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He flailed, slashed His dagger punched into the giantess’s calf ht it was over then He’d hurt her, but not badly, and now she would kill hi She stood as if locked in ice Through the blood in one eye, Kip blinked up at her She was blanching--literally desaturating from the head down as if he’d poked a straw into her and was sucking out all the color The green luxin that covered her features was unraveling Her green hair fell off, the greenoff, dissipated in a smoke redolent of fresh cedar Her jade eyes sank, her body shrank, deflating In s of a dress torn by her recent huge size and now draped over ereen spars of her halos shireen in her irises shimmered and disappeared Her skin was bleached to its natural Ruthgari-pale hue

Lier out of her bleeding calf

He pushed himself up to his knees She raised her hand as if to draft

Kip slashed her throat, and she sighed Her eyes rolled back in her head and she relaxed into death

She’d raised her hand to draft, to kill Kip He’d had to do it Or had she raised her hand in supplication?

The green light froh," a voice said It wasn’t loud, but it see It shook Kip to his bones

The dead wootten, Kip looked to the center of the tohere a new god stood

Atirat, the queen of lasciviousness, the green goddess, the consort of heaven, the lady of s, sooddess was, it wasn’t a she Unlike his twelve giants, he was no taller than Gavin Apparently he thought real power didn’t need to be vulgarly dearity didn’t seem to particularly concern Atirat otherwise

He had no human flesh left Everywhere, luxin knit so thin it could be silken cloth forures were incised atop the vast he to copulate with every , was a tapestry of vines and serpents A gold choker around his throat held a single black jewel As heseaht have been the bark of the red birch, or simply veins unprotected by his luxin skin He was bare-chested, living vines for a kilt Moss curled on his chest as hair, and leaves and grass blooood, even Gavin couldn’t tell if it was real or illusion

The god’s eyes were chips of flint, and he seeic, with life Gavin supposed it all would have been farabout the way he moved was faht

"Dervani Malargos," Gavin said "Never thought I’d see you wearing a dress I’d ask what you’ve been up to since the war, but I suppose I can probably hazard a guess" A cockroach eod’s armpit and disappeared into his arm "Nice beetle Be careful of terht beside Dervani Malargos He, Dazen, not he Gavin Hisan assassin after the man Apparently the assassin had lied about his success Dervani was Tisis’s father Either way, Dervani had no reason to love Gavin--nor, truth be told, Dazen

Dervani had been worth killing because he had known Dazen He’d been there, right at the end at Sundered Rock He ht, he ht unmask--

But then perhaps I should bemy life in some hypothetical future