The valkyrie fell to his knees and then reached out towards Liam.
“You,” he said, his voice eerily calm and amazingly normal sounding. His lips twisted. “You need to stop him. God. You need to kill God. He took the City of the Dead-”
And then his eyes rolled up into his head and he collapsed, face first onto the ground. Mercifully dead.
Liam stood there, watching as the guards advanced forward – only to be shouted back by Meg. Meg's voice sounded as if it was coming from very far away, echoing down a well. She directed guards, her face steady, her wings closed behind her back. Bring Tethis. Don't touch the man. There was going to be an autopsy. Liam knew, distantly, that she was doing the right thing. But he couldn't stop hearing that eerily calm voice.
You need to stop him. God. You need to kill God.
“Liam!”
Liam realized Meg had said his name three times. He jerked his head up and looked at her, blinking. “R-Right. Yes.”
“Are you okay?” she asked.
Liam looked back at the corpse.
His hand slid along Meg's arm, finding her hand. He squeezed her tightly and Meg closed a wing around her side, nuzzling his neck. Her closeness to him made it easier to say…
“No,” Liam said. “I'm not sure I will be for a while.”
* * *
Tethis blew out a sigh and stepped away from the corpse, brushing her palms along her hair. She looked back at Sobek, Liv, Meg and Liam. “All right,” she said. “There is nothing on Purgatory that could have done this – not the gods' magic, not arcane spells. Nothing can produce that much heat. The writings of Ataxis Ptolemy state that even those who fell directly under the heat of the Eye of Ra were merely stripped of water and left dried, rather than burned.” She frowned. “However, if we recall that Purgatory is a hollow sphere, there is a possibility...”
“He took a straight shot,” Meg whispered.
“...this unknown valkyrie flew here on a nearly direct course from the City of the Dead Gods and-” Tethis stopped. “Hey!” She glared at Meg.
Meg shook her head. “Valkyrie have been trying that since the War of the Ancients. No one has ever survived. The sun burns too hot.”
“To be fair,” Liv said, “He didn't either. And if the sun burns, why not go at night?”
Meg made a face. “The sun may not shine but it still provides heat. And in a straight shot, you get close enough that even at the coolest point of the night, you still cook.”
“And this guy crossed during noonday,” Tethis said, dragging a linen shroud over the blackened corpse. “What did he tell you, Liam?”
Liam, who had been remaining silent for the whole conversation, sighed. “He said that I needed to stop God.”
“Which god?” Meg asked.
“Not a god,” Liam said. “The God. My god, with a capital G. The one true god.”
Sobek growled quietly. “Kid, you've been living on Purgatory for a year and you still believe that bullshit?”
“Yes!” Liam snapped. Then quietly added, “Sobek, it's clear that we need to investigate this right now. This man was so desperate to find me, to warn me, that he flew from the City of the Dead Gods here - without even knowing if I'd be here - on a suicide mission. I don't want to even imagine what would be bad enough to warrant that response.”
Sobek slid his hand along his snout. Slowly, he nodded. “Fair. I'll go and send supplies to your ferryman-”
“No,” Liam said.
“What?” Liv, Meg and Tethis asked at the same time.
Liam's voice was grim as he explained, pacing backwards, then forward, his hands lifting up and spreading in the air. “Whatever is going on is serious. It'll take us months to cross the Platonic Sea and I've been tracking reports of pirates and lizardman raiders; we'd be lucky to get to the Tuathan straits without getting attacked at least twice. If the bad guys have another basilisk they can control with their collars, we could face multiple monsters. No. We need to get there now.”
“And how-” Sobek started, but Tethis cut him off with an excited squeal. The tall, broad-shouldered god turned to glare down at Tethis. The gobliness, though, looked too busy being excited to notice. Her green palms slapped together and she jumped up and down happily, her ample breasts bouncing under her shift.
“The altar! The altar! The altar!”
Meg's wings flared out in alarm. “We're talking about the same Ancient teleport altar that dropped Liam fifteen yards to the left of the city walls? He broke his spine.”
Liam looked at Meg. A few months ago – hell, a few hours ago – he might have quipped that 'he got better.' But instead, he just put his hands on her shoulders. He squeezed gently.
“I've talked with Tethis about this before today – she's figured out the issues and thinks she can get it to work without any more drops.” He grinned. “Besides, wouldn't you rather skip the traveling montage?”
Meg looked less than amused. She knew what a traveling montage was – the pair of them had spent hours cradling one another as they watched the only two movies that Liam had stored on the hard drive. Unfortunately, one of those was the 2005 Pirates Of The Caribbean porno spoof and the other one was Manos: The Hands Of Fate. Liam had a reason for having both on his iPod, but he hadn't yet forgiven himself for letting himself be banished to an alternate universe without at least bringing The Terminator.
“Fine,” Meg said. “But if you die, I will kill you.”
The only person less happy about this than Meg was Vulkis.
“But- but- but-” he spluttered, gesturing around himself at his boat. He had paid to affix a sleek, bronze-coated ram to the front of his vessel, giving it an extra punch if they ended up in any naval battles. A few dozen new crew were lounging on the side of the boat, their arms and armor making it clear they were more in the line of mercenaries than sailors. Vulkis put his hands on his head, tugging on his hair in exasperation. “I've always transported you, Vanderbilt!”
“Sorry,” Liam said, spreading his hands. “But the time crunch is too much.”
Vulkis made a wordless, highly agitated noise. It was somewhere between a squeak and a gargle.
Liam grinned, despite his mood. “All right, Vulkis. How about this: you sail to the City of the Dead Gods anyway. We might need assistance or support or a way to get out of the city in a hurry. If we're dead, then you can just make a profit buying consumer goods from there and selling them in, I don't know, Olimurias or something.”
Vulkis' face froze in the middle of his angry response. His brow furrowed and he started to do some mental math, rubbing his chin. Then, beaming, he nodded.
“I knew there was a reason I liked you, Liam of Earth!”
Liam grinned. “I afford you a chance to spend extra time with Liviana, Tethis and Megara?”
“Well, I knew there were multiple reasons I liked you.”
* * *
Striding through the jungles that surrounded Faiyum Falls, Liam didn't lead the way. That was left to Tethis, who had spent a great deal of her life studying the fauna and flora of the area as an amateur researcher and archaeologist. Though, thinking about it, as there was no unified school of archeology, and no accredited universities in Purgatory, Liam figured that amateur and professional were essentially the same thing. Still, Tethis picked her way along with confidence, her passage revealing a trail that Liam and Meg and Liv and their pack horses could stomp through with considerably less grace. Meg's wing batted a tree branch aside with a gunshot loud crack.
“So,” she said, glancing at Liam, “We need to talk.”
Liam knew that she wanted to talk about his mood but a lifetime on Earth had trained his soul to react to those four words being spoken in that tone of voice by a woman that he loved as if he had been doused in acid. Liam flinched despite himself.
“What is wrong?” Meg asked. “You need to talk me. First, you lose your crucifix. But then you don't get it replaced? It's a symbol of, well, you. And don't give me that hors
eshit about not wanting to offend people. You could have gotten one of the other symbols of Christianity you talked about. The ones not based around an execution device.” She shook her head. “So. What's the real problem?”
Liam walked forward for a few more steps. He ducked underneath a tree, pushing some leaves out of the way of his face. For a moment, he just looked out at the verdant jungle surrounding him. The beautiful flowers, so brilliantly colored. The lush green leaves. The thick vines. The buzzing of insects, whirring around him. The occasional crystal outcropping that thrust from the ground like jagged teeth. He saw a small, simian creature perched in a tree branch about fifteen feet away, watching them with beady eyes. Liam hung his head forward and turned back to face Meg, arms crossed over his chest.
“When European explorers on my world started to explore Africa, do you know what was the thing that stopped them for almost two centuries?” he asked. “Plague. Malaria killed them, and African Horse Sickness killed their mounts. It took the invention of drugs that stopped malaria and the invention of steam-engines to counterbalance the loss of horses. Once guns got good enough, the whole of Africa got chopped up and fed to the monarchies of Europe. And the same pattern existed in other places.” He sighed. “How many people here die from plague?”
Meg blinked.
“None,” Liam said. “I haven't seen a single epidemic in the whole year I've been here. Hell, I haven't even caught a cold. Meg!” He gestured to himself. “I'm from another fucking planet, you should be getting sick from any diseases I was carrying that I'm immune to. And I should have gotten sick too. But wait, there's more!”
By this point, Tethis had noticed they weren't walking. She came back, but didn't speak; just watching Liam as he got more and more worked up, his face turning red. His hands starting to shake. Meg folded her wings behind her back as Liam started to pace from side to side.
“Cancer? Do you even know what cancer is?”
Meg nodded.
“Has anyone died from it in your life?” Liam asked. At the shake of her head, he started to pace more angrily. “I've seen scars and disfigurement, but never in the rich or the well to do – and I've never seen a plague. Fuck! I haven't even seen an sexually transmitted disease. Everyone here is willing to drop their kilt at the snap of a fingers and get plowed. Why?” He shook his head. “Interbreeding is impossible without magic, so interracial fucking is basically risk free fun times. On Earth, you can get a death sentence because you had sex without protection.”
Liam threw his hands wide. “Why?”
Tethis blinked. “The gods?” she asked.
“Yes, the fucking gods!” Liam shouted, glaring at her. “Your venal, selfish, asshole gods can cure cancer through their priests. But my God? The God who loves his people, who created us in his image? He watches as we shove each other into furnaces by the millions and as we die, choking on our own fucking cells, blasted by radiation and poisoned by the very fucking drugs we take to try and fucking stop it and he doesn't do anything!”
His voice echoed off the trees. Tethis looked afraid. Liv had put her hand on the hilt of her sword. Meg, though, stepped forward. Her arms closed around Liam's shoulders and she embraced him. She used her whole body, pressing herself to him, her wings closing around him. For that moment, there was no one else. Just Liam and Megara, contained within the strength of her wings. Liam shuddered and cried, tears streaming down his face as she stroked his back and whispered soft nothings in his ear. Breathing in a shuddering gasp, Liam said: “M-My father took two weeks to die, Meg. Two weeks. Sobek-”
“No. Sobek couldn't have saved your father,” Meg said, her voice quiet. She drew back, to look him in the eyes. Her hands cupped his cheeks as her wings brushed up and down his back. Liam had never found Meg's eyes more beautiful – those deep, electric blue eyes – than right now, viewed through a refracting haze of tears. She seemed to glow. “Because Sobek was here and your father was there. And maybe that is why your God brought you here in the first place, Liam. Maybe he can't do anything. Maybe he's not even real. But you can do what he would want...”
She smiled. “And if you don't find a way to bring the gods back to Earth and strong arm them into every hospital in your world, then you are not the Liam Vanderbilt I love.”
Liam laughed, his voice wet with tears. “God, I love you,” he whispered.
“Of course you do,” Meg said, seriously. “I'm fantastic.”
Liam nodded. He held up his hands. “G-give me a second, guys.”
He turned and walked off the beaten trail, taking a moment to wipe his face down. He tugged a leaf branch off, then blew his nose. He looked at his own mucus – just to wince in disgust – then tossed the leaf away. He used a few more to finish crudely wiping his face down and once he felt halfway like a human being again, he stood there and rubbed his chin. Deep in his brain, ideas were clicking forward. He nodded slowly and then looked out at the trees.
“I'll need artisans,” he said, to no one in particular.
Then he turned and walked back to the group. He slipped his arm around Meg's back, his hand dipping to grope her rump. Liv pulled her hand away from her sword hilt with a relieved smile, while Meg nodded.
“He's okay, girls,” she said.
Liam made a face – faux offended – and slapped Meg on the butt hard enough to make her squeak.
They came to the crevasse that had the served as the first and last battleground between Liv and Liam and picked their way down the side. Once in it, they pressed on to the cave temple of the Ancients. The traps that Liam had to evade last time were still present – and still easy to avoid if you had a girl who could read Ancient writing. The same altar was there, sitting in the center of the same dark room. Liam stood and watched as Tethis got to work on it.
“I'm trying to not hold a grudge,” he said.
“It wasn't the device's fault!” Tethis said, turning to look at him. “I've figured it out – working with your iPod made it clear. The iPod uses electromagnetism in various ways, and I believe that those functions, even quiescent, altered your trajectory. I just need to compensate for that.”
Liam nodded slowly. “Got it.”
It took Tethis three hours before she was ready for them to step on the platform. In that time, Meg, Liv and Liam shared what they knew about the City of the Dead.
“Nothing,” Liam said.
Meg slapped the back of his head. “It's a city of artisans, craftsmen, smiths. The finest bronze-wights. They make glass, too. Lots of it.” She paused. “I also know that their government is a proper Athenian style democratic organization, with elements of the ancient Carthaginian merchant-nobility and mercenary armies. And it's big - lots of people and lots of money.” She shifted her wings and despite the completely different physiognomy and lack of spectacles, she managed to look like a professor pushing their glasses up their nose after delivering a speech.
“They're weak,” Liv said. “Mercs are worthless when a real fight gets going. Can't rely on them, cause gold is never stronger than blood and love.” She nodded. “The only thing that they have going for them is the defensive – when a merc has their backs to the wall, they gotta fight to the death. But on the attack? Forget it.” She snorted.
“You say that like the inability to wage wars of aggression was a bad thing,” Meg said, sniffing.
“What's better?” Liv asked. “A six month siege where half your city starves and the enemy only breaks because you've been sniping at them every night and you drop boiling piss on their heads, or a single day's battle where you break their moral and route them before they get within ten miles of the place?”
Meg blinked, looking taken aback.
“It's ready!” Tethis called over.
Liv stood up, her hand on the hilt of the sword. “I'm faster,” she said. “Better reflexes, and I can't be cut by an edged weapon. I say I go through first and make sure everything is safe.”
Liam clapped his hands on his knees. “Sounds
good,” he said, pushing himself to his feet. Liv grinned at him, then turned and walked up the stairs. For a moment, the playful sultriness she had used to torment him when she had been his slave returned. Her butt jiggled underneath her short kilt and she bent forward just enough to flash him a hint of the slender underwear that she wore.
She stepped onto the altar and Tethis brought her hands together and a crack of magic filled the air.
Meg smiled at Liam. “Wish me luck,” she said, nodding and heading up.
“Hey, we're going together!” Liam said, hurrying after her.
“Well, actually, no, going one at a time is safer,” Tethis said. “Okay, now!”
Meg vanished.
Liam shook his head, then stepped onto the platform. He tensed his shoulders and got ready to hit the ground with the impact. Tethis smiled at him, seeing his tension.
“Do you want me to give you a countdown?” she asked.
“Oh, hell no!” Liam said. “I don't want time to-”
Tethis slapped her hands together.
Two
Brax's yanked back on the reins of his horse and clenched his knees, trying to keep himself in the saddle as the horse reared backwards, hooves flashing in the air. To his left, Vazt brought his horse around and drew his sword in the same fluid motion, bringing the point aiming towards the woman who had just appeared from thin air before them. The quartet had been traveling from the City of the Dead Gods for the better part of a day, working their way along the abandoned trade route that once snaked through the Basilisk Desert. The wells had run too dry to support the towns that had served as stopping points, but there were ways to find water even in the deep desert, so long as your numbers were few and you did not mind the taste of cactus.
It was not a place one expected to meet anyone, let alone…
Brax blinked.
The woman stood up and looked around herself.
The Cross Guard (Purgatory Wars Book 3) Page 4
