destiny's queen 21

 I got my mojo back and I'm two chapters ahead. And i know how to pace it; on the downside, as well as having a stinking cold, I was dined on overnight by mosquitoes so I feel physically rough

Chapter 21

 

Kaz watched Skulos.

“Which riddle enlightened you?” she asked.

“What is the sound of one hand clapping,” said Skulos, dully. “I saw that the answer was the scream of nothing from the void of chaos.”

“I’m a trógling,” said Kaz. “I can hear the sound of one hand clapping. I can see in sound, like bats. The true answer to that question is nothing to do with chaos, it is the sound that the pressure of moving air makes that is too small for human hearing but that insects flee from and bats veer away from. The answer to the question is that all beings are different and experience sound and sight, feeling, and taste differently. It is the beauty of the order of the world that makes it so.”

Skulos screamed. And then, as he was held in the city gaol, not the temple, he was attacked by Daze’s spirits of retribution. He put up his hands in horror.

Kaz made short work of the spirits, rending them into pieces.

Skulos stared at her, trembling, violently.

“I... I... lies, all lies, all smoke and mirrors and lies,” he said. “My whole life, lies!”

“Worship thus,” said Kaz, walking him through the ritual of Alethos. “That at least will protect you. I’ll ask to have you transferred to the temple, and you can receive aid there to undo the damage.”

She left him broken and sobbing; but he could be built up and learn other ways.

 

oOoOo

 

“Listen, we can unriddle people!” said Kaz, excitedly. She told them about her conversation with Skulos, and looked at them, beaming in expectation.

“Kaz, dearest,” said Harkon, “You can unriddle people. I don’t think I’m the only one who totally failed to understand that.”

Kaz looked around at confused looks and her face fell.

“You’re the one who always found riddles interesting,” said Protasion. “And some of us worried you’d fall into the Trickser’s traps. But you haven’t, and you see further.”

“Oh, crap, and it seemed so easy,” said Kaz.

“Oh crap, indeed,” said Protasion, striking his forehead. ‘When those whose minds were voluntarily bound are released to understanding, that which was seen crooked will be seen straight, and the truth shall set them free.’ Now I understand that little gem.”

“Why don’t we heave in that little gadfly in the work gang and see if you can unriddle him?” suggested Lelyn.

Myopsos was brought.

“I haven’t done anything,” he said.

“Which riddle enlightened you?” asked Kaz.

“‘If a tree falls in a forest with nobody there to listen, does it make a sound?’” said Myopsos.

“And you answered?”

“No, because there is no sound if there is nobody there to hear it,” said Myopsos. He smirked.

“So, you are assuming it is a forest full of dead trees, with no plants on the ground?” said Kaz.

“Huh?”

“Well, most forests are full of birds, small animals, insects. And that means they hear when a tree falls; and usually they run to avoid being in the way of it. So, even if your postulate that a sound only exists if something is there to hear it, which I dispute, there would be plenty of wildlife to hear it.”

“But...” Myopsos frowned.  Kaz could see the riddling unravel from him. “But then why....”

“Because Daze is a liar,” said Kaz.

 “You’re a bitch; you’ve spoiled everything!” wailed Myopsos.

“No, I fancy the road still needs mending,” said Kaz. “He can go back to the workgang.”

“Did that get us any further forward?” asked Protasion.

“Heaps,” said Kaz. “Now I understand the shape of Daze’s magic.”

“Er?” said Protasion.

“I can better unravel illusions, and I understand how his mind works so I can unravel that to release the tróglings he holds in thrall,” said Kaz.

“That makes sense,” said Prosasion. “You have to understand how a fortress is built to tear it down; I suppose it’s the same thing.”

“Exactly,” said Kaz.

 

oOoOo

 

“So, is Errilaz dead?” asked Selen. “I would expect to be called to the place of souls if she were; so long in my service, surely I must know of her death?” it was a whine.

“You did try to kill her, m’dear,” said Daze. “She might have decided that it was worth worshipping Rogaz, even though I doubt she’d go back to daddy-dearest.”

“Who would,” said Selen. “Imagine Tor as a father!”

Daze sniggered. He did not see much difference between Tor as a father and their absent father, the Chaos Wolf.

“Well, has your assassin verified her death?” demanded Selen. Daze glared at her. She was being very snippy lately. It wasn’t his fault things had gone wrong.

“Oh, well, I haven’t heard from him,” said Daze, airily.

“Find out,” said Selen. “And if he hasn’t done the job properly, I expect you to do it yourself.”

“You’re in a damned nasty mood lately,” said Daze.

“And it’s all your fault,” said Selen. “I’ve lost a day of moonshine, perhaps permanently, because you did not come through with the power from the sacrifice. If I’d known you were that full of shit, I’d have sacrificed Selenopolis before they got usurped and most of my true worshippers slain, and those who gave lip service converted to the old fogies of one sort or another. It isn’t fair, and it’s all your fault.”

“I’ll go in person and find out,” said Daze, hastily. He would have to come up with some kind of diversion as a misdirection; there were altogether too many powerful beings in Mesolimnos.

 

oOoOo

 

Errilaz woke up and saw beside her, her father. She gasped.

“Father?”

“Now, don’t go getting sentimental or anything,” said Tor. “Just because I have some passing concern about my oldest progeny.”

“I was such a fool,” said Errilaz. “I believed her lies! That her will was to combine with the Blue Moon and effect a healing, and promote toróg to pre-eminence over humans! And I hated humans and now I owe them my life.”

“That creature, Selen, and her brother are good at pulling echoes over one’s darksense,” said Tor. “You’ll be working with the Daykaz when you are well. And as Selen knocked you about so badly I don’t have to give you the spanking you so richly deserve.”

“I’ve missed you, too, father, but I did not know how to break away.”

Tor gave her a rough embrace.

“Give me your worship, quickly, so you are safeguarded,” he said.

Willingly, she did so.

“We will grind her bones to feed to Rogaz,” said Errilaz.

“That’s my girl!” said Tor.

He battered away almost casually the retributive spirits which came to punish his daughter as a result of her formal renunciation of Selen. Tor was, after all, a major god.

 

oOoOo

 

“DAZE! Go kill Errilaz right away! She has formally renounced me!” screeched Selen. “Kill her now, kill her now!”

“Keep your hair on,” grumbled Daze. “I’m going in my own good time. Better right than fast,” he added, hastily.

“It would be a miracle if you could manage either right or fast; you aren’t much good at either. Unless it’s being premature,” taunted Selen.

Daze promised himself she would pay for that.

 

oOoOo

 

“Why are we still on guard, do you know, Brucius?” a guard on the walls of the city asked, idly. “I thought they’d all gone away.”

“In case they come back with more sensible commanders, Sukos,” said Brucius. “And yes, I know, it’s hot, and dry, but we don’t want them turning up and spoiling what harvest there is. Our higher command aren’t stupid.”

“And I never realised what clever critters trógling were until this last few years,” said Sukos. “I don’t even notice race, these days, let alone question working with any.”

“Well, mate, you go run for someone like Lady Kaz, right now, and any o’ her friends, because if I’m not mistaken, trouble is flying in from the east.”

“Those aren’t seagulls.”

“No, mate, they really aren’t.”

Sukos set off at a run, pausing only to ring the alarm bell. Kaz shot out of the halls of healing, and almost collided with him.

“What?” she asked.

“Big flying critters, milady, from the east!” managed Sukos.

“Go alert people like Chrysandion and Pythas,” said Kaz, running up the steps. Lelyn would take the children into the underground levels.

She skidded to a halt beside Brucius, who pointed, wordlessly.

People were arriving on the walls, with a babble of fear, pointing at what appeared to be a cross between birds and reptiles, with long, toothed beaks, black wrinkled skin, and leathery bat-like wings.

“If Marsh-creepers had proper wings...” said Brucius, in a terrified whisper. “Only bigger. Much, much, bigger.”

Kaz peered, and frowned. She turned, sensing the hulking figure of Tor, having followed her up, small eyes watering in the bright daylight.

“Your darksense is better than mine, tell me what you observe,” she said. She could hear the echoes of Tor’s powerful darksense. She was awed by how far he could reach.  Tor grunted.

“All I sense is a flock of geese,” said Tor.

“I thought so; the shell of fell beast is an illusion.  Join with me; I need your senses and you need my knowledge of unriddling.”

The massive sense of the greater god of the toróg settled on Kaz’s mind, and she showed him the patterns of riddle magic. Tor sniggered.

“That makes it a lot easier,” he said.

“Yes, and now get the hell back to Errilaz,” said Kaz, urgently. “I wager this is a diversion.”

Tor’s comments were scatological, but fortunately, few people understood them. They did not translate terribly well, anyway, reflected Kaz, since castigating Daze as someone who ate his grandmother without ceremony and taking the female parts to feast on as well was a more deadly insult to a toróg than to a human, who would be revolted, but confused. A human would be revolted at the idea of cannibalism, but to the resource-short Toróg the insult was about forgetting the ceremony to rob a relative of being a relative, to make it just meat, as was the idea of a male eating anything reserved for female consumption. ‘He eats his grandmother’s breasts without prayer and with no shame’ did not translate into the filthy, searingly dirty imprecation it was to a Toróg. The rituals were now being applied, she knew, to those trógling who died, no longer treated as cattle. It was good that courtesies were now shown; and trógling communities would hopefully learn not to need even ritual cannibalism if they could farm. Which was neither here nor there, and she had to rip off the illusions because illusions created by any powerful beings could cause harm if believed by those they attacked. And the geese were making an attack, doubtless under spell to do so; and everyone on the wall believed they were some kind of outsize flying marsh creepers.

Kaz swore.

Her imprecations, however, were more comprehensible to the soldiers on the wall. And they cheered her for showing irritable, not scared.

“These things are illusions!” she shouted. “Try to ignore what you see! I’m going to try to take the illusions apart, but they are no more than geese – great things on which to model outsize ducks! And good eating if we can bring them down. Look for the shimmer at the breast-bone where the goose beaks penetrate the supposed skin of the constructs!”

“I’m on it, my lady!” one of the men with bows called, seeing a beak and aiming for where he knew there would be a goose breast. With a twang, his arrow flew straight; and a goose fell onto the plain before the city, the foul beast seeming to surround it just disappearing!

“Good man!” shouted Kaz. It would help the others as she battled against time to undo the illusion magic, and reveal what was truly inside the flying monsters! It was like finding a thread at the end of a cloth; once you had it, a good pull would ravel the whole cloth. Finding that single thread to pull was the trick... Kaz absently parried at the lead beast’s attack run as she found the magic thread.... and pulled.

The men shouted and cheered.

Goose was on the menu.

 

Destiny's Queen 20

 

Chapter 20

 

Selen summoned all her surviving pantheon, including the hapless and somewhat ravaged Thanus. The two primary gods were Klerus, god of traders, son and apostate of Merkedes, and Librax, god of knowledge, apostate of Polos. In addition was Hippona, horse whisperer of the plains, called Blackmane, the greatest traitor, who brought the great horses who were used as heavy cavalry, from the breeding experiments of her own tribe; and Errilaz, daughter of Tor, who had betrayed her kin when rebelling against her father’s strictures. She had brought the knowledge of animating the dead, which Selen had worked on with Aima.

“You murdered toróg for nothing,” said Errilaz.

“I wasn’t to know there was a stinking goddess of trógling, now,” said Selen. “And why haven’t you been backing the bloodsuckers? You know about undead.”

“I know about animating dead bodies, but not about the way Aima animated them,” said Errilaz.

“Well, in that case, you’ve outlived your usefulness,” said Selen. She hurled rocks at Errilaz, who dodged most of them, but was hit on the head and fell off the moonsphere.

The other Selenite gods shuffled, nervously.

“What?” said Selen. “It’s an object lesson; don’t fail me. Thanus is also learning not to fail me whilst he recovers a body. Librax!  I need all your priests alerted; any prophecy about trógling, and about me, and... well, anything useful!”

“Yes, fair lady,” said Librax, with a bow.

“Klerus! Any prophecy your people can trade or steal!” said Selen.

“Yes, fair lady,” said Klerus.

“Hippona! More horses!”

“That cannot happen overnight; the barbarians ate my horses,” said Hippona, sorrowfully.

“I don’t want excuses! I want results!” screeched Selen.

 

oOoOo

 

Alethos felt a powerful soul on the brink of death, and called his sister, Latrika, to go with him to see what was happening. Kaz went too.

At the gates of dawn, the mighty body of the demi-goddess high toróg lay battered.

“Errilaz!” said Alethos.

“She has annoyed her mistress, the red moon,” said Latrika. “I can heal her, but it will be long that she lies in a coma.”

“Take her to Mesolimnos,” said Alethos. “I will speak with Tor.”

 

Tor had sensed his daughter’s soul wavering within its body, but he was too proud to seek her out. He felt the mental call of Alethos and steeled himself; he would contest Selen for his own daughter’s soul.

“Is she dead?” he asked, harshly.

“No, my sister is working on her,” said Alethos. “As far as we can determine, she annoyed the red bitch and was thrown to earth. She’s grievously hurt but I had her taken to Mesolimnos.”

“That’s a human city!”

“Yes, but a lot of powerful people are there who can protect her; including a heroine of Rogaz,” said Alethos.

“Why?”

“We have had many differences and grievances; and I don’t like even shells of bodies being used, but in light of what Selen and Aima did, I think I owe you an apology for assuming you intentionally bound souls.”

“I don’t bind souls at all!”

“Yet my people have reported souls released when your Nekrosti were killed.”

“The hell you say! That should not happen!”

“I think it was in the way Selen twisted the ritual which rebounded on you,” said Alethos. “Now Aima is dead, it may stop; and certainly will when Selen is dead.”

“When?”

“By prophesy it should be soon. No, you’re not involved and neither am I, not directly. It’s an all female affair.”

Tor grunted. Such was the way of his people.

“I... please keep me up to date on my daughter.”

“I will,” said Alethos. “My wife is with her.”

 

oOoOo

 

Errilaz groaned.

“Take it easy; you had a nasty fall,” said a soft voice. “You almost died. And it seems a shame to give the red moon so easy a victory.”

“She wanted me to take Aima’s place!” said Errilaz. “As if the rituals had not been tampered with enough!”

“You can atone by helping us understand the dynamics of Selen’s court.”

“I... yes. Wait! You are nothing but a trógling; how can you speak with apparent understanding?”

“Some trógling are mentally stunted but not all,” said Kaz. “And as a heroine of Alethos and newly goddess of trógling, we are equals, so don’t even think of getting sniffy about it. I didn’t have to help heal you, I chose to do so.”

“You are proud!”

“And why not? I have worked hard to be where I am.” Kaz stood tall. “I will ease you back into a healing coma, and you will be guarded day and night. I suggest you sacrifice in prayer to either your father or to Rogaz, in case you manage to die; you aren’t out of danger.”

Errilaz muttered a ritual prayer to Rogaz; she was not yet ready to face her father.

 

oOoOo

 

“What has happened to Errilaz?” demanded Selen. “I threw her to the earth but I have not been summoned to the place of souls for her. I was going to repudiate her soul, of course, but I cannot do so if I am not called. Can she have recanted and returned to worship of her father?”

“He’s too stubborn to accept her,” said Daze. “Perhaps Alethos took her? It could be taken that killing her meant that you repudiate her automatically.”

“Find out!” Selen demanded.

 

oOoOo

 

The battered and broken goddess would take time to heal, and remained unconscious, to allow her bruised brain a chance to repair itself. The large high toróg male who visited glared defensively at everyone.

He was confronted by a high toróg female with a trógling.

“Before I permit you to visit the patient, I need your word you mean her no harm,” said Hraazaz, crisply.

“Why would I mean her any harm?” the visitor demanded, truculently. 

“Because someone has already tried to kill her once,” said Hraazaz. “Please don’t be evasive but answer the question honestly.”

“Do you have any idea who I am?”

“You’re the fellow going to be thrown out of the hospital if you won’t let me do my job to protect the patient,” growled Hraazaz.

“I mean her no harm,” Tor growled back.

“He speaks truth,” said the trógling.

“Then you may be permitted to sit with her for a while,” said Hraazaz. “Latrika says that it is likely that she can hear even if she cannot respond and recommends chatting about things that will not cause her stress. Or reciting poetry or singing if you can think of nothing else.”

“Girl, have you ever heard me sing?”

“No, but even if it sounds like goats farting through a drainpipe, if it’s familiar to her, the rest of us will put up with it,” said Hraazaz, with an austere smile. “I assume you are her father; is there a mother?”

“She was a mortal,” said Tor. “She’s with Rogaz.”

“Ah,” said Hraazaz. “Well, I am sure Rogaz will let her know, if she is interested.”

“She dumped Errilaz in one of my temples,” grumped Tor.

“Oh,” said Hraazaz. “No wonder she was seeking attention and turned to Selen during a bad moment.”

“I could not believe it,” said Tor.

“You know, you don’t have to be afraid to admit to loving her,” said Hraazaz, waspishly. “Alethos admits to love; what are you, a sunling?”

“You are offensive!” he leaped up.

“Sit down and don’t shout in front of the patient,” said Hraazaz. “And thank you for the compliment.”

“You’re a pert chit of a girl,” he grumbled.

“And you’re grumpy.”

“Aren’t you even nervous of me?”

“No, of course not. Why should I be?”

“Most people find me fearsome.”

Hraazaz shrugged.

“When you’ve seen Alethos covered in porridge smeared on him by his daughter, you get a little blasé around gods,” she said. “His wife and I are close friends. Her friend has been truth checking visitors to Errilaz for me. I’ve learned to stop seeing humans, trógling, darklings, high toróg or gods and see people. I’m learning healing from Latrika because I’ll have a role helping to heal Rogaz and reforge the blue moon. By prophesy, I’ll be there. I might die on the mission, but I will be there, and nobody will stop that.”

“Can it really be done? Heal her, and heal our people?”

“Yes, it can. I believe it, and I believe in Kaz, the Daykaz, to do it. We have our tasks to perform, and we will perform them.”

“It’s a lot of faith to have in a trógling.”

“She’s not a trógling. She’s Kaz. And I’ve learned to put my trust in her. She put me into and got me out of the cocoon which brought out the high toróg within me. She rescued me from the Selenites. She does what she sets out to do.”

“And what does she set out to do with my daughter?”

“There’s a prophesy which suggests Errilaz might be going with us. ‘The daughter of destruction will ease the way,’ it says. Alethos is referred to as death.”

“Huh,” said Tor.

 

oOoOo

 

“She’s alive,” said Daze.

“Who’s alive?” asked Selen, hoping he meant Aima.

“Errilaz,” said Daze. “I got one of mine into Mesolimnos as a merchant; and there’s a big high toróg woman in the houses of healing that they have been guarding.”

“Send someone to kill her,” said Selen. “She knows too much about me; kill her as quickly as you can.”

“I’ll send one of my assassins,” said Daze. “Don’t worry. It will be done.”

“You said that about getting power from the sacrifice, too,” said Selen.

“Trust me,” said Daze.

“I’m not that besotted, brother dear,” said Selen.

 

oOoOo

 

Skulos knew he was one of the best. If not the best. He had studied people and he knew how they behaved. And confidence was the key. Skulking around was what got most assassins and spies caught; however tempting it was to lurk, striding out confidently was paradoxically more invisible.  He had to admire the pair of saboteurs named Fadabius and Aquilix, who had dismantled the bureaucracy of Selenopolis from within whilst being dismissed by all as a pair of more than usually outrageously camp secret police. Everyone looked in horror on their sartorial solecisms, and missed them building an army of rebels and quietly inserting impossible orders and work programs into the day-to-day running of the Imperial City. They might be enemies, but to Skulos, they were true professionals whose exploits were legendary, and should be written into any future manual for spies.  It was not in Skulos’s nature to hide in such flamboyance, but he appreciated it, and filed it away for possible use. He could pass as any one of a number of government officials or employees, from drain clearer to governor’s personal secretary; from argumentative guild member to quietly competent librarian.

This time, Skulos was being a high-ranking initiate of Latrika, a competent doctor who walked into the houses of healing in the distinctive red and white striped tunic of an accredited healer, nodding austerely to lay members, a bow across the room to a priest, making his way confidently to the room where he was to use his little cursed knife of cutting, whose wounds could not be healed, to open the veins of the unconscious toróg woman, and settle them on absorbant pads so nobody realised until it was too late.

A trógling was sitting with the female; presumably her slave, watching for any life-signs.

“You can go,” he said, giving the peremptory order to it.

“I beg your pardon?” said the slave.

“I said, get out, slave, and let me tend to my patient,” said Skulos.

The creature got up, and Skulos smirked.

He was not smirking when she cold-cocked him.

Kaz was infuriated.

And there was something wrong if he assumed her to be a slave in the free city of Mesolimnos. And her enemy sense was a little confused, although it gave her some idea that he was an enemy of Errilaz. Skulos was so very much the professional that he suborned his assassin’s nature under the part he was playing, which fooled many an Alethosi able to sense enemies until it was too late. Even so, he charged more, if Alethosi were involved. They had a nasty habit of seeing through him and being ridiculously fast to act and with extreme violence.

Kaz called for backup, and Skulos disappeared into a cell for later questioning. His cursed knife was discovered and sent to curse breakers to destroy, and he was stripped of a number of weapons.

Kaz told the unconscious Errilaz all about it.

She was relieved by Hraazaz, who seemed to take the watch before Tor, who had, to do him credit, turned up daily.

Kaz returned to the temple to see if her catch had regained consciousness.  He had; and was in a cell, dressed in a simple peasant’s tunic without a waist tie, as he had been found to have a wire in his own waist tie, his shoulder clasp was a shallow box  containing pills which were being analysed, and he had gold coins sewn into his seams.

 

Kaz swept into the room.

“Oh, you are in so much trouble, slave, when your mistress finds out you will be severely beaten,” said Skulos, hoping that the slave had acted under its own initiative.

“Don’t pretend to be stupid, it doesn’t become you,” said Kaz, crisply. “You know fine well that you are in the free city of Mesolimnos, where slavery is outlawed, and so pretending ignorance is no defence. Your method of avoiding the sensing of enemies we Alethosi use is almost effective, however, I suppose you immerse yourself in your role.”

“I don’t understand,” said Skulos.

Kaz partly drew her sword.

“Perhaps you understand what using iron means?” she said. “And oh, look, I can cast magic to fold you in your blanket as you are looking aggressive. Now, have we established that I’m powerful and you are currently helpless, perhaps we can begin your interrogation.”

“But... but you can’t be a glyph level! Troglings are slaves!”

“Trógling, you barbarian. And nobody stops free people from achieving glyph status if they have the willpower. This is why Mesolimnos has several heroes, and why the whole empire only ever had one, and she left. You are some kind of assassin sent to kill Tor’s daughter, Errilaz, but you can’t be very good if you don’t do your research beforehand.”

“I’m the best! One of the best, anyway! I study people, I know how to blend in!”

Kaz laughed.

“If you’re the best there must be a lot of truly inept assassins sneaking around the Empire,” she said, in genuine amusement. “And you did not study people nor blend in.”

“I... I did not know I was out of the Empire! I was moved by godly magic to the city, and told to kill the toróg woman in the houses of healing! What do you mean, Errilaz, daughter of Tor? She’s one of our pantheon. Lord Daze wouldn’t want me to kill her.”

“Oho, that’s the way of it, is it? And you’re caught in the middle of your pantheon trying to kill each other. Does that make you damned whatever you do?”

Skulos had never been so confused or terrified since before the terrifying but comforting certainty of Daze’s riddles had come over him. He felt trapped in a conundrum of the kind he found before his enlightenment.

“It cannot be Errilaz,” he said. “It must be someone pretending to be Errilaz, and the Lord Daze wants an imposter killed.”

“On my honour as a worshipper of Alethos, she is Errilaz. As I have sworn, so let it be seen as truth,” said Kaz, drawing an iron knife to cut her hand, and grasp the truth glyph she wore as a necklace alongside that of death. Both were made of iron, and Skulos knew that she had to be telling the truth. Otherwise she would be burned by the magical nature of the glyph.

He fell back in shock.

 

Destiny's Queen 19

 Hi, folks, running out of chapters and may have to miss a day - not feeling too good over the last few days. I'll try and keep up. 

Chapter 19

 

“Now, one moment,” said Harkon. “Selen held her skyboat in the night zone in order to sail in front of Solos and the sun disk, but it is costing her power to stay there. She and Daze were expecting to have power from the sacrifice of the trógling with which to power this, and he has had to go and report to her that he doesn’t have it. I don’t think she can maintain the position, and certainly not as Solos moves across the sky.”

“It’s a gamble,” said Thyella.

“No, it’s calling her bluff,” said Harkon. “The lunarsphere is lower than the sunsphere, so she has to make continual adjustments which will cost power. Nip up and tell your grandsire to keep on going in the same way, and just barge past her.”

“And if you are wrong?”

“Then we let loose everyone on her.  But I think if we essentially attack, it might set things off too early. Call it a hunch.”

“I don’t disregard your hunches,” said Thyella, calming down. “Let’s go and see grandfather; he listens to you.”

 

The view from the skysphere showed the aggressive crimson of the red moon’s skyboat just below and in front of the golden throne.

“Harkon, my boy! What is that crazy woman up to?” asked Solos.

“Being crazy,” said Harkon. “She expended power to raise a volcano, and has caused more mayhem, but the sacrifice of the toróg settlement she put the volcano through to put herself in this position is useless, because the Daykaz has the souls that Daze expected to collect. I believe that you should just continue moving forward across the world, and she will have no choice but to get out of the way, and make her way back east to rise in her normal place at night, or risk losing worshippers who think she has vanished.”

“Make it so,” said Solos, speaking to his cloudrowers.

“Mighty Solos, whence come the cloudrowers?” asked Harkon.

“They are those of my priests and lords who did not fulfil their potential, or who transgressed, but in a minor way,” said Solos. “For this, I permit them in my presence, but doing penance in rowing me across the sky until they have expiated their sins. Sadly, there are always more to take their place.”

“Thank you, sire,” said Harkon.

The throne moved forward; and with a convulsive flurry, the moonboat dodged sideways; and soon vanished behind.

Solos beamed.

“You were correct,” he said. “I will issue instructions that my people must offer aid to any toróg as they have suffered on our account. Now, my boy, there is a plume of ash over there – and we do not want the peoples of the north to suffer for an unnatural cold caused by it, so you had better go and dissipate it. And I will have the north wind aid you.”

“Thank you, sire,” said Harkon, fixing his eye on the volcanic plume. He must break it up with a whirlwind, and let the individual winds toss the last of it out to sea.

 It was most unpleasant. The plume was thick with ash, and it got in Harkon’s hair, beard, and moustache, and even in his eyebrows. His eyes felt gritty, and he could feel it in his clothes. He reached out to ask Nevra to lay the ash in heavy rain.

The other winds joined him.

“You are fulfilling the role of Ombros well,” said Zephyra, the gentle west wind. “Forgive us for not welcoming you; we are grieving and do not know how to speak to you.”

“I grieve him myself, on behalf of Thyella mostly, as I never got to know him well,” said Harkon. “But he laid the duty on me, as his last wish, and I try to fulfil what is needed.”

“Ah, I did not think you were just trying to take his place,” said Zephyra. “I will tell my brothers off for resenting you.”

“I wasn’t the one who killed Ombros,” said Harkon. “Though I did advise him not to attack Selen. Their side had a prophesy that Lycos could rip his powers out, and become the Stormwolf.”

“That would have been terrible!” cried Zephyra.

“Yes; so I took his powers to preserve them from Lycos,” said Harkon. “At his own wish.”

“Grief is not rational,” said Zephyra, sadly.

“No, and I respect your grief; but your brothers must learn also to respect my duty,” said Harkon.

“Knowing of the prophecy of the Stormwolf will shock them,” said Zephyra. “I think that will help to reconcile them to you taking on Ombros’s powers, and acting as if you were Ombros.”

“That is for his followers,” said Harkon. “I did not think that the fight against chaos could afford for the world to know that Ombros was dead; it would have demoralised the chief of the knights of the clear starlight, and though I do not agree with all their ideals, I recognise them as staunch enemies of the red moon.”

“Oh! That makes sense,” said Zephyra, with a gentle sigh.

 

oOoOo

 

Harkon was glad of a long deep bath when he got home. Thyella brought him soothing pads for his eyes, and suggested helping to make sure there was no more dust anywhere tender. There may have been no dust for her to remove, but Harkon did not protest.

“It was a big volcano,” said Thyella. “But my job is just bringing down the lightning stuff when it builds up.”

“A scattered settlement with about as many souls as a city,” said Harkon, soberly. “Kaz was sobbing bitterly over some six thousand trógling, including children and babes, and the unborn from trógling and toróg alike.”

“She will have to learn not to be so affected,” said Thyella, uncertainly. “Not that I have ever lost so many at once.”

“I think it was a shock,” said Harkon. “Well, of course it was a shock. Very few gods lose so many in one go. And Kaz has been wanting to build up her live people when all this is over.”

“I am glad Alethos is a warmer person than I realised,” said Thyella. “He will cuddle her whilst she works through it.”

“What I don’t think she has yet realised was that the sacrifice power that Daze expected came to her instead, giving her a massive reserve when she comes to fight him,” said Harkon. “The energy was palpable, but she was more interested in her people.”

“That’s why she deserves it,” said Thyella. “Our tough, fragile little goddess needs supporting; and I am glad you went to back her up.”

“I’ve been backing up Kaz since she turned up at the temple, correcting everyone in their pronunciation of trógling, and demanding the chance to be a warrior,” said Harkon. “It shortly became clear that she was the subject of a prophecy, and a scary prophecy at that. I nearly choked when Alethos himself turned up to guide her, masquerading as a hero pretending to be an initiate, and I stood as an elder brother to her, and the friends she gathered. It’s my job, protecting Kaz, and I have been rewarded by Fate with a wonderful wife.”

Conversation became fitful after this.

 

oOoOo

 

“Alethos,” said Kaz, “Were there prophesies about you and your sisters rescuing the weather gods from the Maelstrom?”

“Not really; the web of Fate was torn and mutilated by the coming of the Wolf of Chaos, the despoiling of the Blue Moon, and the births of Selen and Daze,” said Alethos. “There were prophesies but they were obscure until after the cataclysm. After all, you have read some from back then. But it was nothing we had known, we had nothing to which to compare it.”

“So, you went into confining, then rescuing them without time to worry about it?” said Kaz.

“Oh! That’s what you’re thinking about. No, we had some time to prepare.”

“Did... did you ever worry that you would not manage to do it properly? That you would make a royal mess of it?”

“Yes,” said Alethos. “But we had no choice. We had to buckle down and get things done because nobody else was going to do so. The mighty sun in his sky was above such things, and steered clear – with good reason. The Maelstrom could have sucked him and his court all the way down to the underworld, whilst it was raging. Only trust in each other and love of our fellow beings kept us from being lost. And this is why you will succeed; you are loved by so many, and trusted to be able to do your part.”

“I... I’m not even quite sure what my part is; save that I must confront the Trickster again,” said Kaz, in a small voice.

“You represent all that is good and true; he represents all that is twisted and false,” said Alethos. “And I believe that the tethering of the truth glyph to the market place was a clue by my mother, who likes to interfere, into how you will approach it.”

“Oh!” said Kaz. “I need to dismantle his labyrinth and strip its protection from him.”

There was a chime.

“There! Feeling better?”

“Considerably,” said Kaz. “I have a lot of work to do towards it, but I have more than half a year in which to do it. And help from my friends.” She drew a shuddering breath. “Is it wrong to be scared?”

“I was terrified when we were braving the maelstrom, if that’s any help,” said Alethos.

“Well, if you were scared, I feel less of a coward for being scared, too,” said Kaz.

“Bravery is being scared, but getting the job done anyway,” said Alethos. “Come here, and let me take your mind off it.”

 

Kaz awoke.

“I got a message from your mother,” she said. “The source of some of his power is a mirror; and what he imagines into it is projected as if it were reality. I need to break or dismantle it somehow, destroy the polished bronze of its surface.”

“Spirits of salt,[1]” said Alethos. “But you have to be careful with it, it’s nasty stuff.”

“Should I put runes and glyphs on a magical mirror of my own to hold up to see what is illusion and what is truth?” suggested Kaz.

“Kaz, do you suppose that the Trickster will bother to learn about Darksense from those trógling he has in thrall?” said Alethos.

“No,” said Kaz.

“And this is why you are the right person to oppose him,” said Alethos. “If he sends a dragon, for example, which looks like a dragon, even smells like a dragon, but sounds like a fruit bat....”

“I am stupid, sometimes,” said Kaz.

“No, love, you are a little overwhelmed at times,” said Alethos. “Don’t overthink things. A straightforward trógling who worships truth and death has all the tools she needs.”

 

oOoOo

 

“What are you doing back in the night, sis? Weren’t you going to block out the sun?” asked Daze.

“Daze, are you totally moronic, or merely very stupid?” demanded Selen.

“There’s no need to be like that. What’s your problem, love?” said Daze, nibbling his sister’s ear. He yelled in pain as she slapped his face, hard.

“What’s my problem? Not having enough power to hold the moonboat in front of the sun, that’s what my problem is!  You promised me to pass to me the power of the sacrifice of the death agonies of your trógling, but where were you when I needed that? What were you up to? Playing games taunting Rogaz and trying to seduce her at the same time? Where is my power?”

“Oh, er, right,” said Daze, shifting, uncomfortably. “There isn’t any.”

“What do you mean, there isn’t any? What have you done with it?  What fool plan did you decide to implement whilst forgetting that I only undertook that endeavour in the expectation of you letting me have all that sacrificial power?”

“It wasn’t like that! I mean, it wasn’t my fault!  I had no choice!” cried Daze.

“Talk very fast and you had better make it good, you worthless creature,” said Selen. “You’re lazy, feckless, and even when you send out your riddlers, you manage to lose them.”

“That’s not fair, you lost Lycos because you didn’t support him, and Thanus, and Aima.”

“I’m not hearing any good excuses yet; you’ll be sleeping on the rocks if you don’t give me a satisfactory answer.”

“Apparently, there’s now a goddess of trógling, and she got all the power,” said Daze, sulkily. “And Alethos was gloating, and Tor hit me.”

“Not hard enough,” said Selen. “A goddess of trógling? How can that be? Is it some beast-breasted heroine of Rogaz and you let the flash of six titties divert you?”

“No! It’s a trógling, and she doesn’t look like most of them, she’s really curvy and rather cute....”

Daze picked himself up as Selen’s hand impacted hard on his face.

“Well, you wanted to know what happened,” he said, sulkily.  “She took them, and other gods backed her up, so I had to come away.”

“So, I threw all that power into raising a volcano, and then holding still for two days in the night place for nothing?” screeched Selen.

“It should have worked!” said Daze. “As a plan, it was flawless! I couldn’t know some female had claimed the trógling and become a goddess; trógling are weak, and they didn’t ought to be able to be heroes or heroines or goddesses. I made them weak!”

“Well, plainly you slipped up,” said Selen. “And you need not come to my bed until you have come up with some way to mitigate this absolute disaster. I have worried my followers for nothing, and become the laughing stock of the skies! Solos pushed ahead of me and all those rotten sunlings were laughing! Thyella waved to me, a little bitty wave, like you do to a child!”

Daze slunk off; he knew better than to try to seduce his sister when she was in this mood. He was likely to be slapped, beaten, bitten, and otherwise humiliated. And not in a good way.

 

---

[1] Hydrochloric acid