Fel let me spend the night, but come the morning I was off. Interestingly, the way they did it was to have Joseph open a portal to Aryanna’s sphere with Aryanna’s and Circe’s help. Dezba and I had already gated there directly with our respective god’s help. I think the whole process probably took an hour.
“Okay,” Circe told us as we stood out in front of her home, Joseph was now a lion, apparently they both liked him like that. “I will be turning you both into giant eagles. You will fly to the next sphere and from there you will fly to where Aryanna has told you that Stephanie now is. Once you get there, shifting to your champion form will break the spell.”
We both nodded.
“Don’t worry about knowing how to fly, that is part of the spell.”
“What about our armor and weapons?” I asked. We were both now kitted out in rather nice sets of hard leather that Aryanna's church guard had provided us along with new swords and such.
“Those will also be taken care of by the spell.”
“Thank you, Circe,” Dezba said.
“Yes, thank you, Circe,” I echoed.
“You’re welcome. And if you ask my opinion, you’ll get rid of that Cenewyg person the first chance you get. Now him I’d like to get into my personal realm for a few days,” and the look she gave made Dezba and I both shiver.
Circe waved a hand and suddenly everything looked and felt rather different.
“Well off you go!” She said smiling.
Eleven
Flying was different. It was also a lot of fun.
“She doesn’t like Cen much, does she?” Dezba said after we flew through the portal. I was surprised that we were able to talk to each other like this.
“I think she only likes me because I’m part cat now.”
“What about Joseph?”
“Well, he’s already convinced as to the ‘natural order of things.’” I laughed.
“Yeah, Cen is definitely not one of those.”
We flew on in quiet for quite a while then. Aryanna had told us where Stephanie and Cenewyg were at this point, and it wasn’t good. We’d left them nineteen days ago and in that time they’d been forced to go ashore and look for rations again. They were near the next portal, but for some reason they needed to get food now before going through it.
While looking for what food they could find, they were attacked by a group of locals; unfortunately this group was being led by the local champion. At this point they were holed up in a cave and hoping the locals would get bored and go away.
It was dark when we got there, we could see the campfires of the group that was waiting outside the cave. There really was quite a few of them.
“This isn’t going to be easy,” Dezba said as we circled the area, high enough not to be heard. At least we could see well enough in the moonlight.
“Well, you know what they say,” I said flexing my talons; I wondered just how much weight a giant eagle could carry.
“No, I don’t know what they say.”
“Death from above!” I laughed and tucking my wings, I dove.
Coming out of the dive I leveled off and talons leading I was able to grab one of the defenders that was on guard and pick him up. THAT was quite a shock when I hit him, my body kept moving and I had to start flapping like crazy as his body swung beneath me, obviously snatching prey off of the ground wasn’t as easy as I had thought!
I think I got up to a couple hundred feet before he started to struggle, I guess my hit had stunned them. So I just let him go and wheeled over to my right to try and grab another one.
I managed to pick off that one and one more, before the alarm was raised in camp. Dezba had gotten five total, but then she had been smarter than me. She’d picked them up by their heads, which had wrung their necks and killed them instantly.
We dropped in amongst them then and shifted to our champion forms, and drawing our weapons, the fight was on.
It started off as a slaughter, it was dark and we could see in it rather well, also we had a considerable advantage, and it wasn’t just our strength as they were all about twelve feet tall.
We had depth perception. They were cyclops, all of them. In the dark they had very little in the way of visual cues to judge distance and so we were able to use that to great advantage. Their leader quickly saw the way things were going and started to pull his people back as Stephanie and Cenewyg sallied forth from the cave they’d been in and joined us.
“How did the two of you get here?” Cenewyg asked us looking rather surprised.
“Magic,” Dezba said, “Now let’s get out of here before they have time to regroup.”
“We still need more food!”
“Well, we’re not going to get it here, so let’s go!” She snarled at him.
“Yes, let’s get back to the boat, if it’s still there,” Stephanie agreed and took the lead.
“How far is the boat?” Dezba asked.
“Couple of hours run.”
“Why the hell so far?” Dezba asked annoyed.
“We wanted to make sure we had a good place to hide it. Then we just kept coming up without finding anything until we ran across this lot. Found quite a few sheep and a few shepherds along the way, but apparently they don’t like humans, well other than to eat I suppose.”
“Yeah, Cyclops are flesh eaters and they have a taste for humans,” I said. “We really need to get away from here and just sail through to the next sphere.”
“But we need food!” Cenewyg complained.
“What’s wrong with getting it in the next sphere?” Dezba asked.
“Yes, Cen, what is wrong with the next sphere?” I asked him as Stephanie picked up the pace and we all started to jog.
“It’s just best we don’t leave anything to chance, that’s all, we don’t know what the next sphere holds.”
“We didn’t know what this sphere held either until we got here,” Dezba said, “this is just another one of those long and horribly obnoxious odysseys that the gods and goddesses all love so much!”
Cenewyg stumbled then and I almost stumbled as well. Sireens, women singing by the shore, Circe, now cyclops, this wasn’t Jason and the freaking Argonauts! This was the Odyssey! Homer’s Odyssey! I wracked my brain and tried to remember what came next; we were obviously heading the other way than in the story, so Troy was the goal, or someplace near Troy, I guessed.
I kept my face blank, I was sure Cenewyg was looking at me to see if I had figured it out as I thought about it a few minutes. Eventually I remembered: the Lotus Eaters were next. I glanced back at Cenewyg, he knew where we were going all right, but none of this gave me any clue as to what we might be looking for.
Or why his knowing mattered.
We ran the rest of the night in silence; I could see Stephanie looked worried. Considering some of the looks Dezba was giving Cenewyg, I guess I could understand why.
The ship was fine, and when we got onboard, I immediately set to rigging the sails and getting us out of there. I’m sure we’d been followed and I was sure they’d show up eventually. I wanted us to be underway by then. There was a champion out there and I wasn’t sure he was going to just let us go.
“Steph!” I called once I got us underway.
“Yes?” She asked coming over to me.
“Which way to the portal?”
“From here? Northwest by west should get us close enough to feel it.”
I nodded and spun the wheel, which would take us quickly away from the shore.
“But we’re still debating it.”
“Why?” I asked and then lowered my voice; Dezba and Cen were having a rather heated conversation over the food issue. “Do you know where we’re going next?”
“Umm,” she hesitated.
“Dammit, Steph, don’t start doing this to me now. I only got to spend a few hours with Rachel and I haven’t seen Darlene in months! I sure as hell don’t want to be here, and I sure don’t give a flying fuck about whatever the hell it is we
’re after,” I said angrily. “I’m here for you, I’m here for Ary, and I’m here for Fel. Now either level with me or let me go home. I’m not in love with myself like Cen, you of all people should know that. So just level with me, do you know what’s coming next?”
“Yes, I do.”
“So why is food such an issue?”
“Because it’s all drugged.”
“All or just some?”
“All.”
“Are you sure of that?” I asked.
Steph stared at me. “What aren’t you telling me?”
“Homer’s tale stated that only the people who ate the lotus became drugged. You can eat the food that’s left on the boat, the rest of us will eat what’s there and avoid the lotus completely and as much of the other plants as much as possible.”
“How long have you known, Will?” She asked sounding concerned.
“Just figured it out, I thought we were going for the Golden Fleece or some such thing until something Dezba said jarred it all loose.”
Stephanie gave a long sigh and looked at the other two who were still arguing. “I wish I knew what was up with Cen.”
“You loved him, didn’t you?”
Stephanie gave me a sharp glance
“Oh please, I know you have feelings for me, or at least had as recently as back in Sireen,” I said and smirked at her and she actually blushed.
“Cen doesn’t love you anymore, Steph,” I said softly.
“And you know this how?” She retorted.
“Because if he still did, you wouldn’t have taken that tone of voice just now.”
“Maybe you’re just jealous?”
“I feel about you the way you feel about him, Steph,” I told her.
“And how would you know about that?” She said glaring.
“Because I spent three months as a woman being very intimate with someone who was once the most important person in the world to me.” I said with a sigh looking down at my feet.
She opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it and I could see the anger that had been building in her fade away.
“Is there something you want to tell me?” She asked softly.
“When this is over,” I said and smiled gently at her. “When you’ve gotten your sense of humor back.”
Stephanie smiled at me, “Well at least that doesn’t sound like you’re going to profess your undying love and devotion!”
“Oh you have that already, however you’re after Rachael and Darlene now,” I grinned, “Sorry about that, but I did marry them!”
Stephanie laughed, “Yes, yes you did.” She turned to the other two, “Dezba! Cen!” She shouted and they looked back at us. “We’re making directly for the portal.”
“Are you sure?” Cenewyg asked looking at Stephanie and then me.
“Yes, I’m sure. We’ll deal with the food issue as it comes. Dezba, Will, you two can take the first watch, Cen and I haven’t slept in days so we’ll rest now.”
“Aye, aye, Captain!” I said and saluted.
“Oh shut up,” She laughed and left to go below decks, with Cenewyg following her.
“So what were you two talking about?” Dezba asked coming over and sitting down next to me.
“Noticed that did you?”
“Why do you think I was arguing with Cen? Didn’t want him to overhear whatever you two were going on about.”
“We discussed the food issue mostly, then a few personal things.”
“Oh yeah, Cen would have just loved that!” Dezba laughed.
“Sometimes I wonder what the people he’s a champion for are like, what his god is like. He’s not the sharing and caring kind after all.”
Dezba laughed, “Most champions are pretentious assholes, Will.”
I raised an eyebrow and looked at her, “Really? Steph isn’t, you sure don’t seem to be.”
She shrugged, “I used to be, but I grew up. Steph either never was or grew out of it long before I met her. What about you?”
I grinned, “I have my moments, but I think Aryanna or Fel would bring me up rather short if I ever took on airs.”
“I think Cen set us up at that farm,” Dezba said surprising me.
“Why makes you say that?”
“That valve didn’t break by itself; somebody broke it in order to ruin enough of the food so we’d have to stop. Remember how Joseph said that Cen knew where we are going?”
“He said he thought Cen knew where we were going,” I corrected.
“Then how does he know that food is going to be an issue in the next sphere? And if he does know, he had to have known that the giants we ran into, as well as those cyclops having a taste for human flesh. Hell, you even knew that about the cyclops!”
I thought about that, she had a point, and as I recalled what I knew about Homer’s tale, I did seem to recall that bit. And then of course Circe had warned us about cannibals as well. And Cenewyg knew that I had been told by Stephanie to keep him alive because she believed he knew where we were going as well.
“Do you know where we’re going?” Dezba asked rather pointedly.
“I suspect, I don’t know,” I told her. “All of this is part of the mythology of our world, well the Greek mythology,” I corrected when I saw her about to interrupt. “Which of course is why you don’t know any of it.
“So you really think Cen’s trying to kill us off?”
Dezba nodded. “Yes, and I think he was hoping to get Stephanie killed off in that search for food of theirs when we showed up. He didn’t exactly look happy to see us. Surprised? Yes. Happy? No.”
“So what do we do then?”
“Kill him obviously.” She said with a rather nasty smile.
“Can’t,” I sighed.
“Why not?”
“Because then all the gods of the realms he passes through can pick his brains and figure out where we’re going and maybe even what Aryanna has us looking for.”
She scowled and thought about that. “Yeah, you’re right. So what do we do?”
I shrugged, “Still thinking about that one. For all we know he may just be trying to one up all of us and curry favor with Aryanna over the rest of us.”
Dezba nodded slowly as she thought about that, “Yeah, he is petty enough to do something like that.”
We sailed for a while quietly thinking about that.
“Two things occur to me,” She said after a few hours.
“Oh? And what would those two things be?”
“Well, the first is that you’re in the same boat as Cen now.”
I looked at her surprised, “How so?”
“Well you know where we’re going, so it would probably be best that you didn’t get killed again.”
I laughed at that, “Maybe, but I have no idea at all what we’re going after.”
She nodded, “Fair point.”
“What’s the other thing?”
“I think that’s a ship heading for us,” she said and pointed off the starboard beam.
I looked over and swore. “Damn and they’re coming at us rather fast too.”
“How far is the portal?”
“No idea.”
“Guess I better go wake the others.”
I nodded, “Guess so.”
“So the portal is at least an hour away,” Stephanie said looking at the other ship.
“And they’ll catch us in about half that,” I said looking over at the other ship. It was fairly large, a lot larger than our craft and it had two good-sized square sails, the second one was a good deal larger than the one it sat behind. It also had oars, which were being rowed rather quickly, which was why it was gaining on us.
“So that’s a Trireme, I think it has a ram on the prow at the water line.”
“Probably,” Cenewyg said.
“Looks like about sixty oars on this side,” I said counting. I noticed there were only two rows of oars instead of three and mentioned it.
“Probably because they’
re so large and strong they didn’t need or couldn’t build the third row,” Cenewyg commented.
“So that’s what, one hundred and twenty, plus whatever other crew they have?”
“Rowers don’t fight,” Cenewyg said.
“Sure about that?” Dezba asked as we watched them draw closer.
“Well that’s how the Greeks did it, and if they’re copying the Greeks I’d expect the same behavior. Then again, once we kill the rest of the crew, who knows?”
“How many do you think they have that are fighters?” Stephanie asked looking over the ship like the rest of us. As it was bigger than ours was, we couldn’t see the deck at all.
“After the way we beat them onshore I’d think they’d have as many of them there as they could fit.” Dezba said.
“Well, turn the boat into them and come up along side them. If we let them ram us they’ll destroy the boat. We’ll all climb up the sides and take the fight to them.” Stephanie said looking at us.
“What about the oars?” I asked.
“Dez and Cen and I will stand up front and hack them off with our swords. Hopefully this will slow them down once we’ve done enough damage to sail away.”
I nodded and got ready to turn us about. I had Dezba and Cenewyg drop all but the mainsail. I didn’t need that much speed at this point. I also tied a line to the rail of the ship and tossed it overboard.
“What’s that for?” Stephanie asked.
“In case any of us end up in the water, it’ll be easier to climb back on board.”
“Ah,” she nodded.
“Okay! Coming about!” I called out and turned us into the other ship. We could hear yelling and orders as soon as they realized what we were doing, surprisingly the top row of oars all stopped and they were pulled inside as the lower rows slowed.
“This is going to get nasty really quickly,” Dezba said and then swore as they all took their stations up by the bow.
I was too busy trying to keep us from getting rammed as they did try to turn into us, but our shorter length kept them from being able to turn inside us and do that. As we finally managed to come along side of them the hull of our boat started to snap the oars of the lower row that were still out, which helped slow us. Then several grappling hooks came over the side and hooked to the rails of our boat as they pulled us closer.
Portals of Infinity: Book Two: The God Game Page 14