Riwenne and her friends witnessed the creation of a new demigod, the greatest threat they’ve ever faced. There’s only one thing they can do: find a way to kill her before she destroys everything they’ve built. But they don’t have the strength to face her in battle. Instead, they must find a way to lure the demigod into a trap.
Planning the Trap
It took the rest of the night for Tika and Uqra to explain how we would kill a demigod. It started with draining her powers, which would take all of us to contain. Then it would be up to me to strike the final blow, channeling Quilla’s powers as the goddess of death.
The trick would be to catch her in a vulnerable position. Since Huamani wanted to reunite the empire, she would probably attack Lyndamon again to reclaim our territory. We had to prepare a trap in our city and lure her close enough to spring it.
Illari was the most excited about the trap. “If we use a mechanical device instead of pure magic, will that make it harder for her to get out of it?” she said, already sketching out ideas.
Nexita leaned forward to look, her eyes wide. Deryt also examined the sketches with interest, and the glances between the three engineers showed that they would have more ideas soon.
“You’re right that we can use the same technique the sun goddess used to imprison her sister,” Tika said, looking at me with a faint smile of approval. “Quilla spent a long time reflecting in her prison. She can use that knowledge to guide us in trapping Huamani now. But adding in a mechanical element is also a good idea. The enemy won’t expect it.”
“What will we do until then?” I asked softly. “Isn’t she a threat to Ruraqie and anyone else who wants to be free of the Empire?”
Uqra nodded sadly. “They will be vulnerable. There may be sacrifices along the way, and anyone she kills may make her or the sun goddess stronger.”
“But we can’t try to face her too early,” Tika said. “We must commit to this plan. The best way to help all of Arkia is to take down Huamani. If she dies, it will be like cutting off the head of the snake—the empire will be too weak to continue. In the end, we will be liberating everyone.”
I looked down, remembering the destruction in Riqar and Haman. “Whoever is still alive.”
“If you worry about others, tell them to evacuate,” Tika snapped. “Shelter them here in Lyndamon or tell them to hide in the mountains. We can’t lose our focus.”
But that would mean giving up their homes and everything they’d built. I knew that Waytamayu and his citizens wouldn’t want to leave their beautiful city with all the new improvements they’d added. All I could hope is that we would prepare the trap soon and taunt Huamani so she came here first, before she could attack anyone else.
When we had laid out the basic idea of our plan, we took a break to prepare for the dawn ceremony. Eberet left for the temple first while the rest of us went to our rooms to change. We would put on our holy robes at the temple, but we needed clean clothes to wear underneath.
As soon as Kyra and I went into our room and shut the door, I sank down on the bed. My mind was still reeling.
