by Dante King
“You are ready to take on your uncle and his servants,” Isu said. “Your powers are approaching those of a major god now.”
I had to flash her a proud smile. Compliments from Isu were rare, and I wanted her to know that I appreciated it. For all the suspicion I had about her intentions, she remained the reason I’d become a necromancer and then the God of Death in the first place. Without her, I’d never have been anything more than an assassin and a crypt diver. Sure, I would have been a brilliant crypt diver and one of the greatest assassins in all of Prand, but neither of those things came even close to being the God of Death. I figured Isu and I needed some alone time, and a heart-to-heart talk. Her attitude had been changing in recent times, and I could tell that she wanted to get something off her chest. I needed to hear it from the horse’s mouth, without Rami-Xayon swaying me. I needed to judge for myself. Besides, guilt is a hell of a burden, and we were heading into ever more dangerous territory. I needed my allies as strong as they could be.
Before that, I still had some other business to take care of. I ordered my undead troops to spend the rest of the night digging a deep hole to bury the Blood dagger; we didn’t want another Blood Demon to find this weapon too easily. Then, I went to have a word with Friya. I found her easily enough, before she’d turned in for the night.
“Friya,” I said, “you said that when you removed the concealment spells from the gauntlet, it would start to attract candidates for wearing it.”
“Such as the Blood Demon you just fought, yes.”
“There’s something that’s been bugging me. If all the dragons are dead and extinct, and I’m the only one who can resurrect a dragon and use the gauntlets to control it, then why does anyone else want the gauntlets? I get that they’re potent magical items, of course, but their purpose is very specific.”
“The answer is twofold,” she said. “First, there are those who, like your uncle, and Rollar, to an extent, simply seek out all sorts of magical items for the powers they unleash, even if those powers are beyond their means to control. Also, in that subset of people are a small group who—again, like your uncle—possess powerful magic of their own. Some, perhaps not Rodrick, but others—wizards, warlocks, and other such beings—are able to break down magical items and repurpose their magic. So, they could take this gauntlet and change its powers from the control of dragons to something else.”
“I guess that changes things, yeah. And second?”
“The servants of the Blood God see the weapon—and rightly so—as a threat to him. They want these gauntlets destroyed by any means necessary. And that, of course, will involve killing those who possess them.”
“Does that mean that servants of the Blood God are going after whoever has the second gauntlet right now?”
Friya shrugged. “If it is not hidden like this one was, then yes, they certainly will be. I hope it is hidden though, and protected by many concealment spells, like the ones I placed on this gauntlet when it was still hidden away.”
“And if it’s not? What if the servants of the Blood God get hold of the other gauntlet and destroy it?”
“Then you had better hope that if you do need to resurrect a dragon, enough of my spirit remains intact for you to control the dragon completely with just the one gauntlet. Otherwise, you may well have a very difficult time getting the great beast to obey.”
“Then I guess I better get on my knees and start praying.”
“To yourself?”
I smiled from the corner of my mouth. “Do you know any other god who could do it?”
Fryia chuckled, but she still sounded a little nervous.
“Let’s just hope those toads haven’t found the other gauntlet yet,” I said. “Get some sleep. We have a long way to travel tomorrow.”
“We will speak again tomorrow, Raiser of the Dead. Goodnight.”
She flashed me one of her beguiling smiles and went to bed. I sat and watched my skeletons digging a hole for quite some time, then took a walk on my own through the forest. I was half expecting to be attacked by another Blood Demon, so I kept my breastplate on, but no more twisted creatures came shambling out of the shadows. Instead, all was quiet but for the occasional hoot of an owl or howl of a distant wolf. And in the background, vast, jagged mountain peaks blacked out the clear, starry sky. That was where we’d be heading when the sun rose, up into the mountains, into Aith, the city of the Arachne. I had no idea what to expect from a race of spider-people, but whatever else happened, it was going to be interesting, that much I knew.
Chapter Seventeen
I found Friya again the next morning, when we were already on the road. She was the Wise Woman, after all, and her counsel and knowledge of these parts and the ways of magic were a few of her greatest assets.
“Are these spider-looking motherfuckers just going to open the gates of Aith for us, or are they likely to greet us with a rain of arrows or, uh, spiderwebs, or whatever sorts of things they use for weapons?” I asked her. Despite never having set foot inside Aith, she was the one who knew most about it.
“That will depend entirely on the mood of the Webmaven,” she answered.
“The Webmaven?”
“Ruler of the Arachne. Their queen, if you will.”
“So if this Webmaven is in a good mood, they open the gates and let us in, but if she’s in a bad mood…?”
“They’ll send out an army of giant spiders to kill us.”
“I thought they were the spiders.”
“They are, but they also breed giant spiders, the size of bears. Each Arachne is bound to one of these giant spiders, almost like a witch’s familiar. The more powerful Arachne bind themselves to multiple spiders, with some spiders being bigger and stronger and enhanced with magic. They are similar to your undead troops, really. While the Arachne bind their minds and souls to them, if a spider is injured or killed, it does no harm to the Arachne who is controlling that spider. As you can imagine, it makes for a very efficient army.”
I thought of how I didn’t hesitate for a second to send my undead troops into fights and situations in which I knew a bunch of them would get killed, but they would overwhelm the enemy anyway with the force of their numbers. The thought of being attacked by an army of bear-sized spiders doing this made me uneasy, to say the least.
“Well,” I muttered grimly, “let’s hope this Webmaven is in a good mood when we reach the gates of Aith then.”
As we went higher in elevation, the trees started to thin out, and the forest wasn’t quite so dense and dark anymore. We came to a point in the road where there was a shallow stream flowing across our path. I decided to call a rest at this point because the spires and towers of Aith were visible among the mountain peaks in the distance, and our arrival there was probably only hours away now.
Wishing for some time alone, I followed the course of the stream for a while, heading up into the woods. I soon found a calm pool and decided that this would be a good place to stop and think. I had only just gotten lost in my thoughts, when I heard a twig snap.
In an instant, I was on my feet in a fighting stance with Grave Oath in my hand, but when I spun around, instead of seeing a Blood Demon staggering toward me, I saw Isu heading up the path. Her large, firm breasts shifted tantalizingly with every step she took, giving me a reminder from different angles of their perfect form. Her hourglass figure looked stunning in the form-hugging black dress she was wearing, a plunging neckline exposing a great deal of her generous cleavage, while the left side of the dress had a cut right up to her hip, so exposing the entirety of her long, shapely left leg. Her shoulders were bare, and her dark hair tumbled like a silky waterfall around them. Her pale eyes were bright in the shadows of the forest, and her full lips looked especially luscious. I couldn’t help but think back to the first time I’d seen her take physical form, and as the memories of what she and I had done then came into my head, my cock began to throb in a hot, swelling rhythm.
I forced these thoughts out of m
y head quickly. Even though Isu seemed to have been changing her ways in recent days, I still wasn’t entirely sure of her ultimate motives.
“Vance,” she said, a look of worry coming across her beautiful face, “we need to talk.”
She was rarely this blunt, so I immediately assumed it was a pressing issue.
I slid Grave Oath back into its sheath and took a seat on a rock beside the pool.“All right, go ahead.”
Isu came and sat down on a rock a couple feet away. “I’ve… I’ve put off speaking to you for a very long time,” she said, sounding as if she was carrying the weight of the world on her shoulders. “But I can’t keep quiet anymore. Not now, when we’re approaching Aith. I haven’t seen Aith for many years, but I have a feeling that the city hasn’t forgotten me.”
“What? You’ve been to Aith before, but you didn’t say anything about it until we were mere hours from its gates?!”
Isu let out a long sigh and stared at the ground. “There’s much about my past I’ve neglected to tell you. But I have to let it all out now. I cannot keep carrying it around with me anymore. It’s like the secrets just keep piling on top of each other, the longer I keep silent. Please understand, it simply gets harder to come out and expose it all, the longer you wait.”
“Well, go ahead then,” I said.
“First, I want to tell you about my role in the Purge.”
I breathed in deeply and folded my arms across my chest. Finally, I was going to find out the truth about the great betrayal. I kept an eye on her gestures and the expression on her face, though; my assassin’s training had included developing a sense for detecting lies, and I was going to make damn sure I caught Isu out if she tried to weave tall tales.
“I’ve been waiting a long time for the truth about this,” I said, “but seriously, don’t try to make up any bullshit. I’ll know if you’re lying. Just tell me the truth—the whole truth.”
She bit her lip and nodded. I could see that there was a swell of emotion surging through her, but to her credit, it did look like she was summoning the courage to expose every last detail.
Finally, I was about to learn the truth of Isu’s past.
“What Rami-Xayon says about me is true,” Isu said. “I did betray the other gods.”
“That’s quite something to admit to, but I’m glad that you’re manning up—er, womaning up—and saying it. Please go on, and remember that Rami-Xayon will not leave a single stone unturned if I’m forced to go to her for the rest of the story.”
She nodded vigorously. “That’s why I came to you now; I know that it will be the last chance I get to speak to you alone before we get to Aith. And once we make it through the gates —if we make it through the gates—much of my history will be exposed. But as I said, I’ll get to that later.
“So, to begin. . . “ She let out a long sigh and rubbed down her skirts before continuing. “I was close with the Lord of Light for a time, back when he was a minor god. In fact, I took him under my wing and taught him a few things. But he was always more interested in other planes, spiritual realms. And the more powerful he became, the less interested he was in this physical world of mortality. He was like you; he learned very quickly and was very intelligent and developed his divine powers at an almost unbelievably rapid pace. Unfortunately, unlike you, he had no concern for the men and women of this world. The more powerful he grew, the more distant he became. This lack of attentiveness attracted a certain type of person to him.”
“People who knew that they could leech off his power, I’m guessing,” I said. “People who knew that they could manipulate him and gain power from him.”
“Exactly. The Lord of Light’s mind was elsewhere most of the time. Of course, without staying as a god in this world, he would not have been able to explore these other dimensions and planes, and, as you’ve discovered, you need worshipers in this world, people who will make sacrifices in your name—sacrifices of time, like prayers or pilgrimages. Or souls.”
“So,” I said, “he needed someone to keep mortal men and women worshiping him and praying to him in this world, even though he spent most of his time in other worlds and other planes.”
“Exactly. So, with a god whose mind was always elsewhere, you can imagine what kind of power-hungry scum were attracted to him. They realized that they could be gifted with extraordinary powers—for the Lord of Light grew into a very powerful god—and yet, they would not be held accountable for whatever they did in this world because the Lord of Light spent so little time in it. And because he spent so little time here, he gave these men free reign to do, essentially, whatever they desired in his name. And thus the Church of Light was born.”
“Quite different from the official version of the birth of the Church of Light,” I said grimly, “but far more realistic.”
“The Church was soon filled with corrupt popes and archbishops who cared only about their own power. The Lord of Light, aloof and distant, did not know and did not seem to care much about what these fools were doing in his name. I felt guilty; I had taught him much of what he knew, and I felt partially responsible for what the Church of Light eventually became. I watched as it grew ever more authoritarian, but I did nothing and said nothing because part of me couldn’t believe that the Lord of Light, who had once been such a close friend of mine, could truly be so ignorant about what his church and clergy were doing. As you know, when it comes to men who desire power above everything else, no amount is ever enough to satiate them. So, the next step for the man in charge of it all, the Seraphim Elandriel, was to become as powerful as a god himself. I received word of a plot he had hatched, training elite warriors to become god slayers. It sounded so far-fetched that I didn’t think it could be true. How could the Lord of Light not know about something so outrageous happening right under his nose? After a serious investigation, I discovered that these were no wild rumors. I panicked. I told the Lord of Light what his followers were doing. He said he’d take care of it. And I believed him…”
“So you didn’t actively betray the other gods then? Is that what you’re trying to tell me?”
“I knew the planned date of the Purge, but I had told the Lord of Light, and he had assured me he would excommunicate Elandriel and put a stop to it all. So I said nothing to the other gods. I didn’t want them to start a war against the Lord of Light, which they surely would have done had they caught word of any of this. I knew, and I said nothing because I believed, I believed…”
She trailed off, cupped her face in her hands, and burst into tears, weeping with heavy sobs that racked her whole body. These were no crocodile tears; her outpouring of grief was absolutely genuine. I went over to her and put an arm around her. I knew she had been telling the truth because I’d been paying very close attention to her gestures and expressions, and they had not been those of a liar.
“Damn, Isu, that’s quite something to have been carrying around for so long,” I said in a gentle, sympathetic tone. “I can see why you blame yourself for the Purge going ahead and happening, but most of the blame is obviously on the Lord of Light. You were just misguided in trusting him.”
Isu sobbed, wrapping her arms around me as she wept.
“Shh, shh,” I said, stroking her hair. “You couldn’t have known. Maybe you should have given the other gods a heads up. But you trusted that asshole. The massacre is on his aloof and distant ass alone. Not yours.”
“Try… telling the… other gods… that,” she wept. “They all… hate me… and I can… see why.”
“Well, I will tell them that. And if they don’t agree, fuck them. I know the truth.”
She gripped me more tightly, and her sobs died down. “Thank you Vance,” she murmured. “But my confession isn’t complete yet. This is difficult to admit because… because…”
“It involves betraying me, right?”
“Yes. How did you know?”
“I saw you sucking off that wooden cock you modeled after mine. I knew something was up when you
kept disappearing on your own, and when I saw you working on perfecting your dick-swallowing skills, I knew that you had to be plotting something. So, what was it, suck me off, get me to lose focus while you’re giving me the best head of my life, then stab me in the heart with my own sword when I emptied my seed into your mouth? Reverse the whole thing and resurrect me as a mere necromancer as you restore your own divinity?”
She looked up at me, and her beautiful face was twisted into an expression of shame. “That was exactly my plan,” she admitted. “But it’s no longer my desire. I gave it up, and I’m ashamed I even thought of doing something like that to you. Obviously, I was upset that you stole my divinity from me and relegated me to the role of a mere necromancer. And yes, I fashioned that wooden cock after yours, so that I could practice with something of the exact size and shape. Your member is incredibly large, and it’s not exactly easy to swallow to the base.”
I couldn’t help but smile. “What changed?”
“I came to realize something. I wanted you to take my divinity from me. Why else would I have provided you so many clues on how to do it? Why, if I wanted to remain a goddess, would I have made it so easy for you to take my divinity? I knew, deep down, for a long time, that I had become tired of being a goddess. It had become more of a burden than a blessing to me. I had grown so weak when you first found Grave Oath that I was no longer able to take physical form—just like your physical body will vanish into nothing one day if you lose all of your devotees and worshipers. But, you see, I could have found more devotees. I wasn’t killed in the Purge the way many of the other gods and goddesses were. I simply became weary of the divine life. I gave up. I allowed myself to fade into obscurity because it was all too much for me. It gets that way after a few hundred years.
“And yes, it came as a shock; it was a shock to be resurrected into a mortal body once again, a shock to have been stripped of most of my powers. But it was also a relief, a relief beyond compare. No longer did I have all of the worries and burdens that come with divinity. You had rid me of them by taking my place as the God of Death. But of course, when you are accustomed to being something for a few centuries, and then the rug is suddenly ripped out from beneath your feet, it’s difficult to become acquainted to your new reality. And for me, that shock turned into anger and resentment. I thought I wanted my divinity back, so I started with that stupid plot to suck your cock like it had never been sucked before, then stab you in the heart when you were at your most vulnerable. And I’m ashamed that I ever considered it, deeply, deeply ashamed. Especially because of another thing I’ve come to realize in recent weeks.”
