Incarnations of Immortality

by Anthony, Piers

  She frowned. "Babylonia is a bit out of my regular territory; but from all I understand, it is no shining example of decency. But then, neither is Persia. It was an awful mess, extricating the captive threads of over a hundred western hostages from that country. A pox on both their houses."

  "Why are you so eager to save their children, then?" "I could say that it is because some of those children are mine, holding western beliefs in their secret hearts. That, certainly, is what first alerted me to this problem and brought me here. But once I saw the full horror of it, I knew I had to act to protect all those children; I don't care what their beliefs are. They don't deserve to die in a stupid war fashioned by fanatic adults. I don't care how complicated it is, those children have to be saved."

  Mym discovered that he was coming to like this woman's attitude. He had never had much to do with children, but certainly they represented any nation's hope for the future. "I agree that the children are not responsible for this war," he sang. "I would prefer to see those who cause wars have to serve on the front lines."

  Lachesis laughed. And suddenly he placed that nagging recognition: he had known someone who laughed like that! "That would end this war in a hurry, wouldn't it!"

  "Are you from Ireland?" Mym asked.

  She glanced at him, surprised. "This Aspect is. Of course, now I serve a wider clientele. Why do you ask?"

  "I knew a woman from Ireland, a beautiful and good woman, and your hair, your face-I think in youth you must have looked very much like her."

  "I have come to distrust coincidence, since assuming this office," she said. "Did Satan have a hand in your ascension?"

  "He helped eliminate the former Mars, if that's what you mean. But he didn't have any hand in my actual selection."

  "Are you sure? Why were you ready for this office, at the appropriate time?"

  "I had been denied my fiancée, owing to an abrupt change of political circumstance, and-" He broke off.

  "Does Satan dabble in politics?"

  "Does a fish breathe water?" She fixed her gaze intently on him. "That woman you knew-did she sing?"

  Mym spread his hands. "I never heard more beautiful music. She had a little harp-"

  "Orb!"

  "Orb," he agreed. "You know her?"

  "I am her mother."

  Mym was stunned. Now the hair, features, accent, and laugh all came clear-like mother, like daughter. But what an amazing coincidence, that he should encounter the mother of his former lover!

  Coincidence? "You said you distrust coincidence," he sang. "Because you arrange much of what to mortals appears to be coincidence. Do others do the same?"

  "They shouldn't, but one does."

  "Satan."

  "Satan," she agreed. "I very much think he has been interfering again. What reason could he have had to want you in this office?"

  "Apart from my inexperience that he might take advantage of, I can think of none."

  "But you know my daughter."

  "I loved your daughter. But circumstances forced our separation, and now I love Rapture. This was no design of mine, or fault in Orb; it-" He shrugged. "It happened."

  "And Orb loved you?"

  "Yes. But she knew why I had to leave her, and I think by now she has made her own life. She was-is a wonderful person."

  "Is it possible that Satan was jealous of you?"

  Mym broke into a stuttering laugh. "For what possible reason?"

  "Because my daughter loved you."

  That sobered him. "Satan-has an interest in Orb?"

  Lachesis pursed her lips. "Possibly, in his devious fashion. Satan-well, he once expressed interest in me, when I was young and attractive. I was said by some to be the most beautiful woman of my generation, and males are attracted to that sort of thing. Orb is not far off that standard and she inherited that phenomenal musical talent from her father's side of the family. Satan tried to prevent her from getting her harp, and her cousin Luna from-"

  "Luna!"

  "My granddaughter."

  "Your-! But-"

  She smiled. "I bore Luna's father in my youth, and Orb later. It is complicated. We raised the two girls together, and they were like sisters. Now-"

  "But Luna does not resemble Orb! Both are beautiful women, but the manner, the bones, the hair-" But he knew as he spoke that the two did resemble each other, and that was the undefined thing he had been aware of in Luna.

  "Luna dyed her hair brown and adopted different ways. That, too, is complicated to explain. At any rate, Luna is slated to balk Satan's grand design to assume greater power on Earth, and Satan has been laboring mightily to eliminate her. But she is protected by Thanatos, so he must be roundabout. Orb, however, is not so protected, so he may have mischief in mind for her, to put pressure on me and on Luna. And-I dislike saying this-he may have a certain personal interest in Orb, because it seems he is partial to that type of woman. That might be a ruse, of course. At any rate, if any of this conjecture of mine is true, Satan might resent whatever man Orb took an interest in and act to eliminate that man." Mym was appalled. "Could-could Satan arrange to have a prince killed?"

  "Surely so. Satan can arrange evil for any person not protected by another Incarnation."

  "It was my brother's untimely death that caused my separation from Orb," Mym sang, shaking with shock and anger. "He was to be Rajah: when he died, I had to assume that office. So I was denied Orb and given Rapture, against my will. The circumstances of my love for-"

  "No mystery," Lachesis said. "Rapture is lovely."

  "And you were going to km her!" he sang, suddenly enraged at her.

  "No. .It was a bluff to make my point."

  "You made it! I would not allow Rapture to be hurt."

  "And Orb-if Satan threatened her, now-?"

  Mym spread his hands. "I did not lose my feeling for her, when I came to love Rapture. I-would be vulnerable."

  "Well, don't worry. I am watching Orb's thread. Satan can not interfere directly with it without alerting me, and if I can't protect her, the other Incarnations will help me. Satan knows that. I suspect that it was the other way around; he was trying to use you to hurt her. I wasn't watching your thread, and certainly not your brother's thread."

  "And Satan was pretending to be my friend!" Mym gritted.

  "He does that. Never trust him; he always has some devious scheme brewing."

  "But-once he had taken me away from Orb-why would he try to separate me also from Rapture?"

  "To make you angry enough to qualify for the office of the Incarnation of War."

  "But why would he want me in that office? I could not do him much mischief before, but now-" Mym considered, and realized that he didn't know how he might harm Satan. "Surely I am, or will be, more of a threat to him now, as an Incarnation."

  "One would think so. But of course you weren't supposed to know about his machinations in your life-if, indeed, we have conjectured correctly. Only our meeting here has clarified that."

  "He had to know I would in time recognize the mother of the woman I once loved!"

  She sighed. "Yes, I suppose so. I suspect that we have not yet properly fathomed Satan's mischief. We must be alert for it. Satan never exerts himself without bad reason." She smiled briefly. "But we have drifted from the topic. How can we abate this battle or this war?"

  "By putting the one who started it on the front line," Mym sang. "We had agreed on that."

  She considered. "I had thought we were joking. But now I wonder. Why not put that man here?"

  "Because it would be murder. You don't approve of that."

  "And you do?"

  "I would call it an execution. If the life of that one guilty man could cause the lives of the remaining children to be spared, I would gladly destroy him."

  She grimaced. "Then I leave it in your hands." She converted to her spider form and vanished.

  So quickly! Yet they had come to an agreement, and if she, like many of her sex, lacked the stomach for what was n
ecessary, it made sense to leave it in the hands of one who could handle it.

  Mym withdrew from the boy and mounted his horse, leaving the battle frozen. They galloped across the terrain of Babylonia, seeking the palace of the ruler of the nation. This took time-but it didn't matter, for the battle was not operative. Mym located the man and, without ceremony, set a hand on his shoulder. This brought the man into Mym's magic frame; he disappeared from the eyes of mortals and was carried through the air, through the walls, and into the sky.

  Mym set him down on the battlefield, directly in the path of the boy he had inhabited before. Then he released the stasis.

  The battle resumed. The pieces of bodies completed their flights through the air and socked into the ground. The boy, boosted by the blast behind him, stumbled, caught his balance-and spied the gesticulating enemy before him.

  The boy reacted automatically. He stopped, raised his rifle, sighted, and fired.

  Whether his bullet scored was doubtful; good marksmanship was unlikely in such circumstance. But his action alerted the other boys of this region. They stopped, raised their rifles, and fired. Several bullets tore into the man, and he screamed and fell.

  The boys charged up, saw the man's face, and exclaimed with amazement. They had seen that face before; it had been on posters used for hate training. They cried the name.

  A Persian officer spied the commotion and chanced his hide by coming to investigate. He, too, recognized the casualty. He gave orders, and the boys took hold of the corpse and dragged it back up the hill. The body was heavy, but there were many hands; few were slow to realize that this detail was taking them away from the worst danger. The battle, such as it was, dissolved.

  Mym watched from his steed, invisibly. He saw them get the body into a bunker. He saw the boy he had occupied identified as the soldier who had killed this horrendous enemy. The boy was an instant hero, given a commendation and sent to the rear to report to higher authorities. He would be safe-and neither he nor his mother would suffer further privation.

  Persia had said, publicly and often, that it would carry on the war until this enemy leader was deposed. Suddenly the man was dead. The stated reason for the war had been eliminated. The attack was called off, and a de facto truce developed.

  No more children would die for a while. Perhaps the war would now be allowed to end, and the recovery could begin.

  Mym wasn't sure what the final judgment might be on his method of stopping this war, but he was satisfied. He had not only accomplished his objective, he had learned another way to make his position effective.

  10 - THANATOS

  Concerned by what Fate had told him of Satan's designs, Mym tried to talk to Rapture about it that night. "I think you would be better off with Luna in the mortal realm," he sang. "Since you can still readily spend the nights with me, here, the separation is really not that onerous."

  "With the cousin of the woman you loved before me?" she inquired bitter sweetly.

  Ouch! "Who informed you of that?"

  "Lila, of course."

  "Lila-the creature of Satan."

  "She's an interesting woman. She will make you an excellent concubine."

  "I'm not so sure I want a demoness for a concubine. She surely serves the interests of Satan before mine." "You don't like the notion of any woman serving any interest before yours?"

  This was not the type of question Rapture had asked before this. Mym wasn't sure he liked the change. "I don't like the notion of being that close to a creature provided by the Incarnation of Evil."

  "Oh, pooh!" she said. "Lila isn't evil! She's an educated woman."

  "What is she doing in Hell, then?"

  "She says it was a bum rap."

  "A what?"

  "A bum rap. A false charge. A misunderstanding. Before she realized, she was in Hell and couldn't get out. So she makes the best of it."

  " It still sounds suspicious to me. She's a demoness." 'Oh, don't be such a fuddy-duddy!" 'A what?"

  " An old-fashioned bore."

  " It sounds like reduplicating echoism to me. This occidental slang does not become you. Rapture. Don't forget you are a princess."

  "Was a princess. Now I'm a woman. And so is Lila.

  Oh, the things I am learning from her!"

  "Like what, apart from gossip and slang?"

  "Like this," she said, and kissed him in a fashion that made his skin heat.

  "You're coming on like a concubine!" he protested.

  "I'm coming on like a woman who is learning what it's all about."

  "A princess does not need to know what it's all about!"

  "But a woman does. Lila is certainly right about that."

  "I really think you would be better off with Luna Kaftan."

  "Luna is a fine woman, and I like her-but now that I know how similar she is to your former love, I prefer to keep my distance from her-and your distance too. It's enough trouble adapting to this new lifestyle without having to worry about what's going on in your mind."

  He found that concern singularly difficult to address. He felt no romantic attraction for Luna, but it was true that his new knowledge of her relation to Orb worked a subtle effect on him. Where was Orb now? How had she fared, after he had deserted her? Had the ring enabled her to cope adequately? She had been a western woman, and he had loved her; now Rapture was assuming some western attributes, and he did not find them appealing in her. Perhaps there was justice in her disinclination to remain with Luna.

  "Well, perhaps you could stay with another mortal woman," he suggested.

  "Why? I like it here. The food is good, the grounds are beautiful, and Lila is a fine companion. Soon she is going to take me to visit Hell."

  "To visit Hell!" he exclaimed in singsong, almost choking. "I don't want you going near that place!"

  "You prefer that I sit in the castle all day, sewing handkerchiefs?"

  He sighed. It was true that there was not a lot for her to do here in Purgatory. "Perhaps you could find something to do in the mortal realm to keep you busy. I'm sure Luna would-"

  "Her, again. She seems much on your mind."

  Unfortunately true, after the dialogue with Fate. He had never expected to be thrown into the company of Orb's close relatives. But because he had known Orb well, he trusted those relatives. And he wanted to get Rapture away from the insidious influence of Satan. "I just feel that Satan means to do you some mischief, and it would devastate me to have that happen."

  She softened. "That's an unprincely thing to say. Why don't you just order me to do what you wish?"

  "Because I love you."

  "You know that's a decadent Western concept." But she could not suppress her pleasure. "I will seek some mortal employment."

  "That pleases me." Then they made love, and all was good.

  The next situation requiring the personal attention of Mars was in Latin America. Conquest, Slaughter, Famine and Pestilence were eager to get to work, but Mym lacked proper enthusiasm. Increasingly he was wondering whether he was the proper man for this office. He had been trained for command and for war, but he took no special joy in it, especially not in pointless bloodshed. He would prefer to abolish war. But there was the conflict of interest, because, if he succeeded, he would lose the office-and where would he be then? Locked into this alien Afterlife, his mortal life completed. What chance at the ultimate relief of nirvana would he have then?

  He had learned that new Incarnations had a period of apprenticeship or trial, after which they could voluntarily give up the offices. Perhaps it would be best for him to do that-to step down when that chance came. Would that return him to mortal status? He suspected so. But what offered then? Would he have to resume his position as Heir-Prince to Gujarat, displacing the man he had established in his place and marrying the Princess of Rajasthan? That would be horrible!

  Suppose he could step into the mortal world in some other capacity? Become a new person in the occidental world? That had its appeal. But what would
he do? He was trained to be a prince, and that was not a preferred employment in the west. Also, he was a stutterer. He had made it on singsong well enough, but that was in large part because he had held positions of extreme power, both as Prince and as the Incarnation of War. Others did not laugh at the powerful; they accommodated their idiosyncrasies. But if he tried to assume an unpowerful position-

  No, he would have to make do with the situation he had, try to be the best Mars he could be and, if he succeeded in abolishing war, to retire to whatever the Afterlife offered. This was not a bad existence, really. He could emulate Musashi, author of Five Rings, learning to prevail through humility and hard work.

  That book spelled out the Way to learn the author's strategy very simply and directly, in the section on the Ground: to think honestly; to train, to learn every art and know the Ways of all professions; to distinguish between gain and loss, develop intuitive judgment, perceiving what could not be seen; to pay attention even to trifles, and to do nothing that was of no use; in sum, to be honest and perceptive and purposeful throughout life. So easy to read and to agree with, but sometimes so hard to honor! How would Musashi have handled the situation with Rapture?

  Mym sighed. As far as he could tell, the great Japanese Samurai had never married or formed any significant relation with a woman. Perhaps he had been most practical of all in that!

  They arrived at the site. It was a jungle. Lush tropical growth spread all about. "What's the situation?" Mym asked.

  "Muddled," Conquest replied. "This is a guerrilla war, festering for a number of years. I was surprised when it died down at the time of your ascension, because the underlying causes had not changed."

  "Satan had a hand in that," Mym sang. "He didn't like my predecessor."

  "True. But Satan's grudges are legion."

  "So we don't really know how things are faring, here, because guerrilla warfare is not open and measurable," Mym said. "We only know that there will be bloodshed, much of it by innocents."

  "Yeah!" Slaughter said raptly.

  "But there is a strong indication that something of extreme significance is about to occur at this site," Conquest said. "That's why this action requires our personal supervision."