Beneath The Mantle

by Ahimsa Kerp

  Harper was beside him and she held her head in her hands as though the world was spinning around her.

  Focusing as hard as he possibly could, Stuart fought to speak. “Save her, please!” he yelled hoarsely. His body slumped to the bloody ground, one body amongst many, but he was not yet covered by darkness. “Ghosts of Graben!” he boomed as best he could. “Reveal thyself.”

  Ajatar stopped suddenly. Her snake head whipped down, searching for whatever had stopped her. She hissed as they shifted into the visible spectrum.

  As Stuart had hoped since the centipede man had fallen, the golems of Graben had joined them.

  ***

  They tore her apart. Her powers were lethal to organic life, but the automatons had no fear of disease, of pestilence, of illness. Ajatar remained powerful, but for all her strength she was outnumbered and outmatched. Her body was cut and torn in many places before she shrieked and slid away.

  Head ringing, Stuart climbed to his feet. Harper had gained her footing first and together they supported each other as they unsteadily weaved toward Baruna. She was alive, though blood leaked from her eyes, streaming down her face, and bunching as it gathered at her neck.

  The golems did not give chase to the snake queen. They gathered expectantly, a few hundred of them.

  At that moment, a ball of flame shot forth, and landed amongst the golems. The three humans had to turn away, so bright was the light, so hot was the flame. When they turned back, half of the golems were gone; no doubt invisible. The other were so much melting slag.

  The aspect of Ra, known as Mind, manifested before them. Though dressed in the same robes, he had changed. It had changed. The falcon head was mostly taken up by one large cyclopean eye, and he was carrying a twisted staff made of braided obsidian. Behind him were three desert ghouls and two centipede men.

  A shout announced the arrival of Acan and Erinle and half a dozen others were beside them. Most of the invading monsters had fallen or fled. Most of the defending denizens of Selvage were wounded or dead.

  Stuart was beginning to suspect just how they had been used by Acan, but there was no time for confrontation. Still woozy from the pestilence, still weak-kneed from the prospect of battle, Stuart nonetheless charged forward with the others.

  Lasers blasted, talons tore, monsters roared, and men died. Above it all, the glowing aspect of Ra known as Mind swelled with power. His staff did not fire again; it did not need to. He fought with an aura as resplendent as Ajatar had been hideous and ghastly. The urge to prostrate himself, to surrender utterly to this shining god filled Stuart.

  Laughter, a mocking harsh sound, broke through the soothing divine charm like ice cold water. It was a woman, but beneath the armor, Stuart was not sure which. She stood before the one-eyed aspect of Ra, with brazen confidence, though he stood at half her height.

  “You fool. You’ve ruled for too long, and now you dance to my tune. The disc is mine. Ninkasi shall rule the gods on their long-awaited homecoming.”

  The Mind of Ra looked as much confused as it was irritated, but it dutifully lowered the staff and pointed it at the group of them.

  “YOU SHALL DIE,” it said, in a voice that though a shadow of Ra, was nonetheless puissant, fearsome.

  “I think not, Sun God. Your time has passed.”

  Acan appeared beside Harper and whispered something. She clapped her hands once, very precisely.

  Darkness fell.

  It wasn’t the full calignosity of midnight, but it was instantly hard to see. Stuart could only see Mind because he glowed, but the aspect of Ra instantly faded. He shrank, too, until his dim, small body tumbled to the ground.

  Even with the fall of their god, the ghouls and centipede men charged forward. Stuart did not even have a chance to feel fear before they were caught by an invisible wall. The golems are still here, Stuart realized. Some of them, anyway.

  The battle was over. Or nearly so. Ninkasi took off her helmet, and Acan joined her. They strode to the fallen Falcon Lord and leaned over. Stuart could not see in the dim light exactly what happened. But when they stood again, they held in their hands a faintly gleaming disc as big as a shield.

  “We have the eye of Ra!” Ninkasi shouted triumphantly. The surviving citizens of Selvage, of whom there about twenty, cheered. It seemed a paltry prize for the death of so many. Ninkasi strode back up the hill and most of the people of Selvage joined her.

  Acan, however, walked gingerly across the battlefield to join the three humans. “You can take off your helmets now,” he said. All three of them did so. He cupped his hands, and they each drank deeply from it.

  Their injuries healed, their cuts closed, their heads stopped throbbing; they glowed with soft energy as they healed.

  “You have my thanks,” Acan said. “You brought the darkness from Graben. You brought the one thing that could fell the Falcon Lord.”

  “We didn’t do anything,” Harper said.

  Stuart collected his journal and backpack as they spoke.

  “You did what was needed of you,” Acan said. “And it will not be forgotten.”

  “Can we go home now? You have the disc of Ra. I didn’t realize it was actually his eye,” Harper said.

  Acan laughed. “Of course. Otherwise we could just borrow it.” His face became more serious. “You must be exhausted, but there are ceremonies to be followed, graves to be dug, procedures that must precede, that sort of thing. Come back to Selvage, and we will discuss it further.”

  “I don’t suppose we have any choice,” Harper said.

  “Not really, no,” Acan agreed, his voice merry again.

  It was a long journey back to Selvage.

  Chapter 29

  It was not as beautiful as the Cinnamon Hills, it was not as awe-inspiring as the ghost city of Graben, and it certainly was not as imposing as hulking Omphalos. Selvage possessed a dignified, pastoral charm all its own, however. They reached it by long riding, first through the Hills for what felt like days. They then rode up into the mountains, across passes of ice and snow, between rocky peaks draped in frosted mantles. They followed a glacial blue-grey trickle as it tumbled out of the mountains and expanded into a river. Eventually, the rocky harsh terrain and scattered pines gave way to fields of white flowers and maple trees hidden in a valley.

  The enormous green building, that verdant monolith, was evident even from the mountains, but the low tree-homes of Selvage only grew visible just as the air warmed once more. Acan and three others rode on moose. They had many rider-less animals with them, with bodies of the fallen slung across of them. Ninkasi had stayed with the other survivors and all the crystal armor and heliacal contraptions to use the sunlit area for recharging.

  Not many stayed. Most of the Selvagians who had set forth to battle were dead. Stuart had been surprised at how sad he was to learn that Erinle had not survived the battle. He had also found Nakka’s dead body amongst the bulk of spider corpses. She had not been close to him, but he found himself growing despondent and reserved on the long ride back. Almost no one talked the entire time.

  Those who had stayed behind in Selvage greeted them. Word had reached them already somehow, and none seemed to be very sad. The three humans watched as the gods reunited. The eye of Ra was passed to a short, slender gnomish looking god with a long beard.

  The Upworlders strode across the green grass to Acan. His smile faded as he beheld them.

  “We want to go home,” Stuart said.

  Some of the other gods, who had watched them approach, discretely disappeared. Stuart felt something bad was coming.

  “We can’t actually do that,” Acan said. “I’m afraid there’s been a change of plan.”

  “Dammit!’ Stuart roared. “I knew it.”

  “We had a deal,” Harper said. “You suggested it. Right after we rescued you.”

  “I do apologize. I suppose from your perspective it must look like we used you. But you have to think of it from our perspective.”

  “W
hat perspective is that?” Harper half-yelled.

  “We are gods. You are humans,” Acan said simply.

  “Human we may be, but we are not tools to be used!” Stuart said.

  Acan laughed. “That’s exactly what you are. That is why you were made. Listen, we have not had the use of the disc since we left Omphalos. Our needs are greater than yours.”

  “Because you’re gods?” Stuart questioned.

  “That too. Also because there are a thousand of us and three of you.”

  “There were four,” Baruna said. “Five when we left the boat. And there are many more waiting on the boat for us as well. They are depending on us.”

  “Why can’t you use the disc to send us home and then use it for your own?” Harper asked.

  Stuart nodded at the sagacity of the question.

  “The disc contains much of the Falcon Lord’s power. But it is not infinite. We will use half of it to bring our fallen back to life.”

  “They will come back?” Stuart asked.

  “Of course. We are gods. Immortality is an inherent aspect of that.”

  “Does that mean?” Baruna began to ask, though she trailed off.

  “Your man? Sorry, it doesn’t work like that. Mortality and all.”

  Acan lowered his voice and held out his hand in appeasement.

  “Others disagree, but I want to invite you to stay here. With us. You can become honorary citizens of Selvage. You brought the golems, after all; you brought the darkness. We owe our victory to you.”

  “Turds! My jaanu died for the mission,” Baruna said hotly.

  “As did Maxwell,” Harper added. This wasn’t strictly true, but no one called her on it.

  “Yes. We cannot just give up,” Baruna said. “Is there not a way back without the disc?”

  “Not for mortals,” Acan said. “I am sorry, truly, but the sooner you accept your life here, the happier you will be.”

  “Tell us about the golems,” Stuart said. “That is why you sent us to Graben, isn’t it?”

  Acan could not hide the look of surprise. “Clever,” he said. Behind him, the bodies had mostly been unloaded, and the megamoose led back to their pastures. The gods that had been overtly not listening were now dispersing back into the spread out city. “I have an issue I must address. Find me later and I will tell you all I know.”

  ***

  “Have you ever been to Graben?” Stuart asked. They had bathed and changed into clean clothing. Sleeping on the firm ground, rather than an ambling moose, had been nice enough that they had slept for some time. Hungry bellies woke them, and now the three humans had found Acan in a dining hall. Before them were crispy baked mushrooms, a spicy mushroom soup, and a dark chewy jerky gathered on a long red-and-white table that grew from the earth.

  “No. The guardians would not allow a god to enter.”

  “Ra entered,” Harper pointed out.

  “The Falcon Lord does as he pleases.” Acan finished a bowl of soup and grabbed another. He dipped the mushroom jerky into it, letting it soften from the spicy broth.

  “It was men, wasn’t it?” Stuart asked. “That’s the only thing that makes sense. Men started the city somehow. The golems only serve men.”

  “A bit simplified, but you are not wrong,” Acan said.

  “How was there ever a human city here, below the mantle?” Harper asked.

  “And how could they defy gods?” Stuart added.

  “That is a long story,” Acan said.

  “We have time,” Baruna said. She was not eating; her arms were crossed and her body was angled away from Acan, who was beside her and across from Stuart and Harper.

  Acan sighed. “When I said I’d tell you everything, I didn’t mean all of history. Very well. When we left the surface, we brought many humans with us. Some we enhanced with magic, with knowledge, with machinery, with breeding. They became, by your standards, super-humans. Demigods. Some few went back to the surface and achieved fame.”

  “Like who?” Stuart asked.

  Acan frowned at the interruption. “Heracles. Sigurd. Ghengis Khan. Jimmy Page. That’s not important. Most stayed here and quietly stewed in their roles as servants. Some were not happy, however. The super-humans led a rebellion of regular humans. This was when most of us remained in Omphalos.”

  “Good,” Baruna said.

  “It happens that I agree with you. Many of my compatriots expect worship and obeisance without any effort on their parts. It is no wonder the humans, many of whom were nearly as powerful as someone like me, wanted more. They left, messily I might add, and founded Graben.”

  “Didn’t you go after them? It doesn’t seem like the kind of thing Ra would just allow?” Stuart asked.

  “Had the Falcon Lord led an army just then, the result would have been inevitable. The humans would have been captured without much effort. However, something else happened. Sky Father, the once partner of Ninkasi, led many of us to freedom from Omphalos just after that. We were the, you might say, progressive gods. We tired of the cruelty and the nonstop worship.”

  “Good for you,” Harper said.

  “Your approval means everything,” Acan replied with mock dignity. “At first we settled in the area of the battle, beneath the true light, but we were driven from there. Sky Father was captured and many fell. This valley was discovered, and we have since endeavored to live here as peacefully as possible.”

  “And the humans?” Baruna asked. Her recently constant surliness was just perceptibly tinged with interest.

  “Yes. After driving us here, the gods of Omphalos gathered an army. But they found a marble city—a living wonder—it blocked magic. The golems the humans had created to serve them were immune to the charms and curses of the gods. The plagues too. It was then that the Falcon Lord split himself, then that the Seven Staffs of Sunrise were created. These were powerful weapons as you know. But it cost too much to break through. This was not the beginning of monster breeding and fighting in Omphalos, but it served to amplify it to a prodigious degree.”

  “The monsters were bred to fight Graben?” Stuart asked.

  “To a large extent, yes.”

  “So Graben was left unmolested. What happened to the humans? Why was it empty when we found it?”

  Acan sighed. “I don’t know. The most popular guess is that they abandoned their city and returned to the surface, where they and their descendants yet rule from the shadows. Probably some of them did. I suspect certain elements in Omphalos found stealth could succeed where martial might did not. I suspect most of the super-humans of Graben were murdered. It is certain that many golems were captured and turned into servants. Some were studied and turned into the warriors that you encountered your first time here.”

  “That’s horrible,” Harper said.

  “History is horrible,” Acan said. “For your kind and mine. It remains better than the alternative.”

  “Which is?” she asked. Her meal was half-eaten before her, but she was too caught up to finish it now.

  “Extinction.”

  “And the darkness?” Baruna asked, before that word had a chance to get too heavy. “How did they create that?”

  “They didn’t strictly create it. It was always here. We live in darkness with an illusion of light.” He sounded bitterer than Stuart could recall ever hearing. “Some of the more powerful golems were so strongly imbued with anti-magic that they could dispel our façade of illumination.”

  “Smart,” Harper said. “That was developed as a counter to the sun god?”

  “Actually, at first,” Acan said. “I believe it was just because humans, like all diurnal animals, preferred to sleep in the dark. Their effectiveness against the Falcon Lord was fortunate indeed.”

  “So, in essence, you have man-made machines dispelling the illusions of gods?” Stuart asked.

  “That’s a nice metaphor.” Acan seemed to scowl for a moment, but if so, it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

  “After the bat
tle we fought, where did the golems go?” Harper asked.

  “Most did not survive. They were designed to protect humans, after all. The fulfilled their function.”

  “Why didn’t they turn it to darkness when Ra stormed into the city?” Baruna asked. Her voice was deceptively calm.

  “As I understand it, The Falcon Lord entered the city in a different form. That of Amun-Ra. This incarnation would not have the same limitations. It’s also possible the golems needed to be given instructions. I doubt any of you would have thought to give them.”

  “By that same logic,” Stuart asked. “What triggered the golems in this battle? How did they know?”

  “He told me to clap,” Harper said. “It was as simple as turning on a light switch.”

  Acan finished lifted the bowl to his lips and slurped down the rest of his soup.

  “Now, I hope I answered your questions. I am needed elsewhere, but I will find you later, and help you into your homes. I seem to recall you prefer returning to the same place every night rather than different ones?”

  “We do,” Harper said.

  “Strange, but then I suppose instinct is strong in animals,” Acan mused.

  ***

  Acan left them, and the humans gathered together conspiratorially. Of course, the gods could listen to them if they desired; this they all knew. Each hoped that they remained beneath their notice.

  “He’s lying,” Harper said. “I’m sure of it. Why would Ra change forms just to capture us, if it was a step, he wouldn’t take to crush his enemies?”

  “Good question. He sounded so bitter talking about the darkness too,” Stuart said. “I tried to push him a little bit, and I think he showed a little of his true emotion.”

  “What if they want to return to the surface?” Baruna said. “What if they crave true sunlight that much?”

  They all thought about that for a few moments.

  “It explains why they don’t have enough energy to send us back,” Stuart said. It made so much sense that his mind was spinning.

  “Wait. Was Ra trying to prevent it?” Harper asked, her voice lowered in awe. “Is that what the split of Selvage from Omphalos was in the first place?”