Free Queen of Ashes by Eleanor Herman Page A

you’ve noticed, Brehan has magical talents, too. They are but a fraction of the power we used to have when we were...” His voice trails off and his eyes cloud over.
    â€œWhen you were what?” she asks, sitting up.
    â€œYou wouldn’t believe me if I told you, sweet girl.”
    â€œI would. Tell me,” she insists. It would be worth the palace going into an uproar if she can finally learn the secrets of these magical brothers.
    He rubs the back of his neck thoughtfully. “Centuries ago, Brehan and I were...” He stares out the window at the rising dawn as if he is seeing another time, another place. “Gods,” he says quietly.
    Laila hugs her knees. Can she believe such a story? She thinks of the brothers’ power, their strangeness. They both seem something more than human, something ancient and compelling. She recalls Brehan’s predictions of the storm and the drought, of his healing her injured foot.
    â€œWhat happened?” she asks quietly. “How did you lose your divinity?”
    He winces. “Long ago, there was a spring of water called the Fountain of Youth in the Eastern Mountains of the old Hittite Empire. Those who drank of it did indeed stay young and grow stronger. But over time they became monsters slavering for divine flesh, devouring alive our brothers and sisters. Those gods who were not killed fled this realm. Without divine flesh and blood, the monsters started feasting on humans, though they required many more mortals to satiate their hunger.”
    His gaze slides past her but he’s not staring at anything in the room. He’s gone back to another place, another time. After a long pause, he adds, “Brehan was always inordinately fond of humans and convinced me that together we could dry up the fountain. We succeeded—at least, we thought we did—but found ourselves trapped here, neither mortal nor immortal, our divine powers greatly diminished. It was all his idea, his doing that this happened.”
    Laila nods thoughtfully. Riel’s story, though outlandish, makes sense. It explains the brothers’ otherworldliness and their dislike of each other. “You were angry at him?” she asks. “You left him?”
    Riel looks into space and shakes his head. “I knew he didn’t mean for it to happen the way it did. And frankly, we were all we had. We stayed together a long time after that.”
    His face darkens, and Laila wonders how and why they separated. He continues. “Quite recently, I discovered in the Chaldean archives of Babylon clay tablets written by Sumerian priest-sorcerers that foretold of two gods trapped on earth. The tablets said that all magic—like all of nature—is circular, and we must therefore return to the place where we lost our godhead to conduct the proper rituals to become gods again. So I sought my brother out and found him here.”
    He looks at Laila as if he suddenly has an idea. “You could come with us,” he says.
    â€œAnd leave Sharuna?” she asks. She can’t leave now, not until after the harvest is brought in and the plague vanquished.
    â€œYes, but you could return—as a goddess.”
    Laila laughs. “I could never be a goddess,” she says, shaking her head.
    â€œNot...necessarily...true.” He looks at her with knowing eyes. “Over the course of time, some mortals have been made into gods and goddesses.”
    Laila’s eyes widen. “No,” she says. “That is not possible. There are no former mortals among the Egyptian gods.”
    â€œBut there are other gods besides Egypt’s,” Riel says. “Your gods are powerful and they look out for this land, but each land has its own gods. In my country, many humans have become gods. Have you ever heard of Princess Ariadne of Crete?”
    Laila shakes her head. The myths of the fallen Greek nations never interested her.
    â€œThe god Dionysus fell in