“A good likeness,” Ustrea remarked approvingly.
Melek twisted his mouth in a frown and huffed. “It is a blight on the world. A testament to Gerath’s bloated sense of self-worth. What purpose is served from such mindless worship?”
“The people of this world love him,” she said. “And he loves them in return. They worship him because he has earned their adoration. He spends a great deal of time amongst them, guiding their future.”
“He has placed himself above the Creator,” countered Melek. “And now I find out that he is actually mating with them.” The thought clearly disgusted him.
Ustrea laughed. “And you find that distasteful?”
Melek raised an eyebrow. “Of course. How could I not? And you? Would you have us breed with these animals?”
“I must admit that I find the males to be fair,” she replied, smiling playfully.
Melek stared at his wife with a mixture of outrage and jealousy. “So you would–”
“No,” she said, before he could complete his sentence. “I would never consider such an act. At least, not with them.” Her tone took on a distinctly seductive quality. “Though have you not wondered what it would be like for us?”
“Absolutely not!” he replied.
Surprised and displeased by his reaction, Ustrea turned her back. “So you do not find my physical form pleasing?”
Melek grumbled and shook his head. “I did not say that. But you cannot truly wish for us to engage in…”
He could not bring himself to say the words. Instead, he demanded: “Are you not happy with the love we share in heaven?”
She turned to him and smiled. “Of course I am. But I would share my love with you in all its forms. It seems to bring such joy to the people here. Not to mention to our sons and daughters.”
Melek’s slumped his shoulders in defeat. “If you desire it, I will comply.”
Ustrea frowned. “I am not asking you to do so here and now. Only to give the idea consideration. These people bear the spark of the Creator. So perhaps we should understand how they express their feelings.”
“But what of the offspring?” countered Melek. “Should we explore that as well? Should we make children with these people?”
“Perhaps,” she replied. “If it is possible. Would that be so wrong?”
Melek’s face turned red and his fist clenched. “I will not allow such abominations to exist. If Gerath desires a child then he should choose a wife from his own kind.”
“But he does not love them in such a way,” she pointed out, unmoved by Melek’s anger.
“What does love have to do with anything? One does not need love to father offspring.” His eyes turned to the statue. “And this must stop.”
The ground shook violently. In seconds the marble base of the statue turned to dust. The statue fell, smashing to pieces as it hit the ground.
Ustrea groaned with frustration. “Are you satisfied?”
Melek smiled. “I am.”
“This is how it began,” said Maybell. “Melek’s hatred and jealousy. His unbending nature began to assert itself. Even his wife could see it.”
“Ustrea did not understand,” snapped Melek. “Such worship was wrong. As was breeding with lesser beings.”
“Perhaps,” said Maybell. “But it did not end there, did it?”
The scene faded. When Melek and Ustrea returned they were walking on the shore of a vast ocean. Gewey thought it might be the Western Abyss, but there was no way to be certain.
From out of nowhere, a bolt of lightning struck the ground a few feet in front of the couple. Gerath appeared, his eyes burning with fury. He was brandishing a sword.
“Father!” His voice boomed. “You killed her, didn’t you?”
Melek’s expression was blank as he nodded.
“What did you do, husband?” asked Ustrea.
“He killed my daughter,” roared Gerath.
“Yes,” Melek admitted flatly. “I warned you not to mate with the people here. Your defiance caused this. The child should never have been born.”
“You killed his child?” said Ustrea in horror. “How could you?”
“Did I not warn him?” he shot back. “Did I not say that there would be consequences?”
“But to kill a child…” Her voice trailed off.
“You are a monster,” said Gerath. “A blight on the face of creation.” His grip tightened on his sword. “One that I will now erase.”
With a primal yell Gerath charged in, his sword slashing at Melek’s exposed neck. Melek made no effort to avoid the blow. The blade struck home, but shattered into a thousand tiny shards on impact. Undeterred, Gerath struck his father squarely on the jaw. Once again Melek made no attempt to move, and once again the blow had no effect. Melek’s palm then shot out and thudded into the center of Gerath’s chest. The strike sent him flying through the air for several yards before landing with bone-crunching force on his back. Snarling, Melek moved forward.
“Enough!” shouted Ustrea, seizing her husband’s shoulder and jerking him back with surprising ease. “You will not harm him.”
“Let him come, mother,” thundered Gerath.
“You fool,” scoffed Melek. “Do you think you can harm me? I made you. And I can end you as well.”
Ustrea moved between the two. “You did not make me,” she challenged. “And I will tell you only once more. Do not harm our son or I will show you the full meaning of consequences.”
Melek and Ustrea stood nose to nose for several seconds. Eventually, Melek stepped back in reluctant submission.
“As you wish, my dear wife,” he said. “But I will tolerate no further defiance from him.”
Ustrea looked over her shoulder. “Leave, Gerath. We will speak later.”
Apparently no more willing to defy his mother than Melek, Gerath vanished.
“I would not have harmed him,” Melek said soothingly. “At least, not permanently.”
“Why did you kill his daughter?” she demanded, ignoring his attempt to quell her rage. “What gave you the right?”
“She did not suffer,” said Melek.
“That does not change what you did.”
“I did what needed to be done.” His tone bore the certainty of absolute conviction. “I have every right to determine the paths our children take. The Creator gave me that right.”
“Then she has told this only to you,” Ustrea countered. “I have heard no such edict.”
“I know the mind of my maker,” he said proudly. “She has given me the power to guide and protect. And to destroy if needs be.”
Melek turned and walked away. His wife could do nothing but stand and watch with dread growing in her eyes.
“You killed your own kin?” said Gewey accusingly. “How could you be so heartless?”
“I do not answer to you, Darshan,” said Melek. “I did what I had to do. My children acted recklessly and without concern for anything but their own lustful desires.”
“You acted out of envy,” said Maybell. “You couldn’t understand their love so you sought to destroy it. And it didn’t end with the death of one child, did it? You slaughtered the offspring of every one of your children. And not in the quick, painless way you told Ustrea. You didn’t kill them in the womb or the cradle. No. You waited until they were older. Then you tortured them, breaking their bodies and minds until they begged for death. It was for that reason more than any other that your wife turned against you.”
“Be quiet!” ordered Melek. But Maybell only shook her head and looked at him in disgust.
“And even with all your power,” she continued, “you were still not satisfied. You needed unquestioning obedience. And it was not enough for you to subjugate heaven. You needed to rule all of creation as well.”
A city appeared before them, its once tall spires broken and engulfed in flames. The screams and cries of its inhabitants carried on the wind, leaving a smile on Melek’s lips as he watched from a few hun
dred feet away.
A small group of people began climbing down a rope on the east wall in an attempt to escape. Melek sneered and sent an inferno to consume them. Their agonizing cries and the stench of their burning flesh drifted across the field where he was standing.
“Melek!” Ustrea’s voice boomed out. A moment later she appeared in front of him. Before he had any time to react, she slapped him hard across his cheek. “How dare you do this? What gives you the right?”
Ignoring the blow, Melek laughed. “You are too attached to these pitiful creatures, my love. They have become a disease – a disease which I have deemed unworthy of the Creator’s gifts.”
“You have no authority to decide this,” Ustrea told him. “Only the Creator can choose their fate. Not you.”
“And where is the Creator?” he snapped back furiously. “She has made no effort to stop me. Have you heard her voice? I have not. And yet I am forced to look upon this once pure and tranquil world and watch these beasts desecrate the very ground that provides them with life.”
He surveyed the destruction and nodded with satisfaction. “Soon they will be ready to follow the path I set before them.”
“So you mean to rule these people?” Ustrea asked.
“Those that survive, yes.”
“And should the Creator make her displeasure known and tell you of your folly?”
Melek laughed. “She will not. And soon it will no longer matter.”
Ustrea’s eye widened. “What are you saying?”
He gave her a loving smile. “My dear wife. If our Creator will not act, then I must set things to rights. Then I will become the Creator. I will cast her out and do what she will not.”
His words hung in the air like vapor. Ustrea backed away, tears streaming down her face. She turned and vanished.
“The arrogance,” said Maybell. “To think you could raise yourself so high.”
“But when was this?” asked Gewey. “I couldn’t tell what race those people were. They looked…” He paused. “Well, they somehow just didn’t look right.”
“It’s how Melek sees them,” Maybell explained. “You are only seeing things as he does, and to his eyes all people look the same. But I suspect it was during the time of the first born. I don’t believe he knew what a human was until he met you.”
“Then what about the children he killed?” Gewey asked. But he already knew the answer.
“The very first elves,” Maybell confirmed. “But his crimes run far deeper. His rampage of death spread like a plague as he destroyed city after city. And all of heaven was powerless to stop him. Well...all but one.”
“I will not see this,” grumbled Melek, lowering his eyes.
Melek walked the devastated streets of the once magnificent city. Charred bodies littered the avenues and sidewalks, and the foul stench of decay was already beginning to set in.
He had been surprised at how difficult these creatures were to kill. Their spark had been made to never burn out, so it had taken him some time to puzzle out a way of extinguishing it.
“You have been busy, my husband.” Ustrea appeared from around a corner a few yards ahead. “Is your appetite for carnage sated yet? Have you killed enough?”
“Before I came here,” he replied. “I did not know what it was to kill. Not really.”
“And now that you do?”
“It is different to what I expected,” Melek mused. “In a way, quite liberating. But it’s a pity these creatures were made unable to slay each other. Think how much joy I would be able to experience in that. There are so many ways to inflict pain and suffering. More than I could have ever thought possible. If only they could see as I see.”
“And if they could?” asked Ustrea. “What would you do? Incite them to fight one another? Would you have them burn the world to cinders? Would that entertain you?”
Melek scrutinized his wife. “What is it, my love? Why have you come? I know you find this distasteful. Why witness it?” He took a step forward, but Ustrea moved back. “Why do you shy away? You have nothing to fear from me.”
He looked at her even more closely. “Something is different. You are…changed.”
“Yes, my love,” she confessed. “I am changed. But no more so than you. You have become lost to me. You have blackened your heart and turned your back on everything we hold sacred.”
“What have you done?” he asked, suddenly suspicious.
“Only what I had to do.”
A tiny object flew from her hand. Melek gasped with surprise and threw himself to his left. The missile missed his neck by a hair’s width, instead burying itself into a half burned wagon a few feet behind him.
A rage that caused the very ground to shake filled Melek as he realized his wife’s intent. “You seek to destroy me?” he accused.
Ustrea did not respond. Instead, she ran headlong at her husband, the dagger that had suddenly appeared in her hand slashing furiously at Melek’s chest. He instinctively twisted aside, but the tip of the blade still found his earthly flesh. He let out a cry as, for the first time ever, he felt pain.
Ustrea was not about to allow him time to get hold of the situation. She pressed the attack. Melek dodged and spun in desperation, at first uncertain of what to do.
Three more times Ustrea drew blood. But then Melek begin to realize that, for some unknown reason, she was in a weakened condition. Compared to how they usually were, her movements that day were relatively slow and clumsy. She thrust the blade at his gullet again, and this time he was able to catch hold of her arm. He crushed it in his powerful grip. Ustrea cried out as the dagger fell to the ground.
Melek no longer cared why she had changed; rage was blinding him to all but vengeance. His fist smashed against her temple. She fell back, but he pulled her to him, striking her over and over until her legs collapsed beneath her.
In that moment, Melek thrust his hand deep into her chest. Not with his physical being, but with his godly form. Letting out an ear splitting yell, he ripped Ustrea’s spirit from within its earthbound shell. He raised the formless and radiant essence aloft for a moment, the blood lust still coursing wildly through him. Then, with a scowl contorting his features into a mask of pure evil, with a single motion he tore it apart.
The two pieces of what had once been Ustrea flickered and then vanished.
Melek touched the wounds inflicted upon him by his wife. They were already beginning to close. His hands were covered with her blood, as were his shredded garments. It was then that the awful realization of what he had done struck him.
He fell to his knees and wept.
“You killed her,” whispered Gewey. “You killed your own wife.”
Melek could not respond. A single tear fell from his eye.
“Ustrea realized that he must be stopped,” said Maybell. “And she knew that her children did not possess the power to do this.”
“So how did they defeat him?” asked Gewey.
Maybell nodded toward where Melek still knelt.
In a flash of light, all nine of Melek’s children appeared. Gerath was in front, his eyes searching the area.
“Where is mother?” he demanded.
Melek looked up at his son. In an instant he knew why Ustrea had been diminished. She had passed on a part of herself to their children.
“I will ask you one last time,” said Gerath, this time far more aggressively. “Where is mother?” His eyes took in Melek’s bloodstained clothes and hands, also the dart lodged in the wooden wagon behind him. Then, he saw his mother’s lifeless body lying on the ground a few feet behind his father.
“You forced her to betray me!” Melek shouted. Leaping to his feet he ran at Gerath, arms outstretched and hands curled into savage claws ready to rip his son apart.
Gerath waited for him to come with clenched fists.
They smashed together with a thud that sent shock waves reverberating through the ground. Even with the added power that his mother had passed to him, Gerath w
as still not as powerful as Melek. He was thrown violently twenty feet down the cobbled street, two bloody gashes already opened up in his chest. Ignoring the rest of his children, Melek chased after him, spanning the distance before Gerath could regain his feet. He slammed his foot onto his son’s throat and raised an arm high. His earthly flesh faded into a godly spirit, poised to send Gerath to the same fate as Ustrea.
His hand was already plunging down and a mere parchment’s thickness away from Gerath’s chest when the rest of his children seized hold of him and pulled him away. Melek thrashed and kicked with a mad man’s ferocity, his immense strength very nearly proving to be a match for their combined efforts. But somehow they managed to hold on long enough for Gerath to recover and draw a dart from his pocket. It was identical to the one that Ustrea had thrown. With ominous purpose, he moved in.
Gerath grabbed his father’s hair and yanked his head straight back. Melek screamed with terror and fury, but to no avail.
“This is for all of those you have slain,” announced Gerath ceremoniously. “For our children…and for our mother.” Having spoken these words, he sank the dart into Melek’s neck.
His father’s body instantly went limp.
“Now you know what he really is,” said Maybell. “And now it is time you returned.”
At the sound of this, Melek exploded with rage. “I will not be left here! You will not do this to me!” In a mirror image of his attack on Gerath, he charged at Maybell.
Maybell grinned wickedly and sent a blast of air at the fallen god. Melek was sent sprawling, as if struck by an enormous hammer.
He pushed himself up and glared at her. “This is not over, mortal.”
Barely were these words out of his mouth when he was surrounded by a swirl of dust and smoke. Within moments he had completely disappeared.
“Where did he go?” asked Gewey.
“Don’t concern yourself with Melek,” she replied dismissively. “I will deal with him soon enough.”
The Godling Chronicles : Bundle - Books 4-6 Page 47
