by M. M. Perry
Cass couldn’t help but laugh. This was the Manfred she wanted to remember, the cocky little man she met at the pub all those years ago. He was in an upbeat mood. Strange, she thought, for a man so close to death.
“You laugh, but if you’d seen me back in my mortal days, your northern hunk o’ lunk would never have had a chance.”
“What makes you think he does now?” Cass joked.
“You waited until now to tell me? Well I guess that means you won’t be upset when I tell you the truth about that tattoo.”
“Go on.”
“We’re married. I decided not to press it when we met back up, but it’s true. For my people, it was how we got married. Shared tattoos. You can’t see mine so well because I’m so blue. But it’s there.”
“Wait a minute. The only other person I knew with one of these was a fella.”
Manfred laughed heartily.
“Yeah, that was Joe’s doing. Joe was among the population we djinn liked to refer to as the luckiest djinn on Tanavia.”
Cass had to think about it for a minute, but when she got the jest, she laughed.
“Surely they had sisters and mothers they cared about, too,” Cass said.
“Yeah, but they had a lot of help keeping their, shall we say, grief, at bay. A lot of chatter in legends about the djinn over the years. Not a lot of talk about all that frustration among little blue men. It ain’t a pretty scene.”
Cass slopped through the water behind the larger group. Manfred felt lighter and lighter on her back with each step. She couldn’t help but feel there was something more to his jokes than he let on. She touched the tattoo on her ear before adjusting Manfred higher on her back.
“Well, Manny, you’ll get to see them all pretty soon,” she said softly.
Manfred rested his weary head on her shoulders, draping his arms around her neck. He nuzzled his cheek into her skin, like a small animal happy his friend was done scolding him.
“Yeah. Thank you, Cassandra. For everything.”
Cass felt emotions stir in her she wasn’t ready to confront. She hurried to catch up with the rest of the group. She wasn’t sure how long they’d need to walk. She was about to ask when the air around them changed suddenly. It was cooler and fresher than the hot humid air endemic of the Wet Desert. She looked up and could no longer see the sky. They had somehow moved into a cave without her noticing. The top of the reddish rock dome above them was cracked, allowing light to filter down into it.
Cass had expected to find a maze like cave filled with plants and life. The word oasis conjured up just such an image. Instead there was only a single pool of oddly green water in the center of the cave. The rest of the ground was made up of dry sand, much like any normal desert would have. She carefully set Manfred down by the water in case he wanted a drink.
“Don’t fall in,” she said as she stepped back.
“I’m not worried. I know you’d save me,” Manfred said scooping out some water.
Cass looked around the cave before her eyes were drawn to the bottom of the pool of water.
“Where did all the rest of the water go?” Viola asked the question that was on everyone’s mind since they were now standing on dry sand.
“We’re on a rise. You never noticed the water falling away. It is the illusion, and it keeps this place hidden. Before we hid it, travelers could actually cross the wet dessert in a couple days, stopping at the huge red rock rise halfway across. Now the only way to get here is to be a god. Or with a god, in your case. I must admit, I wasn’t sure you’d be able to get in with me. But, here you are,” Chort said proudly.
“How would you hide anything in here? And from the gods at that?” Gunnarr said walking around the empty cave, his voice echoing in the air.
“That’s a good question. Trust me, they looked and looked and never…” Chort began.
“It’s right there,” Cass said pointing in the pool of water.
She walked over and waded into the water.
“I don’t see anything in there,” Chort said disbelieving.
Cass submerged herself and swam down into the pool. It was deeper than it looked. She felt her ears pounding but she could see the blade so clearly. She had decided she’d need a better breath of air before trying again and tuned to go back to the surface when she realized she wasn’t in the water anymore. She looked up and could see a skin of water hovering over her, her friends all looking down into the pool from above.
“What… is going on?”
Water still dripped from her gear as she looked around at the eerily green room. Ripples of light filtering through the water danced along the walls. She looked down to see if the sword was still there. At her feet, resting in the dry sand, was a long great sword. The edges gleamed as if they had never been used, perfect swirling lines etched in the sharpened metal. She reached down to pick it up. The hilt was warm to the touch, the heft of the blade substantial.
“She told me to bring it here. To leave it here. I’m glad she was right. I always doubted.”
Cass dropped the blade in surprise at the voice. She looked around and could see no one in the small cave with her.
“I’m going mad. Or I’m dead. That’s always an option.”
“No, not dead. Or mad. Cousin.”
Cass looked around for the source of the disembodied voice. When she found none, she looked down at the sword suspiciously.
“No, it isn’t the sword,” the voice said. “But I am dead, or at least the mortal part of me is dead. The other part of me found this place, as she told me it would.”
“Who… who told you to do it?”
“My mother. Selina.”
“Selina,” Cass said looking around, still trying to find the voice. “The woman who raised me?”
“Yes.”
“Well, then we are only cousins in spirit, not in blood. She was not my birth mother.”
“No. But my father was your uncle.”
“Your father? And how is it now I get family reunions? It’s the end of the world thing isn’t it? Everyone comes out of the reeds at the end of the world,” Cass said.
The voice was silent for a moment.
“You are strange, cousin.”
“I’ve been told that,” Cass said.
“My father was Ves. The god of lust. Brother to Timta. He was caged long ago. Tortured and caged because of me.”
“Yeah, I’ve recently been apprised of that fact,” Cass said and picked up the sword at her feet. “The tortured part in any case. I never heard about a cage.”
“He has been released. And then killed. Easy prey for those who hunger. He is no longer suffering.”
Cass held the blade up to inspect it more closely.
“She said this is why you would come,” the voice said. “That is why you are here. You’ve heard of the blades made to kill the gods.”
“I take it you’re Toren then?”
“I am. Or was. Now I’m a guide for you. What is left of me anyway.” Toren’s voice floated around the room.
“So Selina is really, really old then,” Cass said. “I must find the recipe for her skin cream.”
“Ves loved her. He did not wish to lose her. He gave her eternal youth. They had me. It was his last gift to her before he returned to the gods. He knew his punishment would be swift. He knew he was about to be banished to his cell forever. So he gave her his power and me. Such that he could.”
“His power? Selina is a god?”
“No. It transformed when she received it. She remains ever young. That was what it became.”
“And the seeing as well?”
“No. That she had before. Seers are born, not made.”
Cass thought for a moment.
“She saw that you needed to come here, to do this?”
“She did. She saw I would go to the River, to avenge my father. She saw I would fail in that task. She told me when I failed, I should seek out this place. I should leave the blade here for you to find.”
> “How did you know the gods would not find it?”
“Only gods can reach the bottom of the pool. Only a mortal can breach the barrier at the bottom. You have both qualities. The gods do not. A trap I created with the last of my power. They would find only sand at the bottom of the pool.”
Cass stared up at the water above. It was clear her friends were frantically trying to figure out what happened to her.
“You have power?”
“As you do. Mine is different. All gods have different powers,” Toren said.
“I’m not a god,” Cass replied.
“You are enough of a god.”
Cass didn’t feel like arguing. She noticed Gunnarr disrobing, readying himself to dive into the pool.
“They can’t see me.”
“No one can.”
Cass drew a small circle in the sand with the sword while she thought everything through. She looked back up at the skin of water above her.
“Any advice before I head back, cousin?”
“You cannot miss the river if you fly high enough. It is everywhere and nowhere. But it is up there, if you look for it. If you are quiet, they will not notice you until it is too late. I rode a griffin to get there. If those creatures still exist, you might try that. And cousin? Be careful.”
“Thank you.”
Cass bent her knees and jumped. Instead of feeling like jumping, it felt like diving. She crashed into the skin of water and floated upward rapidly, bursting out of the pool and coughing on the water’s edge, her hand still grasped around the hilt of the sword. Chort’s eyes widened.
“It was there all along!” he exclaimed.
Gunnarr helped Cass out of the water and Chort took a few steps back, wary now.
“It looked like you just disappeared. We figured it must be some kind of magic,” Viola said.
“Something like that,” Cass coughed again.
She straightened and noticed Manfred moving away from the group to sit down. He did not look well. She walked to him and as the others started to follow, she held up her hand to keep them back. She could see the djinn didn’t want too much company. The blue in his skin had lightened to a pale pallor, washed out and drained.
“Is now the time,” Cass asked softly.
“It is. I can go no further. Yet the last piece of me cannot leave. Not until it is done. The final step,” Manfred let his eyes slip over Cass’ shoulder. She didn’t turn to follow his look, because she didn’t want to alert anyone to what was about to be done.
“Are you sure you are ready? If I do this thing, it cannot be undone.”
“If you think you need him for a little longer, if you need more information or anything useful from him,” Manfred said, his voice barely above a whisper, “then I will not object to being left here. It’s nice here. Quiet. It wouldn’t be a bad place to be stuck while the world ends. But one way or the other, the scrolls show that staff. The seer spoke of the staff. You’re going to have to decide what to do with the god attached to that staff. You might as well help me kick the bucket if you’re going to go the way I think you’ve intended all along.”
“Alright, Manny.”
Cass stood, turned and rejoined the group. Her hand was still on the hilt of the sword she’d brought up to the surface. No one noticed, their eyes all on the dying djinn.
“So that’s what it looks like when one of those blue basta…” Chort’s words were caught in his throat, along with some blood and a blade. The light faded from his eyes as quickly as Cass removed the sword. As the god fell, blood gushed from the wound, filling the pool of water with a red cloud.
“Cass!” Viola screamed as she went to the crumpled god. “Have you been possessed?”
Cass looked at the blade, the blood from the god still dripping from it. She felt the strangest sensation. A prickling along her spine. For a few seconds, she felt refreshed in a way she never had before. Then it was gone. She knew his power, such that it was, had been transferred to her. She hoped it would be enough. She needed to be able to power the staff. She reached down and picked it up where it had fallen.
“Cass! What have you done?” Viola was aghast. While Viola hadn’t cared for Chort, he hadn’t done anything to harm them. In her eyes he was an innocent.
Cass looked down at the ground. She was not proud of what she had to do, but she knew it had to be done. She felt Gunnarr’s reassuring hand on her arm.
“I’m sorry Viola, but I’m not sure why you thought we had continued to bring him with us. He provided us with little information, no aid against the gods save a bribe to stop Oshia from tormenting me. He was only a dangerous risk we took. He could have informed them at any time what we were doing. I know you think he was harmless, but this,” Cass said holding up the walking stick, “this is what he knew would make him king of the gods. It was all he ever wanted. I couldn’t give him that chance and I needed to know this worked,” Cass said brandishing the sword.
“We might have bargained with him,” Viola scoffed in disbelief. “We didn’t even try!”
“Viola! Enough! He was a god. He was far from harmless. I should think you’d trust me enough to know I speak the truth. He would never have given us his staff willingly. He would have used it to take all the power for himself. Think for a minute. What are his motivations for staying with us? He needed us to get to them. He could have helped us a great deal more, but he gave us just enough to get to where he needed to go, nothing more. He never aided us in a fight, he never healed us when we were harmed. The only reason he came here to this cave with us is he was convinced nothing was here.”
Cass stopped talking for a moment and softened her tone.
“Sometimes, Viola, being a warrior is brutal. You don’t really get the option to always be lenient. I would have warned you had I realized it would have bothered you so much. I forgot that you spent a lot more time with him than I did.”
Viola looked away, angry at her friend for not consulting her on this part of her plan. Cass could see Viola was not ready to be consoled, so she handed the god-killing blade to Gunnarr and walked over to Manfred. She knelt in front of him.
“Red will come to understand. Chort just got under her skin. Us greater beings have a tendency to do that, you know,” he chuckled softly.
“She’s not wrong either,” Cass said back. “He might’ve taken our side. I just couldn’t chance it. And we don’t have time to make deals with gods over our future.”
“Nothing about helping me in that little speech you just gave. I noticed that,” Manfred said weakly.
“Well, then I’d have to admit everything’s actually about you, Manny. Your ego might burst with the admission,” Cass said, fighting the sadness with a jest.
Manfred smirked.
“Too right.” He paused a moment before speaking again, hesitant about what he had to ask.
“You felt it then? The power going to you?”
“Yes. There wasn’t much, but yes, I felt it.”
“Felt pretty good, didn’t it?”
Cass nodded, though thinking about it made her uncomfortable.
“It’ll be worse. So, so much worse, Cassandra. Our people threw away our loved ones for a sampling of that power. You ready for that? I mean, I’m not going to be there to hold your hand and all that.”
Cass took a big breath in before speaking again.
“Won’t matter much, right? I don’t have to kill them. I have to convince whichever one ends up on top to go on their own.”
“Here’s the thing, wifey. All the scrolls, all the seers, all the dragons, they’ve all told you how it was going to end. My people saw those scrolls and predicted the true end. Literally. No matter how much I fought with them to convince them things aren’t always what they seem, they were convinced. And then what they were sure would happen, didn’t. Don’t go up there to that great river in the sky thinking you know what’s going to happen for sure. Be ready for anything. You may need to cut off a few heads yourself.
Be prepared for what that means.”
Cass raised her eyes and looked into Manfred’s bright violet ones. She understood what he was saying to her. She nodded.
“Say hi to your sister for me,” Cass said.
“Don’t worry, sweetheart. I’ll tell her all about you. She was always eager for me to find my first true love.”
Cass started to grin at the joke before she realized it wasn’t one. Her hand hesitated hovering over him. He smiled weakly up at her.
“I’ll understand if you can’t do it.”
Cass shook her head; she would do this for him. As she held the staff above Manfred, then slowly lowered it to touch his fading blue hair she stared at his eyes, wishing suddenly for more time. For a moment, she thought she wouldn’t be able to power the staff, not even using what she had absorbed from Chort. Then the air around the staff wavered, light touching the staff bending in odd directions. Swirls of blue surrounded Manfred’s body then poured into the staff. When the air cleared, a man lay on the ground instead of a djinn, his black hair peppered with strands of grey, his brown eyes playful. He had a strong masculine face and olive colored, smooth skin. He smiled at Cass and she was struck by how handsome he was. This was certainly not the pudgy, round bellied bearded man she imagined he must have been. She reached out and touched his cheek, something in the deep recess of her mind stirring to the surface. He reached up and held her hand there. For a second, she could feel a connection she had not realized was there until just then.
“Yeah, see now, I told you I could’ve given that big dumb blonde of yours a run for his money, eh?” Manfred said, a sly look on his face. Then he closed his eyes and exhaled one last breath.
Cass moved her hand against his cheek and the skin flaked away as dust. Her touch disturbed the delicate balance and the whole body collapsed in a cloud. Cass stood in the middle of the haze consisting of what used to be Manfred and clenched her fists. Dust landed on her eyelashes and she blinked a few times to clear them, causing a mild disturbance in the swirls around her. She turned to see Viola, Nat and Gunnarr in stunned silence.
“He’s free now,” she said trying to shake the disturbing feeling she’d lost something much greater than a good friend.
