Page 83 of The Merciless Ones
“Idugu is up there?” I ask.
Deka, Ixa chirps.
“I’ve never seen these stairs before.” I turn when Acalan says this, a faint look of confusion on his face.
“I thought you’d been to every part of the temple,” Kweku says, frowning.
“Not here,” he says. “Acolytes are never allowed in this far.”
“We must be on the correct path, then,” I say, following Ixa up the stairs, which are so eerily dark and empty, our footsteps echo in the early morning air.
It’s as if Idugu has ensured that there are as few barriers as possible to hinder our progress, which makes sense. He wants us to come to him. I can’t help but feel unnerved by the thought.
Ixa finally leads us to a massive wooden door, the kind priests are fond of using to guard sacred objects. A pair of kuru, those golden sun symbols, serve as knobs, while a larger kuru is inlaid in gold in the floor. The air shifts as we near it, growing darker, heavier. By the time we’re standing next to it, all the fine hairs are lifting on my arms and the back of my neck is prickling as I recognize that familiar, sinister feeling.
Idugu. He’s here.
But for the first time, I don’t recoil at the fevered awareness of his presence. Instead, I look down at Ixa. Good work, I say silently.
Deka, he chirps, pleased.
I turn to the others. “Wait here.”
A bemused snort sounds. “Not a chance of that,” Keita says, walking up to me. “I’m going with you.”
“Me too,” Britta says, then she glances quickly at Li.
Hidden messages pass between their eyes, but then, to my surprise, he walks over and envelops her in a firm embrace, kissing the top of her head while she buries her face in his chest, blushing. As we all watch, shocked, he whispers something in her ear, then steps back.
“We’ll wait here, guard the door for as long as you need,” he says out loud, his eyes on Britta, who’s still blushing. It’s clear his next words are for her and her alone. “Fortune go with you,” he says softly.
“Ye too,” Britta replies, her face bright red. When she sees my expression, she turns even redder. “Not a word from ye, Deka,” she hisses. “I mean it.”
I put up my hands quickly. “I’m not—” The words die on my lips.
The doors are creaking softly open by themselves. When they open fully, allowing us our first true glimpse of what’s inside, my jaw drops.
The room in front of us is colossal, an impossibly enormous, towering structure that almost rivals the entire Temple of the Gilded Ones. It can’t possibly exist in this small tower above the Grand Temple. It can’t possibly exist in any tower anywhere. But I’m not concerned with the hows and whys of it; my entire attention is taken by what stands at the very end of the room: four massive golden thrones, an equally massive golden statue sitting on each one. I stare at them, unable to move, unable to breathe. Shock has turned my feet to lead.
“Those statues…” I whisper.
“They look like the mothers.” Britta’s consternation is plain on her face as she staggers up beside me. “They look exactly like the mothers.”
“But they’re male,” I say, the blood rushing to my head as I try to comprehend what I’m seeing in front of me.
The statues on those thrones are identical to the Gilded Ones. Same faces, same robes, same everything – except they’re all male. Perfect male replicas of the mothers, all just sitting there in slumber. One even has wings, like Mother Beda. Memories flash through my mind as I stare at them – threads finally coalescing: Anok reaching out to the Merciless One, the guilt she felt about something she and her sisters had done. Then there are the carvings I saw when the door first brought us here – the ones that looked like four female warriors fighting four men they were connected to. Those warriors were the Gilded Ones, I realize now, which means that these gods were the ones they were fighting.
A vision of the indolo wafts through my mind, two creatures bound by a golden tether. And all the pieces fall into place. This entire time, I’ve been thinking Idugu is a single entity, one mysterious being hiding in his distant perch, laughing down on our attempts to find him. But what if instead of one mysterious being, there are four? Four male gods, four brothers of the Gilded Ones. Four Merciless Ones.
Which means the mothers’ lies are even bigger than I knew. They weren’t the only ones who created Otera. Their brothers were there too. They also existed all this while.
“What is this, Deka?” Britta asks. “How can all this be here?”
I can’t form a reply to her question. My head is muffled now. The air has grown thicker, Idugu’s presence almost overwhelming. He’s – no, they are – watching. Waiting… But for what purpose, I still don’t know.
I look up, challenging them. “This is some sort of game, right? You’re playing tricks on us, right?” When there’s no answer, I turn to the four thrones. “Are you the brothers of the Gilded Ones? Is that why you brought me here that first time? So I could see what you are?”
Now I understand why we were taken by those doors, hurled all the way from the Eastern provinces to here. The brothers – perhaps they’re all collectively called the Idugu or perhaps they’re all called the Merciless Ones, I’m not sure which; they tried to bring me here, to speak to me. But I changed the door before they could do so, and I escaped.