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‘Stop,’ Mesri commanded ‘I knohy you haven’t thrown it in’ His stare went past the Mouth’s hairless flesh, plu inside him that was supposed to have been starved to death, banished into gloo within hied, turning away froaze
‘What I want to knohy,’ Mesri said ‘Why you turned to the Kraken Queen and her empty promises’
‘Mother Deep’s promises are not empty,’ the Mouth hissed back ‘She demands servitude She demands penance Only then are the faithful rewarded’
‘With?’
‘Absolution,’ the Mouth said, a long s at the corners of his lips ‘Freedom from the sin of memory, oblivion from the torments of the past, salvation from the torture inflicted upon us by the Gods’
‘The benevolent matron does not demand,’ Mesri retorted ‘The benevolentwhat makes you hu up his webbed fingers ‘Not anyh to see the hypocrisy within you’ He narrowed his eyes to thin slits ‘You speak of benevolence, of rewards What has your goddess brought you?’
The Mouth gestured wildly to the statue of Zae and self-satisfied stone smile
‘Your city is in decay! Your people lie ill and dying! The seas themselves have abandoned you!’
‘Because of your matron,’ Mesri snapped back ‘The fish flee because they sense her stirring Your presence here confirms that’
‘We won’t need fish,’ the Mouth snarled ‘We won’t need bread, on’t need healers and on’t need gods Mother Deep will provide for us, absolve us all so that we need never suffer again We’ll live in a world where souides us! We’ll live in a world where we can talk to our gods and know they love us! We’ll live in a world without doubt, where no one has to spew empty words at empty symbols while his child dies in her bed!’
The Mouth liked to think himself as in control of his emotions, hisup all this ti for the tiniest breach to co out Perhaps Mesri’s stare went deeper than he thought, pulled things up that even the Mouth didn’t know he had inside of his skin None of that mattered; the Mouth had said what he said
Only nohen tears formed in his eyes, did he realise what it was he had just spoken
‘How long ago?’ Mesri asked
‘She would have been sixteen now,’ the Mouth said, aware of how choked his voice sounded ‘Plague got her No healer could help She would be too old for stories now Too old for gods They’re one and the same: lies we tell each other to convince ourselves that our fates are beyond our own control’
‘That was roughly the ti at his te Port Yonder thrived and I thought it was the will of the Gods’
‘The Gods have no will beyond the desire to be worshiped and do nothing in return,’ the Mouth spat ‘They don’t hear us They don’t do anything except fail us, and we keep co at their feet!’
‘I believed,’ Mesri whispered, ‘that we need si’
‘Then you see? This is the only way …’ The Mouth looked to the vial ‘The Fatherthat the Gods would treat us like sheep’ Mesri seized his attention with a sudden chest-borne bellow ‘I rong to think that we need siave us wealth and we squandered it The Gods gave us prosperity and asted it This temple could have been tremendous, like the church-hospitals of the Talanites We could have helped so many people …’
‘But the wealth vanished The ill and hungry are everywhere The Gods failed us’
‘The wealth is gone and the ill and hungry are as they are because of e did The Gods did not fail you’ Mesri closed his eyes, sighed softly ‘I did’
The Mouth was at once insulted and astonished, unable to find words to express it
‘I could have helped your child I could have saved her’ He tugged at his garht the finest healers’
‘You wouldn’t have’
‘I wouldn’t have, no,’ Mesri said, shaking his head ‘I would have languished in ht that the Gods would have solved it But that is not their fault It is e, if I had opportunity … ouldn’t be in this situation’
‘But we are,’ the Mouth snarled ‘And we are left with no recourse but the inevitable’
‘Inevitability does not exist,’ the priest spat back ‘There is only ht What we have here is knowledge What we have here is opportunity’ He held out his hand ‘Give me the vial’
There were a thousand replies the Mouth had been conditioned to offer such a de, all of the a total denial What he did, what he hadn’t expected to do, was to stare due, the key to freedom
To absolution
‘What will they say when you free Daga-Mer?’ Mesri asked ‘What will they do when he destroys their lives, their hoe themselves into a darkness deeper than sin They will suffer as you have They will try to convince themselves that they need no memory, that they need none of that torment
‘What we cannot count on is that they will be in a position to do as you have,’ Mesri said softly ‘We cannot count on them to realise the value of hter’s face’ He stared intently at the Mouth ‘You can hurl it into the pool You can hurl her face, her life, with it
‘Or you can give it to ht now’
The Mouth had no desire to inflict what he currently felt on another The Mouth wasn’t even certain what it was that he was feeling Despair, of course, blended with anger and frustration and co about so that he received only glihter’s laughter, his daughter’s first skinned knee, his daughter’s first toy, his daughter’s death …
And he wanted the to them always
And he wanted the world to see how false the Gods were
And he wanted no one to go into the dark places he had gone to
‘I don’t know your nahter’s name But I know the names of every person in this city I will tell you all of them so that you knohose lives you hold in your hand’
‘Do you know Kasla?’ he asked
‘Her parents are dead She refuses to cohter was proud’
He looked up He saw Mesri smile at him
‘Then I think you’ve made your decision’ He took a step closer The Mouth did not retreat He raised his hand The Mouth raised the vial ‘It is a wise one,out over the city sky: an iron voice carving through the air, cleaving through a chorus of screams that reverberated off every wall
‘WE’RE UNDER ATTACK! RUN! RUN!’
‘ZAMANATHRAS, WHAT ARE THEY?’
‘MESRI! WHERE’S MESRI?’
And for every scream, a war cry answered
‘AKH ZEKH LAKH!’