Destiny;s Queen 13

 

Chapter 13

 

Phaedros left Harkon and his fellow Alethosi to their rapid disassembly of the Thanusi hierarchy and the replacement of the consecration to Alethos.

“Kaz was spitting nails to be left,” said Rynn. “But someone has to watch various children and look out for Mesolimnos; and she needs to be on top form to handle the trickster and then help with Selen.”

“We have her prayers, and the offer to draw on her for power,” said Phaedros. “You could stay with the others, you know, and be safer.”

“You need someone to watch your back,” said Rynn. “They will write me off as your slave.  How are you going to find her?”

“I am following a thread of power,” said Phaedros. “When I am close, doubtless we shall be challenged; but in the open by those worshippers short of glyph-rank, who are still human, and aspire to the dubious status as blood suckers. They are as nothing, but will take me to her, for a good looking man who seeks her will intrigue her. And I think I am not ill looking.”

“You’re beautiful,” said Rynn.

“You are lovely to me, you know,” said Phaedros. “And though I may compliment Aima, in order to get close to her, it is you that I admire.”

“Can you really feel so?” asked Rynn.

“Dost question it when it is thee I ever turn to as mine companion?” asked Phaedros.

“Would... would a kiss for luck be out of place?” asked Rynn.

“Not in the least,” said Phaedros, and kissed her.

Rynn clung to him.

“I will help you rend her,” she growled.

 

oOoOo

 

Ralthur put a hand on Sjurgi’s arm; not a restraining hand, but one to get her attention.

“You’re bubbling with anger,” he said. “It’s not wise, going into a fight of any kind. Do you want to talk about it?”

“Thanus failed me,” said Sjurgi. “But it’s all of a piece. You will have heard that I took lovers to rise, and to learn, and gain me position, and it’s true enough; and I hated every minute of it. I have hated men, who accord me no respect, but expect me to respect them for nothing more than having their privates dangling in the wind, and not subject to the monthly curse.”

“You’ve discovered that Latrika has remedies to ease that, I hope?” said Ralthur.

“Yes, and I appreciate it. And I also find that Alethosi men treat me with more respect,” said Sjurgi. “I... I find I can have friends, besides my brother.”

“I like you,” said Ralthur. “I have always admired you, as a warrior, and as a woman. I would like the opportunity to court you.”

“I... I do not know,” said Sjurgi. “What is expected in the bedroom is painful and humiliating.”

“It is not supposed to be painful or humiliating,” said Ralthur. “Will you give me the opportunity to show you that I can give you pleasure, not pain?”

“I... I know you speak truth as you believe it,” said Sjurgi. “I will give you the opportunity to show me; but I want to make it clear that if you respect me, you will stop when I say stop.”

“That is fair enough,” said Ralthur. “And if you do not like it, I pledge that I will not pester you, nor will it stop me seeing you as a friend and a comrade.”

“That... nobody can say fairer,” said Sjurgi.

 

oOoOo

 

Lelyn wrung, scrubbed, ironed,  and folded the temple spirit, whilst the rest winnowed through the pitifully few priests and initiates in the temple of Thanus; there were scarcely thirty of any rank, which was no challenge to Harkon, Ralthur, Protasion, and Sjurgi, especially with Crondion, Dróg, and Tallys along. The lay servants hovered.

“Stay out of the way, and your jobs will be secure,” said Harkon. “If you object to the temple being changed to that of Alethos, I suggest you leave, and seek employment elsewhere.”

They disappeared into their quarters below.

And then Thanus manifested in the temple as Harkon was about to reconsecrate it.

“What are you doing?” demanded the Selenite god of death, shrilly.

“Desecrating your temple and stealing it for Alethos, old boy; what’s it look like?” said Harkon, offensively. He could sense the approximate level of power of the god, and gasped. “Really?” he said. “How have you managed to remain so feeble? You’re scarcely any more powerful than a tough hero, have you seriously been wasting your time mooning after Selen – no pun intended – when you should have been working on your worship base and growing your portfolio? You poor sap, you have, haven’t you?”

Thanus gaped.

“Run and flee from me, for I am the god of death!” he cried.

“A god of death, and a fairly feeble one,” said Harkon. “Why not give it up? Come back to Alethos, come and be our brother, and forget this foolishness. We would welcome you and aid you if you just abjure that manipulative wench.”

“I love Selen, and I will not turn my back on her! I will obliterate you!”

Harkon sighed, shrugged, and turned to Sjurgi.

“He’s all yours,” he said. “He’s an idiot, and he knows he’s an idiot, but if he cannot renounce it, then he needs to be a dead idiot.”

“Thanus! Do you know who I am?” demanded Sjurgi.

“Why should I know you, wench?” said Thanus.

“Considering you trained me, on Selen’s command, I cannot think that you have trained so many female warriors,” said Sjurgi.

His eyes widened slightly.

“Thea Drex? Though of course a female warrior is a contradiction in terms. You learned enough for Selen to show off, like a dancing dog,” said Thanus, dismissively.

“It was the name they saddled me with,” said Sjurgi. “I go by my birth name, Sjurgi Gordsdottir now, and stand by my brother, Harkon. I see now that your poor training of me was deliberate because you did not want or expect me to succeed.”

“I taught you everything you could learn, you wretched wench,” said Thanus. “And now I will punish you, and have you weeping and begging my pardon.”

“In your archaic dreams,” said Sjurgi. “Fight me, you bastard. I have worked hard to make myself a heroine, and I have sworn to oppose you.”

“You have asked for this; but your friends had better not interfere.”

“We’re Alethosi; we don’t interfere in an honour duel,” said Harkon, scornfully. “Sjurgi is in theory an equal match to you, since you chose not to grow.”

Thanus took up a stance, which Harkon absently named to himself as ‘hawk hovers above;’ classically this was the forerunner to ‘stooping falcon descends upon its prey,’ or ‘waterfall brings icy retribution.’ Of the two, the former was the more subtle, but either could only theoretically be countered by a defensive move like ‘swinging gate bars the way.’ Sjurgi did not attempt to parry the vicious downstroke, but stepped to one side away from it for a push stroke on Thanus’s forearm where it descended unprotected, her sword swinging in a moulinet to meet his blade at the end of its stroke and put pressure on his wrist.

“What? That is not the proper counter, I did not teach you that!” said Thanus.

“No, because all you taught me was to posture. Alethos and his followers taught me how to fight,” said Sjurgi, in scorn. “You are open to me, because you have spent that stroke, and become off balance.”

“But there is only one counter to it,” said Thanus.

“No,  there is only one counter that you can see, you old fool,” said Sjurgi. “Because there are new styles.”

“That is cheating!”

“Do you think the ultimate god of truth would permit cheating?” said Sjurgi, sword on low guard waiting for him. “No, it is that Alethos can learn, and change, and adapt, and you cannot. Now, fight, old man, and try to at least make it a match.”

Thanus yelled in anger, and raised his sword to chest height, attempting to cross cut; and Sjurgi’s blade met his, parried small, and followed up to cut his thigh. Again and again, Thanus came in to attack, and every time Sjurgi stopped his best efforts, often making a follow-up move to wound him.

Thanus started blowing, his breath sobbing in frustration and pain.

“Don’t play with him, sister,” said Harkon.

“He loved to play with me, and hurt me,” said Sjurgi. “He resented being told to train me.”

“You are better than that,” said Harkon.

Thanus thought to take advantage of her preoccupation in speaking to Harkon, and made a lunge; Sjurgi knocked the blade further down, turned on the moulinet, and brought her blade up into the god’s belly, cleaving him almost in half. And Thanus realised in horror that within his own temple he was more vulnerable to wounding than anywhere else, even as he would be in his own portion of the underworld. He could not heal damage to what was his actual body, not a pseudobody made to manifest, and he had no power to draw on in the bound temple spirit, which was being attacked, and indeed, destroyed, as he fought. He had taken himself into a trap, and he suddenly, in awful clarity, realised it.

“But it cannot be!” Thanus managed as blood bubbled out of his lips.

“Let Alethos take you, brother!” called Harkon to his departing spirit.

“He won’t,” said Sjurgi. Her spirit engaged that of Thanus, seeking for, and tearing out the glyphs of immortality, for her own use. She left the rest of his spirit to flee; now he was truly dead, and could not re-form a body, even in his own domains.

“I had to try,” said Harkon. “Well! Let us consecrate this place.”

 

Alethos joined them as Harkon chanted the proper prayers.

“Did he...?” asked Sjurgi.

Alethos shook his head; tears stood in his eyes.

“He is constant to his love, even though he knows deep down she is not constant to him. And now, she will expend him in her attempts to save herself, and he will be destroyed. I loved him like a son.”

“Go to Kaz, and cry your fill, dear Alethos,” said Harkon, embracing his god.

“I shall,” said Alethos. “Well done, Sjurgi.”

“I was disappointed at how easy it was,” said Sjurgi. “I... I thought I hated him, but I feel numb.”

“It’s because, in the end, he is less important in your mind than you realised, dear one,” said Alethos. “And as such, you pity the poor limited thing that he was more than you exult over having prevailed.”

“That makes sense,” said Sjurgi.

Ralthur put an arm around her; and she leaned into him.

“You can move on,” said Ralthur. “He was... ossified, as all of us who trained under the old forms were, until shown new ways. I am here;  and you can now grow.”

“Yes. Yes, I can,” said Sjurgi.

 

oOoOo

 

Selen was drawn to the underworld, to the place of souls, where she scowled at Alethos.

“Which of my worshippers have your people massacred now?” she demanded.

“Depends if you count his people in with yours,” said Alethos, laconically. “Thanus chooses to go to you, not to come to me.”

Selen stared.

“Selen! I am loyal to you!” cried Thanus.

“You fool! How did you get yourself killed?” demanded Selen.

“I... it was Thea Drex,” said Thanus. “She was fighting in a different style to the one I taught her, and she did not use the forms and postures at all! I could not counter it!”

“Is this why so many of my people who worship you are killed? Because you can’t teach them the new ways things are done? What a waste of time it was to attract you to me, you have done nothing but hang around me, without keeping up with what’s going on!”

“You can talk!” cried Thanus. “You snatched my people and sent them to their deaths without arranging food for them, or other supplies!”

“Well, there was plenty of dirt around, humans grub in dirt for food, why didn’t they eat it?”

“Because they don’t eat dirt, they plant seeds which grow into plants!” growled Thanus. “Are you stupid, or something?”

“Oh, I can’t allow you to speak like that to me, my dead hero,” said Selen. “I shall have to think of a special punishment for your soul... maybe I will consume it almost to fully drained, and then make you gain it back without worship, as I will take all your people from you.”

“Thanus...” said Alethos.

The soul turned to him, insubstantial tears on his insubstantial cheeks.

“I... chose. And that may have been wrong but....”He turned to follow Selen.

  

 

After Alethos had been to see his followers in what was now his temple, he went in search of Kaz; and enjoyed playing with Iphianira and Chionea, who were learning the complex skill of throwing a ball, and making it go forward rather than lifting it above their heads to lose it behind them, or dropping it straight down. And once they were bathed and put to bed, he might take Kaz to bed as well, and then tell her all about it, and weep for the bright young hopeful hero Thanus had once been.

“It was my fault I lost him,” he sighed.

“I doubt it; but why do you think so?” asked Kaz.

“It was in the time of the Maelstrom Madness,” said Alethos. “My sisters and I went to heal the gods of storm and wind, and draw them out of the Maelstrom. And whilst my eyes were turned away, Selen saw my poor naive, impressionable Thanus, and made herself beautiful to him, and consumed him with lust for her, and what he thought was love. And when I returned, it was too late, and he ambushed and robbed me, whilst I was weakened, for she made it seem in his mind that there was no dishonour in taking what he saw was his birthright, as if he were my son, deprived of inheritance.”

“She has a way of making the gullible betray even themselves,” said Kaz. “Weep for him; I will try to save any remnants of his spirit she leaves, to return to you, when I stand head to head with her beside Rogaz.”

“I will not expect it of you, but if you are able, I will be grateful to have something of my wayward and foolish protégé,” said Alethos.