Power… or Love.
The two were not compatible. One had to outweigh the other.
Did I want to rule in Hell, or serve in Heaven?
“The infection has taken the sun away,” I told Isha. “How could I ever pick Heaven?”
The dog stomped up behind me.
“The wizard before you sits on the Burning Throne,” she mused. “Anything is possible for one such as he. Instead of darkness, he chose the light. He is the Bringer of Light and the Servant of the Sun.”
I saw mountains behind him and a burning arch at the top of a twisting flight of stairs. Green forests surrounded the mighty peaks that loomed over both.
And, on my wrist, the snake burned. I could smell my flesh cooking, as it tried to emphasize what choice I should make.
“I have made promises,” I said, holding up my wrist. Flames curled around my spirit, as the raptor-snake hissed with displeasure.
“Sacrifices can be made to offset them,” she mused. “But the cost would be painful.”
I was a goblin.
A monster from the Darkness.
Turning back to the reflections in the water, I stared at Hana.
On my left, she was in chains. A bruise the size of a fist dominated her face. Hana’s left eye was missing, only a bloody wound remained.
On my right, Hana was dressed in a beautiful gown. The physical features that she hated had been removed, and I saw a child in her arms.
Fuck.
I wanted the darkness. I could feel the goblin inside of me, screaming to make that choice. No one would ever fuck with me again. I would crush my enemies into pulp.
But… that bruise.
“I choose…”
The snake reared up on my wrist and bit Isha.
Screaming, the considerable dog shifted back, pulling the serpent out of my arm. The snake twisted its body around her leg and dug in deeper.
“Choose!” Isha wailed, as the poison flooded her system.
“The Light,” I spat out, hating myself. “I choose the fucking, goddamn light!”
Xiao attacked the snake biting it in two.
Isha screamed for her to stop, but the younger woman was enraged. She spat out the pieces and then tore at them with her thick claws. But the head was still stuck in Isha, pumping its venom into her.
Darkness blotted out the sunlight above me. Looking up, I saw a dark demonic head with horns glaring down at us. Eyes the color of crimson fire burned in its face. Brimstone and ash fell, falling like rain from the demon.
“No…” the word came out of the monster’s mouth in a bass tone that slammed into my soul and nearly tore it into pieces.
Isha collapsed.
“I pay the price,” she shrieked.
“No!” Xiao shouted.
“Jump into the pool,” Isha moaned, as her fur began to rot from her body, “and be reborn.”
Turning, I ran to the water and dove into it.
- 29 -
I turned over onto my stomach, choking on water. Groaning, I tried to sit up.
My whole body hurt. Looking down at my arms, I saw that they were covered in sunburns and blisters. Touching my left arm, I rubbed my fingers across the dead skin.
Handfuls of nasty, gray skin rubbed off… exposing human skin underneath.
I stared at it in shock.
Somehow, Isha had…
Isha.
I pushed myself upright and looked over at her. She was staring up at the sky. Her chest didn’t rise or move; no breath came from her lips.
“She’s dead,” Xiao spat out.
And so was I then.
I’d never get the information that I needed to defeat the Fell Serpent.
I could walk in the sun again--probably--but that wouldn’t matter if I were dead.
“You won’t be fucking me or anyone else tonight,” Xiao growled, pulling out a dagger. “I’m going to cut off your balls and use them for a garter.”
Xiao lunged at me.
Backing away, I tripped on a pillow and landed on my back. She threw herself on top of me, stabbing with the blade.
I redirected the knife into the ground several times.
Screaming in a fury, Xiao tried to drag the dagger sideways across my throat. I thrust my arm up and blocked her. Then I twisted my body so that she slammed into the ground with me on top of her.
“Stop it,” I cursed as I fought to get control of the knife.
Twisting, she cut my arm.
Pissed, I grabbed both of her wrists and pressed down until I held her trapped beneath me.
Red Blood.
I stared at it in shock.
Red. Human. Blood... dripped out of my arm.
“I’m human.”
I nearly let go of the woman beneath me. Xiao twisted, trying to break my grip. Pissed, I pushed down harder until she cried out in pain.
“Drop the knife,” I demanded, as my brain swam with fear. What had Isha done to me?
Sobbing, Xiao dropped the knife.
“You killed her!” she screamed.
“I know,” I replied.
My, taking ownership and responsibility, surprised her enough that she stopped yelling.
“It’s my fault,” I whispered to her. “I’m sorry.”
“You’re sorry?” she shouted. “My grandmother is dead!”
“Killing me won’t bring her back,” I snapped. “It was her idea to bring me here. If she hadn’t, I’d still be in bed!”
Xiao fidgeted under me. Finally, she stopped and held still.
“Let me up,” Xiao demanded.
“If I do,” I said. “Do you swear to stop attacking me?”
“Get off of me, you big oaf!”
Carefully, I climbed off of her.
She stumbled over to Isha and began crying. Huge unrepentant sobs poured from her lips as she buried her face in Isha’s hair.
I turned and walked out of the tent. There was nothing more that I could do now.
Walking to the edge of the park, I sat down on a stone bench.
And watched the sunrise.
“Thank you, Isha,” I said when I felt the warmth on my skin. Somehow, she had changed me, removing the Arcane Radiation, the Infection, and my goblin heritage.
I was human.
The thought rocked my mind. I didn’t know if I should stand up and sing, or lay down and cry. Nothing made sense to me anymore.
I touched my chest and felt for whatever Lady Shufen had slid under my skin.
There wasn’t anything there.
Focusing, I shut my eyes and concentrated.
There were no connections to any women in my soul. I was reborn, just like I would have been if Mog hadn’t been my father.
Mockery’s rib and Kakx’s ribs were gone.
Laughter slipped out of my mouth before I could even comprehend what had happened.
Sacrifices would need to be made.
I hadn’t understood what Isha had meant at the time. Her sacrifice had allowed me to be reborn, fresh, and new, but without anything that I had fought so hard to obtain.
Oh, Shit.
I looked down at my arms.
Blister’s runes were gone.
“Dagaḍa Tvacā!” I shouted.
Nothing.
“Rākṣasī āga!” I screamed, pounding my knuckles together.
No fire.
No stone.
“God Dammit!” I shouted. Fuck. I couldn’t even heal myself anymore.
Terrified, I looked at my sigils.
Gone.
Not one remained. Even my mana vault was missing.
I opened my eyes and stared at the sunlight that I had paid so much to see again.
“I’m a slug,” I said in a gasp. “A stupid, magicless… slug.”
Trembling, I wrapped my arms around my knees and swayed back and forth. I had worked as Blister’s apprentice for five years to learn my cantrips, runes, and the few spells that he had taught me.
Now,
all of that was gone.
And, somehow, I had to kill the Fell Serpent… tonight.
- 30 -
I watched as the musicians buried Isha. No one bothered me.
I had expected them to try to kill me, and right now, they would have succeeded.
Why had Isha sacrificed herself for me?
I wasn’t worth it.
My magic was gone. Blister’s spells were gone. Hell, even my mana vault was gone, making it impossible for me to cast a simple cantrip. My second heart, a source of power, was gone. And, my connections to the girls were gone.
Shit, even my new snake was gone.
All because I had chosen the light. That bruise on Hana’s face is what had made up my mind. Seeing it so prominently displayed, like a badge of pride, had disgusted me. Not to mention the dead look in her eyes.
I had picked the possibility of true love instead. The Hana on the arm of the wizard had been alive and excited to be there.
But now, I was powerless.
So, I sat and thought as the sun came up, and I just enjoyed the warmth of it on my face. I would have enjoyed it more If my skin was itching like crazy. I needed to find some way to dispose of my dead skin and clean myself off. I didn’t want to just leave it lying around. With my luck, someone would collect it and curse me with it.
I also needed food and some clean clothing. Luckily, I still had some money from winning my fights in Savannah.
So, I looked around for a public bathhouse. After the dark had fallen, many people no longer had running water in their homes. From the look of Ashmouth, that wasn’t the case. But, bathhouses were still a great place to go.
The first two that I found were a disappointment. Neither of them accepted non-humans, and my flaking gray skin made me still stand out as one. The last one was near an ancient rusty flat iron that was as tall as I was.
Instead of a standard bathhouse, this one had several whores working outside it. They were from several races, and humans and non-humans were walking in and out of the building. Emblazoned over its door were the words, The Eden Club.
An ogre stood by the doors to keep the riff-raff away.
He took one look at me and scowled.
“What in the fuck happened to you?” he asked.
Before I could answer, the monster said, “You look like you were sunburned and then soaked in piss for a week.”
Holding up his hand, he added, “Go somewhere else.”
“I can pay.”
The Ogre looked at me closer.
Fuck it.
“I’m the Baron of Black Mountain.”
“And, I’m the Princess of Frogleg Castle,” he replied sarcastically. “Piss off.”
“Can you really pay?” a voice asked behind me.
Turning, I found a thin woman wearing a green and white dress with a large red shawl draped over one arm. Her skin was a soft brown that was complemented by her dark hair and eyes. A dark red circle was painted on her forehead.
Looking down at her, I answered, “Yes.”
Her eyebrow raised, so I pulled out a few coins and then slipped them back into my pocket.
“Are you trouble?” she asked.
“Sometimes,” I answered, “but not today. Right now, I need new clothing, a firm rubdown to remove my dead skin, and a bath. Oh, and food.”
“Rati,” the Ogre interjected. “Ignore this bum.”
“I need the coins, Norot,” she snapped at the Ogre. “Unless your boss will pay me what he already owes me.”
Norot smiled and shook his head, “Tark hates you. You’ll never get a penny from him.”
Rati’s hand snaked out and slipped into mine.
I almost yanked it back from her.
“Then, I will take my new client home,” she snapped, dragging me behind her.
Norot gave me a look that translated into... you’re screwed, my friend.
--M--
The small intense woman dragged me down the street until she stopped at an Indian restaurant. I could smell it from a block away. The almost overpowering odor of hot curry powder drifted out it, spewing its foul scent all over the wind.
Tavi turned down an alley between the restaurant and a pawn shop. Then, up a rickety staircase to a small balcony that was covered in plants. Here and there, sticking out from between the pots were gold-painted statues of various gods and goddesses of a pantheon that I didn’t recognize.
The intense little woman didn’t allow me to question her, though. Letting go of my hand, she scanned me up and down.
“Wait here,” Tavi demanded. Then, she rushed off through a set of ornate double doors. From inside the room, I could smell rice cooking.
The tiny dynamo came back with two empty baskets clutched in one hand and a massage bench in the other.
Tavi opened the bench up in the middle of the plants.
“Strip,” she ordered, “and put your clothing in that basket.”
I looked at her in shock. Then, I shrugged and removed my shirt and pants. Both were full of nasty peeling skin. It was coming off everywhere.
Then, I slipped off my underwear as well and laid down on the table. It was padded and had a hole for my face, so I could look down at the ground through it.
Tavi moved up next to me and began to use some sort of device to remove my peeling skin. After one swath, she stopped.
My skin underneath was human, Caucasian, to be exact. My outer layer was goblin gray. The difference must have thrown her a bit. When I moved to sit up, she pushed me back down and continued scrapping me.
It felt so good. My old skin was dry, itchy, and terribly constraining. It felt like I had a wool blanket wrapped around me.
It took Tavi almost an hour to remove all the shedded skin on my back, legs, arms, and ass. She hadn’t even slowed down when she did my butt, which surprised me.
“Flip,” she ordered.
Feeling a bit shy, I turned over.
Tavi ignored my manly equipment and began to remove more shedded skin. Now that I could watch, I could see that it was coming off like old paint. No wonder she wasn’t attracted to me at all. Shit, I wasn’t attracted to me either at this point.
She cleaned my legs, chest, and neck. Turning, she shocked me when she began to clean my pecker with equal enthusiasm, which was none. Her lack of sexual excitement took any interest that I had for the woman and stuffed it in a black hole.
Finally, Tavi cleaned my scalp. I had been afraid that I would lose my hair, like the black whisker horns on my chin, but it stayed put.
“Sit up,” she demanded, as she finished the last spot on my forehead.
Looking me over, she decided that she was happy with the results.
“Time for a bath,” Tavi announced, taking my hand.
Not letting her pull me, I said, “That skin needs…”
“To be destroyed so your enemies can’t use it,” she snapped. “I am a professional.”
This time, I let her pull me into her house.
- 31 -
It was almost obsessively neat. Everything had a place. Like the outside, the inside was full of plants and tiny statues of gods and goddesses with lion or elephant heads. One looked like a human spider, while another was definitely a woman with the head of a tiger.
Rati’s bathtub surprised me.
It was a huge copper tub that was made to hold several people, Its sheer size dominated the room. Beautiful flowers were planted in pots all over the place, filling the air with their fragrance. Heat drifted up out of the tub, and the room was several degrees warmer than the outside.
“Get in,” she prompted.
The water was devilishly hot. The inside of the tub had a ledge to sit on so that my feet would be able to dangle, but right now, going past my knees wasn’t an exciting proposition.
Tortured Silence Page 12
