"Aly Dearest… where are you?"
A voice boomed over the palace garden. Aly rolled her eyes.
"You know full well where I am you infuriating nincompoop."
Kyprioth appeared before her in his favourite guise of benevolent old statesman. "Nincompoop?" He mused. "Haven't heard that one before."
The Raka gardeners bowed low to the deity before silently leaving. No one wanted to interrupt a meeting between the Trickster God and Dunai.
Aly glared at their retreating forms. She really didn't want to be left alone with the god because what she had to say was liable to outrage him… and Kyprioth in a rage was not a pretty sight.
"Why?" Hands on her hips she faced the god. "Why did you let him die?"
Sighing, Kyprioth shook his head in an imitation of grief. It was a rather good imitation apart from the quick glimpse of dimple that gave him away.
"Haven't you learnt anything from her mother's interaction with the gods? Or Daine's? Or yourself's? I don't have power over death.. you need to look to the Hag for that…."
"You could have stopped it! After all I've done for you… all the effort… I thought that you would at least give me little time to be happy."
It was the god's turn to roll his eyes.
"Aly Dearest," she winced at the 'dearest'. Since the incident with the Graveyard Hag, Kyprioth had started calling her all sorts of flowery, over affectionate names and seemed to have settled on 'Dearest'. "After all you have done for me of course I want you to be happy. But you didn't really think that the crowman was the one for you…. Did you?"
Tears once again filled her eyes and she wiped them away furiously.
Kyprioth stared at her, shock and then dismay colouring his face.
"You did." His tone was full of surprise. "You really did. Oh."
Confused, Aly returned his stare, now letting the tears fall unhindered.
"Oh Dearest…. I am so sorry."
She blinked in surprise at the apology and when she looked up the god was gone. A miniature Kudarung hovered in the air where he had been. Smiling at its antics Aly wandered through the gardens. She only had two weeks until Dove's coronation. Two weeks in which she needed to be strong and organised.
Only two weeks.
She could do that.