The Healer

  “What’s that doing here?”

  Chugg laid a mournful hand on Durdge’s arm. “It’s reminding me what’s at stake. Poor Durdge’s brain is on the verge of death down in the laboratory. Swill and Tuck swear they can bring him back, but I’m doubtful. So this body is here to make sure I don’t make the mistake of being merciful to these sheep after our project is completed. This what they do.”

  He took a thoughtful pull on his cigar, exhaled, and knocked ash into the pewter bowl on his desk. “Well, boys, you wanted to talk to me. I’m assuming it’s got something to do with the other day’s events.”

  Specter opened his mouth but could not find his voice. Scurvert continued to fidget in his chair. Pincher glared at them.

  The boss’s eyes moved between the three of them, his heavy brow sinking. “Well, what is it? Did you all come up here just to gawk at each other?”

  Pincher let out an exasperated growl. “You made a bad trade, Chugg.”

  The pig sat back, the corner of his mouth curling up. “I want to say that’s a spectacularly dumb conclusion. But you don’t have the vision I do, so I’m going to indulge you. Tell me, how did I mess this one up? Isn’t this what we agreed on?”

  “We’ve got the Mauler back, yes,” said Pincher, “but it’s too late to do us any good. He is not the stupid beast he once was. They taught him how to speak, how to think. We can’t make use of him for the project because he cannot be controlled anymore.”

  “And Ponder is useless to me!” Specter shouted. “There’s no reason for us to have her, because Optera has revoked my authority! At least when Caper was imprisoned, there was no one in the mountain intellectually nimble enough to challenge me.”

  “How about you, Scurvert?” Chugg said. “You have anything to add?”

  “I’m just here to back them up,” Scurvert grumbled. “I said my piece during our phone call the other morning. I can’t do my job properly if you’re going to make me go easy on the sheep. If we lose the fear, we lose the control. Simple as that.”

  Chugg took a drag and blew smoke through a gap in his teeth. “I’d love to set you straight. But you all doubt me. You always have. I have a feeling you’ll trust me more if you hear my wisdom straight from its source.” He swept an arm across his desk and shoved Durdge’s body over to one side. Swiveling his chair around, he tapped a key on the computer behind him.

  “Do you know why I’m so patient with you, Reverend Specter? How about you, Pincher?”

  Specter chose to keep his mouth shut. Pincher wisely did the same.

  “It’s because the two of you have no chance of being privy to the kind of knowledge I am. You don’t have the benefit of being in direct, intimate communion with your god. As long as I supply Toxid with sheep’s blood, he tells me things. You’ll never know this feeling, because you threw away your gods and sold out to me. It makes you useful, to be certain, but you’re still a pair of spineless losers with no principle.”

  Specter bristled but again knew better than to argue.

  The double doors behind him swung open. Two cloned dogs marched in carrying a sheep between them. The sand-colored quarry sheep was half conscious, beaten black and blue. It groaned as the two dogs slung it onto the center of the desk. They left without a sound.

  Chugg closed his eyes and smiled. “Fresh meat, just the way he likes it.”

  Specter knew Chugg did this, but it had never happened in front of him. He shrank back in terror at the spectacle. The compound eyes of the hanging statue changed from dull black metal to yellow jelly orbs. With a shriek of bending metal, the scythe-like jaws of the statue’s head began to move. The head descended. The jaws snapped like a gin trap and plunged into the body of the sheep on the desk. The poor creature was dead before it could scream.

  The blood ran through forged ruts in the top of the desk, down gutters in the sides, and into a drain in the floor. The statue did not stop until the sheep had been reduced to a withered, mummified husk. It withdrew its jaws and rose again, its dripping mandibles hovering over Specter’s head.

  “My master,” Chugg said. “Almighty Toxid. It is always an honor when you grace my tower with your presence.” He glanced at the corpse on the desk. “Scurvert, get rid of that.”

  Trembling, the greasy pig stood up from his chair and took the dead sheep in his hands. Holding it away from himself, he walked around the desk to the garbage chute and tossed the desiccated mass in. No one spoke until he had returned to his chair.

  “Great Devourer,” Chugg said, “my employees here take issue with your decision. I wanted them to see for themselves that you have this situation well in hand.”

  The biggest set of jaws clicked, followed by the several pairs of smaller jaws inside. “Your concerns have been heard.” The hissing words were oddly dissonant, as if spoken by several voices out of tune with each other. “Rest assured, this state of affairs is temporary. We bargain with no one. Ponder will be smashed to splinters. The Mauler will die on this table to fill my belly, just as so many sheep have done. We were only going to use them to our advantage because the opportunity presented itself. The project was moving along just fine before they appeared, so it will not hurt us to do away with them. Optera and Karkus attempted a coup against me and failed. We need only make this failure permanent.”

  Chugg nodded. “We’ll do it now. I’ll have them brought here.”

  Toxid’s menacing head lifted, turning back and forth on its ceiling mount. “Wait… Not yet. The Father Orchid wishes to speak.”

  Chugg swiveled his chair around and keyed a command into his computer. The blinds of both windows snapped down, shutting most of the sunlight out of the room. Nothing of Toxid was visible but the glow of his yellow eyes.

  Chugg rolled his chair away from the desk and folded his arms. Toxid’s head bowed low, almost fearfully, in the direction of the tiny dead flower. The instant the office was darkened, the flower began to grow and thrive. Its leaves and stalk turned vibrant green. The petals remained mostly black but showed streaks of violet. The center began to glow bright white. Specter could see now that it was an orchid.

  The flower twisted on its stalk so its center “eye” faced Toxid. The massive iron statue trembled.

  “Great Father Orchid…” Toxid said with trepidation. “Arghast. To what do we owe the pleasure of your company?”

  The voice that came from the flower was a calm, measured, and articulate tenor. “I have come to advise you not to be hasty, my son.”

  Toxid continued to look around uncertainly. “What am I missing, Father Orchid?”

  “The project is intact,” Arghast said. “You can still take advantage of the Mauler before destroying it. My wild son Karkus thought he was clever to give the Mauler so much physical power, but it will prove to be his undoing. You will turn it against him.”

  “How?”

  Arghast turned to the window and peered between the blinds at the neighboring Chugg Cybernetics building. “Pig.”

  Chugg raised an eyebrow. “I’m listening.”

  “Congratulations are in order. Your Cybernetics venture has developed a talent for manipulating living cells that rivals even mine. An absolutely exquisite flesh factory.”

  “Thank you.”

  The orchid’s stalk bent down, bringing the flower close to Durdge’s body. “We will make use of such talent. Use this poor creature here to perfect your method. When the time is right, make another Mauler. A better Mauler. Until then, live by the terms you have promised to Ponder. Keep them compliant.”

  Chugg nodded, his arms still crossed. “We can do that.”

  Specter found it perplexing that Chugg did not show Arghast the same deference he showed Toxid. Probably not a question worth asking, he thought.

  The iron figure overhead gave a snort. “There is a problem with that plan. If Chugg keeps to his word, I will not receive any more sheep blood.”

  Arghast chuckled. Not pleasantly. “Toxid, my son. You’ve grown bloated and c
omplacent in this last half-century. A year or two of fasting will not kill you.”

  “I will be weakened.”

  “Have you looked around? Your pigs are unstoppable. This city is unassailable. Even if you do have a moment of vulnerability, there is no one in the world strong enough to exploit it. Do not question me any further. You forget I see all and know all.” The glow faded from the center of the orchid. The petals and leaves went black as the flower shriveled up in its pot once again. Arghast was gone.

  Chugg reached for his computer and pressed the switch to open the blinds again, letting light back into the room so they could see Toxid.

  “I will follow only you, Devourer,” the pig said. “Are we going to obey Arghast, or do you want to keep to the original plan?”

  Toxid paused. “Do as the Father Orchid says.” The head returned to its original position. The yellow eyes faded to black iron. He too had left the office.

  The four of them sat quietly for a minute, not looking at each other. Scurvert stared at his hands, fidgeting anxiously. Specter looked out the window to the Cybernetics building at which Arghast had gazed with such longing.

  “Did you get what you came for?” Chugg grinned. Pincher nodded.

  Scurvert looked up. “I wish these gods would just leave us alone. They’re going to kill us with all this fighting. How many of them are there, even?”

  Chugg snickered. “As far as I’m concerned, just one.”

  To Be Continued…