THE GOD BOX

by Barry B. Longyear

  Despite the lack of roads, our guide Ruuter seemed to find no trouble at all getting us so deep into the mountains that we found places where I am certain sunlight never touched the forest floor. There were mushrooms there as tall as horses. The entire place was thickly wooded with vast tangles of huge, broad-leafed vines, and at any second I expected to see hot yellow eyes staring at me from out of the dark, or screaming tentacled horrors dropping upon me from out of the treetops.

  It was about when I was entertaining thoughts of praying for the sun to rise that the Omergunt stopped us and said we must make camp. The sun was setting. I couldn't believe that it could get any darker, but I dismounted along with everyone else.

  Four guards were posted while the remaining four cleared brush and servants put up the tents. Once a fire had been made and the evening's sawdust loaf consumed, I felt slightly better. Not quite enough better to make up for the constant feeling of being watched from the forest, or for the deadly silence around the campfire. Only Syndia, old Ahjrah, the veiled one, and I sat at our campfire. The guards had their own fire, and the servants had a third. Quite beyond the servants' fire was a fourth fire where Ruuter sat by himself.

  From the surrounding woods came screams, hisses, growls, clicks, snaps, and the rattle of leaves. I never liked the woods. I don't like how they look, how they smell, how they sound. I don't like the color, the shape or the feel, and I particularly dislike the creepy things that lurk therein. That was why I always lived in cities.

  In cities there were always cutthroats and robbers waiting for you around every corner, but these were understandable men of business. They either wanted your life, your money, or both. They would take what they wanted, and leave. Beasties in the forest, however, want to gnaw on you and worry pieces off of you for their little beastie children. Some of them even make a point of keeping you alive for a long time. This allows pieces of you to be taken off over a period of days or weeks without spoilage.

  Syndia was staring into the flames of the fire and the old priestess was, as well. I'm not certain if the veiled one even had eyes, but he, she, or it sat as motionless as a brick wall. I can get only so much entertainment from a controlled fire. Hence, after an hour or two I was close to going "Boo!" at the veiled one just to liven up things. That's when I looked around and saw one of the guards standing in the shadows behind me, his pistol in his hand.

  "Good evening," I said halfheartedly.

  He nodded curtly and I settled down for another episode of watching the logs burn using a rolled blanket for a pillow, my arm wrapped around my inheritance and a lead-sensitive itch between my shoulder blades.

  Flames do dance and move about hypnotically. The fire that night seemed to form arches that were openings into vast chasms, pits, halls, and chambers of flame.

  "There!"

  I jumped up at the word.

  The old woman, Ahjrah, was half standing and had a gnarled finger pointed at the fire. I looked and I could see above the flames a figure; a red silhouette; the image of the flame-goddess Heteris. I was startled for a moment, but then reassured myself. I had seen flame conjuring before. Conjurers stood on the low end of the magicians' hierarchy, but it was a good trick with which to impress the dimwitted. I resolved not to be impressed.

  "Get you back to the fire," ordered old Ahjrah.

  "Ahjrah," the image seemed to say, "let me show you the way."

  "Back to the fire," Syndia joined in. Both of the priestesses were on their feet chanting a hymn in a tongue unfamiliar to me, although the name Nanteria was part of the chant.

  "Come, Ahjrah." The silhouette waved its arms. "Here is a part of the new path."

  This was no fire-conjuring trick. I watched with amazement as the old woman's robe fell away and her wrinkles faded until she stood there with the form and face of a girl of sixteen. She was so beautiful my heart almost cracked.

  "I can give you back the youth you never had, Ahjrah. You can have the young men you had to forsake to serve Nanteria. Serve me and I will do all this."

  Ahjrah's chanting continued and soon a huge black silhouette blocked the reflection of the firelight from the trees. It was Nanteria, and she placed her arms around Ahjrah and spoke to the fire. "This is my daughter, Heteris. You may not have her."

  "Then the child," spoke the fire. "Only the child."

  "Only Ahjrah can give you the child."

  The fire-silhouette grew huge and bellowed at Ahjrah, "Look! Look at you!" The red silhouette became a red mirror, reflecting to all of us the naked image of the sixteen-year-old Ahjrah. "See what I can be for you. Instead of the constant tiredness and pain of age, I have given you youth. Instead of ugliness, you have beauty. Instead of death tugging at your sleeve, I have made the reaper something not to be considered for another eighty years." The red silhouette filled with a deep scarlet. "Let me have the child, Ahjrah."

  Ahjrah in her nakedness, her youthful cheeks streaked with tears, pointed a finger at the flames and ordered, "Back to the fire, Heteris. I am the daughter of Nanteria, and I have lived the time allotted to me and have done it with honor. Back to the fire with you! Back!"

  A horrible shriek split the dark and fire seemed to fill my vision as the flame-monster reached out its arms and grasped Olassar's case. Immediately I jumped up and yanked the case out of her grasp.

  "No, you don't! This is mine!"

  Another shriek, and I was in one instant covered with flame and the next flat on my bottom, my inheritance in my tight grasp and all my clothing soaking wet.

  When I was assured that my eyebrows were not aflame, I ventured to open my eyes. The fire had died down almost to coals, Ahjrah was again dressed and was again incredibly old and wrinkled. The veiled one hadn't budged so much as a hair.

  Syndia was examining me. When I could see her face again, she was smiling. "You are singed here and there, but there is no permanent damage." She opened a drawer in Olassar's box and withdrew a tiny cup filled with some sort of evil-smelling goo. "This ointment will help with the burns."

  She began rubbing the goo on my face, and to have her stroking my face, the goo didn't smell all that foul. Despite that, there was something that concerned me. "Syndia, is this going to happen every time we light a campfire?"

  "Anywhere, anytime is the place and time of the gods, Korvas. But I think we shall have some rest for awhile. Heteris suffered a humiliating defeat this night—two humiliating defeats. Ahjrah cast Heteris back into the fire and you defied her. She is probably very tired."

  I looked over and saw that the old priestess was weeping silently to herself. This was beginning to look like a dangerous religion. "Is there anything we can do for Ahjrah?"

  Syndia shook her head. "No, but there's something you can do for me."

  "Anything you wish."

  The ointment was all used, and the tiny cup in Syndia's hand faded and vanished. "Tell me why you fought with Heteris. She is Evil, Deceit, the Mother of Lies. Most persons would have been paralyzed with fear just at her sight. Yet you fought with her."

  I held up my inheritance. "Your flaming goddess wanted my box!"

  "And," she prompted.

  "It's my box! Heteris can't be a very bright flame if she can't understand that. I know little of your world. To be honest, which it seems I must, I know little of my world. But this I do know: this little chest of drawers belongs to Korvas!"

  The veiled one got to its feet and walked around the fire until it stood next to me.

  "Remember," cautioned Syndia, "do not speak."

  "Mmmm," I agreed. The figure sat next to me and cuddled into my shoulder. I put my arm around it. From the sounds of breathing, I gather it fell asleep. I raised my eyebrows, but the priestess only held her finger to her lips. After a moment I whispered to Syndia, "My clothes are soaking wet. How did they get that way?"

  Syndia nodded in the direction of the old priestess.

  Ahjrah stood, walked around the fire, and was standing over me and the veiled one. I think
there was a tiny smile on her face as she whispered a prayer over the sleeping form next to me. When she was finished, she snapped her fingers and my clothes were suddenly dry. A very strange sensation. She smiled at me, patted the veiled one on its shoulder, and hobbled off into the shadows beyond the reach of the firelight.

  "Where is she going?" I whispered to Syndia.

  "Ahjrah is going to die," Syndia said as she sat down upon a rock and continued looking at the fire, her eyes glistening.

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  7

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  The night was filled with one horrible nightmare after another. It was almost as though the small figure sleeping next to me projected them into my mind as I slept. It was much less trouble to stay awake. However, I would drift off again and then have another nightmare.

  These phantoms would often be of two children playing, and they filled me with sadness. I would start awake with my cheeks covered with tears. By the time the forest's sarcasm of a morning arrived, I was a wreck. As I suspected, however, that would not be the full extent of my problems. During the night all of the servants had fled, and four of the guards were gone in search of them. That left Syndia, the veiled one, Ruuter, four guards, and your humble servant Korvas.

  While the guard commander, Meru, kept watch, two guards packed up two of the tents and loaded the pack animals, while the fourth guard cooked and served a morning repast of fried forest fungus and leaf tea. Syndia ate the stuff, and the veiled one brought it inside the veil and nothing came out. Perhaps it was edible; however, it amused me to think that at one point in my life I had been concerned about gaining too much weight. This problem was lifted from me as I contemplated my new diet of sawdust and forest litter.

  I dumped my plate into Heteris's bed—the coals—and spoke to the priestess. "Syndia."

  "You have questions, Master Korvas."

  "Yes, I do. First—"

  "Ahjrah is dead. We will light her funeral pyre as we leave."

  "Oh." I felt stunned by the bluntness of her answer to a question I hadn't yet asked. "Secondly—"

  "Her time had come. The reason no one followed her was out of respect for her solitude. "

  "Are you a mind reader, Syndia?"

  She smiled and poked at the coals with a stick. "I have seen every memory of yours up to two days ago, Korvas. I know how you think, what bothers you, what confuses and frightens you."

  "Do you know what my next question is, then?"

  "Perhaps it would make you feel better to ask it yourself."

  I waited for a moment, convinced she was laughing at me. "I take it you know what makes me angry, as well."

  "Korvas, I know that not having all of the answers, not being in control of a situation, makes you angry. I know your anger is fear of placing your trust in someone or something other than yourself."

  "People laughing at me makes me angry, Syndia."

  "I am not laughing at you. Perhaps you should listen to what you are telling yourself about you."

  "You are not making any sense."

  "Did you have another question?"

  I drummed my fingertips upon my knee. "Yes." I pointed at the coals. "This business with the gods fighting over the old priestess, then over that one," I pointed at the veiled one, "then the flame-goddess Heteris going after Olassar's box." I leaned forward and placed my elbows on my knees. "And more: the fantastic powers of this box, and Captain Shadows on my trail like a hound in heat." I held out my hand. "This expedition. We are not on a mission of mercy to carry perfume to the Omergunts, are we?"

  "Not exactly." She stood up and handed her empty plate to the guard. "We must be leaving soon. Pick one question and I shall answer it."

  I pursed my lips and frowned. "You will not lie or mislead me?"

  "I cannot lie, Korvas, without condemning my soul to the fire."

  I nodded once and pointed a finger at the veiled one. "Who is that?"

  "Now that Ahjrah is dead, you may speak to him. He has chosen you for his guardian. That is your twin brother."

  Syndia walked from the clearing and began talking to one of the guards. I stood there with my mouth hanging open. When I had reclaimed a minuscule portion of my composure, I turned to the veiled one and lifted its veil. It looked like a boy of no more than six or seven years old. Yet there was something very different about the face. The eyes did not stare, but they seemed to have only a baby's intelligence behind them. How could this be my twin brother? My brother had been dead for the past thirty years—0r at least that is what I had been told. Syndia said that she could not lie to me, but that, too, could be a lie. I sat on the log next to the boy and whispered in his ear, "What is your name?"

  I saw the boy's lips move, and I whispered into his ear again, "Your name, boy. What is your name?"

  I held my ear to his lips and heard him say, "Tayu."

  My brother's name, to be sure. But that was also a memory of mine that Syndia had at her command. I looked at Olassar's box, wondering what answers it might hold for me.

  First I had need of my own kind of solitude and a tree in a quiet patch of forest. I pushed myself to my feet, but I had taken only a few steps when I felt uncomfortable leaving my inheritance behind. I turned back and saw two fingers of fire creeping out of the coals across the ground. The first was eating its way toward the chest of drawers. The second was moving toward Tayu. In haste I looked, but the bottles of water and the basin had been packed.

  "Heteris," I called out, "now don't be naughty." I pulled down the front of my trousers, aimed my member at the flaming arm reaching toward Tayu, and burst forth with a mighty stream. After extinguishing the first arm, I doused the one reaching for Olassar's box. When that one was chased back I turned myself upon the coals. "I believe I warned you, Heteris: that box is mine."

  "Korvas!" The shocked voice came from behind me. It was Syndia, and her face was bright red. "Cover yourself!" With a shake and a yank of my trousers, I was covered.

  "You don't understand, Syndia, the fire—"

  "Were you reared in a stable? Do that sort of business away from the camp and behind a tree!" She pulled Tayu to his feet and led him away.

  "Syndia, the fire—"

  "I'm shocked, Korvas. Utterly shocked."

  The coals hissed and crackled with what struck me as a trifle too much glee at my discomfort. I shrugged and said, "In for a copper, in for a reel." I picked up a handful of leaves, gathered up the hem of my robe, pulled down my trousers, and finished my business with the flame-goddess.

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  Prepared to continue our journey, Syndia and Tayu stood before the modest funeral pyre, a guard a step behind them with a black smoking torch at the ready. The pyre was little more than Ahjrah's frail form lying on a three-foot-thick bed of dried evergreen branches. Syndia anointed the old priestess's forehead with rose oil and sang a prayer in that strange tongue used by the Nants. As she did so, Tayu climbed up on the pyre, kissed the old woman's cheek, and climbed down again.

  When the song was finished, Syndia nodded at the guard and the torch was touched to the pyre. In a few seconds it was a column of black smoke, but I could see no flames. After a few seconds the smoke had cleared and there was nothing left but ashes. A black cloud came over the treetops, settled on the ashes, and rose again into the sky straight up until it faded from view. Where Ahjrah's funeral pyre had been, the ashes were gone, and the forest floor look undisturbed. Not a single dead leaf was scorched.

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  8

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  The deeper we rode into the mountains, the surer I was that I was ignorant of where I was going and why I was going there. I was convinced that if the box ever did produce gold, gems, or anything else of value, it would be only on some goody-goody basis that would see me giving it all away to widows, beggars, and street urchins.

>   Ahead of me, riding on a horse led by a guard, was Tayu. In front of him was Syndia riding behind two guards and Ruuter, the guide. I looked back, and beyond Commander Meru's grim visage were another guard and the trail through which we had recently passed.

  Did I possess the minor tracking skills necessary to find my way back to Fort Damra? Perhaps, but first there was the problem of getting around Commander Meru and his faithful companion, whose name I did not yet know. Second, there was the problem of getting around Captain Shadows, who must have made it back to Fort Damra. By now he had spread out a few coppers among the alley rats, would know what he needed, and would be hot on my trail.