Page 55 of The Concubine King
He followed the paved road down the mountain to the palace.The palace, too, was empty of people.Ethyr hadn't realized he'd grown so used to the bustle of servants and attendants, but the vacant, echoing halls were eerie without them.Like in the temple, all the normal furnishings and decorations were replaced with piles of treasure, but there was not much else to see.He left the palace to continue his trek into the city.
Wings fluttered.A shadow moved in the corner of his vision.He whipped towards it, heart pounding, to find himself face-to-face with Kiaro standing a hand’s length from him.
He staggered back, eyes wide.Kiaro stood still and silent, hands behind his back, watching Ethyr with unflinching calm.His navy tunic was only exposed as blue because of the braid hanging down his shoulder, more pitch black than any human hair could possibly be.
“Wh–wh–what are you doing here?”Ethyr gasped, bringing a hand to his chest as though it could steady his heart.
“This is the gods’ realm,” Kiaro reminded him blithely.“What are you doing here?”
Ethyr's face laced with heat.He adjusted his tunic, taking time to catch his breath.“I…” He squirmed.“Where are the others?”
Kiaro’s expression didn’t change but a long silence gave him an air of disappointment.“Doing what gods do,” he finally replied.“Answering prayers.”
Ethyr swallowed.Panic had dried out his mouth.“Why aren’t you answering prayers, then?”
“If you wanted to see the god realm, you could have asked us.”Kiaro turned his gaze out over the city and Ethyr felt as though he could breathe again.“Though I don’t know why you’d want to, it’s far less interesting than the mortal side.”
“There are—” Kiaro’s dark eyes flitted back to him, pausing the words on his tongue.Ethyr sucked in a deep breath.“There’s something strange here.It’s… different.”Kiaro watched him with intense eyes.Ethyr swallowed again.“Why is this place so…” He didn’t even have a word for it.Kiaro gave it to him.
“Dead.”
“Yes!”he burst out, a little too excited.His voice echoed off the cliffside and he quickly closed his mouth.
“This realm only exists because humans believe it to exist,” Kiaro told him, as though it explained anything.
“What does that mean?”
Kiaro’s eyes bore into him.“It may feel dead, but it is not, because it was never alive.”
It was not really an answer, but Ethyr had a feeling more questions would lead to more riddles.His gaze drifted to the ground, then he turned to look back at the temple standing so solemnly at the top of the mountain.
“You can do what you want.”
The words pulled his face towards Kiaro again.“What?”
“I’m not stopping you.”
Ethyr bit his lips, raising his shoulders.“I just… was going to look at the city.”
Kiaro unclasped his hands to gesture down the road.Ethyr looked him over uncertainly before taking a few steps.When Kiaro didn’t move, he continued more surely.He was a few paces away when his neck pricked and he turned to see Kiaro following him.They halted at the same time.
“What?”Ethyr asked.
Kiaro’s face was placid stone.“What?”he returned casually.Ethyr glanced around.He awkwardly started walking again.
Partway down the road, he turned back around.“If you are going to come with me, can you at least walk beside me?”he asked.It was unnerving to have him a few steps behind.Kiaro seemed to debate this for a second, then caught up to him.With the god at his side and not trailing him like an assassin, he continued into the city.
Kiaro strolled beside him with the languid movements of someone bored and resigned.The long walk down the palace road, lined with nothing but yellowing grass, was not exactly titillating, so Ethyr couldn’t blame him.But he didn’t understand why Kiaro was coming with him in the first place, then.
“What makes it less interesting than our world?”Ethyr asked.
“As I said, there is no life.No soul.”
“There is you,” Ethyr pointed out.“And the other gods.”
“Yes,” Kiaro replied.“There is us.”Ethyr wondered if it was bitterness hiding beneath the words, or just boredom.
Ethyr kicked at a little pebble standing out against the smooth pavement but missed it and scuffed his sandal instead.He looked up to see Kiaro watching him and he straightened, face warm.It seemed no matter what he was doing, he could not do it without the god’s chillingly black stare on him.So he decided he might as well try to get some answers to questions he’d always had.
