by Mark Eller
The similian’s cat eyes narrowed as she looked Ani over, but Sulya’s sly quirky smile remained. “So, are your wards properly attired?” Not a trace of anger showed in the similian’s voice, but Ani knew the bitch was royally pissed.
Ani shivered. How could Calto allow this woman to be a knight of Anothosia? Was the man blind. Nothing about Sulya seemed virtuous or kind.
“My wards will shine when they meet the queen.” Calto regained his composure; his gaze cooled. “I will introduce Anithia and Missa to society properly and announce Anithia as the new Lady of the Manor.
A hard thumping in her chest started as Ani’s heart sped up. So it was true. Calto really would name her Lady of Morlon Manor to the entire upper society— including Queen Elise and King Vere. No one would ever look down upon her and Missa again. A smug satisfaction stole over Ani, bringing a sly smile to her face. If she played her cards right, she could have Sulya sent to the furthest ends of the kingdom, far away from Ani and her family. She liked the idea.
Missa gave her hand a light squeeze. Ani looked at her.
Swirling vortexes of white mist stared up from Missa’s eyes. Her feathery brows were knitted together in consternation, and her face wore a soft scowl.
Looking away, Ani swallowed her pride and released her ego, allowing it to deflate.
“Well then, let us be on our way High Priest,” Sulya encouraged. “Dusk will soon be upon us and it’s an hour’s ride to the estate.” Her shapely hips sashayed in a hypnotic sway as Sulya walked to the door.
Damn woman. Even in armor she looked sexy. Bitch.
* * * *
Bitch. Snide, uppity, lowborn piece of garbage. Sulya swore she would wipe the snippy look off Anithia’s face soon enough. And to think she had once felt sorry for her and the wretched child. Well that would all be coming to an end soon, hopefully within a few days if she could manage it.
Sulya hid beneath the study window, listening to Calto and Tessla spill their secrets. If she had known it would be this easy to get them to confess their plans, she would have hidden beneath Calto’s window sooner. Of course, knocking the on-duty guard in the head would have to be explained, but really, what else could she have done. The oaf had looked like an intruder to her, especially after she removed his insignia.
“I know Jolson headed this way,” Tessla insisted. “He has had more than enough time to make the journey. All I’m asking is to be kept informed— to have more eyes looking for him. He must be hidden deep within the city, Lord Morlon. The only other possible explanations are that he died along the way or was captured, two things I refuse to accept. The consequences of either would be worse than dire.”
“I am already stretched too thin, assassin. How do you propose I keep the queen and her unborn son safe from Vere while also trying to stem the tide of hellborn, find the second hellhole, and keep our people from losing faith in the virtuous gods?” Calto’s voice sounded strained, sharp, flying through the window like splintered shards of glass. “Good gods, woman, I have become so desperate I even stooped so low as to recruit street scum to spy on some of Grace’s filth who masquerade as nobles. I have no resources left.”
“The queen is guarded by both Anothosia and Trelsar. Vere is a lost cause. Hell has already been unleashed, and if we don’t find Jolson, the people’s faith won’t matter.” Tessla voice remained low, controlled.
Heavy footsteps from within approached the window. Sulya tensed. Calto’s broad shouldered shadow cast itself in stark relief upon the ground before her. If he leaned over, even a small amount, she would be caught and hunted down, her plans ruined. She knew she had fallen under great suspicion when she was demoted after Larson’s death. Worse yet, Calto had thrown her from his bed and ordered his knights to avoid her charms. Just one slip-up, he had promised, one tiny suspicious move, and he would take her head from her shoulders himself.
Sulya held her breath.
For long moments Calto stood above. He starred out into the darkened garden and then sighed deeply. His shadow disappeared.
A slow breath escaped from Sulya’s burning lungs. Close.
“Tessla,” Calto spoke, his voice back under control. “I do not doubt the sincerity or your need to find Jolson, but I have a goddess housed in a ten year old’s body who is unable to reveal herself, much less properly defend herself, until she reaches the Hell Mouth. I also have her mother,” Calto’s voice tightened, “the only other human descendent left who is gifted with Omitan’s song of life. I cannot let anything happen to her in case we need a backup to Missa. She is the only one left, Tessla. Zorce has ruthlessly hunted down and murdered all the others gifted with Omitan’s blood. Even Omitan’s head priest, Parkat Greentimbers, believes none remain.”
Sulya’s eyes widened. Her heart leapt into her throat. Missa? Anothosia resided in the child’s body? And Ani had some sort of gift as well? Understanding came with a rush of exhilaration for she now knew why Calto had kept Missa hidden for so long and why the child and her mother now garnered no less than a four knight escort wherever they went.
Missa was goddess touched— no— she was a goddess’s vessel. How absolutely delightful.
Sulya almost hugged herself as she fought back a laugh. She clamped her hand over her mouth to prevent giving herself away. This was too much. The rewards heaped upon her by sacrificing Missa to Zorce in his temple would be great. Very great. Queen of Hell great. Sulya suppressed another hysterical giggle. Not only would Zorce never let Belthethsia back into Hell, but Sulya would have more than enough pull to dispose of Mercktos.
The thought made her nearly delirious with anticipation. When she reigned in Hell she would make Calto her personal slave. She would make him crawl everywhere he went. The fool would wear holes in his knees right down to the bone.
“Priest, if we fail at one task, we fail at both,” Tessla insisted. “Go retrieve the child and speak to your goddess. Ask her what she would have you do?”
“I am quite capable of making— ”
Sulya snaked her way through the winding garden and then headed for the servants entrance, sending out a mental signal as she did so. The return message was as she expected. The time for eavesdropping was over. She had already gleaned everything important. Now was the time for action.
Sulya frowned, finding herself unhappy with her new orders.
When she arrived at the servant’s entrance, the air took on a fetid stench and wavered as she watched a haze form. From the haze squeezed two demons she knew, both looking less than happy at having to travel through the portal. While Zorce was all powerful, creating portals was still very difficult and energy depleting. In short, portals were unstable, killing more than eighty percent of those attempting to travel by them. After her own experience using a portal, Sulya found herself mildly surprised these first two had made it through alive, although, truth to tell, she didn’t know how many had made the attempt. It could have been dozens. Probably was dozens, because if Ruin and Heinous were all she had to work with she was going to be in very big trouble. Well, since she lacked overwhelming force, she would have to try subtle.
“We have to take the child,” she ordered. “Tonight. Her mother as well.”
The tallest of the two, Heinous, a red almost-man thing with both tusks and fangs protruding from thick, cracked lips, narrowed his orange lizard shaped eyes. “Why have you summoned us here? What is so important Zorce risked opening a doorway onto sacred land? Have you any idea how many of our brethren were lost?”
Sulya gritted her teeth. This was extremely impromptu and just as deadly; if one of the guards wandered by it would be over for them all very swiftly. “Zorce feels this is important enough to take such a risk. It is his will that you are here.” His will, yes, and his orders. If Sulya had known Zorce would demand they take both the child and mother tonight she would have delayed sending him the message. Then again, if she had delayed, it might just have pissed him off enough to make him cut something non vital from her body. By
Zorce’s way of figuring, a person could live and do their job without an arm or a leg, especially if the missing parts eventually grew back. Sulya knew it was better to face a knight’s ire than her god’s wrath.
“Two?” Ruin asked. “Both in one night?”
“Both,” Sulya agreed with a nod. When Anithia and her brat were finally delivered to Sulya’s god, they would be sacrificed to Zorce and their essence drained. Adding their power to the dark god’s own would ensure a swift victory and an end to the other usurper gods for good.
“This manor isfull of knights bearing Anothosia’s blessing. We are but two demons.”
The air shimmered again next to where the last portal had opened, but this time the portal was a dense oval so dark it seemed like nothing existed within. From the emptiness a cold, toneless voice emerged, wrapping itself around Sulya like icy fingers.
“You will have more than enough help for this night.”
Face as pale as death, Mercktos materialized from the void, pulling the darkness with him, wrapping it about his body like a well worn coat. His armor molded itself to him as if it were his skin, flexible, supple, and indestructible. “We go now while Tessla is busy with Calto. Where is Lady Morlon’s room?”
Fury gripped Sulya. Why was he here? Did he think to steal her thunder and make her look incompetent to her god? She gritted her teeth and spoke in an angry whisper. “Opening another portal was stupid. You could have already alerted those within, especially with the kind of power you wield. You’re an unnecessary risk, Mercktos. I can handle this. We seek to steal a child and a woman, not an army of hellhounds. You’ll bring the whole house down upon our heads with your ham-handed, unsubtle ways.Leave!”
The darkness that was Mercktos stepped closer. The odor of sandalwood and sulfur mixed in the chill night air as he leaned his head closer to hers. Black eyes turned reptilian, teeth elongated to serrated needle fangs, and his face broadened. The devil’s long eloquent nose disappeared in a smooth ripple of scales, becoming two thin slits. Dark, leathery wings sprang from his back, blocking what little light the night had to offer. “I come and go as our dark god commands. This is where he commanded me to be. Take it up with him.”
He stepped around her, shoving Sulya to the side as he passed. The demons parted. The servant’s door opened by itself without a sound, and Mercktos disappeared into the darkness.
* * * *
Anithia stood in her bedroom admiring a recently completed gown. Twirling once, she admired the way it arced in a shimmer of blue and silver patterns. Surely she had the most beautiful gowns in all of Grace for the harvest ball. She would look spectacular; even more beautiful than the queen, who seemed ready to bust with satisfaction, likely because of the news the maids had told Ani. It was rumored Elise carried a son, a male heir. If so, one crisis would be over with the inheritance secured and the queen’s marriage safe.
Ani slipped the dress off and slid it back onto the dressing dummy. She pulled on a soft, long, silky pink nightgown and went to sit in front of her mirror. So much healthier she looked now. So did Missa. Since their arrival at Morlon Manor Ani’s laughter had returned. Her once filthy hair had become a lustrous gold; her tired eyes a clear, bright blue. Both Ani and Missa had put on a good twenty pounds…something they had needed.
A small sigh escaped her as she thought back to the ragged condition in which she and Missa had arrived. Their clothes were so threadbare, so unkempt, that the servants had tried to put them to work. Ani blushed at the memory. How embarrassing it had been passing through the unadorned iron and wood gates of Morlon Manor and stepping into a world of utter splendor where everywhere she looked was beauty. She couldn’t have imagined the wealth behind those non-descript barriers when she stepped from the carriage and watched it drive off. Afterward, she had gotten herself straightened around as best she could and then took a long look at her surroundings. Her jaw dropped in awe as she took in the gates.
However plain they had been on the outside, the gates certainly made up for it on the inside. Burnished wood reliefs of oak and walnut stood gleaming in the early morning sun. Intricately wrought carvings of men and women adorned in battle gear, each brandishing a sword or a staff, some standing, some kneeling, stood out upon the side posts and the lower sections of the overhead arch. All these figures gazed up at a large, golden sun with a silver sword and staff crossed in the middle which was located on the arch’s highest peak. This was the Morlon family crest and the sign of Anothosia. The sun, she had once been told, stood for the everlasting light of the Morlon faith, and the sword and the staff were the symbols of the goddess they worshipped, Anothosia. It was incredible.
Once she was done gawping, Ani had turned in dream-like state and started walking toward the front entry; Missa skipped and hummed beside her. The short, curving pathway, she was told by the driver, led to the manor. Broad enough for twenty men to stride upon it shoulder to shoulder, each side was adorned with the sculpted hedges of geese, horses and deer, as well as large pots of late blooming flowers. Beneath her feet were white marble flagstones, each one polished to mirror perfection. Her and Missa’s shoes made a strange clicking noise all the way up the path, the noise seeming out of place with the beautiful songs of the birds flitting in and out of the bushes.
Through the hedges, she had caught a glimpse of the carriage as it left, and thought she saw what might be an even more spacious and beautiful garden off to right side of the house. Looking left, she saw some sort of mock battlefield where priests and priestess’s were wearing training gear, probably waiting for some battle practice to begin.
Ani vowed the practice field was the only part of the manor she would never set foot upon. She would make sure Missa stayed far from the training grounds as well. The garden would suit them better.
When Ani had reached the front entry, she was stunned by yet another incredible sight. The manor’s double doors were made of the same wood as the front gates and carved with the faces of the seven virtuous gods; each face connected to the other’s by thick vines. Oak leaves intermingled in the twining limbs and graceful reliefs. The rest of the house loomed above her like a fortress made, of course, out of cut black granite blocks, with windows large and blocky, arching gracefully upwards. She had always dreamed of living in a house so grand and beautiful and now remembered how worried she had been about feeling out of place. It was a silly fear Ani now realized. For the first two weeks she had practically huddled in her bedroom with Missa before gaining the courage up to stop hiding like a timid mouse.
A light rapping on the window brought her out of her revere. Nervous, she walked to the window, wondering if she should alert her guards, but they would just think her silly. Her room was on the third floor of a highly protected manor. Only a fool would think they could gain entry, especially if the fool drew her attention to his presence by insistently tapping.
But the tapping continued.
Ani squinted at a dark shadow for several moments before deciding some sort of branch had blown onto the window sill. Sighing, she gave a short nervous laugh. Years of living in fear had taken its toll. She was safe within Morlon Manor, protected by guards and Anothosia’s High Priest. No one would dare try anything.
When Ani unlatched the window and pulled it open to rid herself to the annoying branch, a ‘twig’ leapt from the windowsill and scampered under her bed.
Ani froze. And then she screamed.
Her door burst open wide. Two of Calto’s men, Maxlar and Tobin, rushed inside.
“Lady Morlon. What is it?” Tobin, a tall, muscular blond man, was by her side in three long strides. Maxlar, the shorter of the two, scanned the room, sword drawn.
“It’s under there.” Ani pointed frantically at the bed.
Whatever had leapt beneath her bed chittered frantically.
Tobin stood in front of Ani like a human meat shield while Maxlar knelt on the floor, slowly raised the bedspread, and peered beneath the bed. Leaning in closer, he gasped. “To
bin…you won’t believe what I found.” He moved even closer. “Come here…quick.”
Lowering his sword, Tobin hesitated for a moment. “No. Just tell me what it is.”
Maxlar laid his sword on the floor next to him, slow, careful. Crouching beside the bed, he held out his hand, palm upward. “Come on…it’s okay. I give you my word as a Knight of the Order of the Sword and the Staff I will do you no harm.”
Curiosity drug Ani forward.
Tobin touched her arm and shook his head. “I beg of you, wait until it’s safe.”
The urge to go forward and see what Maxlar had found became almost a compulsion, but obeying her protector, Ani stopped. The noises the small animal made seemed to almost make sense, as if she heard it calling her name…begging her to come forward.
The chittering grew more distinct, sounding like rapid speech.
Rising, Maxlar cradled something in his hands, His face, usually one of concentration and deep thought, appeared light and happy. Smiling, he started to coo as he showed off his prize.
Ani’s eyes widened. “Sweet Anothosia. Are you— are you a gelf?”
The tiny creature was a little shorter than her forearm. Long, light brown hair covered its little walnut head, and it had twig-like arms and legs and a thin, willowy body the same color and texture of a tree. Large black eyes blinked at Ani; its tiny frame shivered. In all her years she had only ever heard of a few people who claimed to have seen a tree gelf. Most of those were liars.
Nodding, the gelf held its arms close against its body, fists clenched tight. When it spoke its voice was thin but melodious. “No time. No time. Danger to the Missa. Go. Go now!”
Panic shot through Ani’s body, instantly twisting her belly into a knot. “Missa! In danger!”
“What kind of danger?” Tobin demanded.