Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga)

by Anna Erishkigal

  Lucifer's teeth were reminiscent of fangs. Eligor glanced over at the place on Lucifer's snowy white wings where the chunk of uncooked flesh had lodged, now disappeared since Lucifer had made a trip into the head. Friend? Lucifer had earlier made clear his thoughts about friends.

  'I ain't your fucking pet, dude,' Eligor thought clearly enough for Lucifer to hear. 'You want me to watch your ass, fine. But don't fucking patronize me. I'm here because I draw a paycheck. Not because I feel like sucking up to you.'

  Aloud he stated with a flat tone: "Anything you say, Sir."

  Lucifer studied him with a bemused expression, one perfect blonde eyebrow arched into a 'vee.'

  "I like you Eligor. You're probably the only person on the ship that isn't afraid of me, and isn't out to kiss my backside."

  "Sir," Eligor gave a noncommittal answer.

  "Are you really in all this for just the paycheck?"

  Eligor focused on his altimeter instead of meeting Lucifer's gaze. He pretended not to notice Lucifer had picked that thought right out of his mind.

  "Nobody's ever in if just for pay," Eligor said.

  Lucifer leaned back, no longer interested in the spectacle below, and splayed his wings haphazardly against the co-pilot's chair.

  "Then what do you want?" Lucifer asked.

  Eligor shrugged. "Nothing much."

  He shoved the image out of his mind of the Colonel's widow. Where had that thought come from? Lucifer? Or his own?

  He focused on the descending shuttle, the way the bird struggled to stay aloft as he slowed down to the point the wind no longer gave her lift. He'd been selected as a pilot because he was the best in the fleet, and he could make this bird do things that nobody else could. He banked closer to the ecstatic crowd below, so close that the belly of the shuttle almost grazed the banners. If Lucifer wanted a stage entrance, by gods he would to give him one!

  Lucifer pressed his knuckle against his upper lip, regarding him intently like a serpent sizing up a rodent. Eligor felt the intrusion into his mind. Shemijaza had possessed this same ability, but just before he'd sent Eligor off to fetch his son, he'd pulled him aside and made him learn how to fend off just such a violation.

  'You must shield your thoughts and always keep them to yourself,' Shemijaza had said.

  'Even from your son?'

  '-Especially- from Lucifer,' Shemijaza had said. The man's silver eyes had been filled with worry. 'Trust no one. Not even, if I act peculiarly, me.'

  Had Shemijaza suspected his son had inherited his mental health issues and his ability to fuck around with other people's minds?

  Eligor filled his mind with sensory input from the three-ring circus just outside the windshield. It was an enormous coliseum, with steep seating which stretched so high it dominated the skyscrapers in the city. It was built of stone, but all around it huge video screens showed in intricate detail the unfortunate team captain's head being dipped into a vat of liquid rubber, until enough rubber had accumulated that the man's skull would make the next game's rubber ball. On both sides of the enormous bonfire lay racks of similarly constructed balls, each one containing a loser's severed head.

  Lucifer gave up on his game of 'let's fuck with Eligor' and focused instead on what had caught Eligor's attention.

  "Oh, look!" Lucifer slapped his hand against the dashboard. "This is always my favorite part!"

  The three surviving losing team members picked up the fourth member's now-rubberized head and carried it forward to a platform at the head of the ball court. They held it upwards as an offering to the king. The camera cut up to King Barabas, dressed in an elaborately feathered ceremonial costume. The cannibal-king held his arms out to the crowd.

  "What's he doing?" Eligor asked.

  "Watch," Lucifer's voice held an edge of excitement. He slid his fingers along the dashboard, lightly sliding along the edge of each instrument the way one might caress a lover. His voice grew husky and low. "Come, Barabas. Let your subjects decide their fate."

  The cannibal-king held his hands straight outwards, and then he pointed outwards towards the crowd.

  The crowd cheered.

  "Ooh! Goodie!" Lucifer clapped his hands together like a small boy.

  Eligor watched the losing team member's faces on the video screen. Whatever King Barabas was up to, they anxiously awaited his decision.

  "What's he waiting for?" Eligor asked.

  "Watch," Lucifer crooned, his voice seductive.

  Eligor lined up the space shuttle directly over the target area and fired off the VTOL engines. As he guided the shuttle down, he looked up and saw the enormous, thirty-foot-tall video images of King Barabas point downwards with both of his thumbs.

  Some of the crowd cheered, but a bigger portion of the crowd booed.

  Lucifer frowned.

  King Barabas pointed up.

  The crowd went wild.

  The video camera cut over to close up shots of the three losing players, who all looked as though they might just faint with relief.

  Eligor glanced over at Lucifer, who looked disappointed.

  "Oh, well," Lucifer said. He flipped out his hand as though to say, 'whatever.' "Sometimes, people just aren't willing."

  Lucifer leaped up and moved back to the passenger area of the shuttle, almost hitting Eligor in the face with his wings. He barked orders at his two cold-eyed goons in a language Eligor couldn't understand.

  Eligor finished setting the space shuttle down onto the ground. This whole expedition was a fascinating little anthropological research lesson on negotiating with fucked up militaristic cultures, but as soon as he got back to the Prince of Tyre, he swore the first thing he would do was hit the shower and delouse his feathers.

  He peered up to the raised platform upon which King Barabas, king of the cannibals, stood triumphant. He hit the 'speaker' button so he could hear the cannibal king announce these were triumphant times, and their god had returned to shepherd their people into a golden age.

  Lucifer met Eligor's gaze.

  "Stay here."

  The two goons hit the 'open' button to the hatch. The ramp slid down. Lucifer strode out onto the playing field like a conquering hero, arms held high in a victorious 'vee.'

  The crowd clapped politely, but they did not cheer. Eligor's estimation of the average Tokoloshe intellect went up a notch. Hah! If Lucifer wanted to bamboozle them, he would have to do more than just show up and tell them he was Shemijaza's son.

  Lucifer strode across the ball field, past the blood-stained grass that was all that was left of the sacrificed ollamaliztli player, past the rack of severed heads to stand in front of the enormous bonfire lit in front of the cloaked statue. The four victorious ollamaliztli players came forward and presented Lucifer with the now-rubberized head of the losing team captain. Lucifer held the ball above his head as though he presented it to the people in the stadium.

  The crowd cheered…

  Lucifer tossed the gruesome ball lightly into the air and bounced it off his hip, straight towards the nearest ballsink. By some miraculous confluence of aiming plus the wind, the ball sailed straight into the hole.

  The crowd went wild. Even in his shuttle, Eligor could feel the vibration as two million Tokoloshe clapped their hands and stomped their feet in a martial chant of victory.

  Lucifer made a mocking Sata'anic prayer-gesture, and then he bowed, his wings flared gracefully behind him as he gestured first to the crowd, and then the four victorious ollamaliztli players. With all the grace their species had been engineered to possess, Lucifer took flight right through the upper tongues of the fire, past the shrouded statue to stand on the enormous, raised platform which rose behind it to provide a stage. Here, Eligor knew, Lucifer was in his element. On stage, Lucifer had always known how to play a crowd.

  King Barabas bowed to his guest. The crowd grew silent, sensing this was something they had never seen. King Barabas? Kneeling to a foreign prince? Lucifer placed his hand upon the man's shoulder and b
id him, over the loudspeakers, to rise in perfect Tokoloshe language.

  Lucifer had told him to remain here, but Eligor decided here included the ground just outside the shuttle. Whatever Lucifer was about to pull, Eligor wanted to see it. Besides … with the two goons up there guarding Lucifer's person, who the fuck was supposed to make sure some random Tokoloshe didn't creep up and shove a plasma grenade up the shuttle's antimatter induction ports?

  The lawn outside the shuttle bore the peculiar scent of freshly mowed grass blended with the stench of stale blood. The ollamaliztli stadium rose so steeply that even spectators in the nosebleed seats sat in proximity to the playing field. He stared upwards at row after row of Tokoloshe, an Angelic's worst nightmare, to be trapped with not just one of them, but millions. There were no guard rails on the steep seats, and he wondered how long it would be before one of the spectators fell to their death.

  A shiver of anticipation rippled through his feathers as the crowd grew quiet and Lucifer began his speech.

  "Loyal citizens of the Tokoloshe Kingdom," Lucifer said, "once upon a time you were part of an empire founded upon ideals of a perfect society. My father invited those who believed perfection could be created, not by the gods, but by mortal creatures, to join our ranks. He believed these petty gods had no place in our empire, but should be cast them aside in favor of the old gods who are the true source of power upon which all of creation was built."

  "This vision threatened the two old gods, who depend on our continued inconscience to maintain their grip upon our very souls. As my father grew in power, the two old gods united to destroy him, to destroy your dream that someday all sentient creatures will become worthy to take their place amongst the gods."

  The Tokoloshe began to boo, but it was not Lucifer who they hated, but the two old gods who had united to push back on Tokoloshe incursions into the hotly disputed borderlands.

  Lucifer's voice grew louder, more ominous as he brought every aspect of his physiology into play.

  "My father was betrayed by the person he trusted the most," Lucifer shouted. "For years I was lost, abandoned by the very god who had stolen me from my father, but then one day I realized the two old gods were nothing but mere reflections of the one, true god."

  Huh? Eligor stopped pretending to be interested in running a circle-check on the exterior of the shuttle and froze, his eyes glued on the man who was his boss. There had been whispers of such things when he'd still been a grunt in Shemijaza's Third Empire, but all such talk was forbidden in the Alliance, and in all the years he'd worked for Lucifer, never once had he heard the man make any mention of such a thing.

  "I looked within myself and found that inner god just where my father had promised he would be," Lucifer said, "and through that god, he has brought me full-circle to reclaim the empire that was my birthright!"

  The Tokoloshe began to cheer.

  A voice behind Eligor caused him to spin around.

  "You have no idea, do you?" a gruff voice asked. "You have no idea who you serve."

  "Who are you! Come out of that shadow!" Eligor ordered the man.

  He saw the feathers first, the elaborate headdress, the false feathered tail, and a helmet carved out of the skull of some unknown predator, its fangs still embedded into its jaw. The elderly Tokoloshe was dressed in the ceremonial finery of an ollamaliztli player this time, but it was the same shuffling elder who had swept the launch pad at King Barabas' palace. He leaned as he walked on a ceremonial staff, and at the top of that staff was a child's skull, Angelic by the look of it, decorated with white feathers.

  "It's a great honor, to be a favorite of the One," the elderly Tokoloshe said. "But tell me, Eligor, when your god needs you, will you be willing?"

  Eligor stared at the creature, uncertain what his response should be. Above him on the platform, Lucifer continued his speech.

  "This dream does not belong to me alone," Lucifer said. He held out his arms to the Tokoloshe as though he was imploring the blessing of the gods. "With your help, we can revive this dream of perfection."

  The Tokoloshe cheered.

  "We can go forth and multiply;" Lucifer said. He reached out as though grabbing a fly out of the air. "We can colonize and bring under our rule those planets that are conducive to our growth."

  The cheering grew louder. Up on the stadiums, the Tokoloshe began to chant and stomp their feet in unison.

  "And we can manage those who are not useful," Lucifer said, "the weaklings and the cowards, the liberals who believe we should dirty our gene pools by forcing the strong to expend their resources upon the weak."

  The elderly Tokoloshe took off his feathered helmet and gave Eligor a grin. Saliva dripped from bear-man's fangs like an animal preparing for a feast. He lifted his snout up to the citizens gone wild in the stadium and gave them a sniff as though he scented something delicious.

  "We can ensure those species that natural selection has dictated are only good for food, shall become food," Lucifer shouted, "and not be a burden to our continued expansion out of this galaxy, and into the universe beyond!"

  The Tokoloshe's wild, undulating snarls caused chills to ripple through Eligor's feathers even though he could not put into words his sense of horror. As Lucifer spoke, he could see things, horrible things, images of fire and of creatures being impaled onto spits and their still-writhing bodies being roasted and eaten while still alive. All had heard stories, terrible stories about the Tokoloshe feeding poles, but it was all propaganda, or so Lucifer had said. But he could see it, dammit! When Lucifer spoke, Eligor could see what the Tokoloshe did to their victims!

  "Do you know what the most powerful food-source in the universe is?" the elderly Tokoloshe grinned at him.

  "Get away from my ship!" Eligor snarled. He unclipped the straps which held his pulse rifles into their holsters. "Get away before I turn you into another blood-stain in the grass."

  Lucifer carried on with his speech.

  "If we want our Third Empire to rise again, we must look within ourselves, we must look to our inner gods, and we must make sacrifices, we must be willing to make sacrifices to earn the right to ascend and take our place at our god's table."

  The elderly Tokoloshe gave Eligor the same, patronizing grin he'd given to him earlier today.

  "The most powerful food source in the universe is the soul-spark, the consciousness a sentient creature possesses just as it changes form," the Tokoloshe said. "At that moment, a willing man can gather up the wishes of his people and carry their pleas into his god's ears."

  All around them, the Tokoloshe in the stadium chanted a great, rabid cry. The fires from the bonfire grew brighter, as if somebody had piled more wood onto it even though Eligor could see no men to feed it. The wind picked up and blew forcefully against the enormous banners which alternated between the Tokoloshe flag and the upside-down star which had been the symbol of Shemijaza's Third Empire.

  "In our own hands," Lucifer shouted to the masses, "in our hands alone lays the destiny of the Third Empire! We shall resurrect it through our own labor, our own industry, our own determination and daring, and our own perseverance. Only if we are willing to cast off the trappings of our mortality and sacrifice ourselves for our god, only then shall the Third Empire rise again. We shall claim our place amongst the gods, not as a gift, but we shall create it for ourselves!"

  A great, howling wind blew into the stadium, causing the smoke from the fires to whirl in vortexes and blow towards Lucifer to surround him, and yet it did not burn him, as though he stood at the center of a drain.

  Eligor glared at the elderly Tokoloshe.

  "I don't care what he says," Eligor said. "I'm just in this for the money!"

  "But you are not just in it for the money, are you?" the elderly Tokoloshe grinned. "You have an agenda, just like everybody else who serves the One. I suspect the reason he's amused by you is, despite your loyal service, he still hasn't figured out what your real agenda is."

  The chanting reached
a terrifying crescendo. The elderly Tokoloshe took a deep breath and stared up at Lucifer as though in adoration. He placed his feathered helmet back upon his head and readied his cane as though he was about to break out into a jog. Lucifer continued his speech.

  "Let us start now by telling our One True God that we are willing," Lucifer shouted like a madman. "That we are willing to join him as ascended creatures, free from the burden of mortal shape or form. Tell me? Who is willing to act as a catalyst? Who will carry the wishes of your people to your god?"

  The shouts of the Tokoloshe grew so loud it hurt Eligor's ears. The acoustics of this place, the rough voices bouncing off the stone, amplified Lucifer's voice and the shouts of the cannibals screaming they were ready.

  "You are lucky, Eligor," the elderly Tokoloshe said. "You have no family to curry favor, no wishes of others to carry to his ears. Once, I was like you. When Shemijaza asked, I told myself I was not willing to aid him. But now? Now, old age and infirmity has made me reconsider what it means to serve our god. Perhaps someday you will join me on the other side as his Agent?

  With his fangs bared into a macabre grin, the elderly Tokoloshe leaned upon his cane and shuffled forward, his limp only perceptible if you knew to look for it.

  Lucifer's speech grew to its horrible, terrifying crescendo. The energy in the air was palpable, as though Eligor stood next to the warp coils of a command carrier, or the Eternal Emperor's throne room just as he manifested into mortal form.

  "Who is willing?" Lucifer gesticulated to the ecstatic crowd. "Who will join my ranks and become a god?"

  A spotlight shone down and captured the elderly Tokoloshe limping towards the enormous central bonfire, the shrouded statue, and the pedestal upon which Lucifer beckoned.

  "I am willing," the elderly Tokoloshe shouted. "I am willing, Master. I am willing to carry their prayers unto your ears!"

  The crowd went wild.

  They all began to chant. 'Lucifer. Lucifer. Lucifer.'

  Eligor had been present when Lucifer had cast off his chains and rallied Parliament to fracture the Alliance, but this was nothing like that. Then, Lucifer had just been a man. An aggrieved man, an angry man, but there had been nothing supernatural about that performance. Just a man who'd been wronged using his oratorical gift to strike back against the Emperor's injustice. That had been the good twin, the one Eligor watched out for, the one he wished wasn't absent so much of the time.