THE GOD BOX

by Barry B. Longyear

  The loves and lusts of Korvas have led me into some peculiar and dangerous situations, not the least of which was this strange quest with the Nant priestess. First, I sharpened my horns for a celibate priestess. Now had I fallen in love with a giantess? A giant logger? By the patron of lost causes, she was a tower! I doubted if I could even lift her ax. The head of the double-edged thing looked as though it had been hammered out of two hundred pounds of iron.

  Everything about her was impossible. Certainly everything about us was impossible. However, my imagination would not be convinced. Those acres of flesh spread out on a meadow-sided bed—Great Ehbot, I could run for miles and never touch linen!

  "Korvas."

  "Yes?" I jumped up, turned and looked back at her as she stood in front of the log.

  "I am sorry about your brother."

  "My thanks, although I didn't know him well." I turned away and became intensely interested in the progress an ant was making across the toe of my left boot. I felt guilty that she should be thinking of Tayu's recent passing while I was thinking of—well—thinking of other things. "I have been sent to find you," I said at last.

  "I know," she said as she climbed down from her perch on the fallen tree's narrow end.

  I looked up at her. "How do you know?"

  "For the past few weeks I be visited by frightening dreams. They be dreams of fighting and great suffering. In my dreams I visit the peoples of many countries and see what they be. There be a prophecy, Korvas."

  "Yes, I know." I stood and faced her. "I don't remember it exactly, but—" I felt a drawer from the god box nudge my side. I took the paper offered by the drawer and read from it. "Guided by the Mirror of the Second, the Hero will be found by the Second, who will be chosen by a father's hand, kept by the First, loved by the Mirror, and burned by the Mirror to be gathered by the Smoke."

  "Korvas, I be a woman."

  I nodded with enthusiasm. "I quite agree."

  "This prophecy calls for a hero, not a heroine."

  I held out my hands. "Tayu seemed certain you were the one, and the Nant priestess, Syndia, agreed. Tayu led us here all of the way from Iskandar. Perhaps the prophecy doesn't distinguish between male and female."

  Abrina swung her ax blade onto the top of a stump and left it sticking there. For a moment I teased myself with thoughts of pulling that ax from the stump with one manly try, but the end of the handle was out of my reach. She sat on the edge of the stump next to me and looked at the treetops. "Korvas, ever since I be a baby men and women make fun of me. They call me tower, blackwood, mountain, and freak. 'How's the weather up there, Abrina?'" She looked off into the distance, the muscles in her jaw tensing. "Your brother told me the prophecy wants me fight a god and save ones who call me freak." She held out her hand toward the trees. "Here, alone with my ax, the trees, and the Blackwood animals, I be at peace." She looked down at me. "Why should I go with you, out of these woods, and save those who hurt me?"

  I held out my hands. "I don't know, Abrina. These are questions for priests or oracles to answer. Had I the power, I would slay all those who ever hurt you." I dropped my hands into my lap." But, all I can do, it seems, is cheat them in a carpet sale." I took the god box in my hands, and looked up at her. "One thing I know is that the ugly people of this world will never get any prettier if they're dead. You have to be alive to change."

  "Do you believe they can change?" she asked.

  "I have and I do." I smiled and added, "Chief Oghar now eats butnuts and is once again happy with his people."

  While she pondered my words, I deliberated from whence they had come. They sounded almost profound, and I had no idea that I had any capacity for such thoughts. I glanced at my god box and suspected the source.

  Abrina stood, yanked her ax from the stump with one hand, and faced me. "Korvas, when you first came into the clearing and sat upon this stump, what did you think?"

  My face became very red as my vision filled with the gleam from her ax's sharpened edge. "Is it very important?" I asked lamely.

  "Is living important?"

  "It is very important to me, Abrina."

  "Then tell me. When you came into the clearing, saw me, and sat upon this stump, what did you think?"

  "I, uh, was thinking of . . ."

  I glanced at her eyes, then down at the surface of the stump. There were hundreds of rings, and I felt sad that I would not only never live so long, but that I would probably not even live long enough to complain about it. "I was thinking of making love to you. I am ashamed, but that was what I was thinking."

  I expected her either to split me in half or laugh at me. Instead she simply sat there looking at me with those amber eyes for the longest time. When she closed her eyes, she turned her head and sang out a strange cry toward the trees. A similar cry answered her.

  Then I saw it, whatever it was, flying above the treetops. At first I thought it was a huge bird, or perhaps that famous beast of legend, a dragon. It was neither. Instead it was a huge winged lion. At the shoulder he must have come to Abrina's waist, and his golden wings had a span wider than ten horses end to end.

  The giantess held her hand, palm up, high above her head. The creature landed on it and immediately began diminishing in size until it was smaller than my thumb. She tucked the creature in beneath her hair at the nape of her neck and looked down at me.

  "I will go with you, Korvas. And please do not be ashamed about feelings of desire for me. I treasure them."

  As I untied my horse and mounted, I glanced at her and asked, "Someday are you going to tell me about that creature?"

  "Perhaps even today, Korvas. Can you tell me where the contest with the Destroyer will take place?"

  "I don't know." I urged my horse forward, and Abrina followed on foot. "I expect to be told at any time, however." I glanced at the god box and whispered, "The sooner the better."

  Just before we reached the edge of the clearing we heard the sounds of horses galloping toward us. Syndia came riding into the clearing shouting, "Flee! Captain Shadows is right behind me!"

  I dug in my heels and soon we were riding along together with Abrina running behind us. "What happened?"

  "Rosh never warned us. I assume he is dead."

  "Ruuter?"

  "I think the guard captured him at Shamas's house."

  We heard a great crash behind us. We pulled up and looked back to see that Abrina had tipped over a dead standing tree across the trail. It would only slow Shadows a bit. The giantess turned and asked Syndia, "What of my father?"

  "He died, child, giving me a chance to escape." Abrina ripped another dead blackwood out by its roots and threw it onto the trail. There were tears in her eyes when she looked back. "Priestess, where do we go?"

  "I don't know."

  "You don't know?" I cried.

  "After all, Korvas, you are the Guide," the priestess answered. "Where do we go now?"

  I pointed up into the mountains. "Away from Shadows." Abrina took the lead, and it was all our horses could do to keep up with her.

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  Higher we went into the mountains until we ran out of logging roads. We continued through the woods and brush, for the trees were getting smaller and closer together. In time we came to a sheer cliff that extended upwards far enough to dwarf even the tallest of the blackwoods. At the bottom of the cliff the ground was covered with loose rocks, and the horses kept stumbling on them. I motioned to Syndia to dismount. With both of us standing and keeping our horses quiet, we could just make out the sounds of the Heterin guards. Abrina was listening, as well.

  "They'll be here within a few minutes, Korvas."

  "Syndia, if Abrina and her ax can take on a particularly mean and powerful god, is it possible that she could take on Shadows and kill him?"

  "Unless our pursuer has magic at his command," she answered. "His superior,
Tretia, has the King's ear. Anything that exists she can command to her use, and that includes every kind and degree of sorcery in Iskandar. With the speed and ease Shadows has employed in chasing us, I'd say he's using something more effective than a Serker scout."

  "It was just a thought."

  "Think your thoughts before you voice them, Korvas. It will save time."

  "Where do we go now?" asked Abrina.

  I looked at Syndia. "Have you no idea where the contest with the Destroyer is supposed to take place?"

  "No."

  "Didn't Ahjrah tell you?"

  "She believed the answer to be in one of the unrecovered Books of Fayn. What about your god box? Have you tried asking it for directions?"

  "I don't feel good about trusting this thing."

  "Do you have a choice?"

  I swallowed as I picked up the thing and shook it. "What do I need right now?" I asked.

  A drawer opened and there was a note that said, "A quiet place."

  "Now is not the time for meditation, box!" I growled. But the god box said nothing more. " Well," I said to the others in exasperation, "I guess I'll go find me a quiet place."

  I climbed closer to the bottom of the cliff, and among the boulders there I found a spot in between four great stones. In there were three small evergreen trees, a little grass, and a spring. I went in and stood there, my arms folded, my left foot tapping against the ground. "Certainly this must be quiet enough!"

  A drawer on the box opened, and the gist of the note it contained was that the place was quiet enough, but that I had brought too much noise in with me. I sat down by the pool, leaned against one of the evergreens, and closed my eyes.

  This was foolish. With Captain Shadows hot on my tail feathers, here I was taking a little poolside lie-down. I opened an eye, took a quick look at the box, noted that it had opened no drawers, and went back to trying to be quiet.

  "This is ridiculous," I said as I began to get back on my feet. I froze as one of the god box's drawers shot into my side, then went to the other side of the box and opened. "Ouch."

  I took out the note and read it. It said, "Sit down, shut up, and listen."

  So I sat down, I shut up, and I listened, not really knowing what it was that I was supposed to hear. There was a slight breeze, a bit of bubbling in the spring, the distant voices of Abrina and Syndia . . . the face of that incredibly old and unhappy man, the Mankua priest that cared for the shrine of Manku at the edge of that one town—Abunih. The priest's name was Sabis, and why was I thinking of him?

  What do I need? I need to know where to go to meet the Destroyer. I seemed to have all of the pieces to something in my head. Somehow the Manku priest—when I turned the god box on the Shrine of Manku I saw rows of teeth, snakes, slime . . . fire, and storm. A face of strength and compassion, and ancient instruments, scrolls, and books—

  "Ho! Stay fast there and no one'll harm you!"

  I heard the unfamiliar voice and bounded to my feet. I ran around the boulders until I could see the sunlight on Abrina's hair. Three hundred feet downhill a single Heterin guard was leading his horse up to where we were. A few seconds later the trail behind him was filled with red uniforms.

  I stood next to Syndia. "We have to get to the Shrine of Manku in Abunih. Our answers are there."

  Syndia smiled as she pointed downhill at the advancing Heterin guards. "What about the good captain?"

  I turned my head and looked up. "Abrina, it's time to call your creature out of your hair. We need a flight to Abunih. You've ridden him before, haven't you?"

  "Only by myself. Url might not like having more passengers."

  "Given a choice between Captain Shadows and your lion-monster, I'll take my chances with the lion-monster."

  "His name is Url."

  "Url, then. But hurry."

  Abrina reached to her neck. While she was about that, I turned to Syndia. "Get your things from your horse."

  "I have nothing. All of my things are back at the house of Shamas on the pack animals."

  "The same is true for me." I shook my head as Abrina held out her hand and whispered to him. All at once, the lion-creature appeared above her hand, its huge wings raising the dust from the ground. He growled and lowered himself to the surface of a large rock.

  A Heterin guard below raised a pistol, took aim, and shot at the beast. Since he missed a creature the size of three oxen, is it any wonder the King's Guard makes jokes about the marksmanship of the Heterins? Still, shooting at her pet was not a path into Abrina's indulgence. She picked up a boulder weighing perhaps five hundred pounds and threw it at the guard who had fired the pistol, knocking him from his horse directly into the next world. "Come," Abrina said to me, holding out her hands. I let her pick me up and place me on the neck of the beast. She placed Syndia behind me, and Abrina climbed on last.

  She gave that strange cry and the lion bounded over the rocks and boulders until it had climbed to the top of that cliff. Syndia had her arms around my waist, and I had my fingers dug into Url's coarse hair. My eyes, of course, were frozen open. At the top of the cliff, the world below not far enough away to hide all of the sharp rocks at the cliff's foot, Abrina gave another call, and the lion-bird ran and jumped off the cliff, dove down, then swooped out above the blackwoods. Soon we were high above the valley floor, heading south toward Abunih.

  I felt Syndia's lips near my left ear. "Korvas, are you afraid?"

  "Of course, I'm afraid!"

  "Give your fear to your god box."

  "But what if the creature drops us or shakes us off?"

  "Will being frightened help you to fly?"

  I thought upon it and decided that, given I am going to die anyway, I'd prefer to enjoy the trip. I released the lion's mane with my right hand, placed it upon the god box, and turned over my fears to the box. As the fear lifted from my heart, I looked down. Where the Blackwood Trail entered the forest was a black-uniformed man leaning against a tree. His horse was hidden in the shadows. I turned, looked over my shoulder, and pointed toward the ground." Look."

  Syndia looked down. "That's Sergeant Rosh."

  I nodded in agreement. The implications were devastating enough. There was no need for further conversation. Url the lion-bird took us higher, and the air became chilly as the great creature climbed toward the Pass of Ebell.

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  "Perhaps there's something to recommend flying as a means of travel, but I can't see it." I remarked, shivering in the wind-driven cold.

  Syndia laughed and squeezed my middle. "Quit complaining, Korvas, or you'll be harvesting butnuts."

  "It's almost dark, I'm a mile from the ground, hungry, freezing to death, with nature making a very desperate call. And if you squeeze my middle again, we are going to get to find out just how even tempered a great winged lion is."

  "We'll be down soon."

  "I hope flying never becomes popular," I muttered to no one in particular.

  "We are almost at Abunih," said Abrina to us all. "Like for see a trick Url and I do?"

  "Like what?" I almost said aloud.

  "We'd love to," answered Syndia with the confidence of the immortal.

  Abrina let loose with one of those strange cries, and the winged lion began climbing for the clouds. When it was so high I could hardly catch my breath, the trick happened. One second my fingers were gripping the mane of a giant lion while my legs straddled its back. The next second the winged lion had vanished and the three of us were tumbling through the sky, a very tiny winged lion yapping as it chased us down through the sky.

  I never thought it unmanly to show emotion, which is why I began flailing my arms and screaming and didn't stop until Url returned to his original size, caught up with us, and allowed us to climb aboard. The beast went down and down, then Abrina pulled up her winged horror next to the pass where the Shrine to Manku stood. />
  It was past evening, the torches at the shrine providing a spot of light in an otherwise dark universe. I climbed down from the lion, found a tree, and watered it and half the countryside with a shaking hand. When I was finished I managed to make it to the shrine. I sat down upon the steps with a sigh. Abrina had commanded Url to become small again, and as she was placing the creature in her hair, Syndia studied the shrine.