Kigal tossed fitfully about the bed as sweat beaded above her lip, plastering hair to her neck, running down her front in sticky drops of salt. She had sent her guards away with what few words she could manage. She didn’t want to be seen like this, not by those to whom she was supposed to appear unshakeable. She still needed to inspire confidence after this was all over.
Yet she worried. Was she going to die? Was this some sort of revenge for what she’d done to Inanna? If so, inflicted by whom?
Her door swung open for the hundredth time since this ordeal had begun and Nergal stepped through. Even through her haze she could tell that he was quite the sight. Patches of chalky dust clung to his garb and dirt was caked beneath his fingernails, at odds with the silver teapot in his hand. Her
