When she continued to struggle, he slapped her across the face hard enough that her head rocked back. The sacrifice was better received when they were willing, but if they fought it still got the job done. He wanted this one to be perfect though, so if he had to drug the little bitch to make her more compliant, he’d do what he had to.
One of the perks of being Pharaoh was that no one could tell him what to do. He’d sampled mind-altering compounds from across the land and had one for every occasion. What was the point of living if he couldn’t have as many delectable options for altering his state of mind on hand as possible? Even if she was stoned to the point of incomprehension as long as she climbed onto the altar herself, it fucking counted in his book.
If you were going to be sacrificed, being stoned was probably a mercy.
After he’d signed his pact with Vitaria, Phandar used drugs to forget. Then he used them because he could, and finally, he was using because he didn’t have anything else that he cared about. If the girl thought there was any mercy in him, she’d learn he’d killed it long ago, and now mostly what he felt was hollow.
One thing they never tell you about being the top dog is how badly everyone else wants to take it from you.
Power was a fickle mistress at best, and her jilted husband at its worst. Phandar had grown tired of the game. Holding onto power was a job that kept all his thoughts so occupied that he had no time left to enjoy his success. It was as if his food turned to ash in his mouth, his wine to water. There was no end, only the next task to complete.
He needed a fucking break.
Phandar let out a weary sigh as the girl shied away from him. It was all so tedious. Somewhere deep down, he found a way to replace his anger with a warm smile. “I won’t hit you again.”
She took his hand, all the time expecting another blow, but knowing she couldn’t refuse. If he hadn’t done this a hundred times before it would have broken his heart. This was his shame, the price he paid to be the king of nothing. So while he could have hit her until her face was black with bruises and forced her to submit, he hugged the girl to himself as if she were a long-lost friend.
“I am sorry to have lost my temper. Please let me give you something to ease the sting.” He said it as though he hadn’t hit a hundred such girls, then made them the very same offer.
Sometimes his ability to lie made him sick.
Not that it would stop him from doing it now, or the next time he needed Vitaria’s help. He poured two glasses of wine with three pinches of the white flower dust for hers and one for him. The girl wasn’t the only one who deserved something to lighten the mood. Phandar looked the girl over again, trying to judge if he’d given her too much. He needed her pliable, not dead.
If she died, he’d have to start the entire tedious process over again.
“Drink this.” He handed her the glass and sipped from his to reassure her.
As she drank the liquid, he tipped the bottom of the glass up, making sure she finished every drop. “Enjoy this moment, revel in it, for the next life truly is filled with wonders.”
The girl nodded. “My da always told me about the halls of Eternia and how wonderful they were.”
“I’m sure they’re glorious.” Phandar felt the drugs rushing through his system now, and the next lie came out so smoothly he almost believed it himself. “Would you like the chance to see them?”
“Can I? Can I really?” She sounded hopeful.
They always did.
The white flower made it easier to ignore the voice in his head that screamed for him to give it all up. To fill a chest with gold and disappear in the night to build a new life somewhere else. He’d done it before, and it wouldn’t be that bad. A simple life without drugs, and death waiting around every corner.
Then he killed that voice.
What had sleeping in the streets ever earned him but scorn? He’d shown those fools. Washed up, a hack, not worth their time. Well, now he told them what fucking time to do things, and they did them or he sent someone to take care of them. If the men themselves were irreplaceable, he sent other men to remind their families how important it was they continued their work.
If the world was a shit heap, it was better to be on top of the pile. He wouldn’t go back to slinging it in the muck, and he had to face the truth. A chest full of gold would only last him so long. The more money he had, the faster he spent it. Those whores and drugs wouldn’t pay for themselves. Of course, the girl didn’t need to know any of this, and the goddess didn’t care.
“Take my hand and let me show you the entrance to Eternia’s kingdom.” Phandar extended his hand to the girl, a fatherly smile plastered on his face.
He hoped the look said he was excited about the wonders they were about to see when he was worried about what might happen next. Not killing the girl, so much as what Vitaria would have to say about Jabari’s failures, and his for not handling them sooner.
The girl moved toward the altar, excited about the chance to meet the goddess. If she knew which goddess she was meeting, Phandar doubted she would have felt the same way. He’d worshipped Eternia once, and it mostly felt like he was talking to himself. Vitaria took action, and he was hers whether he liked it or not.
“Let me help you up.” The Pharaoh lifted the small girl onto the altar. “All you have to do is close your eyes and think of Eternia with all your thoughts. When you open your eyes again, the goddess will appear before you.”
She smiled so warmly that if there were any humanity left in him, he would have sent her straight home to her father. Instead, he smiled as she beamed warmly up at him.
“Meeting the goddess is all I ever wanted.” She lay back, looking up at the roof and waiting for Eternia to appear.
“Close your eyes, and trust in me to show you the way.” When she closed her eyes, Phandar gently ran his fingers over the lids. “You must not open your eyes for any reason until I give the command. If you open them too early, it will break the enchantment, and Eternia will not appear to us.”
“I won’t open them, I swear.” She was almost crying in her effort to make him happy.
Phandar nodded as she scrunched her eyes shut even tighter. “Then listen to my words, and you will know when the moment is right. I’m counting on you for this. I couldn’t do it without you.”
Lies were easier to tell when they were rooted in truth.
He reached out and gently crossed the girl’s arms over her waist, then started on the other preparations. Candles needed to be lit, and the proper oils and flowers needed to be applied. Each time he lit a candle he said a prayer. Each time he splashed the oil, he called to her.
He begged the goddess to come and provide him guidance on the next steps to take. She would come to help, she always did, but she required a price. He’d gladly pay it to keep himself in power. To seal the connection between Vitaria and himself, he consumed a single sip from a jug of wine containing a splash of Vitaria’s blood. Everything was in place and ready to go. All he had to do was follow through.
He was never one to leave a dirty deed undone.
“Are you ready to meet the goddess, child?” A single tear streaked down Phandar’s cheek despite his hardened heart.
The girl kept her eyes closed. “Yes.” In a much firmer voice, “I am ready.”
“Then it is done.” Phandar pulled a dagger from inside his robes and lifted it high above his head, where he let the blade linger at its apex.
“Come to me, goddess of the night. Come to me, daughter of none. Come to me, mistress of the eternal. I worship you. My life for you.” He brought the dagger down in one fluid motion, slamming it into the girl's heart without an inch of remorse.
His tears were gone now. Showing any weakness to the goddess was a recipe for disaster.
The virgin’s eyes snapped open when the blade pierced her heart. A scream of pure agony tore from her lips as she saw the dark Goddess Vitaria rising from the ground in a veil of black mist.
&nbs
p; Phandar watched in wonder as the girl’s soul rose above her body. She looked at him for a moment, shock and grief etched across her face.
Then Vitaria consumed her. “You called?”
He looked down at his hands still wrapped around the dagger sticking out of the girl’s chest, and he slowly unwrapped his fingers. There was always a moment after the sacrifice where he realized what he’d done. He squashed that feeling down where it would never see the light of day and got to the business at hand. “Yes, I have need of you.”
“Would it kill you to sacrifice some male virgins in my honor?” Vitaria smiled as she plucked the dagger free. “I’m starting to think you don’t understand me at all.”
Phandar nodded his head. “Male sacrifices, I can do that.”
Maybe killing young men would be easier on his conscience.
“It’s certainly a first step in the right direction, don’t you think? For our relationship to work, there can’t be secrets between us, can there?” Vitaria wrapped an arm around his shoulders and led him toward the throne.
This didn’t feel right, but he’d brought the goddess here. Now he had to deal with the ramifications. “Only a fool would lie to you.” Phandar was starting to feel like he might have summoned his death right to him.
The goddess gave him a squeeze that almost broke him in half and let him go. “And you're no fool. Is that the gist of it?”
It probably wasn’t the time for self-respect, so he tried a different tactic. “No, I’m all kinds of stupid, but the one thing I never take for granted is our relationship.”
Vitaria’s easy-going smile faded like rain in the desert sun. “You told me Jabari was going to crush the resistance, and now I find myself having to clean up another of your messes.” A twinkle appeared in her eye. “Seriously Phandar, what am I going to do with you?”
That bastard Jabari better not have cost him his life or his dick. He was rather fond of both and being Pharaoh wasn’t worth a damn without the second. He’d given himself entirely to the goddess already. His pride had been burned away long ago. This was simply about survival now.
Phandar tried to summon the scraps of his courage, but who was he kidding? Vitaria could erase him as quickly as she made him. He tried to hide his emotions and then thought, fuck, she probably feeds off the fear. He might as well use anything he had for an advantage. “I’m sorry for Jabari’s failures. All we know is this new band of adventurers isn’t from our land and seems to have come from under the mountain.”
Of course, he didn’t mention the fact she’d promised him the path under the mountain was sealed.
“My sister Eternia again sticks her nose in where it doesn’t belong.” Black droplets of liquid dripped from Vitaria’s shoulders and splashed against the floor, releasing black clouds of steam into the air that were reabsorbed by her dress. “I will deal with Eternia. Your job is to stop these adventurers at any cost.”
He dropped to one knee. “Command me, goddess.”
Her smile returned with an edge to it. “We will let Jabari fall on his sword. Pull all of your troops back to Naroosh.”
Vitaria started to pace back and forth. “With all of our strength consolidated here, the resistance would be foolish to come. If they show their faces, we will crush them.”
She stopped pacing, her eyes burning with black fire. “All the while, we will continue to build our strength here. If they don’t come to us, we will eventually have to go to them and take back Nar’ha. Eternia can’t be allowed to increase her power.”
Some of Phandar’s trepidation faded as he realized this fight was as important to Vitaria as it was to him. “I trust you have a few surprises in store for them?”
“More than a few, servant.” Vitaria stood over him, her shadow growing to fill the room.
Her display left him without the ability even to entertain the possibility of who was in charge, no matter how many times he tried to delude himself otherwise.
The shadows receded, and a cat-like grin spread across her face. “Death is all the resistance will find if they come to Naroosh. My sister’s little band of adventurers won’t be able to shift the tide in her favor much longer.”
Phandar knelt in front of the goddess, making sure to keep his eyes locked on her feet. He wasn’t sure what made him do it. It wasn’t loyalty, but maybe he suddenly felt a small kinship with Jabari. Shit rolled downhill. Jabari was standing waist-deep in the Pharaoh's shit, and now Phandar was getting a small taste of what it felt like after all these years.
He fucking hated it.
Maybe he owed Jabari more than he thought. “We might yet be able to shift the tide in Jabari’s favor. With the help of your special forces, no one would dare attack.”
Keeping his head low, Phandar tried one last tack. “He has done much to help us over the years. It would be a shame to abandon such faithfulness now.”
Not that he cared two shits for Jabari’s well-being. He wanted to get a preview of what would happen to him if the Goddess found his efforts lacking in any way. He might very well be looking at his future unfolding before his eyes. It was probably a mistake for him to suggest helping Jabari, but he’d said the words, and it was too late to take them back now.
The goddess moved toward his throne. She sat and tossed her legs over the arm in a display of casualness Phandar hadn’t expected. Vitaria had a pouty expression on her face as if she were disappointed but willing to give in to keep the peace. “I suppose we can spare one of my creations, but he will have to do the rest on his own.”
If he was judging the moment correctly, and Phandar almost always did, this was a test to see what he would do next. Offer to send one of Vitaria’s strongest, and he would appear weak and reliant on others. Send a minion too weak, and everyone would know it was a sacrifice, and he was throwing Jabari and Nar’ha to the wolves of the resistance. Was there one of her minions that somehow fit right in the middle?
Then the idea came to him. He had just the right suggestion. At least he hoped he did. “If the goddess agrees, I think we should send the Juggernaut.”
Vitaria gave him an appraising look as if trying to decide if she wanted to indulge her pet Pharaoh. She gave him a curt nod and clapped once, sending a thunderclap rolling out across the throne room. “Done.”
With the business of the moment concluded, Vitaria’s smile turned seductive. “See if you can round up some promising young men for me to amuse myself. It’s been too long since I’ve felt the pleasures of the flesh. And food. I want to gorge myself.”
She paused, licking her lips hungrily. “And drink. I need wine!”
Phandar clapped and was disappointed with the effect after hearing Vitaria do the same thing. Thankfully, the servants hiding in the walls weren’t too awed by her to respond to his command. “Wine, food, and men, whatever the Goddess needs, see that it is taken care of.”
He turned to Vitaria. “Everything I have is yours, I will seek you out in the morning, or you may call upon me at any time.”
Vitaria’s eyes moved past him toward the men bearing trays of food and wine. “Don’t be early. I plan on indulging myself well into the morning.”
Taking a jug from one of the servants, the Pharaoh poured Vitaria a glass of wine. “Serving you is my only desire. I shall take my leave.”
He handed her the glass and bowed as he backed out of the room.
Being thrown out of his throne room like a servant so she could indulge herself left a bitter taste in his mouth. He’d let his ambitions override his sense when he’d made a deal with Vitaria. That was the thing no one told you about making a deal with the devil. Sometimes the devil came back. He’d brought this on himself, but it had been one hell of a wild ride so far. Why worry about the ending now?
The scary thing for Phandar was, despite how much he hated himself now, he’d hated being poor and treated like shit more. Whatever it took not to go back there, he would do it without question. He’d already sold his soul. What else was th
ere to lose?
The throne room doors closed, and Phandar knew that his lovers would see the darker side of his passions tonight.
Chapter Forty-One
“What is that sound?” Tim looked around the darkened tent, trying to get his bearings.
ShadowLily got out of bed and lit a candle. “I hear it too.”
It was almost silent at first, merely a gentle tapping on the roof of their tent, but then the sound changed. The light tapping became a heavy pounding against the thick canvas, then all sense of individual sounds disappeared completely. For a second he started to panic, then he realized that nothing was coming through the tent. He moved to stand in the open flap next to ShadowLily and looked out into his first monsoon.
It was like standing in a cave behind a waterfall.
The world wasn’t normal anymore. It was like someone spilled a glass of water on a painting. Everything was blurry, and the noise washed out any semblance of typical sound. He couldn’t make out any individual noises at first, but then he heard the screams. He was about to run into the storm when ShadowLily pulled him back.
“Listen. They’re happy.” She wore a smile of her own.
Tim stood in the tent flap wondering if he was wasting time, but now he could make out the laughter mixed in with the screams. Rain, even in the oasis, was a celebrated event. It was as if Eternia herself had appeared to smile upon them. Maybe it was a sign of good things to come.
“That storm came just in time. Our meeting with Khalid is in thirty minutes.” ShadowLily had the slightly panicked sound of someone late for work.
Tim wasn’t worried in the slightest. It was still dark out. There was no way it was almost time for their meeting. He looked at his interface and realized she was right. Why he never simply listened to her was beyond him. “I’ll make the coffee while you get ready, then we can switch places.”
“As if. I’m ready to go. You on the other hand probably won’t make it there in time.” She giggled at the wounded expression on his face. “Don’t worry. I’ll have a few coffee-related excuses ready to save your ass.”
Deserts Of Naroosh Page 40