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Much later, alone in her chamber in Ompong, Jass Imbiah gathered her strength, which had been sorely depleted during Legaba’s violent possession of her body. The only light came from a ring of candles mounted in the skulls of mainlanders who had been slain in battles of the past. The dim light of the candles wavered on her scarred face as she mouthed words of power handed down from her ancestors. Her muscles ached, and her throat felt as though it had been ripped inside out. She concentrated on healing herself.
Among the Uloans, Jass Imbiah’s position was a combination of Emperor and Leba. Other Jasses ruled on other islands, but only Imbiah had the ability to withstand being ridden by the Spider God. Still, her power over the other Jasses had been more symbolic than real – until now.
Until Retribution Time ...
Even as one part of Jass Imbiah’s mind focused on the healing process, another ruminated on what had happened when she read the message from the mainland spy. During a possession, Legaba was part of her, and she was part of Legaba. She knew what the spider-god knew and felt what he felt. When Legaba rode her this time, he assured her the prophecy he had given to one of Jass Imbiah’s predecessors soon after the end of the Storm Wars was about to be fulfilled.
When Retribution Time comes, the dead will fight beside the living, and the final victory will be ours ....
Why now? she had dared to ask Legaba, even as she had screamed his message to his worshippers over and over. After so many years, why now?
Instead of telling her, Legaba showed her. She saw the arrival of the Fidi ship in Khambawe’s harbor, and she saw the pale people from far away, of whom the Uloans had retained fewer memories than had the mainlanders. The islanders paid less attention to the past than the blankskins; their main concern was the vengeance they foresaw in the future.
However, it was not the coming of the Fidi that caused Legaba’s declaration that Retribution Time had finally come. It was the new deity the outlanders had brought to Abengoni. Unlike the enervated, largely absent Jagasti, this outland god, whose name was Almovaar, was potent ... dangerous.
Legaba showed Jass Imbiah an image of the new god’s Seer: a pale, white-haired man surrounded by an aura of eldritch power that stretched to the sky. The man’s eyes glowed like circles of fire, and hands appeared to reach out to grasp her before Legaba dispelled the illusion of his presence.
And Legaba told her the man’s name: Kyroun.
Here is your true enemy, Legaba said. If you do not destroy him, he will destroy you.
Even as Legaba’s call for Retribution Time thundered through her throat, straining her vocal cords beyond their limit, Jass Imbiah had experienced an emotion unlike any other the Spider God had ever shared with her when he rode her.
It was not fear. The notion that fear could touch one of the Jagasti was inconceivable to Jass Imbiah. What Legaba had imparted to her was ... apprehension. And if this new god and his Seer could cause such disquiet to Legaba, how could she, a frail mortal despite the power that she wielded, prevail?
But she knew she had no choice. Her god had declared that the moment for which generation after generation of Uloans had waited had finally come. Preparations for Retribution Time would be long and hard. Jass Imbiah would need all the strength she could muster, and all the ashuma Legaba could infuse into her. And she knew even that might not be enough for the task ahead of her.
“Legaba,” she whispered hoarsely. “Help I.”
And the flames of the candles tilted toward her, as though she were drawing strength even from the feeble energy of their glow.