by Dante King
“That was no banshee,” I said. “Nor was it a demon. It was—”
As if on cue, Isu appeared at the top of the steps, her nose in the air and her arms folded defiantly across her chest as she strutted across the floor.
“—Isu,” I continued, “former Goddess of Death.”
Isu growled wordlessly, and for a few moments the look in her now-auburn eyes was one of absolute murder. Then, abruptly, her entire countenance changed. Her eyes were still locked onto me, but I’d become the object of her ravenous lust instead of her hatred, an intense lust that got me hot and tingly in all the right places. It was absolutely genuine too; I could spot a fake a mile away, and Isu was no tavern whore pretending to be smitten. Nor was this some kind of sly excuse for her to find a moment to do to me what I’d done to her a few moments before.. It seemed, rather, that while she hated me for what I’d done, she couldn’t help being hopelessly attracted to me at the same time. I suspected this bizarre love-hate pendulum would get even more erratic and strange now that the power balance had shifted so dramatically. Well, how could things not be weird between me and a former goddess who I’d personally killed and resurrected?
Rami and Elyse simply stared at Isu, their mouths hanging open. Then they turned and briefly stared at each other before they returned their attention to Isu.
“What’s the matter?” Isu fired a pair of vicious glares at Elyse and Rami in quick succession. “Never seen a goddess in the flesh before, fools?”
“Former goddess,” I muttered with a put-on cough.
She spun on her heels to face me, arms akimbo, jaw set tight with barely contained wrath. She wanted to unleash a torrent of rage. But she didn’t. Instead, she only glowered at me in silence for a long moment. Soon enough, her arms fell slack to her sides, and she flashed me a tight-lipped smile.
“Speaking of goddesses,” Isu said, “we have one to locate, do we not? We shouldn’t waste any more time standing around gawking.”
As she said “gawking,” she spun around and glared at Rami and Elyse, who still had their eyes locked on her in an expression of disbelief. They got the hint though, and they each finally stopped staring.
“I agree,” I said, “and I wouldn’t mind getting some good ol’ carousing in while this whole Saint Jorl’s party is going on. I could use a stiff drink or two after everything that’s happened tonight.”
“Wait,” Elyse said before she frowned, closed her eyes, and whispered something under her breath that might have been a prayer. “The Goddess of Death,” she murmured a little louder, her jaw tightening and her eyes hardening. “I’m sorry, Vance, but I can’t help you any more. I serve the one true God, the Lord of Light. This… this demon, or whatever she is... It goes against every one of the Lord’s teachings for me to work with her. Either she goes, or I go. I’m sorry to be so unyielding, but I’m a bishop of the Church of Light! I can’t—I won’t—associate with the likes of her.”
“That ‘creature’,” I said coldly, “is a major part of the reason I was able to defeat Nabu. Without the powers she gifted me with, we’d never have come this far. You owe her a lot more than you realize, Elyse. And now that I think about it, you didn’t seem to object to me using the powers of Death when it suited you.”
Elyse, to her credit, bit her lip and looked sideways. She glanced over at Isu, who was staring at her coldly, her head cocked as she waited for a response. Elyse looked away again.
“I suppose,” Elyse began softly, “you’re right. I didn’t object to your use of Death magic when it suited my needs. And now that I’ve gotten what I was after, it’d be rather terrible to simply to desert you for the sake of an… ideological disagreement. Perhaps I can be flexible.”
“I knew you’d see the ‘light,’” I said, smiling again. “So, you’re fine with Isu tagging along then, even though she was once the Goddess of Death?”
I made sure I emphasized the past-tense aspect of that. Isu was fuming. How I loved being a god, even though I was only a minor one for the time being.
“I’m fine with it, yes,” Elyse said meekly.
“Good. Let’s all play nice now.”
“You haven’t informed us what you’ll do with the dead Resplendent Crusaders,” Rami interjected. “You said you had a solution before she showed up.” She gestured at Isu but didn’t meet her gaze.
Now that I’d had some practice actually resurrecting someone from the dead—a goddess, no less—raising the dead Crusaders as zombies, using the same method I had for Fang, was simple. I motioned to Rami to wait and see. In less than a minute, all of the dead Crusaders were on their feet again. Except now, they were zombies in my service. They were covered head to toe in armor, so they could pass quite easily as regular people. Well, as long as nobody tried to speak to them, since as zombies they were incapable of speech, and nobody looked too closely into the slits of their great helms, where their eyes now glowed with the yellow-green luminescence of the undead.
“You really are the new Death God,” Rami murmured, her tone reverent.
“That’s what I’ve been telling you ladies,” I said.
Elyse coughed and looked at me with a knitted brow. I had to commend her ability to swallow her pride so fast.
“I have a plan to deal with the soldiers and guards who are still loyal to Nabu,” she said. “I need to quickly write up an official Church of Light scroll granting me my former position as Bishop of Erst back. That’ll be easy enough; all of the stationery is in Nabu’s chambers, and I now have his ring to emboss it with a bishop’s seal. The problem is getting the signature of the captain of the Resplendent Crusaders.” She motioned at the captain, who was now a zombie in my undead personal guard.
“He’s not really dead anymore, is he?”
“Can he still write like that? Looks like nothing more than a shell to me.”
“The undead do retain traces of who they were,” Isu explained. “Especially those of the zombie variety.”
“Right,” I said. “I’m sure I can get into his head and jog his memory.”
I had already been quite confident with the undead I’d made before, and the connection I’d felt while creating my new footmen had been unmistakable. I knew who they were and what they could do intuitively. We did the job in no time.
“That’s it!” Elyse said. “Now, I really am the official Bishop of Erst again.”
“I’m sure it feels good to be back in your rightful place,” I said, “but let’s see how seriously they take this scroll outside.”
“You’d better leave your skeletons, zombies, and Fang here. That would be a start,” Rami suggested.
I nodded. “The Crusaders can come, though. You can’t really tell they’re zombies, hidden in their armor like that. They’d also add some weight to Elyse’s claim to her title.”
“What about the horned woman?” Elyse asked.
Isu glared at her and hissed. In response, Elyse smiled innocently.
“I suppose they could be seen as decorations,” Elyse answered herself. “Plenty of folks dress up for Saint Jorl’s night.”
“That’s settled then,” I said. “All that’s left for us to do is to lock the doors behind us. Elyse will order the guards to do so, and she’ll make sure they don’t let anyone in without her permission, right, Elyse?”
She nodded, and with that, I set off and led them in a beeline to the main cathedral doors.
“I can’t believe we’re going through all this effort to resurrect that old windbag,” Isu muttered sourly as we walked. “Xayon was always weak-willed. She preferred to flee when faced with difficulty rather than remain stalwart. A coward at heart, really, and—”
Before Isu could say another word, Rami was behind her, arms wrapped around her torso in a lock, the point of one sai pressing into the side of her neck, the other poking her belly just under her ribs, angled upward to go straight for the heart.
“Breathe another insult about Xayon,” Rami whispered into Isu’s ear, �
��and I’ll kill you a second time. I don’t care who you are, or were. If you ever bad-mouth my goddess again, I’ll gut you like a fish.”
“Hey, hey,” I said, putting a cautionary hand on Rami’s shoulder. “Easy. We’re all friends here, right?”
Rami’s gaze was stone cold, and there was no doubt in my mind that she was ready to slip those sais deep into Isu’s flesh.
“Rami,” I said, more forcefully this time, “step back and put those sais away. Now.”
With icy rage still-glistening in her eyes, Rami lowered her weapons and released Isu from her hold. Isu spun around, bristling with fury, a long dagger in her hand.
“You just made the worst mistake of your miserable life, wretch,” she hissed through clenched teeth, “and—”
I stepped between her and Rami, my arms folded across my chest and my jaw tight. “Stop this now! All of you!” I roared.
My voice boomed through the cathedral, resounding with potent authority, and all three women froze in their tracks. Even Isu shrank back.
“You!” I pointed a quivering finger at Rami. “Put your fucking sais away and don’t take them out again unless we’re fighting an actual enemy.” I then spun around and directed my wrath at Isu. “And you, you need to get the fuck over yourself! Yeah, you used to be the damn Goddess of Death, but now, you’re not. You’re just a necromancer, like I was. And I’m the God of Death now, so you will obey me. We’re all going to work together, and that’s how it’s gonna be. No ‘ifs,’ no ‘buts,’ and no more catty bitchiness! That goes for all for you. Is that understood?”
All three women—even Isu, to my surprise—nodded meekly.
“Good.” I smiled, the wrath leaving me as quickly as it had arrived. “And now that that’s taken care of, let’s get on with this mission.”
I retrieved Grast from beneath the cathedral, but the rest of us were in no condition to party just yet, considering our state after taking down Nabu and his men.
We washed the blood from our bodies and clothes in a blessing font, much to Elyse’s chagrin, but we couldn’t exactly go outside in our current states. When we were as clean as we could get, we made our way out of the cathedral proper.
At the doors, the moment of truth was upon us.
“Let’s see if this plan works.” I removed the bar from the large doors and hauled them open.
The two guards posted outside spun around.
“Who are you lot?” one demanded.
“I,” Elyse answered with as much authority as she could muster, “am the new Bishop of Erst, and you will address me as such.” She held out the scroll, which the guards read over, their grubby faces scrunched into expressions of confusion and consternation.
“Uh, it looks legit,” one remarked, glancing at the Resplendent Crusaders within view. “Bishop… Sorry, what’s your name, Bishop?”
“Bishop Elyse.”
“Bishop Elyse, gotcha. What’s happened to Nabu then? I mean, I see his seal is on the scroll and everything, but it’s a rather odd time to be changing bishops around. The early hours of the morning on Saint Jorl’s night… no disrespect intended, Bishop Elyse. Just curious, y’see.”
“And what was all that commotion in the cathedral earlier, Bishop?” the other guard asked. “Sounded like a bloody dragon was running loose in there!”
“That’s none of your business,” Elyse answered coldly. “And Nabu is inside. He does not wish to be disturbed. He’s preparing to meet the Lord of Light.”
“He’s heading to the Luminescent Spires?”
“Of a sort, yes,” Elyse said. “Your orders are to lock these doors and to ensure that nobody without my express permission enters the cathedral from now on until I get back. And I do mean nobody, do you understand?”
“Yes, Your Brightness,” the guard answered, still somewhat wary. “Just one last question, Bishop.”
“I do not appreciate my time being wasted.”
I had to stifle a chuckle. It was quite amusing watching Elyse in her new role, throwing her weight around like this.
“Uh… about our pay, Your Brightness,” the guard stammered. “Now that Nabu’s retired, are we going to get a, uh, pay cut? We’ll still have our jobs, yeah?”
“As long as you’re loyal to me, I’ll see to it that you get a raise.”
“Yes, Bishop Elyse!” They both saluted. “We’ll ensure nobody enters the cathedral. Apologies for wasting your time, Your Brightness.”
She gave them a curt nod, then strode off, her nose in the air. I walked past them, doing my best to suppress an ear-to-ear grin. When Isu passed, the guards stared at her horns.
“Bloody good costume you’re wearing, m’lady,” one said with a goofy smile. “You look just like a real demon!”
Isu snarled wordlessly and spun around, daggers in her eyes, but I grabbed her wrist and hauled her away before she could react.
“That was easy enough,” I remarked as soon as we were out of earshot. “It seems like they don’t really give much of a shit about who’s in charge, as long as they get paid.”
“And that surprises you?” Elyse chuckled.
“Just what I expected, actually. Why did you think I was so eager to get out there and parade you around? You did great, by the way. You’re pretty convincing as an authority figure.”
“That might be because I am an authority figure, Vance!”
We gave any guards we met the same story; Elyse was the new Bishop of Erst, and they were not to let anyone into the grounds. With the official scroll in her hands, and the Resplendent Crusaders in tow, nobody suspected anything was amiss. Their primary concern seemed to be that they’d keep their jobs and, especially, their pay.
Once we’d made our way out of the cathedral district, Grast smiled.
“I’ll see you all later,” he said. “I have a dozen flagons of wine with my name on them.”
After Grast had left, Elyse furrowed her brow. “Since it seems that everyone we’ve encountered so far has been pretty accepting of my new title. I feel like it’s time for me to assert my authority. Before we go to the fountain, there’s something I need to put a stop to right away.”
I knew exactly what she was talking about. It had been gnawing at the back of my mind as well.
“The slave market,” I said.
Elyse nodded. “Under my rule, there will be zero tolerance for slavery. And my rule starts tonight, no need for any initial leniency or transition period. This rule will be enforced from day one, from the first hour.”
“I’m down with that. And I’m itching to try out my new weapons.” I looked over my shoulder at the zombie Crusaders. “And what better punching bags for my zombie boys than a bunch of slave-selling troll-sphincters?”
Isu’s smile was something between flirtatious and defiant. “Where you go, I must follow.”
“I hate slavers,” Rami said, her fingers curling around the grips of her sais. “And these blades were born and raised to serve justice.”
With the zombie Crusaders marching ahead of us and clearing a passage through the crowded streets, we reached Erst’s market square in no time. There was plenty of space for multiple wagons to pass by side by side.
The square was crammed full of vendors, market stalls, and street performers, and even though it was long past midnight, there was a huge crowd. Audiences oohed and aahed as jugglers, fire breathers, acrobats, sword swallowers, snake charmers, jesters, and other performers put on their shows between stalls that sold everything from daggers and swords to love potions and spices from distant lands. The air was thick with smoke and the scents of meat roasting over open fires. Laughter and inebriated voices echoed in a raucous symphony between the buildings.
The revelers seemed surprised to see us coming but had enough respect for the Resplendent Crusaders to get out of our way. Soon enough, we arrived at the main crossroads where we’d seen the slavers carrying out their despicable trade.
Multiple auction platforms had been set up, ea
ch one specializing in a different type of slave. Some slaves were being sold specifically for manual labor in the fields, while others were for domestic chores. Some of the more burly men were being sold as bodyguards, but the worst was the platform that held only young women. It was surrounded by sweaty, leering men, all elbow-nudging, sleazy laughing, and groin-scratching, and there was no questioning what these slaves were being sold for.
The slavers took no notice of us as we approached. They simply went on with their auctions. No doubt they assumed we were the representatives of their close ally who had, up to very recently, held the highest seat in the cathedral. They thought they had nothing to fear.
How wrong they were.
Chapter Twenty
A thin, teary-eyed girl, barely out of her teens and naked save for a loincloth, was being dragged up onto an auction platform. A group of drooling perverts were pushing and shoving each other to get to the front, their grubby hands clutching fistfuls of coins. As the slaver began the auction, Elyse stopped our party.
“You can control your zombies without making it obvious that they’re zombies, right?” she whispered to me.
“I can, yeah.”
“And I don’t think I need to explain how important it is that these people don’t realize the Crusaders are actually zombies, right?”
“Yeah, got it.”
“Excellent. Follow my lead. Vance, keep your control subtle. The Crusader Captain’s name was Jandor. I’ll refer to him as such.”
I nodded, and Elyse jumped up onto the platform next to the trembling girl. The two thuggish guards who were holding the girl, one on each arm, snarled at Elyse.
“What the fuck are you doing, whore? Get off the platform before I break your fucking jaw!”
“Captain Jandor,” Elyse said calmly, “please teach this ruffian to speak to me with a bit more respect.”
I projected part of my mind into the Crusader Captain’s body, the way I had with the skeletons when I’d first raised them. It had taken a fair bit of effort, and a lot of getting used to. Now, however, it was the easiest thing in the world. I barely had to make a conscious effort to get my mind linked to his shell of a body. In an instant, I took control of every one of his zombie nerves, ligaments, joints, and muscles. He wasn’t simply my puppet; he was an extension of me. Everything I could do, he could do just as well as I could. I simply needed to pull up a fragment of a thought about a particular fighting technique or combat move that I knew, and he’d perform it as flawlessly as if I had done it myself, instantly.