Wielding a Red Sword

by Piers Anthony

  Mym didn't try to answer Slaughter. "I have other business." He went outside, summoned Werre, and mounted. "No supervision of battles today," he called shortly, and started the horse moving.

  They went to Thanatos' mansion. Mym could have sent out a call for the Incarnation of Death, but he preferred to have a little time to think on the way. If Satan had already stirred the world up to too great a turmoil to be abated before martial law set in, what could he do? But the time did him no good; he still had no idea.

  The door opened as he approached the Mansion of Death. Thanatos met him. "Chronos advised us yesterday of your problem—and ours," Thanatos said. "We are here to try to help."

  And they were. Lachesis and Gaea were there—and Luna, brought to Purgatory for this occasion. They all greeted him warmly.

  "But I only talked to Chronos an hour ago!" Mym exclaimed. "How could he have told you yesterday, while I was still in Hell?"

  "You forget the direction of his life," Lachesis said. "He spoke to us a day after he spoke to you."

  Mym nodded. He kept forgetting! "Maybe he can go on back and tell me before I even go to Hell!"

  "He is reluctant," Gaea said. "It seems that there can be serious consequences when he acts to change the course of events that are in his past. On occasion he will do this, but he prefers to keep the compass quite limited, so that the result is fully defined."

  Mym realized that it would indeed be a hazardous business, changing past events; people, including perhaps some Incarnations, could be eliminated. Certainly there should be no haphazard dabbling.

  "In any event," Lachesis said, "this seems to be your problem, Mars. Satan makes things difficult for each new Incarnation at the outset, and it is necessary for that Incarnation to demonstrate that he can prevail. Then Satan knows better than to try again. If Chronos were to rescue you from your dilemma, Satan would merely try another ploy and another, until successful."

  "But the whole world is at stake!" Mym protested. "All of you will lose, too!"

  "That is why it is so important for you to prevail," Thanatos said. "We must take the risk of letting you oppose Satan alone, even as each of us must, so as to establish that not one of us is a weak spot."

  "But I don't see how I can prevail!" Mym cried. "I thought I had won in Hell—only to learn that I had lost in the mortal realm. And according to Chronos, that loss stands."

  "Not necessarily," Luna said. "Chronos can report only on the aspect of history he has lived through. If that is changed, he will live a different life, and that will be as valid as the first. Probably his reality is being constantly changed in little ways by the actions of the rest of us, and he is not aware of it."

  "That sounds like paradox to me," Mym said.

  "Chronos is immune from paradox," Thanatos said.

  "This may be difficult for the rest of us to understand, but it must be accepted."

  "So I can change future reality—if I can only figure out how," Mym said. "I can take Satan's victory away—somehow."

  "That is a thing we have to believe," Lachesis said. "Unless there is no way!"

  "There must be a way," Thanatos said. "Otherwise Satan would not have attempted to keep you so long in Hell. He knew it was only safe for him if you remained there until after his move on Earth was complete. You won free too soon, so now it must be in your power to prevail."

  "Certainly you must seek it," Luna said.

  "Certainly I must seek it," he agreed morosely. "The fate of the world, left to one confused stutterer!"

  Then he did a double-take. "I'm not stuttering!"

  "Fancy that," Gaea murmured.

  "But I didn't stutter in Hell, because—I thought—how can this be?" Then he remembered. "Green Mother—you took something from me and did not tell me what it was. You took my stutter!"

  "We do have some power over each other—if we agree to it," Gaea said. "I felt you could spare it."

  "And I never noticed!"

  She shrugged. "Surely you have other powers you haven't noticed. One of them may yet foil Satan."

  Shaken, Mym departed. This seemingly minor demonstration of the special power of an Incarnation impressed him more than all the other wonders he had seen. He had agreed to let Nature take something of his. Now the other Incarnations had agreed to let him affect their futures. He had to come through for them!

  Yet the way eluded him. He returned preoccupied to the Castle of War and ate and slept fitfully and ate again, remaining confined. No revelation came. One day passed, and two, and three, and the situation among the mortals intensified, yet he remained helpless. He simply saw no way to do what he knew he had to do.

  He found himself walking again in the garden. There, when he reached the nether extremity, was the demoness.

  "So nice to see you again. Mars," she said, stretching languidly. She wore another of her semi-exposive gowns, and her breasts moved almost liquidly as her torso shifted.

  "Get out of here, slut!" he raged.

  "Nuh-uh, Mars," she said, smiling. "This is a neutral zone, remember? You would not have come here if you hadn't wanted to see me, now would you!"

  "I came here to figure out how to defeat your foul master!" he snapped.

  "That is not easy to do, Mym. Why don't you just bow to the inevitable and relax? Since you have inadvertently served Satan's design, you might as well accept your reward."

  "What reward?" he demanded.

  "Me, of course." She stretched again, spectacularly. "I really do want to serve you, Mym, and I am very good at what I do. I can return to you what I denied you in Hell."

  "What do you mean?" he asked, sure that he would regret the question, but unable to pass it by.

  She fuzzed out, slowly changing shape. "Why, the Fireman. Don't you remember?"

  "The fire monster in Hell?" he asked blankly.

  "You were just about to possess your beloved, and I was jealous, so I sent the monster to break it up. Now it is of course too late; you can never possess her."

  "You—?" he began, outraged.

  Her form firmed. She looked exactly like Ligeia. "What does she have that I can not emulate?" she inquired in Ligeia's dulcet voice.

  Mym found the Red Sword in his hand. But he froze, not striking. How could he slay the facsimile of the woman he loved?

  "I don't suppose you would believe that one of my kind could truly care for you," she said.

  "True," he said between his teeth.

  She shifted back to her presumably natural form. "I'm not even one of the damned. I'm just a construct of ether, existing solely at my Master's discretion. I have no reality other than my assignment. My assignment is to please you. If I fail in this, I will have no existence at all. You have but to instruct me in those things you require of the ideal woman, and I will be those things as perfectly and as long as you desire them. Will you deny me my only chance to emulate that state of grace?"

  Even with his rage at her, Mym was struck by the seeming sincerity of her words. How could a genuinely soulless creature speak in this fashion? He knew it was foolish, but he found himself beginning to appreciate her position.

  He was without a woman. For the third time he had lost his love. Perhaps it was time for a concubine he didn't need to love or make any pretense of loving.

  "The ideal woman serves her man absolutely," Mym said. "Whatever he asks of her, she does without question. Any question he has, she answers honestly and to the best other ability. Loyalty—that is the salient quality I require. Loyalty to me, before all else."

  "I would give you that," Lila said.

  "Before Satan?"

  She moved back as if struck. "Oh, immortal mortal, you know not what you ask!"

  "I think I do. Since it is obvious that you can not give me what I require, you might as well leave me alone."

  "But then I will have failed to please you, and the penalty—"

  "I am familiar with the penalty," he said, remembering the fate of the lovely concubines he had rejec
ted when his father had kept him prisoner. Satan would surely be no more merciful. Those grisly deaths had hurt him; he steeled himself not to be hurt by this one.

  He saw the tear at her eye again. There really was no point in artifice at this point; she surely was experiencing whatever emulation of emotion she was capable of. "If I am to perish, then it behooves me to choose the manner of it," she said. "I would rather let my final act be an expression of my true private will than a lie. Therefore I will agree to this."

  This set him back. He had expected her to admit defeat. But of course she could be lying, as she had no concern for truth, only for convenience.

  Or had she? He had never caught her in a lie. Satan was the Father of Lies, but did that mean that all of his constructs were liars too? It might be that Lila, sent to subvert an honest man, had been fashioned to be honest and would remain so until Satan changed her.

  Still, this was suspect. He needed proof of her commitment. He knew of a way to get it—but the problem was that this would require a commitment from him, too.

  Yet what did his relationship with one demoness matter, compared to the fate of the world? It would be selfish of him to put his own preference for a woman with a soul before the welfare of the world.

  "Give me your absolute loyalty, and I will take you as my concubine," he said. "But you will have to prove it."

  "I will prove it," she said.

  "Tell me how I may foil Satan's plot and save the world from his dominance."

  "That is simple," she said. "Precipitate the holocaust."

  Mym's jaw dropped. "What?"

  "Gotterdammerung. Ragnarok. Day of Doom. World War Three. The final confrontation between Good and Evil. Whatever it is termed in your mythology."

  "But that would destroy mankind!"

  "Yes."

  "I ask you how to save the world, and you tell me to destroy it!" he exclaimed incredulously.

  "You asked me how to save the world from Satan. I have told you how."

  Mym shook his head, disgusted. "I should have known that a demoness would not give me any answer I could use!"

  "I gave you truth," she said. "I can explain."

  "Don't bother!" he said, turning away.

  "But you agreed to take me as your concubine if I proved my loyalty!" she cried. "I have proved it! Are you not a man of honor?"

  He whirled on her. "You had to know that that is no answer at all! It would only swamp the Afterlife with all the remaining souls of the mortals, in a few savage minutes. To give an answer you know is useless is no signal of loyalty!"

  "But it is a good answer!" she protested. "Why won't you hear my explanation?"

  "Then give your explanation," Mym said through his teeth. She had betrayed him, but the terms of his agreement required that much of him, that he hear her rationale.

  She spoke. Gradually the sense of it penetrated.

  "Lila, I apologize," he said. "Now that I understand it, I see that it is a good answer."

  "Take me now, Mym," she said. "Because when Satan learns what I have done, he will abolish me."

  True, again. She had shown him how to save the world, but she could not save herself. She had given up her existence for the sake of a few hours of acceptance by him.

  He took her in his arms. "Now that it is too late, Lila, I regret that I mistrusted you. You shall have my thanks and my passion, while you exist."

  "That is all I desire," she said, meeting him with a fierce kiss.

  The day before the last civilian governments on Earth were to fall, Mym emerged from the Castle of War. He summoned his lesser Incarnations, and the five of them mounted. "To the Doomsday Clock!" Mym cried.

  At that Conquest, Slaughter, Famine, and Pestilence looked askance. But their steeds knew the way, for the Clock was one of the artifacts of Mars. It was the timepiece that marked the incipience of the Final War that would destroy mankind on Earth.

  They drew up before it. The Doomsday Clock stood on its mounting, fifty meters tall, and its huge hands were set at three minutes to midnight. This, in the metaphor of eternity, indicated the proximity of that War; it was not far off.

  Mym dismounted and drew the Red Sword. "Let there be War," he said.

  Power radiated from the Sword. It bathed all the world—and all about the globe the tensions that led to conflict and violence intensified. Nations that had considered war now declared it; armies that had been in position to do battle now began it; individuals who had been bluffing each other down now called their bluffs and entered combat.

  For this was the ultimate power of the Red Sword. It could not pacify violence, it could only enhance it. But what it enhanced, no other power could deplete; only the cessation of its own activity could abate the terrible malice of its nature. When allowed to radiate freely, it would amplify the warlike passions of man until they erupted in the greatest conflagration ever to occur—Doomsday.

  The four subsidiary Incarnations stood taller and more imposing as the effect of the Red Sword was felt. Their colors brightened, and their steeds paced eagerly. Conquest's white cape commenced a secondary radiation;

  Slaughter's red became the texture of flowing blood; Famine turned so black that he was no more than a dark blot; and Pestilence's entire body became a brown mass of vermin. They were approaching the moment of their greatest fulfillment.

  Mym's Cloak of War, too, was intensifying, the golden hue suffusing the region. Even his horse, Werre, was assuming a preternatural glow of strength.

  The hands of the Doomsday Clock were traveling toward midnight at a visible rate. The two minutes became ninety seconds, then sixty.

  Satan appeared. "What are you doing, Mars?" the Lord of Evil demanded.

  "I am finishing what you started, Satan," Mym replied evenly. "You fomented unrest during my absence; I am bringing it to climax."

  "But you will bring on the holocaust!"

  "Yes, this will be the moment of my greatest glory," Mym agreed.

  The Clock had moved to thirty seconds. "Wait!" Satan cried. "Are you sure you want to do this. Mars?"

  Mym lowered the Sword, and the Clock halted at twenty-four seconds to midnight. "You have a consideration, Satan?"

  "I merely wish to point out that, once the final earthly reckoning occurs, you will have no further job, because all the mortals will be dead. Is this what you want?"

  "Why, I believe it will do," Mym said. "Why should I limp along piecemeal, when I can accomplish my purpose in one glorious burst? All mortal cares abated in a single effort!"

  Now the other Incarnations appeared. Thanatos rode up on his pale steed Mortis, the woman Luna behind him. Chronos coasted in obliquely, holding his Hourglass, facing away, oddly. No, not oddly; this was his departure, by his backward's reckoning; he would reverse his perception to phase in to mortal time. Fate, in the form of a giant spider, descended a thread from nowhere. And Gaea coalesced from a cloud of vapor. All knew that this was the showdown.

  "But you have always tried to preserve the lives of the mortals," Satan reminded him. "To ease the suffering brought about by war."

  "That was before I realized the extent of my power," Mym replied. "Now I prefer to exercise it in full measure." He raised the Sword again.

  Satan glanced about at the other Incarnations. "You tolerate this?" he asked. "You, who have always sought what was good for mankind?"

  "Each Incarnation is supreme in his own bailiwick," Gaea said. "Our preferences do not matter; this is Mars' show."

  Satan shrugged. "Well, certainly if none of you are interested in doing what is good, it ill behooves Me to do it for you. I will receive more souls in one batch than ever before."

  "And God will receive even more," Mym said. "Since the balance of this world is currently positive—as it will not be after your folk assume political power among the mortals." The hands of the Clock resumed their motion toward midnight.

  "You would destroy the world—merely to deny Me a few souls?" Satan asked. "That is very sho
rtsighted."

  "Well, the whole matter of war is shortsighted," Mym agreed. The sweep-hand passed fifteen seconds.

  "Wait!" Satan cried desperately.

  The hand paused. "I wish you wouldn't keep interrupting me with inconsequentials," Mym said. "I'm sure we all want to get this matter expeditiously completed."

  "If the world ends now," Satan said, "God will win, for the balance will be in his favor at the Final Reckoning."

  "Fancy that," Mym agreed. "Since I have no interest in your victory, this does seem to be the appropriate time to make my play. Then I can retire from this office and go to Heaven to join my love who is there. Now, if you have no other observations—"

  Small flames crackled about Satan's body. He knew that Mym had found the key to victory. The Lord of Evil could not afford to have the world end in holocaust while the overall balance of living souls was in God's favor, however marginally. "How did you learn of this?"

  "Does it matter?" Mym asked. "All that should concern us is that it is true. Now, of course, if you should happen to choose to give up your plans for dictatorships and martial law on Earth—"

  "Lila!" Satan exclaimed. "That demoness betrayed Me!"

  Lila appeared. "I no longer serve you, Satan," she said.

  Satan stared at her, considering. Then he seemed to come to a private conclusion. "There is something that may interest you. Mars," he said. "You mentioned joining a certain party in Heaven. Did you know that your companion in Hell did not go to Heaven?"

  "She didn't?" Mym asked, dismayed. "But I know her balance was good! The hearings—"

  "She is good—but she declined to go," Satan said.

  "For some reason she wished to return to mortality, though it would seem that she had little to gain and everything to risk by that."

  "But she's already dead!" Mym protested. "She couldn't—"

  "She could—with the help of one of your kind," Satan said, glancing meaningfully at Gaea.