99 Gods: Betrayer

by Randall Farmer

  Flying good. Airplanes evil. Multiple time zones? Evil as well, but Nessa still hadn’t figured out anything to do about them.

  She gnawed on foul coffee-flavored Turkish chocolate, got Uffie to give her enough advice on cellphone use so that she could call her mother (who didn’t appreciate being awakened, but who was quite interested in Uffie’s rescue and willing to answer a few questions about the appalling things the 99 Gods had been doing in the past several days), and tried to rest. She couldn’t, so she walked back across the invisible platform to the real problem. Every few steps she stopped to gawk at the scenery flowing beneath their feet. Mounded folds of rocks, forests marked by mile wide clear-cuts, high rolling meadows, broad flat river valleys – oh, and horses! Lots of horses! Nessa invited them to dance, and she danced with them until they were out of sight.

  Why did she leave Ken’s side? Oh, right, to deal with the problem child. Little miss no-telepathy-barrier with supposedly the mind of a Telepath wasn’t living up to her previous billing. Instead, Elorie sat half-terrified out of her mind, shaking and weeping, and hadn’t stopped since they had settled the Watchers. She needed to get her spine back; the Watchers had given her hell but hadn’t been that traumatic, in Nessa’s humble opinion. Nessa thought too much of Elorie to allow her to be so frail. Worse, her frailty might be catching. Not good at all.

  Nessa sat down in front of Elorie and Dave. “Cute trick, Dave, learning to cover Elorie with your telepathy protections, but if you let me in I can cure her of her fear of flying this way. We’ve got over a day of flying ahead of us and if you don’t let me do this, the trip will drive her mad.”

  Elorie didn’t answer. Dave frowned at Nessa. “She’s not afraid of flying. Let her die in dignity.”

  “Die?” Something in Dave’s comment joggled about in Nessa’s memory, but because of the stress of the Watcher fight and its jaw-tiring aftermath her older memories – that is, anything from before the fight – misbehaved. She let his comment slide for the moment. Perhaps the important thought would come back to her.

  “El’s cancer’s back and the elixer’s wearing off faster than the Watchers said,” Dave said.

  Nessa frowned. “What’s this? Tell me.”

  “You forgot?” Nessa nodded. Dave sighed. “Persona’s patch job fell off long ago, and because of War’s betrayal, the fact the Divine Compact Gods fell under Dubuque’s sway, and because we’ve all been declared anathema, there’s no one to turn to, no one to cure Elorie and fulfill Persona’s promise,” Dave said. “Elorie’s lost all hope.” I’ve lost all hope, his face said.

  “Oh, dammit!” Nessa’s eyes became submerged islands in a sea of tears. She and Ken and Dave and Elorie and Uffie and everyone else living had won. This horrible-loss bad-karma crap shouldn’t happen. Things didn’t work this way. When you won the world shined on you. “Dave, Elorie…let me in. I can help.”

  “You’re, you’re…” Elorie said, but her voice gave out and she squeezed her eyes closed.

  Nessa dried her own eyes with a little puff of the dry air from outside Ken’s teek shell. Owwh! She over-did the puff and made her eyes tear up worse. Nessa ignored her oops and studied Elorie anyway; El didn’t appear to be healthy, even discounting the scarred up Frankenstein’s Monster head, the death bags under the eyes and the sallow lifeless skin.

  Elorie gathered herself to speak, blowing her nose and wiping her face. “I don’t trust you, Nessa,” she said, eventually.

  “What’s there not to trust?” Nessa said. I mean, she had just saved how many people in the past few days? Or was that Ken. Anyway, she was the harmless one, the fat old ugly pregnant woman with slightly swollen ankles and the need to pee every hour on the hour. That and the last doc she visited told her she ate too much chocolate and that was why the twins were jittery all the time and kicked all the time – but Nessa didn’t believe him. Or was the doctor a her? Always so hard to remember these things…

  Elorie glared at Nessa and waved her left hand in dismissal. “I don’t want you to make me adore you.”

  Nessa frowned and wiped her eyes again. Elorie still shook and tears still ran down her face, but at least a little life returned to her eyes, even if she radiated anger, distrust and dislike. Progress! Certainly worth Nessa’s mental effort! She pushed around her deeply fatigued consciousness until she put a few thoughts of real analysis together. Nessa nodded. “You’ve lost your trust of Telepaths, because of what Ken and I did, and because War was able to betray Alt.”

  The betrayal hadn’t helped Nessa’s mental state either, not at all.

  Elorie nodded back.

  “I know. War’s betrayal’s going to rip us Telepaths’ reputation to shreds,” Nessa said. “The Recruiter was supposed to be infallible. When and if we reveal what we know about the Watchers, the reputation hit’s going to be worse, much worse. If we survive to squeak our squawk.” Nessa took Dave’s left hand in her right hand and Elorie’s right hand in her left. She didn’t push the telepathy, though. “You aren’t the only one facing death, Elorie. We all are. Let me in; I can’t cure the cancer but I can remove the pain, banish the withdrawal symptoms and make it so telekinetic flying doesn’t make you want to throw up.”

  “That’s cheating. Inhuman. I want to stay human for however long I have left to live.”

  “So do we all.” Nessa sighed. “You’re both keeping me sane, you know, even if I can’t read your minds.” Although Elorie’s attitude problem had diminished the effect.

  “Dave told me,” Elorie said, drying her eyes. “I’m not sure I approve.” Nessa sighed again. People always acted as if they deserved payment or something. Even if they would never ever notice unless Nessa told them. “Well, I approve of you being sane, but I’m not sure why you need Dave and I so much.”

  Nessa didn’t want to explain right now. “I’ve heard rumors your relationship hit bottom when you were with the Watchers. Everything patched up?”

  Dave frowned and didn’t answer. Neither did Elorie. Far too much tension remained for Nessa’s taste.

  “The Watchers are gossips,” Nessa said. Limp, but she couldn’t think of anything else to say. “Nasty as a bunch of mean girls, too.”

  Dave and Elorie blinked at each other and shrugged. Dave cocked his head at Elorie and pointed his nose at Nessa.

  “We’ve mostly patched it up,” Elorie said. “Since I don’t have a future, we’re ignoring our issues. I have someone with me who loves me, and that’s enough.”

  “Meaning I don’t count?” Nessa said. Couldn’t Elorie tell Nessa loved her?

  “Nessa, you’re terrifying,” Elorie said. “Dave and I both agree. You’re more of a God than any of the Watchers or the 99 Gods. They’re magicians and miracle workers but they’re not awesome and inhuman. You are.”

  Nessa wanted to beat her head on the floor, but there was no floor, only Ken’s telekinesis, and if she didn’t watch herself, she might slip herself through. She had spent too much time making herself immune to Ken’s teek. Falling through would just be too embarrassing for words.

  Nothing made sense, all of a sudden. She refused to think of the Watchers as Gods. Far too obscene. A wrong answer. Right now she had a hard time even thinking of the 99 Gods as Gods. “Why are Telepaths so inhuman?” Nessa said, a whiny wail creeping into her voice. “Ken and I have run into this problem so many times but we’ve never figured out why. Can you? I mean, we’re mortal, we bleed, all perfectly normal. Save for Bais, who’s a special case, we live, age, give birth and die just like any other person. What’s wrong with us!”

  Elorie shrugged and her tear fountain started again, complete with sobs. This time, Dave cried as well. Helpless, hopeless. Contagious, too. Nessa took the both of them into her arms and cried with them.

  When her stability cried, she cried.

  “Nessa, pay attention!”

  Nessa opened her eyes; the voice wasn’t from anyone near her. She still held Dave and Elorie in her arms, their emotional release q
uieted, each lost in their own sad thoughts. Some form of screwy telepathy, then. She closed her eyes and opened her mind.

  She found another mind out there, far away, calling to her. Neat! Nessa sent to the mind who didn’t operate on any of the familiar thought bands.

 

  Huh? Nessa didn’t remember any such thing. Nessa probed, but War, the Betrayer, wasn’t anywhere at all. Certainly nowhere near. ‘The Betrayer’ sucked. Betrayer, though – there was a name able to freeze sweat cold. Nessa realized Betrayer had found a way to communicate using hunches, or something close to them. Crazy bitch.

  Who could have taught her this trick?

 

  Fuck! Nessa side-probed Ken, and decided she didn’t dare disturb his flying trance, despite the need for him to do the bargaining. He had to be able to help her, though! She thought up a mental pattern she could give to him that would allow him to concentrate on other things while flying, but she would have to wait until their first planned rest stop. Betrayer’s timing was fucking unbelievable, catching her in one of the few moments when she couldn’t have Ken do the negotiating.

  Nessa sent. She was going to get her pocket picked, she just knew it.

 

  Nessa knew she should bargain, but this solved the problem she hugged Dave and Elorie over. Her admiration for Betrayer’s timing increased; Nessa doubted the hug would go on much longer. She knew she was a sucker for things like this and she couldn’t do squat about the problem.

  Betrayer sent.

 

  Oh, it was one of those conversations. Nessa sighed.

  No response.

  Frustrated anger radiated telepathically from Betrayer.

 

 

 

  Betrayer paused at Nessa’s purposefully obnoxious vague comment.

  Nessa shook her head…and they said she didn’t make any sense.

  Nessa wiped Elorie’s eyes and hugged her and Dave as hard as she could. She didn’t want to think about her nonsense conversation with Betrayer. She needed distraction almost as much as Elorie did. “You don’t know it yet, because I haven’t told you, but you’re more special than you know, Elorie,” Nessa said. “I can’t cure you, but I can give you something to distract you.”

  “Distract me?”

  Nessa nodded.

  “What’s so special about me?” Elorie asked. “Besides the magic immunity.”

  “You think like a mature Telepath,” Nessa said. “One in particular. Me. My personal life has seen a similar kind of hell as yours, and what you did to dig yourself out of your mental hole is similar to what I did. This made me as sane as I am now.”

  Elorie covered her face and laughed.

  “That wasn’t nice.”

  “Nessa, take a look at Dave’s face,” Elorie said, whispering.

  Nessa did and laughed herself. She wasn’t sure she had ever seen someone’s face turn so many different shades of embarrassment. No, he didn’t want to say a thing, did he? “In any event, I’ve got a trick that you’ve got the steel to cope with, Elorie. Most don’t.”

  “What sort of trick.”

  “Let me show you.” Nessa pushed the telepathy. She carefully wove the trick past Dave’s defenses and into Elorie. The trick didn’t take much, not with her holding Elorie’s hand. Dave wasn’t good enough to stop her yet. Then she set up her trick.

  she sent to Elorie. Nessa frowned for a moment as she noticed some sexual tension in herself. Which shouldn’t be happening, as neither Dave nor Elorie were her type. Probably some crazy side effect of the backwards marriage echo, she decided. Unexpected consequences of one of her schemes? Well, she had learned to expect those.

  Elorie sent back, after a minute of wonder. Not that there were many thoughts here to hear, as Dave’s mind remained well shielded, as did many of the others in Nessa’s crew. Party Boy and Loser Lady 1 leaked copiously, though. Uffie and Soft Hand Lady didn’t leak thoughts, but leaked emotions through their mind shields that weren’t mind shields. And Ken, although he concentrated completely on his flying, had enough mental presence available to notice Nessa’s activities and give Elorie a mental hand-wave.

  Nessa sent.

  Elorie sent.

  Elorie enjoyed, and got distracted. Nessa enjoyed the distraction with her.

  Nessa sent to Ken, along with her love and support, while she enjoyed herself mightily.

  Screams filled the air. Nessa thought free falling from two miles up quite hunky dory. Most of the rest didn’t. Ken had indeed attempted to blast Persona’s projection from the sky; Nessa had indeed needed to distract Ken from his flying trance to save Persona’s projection. When she did so his teek vanished and every one of them in Nessa’s group, as well as all their baggage, started to fall.

  Whee!

  “Hey, guys, watch me!” Nessa said, performing backflips, spinning around, and swimming through the air dolphin-style as she fell. She couldn’t understand these people. The falling wasn’t the problem, the nasty smack at the end was. Which, of course, wasn’t a problem until it happened, so why worry? On her way by Elorie she saw Elorie’s eyes open wide, her mind practically orgasmic. Well. Here was someone who appreciated the wilder side of life. Nessa grabbed her own braid and steered. For some reason her braid functioned as a joystick at times like these for her own pathetic conscious telekinesis. Loser Lady #2’s eyes clenched tight, trying to will the world away. Nessa sighed. Loser Lady #2 didn’t appreciate the wilder side of life at all.

  Clunk. Owwh! Nessa stopped falling; she rolled with the smack and only stopped rolling when she came up against Party Boy. “Shit!” Uffie said. “Something cracked in my ankle when I hit.” They had stopped in midair. Nessa let go of her braid, half expecting them to fall. They didn’t. No, she hadn’t been the one who put together a floating invisible telekinetic rock. This had been such a dodo-brained power misuse Nessa feared she had done so accidentally.

  The screams around her had turned into moans. Party Boy clutched at his right arm and rolled over to Nessa’s feet, so she kicked him to send him on his way. What an interesting idea for a game: kick the writhing bodyguard!

  “I didn’t do this,” Ken
said, more of a whine than a moan. “It wasn’t my fault. I still can’t seem to find where I put my telekinesis.” He rolled his eyes. “It isn’t fair. I’ve done so much for everyone, all this excess flying and donkey service, and now? How am I paid for it? This!” Eh heh, here comes the drama queen.

  Nessa peered into his mind and laughed. “Your teek’s still going several hundred miles an hour that-a-way, Ken. Without us.”

  Ken studied his feet, embarrassed, and stopped talking.

  Good.

  “You should let the professionals handle the flying,” a woman’s voice said. Nessa turned toward the voice. Oh, right, Persona. Well, Persona’s projection. This must be her rock-like platform. No wonder this felt like Telepath amateur hour here. A God had been behind this travesty!

  “As soon as I find one I might ask,” Nessa said. “What was this, an April Fool’s Day joke?” According to Ken’s mind, it was April Fool’s day. Probably not where Persona came from, one of those crazy time zone issues again.

  “Sorry I shot you; you startled me,” Ken said, to Persona. “How’d you get here?” Their bodyguard’s side comments didn’t express due appreciation of Persona’s flying platform creation skills, either.

  “The Betrayer, that bitch, grabbed my projection from Dana’s place just as we were starting to settle down from the bitch’s last crazy stunt. She put some sort of high gravity fly on my projection and goddamned shot me here. I was fucking in outer space! Like where there’s no fucking air! If I was a bit more human I would have shat myself.” Persona shook her head and levitated down to her platform, her divine body still shaking. “Uh, sorry about the mess. I’m actually rather terrible at this flying stuff, and what the Betrayer did to me today didn’t help my control one bit.”

  “That’s ‘Betrayer’, not ‘the Betrayer’,” Nessa said. “My call.” Persona frowned.

  “Hey, Nessa?” Uffie said. “She’s one of the 99 Gods?”