The sun rose, the shades began to stir and mingle among themselves, and still Kigal sat alongside the body of her dead priest. Hannahanna had broken into sobs as soon as she entered the megaron, hands clapped over her mouth and eyes wide. When Kigal’s messengers had brought in Pashmi-An, she was initially grieved yet accepting—until she understood that Gamil’s soul would not make it to Irkalla. Could not. At that news, she had launched into shaking tears that streamed down her jaw, hurling blame at Kigal’s feet.
Kigal had taken it. Accepted it. No matter the ‘audacity’ of speaking against her queen, as Litu had called it, the truth was there for all to see.
Gamil-An had been a target, and his devotion to her had made him one.
Still, his mother’s words echoed in her skull, a lash with ev
