Hand of Life? She crouched before me, and I was forced to gaze at her. ‘Yes, mistress.’
‘Euryale,’ she said, and her full red lips twisted into a smile. Her emerald green and icy white eyes were flashing from under her cowl as she gazed at me from the murky depths of her robe. I felt pain behind my eyes as she looked at me and I turned my face down from the eyes, but her hand shot out, icy fingers holding my chin painfully, and I kept my head up. ‘A scared little saur you are. A doe, perhaps you know this animal? Yes, scared to the bone, to your sweet marrow, indeed. And that will not do. You must not fear so, lovely Shannon. You have a destiny.’ She smiled, the full red lips suddenly feral for she had long, dreadful fangs. She shot forward and embraced me, and I shrieked. I felt her pulling at ice and frigid winds, twisting them together in a furious, violent way and a dark hole opened up behind her. She fell back to it, and the darkness swathed me in a cold grip. She held me, I twirled around with her. I was not sure if I was standing, which way was up and which was down, and finally I fell to the floor of a richly furnished, deeply cushioned, vast chamber. ‘This is the top of the tower, the heart of the Fanged Spire, human girl. Once but a guard captain’s abode, now my humble home. Sit.’ Her long nail pointed at a plush chair.
‘I have bled,’ I told her with a small voice. ‘I would ruin it.’
‘Blood washes off, girl,’ she said as she slid into a huge, leather-bedecked chair of her own, her shapely, powerful legs stretching out. ‘Sit. I rarely have guests here and would not wish to seem unpleasant or unkind, nor a selfish hostess.’ From her cloak, two pairs of arms flexed out, one grabbing a splendid goblet, another an elaborate, red bottle, a third thrumming its fingers on the armrest and the last one gesturing at the chair. Gods, she had four arms. It was the creature that had pulled us away from our former lives. She opened up her garment and underneath she was clad in a golden black tunica ending mid-thigh, entwined in silvery flowers. ‘I will keep my head covered, girl. You have heard of the Sisters, no?’
‘I have had history lessons, mistress,’ I said, and I had. As history was the one thing I rather excelled in, and I knew about the three gorgons. ‘Which one of the three are you? Or are you something else? You are a gorgon, I think, but ...’
She apparently smiled, lying back on the vast chair. ‘Gorgon? That means terrible? Do I look awful to you?’ She stretched her beautiful, powerful body, her four arms on top of each other on the armrests, except the one that was mulling the bottle and the liquid inside slowly, around and around.
I hesitated as I stared at the multitude of glistening snakes, swaying on her shoulders, back, and hips. ‘It is not, perhaps, for a human to say what is beautiful and what is terrible in Aldheim. Yet, one might look like a rose and still have thorns. But I apologize for the word gorgon and shall call you … a Sister?’
She snorted and poured the liquid into the goblet. She placed it on the side and grabbed another goblet, filling it as well, chuckling to herself. She gestured, my arms got goosebumps as the cup flew my way, and I had to be fast to snatch it. She gestured at me as if complimenting my reflexes. The silvery Bone Fetter was twinkling in the dim light, and her eyes were running across it. I noticed there were candles burning on the desk, not far. I was drawing deep breaths, keeping calm. After some time had passed and she was done with her scrutiny, she spoke, languidly. ‘It has ever been so the Bone Fetters react to humans like this. Red is the fiery color of the power of the fires and should I put one on an elf, as I have, it is always silvery, like yours. Thus, I suspected you are the one.’
I nodded, holding the goblet, not sure if she wished me to drink or not.
She went on. ‘As for the gorgons? The myths of the humans? They are fairy tales to you, yet they are echoes of the past, not just fables. You humans are creatures made by Odin and his brothers, and we were all born in the Void. What took place in the Tenth, I shall not speak of. Cerunnos made a mess of things, he did, and so now you people are divided and confused. Yet, no matter what myth you think of, be it Greek, Chinese, Mayan, Roman or Celtic, they all lead to one truth,’ she said with a feral smile, tilting her head curiously. ‘You have so much to learn if you are to serve us.’
I sat still and decided to go for it. ‘I am confused by … Aldheim.’ I nodded at her desk, where fat candles were sputtering. ‘Our world might be a mess, you have no technology. You apparently have no firearms and rely on the … Shades for everything.’
She smiled. ‘Shades, yes. On everything. I hear you hesitating when you call the power Shades. Not all the races call the power the Shades. It is how we see them, the ever altering streams of power. But the elves call it the Glory, for they are high-minded and noble, ever decorating their lands, houses and even thoughts to make life seem grander that it is. Others have different words for the Shades. Use what you will. I will not be offended. Just do not call it the Shades if you speak to an elf. As you will. They will not appreciate you if you do.’
‘Yes, mistress,’ I agreed. ‘But …’
She waved a hand, one of the four. ‘As for Aldheim and its apparent backwardness? One of you had this discussion with my servants just now,’ she said languidly. ‘While we seem … medieval? Yes, that is the word. Medieval to you, is it truly so your technology, your factories and ships and science and theories on everything make you mightier and happier? No.’
‘I don’t think so,’ I told her softly and fidgeted, then spoke out. ‘It does make us seem more intelligent, though. Or advanced.’
She laughed happily, her voice ringing with mirth. ‘Ah, my! More intelligent, more knowledgeable? Have you not seen the Shades? The Shades is intelligence. The beginning and the end. That is the truth your ignorant scientists and priests seek. You humans! You have never heard of the Nine, and some part of you still thinks you are the center of the vast universe. Is that an intelligent way to go about your life? You know now, right now, more than all your priests and skeptical scientists combined.’ She settled down. ‘Yet, this world is no better than yours.’
‘It’s not?’
She shook her head sadly. ‘Think of it this way. A world without the gods and the mighty ones, the lords of the Shades to hold the sway over the mortals, a land ruled by those who covet nothing more than power always ends up shattered and unjust. Some will have most of the wealth, much of the health, most of the land and the heaviest fist. Most of those who lack these things suffer and live in squalor. It is so in the Tenth, it is so in here. And I wish to change all that. We need the gods. We lost them, you see.’
‘You wish to bring the gods back?’ I asked her in stupefaction. ‘Nothing more?’
She shrugged. ‘Make no mistake, while I am one of the First Born, ancient and wise, I too covet riches and the hunt. It is in our nature. Yet I too wish to make amends, having caused some of the problems that led to the Sundering,’ she said heavily, looking down, remorseful. ‘Like it was in the Tenth and still is, war rages in Aldheim.’ She leaned closer, her eyes intense, ‘And should I manage to bring the gods and goddesses back, we could reclaim peace for Aldheim. Perhaps for the Tenth, even if the gods never visited it to begin with. Wars are decided with a spell and sword, the Old Way, the honorable way. Gods would see to it. That is not as they are fought in Aldheim and in the Tenth currently. Treason, cowardice, and schemes are the trademarks of the lords of these lands. Gods would bring justice back to us all, and conflict would be honorable again.’
I looked at her dubiously. ‘As Albine said, I doubt they could take the Tenth. Our Earth.’
‘No?’ she asked with some mirth. ‘Let us say the elves find a way and go and retake the Tenth. They would rebuild the gate and their armies, a hundred thousand, perhaps more would rush in to lay claim to the land, swords and spears glittering. You would prepare to fight us, attacking us with your many fiery weapons and yes, you would smash an army of a hundred thousand spears to cinders. Of course. Eventually. Yet, the truth is they would not march an army of spears against yo
ur cannons and muskets, no. They would send unseen assassins to slay your leaders, others to adopt their faces, for your leaders have no defense against the Fury and the Gift, and so they are like children. Then, we would turn one against another and should we really wish to fight a battle? We would send a few clever, shadow-walking maa’dark to turn your cities into burning husks, your ships into broken pieces of expensive junk. Your lands would be sunk mysteriously.’ She leaned forward. ‘Shannon, those who have nothing, the simple ones? The poor and suffering masses? They would adore us. They would worship the leaders we would replace and should the elves reveal themselves to the lands? Show their powers? The poor would love the maa’dark, worship the godly, mighty powerful ones like they would any celebrity. They would see stories and myths walking amongst them, we would charm them, and they would bow to us. Soon the vermin would accept a life without their silly, foolish rights. They would abandon the soulless ways and false beliefs. Science is a beautiful thing, but the Shades is the basis of all science, and seeing the masters of science at work would change their heart, yes. I would be a queen in no time.’
I grunted, not convinced. ‘You? You started speaking of the elves taking the land and then you speak of your reign.’ She leaned away, waving her hand at my question, and I felt uncomfortable, for she might be right. Such creatures could easily sway the masses of the poor of the Tenth. Of Earth, I cursed myself.
‘Us. Elves. Anyone. I was speaking of bringing the gods back and the justice with them. Don’t get stuck on semantics.’ I agreed, not wishing to aggrieve the creature anymore. ‘Drink.’
I tasted the wine carefully. It burned exotically and warmed my guts quite wonderfully, and I could not help but smile. ‘Thank you. Mistress.’
She whispered, her green eyes flickering under the hood. ‘You are welcome, my young friend. You asked me who I am. I told you my name already. Anything else you wish to know?’
‘I … everything. I only remember there were Three Sisters. Everyone, well, some know the story of the Medusa,’ I said. ‘And of Perseus. He killed Medusa, no?’
She smiled. ‘Everything? That would fill more books than in yonder shelf.’ She nodded at the one end of her curving room, where a hundred thousand books of various makes and sizes were swaying on the shelves before a tiny, sturdy desk. A glowing book was open in the midst of it. She snapped her fingers to draw my attention to her. ‘I am Euryale, sister to Stheno and Medusa. I am the Queen of the Grey Downs, Hand of the Night and also called the Devourer by the elves. I have other names, for I am old as time, younger than the gods, but only just. I am a lost soul in Aldheim, most of all.’ She looked down, I felt immense sorrow fill me, almost with throttling intensity, and I had to remind myself she was a slaver and a mistress of murder. She looked up, sighing like wind in a tunnel. ‘Now I make a living here, this world that is not mine, not truly. I am a trader as well as a queen, of course. While I take pride in the fact that Shrouded Serpent Trade House is a wealthy house, feared and respected across the Spell Coast and the Dancing Bay, the northern straits even, and I suppose you might call us pirates as well, I am still unhappy.’
‘Pirates?’ I asked.
She waved one of her hands as if it was a matter of no consequence. ‘Oh! We do raid, but so does everyone else, for the sea is where feuds are settled while the Regent holds the peace in the lands. I am not loved, Shannon, by the elves, but they tolerate me for they have no choice. I have powers they cannot overcome and so, some trade with me, as well. Particularly those in the south.’
‘They told us you have no ships here,’ I said.
‘Pirates need no ships if they have me,’ she grinned.
‘You trade us,’ I told her bluntly.
‘Amongst other consumables,’ she giggled and leaned back.
‘Consumables? It is a … strange world,’ I said, clutching at the cup of wine.
‘Strange, strange indeed,’ she said. ‘But not strange like yours, where only the dead know the truth.’
‘The dead?’
‘Those who die and travel to Hel’s abode,’ she told me. ‘Your heaven and hell combined.’
‘Devourer?’ I asked her with a nervous voice, deciding to change the subject. ‘What do you devour?’ Then I cursed myself, for the subject was no better, likely.
‘Why, the living!’ she laughed, tapping her four forefingers on the arm rests. ‘I don’t feed on stone nor the plants. I eat the flesh of my hapless foes, and I hunt for the challenge, for what else is there for a queen to amuse herself with? Do not your nobles kill for fun? Your kings wage wars and dream of blood? Yes? While you named our kin for our errant sister Medusa, we are gorgons indeed, terrible creatures born of the Shades by the shores of the frozen Gjöll river, flowing in the freezing world of Nifleheim, home of the flowing ice. To see my soul, to gaze into my eyes, Shannon, is to gaze at the beginning. Few mortals can survive that.’
My head was swimming. ‘Have you ever hunted in our lands?’
‘In your Earth? The Tenth? No, it was Timmerion …’
‘I know, the elven lord of this place attempted to make it his, his own world and took his people and slave humans to mine, and …’
She snapped her fingers on all four hands at once. ‘I see Bilac and Cosia are gossipers,’ she said with some disappointment.
I nodded. ‘You should punish them severely,’ I said and grinned against my own judgment.
Euryale roared with mirth and then waved a hand at me as I was also chuckling. ‘They stole me the pleasure of telling you this, but then, they did not know you are special or suspected it. But no, the Sisters have not visited it. Nor the gods. They sometimes quarrel over some world with the other gods and we have hunted these strange lands, but …’
‘Other gods?’ I asked her, drinking the last of the wine, feeling the burn all the way down my toes.
‘Of course, there are other gods. While Odin’s ilk molded and claimed the Nine after they grew tired and bored of lounging in the Void, wondering at their powers, other gods have claimed their worlds, as well. Like the Vanir with whom the Aesir made an alliance. But there are many, many other first-born lords out there. The Shades or the Glory or whatever it is called by the thousand races is common to all the living creatures and those who can, use it for destruction and creation. Odin’s god’s rule the Nine, they made and molded this world, created the elves and the men and occasionally they do war over other worlds. That is their sport, and the hunt for glory and war is what they love. Your world, Earth, was rich in minerals, gold especially. Perhaps the gods would have eventually found out what Cerunnos Timmerion was doing, and would have come there, building gates and ways for themselves. As for the Sisters, we never went there, though, as you see, I know about the Tenth. The Dark Levy is what I created from the shreds of knowledge Cerunnos left here, his simple gate forgotten and lost. I dived to the stacks of the books full of elvish rituals and ways of catching you lot, and found that at that precise date, and if the priests whispered your names aloud, it was possible for me to reach through the space and time and take you.’ She smiled happily, though there was not much happiness in the discussion. ‘I would have loved the Tenth. For a time, at least. I would have hunted the races of men and elves and even the giants Timmerion was spreading over the land, happily I would have for no gods watched over them. There are, I know, still beings you humans would not believe exist out there in the Tenth. I think only a few of these creatures survive, hiding, occasionally feeding, waiting for the ways to be repaired so they can leave. Few humans remember the Nine. Children’s stories, your seekers call them.’
‘Seekers? You mean the scientists? Those people who dabble in all sorts of explorations and theories?’
‘Them, and others. Storytellers, politicians, priests. Those who seek answers, mostly to bolster their own position and ego. The rest of you are just lambs,’ she snickered. ‘But I know the old secrets, and thus, you are here. As for Medusa? Our sister is lost, but it took place
in the world of Midgard and yes, Perseus was real, but I doubt she is dead. This Perseus could never slay one of us. Not permanently, at least. It takes a god’s weapon to do so, and no mortal can get a hold of one. But do not dwell on the question of slaying us, human girl, or I shall get suspicious.’ She winked at me, and I reddened and bowed my head.
I took a deep breath and spoke quickly, blurting something unintelligible as my nerves were wracked. I stared at the beast-like woman before me and decided for the first time ever I had a real reason to be nervous. I looked around the vast room to calm myself. ‘So, you called me the Hand of Life.’
‘No questions about the gods, their mercy, and heaven? Usually you of the Tenth are so confused about your afterlife, you always deny my words and call all this nonsense, especially the parts about the gods and your past. You babble about your books and theories from where you came from.’
‘You wish me,’ I began, then straightened my back, ‘to ask if there are gods, and they are merciful? Grandma told me they made us in their mold, but they are terribly flawed. So I just assume it is so.’
The Dark Levy: Stories of the Nine Worlds (Ten Tears Chronicles - a dark fantasy action adventure Book 1) Page 15