THE GOD BOX

by Barry B. Longyear

  As the storm increased, the pair kept at it. More than an hour must have passed. It seemed like forever. While crewmen were shortening sail and using safety lines to cross the wave-washed deck, Abrina and Tah continued the battle. Some blows that had been too quick for me to see must have been landed, for there was a bleeding bruise high on Tah's left thigh, while Abrina's left forearm had a bleeding black stripe.

  I turned to Lem Vyle. "When will they end it?"

  "When one of them drops, it seems." He was hanging onto the rigging to keep from being swept away. He forced his gaze away from the conflict and looked toward the ocean. "I could swear we've been driven off course." He pointed with his finger. "Look. It's the masts of a sunken ship."

  It was true. The great sticks reached out of the depths like the horns of Angh. "Where do you think we are?"

  "I would wager my commissions for the next ten years that we're in Ilan's Graveyard."

  "That doesn't sound good."

  Vyle began pulling himself forward, and I looked to see if the contest between Tah and Abrina had been decided. It had not. I called to Vyle's back. "Why don't you order Tah to stop?"

  "I have to see the captain," he shouted in return. With my concentration torn between the sunken ship and the battle on deck, all I could do was stand there as they swung at each other. Neither one seemed as close to dropping as I was. The deck heaved beneath me and I was thrown down. Suddenly I was underwater and felt myself being washed overboard. I reached for anything, grabbed a rope, and held on. My head came above water, and the first thing I saw was Abrina and Tah still whacking away at each other.

  "It pleases me," I shouted, "to know that you two have the ability to maintain a sense of priority."

  I don't think they heard me.

  I took hold of a safety line and began pulling myself toward my cabin. That's when I heard a tremendous crack. Above us one of the masts was coming down in a tangle of ropes and a rain of splinters.

  Where Tah and Abrina had been, there was nothing but wreckage. I climbed over the shattered mast and pulled aside the shredded sailcloth. In the center of the tangle of rigging, Abrina and Tah were still fighting.

  "This is madness," I hollered as I climbed down to them. I walked in between them and held out my hands. "Stop! Both of you, stop!"

  Mate Lanthus climbed to the top of the wreckage. "Is anyone hurt?"

  "Not yet," I answered.

  "Get out of there. We have to clear this mess off the deck. The topmast and sails are dragging in the water, and if we don't get clear soon, we go down."

  Abrina held up her ax handle. "Can I help?"

  Lanthus nodded. "Find the blade for that thing and you can." He pointed. "Up forward."

  Another wave crashed down on my head, driving my face into the deck. Things became very confused about then. Crewmen with axes were on the wreckage cutting away at ropes while strong hands pulled at my shoulders. My back was leaned up against something and coils of rope were tied around my waist. Another wave, what seemed to be an eternity before my next breath, and I saw Tah squatting in front of me. She slapped my face.

  "Ow."

  "Good, you're alive."

  She still had nothing on but her tiny loincloth. I noticed she was carrying a single-edged sword with a curved blade. "Aren't you cold?" I asked her.

  She laughed and leaped into the wreckage with her blade and went at the ropes as though she was fighting an army. Another wave came, I heard another tremendous snap, then I felt it in my back. The mast to which I had been tied had just broken. Just before everything landed on my head, I noticed that the waves were coming at the ship sideways.

  Things became very dark, and the noises of the storm and the crew silenced. I felt the deck split open beneath me and I sank into the chill bosom of Father Ilan. As I tumbled into the darkness below, I prayed for either the life or the soul of Korvas, whichever the gods found worthy of their attention.

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  Going to the afterworld was like no dreampath I had ever witnessed before. With the blackness of Universe all about me, I saw a bright light ahead. I could hardly flex my arms and legs when I tried to move toward it. I felt like a fly caught in a bowl of honey.

  The light came closer, and the face of Nanteria was before me. Some part of me asked her, "Goddess, am I doing the work of the evil gods or the good?"

  She answered, "Yes."

  "The good or the evil?"

  "Yes. Both. The smoke cannot live for long without the fire, and the fire cannot live without the smoke. How can there be Heteris without Nanteria, Nanteria without Heteris?"

  "Why was I chosen, goddess?"

  "That you were, is all."

  The universe filled with stars as I pondered yet one more example of divine clarity. I always thought that after I died these things would make more sense. I was quite disappointed.

  I felt as though I was floating on the water, but when I opened my eyes all of the way I could see men and women dressed in cream-colored tights flying all around me against a sparkling background of bright green stars. I thought they must be angels, but they had no wings and wore necklaces made of fangs. They had long, black swords slung on their backs.

  Upon closer examination, they weren't flying, but swimming. I saw that what I had thought to be tight-fitting clothing was, instead, naked skin with countless white markings, almost as though their dark skins had been tattooed with white paint.

  Farther away were more men and women riding long-necked fish that looked like giant winged eels. The swimmers and riders wore filmy white coverings over their heads, and the stars turned out to be thousands of fish that gave off an intense, greenish white glow. We seemed to be silently moving through a forest of rotten masts and hulls—hundreds of sunken ships.

  When it finally came through to my awareness that I was underwater, I put my elbows down to push myself into a sitting position. My elbows sank into something. I looked as I reached out a hand. I was on some kind of membrane. It surrounded me. Although it smelled a bit of fish and ocean, the air was sweet enough. I turned my head to see where I was being taken, and that was when I realized that I was inside a great transparent fish. I could see its head, tail, and fins, but I could only feel the rest.

  One of the swimmers, a man, smiled and waved at me, and I waved back. He had only a little of the white tattooing on his body, mostly on his upper chest and arms. The six fangs dangling from his necklace were huge enough to belong in a nightmare.

  I hoped that I would not have cause to meet the kind of creature that sported such ivory. Far to my right I could see Tah in another fish. I closed my eyes, certain that this was a bad dream. I felt around for my god box, but it was gone.

  Panic placed a strong hand around my throat. I reached for the amulet of Sabis, and to my relief I felt its shape through my soaking-wet robe. I pulled it out, shielded it with my hand, and turned around. The closer I turned toward the head of the fish, the brighter it glowed. Hence, we were heading in the correct direction to find what I was seeking. Of course, the flaw in the sapphire's magic was the possibility that what I was seeking and what I thought I was seeking were different critters.

  I dropped the amulet back inside my robe and watched the procession. After awhile I saw three of the fish ganged together to provide a breathing chamber for Abrina. She appeared to be missing her ax. In a moment more I saw Lem Vyle in yet another fish, although he did not appear to be conscious.

  Two hundred men had been on the Silk Ghost. What had happened to them? I turned and looked toward the front of the fish. Ahead I could make out a huge shape in the water. It was brightly lit and resembled a monstrous clam, except that it appeared to be loosely woven out of some kind of green fiber.

  The inside of it looked to be crammed with the transparent fish as well as the fish that glowed, and it was being towed by more than a hundred o
f the long-necked serpent fishes. My bubble fish and its escorts began descending, and soon we were beneath an opening in the clam. I feared to know what the object was.

  A voice came clearly into my head: "It is the palace of the Water Queen."

  It seemed as though the voice even came from a particular direction. I looked in that direction, and one of the swimmers was smiling at me. She was a very beautiful woman with short, dark brown hair and one of those black swords slung upon her back. Only her wrists and ankles were tattooed.

  "Did you say something?"

  The swimmer nodded. "Yes."

  I looked back at the palace, and we were almost in the opening. The bubble fish broke the surface, rapidly unfolded its membranes, dived, and left me splashing in the water. My escorts broke the surface, their bubble fish removed themselves and dived, and then strong arms lifted me from the water and deposited me on a strangely squishy deck. The bottom surface of the shell was lined with those bubble fish.

  "They are vatos."

  I pointed at the bubble fish. "Vatos?"

  The woman who had sort of spoken to me nodded. I looked at her and, as attractive as she was in all of her nakedness, I remembered the chill of the sea. "Don't you ever wear any clothing?"

  This caused an enormous explosion of mental laughter accompanied by honking and braying sounds coming from their throats. The woman indicated the length of her body with her hands. "Look at me. Already I am beginning to dry. Look at you."

  Of course, my robe was dripping, and the woman's comment provoked yet another outburst of laughter. As I self consciously wrung out my robe, Abrina's herd of vatos broke the surface followed by Tah. They were pulled aboard, as was Lem Vyle, who was unconscious. He had an ugly dark mark upon his forehead. Tah knelt next to him, an anxious look on her face. I went to Abrina and knelt next to her. She smiled at me, stood, and I felt like a fool. We all held our breaths as we watched the entrance to the chamber. No one else—not Captain Abzu nor any of his crew—came to break the surface.

  The woman who had laughed at me earlier placed her hand upon my arm. "Father Ilan claimed the rest. By what name are you called?"

  I looked at her. "Korvas," I answered.

  "Do you know of a tiny cask with drawers set into its ends?"

  "Yes! That's my g—" I nodded. "Yes."

  "The queen demands your presence."

  I held out my hands toward the others. "What about my friends?"

  "In time. My name is Lan Ota," said the woman. "Follow me."

  I gave another twist to the hem of my robe and followed her, wondering what in the name of Heaven any of this had to do with doing the work of the gods.

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  With her current state of dress, following Lan Ota was not the most burdensome task I have ever encountered. She was very beautiful and quite healthy, as were all of her comrades, both male and female. They were darker than the usual run of Iskandaran, with luxuriously thick black hair kept short. There was something that puzzled me, however. Lan Ota's skin was beautiful, while mine was beginning to resemble a prune.

  We passed many small rooms down below, then climbed some stairs into the huge upper chamber of the clam. The entire roof was lined with vatos and glowfish and the floor was made of woven grasses. Near the center of the dome were a raised platform and throne, also woven from grasses. Seated on the floor and standing about the platform were two or three dozen men and women, half of whom were rubbing sweet-smelling oil into the other half. Judging from the looks on their faces and the motions their bodies made, the ceremony must have been a shade on the sensuous side.

  Seated upon the throne was an unusually tall woman with reddish black hair and dark eyes. Upon the right armrest of her throne sat the god box.

  Lan Ota nodded toward the throne and said, "That is Her Majesty, Alya Am Ti, Queen of Ocean, Queen of Ilanyia. The one standing next to her is Zean Am, her uncle and first advisor. When I present you to the queen, bow."

  Zean Am was tattooed all over, including his ears and nose. The queen was not tattooed at all. Her sole raiment was her necklace of fangs. We approached the throne, and Lan Ota bowed, which fairly took away my breath. "My Queen," said Lan Ota, "I present the one called Korvas."

  I bowed deeply, and when I was again standing upright, the queen was examining me from head to toe. In fact the entire court was examining me. Everyone seemed very amused. I was amazed at how quickly one can become uncomfortable having clothes on in a crowd.

  "Master Korvas," said the queen, "from where do you hail?"

  "I come from Iskandar—" My head filled with a dozen angry hisses. The faces in the queen's court were suddenly stone cold. "I do not understand. What have I done?"

  Zean Am bowed toward the queen and turned to me. "Korvas, our people were conquered by the Zivenese seven hundred years ago. Those who were not killed or enslaved escaped here. The city you call Iskandar was our city of Itkah."

  I faced the queen. "Your Majesty, that was seven hundred years ago. I had nothing to do with it."

  "The debts of the father are the debts of the son," answered the queen.

  "My father was not born in Iskandar. He and his fathers came from Ahmrita." There were confused looks around the court. I held up my finger as I remembered the ancient version of the prophecy. "Kahnalru, Land-beyond-the-Sunrise."

  As one person, queen and court repeated "Kahnalru." The queen placed her right hand upon the god box. "Korvas, this magical artifact says that you have all of the power of the gods at your fingertips."

  "I do?" Again, the humor of the gods. I held out my hands toward Alya Am Ti. "Great Queen, I confess that often the god box confuses me. Through it I have discovered things about myself that I never suspected. As to the power of the gods," I lowered my hands and shrugged, "even I do not believe the gods to be that feeble."

  "Perhaps the artifact was referring to something other than your physical prowess."

  "Your Majesty, according to the goddess Nanteria—or who I was told was Nanteria—I am the Guide, the reflection of the Seeker, in the Oracle of Heteris concerning the Blade and the Destroyer."

  "Do you know the prophecy?"

  "Yes."

  "Then recite it please."

  I did a fair rendition of the original Itkah version, with what I hoped was a touch of flair.

  "Is that all?"

  "That is all I know."

  The queen got to her feet and turned to her advisor. "Zean Am."

  He bowed. "Your Majesty."

  "Bring the Librarian."

  "Yes, Your Majesty."

  Zean Am stepped down and quickly crossed the floor to the staircase I had recently climbed. It seemed strange for the queen's first advisor not to send a servant for such a task, but I kept silent. While we waited, the queen patted the god box with her hand. "Korvas."

  "Yes, Your Majesty?"

  "What is the secret to this?"

  I held out my hands. "I do not know. Perhaps it is a god."

  "It would have to be a very small god." The queen's court filled with that strange laughing. When the jocularity had ended, the queen asked, "How does this work?"

  "You simply give it what you do not need and ask it for what you do need."

  The underwater monarch gave an almost imperceptible nod. "That is what my advisor told me. That is why I asked this artifact for what I needed. Its answer was that I needed you. Why is it, do you suppose, that I need you?"

  "I have found, Your Majesty, that what the god box perceives as my needs differs somewhat from my own perception."

  The queen looked up, then motioned for me to stand aside. I looked back toward the stairs and saw Zean Am leading an ancient toward the queen. Following them were close to a dozen bald children. Neither the old man nor the children wore fangs at their throats.

  A chair woven out of grass was placed at the foot of the qu
een's throne and the old man was led to it by the queen's advisor. The old man nodded at the queen and was lowered into the chair. All of the bald children gathered around him in a circle and squatted.

  "It is good to see you looking so well, Sahtu Es."

  The librarian dismissed the pleasantry with a wave of his hand. "Why have you called me, Your Majesty?"