The Black God (#2, Damian Eternal Series)

by Lizzy Ford

  It was an animal, but nothing like I’d seen before. Monster was probably a better description. The creature had a wingspan of ten meters and was the size of a linebacker with the long, lean musculature and grace of a feline. It stood on two legs and had two arms that looked pretty human. The sound I heard was of its long tail tapping the brush lining the bank of the lake. Its skin was an unnatural shade of stone grey. One of its ears stuck out at an odd angle and its eyes glowed like blue jewels in the night. It had fangs, talons, and a barbed tail, and its eyes were positioned facing forward, all of which were characteristics of a predator of some sort and not something I cared to confront.

  It stood where I had sat earlier, peering at the lake, at the surrounding area, at the sky. It crouched beside the lake, tail tapping against the dirt.

  It was horrifying – and magnificent. I couldn’t have imagined a more incredible combination of man and beast. The raw power it exuded in each tiny, controlled movement exceeded anything a human or traditional predator possessed.

  This is a dream. It had to be. No such creature existed, unless it was some sort of undiscovered animal or leftover dinosaur. And if that were the case, I didn’t think this would be the first time I’d seen it. I spent too many days and nights in the forest for it to belong here. Where it had originated, and why it chose here to stop, I couldn’t begin to guess.

  There was intelligence in its movement and visual exploration of the environment. The man-beast hybrid wasn’t something I was able to explain away. I pinched my arm to ensure I was awake. The light sting wasn’t much of a reassurance when faced with a monster from a nightmare.

  It stood and unfurled its wings. They were charcoal in color, lined with black fur, beautiful and wide, shaped neither like a bat’s nor a bird’s but something in between. With ease that left me astonished, one flap of the mighty wings propelled the creature into the sky effortlessly. Within seconds, it had disappeared into the clouds above.

  For once, I was grateful for the red cords marking the boundaries of the property. The priests claimed they would protect us from unwanted attention. The creature hadn’t glanced once in my direction, which made me think the ropes were working. Or maybe I was blessed by Tyche for once.

  I stood on the tree stump, trying to get another glimpse of the beast in the clouds without success.

  My gaze returned to the lake. What other surprises awaited me in the outside world? Was this creature the reason why the priests insisted I never cross the boundaries and if so, had I risked being eaten or killed when I left the forest earlier for the lake?

  I shuddered, this time out of dread. If the priests knew, the creature would be on the list of animals to avoid they kept posted in the main schoolhouse as a warning of what wildlife not to engage.

  No one, except maybe Herakles, was going to believe me if I told them about the creature. Easing back from the edge of the property, I returned to my shelter but wasn’t able to sleep again, not with the knowledge something like that was hovering in the clouds above the forest. I silently thanked Herakles for his survival training and insistence I carry a knife with me wherever I went. I clutched it in my hand and remained still until dawn swept across the sky. Only then did I start to relax again and packed up my tent.

  Bad things didn’t happen during daylight, I told myself. I clung to the childish notion and decided to disobey Herakles for a second time.

  I was going back to the school today without completing my assigned treasure hunt. There was no way I was spending another night in the forest while some creature big enough to eat me was on the loose. Bears were one thing, but this … this was something even I knew better than to mess with.

  It was a four hour trek back to the center of the property. I hiked through the forest, always sensitive to the fact there were creatures that lived here. While I’d catch and eat them if I had to, I also wasn’t going to disturb their daily lives by leaving messes or destroying their homes. Herakles was strict about appreciating and respecting the domain of Artemis and Dionysis and all their children.

  My mind kept returning to the creature. I wasn’t able to flush the image of the terrifying creature standing beside the lake from my thoughts. It didn’t seem to be a part of nature, yet it had to be. Everything was, except for the gods and goddesses, who were still part of nature, just a different nature from ours.

  Lost in thought, I didn’t notice the drone of an airplane until it roared overhead. I looked up, unaccustomed to hearing them quite so low, but not alarmed to see the plane. A municipal airport was nearby. It was how the priests brought in guest speakers and other visitors from outside the area.

  Unconcerned, I continued on my hike, unable to prevent the occasional look over my shoulder. I’d hear the creature if it was following me, but similarly to my hope that bad things didn’t happen during the day, I wasn’t fully convinced.

  The tip of the roof of the manor house was soon visible through the trees. Suddenly, the ground beneath my feet quaked. I caught myself against a tree and was about to curse under my breath when an explosion ripped through the air. Fire belched into the sky from the direction of the compound. I stared at it and the black smoke chasing it before bolting towards home.

  My heart filled my ears, and I mentally went through one of the checklists Herakles forced me to recite during exercises. I was assessing what the sound was and how many priests were present during the weekend when I reached the edge of the greens and stopped.

  The mansion was in flames. The small plane had smashed straight into it before exploding. Smoke billowed off the building into the sky while two priests in brown robes stood, stunned, in the greens. I hesitated only a moment before racing to them.

  “Father Cristopolos!” I cried.

  Both faced me. “Thank the gods,” Father Cristopolos breathed. The eldest of the priests, he was around fifty, bald and beefy.

  “Are you hurt? Herakles and I have a stash of medical –”

  “Come with me.” Rather than race towards the fire and those who might need help, Father Cristopolos snatched my arm and hurried towards the forest, back from the direction I just came.

  “But – ” I twisted, worried about those who might be trapped in the wreckage or fire.

  “You are not to leave the forest!”

  “Father, I can –”

  “You are not to leave the forest!” This time he squeezed my arm tightly enough that my attention went from what was happening behind us to his face. His features were blanched, his eyes bulging and jaw clenched so hard, the muscles of his cheeks ticked.

  We reached the forest, and he pushed me behind the tree line. Whipping off the red cord belt he wore, he tossed it at the edge of the greens.

  “Do not cross the boundary,” he ordered.

  “What? But –”

  “Alessandra!” He snatched both my arms and shook me until I met his gaze. “Do not step past the boundary or all we have done here for the past twelve years is destroyed.”

  I had no idea what he was talking about, but his face and unusual intensity scared me. The normally calm priest was freaking out. “Okay,” I said, concerned. “Do you want to know where our medical stash is?”

  “We have our own.” Without another word, he whirled and hurried back to join the other priest, who had moved to help a third stumble out of the collapsing building.

  I watched helplessly, hating to be excluded like usual. The red belt near my feet was expanding and stretching the way the boundaries did whenever the priests adjusted them. There was some sort of magic in the cords, and the red rope snaked quickly away to outline the perimeter of the greens. I didn’t understand the importance of a barrier that didn’t actually prevent people from coming and going and paced, aching to help.

  It wasn’t the apocalypse, but I was trained for emergency response and dressing wounds caused by pretty much anything.

  Instead, I was sidelined again by the priests, left out when I should have been helping.

&nb
sp; All of the nymphs and most of the staff were in town for the day. The five priests who stayed back were soon all accounted for with only one injured. I watched them huddle and speak, guessing they needed to figure out how to house thirty nymphs now that a plane had gone done in the middle of the compound. The building imploded completely into piles of rubble while everything that could burn continued to do so.

  I stressed about wanting to help until the fire department came and put out the blaze. One priest was taken away in an ambulance while the others were checked out by paramedics and released.

  I stayed in the forest, saddened to see my home of twelve years destroyed while also hoping this was the impetus to enter the real world and go to a hotel for the rest of the weekend.

  I nibbled on food I’d taken for my camping trip. The firemen left the smoldering ruins of our home around one, and I stared glumly at the scene before me. I began to think the priests had forgotten about me when Father Cristopolos pointed in my direction.

  Perking up, I stood as my favorite priest, Father Ellis, headed towards me.

  “Is Father Thiebauld okay?” I asked immediately.

  “His arm was broken and he had some burns,” Father Ellis replied. “But he will be fine. The EMTs said he’d be released tonight.”

  “And the rest of you?”

  “We are well, Lyssa,” he assured me.

  “Why wouldn’t Father Cristopolos let me help?” I demanded. “I know how to handle this situation.” Well, I thought I did at least. Herakles always said I was too eager to want to try my hand at disaster, that there were things I would never understand until I went through them.

  Father Ellis smiled. “I know,” he said kindly.

  Mollified, I drew a deep breath. “No survivors from the plane?”

  “There was no one to survive. The plane crash was meant to break the boundaries. Hence the new one.” He pointed to the red cord near my feet.

  I arched an eyebrow at him. “Someone did this on purpose?”

  “Lyssa, I need to ask you something, and I need you to tell me the truth,” he said quietly.

  “I always do.”

  “Did you leave the boundaries at any point recently? Or ever?”

  My flushing face answered his question.

  “I need to know when and where,” he said.

  “Does it matter right now? I mean, shouldn’t we figure out where we’re going to put all the nymphs? I doubt they can survive in the forest,” I pointed out.

  “We have it all figured out. The girls will stay in town. You will remain in the forest for now.”

  I frowned, dismayed. “That’s not fair!”

  “Now, where did you step outside the boundaries?” Father Ellis was always good at deflating my anger and tantrums. It was hard to oppose him when he was quiet, gentle and genuinely the nicest priest on staff.

  “By the lake,” I sighed and pointed in the general direction.

  “When?”

  “Sundown last night.”

  He appeared thoughtful, gaze on the charred ruins of our home.

  “It was only for, like, ten minutes,” I added quickly. “I wanted to dip my toes in the water.”

  “Did you?”

  I nodded.

  “How was it?” he asked almost absently.

  “Amazing. So much better than the pool.”

  “Did anything happen at the lake?”

  My mouth dropped open. It wasn’t possible for him to know about the creature, yet he was asking the question like he did. At my silence, he met my gaze with another of his calm smiles.

  “Whatever you did, it’s okay, Lyssa. I just need to know,” he said.

  “I didn’t do anything!” I replied. “I dipped my feet then went back to the forest. Then …” I drifted off and shifted feet, not sure how to tell him about the creature without sounding crazy. “Well … I saw something at the lake early this morning.”

  He waited, brows furrowing.

  “It was a creature of some sort. Wings, tail, standing on two feet.” I cleared my throat.

  “This … creature. Did you speak to it?”

  “Oh, no. I stayed in the forest. It was kind of freaky.”

  By his expression, this wasn’t the news he was expecting, though he wasn’t surprised either. “Grotesque.”

  “It wasn’t gross. I’d probably say terrifying.”

  “No, Lyssa,” he said with another patient smile. “It’s called a grotesque. It’s like a gargoyle only different.”

  “A gargoyle,” I repeated. “It was ugly enough. Never heard of gargoyles flying around, though.”

  “The grotesque has been rumored to exist in the service of the Triumvirate. Glimpses are seen every once in a while but have never been confirmed.”

  “Um, okay.” The old man’s lost it. Then again, I was the one who witnessed said creature.

  An awkward silence fell between us. My gaze drifted once more to the school.

  “So what’s the plan?” I asked. “Have classes in a tent or something?”

  “The plan is to move the girls out to their assignments immediately instead of waiting for graduation and for you to go to a similar site.”

  “But I’m supposed to graduate and move on, too. Why do I need to go to another stupid school?”

  “Father Cristopolos will tell you.” He glanced at me. For the first time since arriving, I sensed he was hiding something. I had always found the monks and their dedication to the Old Ways mysterious, but I never felt like their secrets pertained to me. Whatever he wasn’t saying about me, however, snagged my attention.

  The remaining three priests approached. I bowed my head to each of them as was appropriate. They exchanged looks I wasn’t able to decipher but which made me uneasy.

  Father Cristopolos addressed me. “Alessandra, why don’t you take us to your and Herakles’ favorite spot in the forest. I think it’s a meadow?”

  I nodded. My pulse was starting to race at the calm request. I’d wanted the attention of the priests my whole life and watched them dote over the nymphs instead. Now that the four of them were focused on me, I suddenly wanted them to leave me alone. “This way,” I said quietly and spun on my heel, leading them deeper into the forest. “Was Herakles in the house or something?” I asked uneasily, unable to identify why they wanted to go to my favorite place.

  No one answered. They simply followed me.

  I swallowed hard, edgy and scared that something had happened to Herakles. For all my complaining about the forest adventures and him not letting me near boys, I loved him. He was the only father I really remembered, and I wasn’t going to handle it well if something happened to him.

  Maybe they know that. Maybe that was why four priests were following me, in case I went crazy and they had to tie me up or something. My sense of dread grew as we approached the meadow where Herakles and I trained. My step slowed out of fear of the bad news they’d give me once we reached it.

  Setting foot in the meadow, I faced them with my arms crossed. “Is Herakles okay?” I asked and braced myself for bad news.

  “He is well,” Father Cristopolos replied.

  I sighed. “Omigods. Then why all this?” I demanded and waved at their grave visages.

  “We need to talk to you about your future,” Father Ellis replied.

  “Now? After our home was just destroyed?”

  “Our home was destroyed because you left the boundaries,” another of the priests, Father Renoir, replied coolly. He was probably my least favorite staff member.

  “Renny,” Father Ellis said gently. “This is a delicate situation.”

  “What’re you talking about?” I asked. “So I left the boundaries for ten minutes. Am I being expelled for it? The nymphs go to town every weekend!”

  “My dear,” Father Ellis approached. “This all exists because of you. The school. The orphanage and property.”

  I waited, not understanding.

  “Once every great while, a very special w
oman comes along,” Father Cristopolos started. “Someone with great power that rivals the gods’.”

  “Yeah. The Oracle of Delphi who becomes the bridge between humans and gods,” I recited from class. “They found the new one. Again.” There had been five new Oracles found the past year alone, though they all turned out to be frauds.

  “Focus, Alessandra,” Father Cristopolos said with tried patience. “You are about to learn how different the world is from the sanctuary we created here, from the education we’ve given you. We brought you here to protect you from gods and men, to teach you how to survive in a world that wishes you crippled so they can use you. We wanted you to be the strong woman you are so you can bring back the Old Ways and save our people from wrath of the gods.”

  “You aren’t making sense,” I said with a glance at Father Ellis. There was a reason he was usually the priest dealing with me, and it was because I didn’t really care for the flowery diplomacy of the others.

  “The Oracle is captured and held in a state of tortured suspension, Lyssa,” Father Ellis said. “Every second of her life is filled with pain and suffering. She is kept immobilized physically and her powers harnessed for use by gods and politicians, to keep the bridge between the world of the gods and our Earth open, to use her power to suppress the people. The process is one of excruciating pain. But without her, the gods cannot draw off their sources of power and interfere with human affairs.”

  I listened, able to follow Father Ellis’ explanation better than Father Cristopolos’.

  “Twelve years ago, her successor was accidentally found during a raid and brought to us. We have protected her since then, sheltered her and most importantly, shielded her from discovery. These cords,” he motioned to the rope he wore at his waist, “are infused with the power of invisibility granted to us by our patron Lelantos, the Titan of everything unseen, whose goal has been to protect the next Oracle. Our patron goddess, Artemis, granted us this forest to hide you in. When you are enclosed by the cords, you cannot be seen by men or gods, only by Lelantos.”