Deities of Deceit

Chapter Forty

"Effiong!" I jerked backward. "How is that bath coming along!" Nimah's hands clawed at my blouse on a mission to undress me and I struggled to free myself from his hold. "Effiong!"

"Almost ready, Your Highness!"

"It burns... it burns, Yari!" Nimah cried.

A servant hurried out with a calabash of water and a washcloth. "This should keep him cool," she said, soaking the cloth and squeezing.

"Ok ok ok ok! Just–" I tried to still him, but his protests grew with every second I didn't give in to touching. For both my sanity and his.

"Yarima, please!"

"We have to undress him, Your Highness," the servant girl suggested, placing the cool rag on his forehead.

The smell of sea salt filled Nimah's bed chambers, the smell of Hareti's magic. Rarely did Reti use magic to portal between spaces, her return to the palace was the last time she had. There was no use for it at Oshun's temple and, neither was there use for it in the palace, where a good number of enchanted lifts traveled through the floors. But the matter was that of great urgency. We were on the eighty-fourth floor and Reti was on the sixth.

The very thin fabric of air split open and a ring of crystal clear water formed at the center of the room, bringing with it a gentle breeze. Slowly, the water parted ways, forming a perfect circle that connected the council room to Nimah's bed chambers. Eyes wide, Hareti stormed through the portal and it snapped shut behind her.

"Goodness! What happened?" Reti rushed to Nimah's side, and I sighed with relief. Stuttering out words, even I could not make sense of. "Yarima!"

"I have no clue, one minute he was standing there, perfectly fine, the next, he is screaming," I replied, still trying to keep his prying hands at bay. Her hands traveled all over his shaking body in a quick examination.

"The bath is prepared, Your Highness," Effiong stated, hurting back into the room. "Your Majesty..." 

Ignoring him, Hareti continued her search across Nimah's body, lifting his shirt, checking his wrist, then ankles before turning back to his face and cupping it. "Open your eyes, Nimah, let me see." He had squeezed his eyes shut as he moaned and wriggled. "Nimah... it's me, Hareti. Open your eyes."

Slowly his eyes opened and Reti tilted his head towards the setting sun, pulling his bottom eyelids down for a deeper look. His wriggling slowed as though he found a sense of calm in her gaze. His breaths came easier as if to match hers, his moans were now soft purrs. His grip on my blouse loosened, setting me free. He sucked his bottom lip and smiled at her, his eyes glimmering from the sunlight. Not the dying one, taking its sunrays as it descended on the horizon. But the one that stood above him, her forehead creased in worry as she examined his eyes. Hareti could light up the darkest night.

"Ma... Mama..." he murmured with soft breaths, his hand traveling to her face. "You're so pretty."

"Umm..." Hareti threw me a glance.

"There is also... that."

"What does, 'that' mean?"

"He's been spewing a whole bunch of... I don't know."

Turning back to him, Reti took another look hard look and said, "He is overdosing."

"Overdosing? What?"

Her gaze traveled across the room hauntingly, searching every nook and cranny of his bed chambers with just one glance, the gift her third eye provided. She hopped off the bed, bent over, and reached for something. A few seconds later, she sprang back up with a vial, quickly popping it open and taking a whiff, her face hardening as her jaw twitched.