“You’re afraid I’ll get pissed off and not help her and maybe even leave Fel, aren’t you?”
She nodded, “We’re tools, Will, and sometimes we get used. It’s just part and parcel of the job. That’s why the benefits are so great. What we’re going to do is very important to Ary, very important. I will need your help very much in accomplishing it.”
“She means a lot to you doesn’t she?”
Stephanie grinned, “Why do you think I’ve been with her for so long? Rule number four: If you don’t really care about your god and your people, quit. There will always be another god out there to pick you up, if you want to continue as a champion. Yes, you can work for someone you don’t like if you respect them, yes, even if you don’t care about their people. But you’re not going to do a very good job of it, and you’re not going to like it very much.”
“Been there done that?” I asked.
She nodded.
“Why?”
“I made a bad choice. I left someone I liked for all the wrong reasons, ended up with someone I thought I’d like, but was wrong. Ary was nice enough to bail me out.”
“If she’s so great, why would someone leave her?”
“Eventually you get tired of the job. When that happens you have three choices, the first is to give up being a champion, go someplace and live out the rest of your life as a regular average person.”
“I suspect that’s hard to go back to.”
She nodded, “For most it is. Second is find another god, and go work for them.”
“That sounds better. What’s the third option?
“Have your favorite god send you to their heaven.”
“You mean die? That doesn’t sound very attractive.”
Stephanie shrugged, “Sooner or later you have to. We all have to. And eventually you will outstrip all that you know, and you’ll long for old friends and old loves. Rachel is mortal, one day she will die. A thousand years from now, if you go to Feliogustus’s heaven, she’ll be there for you. Trust me, if you don’t find that idea attractive now, one day you probably will.”
I thought about that, I couldn’t see it now, but maybe one day I would. I was twenty three years old, what did I really know?
“You know,” I said standing up, “it’s going to be a little weird for me, seeing as how we were lovers once and all. Well, I was at least; I don’t know how it was for you.”
Stephanie smiled at me, “I liked you, and I like you now. Yes, I didn’t feel as strongly for you as you felt for me, I hope you’re okay with that.”
I nodded and healed my butt, which then stopped aching. “I can live with that. Thanks for the honesty.”
“Well, we’re going to be working together for a while, so,” she shrugged. “Anyway, let me show you how this gate thing works.”
She showed me then and we gated back to the temple.
“So what do you think of her?”
I was asleep, dreaming of course, Fel had decided to pay a visit.
“She told me about everything you know.”
Fel sat back in his chair, “And here I thought you were spending that time getting laid.”
I chuckled and shook my head, “Once I’m sure it’s safe, I may sleep with her again, but not before.”
“Wise that. So what does this mean for the two of us?”
“It doesn’t change a thing Fel. You’ve played straight with me, and you’ve done pretty damn good by me to be completely honest. I’m happy with my situation and our agreement.”
“What about Aryanna?” I could see Fel was concerned.
I shrugged, “Even if I was upset with her, which I’m not, I’d still uphold your end of the bargain because I’m loyal, to you.”
Fel smiled and relaxed, “I’m glad to hear that, Aryanna’s and my relationship is very important to me. It’s also important to the continued success of our people. She got me you, and that alone means I owe her a tremendous amount.”
I nodded, “Stephanie was right to tell me, if it had been thrown in my face at a bad time, I know myself well enough that I would have had second thoughts. I’m young and stupid yet, hearing it now, I had the chance to look at everything and realize that it doesn’t really matter how I got here, to this point. The fact is I’m happy with where I am, what I’ve got, and where I’m going.”
“Just remember that years from now,” Fel warned. “I’ve been told this task of yours is going to take some time.”
“Years? How many years?”
“I have no idea, but if it was easy, she wouldn’t have needed someone as good as you, now would she?”
I laughed, “And here I was hoping I was just a pleasant surprise...”
I woke early the next morning and thought about what Fel had said to me as I rolled over and looked down at Rachel, who was cuddled up against me in bed. Being away would suck, but I knew that would be the case when I married her, and so did she. Even Darlene knew I would be gone for long periods of time when she said yes to me.
I was sure there would be fighting, probably a lot of it; and killing and probably even dying. Long days of terrible conditions, of slogging it out and wondering just what the hell we were doing and where we were going. Whatever it was Aryanna wanted us to do, I was sure it wasn’t going to be just a walk in the park, or she wouldn’t have gone to all that trouble of helping Fel win his war just to get his champion’s help to get it done. Or helped the other gods who had pledged their champions as well.
But still I couldn’t help smiling as I looked down at Rachel sleeping there and as I thought about Darlene back at the inn; all things considered, no matter how much it would suck, no matter how much I would suffer, no matter how much I might complain about it, with two women like these to come back to I wouldn’t trade my job for all the money and power in the world.
End Book 1
As an author, I would ask that if you liked this book, please take the time to rate it. Ratings are an important part of success as an eBook author, and four and five star ratings are of course the ones that help us the most. So while I feel a little embarrassed about asking for ratings and reviews, the reality of this business is that without those reviews my work will not rise in rankings and will not be seen by others. So please, if you liked the story I would greatly appreciate your taking the time to write a review and rate the book.
Thank you,
John Van Stry
www.vanstry.net ([email protected])
If you liked this book, you might like my other stories:
Urban Fantasy:
The Hammer Commission
Mark's job seems pretty dull, working as an investigator into crimes committed against Church property, theft of holy objects, vandalism; nothing terribly exciting but he does get to travel the world.
That's just the window dressing. Mark does work for the Church, but as an elite member of a thousand year old secret society that hunts down devils, demons, and other evils. His job is not just to find them, but to remove, dispel, or kill them: he's on the front lines of the secret ongoing war between Heaven and Hell. However as wars go, it has been a fairly easy one for the last few decades, with nothing seriously evil having been summoned since the last world war.
But all of that is about to change, and the question for Mark may not be can he survive, but can he survive long enough.
Science Fiction:
Children of Steel
Raj is just your average everyday genetically modeled and artificially created anthropomorphic worker for one of the many corporations of the future. Extensively trained and conditioned from birth he's now indentured for the next fifty years of his life; assuming he doesn't die first, or somehow manage to pay off his creation and training debts.
Created by the corporations to deal with the harsh labor shortages of the twenty second century when humans will no longer take on the dangerous jobs Raj finds himself now in the harsh world of space exploration, trading, corporate maneuverings, and sometimes the eve
n more dangerous fanatics that hate Raj and his fellows. No longer in safe confines of the training academies he must learn how to live and deal with both his fellow workers and the humans he encounters and not get saddled with extra bills or fines because he's screwed up or worse yet, get 'put down' because he's lost his temper one time too many.
After all, it's not like he's human ...
Danger Money
Jotun was born and bred to be a corporate assassin, back in the days of the Corporate Wars. Confined these days to life in a gilded cage, Jotun welcomes any opportunity to get out and lately he's been getting out a lot. But as a genetically designed and Laboratory bred animorph by a company that isn't quite sure if it trusts him anymore his choices are few: do the jobs that eventually will kill him, or refuse, which will also kill him.
Of course it isn't like he doesn't enjoy the work, but when everybody wants you dead you start to wonder if there isn't more to life.
When an unexpected betrayal kills the few friends he has and nearly him as well, Jotun realizes he has bigger problems than his lifestyle, namely finding out who betrayed him and paying them back, no matter what the cost.
Danger Money is a Science Fiction story that takes place in my Children of Steel universe, a future where genetically created animorphs serve as second class citizens and handle all of the dirty and dangerous jobs that are part of humanity's extension to the stars.
Dialene
Dialene's Captain decided to play pirate, and one well placed nuclear torpedo later she finds herself prisoner of the Corporation whose ship they were attempting to raid; her friends and lover all dead. With no corporation to ransom her back she finds herself in the unenviable position of having to work off the debt assigned to her for her part in her Captain's actions. With concerns as to where her loyalties lie she has but two choices: Work in the mines on an airless rock where a small fem like her would not last long, or work in the company bar entertaining those very same miners.
At least working in the bar beats the alternatives, until one day an interesting character inserts himself into her life.
A Novella from my Children of Steel universe, Dialene is a foxmorph who until her capture was a highly rated shuttle pilot working a deep space trader for one of the more notorious corporations. Like most of her kind she had no choices in her employer who considered her nothing more than a disposable asset.
Shorts: The Furry Years
A collection of short stories that I wrote years ago for several of different anthropomorphic fanzines. Includes the following short stories:
Changes: The hero of the story wakes up in the morning to find his world has changed, rather drastically for him, hardly at all for others.
Old Business: This is from my ‘Children of Steel’ universe, it’s about the beginning of it all, the very first of the sentient animen (or animorph) ever to be created.
New Beginnings: Jack is the new bartender at a small pub, a nice quiet pub in the business district. The patrons tend to find his opinions humorous, as what does a bartender know after all? (More of a slice of life type story).
Fox Hunt: A joke that I just could not resist.
Easy Money: What happens to spies who come in from the cold? Especially ones who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks? Nothing good I’m sure...
Available in eBook format at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Kobo, iTunes, and wherever eBooks are sold, available in print from CreateSpace or Amazon.
Portals of Infinity: Book One: Champion for Hire Page 18
