Naamah's Blessing - Jacqueline Carey [155]
“A mere pinch.” Raphael demonstrated with thumb and forefinger. “But it’s growing stronger. Like all numinous beings, it thrives on worship.” He glanced at the ants and the Quechua with equal affection. “And with your aid, Moirin, I believe I’ll be able to summon the rest of him on my own terms this time.”
“No.” I shook my head. “I won’t do it.”
Raphael lifted one finger. The river of ants poured over Bao’s feet, climbing to his knees. “You may wish to rethink that position.”
“Don’t,” Bao said through gritted teeth. “Gods! Forget about me! Someone just kill him!”
“Oh, I don’t advise any of you try.” Raphael circled his finger and the black river divided into multiple streams, ants flowing across the floor, scaling new targets, crawling over clothing and under armor. Someone choked back a sob.
“Stop!” I cried. “Raphael, please!”
He looked mildly at me. “Then you agree to aid me?”
“This isn’t you,” I said to him in despair. “Name of Elua! Raphael, no matter what’s passed between us, you’re a healer! That’s who you are, what you are!”
“No.” Tucking Bao’s staff under his arm, Raphael regarded his hands. “That’s what I was. The gods gave me a gift, and saw fit to mock me with it.” When he looked back at me, his expression was bleak. “They took my parents when I was a boy, and too weak to save myself. They gave me a taste of power with you, and took it away.” He raised his voice. “They took Jehanne from me, Moirin! She died hemorrhaging before my eyes, bleeding out her life to give birth to another man’s child, and there was nothing I could do to stop it, nothing I could do to save her, because you weren’t there!”
“I know!” I shouted at him, helpless tears in my eyes. “Do you think that knowledge is not a dagger in my heart?”
“Moirin,” Bao murmured, glancing at the ants covering his lower legs. “I do not think you should antagonize him.”
“Even that was not enough!” Raphael shook his head, his face grim. “They took my sister Eleanore from me, mocking me with a disease I could not cure. Do you know that great feat of healing I’ve accomplished on my own?” He pointed at Eyahue and Temilotzin, both of whom had been motionless and dumbstruck since we entered the throne room. “I taught a nation of bloodthirsty savages to inoculate themselves against the killing pox so that they might go on worshipping death and sacrificing innocent victims.” His face twisted. “What a piece of irony is that?”
“We can’t know the will of the gods,” I said softly. “What you did was a wondrous thing. Mayhap it will alter the course of history for the better.”
“I am past caring what the gods will.” Raphael’s voice was hard, hard as stone. “I will do what I will. Now, Moirin.” He gestured, and the tide of ants crawled higher. Behind me, someone was weeping in fear. “Will you aid me?”
“Aye,” I said in defeat. “I will.”
“Swear it,” Raphael said. “Swear it on the sacred oath of your people.”
I licked my dry lips. “I swear by stone and sea and sky, and all that they encompass, that I will aid you. I swear it by the sacred troth that binds me to my diadh-anam. Now call them off!”
To a chorus of relieved sighs, he did. “Don’t imagine I have any illusions about your loyalty, Moirin,” he warned me. “I know you’ll try to find a way to wriggle out of keeping your oath just like you did before.”
I was silent.
Raphael paced the room, returning to his throne. The black river flowed alongside him. He sat, Bao’s staff over his knees, contemplating us. “So long as you behave, I’ve no cause to harm the rest of you unless Moirin gives me one,” he said. “You’ll be put to labor in the fields with the others.” Dipping into the basket beside him, he scattered another handful of leaves onto the seething floor, smiling indulgently. “It’s hard to keep these little darlings fed. Bear in mind that they do prefer flesh, they’re everywhere, and they’re always watching.” He laughed. “Well, not exactly watching, of course. They don’t see as we do.”
It was so near