by Laura Abudo
Beautiful and elegant, Caris was bruised, beaten. She collapsed to the ground into Pearl’s arms. They both cried tears of anguish and joy. Caris kissed Pearl as she held her.
“Thank you, little one.”
The priestess was on her knees beside them. Coral wasn’t done. “Fredrick!” she barked. “You have the right to see the end of that demon that killed your son.”
Pearl stood, passing Caris to the priestess, who handled her gently. Glory joined them, along with Amias. Krisa and Pat stepped forward. Glory asked Pearl, “You have your hatchet, god-smiter?”
“I do,” she replied.
“I hope it’s sharp.”
And they forced their way, once again, into the world of the gods.
Caris smiled up at the little boy before her. He studied her carefully.
“You are much prettier here,” he said. “I didn’t like your world.”
“What is this place?” she asked, looking around. She seemed to gain strength so tried to stand. Kel and the Marshalls stood or squatted nearby, ready for action if they were needed.
“I made it. After I came to see you. I didn’t like all the grey and not being able to see you and the others.”
She watched him as he turned, proud of his creation. She said, “It is much like my home where I came from.”
“Can you show me?” he asked, pointing at his arch.
“Oh, you have created that?”
“Yes,” he nodded. “It works too.”
“I’m sure it does,” she said smiling at him then at the priestess. “Here, I will show you what I remember.”
And beautiful fields appeared before them, trees in the distance. There was a hill with a cluster of trees on top. “That is where your mother found us. She is a very special lady.”
Darius nodded and smiled, proud of his mother. “I know. She teaches me everything. But I don’t know how to read yet. The King could read when he was two.”
“Do you think he really could?” she asked.
“No,” he admitted. “But he likes to joke with me.”
“You are very smart.”
“I hope they come back soon. Should we watch?”
“No,” Caris told him quickly and looked into the eyes of the priestess with worry. To the priestess she said, “Lady, lower your veils. Don’t hide your beauty. A woman has power that shines through. Never cover yourself like you are ashamed.”
And the priestess removed the layers of wraps that kept her away from others, cloistered away from the world.
“You see, everyone is beautiful here,” Darius declared looking at the priestess, whose eyes teared up in thanks. To Caris Darius asked gently, “What about the others? The ones who stood with you?”
“I don’t know. The longer Vunn was there, the more he controlled, the more they slipped away. They were like ghosts, not really there.”
“Glory said they were shells.”
“Yes, that’s what it seemed like. I couldn’t talk to them, they never moved. It was slow. One would go and then another.”
“Is that where our gods went?” the priestess asked. “After Vunn?”
“Yes,” she nodded. “I sent you two. They returned empty.”
“We asked Lady Doran for help, to see if she could speak to them. Or find them for us.”
Caris shook her head. “She is doing what she is meant to do right now.”
And they all waited.
Vunn came forward out of the grayness as they found their balance. “Where is she?” he raged at Coral, who stood her ground.
“I took her.”
“Took her?” he screeched. “What are you?”
She cocked her head at him. He feared them. The black line where Krisa had severed his head from his body still ringed his neck. His wrap was still stained with black blood from his encounter with Pearl. And she suspected whatever Glory had pulled from him and destroyed into millions of dust particles was dear to him as well. But they hadn’t destroyed him completely. Here he was, in another world, tormenting again.
When she didn’t answer, Vunn circled Coral then looked from one to another of the girls, the three who took away so much of his power. To Pearl he snarled, “You are the one…”
“Yes, I am,” she told him, looking straight in his eyes defiantly.
“She’s no better than her mother,” he snarled at Fredrick. “And you, you killed your son today. You killed the future king of your precious land. How does that feel?”
Pearl could feel Fredrick’s grip on her hand weaken. She squeezed his tightly reminding him she was with him.
“Nothing,” he shouted. “You think you’ve figured out how to keep me out? I will always be there. I will always nag at you, telling you that she doesn’t love you. You will be in her arms and you will think she hates you. So weak.”
Glory pulled her arms back yanking him toward her. She snarled in his face, “You haven’t destroyed us. We are still here. We are here together, facing you, taking you down again.”
A glimmer of fear flashed in his eyes. In front of Glory’s eyes fingers appeared on his scalp, pulling Vunn’s head back. A machete sliced through his neck, spilling black oily blood down Glory’s front. His body crumpled. After several seconds he melted into the ground but emerged further away, in one piece again, the line at his throat thicker.
He laughed. “You tried that before. It didn’t work. I’m still here.”
Pearl pushed him. She threw him. Behind them they heard a whisper. Everyone turned to see one of the gods, the one who had spoken earlier to Amias, move slightly in his shell.
“Amias,” he whispered. “The boy. He’s terrified of the boy.”
“No, not Darius!” Coral cried.
“He wanted you,” he told her. “To make you into a goddess he could control. Caris was brave. She sacrificed herself for you all. She loves you. It’s the boy he will try to destroy. But the boy is the only one...”
And he was back. He rushed at Coral, tossing Amias and Fredrick away. Pat tried to tackle him but got knocked aside and didn’t move. Pearl swung her hatchet but it sliced through him and healed, leaving black scars. Glory tried to pull Coral toward her but he grasped at her, tugged at her clothes. He had wanted her, he would take her. He could still take her and make her his. She’d never know pleasure again. She’d never know love again. They wouldn’t be able to create anymore abominations.
Again he pushed everyone away with a force they couldn’t see. Vunn’s power seemed to be growing as he forced her to the ground. Amias screamed for her. Fredrick tried to push Vunn but couldn’t. He ripped his wrap off and leered. He lowered himself onto her, groping at her hungrily.
And they froze. Everyone froze except for Coral. She inched her way out from under Vunn. She smoothed her skirts, mentally wiping the memory of his hands from her. She walked over to Krisa’s form on the ground. She took up her machete in her fist.
“May I borrow this?” she asked politely.
Vunn’s leg from the knee down was the first to go. She tossed it off into the distance. She was so furious she cried and gulped air. She hacked at him and threw each piece in a different direction. Each stroke was for hurting her family. For killing Tomas needlessly, for causing the faithful of her land and the Kusira to be shamed and condemned. She tore him apart for all the hurt he caused Caris and the people she loved.
When she was done she wiped the blade on the discarded wrap at her feet and clutched onto it. She may have bought them some time while he tried to assemble himself again. Without unfreezing them Coral forced her loved ones back, back into Darius’ world.
They all collapsed. Amias rushed for his wife and held her tightly. The Marshalls came forward to offer aid. Pat was unconscious and Krisa cried next to him. Fredrick rose on his hands and knees. He shook his head and looked at the people around him in wonder. He never truly knew what his friends were capable of and what they had faced before. He was humbled.
“Goddess,” Pearl crie
d, dropping to her knees next to Caris. “Your gods live I think. But he’s not beaten. We have failed.”
Glory was covered in the black ooze of his being. She retched and tore off her dress, standing in her shift. The priestess offered Glory the extra fabric she had removed to protect her modesty.
“Mama,” Darius called. “He’s not dead?”
She shook her head and cried. “I tried,” she told him. “I tried really hard.”
Pearl told Caris, “He tried to take her again. He wants her.”
“She is powerful,” she told them. “She can, at will, go from world to world. She can move people through them. No other can do that. Well, except Darius.”
“The god, the one who was with you last,” Pearl said. “He spoke. He said Vunn is terrified of Darius.”
“He is,” she nodded. “He is the product of love between Coral and Amias, conceived if I am right, at the Well Amias created.”
Amias nodded. They had spent a night sleeping on the edge of his Well at home. Darius was brought to life in a sacred place, on sacred soil.
“Vunn doesn’t know about his ability to create worlds like this. He just knows he takes you somewhere he can’t see you. He warned me that you would all destroy us but I knew differently. The Well wouldn’t give you skills to do that. He is doing that to us, not you.”
“I’m just a little boy,” Darius laughed. “I can’t even read.”
“You are not just a boy,” Caris told him. “You are very special. Look at the people around you. You have god-smiters and a King and King’s Marshalls and even a priestess and a goddess! Not many little boys can say they are born of great stuff like that.”
Darius nodded, looking around at the people who loved him. He saw the fear in their faces, the blood on Glory, the horrible stained wrap in his mother’s hand. He looked at the arch. Vunn was pulling himself together. Black scars marked his limbs. He lay naked on the ground, fusing together.
“Mama, you did a good job. You must have been very angry.”
She smiled at her son and nodded. “I just thought about you and how I didn’t want him to hurt you.”
“He can’t hurt me,” Darius laughed. “That’s why he’s scared.”
“What do you mean?” Amias asked him.
“My Well told me how. I know a lot of things.”
Caris looked at him curiously. “Darius,” she asked softly.
“Yes,” he smiled.
“When you created this beautiful world did you learn how to close a world too? To make it go away forever?”
He nodded. “I’ll do that after we get rid of him,” he told her. “Pearl, I need you to come with me.”
Coral and Amias rushed forward to stop Darius from going. But they were too late. They slid off among a grey lurching. Coral fought to go after them but Caris lifted her hand.
“You do not want Darius to know what Vunn wants to do to you!” she told Coral with conviction. “And he will tell him, he will do it in front of him, you can be sure. Stay. Pearl will do what she can, but it is up to Darius.”
“He’s just a boy,” Coral cried in Amias’ arms.
“He’s a god-smiter as much as any of you,” Caris told her. “He grew up with the stories of his brave family, witnessing the love and strength of you all. Let him earn his title.”
And they waited.
“They sent a child!” Vunn laughed, limping forward on legs that had not yet healed fully. Pearl held Vunn away with a hand extended. He snarled at her. He looked from one to the other. “They sent a whore and a little boy.”
“They sent two god-smiters,” Darius said.
The gods standing around them disappeared. Pearl cried out inside for Caris’ loss, for all of their losses. They had lost to this demon. They had been consumed by him, she realized. To stay alive, to maintain some power he had to take it. He took from Caris and they gave themselves so she could keep fighting him.
The Well vanished. Vunn stared at the spot it had been, a worried look crossing his face. He circled them. He challenged Pearl, “You can take pieces of me, you can chop my body into bits, you can rip me to shreds and you still won’t destroy me. I will always be here haunting you, forcing you and taking you,” he leered.
The arch disappeared. Vunn stepped backward.
“Pearl,” Darius said. “There are some words I need you to say. To help me.”
She nodded. “Of course.”
“I don’t know what they all mean, I’m only five. But it’s what we have to say.”
Pearl smiled as Vunn raged at them, held back by Pearl’s shield. Torn apart and healing he was weakened. He was useless, impotent, screaming and fighting. She nodded.
“Pearl Faith Dog Doran, Queen of Danycia and Chief Priestess of the gods of the Faold, repesen...repenstive of Caris the goddess, do you give Darius Somas Kolder Doran the reponbilty and pimssion to depatch in body, mind, soul the demon Vunn, to erdictate his being forever?”
Vunn screeched with primal rage, bashing his scarred and black-bloodied form against Pearl’s barricade. She willed it to bruise him, cut him, give him back some of the brutality he’d shown Caris. He staggered.
Pearl repeated, “I, Pearl Faith Dog Doran, Queen of Danycia and Chief Priestess of the gods of the Faold, representative of Caris the goddess, do give Darius Somas Kolder Doran the responsibility and permission to dispatch in body, mind, soul the demon Vunn, to eradicate his being forever.”
“Do you give Pimssion for Darius Somas Kolder Doran to seal the gateway from the underworld from which said demon amerged?”
Pearl gasped. “I give permission for Darius Somas Kolder Doran to seal the gateway from the underworld from which said demon emerged.”
He nodded. He turned toward Vunn. “You tried to hurt my Mama. You hurt too many people. She didn’t know how to kill you but I do.”
Vunn stopped beating against Pearl’s power. He fell to his knees, naked, scarred, dripping blackness. “I warned them. I told them you would destroy us all.”
Pearl moved forward. “We didn’t destroy anyone. You did it. Caris is safe with us.”
“She used you for her own pleasure,” he howled. “She controls you, she’s filth like you, and she’s a whore like you.”
“Darius,” Pearl said with the most conviction she’d ever had giving an order, “Dispatch him.”
The grayness started to sizzle around them. It frothed and moved, swirling. Vunn crackled like fat in a fire, the blackness oozing from him steamed and boiled. His sinews expanded and pulled apart, snapping, frying in acid. He no longer made noise, no longer looked at them, he simply eroded into a shrinking sludge. Left on the ground was the sickening greenish yellow strand that Glory had evaporated.
“That’s it,” Darius said, approaching. “That’s the rope to the underworld.”
“Oh,” she cried. “We almost did it last time. Without knowing. Glory almost did it.”
He held his little hand out to her while watching the rope wiggle. “Something is coming,” he called. “I need the hatchet.”
Pearl kissed the hatchet blade before she handed it to him. He also kissed it and with the total strength in his five year old frame he struck the writhing rope with the hatchet. It took three strikes to sever it clean through. The two ends whipped through the sizzling grayness finally coming to rest. All life left it as it was consumed by the frying black blood of Vunn.
“We have to go so I can close this world,” he said, looking around. “I got everyone out.”
“Oh, you saved them?” Pearl asked, tears welling up in pride at her little brother.
“Yes! I wouldn’t leave them here. I really don’t like this place.”
Pearl gulped back tears as she held onto him and they shifted back and to the side, coming to rest in the bright colorful world he’d created. Everyone cried out at their appearance. Coral and Amias grabbed their son. He dropped the hatchet and Pearl picked it up, attaching it to her belt once more.
Dari
us struggled to get free of the crowd. His father lowered him to the ground and he ran to Caris, who stood with the priestess. He lowered himself to one knee, more steady than he ever had in front of the King and said, “Goddess Caris, the demon Vunn has been depatch...dispatched.”
She cried silently, smiling at Darius and those around them. She touched his head and pulled him up to stand with her.
“Oh!” he said, “I have to show you something.”
Darius looked to the arch. The image of her home appeared, the fields, the hill, and then they were gone. Coral cried out again but Krisa said, “Look.”
Darius and Caris were running across the field of grass, laughing and chasing each other. They went up the path that spiraled up the hill into the trees. There, they found the arch and pool Coral came across so long ago. And the wind chimes in the tree. Around the clearing stood the eight other gods. The shells of them stood motionless. One, however, moved slightly and whispered. Caris cried happy tears. She knelt down in front of Darius and talked with him for a few minutes and then Caris took her spot beside the pool.
Caris knelt down beside Darius.
“Thank you for everything. Thank you for bringing my friends back to me.”
“They will be okay?” he asked, worried for the shells of the gods.
“In this place they will heal. They will come back to me.”
“I don’t want you to be alone.”
“I won’t be alone for long,” she said. “And one day you will be here with me forever.”
“I will?” he asked, wide-eyed. “This is a very nice place.”
She nodded, overwhelmed at what he had created for her. “Your Mama and Papa, Pearl, Glory and Krisa will all be here too.”
“And the Marshalls and the King?” he asked, not wanting to leave anyone out.
“Yes, they should be here too.”
“I thought this would be a place for gods,” he told her.
“It is,” she said, pointing a finger at his chest. “And you created it for everyone.”