The Laughing Gods

by Wilbur Arron

  “That is unacceptable to me,” Diomedes called down from his horse. “We will need your power and damn soon. Do you think I have spent the last few months sitting on my ass? I have sent spies through the North Pass and the northern forests to spy on the Zilar. They have rebuilt their supply base by North Pass. They are continuing to build their main base on the north shore of Argina. As soon as the snows recede from the high passes, they will move on us. I have ordered the fortifications of Midas to be improved, but that may not be enough. They can still march an army into Argina. You destroyed one Zilar army; you may have to destroy another to save the people you say you care about.”

  So that is why they were here. I knew someday they would have to come back to me. I knew the Zilar had not quit. Now, they needed my help again. I glared at Diomedes and made no effort to hide my disgust.

  “And so, you think you can just say we need you, Alex, and I will forget the way your father and brother treated me? That I will forget what your brother said about me, and how he threatened me? Sorry, I do not forget or forgive so easily. They made this choice, not I.”

  “I do not care what you think of me, my father or brother,” he growled. “They did what they did for whatever reasons they say they did. They rule here; I do not. What I need to know is, when the Zilar come, are you on our side or not?”

  I pointed to myself. “I am on my side because no one else is. Here is where I am going to stay. May I remind you that your father and brother banished me to stay here?”

  “Yes, I know,” the new archon said. “I also know my father said if the Zilar invade, I can cancel that banishment. I am doing that now because we need you.”

  “But I do not need you,” I said. I looked around and stared at both Philie and Iolaos. “Now, where are my wife, my furniture, and my supplies for my new house?”

  “The archon ordered Cleon, Melina, and the men delivering the furniture and supplies to stay in Korpolis for today so we could meet you first,” Philie said.

  They were still interfering in my life. I took a deep breath and reminding myself again about getting angry. “I have not changed my mind about coming back to help either the ethnarch or the Brotherhood. I have said all I am going to. The four of you should leave,” I said as calmly as I could. “If the Zilar come, you can tell Cleon. He will contact me. I will decide then if I will help you. In the meantime, Diomedes, you can tell your father and brother that Alexio Sopholus is not for hire. As for you, Master Mage Theodoros, I have no interest in the Mage Council or the Megas Mage. I meant what I said about leaving the Brotherhood. I am my own person now. I follow my own rules. You may tell them that in Lantia.”

  I turned one more time to Diomedes. “I know how deceitful your father and brother are. I warn you that if you try to harm me or any of my friends, I will show you what true magik power can really do. I suggest you go back to your palace and leave me, my wife, and my friends alone.”

  With that, I turned around and walked back to my cave. As I left, I heard the other mage, who had not spoken up before, call out. “Are we going to let this mage defy our Brotherhood? We should bring him back in chains.”

  “Quiet Moros,” Diomedes yelled. “You do not know what he has for friends in this forest.”

  “I do know,” Theodoros answered before calling out to me. “Alex, the Megas Mage wants you to return. He will not be satisfied with your answer. He will send others.”

  Without turning, I told them, “If he is wise, he will not make me his enemy.”

  I heard most of them ride away. I went in and closed the door, but I soon heard familiar footsteps coming up the stone stairs. I got up and opened the door. In walked a woman a full podi taller and a talent heavier than me. She was heavily muscled and wearing the mage-hardened blades I had made for her when she lived here.

  “They fear you, Alex,” she told me outright. “They are scared of the Zilar and of you. Right now, I think they are not sure which one they fear the most.”

  That was no surprise, either. “I will not harm them unless they try to harm me or any of my friends,” I said. “I am not vindictive, nor do I believe in unnecessary violence.”

  “Will you help us if the Zilar come?” she asked.

  “What I told them was true. If the Zilar come, have them send word to Cleon. If it is serious, I will help. Not for the ethnarch’s sake; he and his sons can all drown themselves in the Northern Sea for all I care. I will not do it to serve my Brotherhood. They are as bad as the ethnarch. I will help my polis and its people if it becomes necessary.”

  “I am glad to hear that,” she said with a sigh of relief. Then she got very serious and looked at me sternly. “You have changed, Alex. The man who came here going on two years ago was caring and considerate to a fault. What I see now is a harder man. A man who has learned to distrust and despise others—maybe even hate them.”

  She was right; I was not the same man as the young mage who came here fresh from the Academy. “I agree with what you say,” I told her and forced a smile to my lips. “I would also say I see a man who received an education in politics and power that he never wanted but got anyway.”

  “So, what will you do now?” she asked.

  I shrugged my shoulders. “If they let me, stay here with my friends and live in peace.”

  “And if they do not let you?” she went on.

  “Then I will do what is necessary, so they do leave me in peace. I know I would have never done that when I first got here, but I have learned from these people. What I have learned is that there is only the use of power to the powerful. Ideals of ethics, philosophy, morality, and freedom do not mean what I was taught at the Academy. To some, especially the powerful, they mean nothing at all. Only things like life and death, or political power, maybe the swords, spears, and shields of an army mean something. The rest is so much dirt to be swept aside when the situation demands.”

  “That bothers me,” she said, getting up.

  “It bothers me too,” I told her. “You should go if you want to get back before dark. The gods forbid our archon thinks you are plotting with me to overthrow the vasíleio.”

  Philie took off and rode toward the polis. I spent the rest of an uncomfortable night hungry, tired, and angry. I tried to sleep but got nowhere. Finally, I stripped down to my loincloth and sat alone outside. I meditated on what happened today. It took a while, but I was finally able to stand away from myself and look back at me sitting there. It is a technique taught to all mage students. Once separated from myself, I started to examine my feelings, and what I saw was a lake of suspicion, doubt, anger, hurt, and maybe even hatred. It was not a pleasant thing to see. As I looked, something descended from the sky. It was white and swift. It landed on my shoulder. It was a white owl. I had seen it before. Instead of looking at me sitting there in a trance, it turned to look at me standing apart.

  “You are troubled again,” it said in my head.

  “Yes, I see things in myself I do not like,” I said meekly. “I also have feelings toward some people that fill me with disgust. I do not like what I see both in others and myself.”

  “Malcor gave you a task,” the owl reminded me. “No one ever said you were going to like what happened. No one said people would like you for it. All Malcor and we told you was that you would need to make dreadful decisions at times. You have made those decisions and have been of great use to those around you. You should expect others to criticize and maybe even hate you.”

  “But I do not like what I see in myself,” I said. “I am afraid I will become as cynical about my power as the others are about theirs. I am afraid I will see the world only through my fears and the fears of others.”

  The owl looked at me with two yellow eyes that seem to pass through me. “What you went through would change anyone. As long as you can ask yourself these questions, you will not go wrong. Only those who are so sure what they are doing is right and do not listen to what anyone else says, it is they who become the monsters you
fear. Your time of true testing is approaching. You will need your power in magik and in the strength of your character to make it through. I can be of no more help to you except to tell you to sleep.”

  As it did once before, the owl cast a spell over me, and I slept like the dead.

  Dawn came, and I awoke to find myself lying in grass, half-naked, and as usual, with more questions than answers. I got up, bathed, changed clothes, and hoped the others would arrive today. In the late morning, my friends told me half a dozen wagons were approaching, along with Cleon, Theresa, Melina, Iolaos, Philie, and a dozen men. While the workers installed my furniture and bathtub, I took the others over to my cave and out of earshot.

  “What happened with Diomedes and Theodoros?” I asked Cleon, the tetrarch.

  “They were not happy,” Cleon said with a frown, “But neither said anything to me.”

  Iolaos said in a low voice. “On the way back, the younger mage was making noises about getting other mages together and just taking you back to Lantis, like it or not. Diomedes told him to talk sense, but Theodoros said nothing. This morning Diomedes and a dozen escorts went back to Erinia. The two mages rode with four escorts toward Arginnia. They are afraid of you, Alex, and scared men make bad judgments, as the philosophers say.”

  “Theodoros did not sound too unreasonable,” Philie added.

  I shook my head, no. “I am sorry, but I can no longer trust any of them, and I would recommend you follow the same course.”

  “Diomedes is the archon,” Cleon reminded me. “He can order me to arrest you at any time. So far, he has not done that or made any official inquiries about you or our friendship, Alex, but that may change. There is also the small matter of a possible Zilar invasion.”

  “That invasion is almost a certainty,” I told him. “The only good thing is that the Zilar cannot bring heavy equipment through the North Pass so they will have a hard time with sieges. I doubt if they will be able to send more than two thousand men and horses through there. I know they cannot be supplied for long once they are in Erinia. No, I am more concerned about their major base to the east of the Central Mountain along the north coast. There they have a supply base for thousands.”

  “But no way to get those men, horses, and supplies anywhere,” Philie added. “I can read a map too. The ground to the east is impassable except to mountain goats.”

  “They can use ships,” I told them. “I have thought about this, and I think a naval invasion to the east of the Central Mountains supported by a force going through the North Pass is the best way for the Zilar to achieve victory.”

  There was silence for a moment before Cleon spoke up. “That would be a problem. Maybe that is why Xanphos is coming here shortly. The Megas Archon told me the ethnarch wants his best polemarch to look this eparchia over.”

  That gave me an idea. “If you can arrange to have Xanphos come here, or I go there without attracting attention, I would like to talk to him. He is the only one in Arginnia I have any trust in.”

  “I will bring him here if I can,” Cleon said. “Alex, I would not be seen in Korpolis for a while until this thing with Diomedes blows over.”

  “That could take a while,” I said.

  “True,” Cleon admitted, “But I think sooner or later, he will need you and need you badly. Then it will blow over.”

  “I wish I believed that,” Melina said.

  It took the workers most of the day to load up the storeroom, put in the furniture, hang a full set of cooking pots, and install the racks for cooking in the fireplace. They were gone by mid-afternoon along with Cleon and the others, leaving Melina here. Now all Melina and I had to do was take care of ourselves.

  Or so we thought.

  CHAPTER TWO: VISITORS

  I woke up in a new clean bed the next morning feeling completely refreshed. The new bed did not make my back sore like the stone bench in the cave. The solid walls around me gave me a feeling of security. Melina, who lay cuddled up next to me, added to my feeling of renewal. That was especially true after our antics last night. My only discomfort came from my lower region, which felt ready to burst. I got up and started to leave the house to relieve myself in the forest before I remembered the kampínes in the bathing room. I sat on the seat and emptied myself into the opening, under which water flowed. That was certainly easier than before.

  I went into the kitchen and got a small fire going. I put on a pot of water and opened a sack of barley meal from our supplies. As soon as the water boiled, I added the meal and made a thick porridge. I made enough to fill two bowls and added some dried apples and a little honey to each and then mixed some diluted wine.

  “You have been busy,” I heard from the dining room next to the kitchen.

  Melina stood there, still undressed and smiling at me. I took the two cups of diluted wine and the barley meal and sat at our kitchen table. I did not feel like reclining on the eating couches. Those were for formal occasions, assuming we ever had any. Melina ate her barley and drank her diluted wine silently. I did not talk much when I ate, except at dinner parties.

  “What do you want to do today?” she asked.

  “Take some of our seed grain and plant the wheat and barley in the fields now that they are ready. Then I need to flood the rice field and plant that. Finally, we need to plant vegetables and herbs. Altogether, this will take us several days. We need to be more self-sufficient after this fall. For now, we have to buy everything from the polis since the barbarians destroyed all the food stores.”

  Melina looked out the window. “I noticed it is getting warmer in the afternoons. If you do not mind, I think I will wear only a breechcloth and wrap-around top when I am working outside.”

  I did not care. We were not likely to get visitors. “That is what I wear, easier to keep our better clothes clean. I know our friends will not mind, and neither do I.”

  I smiled, and she smiled back. Melina had a beautiful body, and I did not mind her showing it off to me privately. Besides, there was no one around to complain of immodesty.

  With that, Melina and I spent several days planting our fields. This is a somewhat long and laborious process, the details of which I will leave out, other than to say it took four days to complete. The last thing we did was the rice paddy. After some preparations, I flooded the field and started planting the sprouted seed grain. We went to bed that night tired, but content our spring work was done.

  It was late that night, and I was sleeping soundly when I heard someone call out in my head. “Alex, someone comes.” The voice was loud and clear, and it brought me instantly awake.

  I shot up in my bed, shaking my head. My sudden movement almost knocked Melina out of bed. “What!” she cried out.

  “Who is this?” I called out.

  “Aetos,” I heard. “Someone comes,” he repeated.

  After clearing my head, I stood up. “How many?” I asked.

  “One man on a horse riding along the road; he is riding at night,” the big eagle told me.

  Who would be crazy enough to do that? I wondered. “Where is he now?”

  “On the road, near the forest,” Aetos said.

  I looked out the window. It was still night, and I did not see any sign of the sun yet.

  “Watch him and tell me what he does,” I said. “Also, watch for others that may follow him.”

  “I hear,” came the reply, and then the presence vanished in my head.

  I looked down at my wife, who looked at me with a mixture of anger and curiosity. I quickly told her what Aetos told me.

  “Nothing to the west except the ruins of Dysiasty,” Melina said, getting up. “I did not think anyone lived there after the Zilar killed everyone.”

  “Neither did I,” I said. “It must be a scout for someone. The only question is who. Other than the Zilar, and the captive desert wild men, no one lives there.”

  “It seems strange they only sent one person,” Melina added.

  “Unless they only want to talk,�
� I said. “If it is the Zilar, they well know what happened the last two times they sent large scouting parties down that road.”

  “What will you do?” she asked.

  “For only one person, not much to do except meet him. If you do not mind, I will have you hide in the orchard with a bow just in case he does try something funny.”

  She just smiled at me. I had seen her shoot a bow before. Her bow was not as strong as Philie’s, then again, she was about half her size and strength, but she could shoot an arrow almost as good as that Amazon, and certainly better than me.

  “Excuse me,” she said and went through the main room to use the kampínes. When she finished, I did the same.

  I looked at her as I walked back into the bedroom. I was not the least bit sleepy now. “Well, I am up,” I said with a yawn.

  “I can see that,” she said, looking at me with a grin on her face. “I can do something about that.” She then grabbed me around the backside and pulled me down onto the bed.

  Early in the morning, both of us jumped into the settling pond for a quick and cool plunge bath. Our guest had stopped at the edge of the forest and remained there until well after sunrise. He rode on the road toward us, according to Alkos who followed him. I decided I would meet him on the road near the orchard. I had met the last Zilar party there—only they were not alone, and they had not come to talk. My animal friends and I buried their remains along the side of the road. Only a long black scorch mark served as a monument to their passing, something I wanted my guest to see and consider before he did anything violent.