by Mark Eller
Tuning them out, Joss idly flipped a card between his fingers while he studied the garden’s devastation. Though he had never before seen these gardens, it was easy for him to imagine how they had previously appeared. The pathways were laid out with exquisite precision, and the charred trunks of every tree seemed to have been placed with an artist’s eye. The plants, the hedges, the recent fires and lightning made their former beauty a mystery to him, but he could easily imagine what they had presented; a blaze of color and detail which drew the eye with restful patterns. The head gardener, he had been told, had once been coveted by the kings and queens of several different kingdoms. Of course that had been before Yernden was invaded by Hell and the gardener had been eaten by a carnivorous plant. Being dead had lessened his desirability, just as Hell’s incursion had lessened Yernden, Like with this garden, Yernden was now a land of devastation and scars. Its people had been thinned and maimed, but Hell had been defeated. Yernden’s people now stood strong and proud, newly confident in their own strength and in the strength of the queen who had saved them. Any hopes Princess Mari might once have held of possessing this kingdom were now shattered. While Elise lived the people of Yernden would accept no other for their queen. For now and always, Elise’s position was secure so long as the Altude Empire did not try to take a direct hand.
Ah, something else to worry him.
Joss grimaced. The need to worry over such matters was an entirely new experience. Princess Mari and her brother would be returned to their father soon, along with the empire’s remaining troops; those who chose to return anyway. With her hand maimed and her chance at a kingdom seemingly gone, the princess did not strike Joss as the type of person who would accept her loses gracefully, which was why Elise already planned on sending a delegation to visit her father. The details were not yet firm. The people involved were not yet wholly determined, but one decision had been made. When the delegation left, Joss would be among their number.
Frowning at the thought, the card flipping through Joss’s fingers disappeared with a sudden, unperceivable flick, displaying the magic of long training and trick sleeves to the few insects flying around. His magic, his former magic, had been hard won. He had been a shrill, a conman, a deceiver who used fake magic in order to survive, but no more. This one card trick and half a dozen others were all that remained of his previous skill. His memories had been ravaged and torn by the massive energies he had witnessed during the battle. The assassin had died. Jolson, spawn, human, and god, was forever gone, but Joss remained. Somehow, he had lived through the death of a god, and the death had forever changed him.
Stopping, he reached out, laid his hand on the cracked husk of a tree’s trunk, and concentrated. Slowly, almost too slowly for the eye to see, the trunk smoothed, firmed, and new sap began to flow.
So yes, most of his pretend magic was gone. Some of his memories had disappeared, but a new magic had entered him when a god died. As best he understood it from Calto’s incomplete explanation, Athos’s power, his control nano, had shredded, scattered in every direction. Some of it, a very small part, had shifted in its journey and entered him. The magic changed him to suit its needs and now remained inside him forever, or until he died.
Which might not be for an unnaturally long while
Like close to forever, if he lived a dull and complacent life. During that forever he might even relearn how to do some of his forgotten tricks. It would give him something to do. Joss couldn’t see how becoming bored would be good for a nearly immortal being.
Not that a person could be bored with certain others around.
“She made you a duke! A duke!” Ludwig shouted from several yards away. “Curse you Harlo. I won’t have no stepped up servant of mine insisting I bow to him. Not when I remember when—”
Stepping back, Joss studied the tree he had touched. It was not alive, not exactly, but it was heading toward life. It was improving, healing. Eventually, in a week, a month, or a year, its healing would be complete. It would be whole, healthy, and vibrant. In many ways its progress would be a symbol of Yernden.
Walking through the garden, Joss left Ludwig and Harlo behind. He touched the husks of individual plants and learned to use the magic which had been given him. While he walked he listened to Harlo and Ludwig argue in the distance and worried about the succubus named Belthesia. She had been there when Athos died. She had been gravely wounded, perhaps was dying, but she had still been alive when her god died. Afterward, her body had been nowhere to be found. This worried Joss. If part of the dying god’s power had entered his purely human flesh and given him immortal strength and power, exactly what had it done to the succubus?
Was Belthethsia still out there, still planning, plotting, and had she become more than she had ever been before?
Sighing, Joss let his hands fall to his side. These were thoughts of state, and thus not his concern. He was only a common-born young man, barely more than a boy. Whatever the future held he was sure he would be little more than a bit player watching from the sidelines.
Touching another dead tree, Joss encouraged it to grow.
Be sure to also get your free copy of Brian Rathbone's Call of the Herald!
http://bit.ly/GODSLAND
Table of Contents
Dark Gods Rising
Chapter 1— Changer’s Ring
Chapter 2— Second Chance
Chapter 3— Similian Rising
Chapter 4— Singing the Arvid Blues
Chapter 5— Secrets
Chapter 6— Queen’s Knight
Chapter 7— Nursemaid
Chapter 8— Knight’s Pawn
Chapter 9— Spawn’s Fee
Chapter 10— Queen’s Challenge
Chapter 11— A Matter of Forgiveness
Chapter 12— Voice Over
Chapter 13— The Road from Hell
Chapter 14— Thief’s Trap
Chapter 15— The God’s Thief
Chapter 16— Huntress
Abomination
Chapter 1-- Similian Ruse
Chapter 2-- Scruples
Chapter 3-- Changer’s Challenge
Chapter 4-- A Casualty of Cats
Chapter 5-- Lies and Betrayal
Chapter 6-- That Which Lies Beneath
Chapter 7-- The Breaking Heart
Chapter 8-- Dark Promises
Chapter 9-- When the Devil Left Home
Chapter 10-- Changes
Chapter 11-- Changer’s Awakening
Chapter 12-- Ludwig’s Dilemma
Chapter 13-- Knight’s Fall
Chapter 14-- The Nature of Evil
Chapter 15-- Queen’s Fall
Revolution
Chapter 1-- Rebirth
Chapter 2-- Queen’s Gambit
Chapter 3-- Hunted
Chapter 4-- King’s Fall
Chapter 5-- Changer’s Reprieve
Chapter 6-- Hunter’s Prey
Chapter 7-- Knight Reborn
Chapter 8-- Queen’s Resolve
Chapter 9-- Athos Ascended
Chapter 10-- Shadow’s Awakening
Chapter 11-- Hell Bound
Chapter 12-- Assassin’s End
Chapter 13-- End Game