Plague of Tyrants

by M. J. Sewall

  Mantuan said, “I think it's time we start getting tougher.”

  “You mean… kill our own people?” Asa asked.

  “Not kill, my King, just be more aggressive,” said Mantuan. “We have to show them we will fight back hard, and we will win.”

  Stathen asked angrily, “So, you want our soldiers to start beating people in the streets?”

  Lozarian reasoned, “Our prisons are overflowing. Any more arrests and the prisons will be too full to control, and we will have a mob on both sides of the palace.”

  Mantuan scratched at his patch. Another guard came in with a report, “The airship just got back. I couldn't let them go too far out, but they got far enough to spot Cayne's fleet. They are headed back, straight for us. It was too dark to get an accurate count, but they're not running dark. All lanterns were alight on their decks.

  Mantuan said, “They want us to know they're coming.”

  “Any sight of the Thurian warships?” asked Asa.

  “My King, we must assume they're not coming,” said Mantuan. “With a surprise attack, with Extatumm airships, who knows what damage they did? But given the fact that Cayne is coming for us so fast and so boldly, he must have crushed the Thure fleet, or sent them into retreat.”

  “How did we not see this coming?” asked Vance.

  Asa rubbed at his eyes. “A lot has happened, Vance, and fast.”

  Something changed. After days of riots in the streets, the feel and noise level in the palace was getting to be a constant, predicable buzz.

  Suddenly that buzz was gone.

  “What's happening?” asked Asa. “It sounds like the crowds are getting quieter.”

  They all rushed to the balcony over the courtyard. Devver helped Asa find his way.

  Against the glow of the light from the closer villages, they could see tall, dark shadows silhouetted against the soft gas lights. They were lined up like giant soldiers evenly spaced, standing silently.

  Vance asked, “Are those…?”

  “Yes,” said Mantuan, gritting his teeth.

  Stathen said, “They have our rock throwers.”

  “How did they do this?” Asa asked in a panic. He heard his own tone of voice, and swallowed, trying to appear calm. “What does it mean Mantuan?”

  “Two things. One, rock throwing machines are only good for one thing… breaking down walls. They will start hitting the palace soon.”

  “And second?” asked the king.

  “It means part, or maybe all of the army have made their choice and switched sides.”

  Chapter 45: To the Gods

  Weldon asked, “By the gods, is that your daughter Brill? What have you done to her? Where is your son?”

  “My son is dead. He died weeks ago. His twin sister has completed the change into a god that he could not complete.”

  Danette shouted, “What have you done to her?!”

  “My child is a god now,” Queen Crys faltered, but recovered before the tears came, “my boy was too weak to complete the journey. He awaits us in the tower, he will come with us to the gods.”

  Weldon screamed at the guards protecting Queen Crys, “You let her do this? Have you gone mad as well?”

  The guard by the Queen didn't speak, only looked to the floor.

  The skeletal girl spoke weakly, “My mother had done… what she had to. She is helping me.”

  Ellice asked, “By starving you to death? What is going on here?”

  Queen Crys spit words at Danette, “You did this! You healers could not help my child. He died of this wasting disease. When he ate, he still lost weight. He thirsted constantly, but it did not satisfy him. Before he died, his sister had already become afflicted.” The woman's voice changed to one of joy, turning to Danette, tears rolling down her eyes, “But maybe I should thank you… dear, dear Danette. Because then I realized it. My daughter wasn't dying, no, she was becoming a god like my son. Two twin gods. Don't you see? Why else would her body reject food, but still thirst? It is the thirst for what lies in the Kingdom of the Gods.”

  “Where are these healers now?” asked Weldon.

  Crys motioned with her hand. “I decided that our god was displeased with their failure. They went over the cliff.”

  “Madwoman, you are the one that has been killing our people, not your sickly children,” screamed Weldon, raising his longknife.

  “Inner guards kill them all.” the woman said calmly. The soldiers no longer lined the walls, but aimed their arrow guns at the other guards, and Gordon's family. Gordon was still standing next to the girl.

  The girl said as loudly as she could, “Guards, hold. Please, my mother is not mad. But mother, mother come here.”

  “What is it, my child?” Crys went to her daughter.

  “Mother, listen now. I am dying. We both know that. You must…”

  'No! No, you are simply changing into your new form, one for which you will be eternal,” she stroked her daughters face. “Don't give up now, it is almost time.”

  “Enough. Bring in the traitor,” said Weldon. Two more guards burst in, throwing the bound man to the floor, “Seefer tried to run.”

  Crys turned, “You? Escape? How dare you flee before you witness your masterwork.”

  “Inner Guards! Look at me!” yelled the bound Seefer from the back of the room, “Put down your arrow guns. Do you know what she has planned in her tower? For all of us?”

  “So speaks the little rat,” spat Queen Crys, walking to Seefer.

  “I won't help you anymore. I would rather die than help you.” Seefer said, finding some courage after all.

  Crys came through the guards. She came right up to Seefer's face, “Why does no one appreciate what is happening? You are all witnesses to a living god. In your very presence, why can no one see it but me?”

  Danette yelled, “Gods do not need to kill their own people! Gods do not need to starve themselves, to use these horrible weapons to kill people who only speak reason.”

  Seefer yelled, “She will kill you all. But not me!” He pulled loose from the guards and ran to a torch. He lit his hidden weapon and lobbed it at Crys. She leaned down, and it fell to the inner guard standing behind her. Gordon put his body between the blast and the thin girl. The guards also used their bodies to block the blast. Two were torn apart when it exploded. The other two fell, badly wounded.

  Gordon's ears rang, but he felt no wound. The guards had done their duty, and the girl seemed unharmed. Crys screamed like a wild beast and produced a knife from her long sleeve. She leapt onto Seefer and plunged it into his heart. Seefer kept his secrets, falling to the floor dead.

  The guards faltered, unsure what to do.

  Crys leaned down and pulled her knife out of Seefer, wiping the blood on her dress casually.

  Gordon stood next to the girl. She tried to yell, but her voice was soft, “Mother. Please stop…” but her voice trailed off, too weak to make more objections. The skin clung to her bones. Gordon remembered his dream. The skeleton standing there, bleeding. Gordon had a wild idea, remembering something his uncle Loren had told him. He quickly dug through his sack and took out his machine.

  “Oww,” said the girl weakly as Gordon pricked her finger.

  Crys turned, knife in hand, coming towards Gordon and her daughter. “What are you doing to her?” Queen Crys stormed toward Gordon, knife in hand. “No one touches our god!”

  Ellice plunged through the guards, reaching Crys and forcing her arm behind her back. Crys dropped the knife, but still strained to get to her child.

  The girl's drop of blood touched the machine and the numbers clicked.

  “What is this, what are you doing?” Crys asked as Gordon pushed the machine into her face. The numbers on the machine read 785.

  Gordon was already sucking the last of Loren's oil into the pin, “She has the sweetblood illness. She needs this healing oil.”

  “Gordon, no!” Aline yelled, “That is the last of the oil, you need that for the trip home.
”

  “I can't let her die,” he said, plunging the needle in the girl's stomach before her mother could object. “I don't know how she's survived this long…”

  “No!” screamed Crys, squirming out of Ellice's grip. She grasped Crys again.

  Gordon said, “She has the sweetblood illness. There is too much sweet in her blood. Food was making her blood even thicker, that's why she is thirsty all the time. Your daughter needs to get to a healer. We can take her.”

  “No! Get off her!” screamed her mother. Gordon went to Ellice. She released Crys, who rushed to her daughter.

  Crys caressed the thin girl's face. “My child, my god, what have they done to you?”

  “Maybe… maybe they're right,” said the girl weakly, “Maybe I'm just sick. I know why you did all this, for us, but maybe…”

  “Shhh, hush my child. It is time. All will be well.” Crys lifted her daughter and walked to the center of the room. The guards had divided, a few had gone to attend to the wounded inner guard. The rest blocked the door.

  Weldon said, “You're not going anywhere Crys. It's over.”

  “Yes. Yes, it is. Finally.” But she seemed to be talking to herself as she cradled her daughter, the bundle of bones not resembling any god, and stood at the center of the tower. She stepped on the platform, “It's time to go home to the gods, my child.”

  She kicked a lever and the platform rose quickly, going straight up the center of the tower as the counterweight came down.

  Weldon screamed, “Stop her!”

  “We will. What's up there?” yelled Ellice, spotting the circular stairs that led up the tower.

  “I can only guess,” said Weldon, “But if Seefer was worried…”

  Gordon's full dream came back to him, “We have to stop her, mother. She's going to explode the tower!”

  “I'll go,” Aline said as she bounded up the stairs, a blur of motion. Gordon marveled as she leapt five steps at a time, bouncing back and forth across one side of the spiraling stairs, to the other, using her momentum with each leap to bound her higher.

  Everyone in the room stood stunned as they stared up at Aline. Gordon and Ellice raced after her, up the seemingly endless stone steps. Gordon looked at the circular walls as they got higher. At regular places, built into the stone, Gordon saw the devices. Black pipe-like shapes were built into the stone itself. There was no way to remove them, they would have to catch the mad queen mother. They raced up the tower.

  * * *

  Deep under water Ardrell looked straight ahead. Holding firmly to her reigns, she breathed as thinly as she could under the intense pressure. Ardrell had never been down so far, not for this long. She had tested her equipment, and it had always served her well, but as the tight walls seemed to close around her, she wasn't sure if she could make it through. She had to trust in her Jhalgon friend. She focused on her instincts, since all the light had faded. Ardrell could not see in the dark, but her Jhalgon could.

  The total darkness did not slow down her friend at all. The wings wrapped around the creature, the beast spinning every which way, navigating by something Ardrell would never understand. All she had to do was hold on. Trying to focus on keeping her breath steady, she saw the darkness become steadily lighter and lighter. It shouldn't be long now.

  Ardrell hoped she wasn't too late.

  * * *

  The lifting platform was nearly to the top of the tower. Crys held her child in her arms, “My child, my life. This will be over soon, and we will be with the gods, where we belong.”

  “Mother, I feel… my head no longer aches. It has hurt for so long. Could the boy be right? Could they help me?”

  Crys's voice was calm with motherly love, “The peace you feel, my child, is the peace of knowing that you will be with your fellow gods soon. Your brother will be there too, an empty chair for you next to him.”

  “But the healing oil. The boy…”

  “The boy tried to poison you, my child,” said Crys, “but you are a god. Nothing can stop the change now.”

  “Oh mother. Oh mother.” Tears ran from the girl's eyes.

  Crys wiped them away. “A god never fears what comes next. Quiet now my child.” Crys knew this moment would come. As it arrived, she felt a touch of relief. But a small doubt climbed the walls of her mind.

  The platform rolled to a stop, reaching the top of the tower. Aline was almost to them and leapt up the final steps. When Crys saw her she let out an inhuman hiss. She put down her daughter on the upper level of the stone steps, and the girl clung to the wall, trying not to look down to the bottom of the tower.

  Aline had drawn her longknife, and breathed heavily, focusing on Crys. Aline was near the final three steps when the mother reached high on the wall and found what she was looking for. The torch was lifted from the wall, and Crys lit the pipe. She flung the black weapon at Aline. She ducked as it sailed past, bounced off the wall and hit the edge of the stone steps just behind her. A loud blast sounded as part of the stone steps blew away near Aline's feet. She almost dropped her knife and tried to keep her balance as she nearly toppled backwards. She righted herself and was able to jump the gap backwards. She found the step, but lost her footing, and yelled out in anger as she rolled down two, five, ten stairs trying to stop herself. Her knife slanged to the steps below her.

  The Queen went to the ladder that led to the top hatch, and the roof. She flung open the door. Aline had stopped tumbling and got back on her feet, finding her mother's longknife.

  Crys held the torch and helped her daughter climb up the ladder to the roof, closing the hatch door to the roof. She was frustrated to realize that it did not have a lock. Crys stood on the hatch door hoping her weight would be enough until her work was done.

  Her daughter looked at the view from the tower. She hadn't been allowed outside for so long, she smelled the clean forest air. It had stopped raining some time before. She stared curiously at the spider web of chains. Then she saw the bundle. At the edge of the roof, a small bundle was lying under a shroud, surrounded by the blue flowers that grew around the tower. The shape under the cloth could only be that of a body.

  The girl went and lay down next to it. She knew it must be her twin brother. So small, she thought. Her mother looked at her children, a tear coming to her eye. The doubt threatened to seize her again, but she flung it from her mental walls. “Soon, my children. We will sit in the Kingdom of the Gods together.”

  * * *

  Below, Gordon and Ellice made it to Aline.

  “Are you alright?” Gordon asked.

  Aline yelled back, “I can't hear you.” Gordon saw there was blood coming from her ear. They had heard the explosion and narrowly avoided the rubble that rained down and realized it must've been right next to Aline.

  Ellice stretched out her hand to Aline's ear, but Aline pushed it away, “No time! Up!” she yelled much too loudly. They all rushed up the stairs.

  They got to the gap in the stairs that had been blown away and jumped over it carefully. Aline could not hear anything but ringing, like her head had been placed inside a bell. She pointed up to the ladder and they started to climb.

  * * *

  On the roof of the tower, the queen lay with her children, and stroked her daughter's face, the torch resting in a holder on the edge.

  “Mother,” the girl said, turning away from what used to be her brother, “you don't have to do this. I think… I think I should go with them to see if they can help me.”

  Crys let her silent tears drop, motioning for her daughter to be quiet, stroking her hair.

  “Mother, please don't do this.” The girl cried.

  “My child, my love. All I've ever wanted for you was to escape the fate this world had for you. Only by becoming a god can you move on. We ran out of stone to finish the tower to your fellow gods, but there is another way. I will bring the tower to the gods when I light these,” she pointed to the black pipes built into the stone. “I made this tower for us to get to
the gods.”

  The girl sobbed uncontrollably. “Mother, it's not too late. Let them help me. I want to go with them.”

  Like waves crashing over the queen's face, a mixture of horror, anger, sadness and fear tried to take residence at the same time. Crys stood up, grabbed the torch and held it high.

  Behind her a great noise erupted from the cliff. From below the tower, a great rush of water flung upward, encircling the giant beast. It made a terrible sound as the mother pivoted around wildly, partly from the shock of noise but mostly from the giant shadow the monster made on her tower. The beast's wings were fully extended, flapping toward them, keeping itself in the air. A fine mist of river water hit them in the face as the giant Jhalgon and her rider came closer.

  Crys lost her balance as the door under her feet pushed her upward and she fell to the top of the tower. The flaming torch flew from her hand as Aline, Gordon, and Ellice came through the hatch. The torch touched the inside wall of the tower. They heard a strange pop and sizzling, like the sound of fat dropping onto an open flame. Gordon rush to the torch and threw it over the side of the tower.

  He listened and heard the sizzling sound inside the wall. He could not see what was making the sound, but knew it wasn't good. Gordon listened against the stone and followed the sound for a few feet, as it made its way around the inside of the tower wall. He was sure it was connected to the explosive weapons but had no idea how long they had. Mother and daughter were on their feet again as the beast came closer to the top the tower.

  Queen Crys was mesmerized, frozen, terrified by the beast only feet from her. Gordon pulled hard on the Queen's shoulder, “How long do we have?”

  “Not… not long…” Crys seemed to be lost in her own fear, …a few moments perhaps.” The Queen bent down and took her daughter, the skeleton that she believed was meant to become a god, and kissed her on the forehead, then hugged her tightly. She pulled back and looked in her daughter's face, “My child. My child, your eyes…” There had been dark circles under the girl's eyes for weeks, her sockets had seemed to pull the eyes deeper into her skull. Now, her eyes looked better. She saw more of the daughter she thought she had already lost.