There was something Darnak had said before, back when he was healing Barius. Something about Earthmaker being busy with the prayers of an entire world. Too busy to spend all his time on one dwarf.

Jig chewed on his bread without tasting it. Not that there was much to taste. But his mind was elsewhere. He could see two ways to use the power of the gods to his advantage. One would be to become a follower of the most powerful god, one who could hurl thunderbolts and destroy worlds without breaking a sweat. Did gods sweat? It didn’t matter.

The problem was that such a god wouldn’t have much of a use for a mere goblin. Which brought Jig to the other option. He could follow a god who had grown unpopular. One with few worshipers, who wouldn’t be busy answering other prayers. One who could devote his full attention to people like Jig. One who might be grateful even for a goblin follower.

His ears shot up as a phrase caught his attention. “What was that?”

Darnak blinked. “Eh? Oh, the Fifteen Forgotten Gods of the War of Shadows?”

Forgotten Gods. That sounded perfect, if a bit misleading. If they really were forgotten, how would Darnak know about them?

“Who were they?”

The dwarf played with his beard. “Let me think . . . they fell out of favor for going up against the Two. You can’t kill a god, of course, but the Two showed them all that you can beat one within an inch of his or her life. Take the Shadowstar. They stripped his mind, flayed his body with blades of lightning, and cast him loose in the desert. May have turned him into a lizard for a while, I’m not sure. He wandered there for two hundred years, all but forgotten.”

“Tell me about him,” Jig said eagerly.

“Well, Tymalous Shadowstar was God of the Autumn Star. When his lady brought the snows of winter, Shadowstar lengthened the nights and danced in the darkness.”

There was more, but Jig had heard enough. A forgotten god, one with power over the darkness. He didn’t understand this idea of longer nights, and he knew nothing of the seasons, but it didn’t matter.

Jig the goblin would be a follower of Tymalous Shadowstar.

CHAPTER 10 - Falling Short of Expectations

CHAPTER 10

Falling Short of Expectations

They might have stayed there forever, listening to Darnak’s endless recitation of divine history. He was determined to tell Jig about every wart on the frog-god’s back and every copper coin claimed by the god of gamblers. No matter how often Jig cleared his throat or glanced at the others, Darnak kept on talking. Jig could have done without this demonstration of dwarven stamina.

Finally Barius strolled around the fountain and tapped his boot for attention.

Darnak hesitated.