Gods and Demons in Love
by
Claudette Gilbert
Copyright © 2012 by Claudette Gilbert
*****
Note: These stories are in the order the events occur. (Okay, in "The Shaman's Lover," Nate Lee is in a spaceport in the distant future telling the tale of what happened in the age of mammoths, but the "present" for that story is still the spaceport.) If you've already read the other stories and want to skip to the conclusion, click "Love's End."
Table of Contents
Sister Darkness
Lost in the Ruby
The Shaman's Lover
Love's End
Death and His Daughter
About the Author
*****
Sister Darkness
"I don't care if you stay or go, Nate Lee. I don't need your power; I have my own." Annith wrapped her tattered shawl close about her bony shoulders and rocked back and forth at her place by the fire. With both hands, she pulled at her long gray hair where it hung around her face like strands of dirty wool.
"I'm bound by my oath," I replied. I sat opposite her, as old and ragged as she. The two of us made a pair on either side of the little cabin's stone fireplace. Nothing else lived there, not even a rat. Annith had eaten them all.
"All you have to do is tell me your heart's desire, Annith, and then I will leave." I'd lost track of the number of times I'd said those words, and she answered as she always did.
"I'll tell you when I'm ready, and not before." She paused to glare at me. "In the meantime, must you look like a drooling dotard?"
"There is no 'must' for me," I replied. "I merely look like you."
"Well then, stop it! Do you think I like this old woman's body? Do you think I want to look at a worn out old man like you? I don't need your ugliness to remind me of what I am. Change, now!"
I sighed and looked at Annith, Annith grown old, with a body like sticks wrapped in rags. I would have pitied her if I did not know her so well. Yet, I stayed out of love, love ground to dust and ashes, love like bile on my tongue. Where have you gone, my beloved Laheese? Where is the spirit that made you a wonder and a dream? I stayed with Annith to keep my promise to sweet Laheese, and I regretted every word of that oath. But to please Annith, I stirred and changed. And now I was a younger man, not old, but not a youth, a little more than average tall, with fair skin, fair hair, and ice-blue eyes.
"Does this please you?" I smiled to show her that I now had all my teeth.
"You look like someone's clerk!"
But then Annith turned suddenly toward the door. A look of satisfaction filled her face, all the lines and wrinkles falling into an expression of smug glee. I, too, had felt the trap spring, and shuddered, knowing the prey was well and truly caught. Deep in the seat of my power I felt their hot, wet mortality. I saw how Annith smiled with pleasure at her skill and her cunning.
"Let them go," I said. "They've done you no wrong."
"What's that got to do with anything, Nate Lee?" Annith replied, her voice as dry as old bones. "I hunger. That's all that matters. You'd as well expect me to ask an egg whether it wants to be fried."
I sighed and reached for a stick to stir the fire. I could not leave Annith, not until released from my vow. Oh, sweet Laheese, lady of bountiful pleasure; this far daughter is not like you, beloved for all of my life, my much too long, long life.
My Laheese was the lady of spring flowers, the garden of my delight. It was for her sake I kept my promise and watched over her daughters, her many, many daughters. Someday I would give Annith her heart's desire; that was my oath and my curse. That was the promise I'd made so long ago to Laheese, that I would give her heart's desire to her daughter and her daughter's daughters, so long as her line continued. It has seemed so little to ask at the time. And so I came to each woman in turn, down the long, long road of time; and I kept my word and in the keeping, I destroyed them, every one.
Annith's mother had lain with a Dark Lord, and her heart's desire had been a child by her Lord. So Annith was born, a girl child who feared nothing and no one save her father; a girl child who lingered between mortal and demon. Annith aged as her mother had aged, but she fed as her father fed. She knew of my oath—I'd long since let her glimpse what I was—but heartless Annith could not tell me her heart's desire, so I tarried here in the mountains.
Just an hour later, we heard knocking at the door of the cabin, and Annith shuffled slowly across the worn floorboards to answer. She panted with the effort of walking across the one bare room of the cabin, and I could almost hear her joints creak as she moved.
"Enter, and welcome!"
Her voice was a cackle. Hens in the barnyard spoke more fairly than she. Annith was a hag with hair that fell into her eyes. Her clothes were the rags of once fine garments. Her visitors looked askance at her age and poverty, yet it was plain they were grateful for the shelter of the cabin. The snow was still deep in the valley, and the air was cold. Shivering, they entered. They glanced once at me and saw a man neither old nor young, neither handsome nor plain, and then they looked away.
"Thanks," said the man, shaking the snow from his coat. "We're real glad we found you. We almost missed this place, hidden away like it is. Wouldn't have found it at all if I hadn't spotted the smoke from your chimney."
Annith smiled at his smooth, take-charge face. Expensive clothes covered his soft body, well matched to his easy sense of command. He smelled of cologne and competence.
"Our car broke down," the woman explained. She was plump and pretty, and she carried a sleeping boy in her arms. Her fine blonde hair escaped in wisps from under the hood of her red jacket. "It just stopped dead."
"Probably damp plug wires," the man said.
It was plain that he took the failure of the car as a slur on his abilities. He didn't know about the trap Annith had set, of course. I sighed once, for a moment thinking of trying to warn them; but I would not cross Annith, not until she'd revealed her heart's desire. They were prey, and it was her nature to feed.
"I'll take care of it after while," he promised us all, as if we might doubt his word. "I just wanted to get Madeline and Tommy out of the cold, and Sister Angelica, of course."
As he spoke, another woman entered. Black robe and white coif—a nun, smelling of innocence and gentle piety. I started to speak, but Annith motioned me to silence. Quietly, I moved my right hand to cover the ruby of the ring I wore on my left. No nun should see that sullen red stone where souls screamed in a hell of their lovers' making.
"Come in, come in." Annith grinned her toothless grin and shuffled back into the room. "Make yourselves warm. Close the door. Come to the fire. The night is almost here."
The boy stirred in his mother's arms and whimpered a little. She fussed over him and pulled the hood of his parka around his face. He looked to be about three years old, a handsome, well-formed child.
"I'm Thomas Jeffers," the man said, "and this is my son, Thomas Junior."
"Hello, Thomas Junior."
Annith leaned over the boy and touched his cheek with her finger. The boy's eyes opened, and he stared at her in dumb terror. Then I knew; of the four, only he was able to see truly.
"And this is my wife Madeline and our friend, Sister Angelica."
"Welcome to all of you. Call me Annith, and this poor man is Nate Lee." She smiled with false friendship. She had no trouble telling them her name, nor mine. Annith feared the power of only one Name. "Nate Lee is odd sometimes, but harmless," she lied. "Come, sit here by the fire. You must be nearly frozen."
She led them to the rosy glow and the smell of wood smoke. I nodded once, but didn't speak. They crouched around the flames, sprawling on the rickety chairs like so ma
ny discarded bundles. They smelled of wet cloth and rubber and sweat. They were tired, all of them; and they were comforted by the warmth, all except the boy. Yet, he was too frightened to speak, or perhaps only too young.
"I have coffee or hot chocolate, and bread and butter. I could make toast." Annith played the gracious hostess as if she meant what she said.
Madeline looked up, clearly grateful for the offer. So Annith cooked for them, good mortal food, served by her own hands. Sister Angelica sat next to me, unafraid. Annith sat at her other side. The nun smelled of clean linen and soap. She was a little older than the woman, Madeline. There were lines on her face, but her skin was still soft and plump. Sister Angelica smiled with kind eyes. Annith handed her a cup of hot chocolate and a slice of buttered bread. Sister Angelica thanked her and took it. Then, she folded her hands together, bowed her head, and said words over the food. I watched the nun, fearing what Annith would do.
"What are you doing?" Annith nudged her arm. "Why don't you eat?"
Sister Angelica looked at Annith, a little puzzled; but she unfolded her hands. Annith had her attention now.
"I was saying grace."
Her voice was light, and her breath was sweet. Watching Annith lean close to her stirred something inside me, some feeling I'd thought long dead. I shifted a little in warning, but Annith feared only her father.
"Grace?" Annith asked the nun, as if she'd never heard the word.
"A prayer to God, of thanksgiving for the food."
"But God didn't give you the food." Annith scratched at the festering scabs on her leg. "I gave it to you."
"And God gave it to you. He is always the first giver." Sister Angelica smiled her sweet smile. "I take it you aren't a Christian?"
"No," Annith said slyly. "I follow another religion."
Once again, I made as if to speak, but Annith waved her hand, and all the guests froze, like so many images of themselves. This was Annith's power, to mold matter to suit her. She was by far the most dangerous of my lost love's daughters.
"Did you hear that, Nate Lee?" she demanded of me. "This woman invoked the invisible god over a bit of food, and not even very good food. I'd never call my Father to preside over such trivia." Indeed, the thought of invoking the Dark Lord for such nonsense made her shudder.
"It's their custom," I said. She had power over matter, but not over me, nor did her Father have any say in what I did. Only sweet Laheese bound me; only my lost love, dust all these millennia. "Let them go, Annith. Find some mortals less innocent for your feast."
"Let them go! Well enough for you to say, Nate Lee. Your joints don't ache like a rotten tooth. If you felt my pains, you'd use your power the same way I do mine. But no, you're no halfling like me; you're all godling, or all demon, whatever you want to call yourself. You're as old as you please, and you do as you please. Well, I do too. I do as I please, and it pleases me to use the mortals I have to hand."
She waved her hand, and her guests resumed their lives, never suspecting what she'd done. As for me, I got up and went to walk in the woods, seeking comfort in the trees. Behind me, I heard Sister Angelica protest as I went out the door.
"Oh, don't worry about Nate Lee," Annith said. "He's in no danger from the cold."
In the morning, Tom Jeffers, decided to try to start the car. He seemed startled when Annith offered to accompany him. She donned a thick black coat, too big for her, and almost to heavy for her to wear. She added a red wool scarf that someone had made some years ago—the stitches were coming undone. She had no gloves so she shoved her gnarled, arthritic hands into her pockets. She stank of mothballs and mildew.
"It's cold out, and it will be a long walk," Tom Jeffers said. "You should stay here where it's warm."
"The path looks different going back," Annith insisted. "You might not be able to find your car, but I know the place well. I'll come along to guide you."
"I'm sure I can find my way, or if you really think I need a guide, why not Nate Lee? You say he'd a little odd, but he looks strong."
He glanced at me where I sat once again by the fire. I stood, ready to go with him, ready to forestall Annith this once.
"Oh, Nate Lee is strong," Annith answered, with a smile only I understood. "But he can't be let out on his own. No, I'll come along. I won't be any trouble, I promise."
In the end, he agreed. I was left behind, unable to act against the wishes of a daughter of Laheese, and Annith smiled as she followed Tom Jeffers out into the cold.
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