“You can repay us, actually,” she said, “now that you mention it.”
“Oh?” I asked, feeling decidedly nervous. “How, exactly?”
“Don’t look so frightened,” she said. “I’m the goddess of good fortune and helping those who help themselves. I don’t have any nefarious plans.”
“You’re the goddess of luck?” I asked. Honestly, if Sol and Trev hadn’t independently confirmed that they thought she was a deity back in Bolivia, I doubt I would have believed she was anything more than the delusional woman who claimed to be my narrator.
“You can call me Serendipity if you like, but I prefer Guenhwyvar, and Gwen is easier on the tongue.”
“Umm… does that make you a new god, or—?”
Gwen laughed, and suddenly her hair looked like it was liquid fire mixed with rubies, her eyes were molten emeralds, her skin glowed like radioactive gold, and everything about her was moving in its own private wind.
“One of the oldest, actually,” she said, with a voice that sounded like seven different voices, each in a different octave, all speaking at once.
“Ok… dramatic effect taken. What can I do to help you that you can’t already do yourself?” I asked.
“Well, I can’t be everywhere at once, though I do try. There’s just not enough belief these days to go around, and my powers aren’t what they used to be.”
I nodded again. Fair enough, omnipresence was probably a rough deal, really. I was going to have to interrogate someone about how any of the gods actually existed, ASAP, but I had a feeling this wasn’t the right moment.
“So, I use agents,” Gwen continued.
“Agents?”
“Agents of fortune,” she replied. “Today, because I was already nearby, I was able to tackle you out of the sky and save you, but if I had been in say… Helsinki, for some reason, I might not have been able to get to you in time. As you can no doubt appreciate from very recent experience, seconds can make all the difference in some cases.”
I nodded, not sure I liked where this was going, but unsure how it could be avoided.
“I need agents on the ground,” she said. “I have some, spread around here and there, but it’s difficult to find reliable people who can meet the demands of the job.”
“And what are the demands of the job, precisely?” I asked.
“Pretty straightforward: whenever you see someone in need of help, who has been doing all they can to help themselves but just needs a bit of a nudge, you do whatever you can to help.”
“What does that mean, they’ve been doing all they can to help themselves?”
Gwen shrugged.
“Means different things for different folks, I suppose. Mostly I just meant that they haven’t given up. I’m not trying to constrain how you help people on your own time, you’re welcome to help whoever you like if it’s something you can do on your own, but what you do with the power I grant you… I’d like that only to be for those that meet my requirements.”
“And am I only helping people?”
Gwen didn’t answer, but shifted into a beautiful timber wolf, then an owl, then a snake, then a very uncomfortable-looking dolphin, then back to her two-legged form.
“I wasn’t willed into being solely by humans. I help all of those who help themselves. Animals are generally first on my list, to be honest.”
She took a good look at me and I shivered a bit, wondering what all she saw beyond the human who stood before her.
“Are you willing to assist me?” she asked.
“Dea—er… Life said you were his instrument. What did he mean by that?”
She laughed, looking over her shoulder at the shaped tree behind her, who merely gazed impassively out of two glowing eyes deeply recessed in the hood he’d formed out of his branches.
“Life and I go way back. We’re two of the very first gods willed into being on this world…. He was technically around before I was, and some of my powers come from his. I wouldn’t call myself his instrument any more than I would call the sun and tides his instruments, but you could say that he uses them when he feels the need.”
I thought about that.
“So, Life, if I sign up to help Gwen, are you going to be calling on me all the time to help you out as well?”
It was difficult to tell, but I thought the figure might have shrugged.
I DON’T NEED HUMANS RUNNING AROUND DOING MY BIDDING.
Well, if that was another answer along the lines of "I don’t rescue people," it wasn’t particularly reassuring, but I decided not to worry about it for the moment. Another, darker thought occurred to me, requiring my immediate attention.
“If I say no, do we go right back to free falling to our deaths?” I asked.
Gwen’s face paled.
“Holy shit, Vic. No! What do you take me for?”
I sighed and ran a hand through Seamus’ coat for a moment. He hadn’t reacted much since we’d arrived here. Certainly, he wasn’t frantic, the way a real wolf would be after being thrown from a cliff and then whisked into a random bit of woods. Considering how frantic I felt, I was impressed at his calm.
“Sorry, I just… I dunno. Gods are supposed be tricksters.”
“You’ve been reading too many fantasy books,” Gwen replied.
I raised an eyebrow at her. “Oh yeah. Clearly that has been in no way useful at preparing me for my completely normal and straightforward life.” I deadpanned that line, and Seamus made a small wolf snickering noise beside me.
Gwen smiled.
“Fine, maybe not too many fantasy books, but still. I’m not evil, I just need help. I would have asked you at the end of your ‘quest’ anyway, but I figured since I had you here, and you brought up the idea of owing me…”
“Fine,” I put my hands up in a gesture of surrender. “I’ll work for you. I certainly owe you after that last bit, and…well, whatever, I like the idea of helping people anyway.”
In retrospect, I really should have asked more about the fine print.
“Great!” Gwen said.
And then a thousand lightning bolts struck me at once.
Or that’s what it felt like, anyway. As though I were being ripped apart at the atomic level and rebuilt by lightning. I didn’t even have time to scream.
When I could open my eyes again, I looked down at my body, expecting to find myself scrambled into a million microscopic pieces, or glowing, or…something. But I still looked normal, or as normal as a naked woman with a death grip on the fur of a wolf could look.
“Sorry, Seamus,” I muttered, releasing his fur. I inspected my hands and arms, but found nothing different.
“You won’t notice much… visibly different. And as to the rest… well, my powers affect everyone who takes them on differently, so… you’ll just have to practice to find out what you can do.”
“Well, that’s vague.”
Gwen glared at me.
“My power is vast and affects everyone differently. Imagine a list of all the things you *might* be able to do right now. Think of how fun it would be for the reader to go through all of that.”
“Good point,” I admitted. “Now, how about we go save Trevor and Sol.”
Gwen nodded.
“You should be able to get yourselves there now. Just keep a good hold on anyone you need to bring with you and, if you can manage it, bring anyone injured back here.”
That reminded me.
“My shoulder—”
ALL FIXED.
I guess Life was still paying attention to us.
“Oh. Cool. Thanks.”
Sure enough, trying to move my shoulder and arm wasn’t excruciating in any way.
IT HAS BEEN FIXED SINCE YOU ARRIVED AT THE CLEARING. SIMPLY BEING IN MY PRESENCE WILL HEAL ALL INJURIES.
“Well, that’s useful,” I muttered. And then I reached through space and time and pulled us back to Sol and Trevor.
UNFORTUNATELY, SOL AND Trevor were still fighting their way down the
side of the cliff.
Luckily, Seamus shifted to human again as soon as we materialized on the cliff face. Oddly, we were both now wearing clothes. Huh. Something to wonder about, when I wasn’t busy trying to rescue my friends and family from an onslaught of homicidally angry mages.
Since we’d somehow managed to pull ourselves to exactly where Sol seemed to be, and it appeared to be only seconds after we had been whisked away by Gwen, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised that we also arrived facing the cliff wall, and in a position to grab hold of it without tumbling to our deaths. Apparently, reality was taking a break for a bit, as I wielded power that made even less sense than my ability to turn into a large, furry predator. Fun times.
Whatever, reality could suck it. I was going to use the hell out of this to save the people I cared about.
Seamus snarled, despite being in human form, as more spells were slung in our general direction, and he made his way toward Sol, while I started gesturing wildly to get Trev’s attention.
Trev seemed busy leading the mages' spell-flinging attention on a bit of a wild Phoenix chase, and it took me a good thirty seconds to signal to him that he needed to head my way.
When he finally turned and saw me, I thought he might fall out of the sky—his wings stopped moving for a full heartbeat. Luckily they were still extended outwards, rather than down.
I would love for you to torch these guys, but maybe we should just go, I sent to him, once I belatedly remembered that I could just think things at him instead of speaking or gesturing wildly.
I didn’t know how much I could do with the new powers Gwen had given me, but the only thing I was sure I could do was the one thing that made the most sense anyway. It was time to get the hell out of Dodge.
YOU’RE ALIVE!
Trev managed to convey his levels of both surprise and elation at the news that I wasn’t a fresh serving of human burger all along the valley floor, and I just barely managed to keep his concern and excitement from completely swamping me.
I will happily explain it all in a minute, once we’re safe somewhere. For now, we just need to go.
Trevor nodded his flaming bird head, and shared a feeling of affirmation through our twin bond just in case he was too far away for me to see, which, when you added in all the fire and spells flying through the air, he was. He winged his way towards me, and I could see Seamus and Sol working their way closer along the cliff as well. I was certain that if I could touch everyone, or at least if we were all touching each other, I could get us all out of here and back to that forest. I just had to—
Fuck. A giant ball of… something nasty flew over my shoulder and left behind some rather disquieting blisters. Luckily, I still felt like I had most of my skin, and full control of my arm, unlike the last time a spell had grazed me that way. Soon, we weren’t going to have much choice about how close we all got before I shifted away with whoever was touching me, and I didn’t know if I’d get a chance for round two.
Trevor was almost within arm’s reach (although I wasn’t sure about how badly he’d burn me if I grabbed him) and Sol and Seamus were only one or two moves away from being within range when I heard the crack of rock breaking high above us. Someone had either wildly missed the mark with one of their spells, or they were simply trying to kill us with rockfall.
I didn’t waste the moment it would take to curse the cowards who kept trying to kill us from the safety of the top of the cliff, but I promised myself I would take that moment later. Instead, I leapt for Seamus and Sol, covering the last few feet of distance between us and grabbing hold of each of them, screaming Trevor’s name all the way.
I had to hope that Trevor would either dive for me, or just dive away from the wall. We didn’t have time to hesitate before the refrigerator-sized chunk of cliff that was coming towards us was here and we were dead. We didn’t have time for anything, actually. Only preternatural speed had gotten me to Sol and Seamus before the boulder got there. I willed us back to that circle of trees as hard as I could, and felt searing pain in my hip just before the world went black around us.
I CAME TO looking up at a starry sky through a bunch of pine boughs. The air held the crisp scent of autumn in the mountains; a mixture of fallen leaves, pine needles, and cool wind. Considering the two mountainous regions I’d been flashing between lately, that didn’t really narrow things down.
I sat up.
My body objected strenuously to the movement, and made said objections known by forcibly ejecting everything I’d eaten in the past 24 hours.
I lay down again.
“Vic?”
The voice was weak, or maybe that was just my hearing, but I recognized it.
“Trev?” I asked. I vaguely recalled being worried about Trev earlier. He had been in decidedly mortal peril. “You alive?” I figured it wouldn’t hurt to check. The afterlife might have stars and pine boughs too.
“Yep. You?”
I tried to nod, but when that small motion almost made me heave again, I settled on whispering a weak little, “yes,” before lying completely still.
“What did you do?” Trev asked.
“Dunno.” How little could I move and still vocalize my replies? “Gwen gave me some powers. Thought they might work to save our butts.”
“I’d say you were right.”
I smiled. That, at least, didn’t make me feel sick.
“How long have I been out?”
Trev was quiet a moment.
“Only a couple of hours. I’m surprised it wasn’t longer, actually, with all the healing you must have done.”
That made me want to sit up, but I had learned my lesson. I took a very long time to bring my head up from the leafy ground on which it was pillowed.
“I didn’t heal anyone,” I said, once I was sure my stomach wasn’t going to try escaping through my throat again. “The tree does that.”
I looked around for Life. I didn’t see the glowing eyes, but we did seem to be in the same clearing, with the tree shaped like a hooded figure carrying a scythe.
“I meant you. You needed a lot of healing.”
“I did?”
I finally locked eyes on Trevor. He was sitting on the pine needle covered forest floor a few feet away from me, with his arms wrapped around his knees.
“I might have singed you a bit,” he admitted quietly.
“That’s ok, Trev.” I took in his appearance. He was wearing a simple pair of jeans and a black t-shirt, sensible boots, and a stainless steel watch.
“Where’d you get your stuff?” I asked. As far as I could remember, we’d all been naked the last time we’d been in human form. Or had Seamus and I found clothes somehow? My memory was a bit hazy. “Did you shove your clothes in a dimensional pocket or something?”
He smiled at that.
“I do have a tendency to singe things, so that wouldn’t be a bad idea. But I’m not actually sure why I’m dressed this way. We all materialized with clothes on, when we got to this clearing.”
Well, that was interesting.
“Was I awake?” I asked.
He shook his head.
“Not in a way that counted, no.”
“Hm… I was wondering if it was part of Gwen’s power, but if it happened with me unconscious…”
“Gwen’s power?”
“Yeah I... it’s a long story. So, where are Seamus and Sol?” I asked, before I could get too sidetracked by the question of mystery outfits and meddling deities.
“They went to your place to clean up and make food. They said they’d meet us there. I didn’t see any reason for them to stick around and watch you sleep, when I was here to keep an eye on things and light anyone suspicious on fire. They agreed, although the wolf pup howled about it.”
That made me chuckle a bit. I didn’t find Seamus’ overprotective streak attractive or endearing, but it was kind of funny sometimes. He was nothing if not consistent.
“Were they ok?”
Trevor nodd
ed.
“They were all healed up the second we arrived in the clearing. The only one who needed extra time was you.”
That was odd. If anything, I would have thought that Gwen’s powers would have made healing easier, rather than more time-consuming.
IT IS NOT PHYSICAL HEALING THAT HAS FORCED YOU TO REST.
“Oh hey, Life,” I said.
Trevor was looking around the clearing a bit frantically. It looked like he was trying to find anything other than a talking tree to attribute that voice to, but he was, of course, failing.
“Trev, this is the Tree of Life. Life, this is my brother Trev.”
A PLEASURE TO MEET YOU.
My introduction seemed to confirm Trevor’s wildest fears, but at least he seemed to know where to look now.
“Umm… likewise? Thanks for the healing.”
YOU ARE WELCOME. VIC, YOU MUST GO HOME. EAT HUMAN FOODS AND REST. YOU CONSUMED ALMOST ALL OF YOUR MAGIC. IF YOU DO NOT REST, YOU MAY INADVERTENTLY TAKE YOUR OWN LIFE.
“Well, that’s not on my list of things to do. We’d better get going, Trev.”
Honestly, it didn’t take much to convince me that I should be at home. In addition to being where I could find both of my friends—was it sad that I could count all my friends on one hand at this stage?—it was a place where I could lie down for a few hours and safely munch on all the pizza I could possibly need to refuel my magic-weary body.
That was a weird idea—that I could be magic-weary—but I was too tired to deal with it at that moment.
Trevor stood up and I turned towards home. Weirdly, despite the fact that we were in the middle of a clearing in the woods that I had only been to twice before, I knew exactly which direction home was.
Just as my body began to protest the mere idea of walking home from here, Gwen popped into existence and grabbed us both.
~~~
I was both relieved and grateful to find that Gwen had taken us to my place rather than… anywhere else in the world. Honestly, with Gwen I never knew what to expect. I was pretty sure her intentions were good, but she and I often had different ideas of what constituted “helpful.”
Victoria Marmot- The Complete Series Page 13