She found him on the banks of the river as it neared the Gallas’s mountain range, in the shade of a dark acacia tree with a stack of clay tablets alongside him. If he noticed her approach, he didn’t let on.
“You trespass again, Nergal,” Kigal said with as much force as she could muster, keeping her steps even as she strode up to him.
His flaming hair swayed as he looked up from the tablet in his lap, eyes just as sharp and dark as she remembered. An angry rash streaked from the left of his jaw to his neck and disappeared past the stiff collar. Was he afflicted by the very diseases he ruled over?
“To what do I owe this visit?” He set the tablet aside.
“You are the one in my lands.”
“And yet it’s you who sought me out.” He twisted to each side with a c***k of his spine, so casual, so ar
