The Younger Gods

by David Eddings

  Then Zelana seemed to almost slump as if she were about to collapse.

  “Get her home!” Dahlaine rasped. “She should have gone to sleep months ago.”

  “Take her other hand, Little-Me,” Balacenia told Eleria. “Let’s get her back to the pink grotto and put her to bed before the sun goes down.”

  “I’ll come with you,” Ara said. “Zelana is our most precious child, so let’s see to her well-being.”

  “What were you thinking of, Zelana?” Ara demanded when they reached the pink grotto and bedded the Beloved down in her own bed.

  “There was an emergency, Mother,” Zelana replied. “I doubt if I could have slept at all if I hadn’t seen it all the way through to the end. Balacenia is good, mind you, but I knew what was in the wind and how to veer it away. Of course as it turned out, she’s at least as clever as I am. Toward the end of my cycle, though, I was very worried about what would happen if Eleria had to take charge. Until just recently, I didn’t even know Balacenia.”

  “We’re encouraged to keep it that way, Beloved,” Balacenia replied.

  “Beloved?” Zelana asked with a faint smile.

  “That’s Eleria’s term, of course, but it seems to have rubbed off on me, for some reason. Sleep well, dear Zelana. ‘Little-Me’ and I will keep things going as they should.”

  Zelana sighed. “It’s time for me to sleep, I think.” Then she smiled at Eleria. “Tell me ‘night-night,’ little one, and I’m sure that I’ll slip right off.”

  “Have some nice dreams, Beloved,” Eleria said, tucking Zelana’s blanket up under her chin.

  Balacenia had slowly backed away. “It just occurred to me, Mother, that we’re going to lose all of our outlander friends, since they won’t be coming here now.”

  Eleria quietly moved away from Zelana’s bed. “You didn’t sound very happy, Big-Me,” she said. “What is it now?”

  “My clever notion has just robbed us of a good number of very close friends. Rabbit, Keselo, Gunda, Ox, and all of our other friends won’t be coming here because we won’t need them now. The Vlagh is gone now—or at least totally alone—so she won’t be stirring things up.”

  “I’m going to miss Bunny,” Eleria said, “and Keselo as well.” Then she blinked. “Oh, dear,” she said.

  “Yes, Little-Me?” Balacenia replied. “Was there something?”

  “We went to a lot of trouble to attach Trenicia to Narasan, and that just went out the window. Trenicia has no reason at all to even recognize Narasan.”

  Balacenia frowned. “You might be right there, Little-Me,” she admitted.

  “Why don’t you girls let me take care of that?” Mother Ara said. “Narasan eventually will have to take charge of the Trogite Empire, and I’ll arrange things so that Trenicia will pay him a call—sometime in the past, I think. Trenicia’s almost as good as anybody else with her weapons, and Narasan will be in a lot of danger if he tampers with the Empire. Trenicia will be able to protect him. Then, in time, we’ll probably see something very much like what we saw this morning. Trenicia and Narasan will be joined. I’ll see to that personally.”

  “Isn’t it handy to have Mother around like this, Little-Me?” Balacenia said. “I’m sure that we’ll want to stay here until Zelana goes deeper into her sleep cycle. Then you and I had better go talk with Enalla. I’m fairly sure that she’ll knock that silly temple all to pieces before long, but you’re going to need someplace to sleep. It’s going to be a long, long time before you wake up and take over in your Dominion.”

  “Wouldn’t it be all right if I just stayed here with the Beloved, Big-Me? I know that when I wake up, I’ll have to go over to the East and take charge, but until then I’d really rather sleep here with the Beloved.”

  “What do you think, Mother?” Balacenia asked Ara.

  “I don’t see any problems with her staying here with Zelana, Big-Me,” Mother replied. “There are many things she’ll need to know, and if she’s here in the pink grotto, I’ll know where to find her.”

  “Whatever you think best, Mother,” Balacenia agreed.

  Balacenia was fully aware of her position as the dominant god of the Land of Dhrall during this cycle, but she was quite sure that Dakas and Vash could get along quite well without her interference for a few hundred years. Enalla was probably busy tearing down Aracia’s temple and chasing off the fat men who called themselves priests. Mother Ara was there to keep Enalla from going too far, and that gave Balacenia some free time to consider things. She knew that she was going to miss a number of the outlanders who’d been such good friends this past year. Her suggestion to Father that he move the time when the Vlagh had lost all her children had eliminated any need for outlanders—friends or not. Balacenia sighed. “They were delightful and very dear to me,” she murmured, “but things are much better this way. Nobody dies, and I still have all those memories.”

  She let those memories return as she sat in the pink grotto with blessed Zelana and dearly loved Little-Me while she let her mind drift back through the year that had just passed. That year no longer existed, of course, but her memories of it were precious. “I think I’ll keep them tucked away,” she said out loud. “I’ll be able to share them with children—and others as my cycle moves along.”

  “Did you say something, Big-Me?” Eleria asked, emerging from her sleep.

  “Just thinking out loud, Little-Me,” Balacenia replied. “Go back to sleep and join once more with the Beloved.”

  “I’ll do that, Big-Me,” Eleria replied, “just as soon as you stop all this chattering.”

  Balacenia laughed then and looked fondly at her alternate. “I really could use a hug, though,” she said.

  “Why didn’t you say so in the first place, Big-Me?” Eleria replied. “Come over here, and I’ll hug you all to pieces. I am the best hugger in all the world, you know.”

  “Indeed I do, Little-Me,” Balacenia said. Then she went to Eleria’s small bed and collected several years’ worth of hugs.