by
Marc H. Wyman & Chris Bogues
XXV.
Interrogation
Shenaumac
was satisfied with the way things were developing. Leaving Decirius’
tower, he smiled to himself and scanned the sky briefly. Lonapal was still
up there, accompanied by his eagle pet. For the moment, at least, they
were happy.
He
shrugged. It shouldn’t take more than a day or two before the happiness
would be abruptly cut off. Perhaps, he granted himself the thought, it
would be good if Koultirsp took her time. Lonapal might deserve this last
respite.
The
thought ran a short course through his mind then the god discarded it. A
last moment of doubt, a last moment of brightness, that was all this
thought represented. Shenaumac had committed himself to his little game,
and he would emerge victorious. He savored that word. Victorious. Such a
sweet sound that was.
The
eagle cried up in the air. Lonapal halted his movement, looking down, then
waved. Shenaumac smiled broadly as he waved back. “Enjoying yourself?”
he yelled.
“Very
much! Thank you!” Lonapal answered, stretched out his arm, and the eagle
took hold of the new perch immediately. “I never knew such joy! You were
right!”
Shenaumac
waved again, then lowered his head and continued walking towards his home,
where Tiger would be waiting. Yes, a pet gave you joy. It also made you
vulnerable. On the other hand, a bit of vulnerability made the game all
the more fun.
Victory
was at hand, he knew. Off in the mortal world, his harsnetts were
multiplying. He hadn’t bothered with the animal way of procreation. The
harsnetts didn’t have separate genders, anyway. They could create new
ones from themselves, eating enough for another individual. He had sent
twenty-seven harsnetts into the mortal world. By now, a mere month later,
there were one hundred and five. Oh, yes, there had been losses. The
dragons and other creatures had made short work of a couple of harsnetts,
otherwise they might have numbered more than three hundred.
Yet
their growth was satisfying. He could feel their worship’s energy within
himself. It wasn’t enough, not yet, to really measure up to any of the
other gods’ power. For one thing, much of the energy had to be shared
with the chief gods of the other abodes; some of it even added to his
fellow under-gods.
Soon
that wouldn’t matter so much. Soon.
He
had reached his home, opened the door, stepped inside – and froze.
Darkness surrounded him, not the customary resplendent white.
Shenaumac
crouched down, balled his fists, guided strength into them to defend
himself.
Nothing
happened.
“Is
anyone here?” he called cautiously. There was no presence here beside
himself. Not even Tiger. Of course gods could mask themselves; he had done
so many times before. Yet now that his power was so much more than before,
he should have been able to detect traces, shouldn’t he?
“Hello?”
he called again.
Again
there was no answer. Slowly Shenaumac unfolded himself, took a step
forward for a closer inspection.
The
door slammed shut behind him.
Not
his doing.
Instinctively
the god wanted to transport himself back outside, into the open – yet
something stopped him. He couldn’t leave, not by any other mode than his
legs. He couldn’t even take another shape! “Who is this? What are you
doing?”
A
noise came out of the darkness, a soft wailing, a sound unlike any he had
heard before. But it had a place of origin, and Shenaumac fired lightning
in that direction. The bright flame shot through the darkness, revealing
for brief moments his table and couch, Tiger’s scratchpost – then it
was gone. Somebody giggled.
A
female voice.
“Koultirsp,
is that you?” Shenaumac cried. “If you hurt Tiger, I will –“
A
hand slid around his shoulder, soft, warm, tender, as its fingers grasped
his chin – then jerked it around violently, nearly tearing it off his
body. His head twisted sideways, he stared at the lovely face of Alyssa.
“No, I’m not Koultirsp,” she said. “Surprised to see me,
Shaney?”
“Lys?
What are you doing here?” Shenaumac forced a smile to his lips. “Not
that I’m not happy to see you. It has been such a long time since we
last had a private conversation. I had thought you were outside of the
City.”
Alyssa
patted his cheek gently, then moved closer, molding her body to his
easily. “I was. And,” she put her mouth close to his ear, breathing
into it, “you have been in the village, too.”
“What?!”
Shenaumac screamed, broke free of her hold, stumbled a few steps into the
darkness and gaped at her. “Of course I haven’t! Decirius has ordered
us to stay in the Eternal City. Why, Haguen locked up the walls so nobody
could leave or get… in…” He frowned. “How exactly did you
get in, Lys?”
The
goddess shrugged and stretched her arms luxuriously. Strange how her
movement reminded him of Tiger. “Don’t you like being close to me,
Shaney? There was a time when you were happy for every moment that I spent
with you.”
“Times…
change,” Shenaumac muttered. “Since when do you call me Shaney? Lys,
really, this darkness, the wailing, that…”
“Did
I frighten you?” she asked softly.
He
shook his head, feeling out of his place. What was this about? “Well,
that seemed to be the idea. Lys, you can’t have gotten back into the
City, unless Haguen lifted the block. How can you have left the
village?!”
“Perhaps,”
a male voice suggested from the darkness, “the same way that you did?”
Shenaumac’s
head whirled about. He didn’t need to seek long to detect Darawk
stepping out of the darkness. No, not stepping. The darkness receded
around him until he was clearly visible. “Dar, don’t be ridiculous.
I’ve been in the City all –“
Alyssa
was suddenly behind him again, slinging her arms around his chest. In a
reflex, he tried to shake her off – but her grasp was impossibly firm
and strong. His eyes widened when he felt the strength exuding from her,
while she placed her chin on his shoulder and whispered, “But we’ve
seen you in the midrealm village this morning, Shaney. And yesterday, too.
You’ve also been in the mortal world, looking after your harsnetts.”
She reached up with one of her arms to tickle his nose. “They’re quite
boring, these harsnetts, you know. Hunt and eat, eat and multiply. You
might have done better.”
“Are
they part of Decirius’ plan, Shaney?” Darawk asked. The God of
Knowledge suddenly stood before him.
Shenaumac
couldn’t help but shiver. Alyssa calling him by a nickname he could
take, but now Darawk was using it as well? “What plan are you
talking about?”
Alyssa
moved closer to him, and her arms tightened like coils around his chest,
pressing close. “Am I hurting you, Shaney?” she asked
conversationally. “I’m sorry, but I am so very looking forward to your
answer.” Her arms tightened again. “So very looking forward,” she
breathed into his ear.
This
isn’t possible! She cannot be this strong! The thoughts raced
through Shenaumac’s mind, intertwirling, separating, rushing their
diverse paths. He knew how strong Alyssa was – far more powerful than he
had ever been, but not like this. She was squeezing him – in more than
the physical way -, so easily, as if she could crush his essence with a
mere thought.
Darawk
shrugged. “How else could you have left the abode, Shaney? You were
watching us in the village. Were you there when we fought Lógrims?”
They
can’t know! I was masked at the time, I –
Alyssa
pressed herself closer to him. Her arms grew spikes that cut into his skin
and flesh. “Why don’t you talk, Shaney? You must be getting
uncomfortable now.”
“What
is Decirius after?” Darawk asked sharply.
“Sweet
Shaney,” Alyssa whispered into his ear, “tell us, and you will feel
much better.”
Shenaumac
closed his eyes, tried to concentrate. There was no way out, there was
only increasing pain. “He… It’s about the sapients,” he pressed
out.
“We
know that,” Darawk nodded. “You’ve let several sapient races go to
the mortal world where they only worship a select few gods. Decirius, you,
Taurkémad. Their power is gone from us. Is that it?”
“What?”
Shenaumac chuckled, as much as the pain allowed him. “That’s all
you see?”
Alyssa
rubbed her head against his. “Tell us more, sweetie.”
He
couldn’t help it. Decirius would be angry, but he’d rather take an
angry chief god than these two right now. How did they get so powerful?
Their strength might be enough to rival Decirius! “The sapients,” he
breathed. “They are reproducing. Making more sapients to… worship us.
The new generations – they aren’t as powerful as the first, but…
numbers make up for it. Many sapients fueling us, we can… take over…
eradicate the other… abodes.”
Suddenly
he was free. Her arms were gone, and Shenaumac tumbled to the floor,
coughing hard.
“Decirius
is planning a war?!” Darawk growled.
Shenaumac
raised his head, breathing hard. He saw Alyssa’s legs before him, clad
in the simple breeches of a villager woman, and he knew that she would
punish him again if he didn’t talk. “Not a… war… Not unless it
can’t be avoided. The other abodes… the ones who don’t care about
the sapients, they have no idea of the power dormant in the sapients. We
will use them… to raise ourselves… make us stronger…”
“What
about eradicating them?” Alyssa asked.
Darawk
snarled, “That’s his idea, sister of mine. Decirius won’t do
that unless push comes to shove. Our Shaney, on the other hand, he would
like to have enough power to destroy other abodes.” He paused, then
grunted, “Shaney, is Decirius doing this alone? Or are other abodes in
on this plan?”
Shenaumac
closed his eyes. His ribs hurt. They had never done so before. A layer of
pain surrounded his upper body where Alyssa’s spikes had dug in. “The
five abodes, the ones who created the sapients. They are running the
scheme.”
“What’s
your part in this?” Alyssa asked, folding her arms before her chest.
Shenaumac
shrugged. “I help out. My harsnetts are easy to control, they multiply
well. That’s why Decirius told me about it.”
Darawk
smiled. “Also because you are far too weak to trouble him.”
“Well,”
the God of Sharpened Things rolled his eyes, “nobody ever said Deecee
was stupid, right?”
“Who
else knows about this?” Alyssa continued the questions. The skin on her
arms wobbled slightly, as if the spikes were ready to burst out again.
You
don’t have to do that, Shenaumac muttered in his mind, remembering
the pain vividly. On the other hand… An idea flashed through him, made
it hard for him to subdue a smile. “Well… You know Deecee, he
doesn’t like to talk about his plans. It’s just me… and Haguen.”
“Haguen?!”
The goddess squinted at him. “He was as surprised as all of us when
Decirius locked us in.”
“Sure,”
Shenaumac shrugged. “That old man of yours – Olmawi -, he didn’t
figure in the plans. Our guardian friend thought there’d be a couple of
weeks left. Now he’s keeping a watch over Deecee’s home. You know,
just in case some other abode is trying something. After your encounter
with Lógrims, Deecee just wanted to be safe.” He grinned. “You’ve
been a pretty good distraction, by the way.”
Alyssa
frowned, Darawk muttered inaudibly.
Shenaumac
rubbed his ribs. “You didn’t do anything to my pet, did you? No, of
course not. If I may ask, how come you’re this powerful? It’s not
exactly –“
“Don’t
mind that,” Alyssa cut him off, glanced at her brother. “Decirius?”
Darawk
shook his head slightly. “Haguen first. He might alarm somebody
otherwise. Let’s keep this as quiet as possible.”
“Agreed.”
She looked at Shenaumac.
The
god shrugged. “You don’t want anybody to know, fine. I’m not going
to tell about what you’re doing here. Or anything else. I’m good at
keeping secrets.”
“Especially
if you know what’s good for you.”
“Especially
then,” Shenaumac readily agreed. “Where is my cat? Do you know?”
The
other two gods were slightly disconcerted by the question, then Alyssa
shook her head, reached into midair and withdrew a small, protesting ball
of orange fur from where it had been hidden. Tiger’s claws flashed,
tried to find purchase, instead the cat found itself thrown towards
Shenaumac. The God of Sharpened Things caught him deftly, hurriedly
started to stroke and calm the cat. Tiger didn’t want to be calmed, kept
struggling for a long time, until he finally subsided and accepted that
the trouble was over.
Then
Shenaumac looked up to see that his home had returned to its customary
appearance, bright and airy. The sibling gods were gone. “Gone to talk
to Deecee, I presume,” Shenaumac shook his head. Where had they
gotten their new power?
“The
villagers?”
It
seemed so unlikely. After all, the villagers had been worshipping the gods
for quite a while, without ever proving a noteworthy source of power.
Shenaumac knew about that, in his quest for any additional jot of strength
he had checked them exhaustively. Or so he had thought. Maybe he ought to
examine them again.
“Later.”
He looked down at Tiger. The cat was stretching, purring softly.
“We’ve got things to take care of, you know? Koultirsp has been a bit
slow. I think we need to speed things up a bit.” Tiger raised his eyes
sleepily. “No, I’m sorry, you’ve got to stay awake a little longer.
Now that Darawk and Alyssa are going to occupy several of our other gods
here, we’d better use that opportunity, right?”
Tiger
mewed.
“Sorry,”
Shenaumac repeated and gently deposited the cat on the ground. Tiger shook
himself, looked around for the nearest soft spot to sleep – then he
hissed in shock.
He
was growing! Within moments his tiny frame expanded to become as tall as
Shenaumac – and majestic wings spread from his side. Tiger craned his
head around to look at the new appendages, mewing. The sound seemed
unsuitable to a cat his new size, and in mid-mewing his voice changed to a
ferocious roar.
Tiger
shut up, blinking hopefully at Shenaumac.
The
god patted him on the head. “Don’t worry about it too much, Tiger.
You’ll be back to normal in a short while. See, you’ll be having a bit
of fun here. And a good meal.” He grabbed the sides of Tiger’s head,
turned it right side up, then left side up, smiling at the winged cat.
“Doesn’t that sound fine?”
Tiger
hissed, utterly unconvinced. He spread his wings carefully, testing their
feel.
“We’ll
have fun,” Shenaumac assured him. “Come on, boy, you’ll have better
luck with these wings outside. We’re going eagle hunting!”
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