that I almost missed that the High Priestess, Lithunia, was standing behind the Beloved as well.

  The Beloved shifted, just the smallest tilt of her head, and my attention fixated back on her.

  “I heard you had a request.”