Island of the Gods

by C. M. Kane

  Zeus heard Tannan and Tae’s mother gasp. What was she doing? He watched the little scene unfold and the quick dispatch of the cannibal, becoming mesmerised by the blood dripping over her superb breasts as she stood watching the hand eater die. Then she looked straight into the vid-ball, as if looking straight at all those watching her, and spat contemptuously on the ground.

  She walked over and spoke to the captured woman briefly before letting her go. Why would she do that and not just kill her? Why show compassion when she was in a kill or be killed battleground? Zeus wondered.

  After she had crossed the river she re-dressed and melted into the trees again. Tannan cut the vid. ‘I knew it,’ he said excitedly. Zeus and the other male gods came out of their stupor to look at him. ‘Knew what?’ Zeus asked

  Tannan looked triumphant. ‘Anyone that clever and resourceful has to have the blood of the Vampire flowing through them, it explains so much,’ he said, smiling widely, obviously pleased with the fact Tae had fangs.

  Kresley lifted her head, pushed her dark hair behind her ear and spoke up. Pride in what she had just witnessed shone from her eyes. ‘Tae is three-quarters human, you know. I would think her human ingenuity had more to do with what she just did than any small trace of vampire blood she has, she did after all spit the blood out, in case you hadn’t noticed,’ she said disdainfully.

  Tannan’s fangs dropped as he immediately bristled in outrage.

  Zeus watched the byplay, judging by the pride in the lift of her chin and her defiant words to Tannan, this Kresley woman didn’t seem overly perturbed at what she had just seen. The boy, on the other hand was just sitting there, his mouth open in apparent shock at what he had just witnessed.

  Tannan made an angry humphing sound as if he was about to get into a pissing contest about the relative intelligence of each race. Zeus immediately held up his hand, stopping the vampire before he could get started. ‘I thought her father was a drunken terran?’ He stared directly at Kresley. ‘Obviously that is a lie, judging by what we have just witnessed. You will tell us her story, now.’

  Kresley jumped guiltily at Zeus’ command and looked over at Jason, who was now staring at her with dawning outrage. ‘I’m so sorry, Jase. I should have told you both a long time ago.’ Then taking a deep breath, she turned back to Zeus and recounted the story of her love affair with Tamuer and of his lover, Steven Rames. When she had finally finished her story she looked up at Zeus. ‘My lord, please, I beg of you, can you retrieve her? She’s so young, no matter how old her body may appear.’

  Jason continued staring at her, but now he had an angry, bitter expression on his face. Before anyone could respond to her his anger overflowed, ‘And you never thought Tae or I might find this of interest? That I might be comforted to know that I’m like my real father? That Tae’s real father would have actually loved her?’ He shouted as he leant forward to confront his mother more fully. He pointed his finger at her as he continued. ‘She’s in there having to deal with murderers at every turn, and now she has to deal with this as well … all because of you! I swear to you, if she dies in there, I’ll never forgive you.’ He was sitting upright, a look of wild fury plastered on his face as he raged at his mother.

  Isis interrupted for the first time. ‘Be at ease, Jason. Sometimes the choices we make in life don’t always turn out the way we intend them to. It is a hard lesson, and one you will learn as you get older and experience more of life.’ As Jason continued to stare angrily at his mother Isis turned her attention to Zeus. ‘I think that retrieving her would be a mistake. We still haven’t found out what the woman is up to, and she is clearly up to something, and despite her families passionate words, I for one wish to find out what.’

  Poseidon spoke up but stayed - conspicuously to Zeus – seated. ‘I agree with Isis. She is there for a reason, why pull her out before she has finished whatever it is she is doing? Where is she now?’ He looked at Tannan.

  Tannan went back to the com-panel and brought up the image from Vesh’s vid ball of Tae walking. She could barely be seen through the pre-dawn light.

  ‘She is awake and moving again, as you can see. By my estimation she will reach an escarpment in about an hour. It does have several caves dotted along it, perhaps she is heading to them for some reason. There’s nothing else before them, if she continues on then there is only Loki’s Pyre, followed a little further on by the ocean.’ Tannan was clearly puzzled.

  Zeus saw the boy, Jason, frowning. ‘You have something to add, boy?’ he asked.

  Jason started at being addressed, especially after his outburst. He looked toward the god who was now staring at him intently and said nervously. ‘It’s nothing really, Lord Zeus. It’s just that the day I was kidnapped our assignment for the day had been to write about our favourite god and how they had influenced our lives.’

  Odin perked up. ‘She chose Loki, didn’t she? She’s a very clever woman and would have appreciated his wit and intelligence.’

  Poseidon snarled contemptuously. ‘She choose that sly underhanded Gnargoth?’ Odin looked outraged while Thor, who had finally come out of his reverie, looked ready to throttle Poseidon.

  Zeus, knowing a brawl was about to break out, held up his hand. ‘Is that correct?’ he asked the boy, who was gazing fearfully from one angry god to another.

  ‘No, Lord Zeus. I saw that she had written about Hera when she was logging off her com-desk. It just seemed,’ he paused a moment, ‘an odd coincidence is all.’

  ‘Hera?’ Zeus snorted. While his old consort had once had an enviable mind she was about as entertaining as watching Vulcan at a dance festival, the ugly bastard would just hang out in a corner by himself, getting drunk until the first opportunity to leave presented itself.

  Zeus looked to Tannan. ‘Take the mortals back to the ship.’ At Odin’s frown he added, ‘For the moment.’ He could still feel the tension in the air and suppressed a shudder at the momentous sacrifice he was about to make. ‘Bring all the nymphs back with you when you return.’

  Odin, Thor and Poseidon immediately perked up at that. When Hades turned his head hopefully, Persephone simply raised an eyebrow at him. He frowned sullenly and looked back down at his sword hilt, feigning a sudden interest in it. Persephone smiled in satisfaction.

  Zeus laughed to himself at Hades’ obvious disappointment, he knew both he and Persephone allowed each other to have other lovers, but apparently this rule didn’t apply when then other didn’t approve. ‘And Tannan, I think you had better get someone to bring that warrior who’s been training her back here, too, considering her tactics and skill level I think he might have some answers for us.’

  Tannan nodded. ‘Yes, my lord.’

  CHAPTER 29

  Tae awoke from yet another nightmare, since her first kill her sleep had been plagued with them. This time she had been swimming in a river of blood and hands kept reaching up to drag her under.

  She grabbed her bag and crawled out from under the ferns, knowing she would not sleep again that night. After quickly re-orientating herself with her surroundings, she started to walk again, Brohan’s knife ever-present in her hand. With any luck she would be at the cliff face this morning, from there it would only be another thirty or so kilometres after her climb, she was so close she could almost feel Jason with her. She had four protein bars left so decided to throw caution to the wind, she was too close to her objective to worry about hoarding food now. She would eat her fill, energy would be more far more important for the final push. She took one out and ate it as she walked. She still had the odd feeling she was being watched, but she ignored it.

  By the time the first rays of dawn arrived Tae was eating another bar, she was scared, hungry and tired and she felt like crying. She was also missing Jason terribly, for one brief moment after she had first woken she could have sworn she felt him. Now she just felt empty. She wanted to sit with Valaria and watch her ogle long-dead singers, to hear her threaten to rip their pants off with her teeth. She w
anted to get drunk and run around the block naked again with Soola. She wanted to curl up next to Jason on the couch under his quilt and watch some silly old movie she had downloaded from the museum, with a big platter of fresh vegetables and her favourite, hot cheesy dipping sauce. But most of all she wanted to talk to Brohan. She wanted to ask the big warrior if he and Valaria were still doing okay, and if he thought she’d done a good job so far. Most of all she desperately wanted to know if, after all that she had done in here, he was still proud of her, she found she needed to know this desperately.

  She emerged from a break in the trees, a little over a kilometre in the distance was the escarpment. Tae looked at it in horror, in reality it was much bigger than she had ever imagined.

  Shit. She took a deep breath and started jogging forward. When she reached the escarpments face she put her bag down, desperately trying not to think about what she was about to attempt. She looked up, trying to be dispassionate and think rationally. Well it’s very jagged so there’ll be lots of easy handholds, she reasoned, and there are even places that look like ledges where I can rest on the way, so that’s not so bad. Brohan was right, it’s an easy climb, she thought fiercely, trying to egg herself on.

  She drank as much water as she could hold, leaving her with two full bottles. She slid her knife into the sheath that was strapped to her hip and took off her jacket and shirt, quickly cutting the ties to the armguards she’d put back on at the river. After firmly tucking her shirt into her pants, she re-tied the jacket around her waist and put the water bottles down her front. She stepped back and surveyed the escarpment in detail until she found what she thought would be the easiest way up, then taking a deep breath she started to climb as swiftly and as carefully as she could.

  Tae was surprised at how quickly she was able to climb. It actually seemed remarkably easy … until she made the mistake of looking down.

  She froze, her hands immediately gripped onto a large outcropping of rock like vices as intense fear flooded every part of her body. Tears sprang to her eyes as she turned her face away from the offending view. Too high, this was just far too high. She was almost twenty metres up when her fear threatened to engulf her, she started to cry in earnest. What was I thinking? I can’t do this!

  She stayed frozen to the wall shaking as she tried desperately to bring her breathing back under control. When she realised she was unable to move she retreated to her anger in a last ditch effort to replace her terror. She started to berate herself aloud. ‘C’mon, Tae. You promised Brohan you could do this. Are you a liar? Are you going to let down everyone who ever believed in you? What the hell’s the matter with you, are you going to prove your father right? Are you unworthy after all?’

  Slowly her fingers loosened their grip and she started to climb again, her rage at her weakness spurring her upward. All the while she continued muttering to herself as she went. ‘C’mon, move your fat arse. You ate all four bars and you’ve got more than enough energy. Besides, you’ve been through far worse than this since you’ve been in here. You just killed a ruddy cannibal with your teeth, and now you’re worried about a little height … what are you, an idiot?’

  When she was three-quarters of the way up she reached a small ledge and stopped for a breather, her arms and legs felt like half dead tree limbs that someone had mistakenly attached to her body. The sun had risen steadily as she had ascended. She had no idea how long she had been climbing but she was sweating profusely.

  Steeling herself she risked another glance down, to her horror she saw a figure was sprinting across the stretch between the trees and the escarpment. A figure that, even from here, she could see had a glow of orange about him. About thirty metres behind him and dropping back quickly to the superior speed of the thalien, was the wolven, Mr D if she wasn’t mistaken.

  Oh shit! Her eyes widened as she realised she now had two hunters on her tail. She turned back to the wall and began climbing as fast as she could. By the time she reached the top she was trembling with fatigue. She rolled back to look over the ledge to check the progress of her two pursuers.

  Holy shit. Jaden’s nearly halfway up already… Who knows, with any luck the bastard might fall, she thought hopefully. Taking out a water bottle she drained it, leant over the edge again and, after taking careful aim, dropped it. It missed Jaden by about half a metre, but she could see the shock and rage on his face as he looked up at her. She also saw his renewed determination. She looked around desperately, at the rate he was climbing, and with his sheer speed while running, he would catch her easily.

  Frustration and rage encompassed her, this isn’t fair! It can’t end like this! Not when I’m so close! I won’t let you stop me! I won’t! Her mind screamed. She doubted she could even stand at the moment her legs were so fatigued, so making a run for it was definitely out. Realising that there was only one alternative left to her, she sat and waited patiently. The only small sounds she now made were when she moved her position slightly to match her pursuer’s course, as she listened intently to Jaden’s panting ascent. All while filled with a cold resolve of her own.

  ***

  Jaden had been dropped off in zone two, near the river at the last known sighting of the blue target by a retrieval team. It had been sent in to pick up the remains of the madman, along with the bits and pieces of the woman he had been eating. He had tracked the blonde easily as she had stumbled through the trees, but he was getting angrier. She wouldn’t stop moving downstream, which meant she was taking him further and further away from his real quarry.

  It took him until just before midday to find her holed up in a small cave. She had whimpered as she saw him standing in the cave entrance, he had curled his lip in disgust at how pathetic he found her. As he had stalked towards her the woman had then tried to bribe him, offering him anything he wanted if he’d spare her life. It was then that he had started fantasising that it was Tae Rames before him, it was her that was begging him to spare her. He smiled slowly and gently reached for her face with his hand, slowly running his hand down her cheek then holding it as he stared at her intently. She had smiled tentatively at him, obviously thinking she could trade her life for sex. As if he would pollute himself with the likes of her. His other hand had reached for her head, cupping it almost lovingly. She licked her lips, a knowing look coming into her eyes. That was when he wrenched her head around brutally, snapping her neck.

  He’d stood there watching her dull lifeless eyes staring up at him as her vid-ball had scanned her for life and then returned to its base. His own vid-ball made a series of clicking noises to note the kill down in his files. Jaden smiled in satisfaction, women were always easy kills, they were too trusting, a simple soft caress had them thinking they might actually survive. It was his favourite form of killing for that very reason, that look on their faces when their neck snapped, as if they were surprised. Even that teacher back at Jaxburg hadn’t caught on until it was too late.

  He dragged the body outside for the retrieval team. At last the real hunt could begin. He quickly jogged back to the river, all he had to do now was follow the river back upstream and find her trail. She’ll soon be mine, and when she is she won’t be afforded a quick death like her teacher or the blonde I just killed. No, he thought angrily, she has to be punished, she’s made a fool of me. Even worse, she must have used her filthy vampire pheromones on me to make me want her when we were back at The Gathering. She’s made my thoughts betray my true goddess, and for that sin alone, she is going to die as slowly as possible.

  She had been laughing at him the whole time, he saw that now. Each move she had made in here, from her filthy hand signal to her contemptuous spit on the ground, had all been directed at him personally. When he finally ran her to ground she was going to pay for every last insult, for every lust–crazed thought he’d had of her. By the time he was finished she was going to be begging him for death.

  Smiling, he caressed the large knife at his side then continued his search. It had taken him ano
ther hour to find where she had stopped and concealed something she had been carrying. He had scoured the side of the river for another two hours, looking for any sign of her before returning to where she had originally stopped. Then he crossed the river and started searching the opposite bank.

  When he had found where she had crossed his anger boiled over, snarling in rage he drew his knife and started to viciously stab the nearest tree he could find. He had just wasted hours searching for her on the other side, as she knew he would. It felt like she was deliberately taunting him, making me feel inferior. He slowly brought himself back under control by comforting himself with thoughts of what he would soon be doing to her.

  She was running straight towards an escarpment, when she got there she would be trapped. She would finally have nowhere else to run to. He followed her trail into the forest, stopping at nightfall and climbing a tree to rest for the night. He was confident now, it didn’t matter that he couldn’t track her in the dark because she was running straight into a dead end. By noon tomorrow, at the latest, he would be having his fun with her, he’d finally be teaching her the error of her ways.

  When dawn broke he climbed down from his perch and pocketed the empty wrappers of the protein bars he had just eaten then started out at a much faster pace. By the time he had reached the end of the tree line before the escarpment he was panting and sweating heavily. He had pushed himself hard in his eagerness to reach her. He looked out, expecting to see her, but there was nothing. He looked around in confusion. She should be here. Where the hell was she? He felt the first flutters of panic and then lifted his eyes to scan the escarpment itself. That’s when he spotted her.

  She was about three-quarters of the way up, just stopping at a ledge. All thought left him and he started to sprint across the open ground toward where she was climbing. He heard a shout and glanced around to see the wolf, Vesh, running after him. The wolven shouted for him to stop, yelling that she was under Zeus’ protection.