Lesser Gods

by Adrian Howell

  Let them have their fun, if getting hurt and hurting others was fun for them. What did I care?

  “I wish they weren’t so noisy,” Alia said nervously into my mind.

  “You’re not afraid, are you?” I asked.

  Alia looked away. “Well...”

  I laughed. “Oh, come on, Ali! We ended up having a nice little adventure today, didn’t we? And you got to prove once again what a fearless Guardian Knight you are.”

  Alia kept her eyes on the wall, and I whispered into her ear, “So I guess you won’t be rolling over in your sleep tonight, huh?”

  Suddenly Alia turned to me misty-eyed and telepathically burst out, “Okay! I lied about last night, Addy! But I had a really, really bad dream.”

  “I suspected as much,” I said, trying not to smile too much.

  “I’ll probably have another one tonight,” Alia said miserably.

  “That’s what you get for being a soldier,” I informed her. “Besides, after helping the Ravens take down three Slayer groups last year, I thought you’d be used to this kind of thing by now.”

  “That’s different, Addy! Terry always kept me away from the fighting, and even then, every night I kept waking up and... and...”

  “I’m guessing Terry never let you sleep in her bed.”

  Hugging me tightly, Alia gave me her most pitiful, pleading look. “Oh, come on, Addy. Just while we’re here?”

  I looked silently back into her eyes for a few seconds, and then shook my head in resignation. “What am I going to do with you, Alia?” I sighed. “Alright, but just while we’re here. I’m sure Terry will be nicely amused when she gets back.”

  “I’m really sorry.”

  “It’s alright,” I said, rubbing her back. “But I knew we should have brought your unicorn.”

  Alia managed a weak smile. “You’re my unicorn, Addy.”

  I let Alia put her pillow next to mine and she snuggled up against my side, our blankets overlapping. In size, my sister still looked no more than seven or eight years old, and I sometimes wondered if Cindy really had her age right. I stood by my belief that, at least when the sun was shining, Alia was completely fearless, but feeling her arms tighten around my body, I wondered how much longer it would take for her to overcome her nighttime dependence on me. Then I heard several gunshots ring out over the escalating angry shouts outside, and decided that I didn’t mind snuggling with Alia for the next few nights. Not in the least.

  I kept my eyes open long after Alia had fallen asleep, but Terry didn’t return, and I eventually fell into a fitful slumber in which I dreamed of watching Terry fight a dragon in an arena made of giant black bones. I woke once in the total darkness and, from the sound of her breathing, deduced that Terry had returned and was already asleep. My Braille watch read 2am.

  I wanted to stretch a bit, but my sister was still latched onto me and I didn’t want to risk waking her by prying her off. As I closed my eyes again, my thoughts wandered down to Mr. Jenson in the basement. What was it like to go back and forth between factions, being converted and seeing your own family and friends as the enemy? If I were to be converted, would I turn against Cindy and Alia? Would I fight Terry to the death? I didn’t want to find out. Psionic conversion, I decided, was a little death and rebirth. It fundamentally changed who you were, and that was a truly frightening thought.

  As for Mr. Jenson, he was lucky to be alive at all. Mr. Baker had taken every psionic healer he had into the factory, leaving Mr. Williams with only a handful of useless Knights. If Alia hadn’t been there, the phantom would have bled to death on the concrete. It made no difference to my sister whether she was dealing with a friend or a foe. If someone was hurt, she would heal him. In contrast, while I had done my part to save the phantom’s life, I was merely assisting Alia. I really hadn’t cared at that time whether Mr. Jenson lived or died.

  But I would.

  Chapter 15: Discovery and Decision

  “You two are truly unbelievable!” was Terry’s first comment the next morning.

  I didn’t bother responding. My body felt stiff from being unable to move all night, but at least my sister was in good spirits.

  “So how’d your meeting go last night, Terry?” I asked casually over breakfast.

  Laila had joined us in our room because her mother was eating with Mr. Baker and other dignitaries. Terry’s eyes darted toward my girlfriend for a fraction of a second before she replied, “As always, Half-head, most of it’s need-to-know. But I’ll tell you one thing: The Seraphim have been exceptionally cordial so far. No traps, no spies, at least as far as we can tell. Of course, regular witnesses from both sides bled a little last night, but no one died.”

  “That’s comforting,” I muttered sarcastically.

  After breakfast, Terry asked Laila and Alia to return the trays to the kitchen motorhome while ordering me to stay behind and help her tidy up the room. I quickly found out why.

  As soon as Laila and Alia were gone, Terry turned to me and said, “I have to tell you something very important.”

  “I thought I was on need-to-know,” I said mildly.

  Terry didn’t smile. “This you definitely need to know. And you have to promise me that you’ll keep it to yourself. You’re going to find out soon enough anyway, but I want you ready for it now, because I know your temper, and I don’t want you doing anything exceptionally stupid. You’re not going to tell anybody. Especially Laila.”

  “Laila?” I repeated, confused. “I can’t promise that until you tell me what it is.”

  Terry grabbed my left ear and pulled hard. “You’ll promise or I’ll balance your head, Adrian!”

  “Ow!” I screamed. “I promise, okay?”

  Terry let go. I massaged my throbbing ear as I asked, “What’s going on? What does this have to do with Laila?”

  “I’ll get there,” said Terry. “First, you need to know that both Larissa Divine and Number Two were at the first battle, or so I’m told. I still don’t know the identity of Number Two. The problem is that both are far too well protected for us to attempt a hit during the fights. The Angels probably still don’t know that our main target is Number Two, but they’re not taking any chances with either master. If we try to kill either one during a battle, chances are we’ll fail. And not only that, but we’ll fail very visibly, and that’s very bad.”

  “And Laila?” I asked impatiently.

  “It’s her mother, Adrian. The Council is thinking of, uh, ‘accidentally’ letting her get caught by the Angels.”

  “What!?”

  “Keep your voice down!” hissed Terry. “This is what Mr. Baker likes to call a calculated risk. Injuries and deaths between individual witnesses won’t help us because that’s just a normal part of the blood trial. But if the Angels were to capture a member of our Council, then Mr. Baker would have the perfect excuse to send a team of Knights into the Angel camp and, in the process of rescuing her, eliminate Number Two. Maybe even Divine.”

  “But Laila’s mother could be killed or converted before the Knights rescue her,” I argued.

  Terry agreed. “That’s why it’s a calculated risk.”

  “I am so sick of that line!” I spat vehemently. “And to think they’d do that to a member of their own Council! Just because she voted against accepting this blood trial?!”

  Terry grabbed my good ear again. “Voice down, Adrian! You talk like Mrs. Brown isn’t in on this. She volunteered, Half-head.”

  My next words never made it out of my mouth.

  “That’s better,” said Terry, releasing me. “Laila’s mother voted against the blood trial only because she disagreed with allowing me to be the Angels’ prize. But as a result of her opposition, she was kept in the dark about the actual assassination plan. She probably assumes, as the Angels do, that we’re after Queen Divine.”

  I gave Terry a disbelieving frown. “Why would she volunteer to be a part of a plan she doesn’t even know about?”

  Terry rolled
her eyes. “Because she supports the Guardians, Adrian. She knows that the Council is planning something, even if she doesn’t know exactly what it is. She knows that we need an excuse to send Knights into the Angel camp. Laila’s mother could sneak over there on the pretense of looking for clues about her lost husband. She’s pretty fair at blocking mind reading, and even if they get through her defenses, they won’t learn any more than they already think they know. All of our other VIPs know too much to risk sending into the Angel camp.”

  “Laila’s father isn’t actually in that camp, is he?”

  “Of course not,” said Terry. “But that doesn’t matter. If you thought someone over there knew where Catherine was, wouldn’t you go?”

  Terry had a point, but I shook my head. “Not if I thought I wasn’t coming back.”

  “Well, Laila’s mother is pretty sure she’ll be coming back.”

  “And if she doesn’t?” I asked. “What of Laila?”

  Terry nodded. “That’s why I’m warning you now, Adrian. It’ll be up to Mrs. Brown whether or not to tell Laila beforehand, and if she does, great, but if she doesn’t, that’s her business. When the time comes, I don’t want you to freak out like you did just now. And if something does happen to Laila’s mother, well, you’re Laila’s boyfriend. You can–”

  I cut across her, snapping angrily, “Tell her to get over it?!”

  Terry frowned. “I was going to say, ‘comfort her.’”

  I sighed. “And when is this all planned for?”

  “Not sure yet, but definitely not today or tomorrow,” said Terry. “We’re still gathering information. If we’re lucky, we’ll be able to nail Number Two without sending Laila’s mother at all. I’m just giving you a heads up in case it turns out that way.”

  “Well, thanks!” I said sarcastically. “This’ll certainly brighten my day.”

  Laila might lose her only parent in a few days and I was obligated to pretend like I didn’t know. I cursed loudly.

  “Adrian,” Terry said softly, “please don’t think I like this or agree in any way. I’m not asking you to either.”

  “Hold that thought, Terry,” I said as the illogic of Terry’s information hit me. “You just said they won’t send Laila’s mother tomorrow.”

  “Yeah?”

  “Well, you fight tomorrow, Terry. And if you win...”

  Terry raised her eyebrows. “If?”

  “Okay,” I said hastily, “when you win, this trial will be over.”

  “You got me,” said Terry, grinning. “Alright, but this is also top secret, Adrian. The trial isn’t going to be over tomorrow because I’m not going to win.”

  I stared at her. “You mean you’re going to lose on purpose?”

  Terry nodded. “We’re going to need more time. Mr. Baker was very specific about this at the meeting. I don’t plan on making it an easy fight, but yes, I’ll lose. No doubt they’ll carry me out bleeding and unconscious.”

  “What if they carry you out dead?” I asked, horrified at the thought of what the man Terry had described as a beast might do if Terry deliberately let her guard down.

  Terry shook her head. “I’m the prize, remember? Even if that’s just an excuse for this trial, Larissa Divine will still want me alive.”

  “I thought you were here to kill an Angel.”

  “I’m here to kill all the Angels!” snapped Terry. “If being beaten to a pulp serves that purpose, I’ll do it.”

  I asked anxiously, “But then what if Mr. Simms loses the third match?”

  Terry smiled. “Don’t worry about me, Adrian. I know what I’m getting into.”

  “They’re back,” I said, hearing Laila and Alia’s footsteps coming from down the corridor.

  “What’s the matter, Adrian?” Laila asked the moment she stepped into the room.

  I quickly wiped the scowl off my face. “Nothing.”

  Alia, having followed Laila into the room, laughed and said, “Addy always says ‘nothing’ when something’s really, really wrong.”

  I threw my sister a warning look: zip it or you’ll sleep alone tonight!

  “Don’t mind Adrian,” Terry said casually. “He’s just mad because I refused his offer to trade places with me in tomorrow’s fight.”

  And that’s where we left it for the morning.

  It was not until mid-afternoon that things, already messed up in more ways than I cared to count, suddenly took yet another deep dive into the surreal.

  So far, I had spent much of the day contemplating whether or not I should flat-out defy Terry and tell Laila everything I had heard. Laila might lose her mother before the week was out, and if I was her, I’d want to know. But beyond the possibility of having my remaining ear torn off by Terry, I did understand the Guardians’ need for secrecy. This was our one real chance to even the playing field. If Laila’s mother could keep a secret like this from her own daughter, then I would have to keep it as well.

  As for Terry deliberately losing tomorrow’s fight, I knew it was futile to argue. Terry always did whatever she believed in. This would be no different.

  Terry had skipped her training that day and the four of us were playing cards in our room when, my restlessness finally getting the better of me, I said, “I want to see the Angel camp.”

  “Why?” asked Laila.

  “Just curious.”

  “You’re not to cross our barrier, Adrian,” said Terry.

  Even in the daylight, witnesses from both sides were “mingling” in the north-south service road that ran between the main factory building and the warehouses lining the east side of the compound. Gunshots were rare, but injuries were fairly common. Just before lunch, Alia had assisted another Guardian healer to treat a man who had suffered electrical burns on his chest and arms: the result of a duel with an Angel spark. The Angel reportedly lost a good deal of blood too, but that was someone else’s problem.

  “I have a pair of binoculars in the camper,” Laila said helpfully. “If you like, we can get up on this building’s roof and look from there.”

  We did just that. In addition to a pair of Guardian Knights, the roof of our three-story office building already had a fair number of spectators, some observing the Angel camp in the distance while others exchanged taunts with Angels who had ventured down the service road.

  We took turns with the binoculars, and I saw that the Angels too had come with a fair number of motorhomes, which they had arranged in a full circle around their smaller cars and tents which were huddled together on the north side of the factory compound. Unfortunately, the line of warehouses on my right and the factory building on my left blocked much of the view, and at this height I couldn’t see the inside of the Angel encampment very well.

  “It’s not against the rules to fly here, is it?” I asked.

  Terry shrugged, which I took as a no.

  Fortunately, Laila’s binoculars were a relatively cheap pair, made mostly of plastic rather than metal, so they didn’t hamper my levitation greatly. I slowly floated upward until I was high enough to see past the Angels’ motorhome barrier and watch the Angel witnesses walking about inside their camp.

  I heard one of the Knights call up to me, “You’re going to get yourself shot, Hansel!”

  I ignored the warning.

  Lowering the binoculars for a moment, I noticed that there was an Angel telekinetic hovering directly over his camp at approximately the same altitude as myself. He was looking back at me with his own pair of binoculars, and as a combination joke and taunt, I waved to him. To my surprise, he actually waved back.

  Putting the binoculars back up to my eyes, I once again scanned the Angel camp. I watched as several small groups of Angels set up outdoor cooking equipment in preparation for dinner while others talked, occasionally gesturing wildly. Perhaps they were talking about the fights that were taking place outside the walls.

  I saw the side door open on one of the motorhomes that made up the far side of the Angels’ circular barrier. />
  And out stepped Cat.

  I hadn’t seen my lost sister in nearly three years, and even through the binoculars I was too far away to see her very clearly, but I knew in an instant that it was her. I didn’t wonder what Cat was doing there. That question would come later, along with many others. At that moment, I just watched. Cat briskly walked alone between the cars and tents, heading toward the southernmost motorhome. In a moment she had disappeared behind it. I trained my binoculars on the windows, but the curtains were drawn on this side.

  I hadn’t a clue how long I had been levitating, but I was rapidly reaching my limit. I didn’t want to come down. I had to see Cat again if only to make sure that I hadn’t imagined her.

  I hit the roof of the office building so completely out of breath that it took nearly a minute before I could say anything at all, and when I did, it was, “Wait a minute. I’ll be back.”

  I levitated again, and when I refocused the binoculars on the Angel camp, I saw Cat’s long hair lift slightly in the breeze as she walked back toward the farthermost motorhome.

  There was no question about it. Whatever the reason, my first sister had come to the blood trial.

  I made a quick mental note of the size and color of the motorhome Cat had returned to, as well as the ones to its left and right.

  “What did you see?” asked Laila when I landed again.

  “Nothing,” I panted. “I mean, just Angels.”

  “Happy now?” said Terry. “There’s nothing to see. It’s not like Larissa Divine’s about to take a stroll outside.”

  “I guess so,” I said. I was still in a mild state of shock, but the girls seemed to regard it as overexertion from my prolonged levitation.

  “Let’s go on back downstairs,” said Laila.

  I’m not exactly sure why I didn’t tell them all on the spot that I had seen Cat in the Angel camp. Perhaps I was just in a secretive mood after what I had heard from Terry that morning, but I didn’t want Laila or even Alia to know about Cat just yet. I wanted to talk privately with Terry first.