The Black Gods War

over his chest and put his other hand to his jutting chin. “Come, be with her while you can.”
    Lucia breathed heavily with her mouth open. Her mother’s face had looked peaceful before—now it was tortured.
    “Father, come quickly!”
    King Vieri continued to hold Caio in the air, but turned his head to look at his daughter. “Everything is fine, Lucia.”
    “No! There’s a man in here. Muh—Muh—Mother needs you!”
    He lowered the newborn to his chest and waved to the crowd.
    “Father, listen to me!”
    As her father strolled into the chamber, all joy drained from his face. He ran straight to Lucia’s mother, never looking at the black god. The queen’s blood was reddening the holy pool.
    “Don’t you see him?” Lucia asked.
    Her father laid the baby on the stone floor.
    Her mother opened her pained, bloodshot eyes.
    Lord Danato sauntered toward the stairs that led to the attendants below.
    With his hands on his wife’s sweating brow, her father prayed to his god.
    “Lord Danato did this to her!” she screamed.
    “Get help, Lucia!” Her father wouldn’t take his eyes off his queen’s face.
    Danato stood in the archway between Lucia and the stairs, gazing at her with stony eyes.
    “Lord Danato is there! Don’t you see him?”
    “Stop your nonsense. Get help!”
    Her mother screamed, a harrowing sound Lucia knew she’d never forget.
    The baby cried.
    Her father kept yelling at her.
    Lucia froze. She watched her mother, feeling helpless and mute.
    Danato’s voice boomed, “I am sorry, Lucia. There is a reason for all things.”
    She looked down to avoid the god’s stare and squeezed her eyelids shut. She found the courage to look up again.
    The Black One was gone.
    Vieri pulled the queen’s lifeless body from the pool and squeezed it against his trembling chest. His wailing drowned the holy chamber in woe.
    Lucia’s dreams of an idyllic life crumbled, sucked into the black god’s tempest of dust.

Chapter Two: The Ten

    Three years later.

    “COME HERE, CAIO. Let me dress you.” Lucia lifted Caio’s infant cremos so he could see it. He looked up, but kept playing with his toys in the center of his room. She scanned the walls of her brother’s spacious chamber as she waited. The earthen white surfaces would be painted later this day, after Caio chose his patron god or goddess.
    As Lucia approached him with the silky robe in hand, he scurried away with his toy horse gripped in his tiny fingers. “Come back here, silly boy.”
    Caio dropped to his knees in the corner near his bed and let out his adorable laughter. Lucia stood over him and felt her heart warming as she savored the innocent sound.
    “Come now. You need to wear this.”
    “Aw.”
    “No more joking. Father will be upset if you aren’t ready.”
    Caio stood still and let Lucia pull the robe over his head. So excited for this day, Lucia had put on her own cremos robe earlier that morning.
    Caio ran back to the rug. She followed and sat beside him.
    “We’re going to the atrium and there will be lots of people there. Remember what I told you. A man with silver hair is going to ask you to pick your favorite statue of the gods. Whoever you choose will be your special deity for the rest of your life.”
    “Can you help me?”
    “No. This is very important. Just choose whoever you like the most. Any god you pick is good—except for the one with no hair. He is very mean, Caio. Do you understand me? Don’t pick the man with no hair.”
    “Yes, Lucie.”
    “Good. It will be very easy. Very, very easy.”
    Lucia played with Caio as they waited for their father. They pretended his toy animals were being fed by the goddess Jacopa, the Mother of Nature’s Abundance.
    The arched, wooden door creaked as it opened and her father entered the room with a satisfied gleam in his eyes. Lucia smiled at seeing him happy, a rare sight since her mother’s death.
    “There’s my special son!” Her father squatted as Caio ran to him squealing with joy. “On his special day.” Vieri pressed the side of Caio’s face against his chest and hugged his tiny body. “Ready?” he asked her.
    “Yes. Can I hold Caio’s hand and lead him? He’ll be more comfortable—”
    “No.” He shook his head as if she’d asked an ignorant question. “The people will want to see him with me.”
    I’m the one who takes care of him , she wanted to say. You should let me do it.
    “Caio, has Lucia explained what is going to