Virtue Inverted

by Piers Anthony

  Damn, damn, damn.

  Virtue, perched on his shoulder, sent another thought. I feared this.

  Precisely. It was reasonably easy to do right when right and wrong were clear, but real life so often presented unkind compromises. Benny hardly knew what he was supposed to do. But as Jack would say, what would be, would be.

  They arrived at the fringe of the giants' camp, and Liverwart set Benny down on the ground. Then Virtue flew down and resumed her human form. Benny handed her her clothes.

  “Wow,” the giant said, having gotten another good eyeful as she slowly transformed. Benny wasn't sure whether that was for her transformation from a tiny flying creature to a human woman, or for the eye-popping proportions of that woman.

  Virtue smiled at Liverwart. “Thank you.”

  So it was proportions.

  Now they entered the camp. It was an immediate horror. All the giants were dead: male, female, children, lying where they had been slain, their blood soaking into the ground. Their huge bodies had not yet cooled completely.

  Liverwart did not know what to do; that was why he had come to the inn, where smarter friends were to be found. Now it fell to Benny to be his guide.

  “First we must check the area to see if any survive, only seeming dead,” he said. “We must locate the men who did this and deal with them. Then we must bury your friends, and you will have to move closer to the inn where at least you will have some company.”

  “Um,” the giant agreed, relieved to have direction.

  They scouted the area, but no giants survived. Then they discovered something remarkable: Cycleze, lying under a tree, stabbed multiple times, plainly dying. His skin was peeling away to reveal bright turquoise light beneath. It had never occurred to Benny that the mancould die; he was after all an angel.

  First things first. “Where's Beranger?” Because that was the one he had to fight.

  “He is gone. We fought, and I injured him; he must be alone to heal.”

  So there was no immediate danger from that quarter. Benny was only partly relieved. There was obviously a lot more to learn.

  “Liverwart, the man who did this is gone,” Benny said. That was a simplification, necessary for this person. “Bury the bodies while I try to find out more about why this happened.”

  “Um,” the giant agreed, glad to have something to occupy him.

  Benny turned to Virtue. “This is one of the men who killed your coven members. He is dying. I must talk to him and learn what I can before he dies. You don't have to stay.”

  “I will ease his pain,” she said, kneeling beside Cycleze.

  “I am your enemy, vampire,” Cycleze said. “You have no call to help me.”

  She put her hand on his forehead. “I must help who I can. I can't mend you, but I can comfort you.”

  The man relaxed as the pain eased. “You are an angel.”

  “No, you are the angel.”

  “I am a fallen angel. You are an angel of mercy. That is better.”

  Benny agreed emphatically. But there were things he needed to know, and not much time to learn them. “Why did you kill the giants? They were no threat to you.”

  “True,” Cycleze said. “This was Dale's mischief. He has a killing lust that increases daily. I thought I could control him, but he was going out of control, and finally he turned against me.” He smiled weakly. “I would have been better off with you, Benny.”

  “Why did you want to be with anyone? You're not really human.”

  “I am fallen. I am doomed to reside among the mortals. So I resolved to make my stay on Earth as comfortable as possible, by amassing a fortune and using it to support a life of ease. To purchase ideal property, hire stout manservants to perform all necessary maintenance chores, and engage lasciviously lovely maidservants to cater to my personal inclinations. But I needed a man I could trust to guard my back, one not corrupted by greed or lust. A man like you, Benny, once you mature. Money makes many things feasible.” He glanced at Virtue. “I could never have hired you, my dear.”

  “Never,” she agreed without rancor.

  Because she was not moved by any desire for riches or power, only by what was necessary and what was right. She was not for sale.

  “Benny is blessed to have you with him.”

  “Thank you.”

  Cycleze returned his attention to Benny. “With you beside me, as I said, I could have safely used those riches, because you are moral at heart. That is part of what Virtue sees in you, in case you were wondering.”

  Virtue did not deny it.

  “But Dale caught on that you were being honed as a possible replacement for him. That is why he banished you, and I could not prevent it.”

  “He said it was because I interceded to save a vampire,” Benny protested.

  “An attractive vampire he would gladly have raped and degraded. But to get at her, he would have had to kill you, and then I would have killed him. He couldn't risk that at the time, so he banished you both, hoping at some later date to have a pretext to kill you and take her then.”

  “I would not have gone with him!” Virtue protested.

  “You would not have had a choice, my dear. He would have bashed out your fangs and held you down for the occasion, and killed you when he finally tired of you. He has no respect for your virtue.”

  She was silent, knowing it was true.

  “Benny, there is history you need to know before you encounter Dale again. He is a man of strong passions. Good and evil war constantly in him, and slowly evil is winning. Could that but be stifled, then he might be able to apply himself to positive endeavors. But I think that case has become hopeless.”

  “Yet he was good to me,” Benny said somewhat reluctantly.

  “He was grooming you similarly: to be his trusted companion and friend after I was gone.” Cycleze smiled weakly. “It was not a woman that came between us, for we have different tastes; it was you.”

  “You—the two of you—I thought you were friends.”

  “We were two people with a common purpose. That is not the same. It requires a certain innocence to be a true friend. We were not innocent.”

  “I—I guess there was a lot I did not understand.”

  “And your lack of understanding becomes you.”

  Benny wasn't sure whether that was really a compliment. He was also dismayed to see Virtue's slight nod of agreement. “What is the history you wish to tell me?”

  “You remember how the orcs massacred those children at the orphanage, long ago? How Dale's brother had been killed by an orc? How he organized a party to get revenge on those orcs? How he took on a dozen orcs single-handedly and got his terrible scar from that encounter?”

  “Yes, Jack told me that history.”

  “That is false history.”

  Both Benny and Virtue stared at him. “False?” Benny asked.

  “It was Beranger who killed the children at the orphanage in Alsbury.”

  Benny was appalled. He didn't want to believe it, but he knew that dying people seldom lied, and Virtue's glance signaled that Cycleze was telling the truth. “But why?”

  “In order to make the townsmen hunt down the orcs he believed killed his brother.”

  “He believed?”

  “Those orcs were peaceful. His brother's death had been an accident.”

  “You're sure?”

  “Yes. I helped Dale mutilate the bodies of the orphans and place them into strange sexual positions.” Cycleze smiled grimly. “Nothing sets off folk like sexual abuse. Minds click off and passion rules.”

  “But—but why not simply tell Dale the truth? That the orcs were blameless?”

  “That was my crime. I manipulated Dale's mind into thinking that the orcs were responsible for his brother, meaning to cement our relationship. I didn't know he was going to kill the children, but by then it was too late to backtrack. I grieve for those innocents, the orcs and the children, and curse my part in that horror.”

 
; “All—all because you wanted to make Dale a friend, to support you as you amassed wealth?”

  “Originally, yes. I was uncertain of my place in this realm, and wanted the reassurance of a knowledgeable native. Like a person starting a rock rolling down a steep hill, not realizing that it will start an avalanche that kills many others.”

  Benny's mind was whirling. “You—where did you come from?”

  “It is hard to convey the concept, because you have no experience with anything beyond your own concept of reality. I am an inter-dimensional being who was expelled from my own dimension when I inadvertently annoyed a higher deity. Fallen angel is the closest concept your mythology presents. That’s what Dale always called me at least.”

  Benny sighed, holding on to what he could understand. “The orcs were innocent.”

  “The orcs came and tried to stop Dale from mutilating the children's bodies, knowing that they would get the blame. That's when he fought them. That is actually how he received the scar and lost his nose. The fight was real, but there was no glory in it.”

  Benny began to apply what he had learned from being with Beranger and Cycleze before. This story, horrible and true as it might be, was incomplete. “Why are you telling me this now? Wouldn't it be easier just to leave me to my ignorance, instead of knowing how bad you and Dale really were?”

  “Easier, yes. Satisfactory, no. I want to confess my evils before I pass from this realm. And to do what little I can to ameliorate them. Maybe by doing so I’ll be allowed to return home once this vessel is dead.”

  “What could you possibly do now?”

  “Tell you the rest of the truth. Then tell you how you can defeat Dale in fair combat, so as to rid the world of him. Give you money and greatly extend your life. So that you can be a benefit to this world, instead of a liability as Dale and I were.”

  Benny stared at him. “I'm a 17-year-old stripling with a vampire girlfriend. How can you place any such trust in me?”

  “I was wrong to recruit Dale. I am wiser now, and I think not wrong to recruit you. Wealth, power, and life in your hands will be forces for good rather than evil.”

  “This is ridiculous! I have earned no such trust.”

  Cycleze glanced at Virtue, who still had her hand on his forehead, abating his pain and perhaps reading his mind. “You know this young man well. Am I mistaken, vampire?”

  “I think not,” Virtue said.

  “Benny, you must do two things to have a hope of defeating Dale, for he is more than your match as a warrior.” He smiled wincingly. “More than mine, as it turned out. I was going to kill him in his sleep after we finished with the giants, and take the money. I'm no saint either. But he caught on, and attacked me, and I will die. You must be better prepared than I.”

  “Two things?” Benny asked blankly.

  “First, cut your hair.”

  Benny thought he had misheard. “Do what?”

  “Virtue can skry to verify it. I do not know why, but it is necessary.”

  Was the man verging into nonsense as his body died? “What else?”

  “Have Virtue give you the berserker bite.”

  “The what?”

  “She will explain. I am fading and must cover the rest quickly.” He winced as he reached into his jacket. “Here is a map. It shows where Dale keeps all of his gold that is not on his person. That gold will be yours after you kill him.”

  “I don't want to kill him!”

  “You may not have a choice, any more than Virtue would if he got hold of her. You will kill him, or he will kill you.”

  That seemed all too likely to be true. And of course he had to try to stop the man from getting Virtue; the thought of her being brutally violated bothered him more than his own possible death.

  “And here is the last of it,” Cycleze said. “Give me your hand.”

  Benny glanced again at Virtue. She nodded. He took the man's cooling hand.

  “I bequeath to you my remaining power in this dimension, which should prolong your life for several centuries, if you don't get killed first.”

  “Several centuries!”

  Then a surge of life force passed from the fallen angel's hand to Benny's hand, and on into his body, invigorating it, and he knew it was true. He could live for centuries, if he didn't get killed.

  Cycleze's hand dropped away. Virtue removed her hand from his forehead. “He is going,” she said.

  “Going?” Because it seemed he was already dead.

  The man's body began to glow, as it had when he melted the zombies. Benny turned his eyes away to protect them, and so did Virtue.

  A turquoise glow formed, illuminating the surrounding landscape. It faded.

  When they looked again, all that remained was the man's clothing, limp on the ground. He had transformed back to the angel and departed from this dimension.

  “I think he was not a bad angel, taken as a whole,” Virtue said by way of benediction.

  Benny could only agree.

  Chapter 12

  There was one more detail: the clothing. “Do we bury it, in lieu of his body?” Benny asked. “I don't think anyone else here can use it.” It was too big for him, too small for the giant, and completely wrong for Virtue.

  “That may be best,” Virtue agreed. “Only--”

  He looked at her quizzically. “There is a caution?”

  “His special pipe.”

  Now Benny saw it lying there, with its twin bowls. The man had put tobacco in one, and some other substance in the other to get a mix of smokes. “I don't know. It shouldn't be wasted.”

  “You might take up smoking,” she said teasingly.

  “Why would I ever do that!”

  She stooped to pick up the pipe. “There is magic. I can feel it. Maybe you should smoke it.”

  Benny shrugged. “I'd just cough and turn green.” That was what had happened the one time he tried to smoke before, and the experience had discouraged him from ever trying again. But now he wondered.

  There was a small pouch amidst the clothing. This turned out to have two compartments. One contained tobacco, the other something like aromatic sawdust.

  “There's magic,” Virtue repeated. “Not harmful.”

  “All right, stop nagging me. I'll try it.”

  She smiled. She never nagged him; anything she wanted, he wanted. If she felt magic in the pipe and pouch, he wanted to know its nature. A little bit of magic could go a long way.

  He took the pipe, put some tobacco in one bowl and some of the fragrant sawdust in the other. Then he struck a light and sucked on the stem, fully expecting to draw in choking vapor and gag or try to cough his lungs out.

  Instead it was something else. Vapor, yes, but not choking. It was more like breathing a rich confection of flower garden aroma. For an instant he felt dizzy; then his mind clarified.

  “What is it, dear?” she asked.

  Had she just called him dear? “I—suddenly I have a new—a rare new perspective. The world seems not to be different, but I can see it from another angle. I can make judgments I never could before.”

  “It must be mind clarifying,” she said. “That can be useful.”

  “It can indeed,” he agreed. “I will keep this.”

  Virtue carefully folded the clothing and tucked it into a crevice in the nearest tree. “This will mark the spot,” she said. “For whatever that is worth.”

  “Yes.” He emptied the spent ash and put away the pipe. Somehow he knew already that he would never be without it.

  They helped Liverwart complete the burial of the bodies. The giant looked miserable, understandably; all his clan had been killed, and this was somehow making it final.

  “I can help you somewhat,” Virtue told Liverwart. “If you accept it, I will give you an emotional healing bite. It won't bring back your clan companions, but it will make you hurt less for losing them.”

  The giant looked uncertainly at Benny. “Do?”

  Benny had to make an ethic
al choice. What was best for a simple-minded person? To stifle his grief, or allow it full expression? Given that the problem could not be fixed, an adjustment of attitude was probably best. “Do,” he agreed.

  Liverwart sat down on the ground, and Virtue bit him gently on the shoulder. For a moment there seemed to be no change. Then the giant smiled. “Hurt less.”

  Benny had another idea. “Maybe you should go take over Kidneywart's old fort. It is vacant, and it won't remind you constantly of what you have lost. Maybe with that estate you will attract a lonely giantess.” Because he knew from personal experience that women were attracted to men with estates, and there was nothing to abate a man's isolation like a woman.

  “Do,” the giant agreed.

  They parted company, Liverwart going to the stronghold, while Benny and Virtue set out to track down Beranger, who should not be far distant.

  “Remind me why I am doing this,” he told her.

  “You must stop him before he does yet more damage. He has killed my coven and Liverwart's clan; who knows what misery he will bring to others in the future?”

  “That's it,” Benny agreed. “Oh, I'm forgetting: Cycleze said to cut my hair.”

  “He did,” she agreed. “Yet I wonder why.”

  “I wonder too. As far as I know, my hair has nothing to do with the rest of my life.”

  “It doesn't seem to make sense,” she agreed. “But he said I could skry it. Maybe I should.”

  “But you don't have your crystal ball.”

  “That is merely a convenience. Water will do, here in the field.”

  “It will?” He tried to picture a ball made of water, but failed.

  She led him to the pond where the giants had dipped their water. It was deep, as they needed a lot at a time. She stared down into the quiet depth.

  “He was right,” she said. “I don't know why, but it is one of the most likely guardians of your life.”

  Benny believed in her skrying; it wasn't always clear, but it inevitably turned out to be correct. “Then I'd better cut it,” he said with real regret. While he had never made an issue of it, he had always been reasonably proud of his silvery locks.