by Rain Oxford
I frowned. Unfortunately, my mouth had a mind of its own. “Have sex in every room of the house?” It was the first thing that came to mind.
“A honeymoon, stupid.”
“You want to go on a honeymoon?” I asked with disbelief.
“Why wouldn’t I want to go on a honeymoon?”
“Um… because you’re not a---” I cut myself off just in time as she glared. There was no way to end that sentence without getting punched. “We should totally have a honeymoon. Most people go to Hawaii.”
“I want to go to Venice. I’ve never been there.”
“You are the god of Earth.”
“I have been living as a sago for hundreds of years. It makes it hard to stay up to date on every single thing that happens on Earth.”
“Okay. We’ll go to Venice for our honeymoon. When?”
“A week from now,” she said.
“We need to get Edward or Mordon to baby-sit. But there was something I wanted to talk to you about, too. What if we stayed on Earth?”
She frowned. “I know the kids are getting older and everything, but I don’t think we need to hide from them just yet. At least not on another planet.”
I laughed. “I was thinking of taking them with us. After our honeymoon, of course. I never finished college, and I really didn’t care at the time because I knew I was in the wrong field. I love psychology, but I didn’t want to be a counselor. I want to go back, get into a better university, and become a doctor.”
“Why? You can heal with magic.”
“Magic can obviously fail. I don’t want to ever be in a situation where I can’t help someone because I don’t know how. Ronez left me enough money to get me through medical school. If you want to stay here, I can flash home every day after class. I was hoping we could live there for a few years so the boys can experience human culture. Television and all that. Mordon might want to stay with us.”
“What happens when Earth needs its Guardian and you’re in class?”
“You send Edward.”
“They’re going to expect you to have a laptop.”
“I’ll learn to keep my energy calm and stay away from the computer lab. I understand the work involved. Between undergraduate, medical school, and residency, it could take nine to sixteen years.”
“Listen, you’re married to a god, which comes with certain advantages. I can copy someone’s knowledge, even experiences, and give them to you. I can find someone in the field or even with a specialty you want, copy all of the information, and transfer it to you.”
“Like Regivus did to teach me how to create a human body?” I asked. She nodded. “I don’t want someone else’s memories.”
“You wouldn’t get any personal information from them. It’s more like the knowledge of sitting in a classroom and reading a book, but in the spans of seconds instead of months and years. I can forge records and get you a good job at a hospital in just a few weeks.”
“That sounds… immoral and unsafe,” I said.
“In the nine to sixteen years that it takes to get the degree, you could be in a classroom, no help to anyone, or in a hospital, saving lives with the skills learned from a veteran doctor. The doctor whose knowledge I copy wouldn’t be harmed. It would be as if he taught you everything you needed to know. With his skill and your magic, you should be unstoppable. Think about it. We can go live on Earth for a few years and you can actually be a doctor. You can save lives from day one, instead of waiting for many years. Don’t waste the advantages you have.”
“You make a good point. Give me a day or so to think about it.”
The point was, I could spend those nine to sixteen years saving lives instead of sitting in the classroom… The first time I saved a life, it would be more than worth any immoral dilemma I had about leaching off someone else’s hard-earned knowledge.
“All those days you were busy with your brothers… did you guys accomplish anything or just bicker?”
“Well,” she settled closer and laid her head on my chest, “they made three important decisions. The first was that they would rather yell at me than come to any sensible conclusions. The second was that the female of every species was for more vicious that the male. And the third decision was that all future problems that arise should be passed to you.”
“Um… Can I refuse?”
“That would not be wise. They are gods; they will talk you to death and then determine their own rightness by how loud they were.”
“I think I would still like to decline. Can I appoint Mordon as my---” I was cut off as Ron’s baby boot hit me in the head. I tossed it on the floor. “Mordon, what are you still doing here?”
* * *
I woke to the sound of chaos. “Mommy! Shinobu took my sock! Mommy!” Ron was yelling. I realized that since Ron started speaking, our house was likely to be a lot louder. Our little furry pet must have come home. I waited two seconds for the small explosion. Sammy was getting the sock back from Shinobu.
“I don’t want yucky veggies for breakfast! I want pizza!” Sammy demanded.
“They’re not veggies, they’re herbs and seasonings. Divina!” Mordon was still here. “I’m going to eat your child!”
“You don’t want to do that; you don’t know where he’s been. Go wake up Dylan. And don’t throw anything at him,” she said. Right as the door started to open, I heard her yell again. “And don’t poke him! Edward asked me if Dylan was in an abusive relationship-affair with an octopus.”
“I’m up,” I said as he went to smack me. “You know, you could try waking me like a decent human being.”
“What? Like your wife? No, thanks.”
“No, you’re too hairy to be my wife. I would wake thinking I was being attacked by Bigfoot.”
“What does hair have to do with big feet?” he asked me as if I were insane. “We need to go and tell the Guardians they can safely return to their own worlds and never return.” I frowned at him. “Edward’s words. He wants his house back.”
“He just wants alone time with Meri.”
“Who wouldn’t?”
“We want to go!” Sammy said, running into the room and jumping up on the bed. Ron was in his shadow, predictably.
“Ask your mother.”
“You’re only going for a couple of minutes, so it should be fine,” Divina said from the doorway. She approached the bed and leaned over me to give me a kiss.
“Oh, no, my eyes!” Ron exclaimed, covering his eyes in a “see no evil” way. We laughed, because he sounded like Sammy, but I couldn’t help the fear. I feared that he wasn’t strong enough to endure what he just took into himself, and I feared that what made him Ron would be crushed by the powerful force.
“Can you feel it?” I asked. Knowing exactly what I was talking about, his expression grew serious and he nodded. “What does it feel like?”
“It’s quiet right now, like one of the gods standing behind me, watching everything I do and judging everyone. But it’s not beside me. And it really doesn’t like you. I think it’s like what Mordon feels with Rojan; like there is someone in his head.”
“He can feel what is acting against the balance,” Sammy added.
“Can you handle it?”
He smiled. “Right now I can. Don’t worry about me. You have other things to worry about right now.”
“How can I not worry about you when---”
“Daddy, the balance is calm right now, but I can… feel what’s right and what isn’t,” he interrupted. “The balance was opening the gates and the demons were acting on behalf of the balance… but the balance wasn’t what was attacking the Guardians. It wasn’t the darkness the griffins were after. Whoever attacked them was very powerful and is still out there.”
“Someone powerful enough to spy on the gods and not get caught?” Mordon asked.
Ron nodded.
Divina tried to keep her face neutral, and for the most part she was able to. However, I knew the goddess enough to recogni
ze the worry in her eyes.
“Let’s go,” I said, trying to change the subject. I hated to see such fear in my youngest child. “Maybe when we can get back, we can have lunch at the springs.” Unsurprisingly, Sammy screamed with joy. Nothing about him showed worry for Ron.
I flashed us to Edward’s cabin and before I had finished, I put a shield over Ron and Sammy. It wasn’t even a thought; my magic knew to protect them before my body did. I appeared right between Samorde and Emrys. The plasma that Emrys was attacking Samorde with missed me narrowly when the air filled with fire. At least ten foot high and six foot wide, the fire burned everything in its path, except for me.
The flames died and everyone but Emrys was unharmed. The old Guardian was on his back and his clothes were blackened. Mordon’s eyes, teeth, and claws shifted. “You could have hurt him.” Mordon’s words were very difficult to make out because they were half roar. It wasn’t a mere growl of anger; he was losing his words for the dragon tongue. He was shifting.
His skin shimmered eerily, beginning to change to scales. When he started towards Emrys, I knew he meant to shift and eat the Guardian. I grabbed his arm to hold him back, but Mordon raised his other as if to focus his fire. It was lightning that struck the Guardian and Emrys seemed to know better than to fight back.
“Mordon, it was an accident! He didn’t try to hurt me. I’m perfectly safe!” Mordon struggled and snapped his teeth, unable to speak. He started growing so slowly that I thought he would suffer the reshaping of each and every bone. “There isn’t enough room here. You can’t shift here, you’re too big.” I thought of excuses to give him, but realized reason wouldn’t get through to him.
I sent my magic, as calm as I could. I focused on the springs. Even in the winter, when snow would fall and accumulate on the rocks, the water would be hot. Even in drought, when there was no water in the well, the springs would run. It was a place of magic and peace where I could focus on my studies. I went there often as Edward’s apprentice, but afterwards it was mostly because Sammy loved to swim so much.
I focused on the springs so strongly that I didn’t realize Mordon had stopped growing until he had shrunk back to normal. It occurred to me too late that I could have just flashed him somewhere that he could shift.
“Are you okay now?” I asked.
He was breathing heavily, but was calm enough to shift his eyes and teeth back. I wasn’t going to fault him for keeping his claws. “I’m okay.”
I let my shield over the boys disintegrate. It was a testament to how much I had grown that I could keep the energy shield up in the back of my mind while focusing on something completely different. It was also dangerous, because if I could do something so powerful without a thought…
“It is your most natural instinct to protect and heal,” Mordon said in my mind. I didn’t know if he knew my thoughts or just me.
I went to Emrys, who was badly burned, and healed him. After all, Mordon was right. “Why do you try so hard to kill Samorde? I thought you were kind and wise,” I said. “Maybe a bit daft, but a trustworthy person at least.”
His expression was somewhere between ashamed and furious. “He killed my mate and daughter.”
“It was self-defense!” Samorde pleaded, remorsefully.
I had no right to stick my nose in their business. I had nothing to do with it and should keep it that way… but I am who I am and I never keep my nose out of it. All I could think of was Rojan’s mate being taken from him, and what my life would be like without Divina. “You had to kill them to defend yourself?”
“Emrys’s mate had been enthralled by a witch who was angry with Samorde for not wanting her,” Ghidorah explained. “She would have killed him until her last breath. When she failed, Emrys’s daughter was easily convinced to seek revenge. Magic is not innately good or bad. People are innately good or bad. Samorde is good. He takes a punishment upon himself to relieve others, even when he did nothing wrong, and has never taken life unless it was necessary.”
I locked eyes with Ghidorah. There was another reason I let the boys come with Mordon and me. Divina was a god, so her magic was undeniably powerful, but Sammy wasn’t even half Iadnah. I had to know if his protection over Ron was strong. This was more important to me than Samorde.
Ghidorah studied Ron for a moment, and then glared. He glared long enough that worry settled in my gut, before he turned back to me. “Are you doing this deliberately to drive me insane? I said I would not judge your child; you didn’t need to block him like that. Are you going to do it one by one, where every time I meet you, someone else is hidden?”
Mordon laughed. “Now he knows how to get to you,” he warned Ghidorah. Then he sneezed. “I thought your cure fixed me!” He scowled at me as if I were the one to make him allergic.
“No, of course not. That little poison? I mean potion? No… That was a temporary fix… well… maybe more like an experiment. A test. And you passed.”
“I’m still allergic to him. How did I pass?” he asked.
I slapped his shoulder. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
“Did you poison me?” he asked. I should have been upset, for he didn’t seem surprised. I couldn’t believe Mordon would suspect me of poisoning him.
“No… maybe a little… but not all at once. A bunch of times, really.” I was teasing him; I could no more endanger him than he could me.
“What was in that bottle you gave me?” he asked.
“You really don’t want to know. I mean, seriously, you don’t. However, I couldn’t let you get yourself killed to save your girlfriend.” I pulled a bottle out of my bag. “This is a potion Divina and I came up with. When mixed with a plant that you are allergic to, it can work as an allergy medication. When mixed with a poison, it creates an antidote. I used it to build up your immunity to the dragon poison.”
“Why didn’t you just tell me?” he asked.
“Because you would ask what’s in it.”
“What’s in it?”
I shook my head. “You don’t want to know,” I warned.
“I really do.”
I sighed. “Plants, magic, sugar, antihistamines, pseudoephedrine sulfate, and… just a little tiny bit of… miniscule really…” He glared at me. “Dragon blood,” I said. I could hear Rojan growling inside my friend, not at me but at the spilled blood of his kind. “Dragon blood has always been used in magic for healing potions. The dragon doesn’t need to be killed for a little of their blood.”
“You let her talk you into this,” he growled, turning away.
Figures, Mordon would blame Divina for corrupting me. “Just because I hate the way animals are raised and butchered on Earth doesn’t mean I want to be a vegetarian. Divina herself never…” I trailed off. She was a god, so I didn’t know that she had never killed a dragon for any reason. “She never killed a dragon for magic.”
He studied me for a moment before sighing. “How would you feel if it were human blood?”
“I donated blood before, and I received donated blood. What does it matter if the blood goes into the body from the IV or is used in a healing potion? I know blood sacrifices aren’t the same thing, but it’s the wrong of the person who kills, not the blood itself. I would be okay.” Besides, I would have to be okay with it; I have volunteered my own blood for Divina’s potions.
“Then I will be. But the next time you give me a poison or potion, leave out the blood,” he said. I nodded. He looked like he was going to forget about it for a second, and then he frowned. “What does this have to do with the dragon poison?”
“Isn’t it obvious?” I asked. Everyone, not just Mordon, shook their heads. “Ghidorah, I have been to Skrev twice. Never once was I offered water. Neither was Mordon, even when a village wolf was trying to get into his pants. I never saw water anywhere.”
“The people of Skrev are survivors. We need little water.”
“What do you use to wash your clothes?”
“Oils from antibacterial pl
ants.”
“What do you use to bathe?”
“The same oils. When it rains, we capture the water for drinking and cooking. Otherwise we have little use for water. Sometimes, we even need to use the plants for the water we drink.”
“These plants don’t have a strong smell? You don’t exactly smell like someone who never washed with water before.”
“Of course not. We would be prey if we smelled. Instead they mask our scent, kill harmful germs and parasites, and keep us clean.”
“Were these plants ever exported?”
He shrugged. “I suppose. I don’t know why they would be; people of other worlds prefer to use water and soap.”
“And one final question.”
“Promise?”
“Are there any dragons on Skrev?”
“No way. Dragons would be an ecological disaster on Skrev.”
I pointed to Ghidorah and smiled at Mordon’s astonishment. “Meet your dragon poison.”
“But we were there nearly five years ago and nobody caused me to have a sneezing fit,” he argued.
“Actually, I think he might be right,” Ghidorah acknowledged thoughtfully. “While the entire surface of the world provides little water and we all use plants to clean ourselves, the same plants do not grow worldwide. Vaksen is a preferred plant where I live. But you knew those people, correct? The woman and the man whose powers you stripped. You had met them before?” he asked. We both nodded. “I assume that is the only area you visited. Those lands do not grow the vaksen. It is more like a cactus of Earth than the jungle plants you were exposed to.”
“We visited a snake village, too.”
“Most snakes are jungle dwellers. It is very likely that you were not far from where we met.”
Mordon considered that for a minute, so I turned my attention to Sammy. He looked like he wanted to talk to Vivian and Nano, but Ron held his hand tightly. Vivian and Nano were avoiding their son’s gaze.
“The gates have been closed,” I said.
