The Wayward Godking

by Brendan Carroll

  Barshak, Asaralia and Bari flew from the room after the hideous beast with Nicole close behind them. Asadarlu was already closing in on Luke Andrew as he ran full tilt down the polished corridor. Several doors opened as they passed, shrieking, shouting and screaming, and soon, everyone at the palace was charging down the hall, wielding various weapons, in pursuit of the outraged power of Marduk.

  “Where did he come from?!” Nicole shouted the question at Bari when she passed him on the stairs.

  “I don’t know! You brought him back with you, didn’t you?!”

  They topped the stairs and ran headlong down the Djinni’s inner courtyard. The beast crashed straight through the lily pond. Colorful parrots and small monkeys were screeching and fleeing or flying in all directions. Nicole could see that Luke Andrew had stopped and turned to face his attacker on the balcony where he waited with his pitifully inadequate weapons. There was nowhere left to go except over the railing. His weapons were pitifully inadequate for confronting the monster that swung one of the twisted golden swords back and forth, slashing limbs, leaves and flowers from the plants on the artificial islands dotting the long pools in the courtyard.

  John Paul, Nicholas and Gregory skidded through an arched doorway ahead of Nicole and raced after the thing. Nicole rushed headlong toward her brother without even a letter opener to defend herself.

  Bari caught up with her again and shouted for her to stop. Barshak tried to stop her, but she fought with him on the edge of the pool, screaming at him to help her brother.

  “I cannot!” he told her. “The powers cannot fight against one another. It is impossible. You must stop, my mad princess. He will kill you!”

  Nicole jerked free of him and ran toward the fight. John Paul, his two sons, Semiramis and Luke Andrew took turns charging and striking at the incredibly ugly brute, but none of them could get close enough to land a good blow on it. Bari tried to fling himself onto its back and was batted against the wall like an annoying insect. He struck the wall and slid to the floor where he remained. The thing had the flaming sword firmly in one hand now and a seemingly endless supply of daggers and knives at its disposal, with which he alternately threw or slashed at them.

  Gregory received one of the glittering missiles in his upper arm and fell out of the fray. Meredith and Aurora dragged him away as Jozsef and Anna joined in the fight. A number of others stood watching in shocked horror. Jasmine and her son, Seularik, came at once and helped carry Gregory out of the courtyard. William and Marco came down the stairs from the roof in time to retrieve Nicholas from beneath the feet of the monstrosity, but not before the creature landed a devastating blow on the back of his head with hilt of the sword. They dragged Nicholas to safety and handed him over to Meredith and Lucia while Jasmine struggled to pull the unconscious Bari out of the way.

  Aurora’s scream pierced the air as Asadarlu ran the full length of the golden blade completely through John Paul. The prophet fell against one of the great brass urns on the balcony when the beast jerked the blade free, and then tumbled down the steps, losing his gold and silver sword in the process. William von Hetz turned to go after him and received a crushing blow to the top of his head. He joined John Paul at the bottom of the stairs, bleeding and unconscious.

  The beast roared as if well pleased with its great success and scooped the precious sword from the steps. Meredith left Nicholas with Lucia and the Fox sergeant, who had finally ventured close enough to lend a hand and ran back to help Aurora with John Paul.

  To their horror he left a wide trail of bright blood on the white tiles. Meredith had thought it impossible for him to fall, let alone bleed! Only Jozsef, Anna and Luke remained actively fighting with the creature. Semiramis had been dispatched over the balcony railing some few moments before John Paul had fallen. Her screams still seemed to echo in the palace corridors as Selwig and a number of the household servants, along with several of the Djinni’s Zoroastrian followers rushed down the spiraling stairs leading to the beach below. A sizable crowd lingered, ebbed and flowed in and out of the anterooms adjoining the courtyard as the house of Adalune endeavored to see what was going on. Many of the women and children had been sent rushing down into the relative safety in the depths of the palace’s underbelly, but it was Nicole who persisted in harrying the creature with a surprising number of household items. She darted in and out between the fighters, throwing vases, statuettes, bowls, goblets, stones from the pools, coconuts, oranges and anything else she could get her hands on. Most of these struck their marks quite accurately, sometimes helping to hinder the deadly movements enough to spare its opponents.

  The creature turned suddenly on Jozsef who was attacking him from behind, taking him unawares. The silver and gold blade belonging to his father barely missed Jozsef’s head as he ducked, but the flashing blade of the flaming sword caught him a glancing blow in the ribcage, spinning him around and down. Anna leapt between the creature and Jozsef and it withdrew in the face of her frenzied onslaught, but not before receiving a nasty cut to the left forearm and a painful jab in the right thigh.

  It roared in pain and anger before turning its attention back to Luke Andrew.

  ((((((((((((()))))))))))))

  The Golden Eagle was caught completely off guard by the sudden transition. One moment he had been sitting at Mark’s camp fire and the next, he had found himself standing in the midst of a forest of ancient oaks. A grand buck with a tremendous rack of antlers, crashed away under the trees, startled by his sudden appearance. He turned about quickly, searching for signs of his companions.

  “Vanni! Merry! Luke! Where are you?!” he shouted into the gloom.

  He could hear sounds of voices, distant, but distinctly human. They did not sound distressed, but rather like a party or gathering of some sort. The light was brighter away to his right, and so, with no better plan in mind, he began to walk toward the light and the edge of the forest. Before he reached the sparser vegetation, a solitary figure emerged from behind one of the broad tree trunks. He wore a long, hooded cloak that seemed to change from black to silver and back as he moved. His face was in shadows, but there was something unmistakably familiar about him. Lucio’s heart leapt into his throat when he recognized the man.

  “I know you!” Lucio’s face grew very pale. His breath came in short gasps and he appeared ready to faint. “You are the Great Lord who sits in the Midst of the Flower of Flame.” He swayed and sank to his knees. “Have I done wrong? Have you come to take me back? I know I should not have lost my temper, my Lord. It has always been a millstone around my stubborn neck. I ask… forgiveness, my Lord. Don’t take me back. You don’t know the love of a father for his children…”

  Anu laughed and Lucio closed his eyes.

  “You think I am incapable of love because I am called the Lord of Death?”

  “Si`. No, I mean… Of course, you are capable of anything you wish. I merely meant to say that a father’s love for his children can make him do things that…”

  “He would not normally do?”

  “Si.” Lucio nodded and closed his eyes again.

  “Then, how can you be trusted to lead the people of Khem from darkness if you can be corrupted?”

  “I will! It is what I have been working for all my life.” Lucio’s expression changed and he opened his eyes. “I know that may sound difficult for you to believe, Lord, but it is true. Even when I did not know it myself, it was true. It was what I was born to do. Catharine told me so. You told me so yourself.”

  “Ahhh. So you remember that, do you?” Anu smiled at the dark-faced Italian. “You will not beg or grovel at my feet?”

  “No.” Lucio looked down at the ground between them. “I will not do that. Kneeling is as far as I go. Besides, there is no need. You will either allow me to go or you will not.”

  “You are still proud.” The Lord of the Moon leaned closer. “Even after all these years and all these things you have experienced, you are still proud as a peacock?”

>   Lucio crossed himself out of habit and then stood up. Anu was slightly taller than him and immensely larger somehow… at least in the Golden Eagle’s estimation.

  “I know pride is a sin,” he admitted. Already, he had consigned himself to hell fire and damnation, though he didn’t really believe in it. Never had he ever believed in the Church’s notion of hell even as a boy, but he did know he might have to return in another physical form and live again in the physical universe, if he did not advance properly.

  “But if you had no pride, you would not be alive today,” Anu conceded somewhat. “Who told you that pride is a sin?”

  “The Church has always spoken against it,” he answered. “Pride. Anger. Sloth. Gluttony. Lust. Greed. Envy. The Seven deadly sins. I am guilty of almost all of them, though I have never been greedy or lazy, well, greedy, at any rate.”

  “That leaves only six to correct.” Anu laughed aloud. “You are doing better than most, my little friend. You are of particular interest to my son, I believe.”

  “I’m sorry, sir… Your Grace.” Lucio said and frowned in suspicion. “Your son? You have a son… but how? I mean, when? Surely you… I mean… I don’t know what I mean.”

  “Again, you make presumptions.” Anu caught his arm and turned him around. They walked back toward the meadow from whence the sound of shouts and laughter drifted under the trees. “There are many things from the past that must be left there. These things came from the time before you and your kind walked upon the earth and are, therefore, beyond your comprehension. It is not possible for you to understand things from the before time.”

  “The before time,” Lucio nodded. He did not want to know such things even existed. He had a hard enough time keeping up with things from the after times. After. Before. What?

  “My son is well known to you,” Anu continued. “You know him as Mark Ramsay.”

  The stranger pushed back the shimmering gray and black hood that covered his head and his face was clearly visible in the cool green light that filtered through the mossy tree limbs of the Queen’s forest.

  “You are Sir Ramsay’s father?” Lucio felt his knees grow weak again. “His real father?”

  “His only father,” Anu corrected him and bowed his head slightly.

  “He told you about me?”

  “Not exactly. I haven’t seen him… yet.”

  “Then who told you? Meredith? Catharine?”

  “You told me.” Anu tightened his grip on the Italian’s arm. “And since you feel so strongly about him, I would request your company; his son is in trouble.”

  “Lemarik?” Lucio’s face lit up.

  “Hush, now.” Anu picked up his pace and soon they were jogging through the forest. Without missing a step, they went from the dim forest floor to the marble-pavement of the Djinni ’s palace. Lucio lurched and then caught his balance as they continued on down the corridor and up the wide staircase. A new set of sounds reached his ears. A battle was raging in the palace above them.

  ((((((((((((()))))))))))))

  Again, Luke Andrew faced the creature alone with only his sister left to help as Anna carried Jozsef to safety. His mouth was dry and his legs were shaking as it closed in on him once more, and he could not tear his eyes away from the hideous jaws full of exposed teeth. Blood oozed from the wounds inflicted by Anna’s blade, but the injuries hardly seemed more than an annoyance. Luke had no idea how he had come to be here. The last thing he remembered was lying down with his head on a rock near the fire on Easter Island. His father had assured him that they would leave the dreary place when the sun came up, and then he’d dreamed of Jasmine and of Nicole. It had not been a nightmare, but neither had it been very pleasant. Then he’d fallen as he’d done in many dreams, but this time he’d landed smooth in Nicole’s bed. What had been so terribly confusing was the certain knowledge that in the short nano-seconds between his dream and her bed, he’d been in the dark of space fighting this horrid creature… fighting against his own sword, bare-handed. Now he had little more than bare hands again compared with the two formidable swords the monster swung in front of it. Nicole dashed across his field of vision again, screaming something he did not understand as she threw a small silver vase at the thing’s eyes. He heard himself shout her name as the blade grazed her back, cutting a piece of her gown away. Stumbling backwards, he slammed against the wall just off the balcony. He did not want to share Semiramis’ fate. He had to stay inside the palace at all costs. At all costs.

  The creature closed in and he raised his weapons in front of him. The first blow from the left, the gold and silver blade, clanged against the long knife, breaking it off at the hilt. The second blow from the right plucked the dagger from his hand and sent it sailing over the balcony railing into the night.

  Luke heard several voices screaming and shouting at once, but he could not respond, could not make out the words as he watched the creature draw the flaming sword back, preparing to run him through. He could not even raise his hand or turn his head when it stepped forward to make the final thrust. One question rang in his head over and over: ‘Can I really die here? Can I really die here?’ And then reality struck him in the form of his sister as she flung herself into his arms, putting her back to Asadarlu.

  “Nicole,” he gasped her name and tried to shove her away. She held onto him desperately as the blade passed first through her back, and then through his midsection and on into the marble wall behind them, making a horrendous grating noise as it entered the stone.

  “Luke!” Nicole’s eyes widened in shock, and then she sagged against him. “Forgive me, Luke. You know I love you. You and I, together. We were a pair, weren’t we?”

  Luke wrapped his arms around her and held her close, laying his head on her shoulder.

  “Nicole?” Luke whispered in her ear. Such a beauty she was, had always been. Strangely, he felt no pain, though he could see the hilt of the blade that held them both in place. “Nicole, don’t leave me. It’s all right. It’ll be all right. I promise. This is nothing. I’ll fix everything.”

  “Will you really?” she asked, struggling to turn her face toward him. He nodded his head against her cheek and she smiled before grimacing in pain.

  “Of course, I will, Nicole,” he assured her and wondered why she could feel pain and he could not. Shock. It had to be shock, of course. “Of course,” he said again and brought one hand up to her cheek. “It’s going to be just fine. Just like the old days. You’ll see.”

  “Just like the old days?” Her face had lost all its color and her arms slipped down his back to hang limply at her sides.

  Luke was only slightly aware of movement around him. A great commotion was taking place in the courtyard, but he couldn’t concentrate on it, couldn’t remember what it was. It seemed far, far away and the cool breeze from the open balcony brushed his sister’s golden hair into her face. Luke brushed her hair away and placed his hand on her forehead before kissing her pale lips.

  “Holy Mother of God!” Jasmine’s voice carried clearly through the melee. The only clear words that he heard before Nicole slipped away from him… from his arms and then he felt the pain and saw the hilt of the sword. “Luke! Hold on, Luke. I’ve got you.”

  Soft arms encircled him, and it seemed he was falling into a mound of soft cotton billows mixed with warm downy feathers and then, there was nothing but light all around him. Brilliant light.

  Chapter Eleven of Twelve

  To satisfy the desolate and waste ground; and to cause the bud of the tender herb to spring forth

  Only Meredith remained in Nicole’s room with Anu as he laid Luke Andrew out in the tangle of pillows and bed linens. A hush had fallen over the palace after the struggle as the various wounded residents lay nursing their injuries or in deep almost comatose sleep, while their families worried over them. Little Selwig was overwhelmed by the number victims, but he did his best for each one in turn.

  Jasmine had been the first to rush to Luke’s side, but s
he had quickly abandoned him to Anu and Meredith. In the aftermath, Anu dispatched the Italian to search for any others from the Easter Island party, who might have fallen into the underworld, warning him not to enter the blackness under the canopy of the trees. Meredith did not want Lucio to leave her and Luke Andrew alone with this enigmatic creature. Lucio assured her there was nothing to fear, but there was no doubt in her mind who this was, and the sight of him made her legs weak as water. Grandfather would surely be angry when he learned what a mess they had made of things.

  Anu brushed Luke’s hair from his face, and then looked up at Meredith, who stood by the side of the bed, unsure what to do. Unsure of what had happened in the courtyard after the monster had stabbed her son and daughter. She watched as Anu ran one finger down Luke’s face and ended up by pressing the tip against the dimple in his chin. The dimple seemed to please him immensely. Luke’s hair now matched his grandfather’s hair perfectly. Meredith narrowed her eyes as the significance of this examination sank in. Anu was very pleased with his grandson’s appearance. She put her hand over her mouth as the Skyfather wiped his beard away with one hand. It would have been almost impossible to tell them apart now, had she not been there to see the transformation in her son. Only the line of Anu’s jaw was different. A difference so subtle, only a mother could discern it.

  “Come here,” Anu held out his hand and she climbed awkwardly into the midst of the cushions.

  “What happened?” she whispered the words as she bent over Luke and examined his face and neck. The braid was still in his hair, but his lustrous black locks were now shot through with platinum blonde streaks.

  “He sleeps the sleep of death and regeneration,” Anu told her.

  “I know that, but what happened to my daughter? Where is Nicole? Did you take her?” Meredith’s courage began to return as she worked to remove the lacings from the black leather hauberk her son wore over his shirt. A smooth gash just below the sternum showed where the blade had penetrated the tough leather with ease. Her hands slipped in the blood that coated his armor.