Soul Dealers

by D. N. Leo

  “It wasn’t my doing, Ishtar!” That was all he got out before his body spun in the air and smashed down onto the harsh, hot sand of the well bottom. The Goddess approached and thrust the knife at him. He grabbed the sharp blade with his bare hands and watched his blood flow down between his fingers.

  He knew he was going to die, but he would try to do one last good thing before he finished. “If you kill me, will you forgive Mya?”

  “It’s not for you to decide.” Ishtar grunted out the words and pressed the knife harder against his throat.

  “There isn’t a second round in this challenge, Ishtar. I won. If you kill me, do you think this incident won’t be reported to your Gods?”

  “You’re threatening me?” She gave him a hard kick. After all these years you served my court, you should know by now that I conform to no one, and I make the rules. Those who follow my rules will live. I have reserved a very special place in hell for the others.”

  She charged several blows on him using her Goddess’s power. He felt as if his body was going to disintegrate.

  “I have been a loyal servant to you for a very long time. Doesn’t that count for anything?”

  He swore he saw tears in Ishtar’s eyes. That was unprecedented. She pressed the knife to his throat with more force. “Someone has to pay for what Mya did. You are fond of her, so let that person be you.”

  Leon closed his eyes and waited for the knife to puncture his jugular.

  The sound of the gate opening stopped the blade. He heard a voice announcing Mya had come back to court and was awaiting Ishtar.

  As the knife was withdrawn from his throat, Leon opened his eyes and thought he saw relief wash across Ishtar’s eyes.

  “Today is your lucky day,” she muttered then turned on her heel and left through the gate. Leon remained on the sand a while longer, digesting what had just happened.

  When he looked up to the top of the well, he saw a shadow flit across the limestone. It withdrew quickly before he could get a better look.

  Chapter 24

  Zach didn’t like what he saw. The chill air cut into his skin. It was painful—not because of the ice pieces in the wind, nor because of the eerie aura, but because of the emptiness in it. He knew Mya wasn’t there before he even searched for her. He was late, and it pained him to know she had gone before he got back.

  “Where are you, Mya?” he asked the wind.

  She had promised to wait for him in the Daimon Gate. Why didn’t she? He hadn’t known her for long. Hell, apart from knowing she was a woman with many secrets, he didn’t know her at all. He hadn’t expected her to wait here for him for the rest of her life. But he thought they had built something together that deserved a little bit of patience on her side.

  Zach paced back and forth, searching the small cottage on the hillside where he had arranged for her to stay. There was no sign of Mya. The furniture stared at him in silence. The kitchen was so neat he wondered if she’d used it at all.

  There was a small table in the middle of the room. On top of it, a tea set was neatly arranged. He walked around the table, observing the tea set. Then he glanced quickly at the corner of the room. Stepping back to gain some momentum, he flew at the cabinet in the corner, swinging a hard kick to its door.

  The cabinet crumbled, and a creature jumped out—a human-sized frog that stood upright on two legs.

  Zach grabbed it before it fled and threw its slimy body down on the table. He pulled his dagger and stabbed through the web between its fingers, pinning one hand to the table. It cried out in pain and poured out a stream of strange language. Zach rolled his eyes and switched on his wrist unit’s translator function. A computer voice spoke, “Please don’t kill me! I’m just a messenger.”

  “Where are you from?” Zach asked, and the computer again translated.

  “Xiilok,” the creature said.

  “What message did you bring Mya?”

  “I can’t tell you.”

  Zach slammed its head on the table.

  “I can’t tell you. Please don’t kill me!” it cried again.

  “Maybe some tea will open your throat,” Zach grunted and grabbed the teapot.

  The creature bit its lips closed to seal its mouth. Yellow liquid streamed from its eyes—the equivalent of human tears, Zach surmised.

  “Mya doesn’t drink tea, you stupid Xiilok creature. You hoped I would take a sip while I waited for her, didn’t you? What sort of poison did you put in it?”

  “No, no. Not poison. Just a sleeping potion to buy me some time to get away.”

  Zach pulled his dagger up and stabbed down again.

  The creature squealed.

  “You think I’m stupid? You had no idea when I would get here. If you wanted to leave, you could have left. But you didn’t—you waited around for me, and you set up this stupid tea set. I don’t believe you’re just a messenger.”

  Zach pulled out another dagger.

  “Oh, no, no. I am! I’m really only a messenger!”

  “Right. So what was the message then?” He pressed his dagger to the creature’s temple. “And please don’t make me repeat my question.”

  “Someone paid me to tell Mya that Zach Flynn had been captured in Xiilok. They wanted me to tell her they’re willing to trade him for some information… That’s all I know. I don’t even know who paid me. The job was on the market, and I grabbed it. The client was anonymous. Please don’t kill me…” More yellow liquid ran from the creature’s eyes.

  “And did you deliver the message to her?” Zach removed his hand from the creature’s head and wiped the yellow liquid that had smeared on his knuckles on his pants in disgust.

  The creature shook his head. “When I got here, she had already gone. But I had taken the payment—and I don’t want to give it back—so I waited around. I hoped to catch some of her associates to make up for the loss.”

  Where did she go? Zach contemplated. This creature obviously didn’t know who he was, so it had to be at the lower end of the chain of command. Mya was a deity and would be protected by the goddess she was working for. Someone or something wanted her to be excluded from that protection so they could grab her, possibly at the transitional zone of the multiverse.

  For a moment, Zach forgot the creature in front of him.

  Then he saw a flash of movement from the corner of his eyes. The green creature leaped at him. He swiveled around and swung his dagger, slashing at its abdomen. It hissed and withdrew. Its skin toughened and darkened and grew scales. A row of pointy teeth popped out of its gaping mouth. The creature’s head transformed into a lizard-like head. It hissed louder.

  Zach didn’t hesitate. He shoved the dagger into its chest, pinning it to the wall before it could make another move at him.

  The creature convulsed. He knew it would soon die, turning into a worm-filled puddle. “You’d look better dead as a frog,” Zach muttered and pulled his dagger out. As he predicted, the creature slumped to the floor, lifeless.

  He hadn’t been to Xiilok, but he knew it was the land of the multiversal outlaws.

  Then he noticed the puddle on the ground. Unlike other Xiilok creatures that would have disintegrated into a wormy puddle by now, this dead lizard had left only a pile of ugly, scaly skin on the ground.

  He crouched and used the leg of a chair to lift up the skin. On the ground beneath it was something that looked like an electronic device the size of a tennis ball.

  “What the hell?” Zach muttered. “A Xiilok robot?” He shook his head. He had always thought of Xiilok as a purely magical land, but apparently they had technology as well!

  “Let’s see what you’ve got here.” He switched the scanning function of his wrist unit on. A beam of blue laser scanned the ball. He could see the stream of data it imported. When the strings of text appeared on the screen of his wrist unit, he read what they said. And his blood ran cold.

  Chapter 25

  Mya stared at the small jar sitting on a golden tray in front
of her. She looked up at Ishtar, who leaned back nonchalantly on her throne as if what was happening in her court at the moment meant nothing.

  The poison in the jar reeked. But that wasn’t what made Mya wince. It was the aloofness of Ishtar that hurt the most. All those years she had served in the court meant nothing. She shifted her gaze from the jar to Ishtar and waited. Nothing. No reaction.

  Mya nodded and picked up the jar.

  Ishtar cleared her throat. “Is there anything you want to say to anyone?”

  “I’ve spent more of my life outside the court than inside. There is no one here with whom I would want to leave a message. But may I ask for one final favor, my goddess?”

  Ishtar shifted on her throne. Then she waved her hand absently. “Granted.”

  “I’d like to ask for a pardon for Leon. I know he will be punished for coming back to court without me.”

  Ishtar looked at her for a long moment then nodded. “All right. I grant a pardon to Leon. I’ll let him live.”

  Mya nodded. She looked at the jar she was holding and raised it. Her motion was halted by the sound of chaos echoing in. She put the poison back down and turned around. Leon had shoved the guards away and marched into the court.

  The guards didn’t really respond in turn. Mya knew they respected Leon as head of the temple guards. He walked straight into the court to stand next to Mya.

  “I hold you in contempt of court, Leon!” Ishtar raised her voice.

  “If I let Mya die, I’m a dead man walking. I no longer fear the court’s formality, my goddess.”

  Ishtar slammed her palm down on the arm of her chair. “How dare you!”

  “Leon, you don’t have to do this,” Mya said.

  He looked at her. “All creatures have to die someday. You came back to spare the lives of the strangers you saved over a thousand years. If I can trade my life to spare yours, I will. I guarded this temple for a long time. Apparently my work didn’t count for much.” He glanced at Ishtar as he said, “If you were out there, Mya, you could save a lot more lives.”

  “Guards!” Ishtar shouted.

  There was no response.

  “Guards, take these two out and throw them into the well,” Ishtar ordered.

  Not a single guard moved.

  Ishtar stood up. “You are forming a coup in my court, Leon? Do you know the consequences of making me angry?”

  “I dare not, my Goddess. If you let Mya live, I am yours. You can do whatever you want with me.”

  Ishtar laughed insanely and waved her arm. The guards standing at the entrance to the temple clutched at their throats, slumped to the floor, burst into flames, and died.

  Mya dropped to her knees. “Please don’t kill them, my Goddess. Please forgive them.”

  “She won’t, Mya,” Leon said and copped a lightning strike from Ishtar. His body was thrown to the far end of the room, and he rolled across the shiny floor.

  “Please don’t kill him, Ishtar!” Mya crawled toward the tray with the poison. “If this is what you want—”

  From the entrance of the temple, the guard announced, “Zach Flynn has requested to enter the court.” The guard rushed in and handed Ishtar a tablet.

  “What is this?” Ishtar asked, frowning and reading the text on the tablet at the same time.

  “That’s the equivalent of an invitation scroll in your world,” Zach said in English and entered the court. His wrist unit translated his words into Babylonian.

  Mya looked up at him. He was formidable, like a magnificent warrior walking into the court with authority. He looked at her and nodded slightly, but he didn’t make a move. Something in him had changed. He would normally have rushed over to help her up from the floor. But at that moment, he locked his eyes with Ishtar’s. She stood still, her face reddening.

  Mya scrambled up from the floor and rushed toward Leon to make sure he was all right. She helped him stand up and walk toward the center of the court. Zach was still in a staring contest with Ishtar. Mya knew he was using his sound waves, but she said nothing.

  Soon, the water jar on a small table next to Ishtar exploded.

  “Impressive,” Ishtar muttered.

  Zach smiled.

  Ishtar put the tablet on the table. “Just a short while ago, you were a subject that one of my minor deities had to save. Now you come here as Sciphil Two of Eudaiz. Should I check that fact?”

  “You could, Ishtar. But it would take time for you to do so as I don’t believe the technology you use here is quite up to the standards of the multiversal system. If anything happens to Mya, the relationship between Eudaiz and your court will be tarnished. I trust you wouldn’t like that.”

  Ishtar narrowed her eyes. “How so? I know Eudaiz is powerful. But I don’t see any benefits in our association.”

  “I’m not talking about benefits. I’m talking about the damage a poor relationship between our two universes could cause.”

  “I see.” Ishtar leaned back. “Do elaborate.”

  “Someone in Xiilok has an interest in obtaining a potion you lost more than a thousand years ago, Earth time.” Zach smiled.

  Ishtar shifted in her chair.

  “Apparently, Mya was responsible for the loss of that potion,” said Zach. “That’s why she has worked for more than a thousand years to pay off her debts. Which she never will because you won’t let her.”

  “She let him go. That’s why she’s responsible.” Ishtar spoke between clenched teeth. Everyone could feel the floor of the temple shaking. She was getting angry.

  Mya approached. “Stop talking, Zach. She’ll kill you whether it’s right or wrong.”

  A column at the far end of the temple exploded and crumbled into dust.

  Zach ignored Ishtar’s budding temper and raised his voice above the noise. “By him, do you mean Nunnaki, your lover?”

  A lightning bolt struck in Zach’s direction. He swiveled and at the same time narrowed his eyes at Ishtar’s chair. The lightning missed Zach and dug a large crater in the ground. At the same time, Ishtar’s throne crumbled, sending her tumbling to the floor. She stood up, even angrier.

  Mya jumped in front of Zach. “Ishtar, please calm down. If this is all about that missing jar, I’ll go and find the potion for you.”

  “It’s not just a missing jar!” Ishtar screamed.

  Zach pulled Mya behind him. “You may have been isolated in your court for a long time, Goddess. You are powerful. But your power cannot raise you above your superiors. You chose not to tell them the truth. But once you have committed an action, it is documented in the multiverse, and your superiors know about it.”

  “Documented by whom?” Ishtar roared.

  “By technology, Ishtar. Have you heard of the EYE, the most sophisticated and independent computer system in the multiverse?”

  “It belongs to the Daimon Gate, and no one—including your king—has access.”

  Zach smiled. “So you do know of it. Well, you’re right. I don’t have access.” He turned and winked at Mya. “But I do know this. You secretly made a potion that could raise the dead, and you did it against your superior’s permission. Your lover, Nunnaki, stole your potion and ran. You asked Mya to give chase, and Mya let him go on grounds of compassion and because she thought it was just a jar of medicine, not a forbidden potion.”

  Ishtar stepped down from the platform of her throne.

  Mya darted forward. “My goddess, I’ll find the potion for you. Zach’s a councillor of Eudaiz. When I was in the Daimon Gate, I Eudaiz’s power. You don’t want to go against them.”

  Ishtar narrowed her eyes. “Why would Eudaiz care about my little jar of potion?”

  Zach shook his head. “We don’t. But our king has just been crowned, and during the coronation process, he destroyed one of the most notorious evils in the multiverse. And that evil needs your potion to revive his power.”

  “So your king doesn’t want the potion to get into his enemy’s hands. If I send Mya to go after it, does
that mean I’m doing your king a favor?”

  Zach laughed. “The current king of Eudaiz is Ciaran LeBlanc. You can look up the records when you get a chance. But for now, let me say this—he doesn’t need your favor. He’d already discussed it with your superiors. The potion not only needs to be retrieved, but it needs to be protected. And Eudaiz is the safest place. Also, before Nunnaki died—”

  “He died?”

  For the first time in her life, Mya saw tears in Ishtar’s eyes.

  Zach nodded. “The evil I mentioned is Hoyt Flanagan. He’s a sorcerer. He knows what he needs, and he knows what to do with the potion. He captured Nunnaki. To protect the secret of the potion’s whereabouts, Nunnaki killed himself. But before he died, he made Mya the potion’s guardian. Only she can call it up if she finds it.”

  “He killed himself?” A tear rolled down Ishtar’s face. She turned away for a long moment before turning back.

  “If you find the potion and bring it back here, I’m willing to forgive all of your debts, Mya.”

  “I’d like to help,” Leon said.

  “Great—the more, the merrier,” Zach muttered.

  “I’ll bring the potion back to court, my goddess,” Mya said. Then she bowed and withdrew. Leon did the same. Zach turned on his heel and strode out behind them. Ishtar left the court without saying another word.

  Chapter 26

  Wagga Wagga burned with the heat of a dry summer wind as they walked along the street toward a hotel. It was a small and charming town close to the Australian outback territory. Mya had been based in Australia for at least five decades, but she had never claimed to know the country, especially the outback. She was too busy to travel, and her work had kept her mostly around central downtown.

  The least conspicuous way of entering town was for Zach to teleport them there during the night. They’d enter on the outskirts of town and travel on foot just as dawn broke through the sky. Zach took Mya and Leon to a guest house in the middle of town. He said nothing during their travels, and her mind was flooded with millions of questions.