by Gini Koch
We did. There were images underneath the opalescent paint. They were faint without being indistinct, and we’d been looking up at the telescope, which was why we’d missed these images. Images that looked a hell of a lot like all of those of us who’d been taken. And not just crude drawings, either—incredibly good carvings that looked amazingly like us. Just generalized enough that I could see how King Benny had believed that Jeff was a God Messenger, rather than Leoalla, for a little while, but accurate enough that I could point-blank tell which one of the Muses was Lorraine, which was Claudia, and which was Serene.
There was writing underneath each image. The Universal Translator Chip didn’t provide a translation, but I was willing to bet that they were our God Names in Lecanora.
Looked carefully at the pictures. There was no image that looked like either Jamie or Gower. However, there were three female images that looked a lot like Abigail, Rahmi, and Rhee.
“What the hell?” Reader asked, speaking for both of us.
“These have been here for as long as we have been recounting our histories. They have been here since the Father of the Gods first came and gave us the All Seeing Mountain.”
Meaning Algar had put our pictures here somehow. Thousands of years before we’d been born.
Would have been incredibly awed if I didn’t know that he was a Black Hole Universe dude and that probably meant he was able to bend time, space, universes, and whatever else. So, he’d “gone back” and tossed our pictures up there. Probably easier to do than “go forward” and grab a ginormous telescope. Or maybe not. Presumably he’d put our pictures here so that we’d be listened to without a lot of argument.
“Who are they?” Pointed to the images of the three gals we were still missing.
“They are the Venida, the female warriors of the Gods. They are the counterpoint to the Muses—where the Muses of Knowledge bring creativity to the Gods, the Venida ensure that the Gods’ laws are carried out. And they, like the Winalla and the Nihalani, are both the warriors and the protectors of the High Godhead.”
“Are the Venida more or less powerful than the Winalla or the Nihalani?”
Fancy smiled. “Much more powerful. They are the special Gods of my clan, Shealla. We walk in the footsteps of the Venida.”
“Nice. And who makes the cut for the High Godhead?”
“The Father of the Gods, Leoalla, Shealla, Alcalla, and Binalla,” Fancy replied. “And the Guide of the Gods, who is not pictured here, because he can only be seen by the Gods themselves.”
Figured the Guide to be Gower, because the role, like everything else going on around here, fit. No mention of Jamie, though. Didn’t know if this boded or not. Hoped for not.
“Who’s the Mother of the Gods?” Reader asked. The question made sense, even though I hadn’t thought to ask, since a clan like Fancy’s would indicate such a God existed.
“She is Ethereal and watches over all of us,” Fancy said. “Even now, we know she is watching, guarding our hearts.”
“Where is her picture, or a picture of the Father of the Gods?” It would be nice to be able to confirm my suspicions. “And why didn’t you mention her in the High Godhead?”
“The Mother of the Gods remains hidden to us—we must find her in our hearts. She does not visit us in any other way. The Father of the Gods has visited us only once, when he bestowed the All Seeing Mountain upon us. Mother and Father both cannot be seen anymore, not even by the Gods themselves. To see them is to risk their destruction.”
So the Father was indeed Algar and the Mother was Naomi. Sure, this was guessing on my part, but I’d seen her in the three-way mirrors in Bizarro World, so I knew she really was watching and guarding. And I also knew that no one in this universe—Chuckie, Abigail, and Gower especially—could know that she was here.
“Huh. Learn something new every single day, and sometimes every minute.” Whoops. Had not meant to say that out loud. Darn Reader and his getting me back into my normal groove.
But Fancy took it in stride. “That the Gods might not remember themselves is a story passed down as well. But our Gods you are. Gods can die, we know this. Gods cannot do everything for us, we know this, too. But if our Gods say that we must fight, then let me assure our Gods that I have been training my warriors for battle, just as my mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, and all of our line before me have done. We are ready, Shealla, for whatever you need. And if that includes dying, then we will die protecting our world, and all those who live upon it.”
“I think King Benny’s going to make a great Chief Councilor. He’s got a great presence, he’s good under pressure, and he’s a good thinker. You two are going to be a great team.”
“You presume that I would be accepted as king, and that Musgraff would be accepted as less than me.”
“It’s all in how you spin it, babe. Trust me. King Benny’s already been willing to be an Under-Clan Leader to you, and what I’m suggesting would make him your right-paw man, the guy you discuss policy and decisions with.”
She nodded. “That would be acceptable, I’m sure.”
“This is nice and all, but what, exactly, are we going to do, Kitty?” Reader was managing to only sound slightly stressed and a little impatient.
“We’re going to go back and get Haven ready. I have hyperspeed and waterfruit, meaning that I can get to the Purple Land and talk to the Matriarchs there if needed. They can manage the rest.”
“What is the rest?” Reader asked, patience now clearly forced.
“Doing what we planned to do in the first place after we visited the All Seeing Mountain—we’re going to overthrow the so-called King of the Planet Colorful and take control of this planet.”
CHAPTER 62
READER SHOOK HIS HEAD. “We’re not going to be able to get all of Haven prepped and ready to go in five minutes, babe, you know that, right?”
“Yes, James, I’m clear. I want Fancy’s Fighting Ferrets, the Black Wolverines, the ocellars, and the chochos. Everyone else needs to get ready and prep for siege or to come storm the castle en masse.”
“Too large a force will not raid as effectively,” Fancy said. “But I do agree with the Leader of the Nihalani—it will be difficult to gather our forces if you separate from us, Shealla, since the Nihalani do not move like the Higher Gods do.”
“Call me James, would—” Reader looked up, stopped speaking, and I felt him stiffen. “I don’t think we’re going to have time for rallying the troops.”
Fancy and I both looked up as well. She gasped. I didn’t, but my stomach clenched. One of the ships—an unfamiliar shaped one—took a major hit and split apart. And parts exploded toward the planet.
Ran out of the circle area and to the railing and heard the others following. “Stay here,” I said to Ginger and Wilbur. Grabbed Reader and Fancy and ran around the entire perimeter, but at the slow version of hyperspeed. I could see the edges of the continent from here, but only because I could see a ring of blue. If there were other lands on this planet, they weren’t visible from this vantage point.
“What are you looking for?” Reader asked as I finally reached the point where I’d started. Good thing my track coaches had always made the sprinters run distance for training—hyperspeed or no, the distance traveled was the same, and I’d done a lot of running today, and had a lot more to do looming on the immediate horizon.
“Trying to see if the debris is going to land anywhere else with a population.”
“Can’t tell, but it’s this population I’m worried about.”
Wished ACE was here with us something fierce. ACE could create a shield over the continent and protect everyone.
But ACE wasn’t here. And Reader was right—we were out of time.
Once part of a ship hit this planet, someone would be coming down to see if they had survivors. And in that case, they’d also be coming ready
to bring the war directly onto this planet. Sure, we might have a few hours. Maybe even a few days, depending on how low or high the ship’s orbit had been. Maybe minutes if the ships were in a low orbit and skimming the planet’s atmosphere. The view from the telescope hadn’t told me.
It probably would have told Chuckie or the girls. Wondered if the others had been captured to prevent them from looking through the telescope or if it had just been coincidental. Reminded myself that we rarely scored a coincidence. Whoever had captured them had wanted to get all of us, and undoubtedly had wanted to keep all of us from getting up here.
My brain nudged. If the king didn’t know about the telescope, then why would he want to prevent us from going to the top of the mountain? So either he knew, wanted us for general reasons, or someone else had grabbed the others. Didn’t have enough information to be able to tell yet, so tabled this discovery for later.
Also realized that my music had stopped. Considered taking my earbuds out and putting them and my iPod back into my purse. But on the off chance Algar was going to share his Semi-Helpful Hints again, figured I’d just keep things as they were for the moment.
Picked Wilbur up and handed him to Reader. Did the same with Ginger and handed her to Fancy. Dug out another waterfruit and ate it at hyperspeed. Noted that I still had a lot of Poofs on Board. Meaning, when push came to shove, I did have a fighting force.
Grabbed Reader and Fancy’s free hands. “Fancy, what’s the easiest, fastest, least obstacle-encroached path to the king?”
“None are ‘easy,’ Shealla, but the purple path is the most sedate in terms of its slope.”
“I looked down while you were looking out,” Reader said. “That path has switchbacks like you wouldn’t believe, Kitty. Straight down the mountain would be preferable.”
“There are traps and obstacles off the paths as well,” Fancy said.
“The mountain’s booby-trapped, James, think about it. Fancy, you’re going to lead, I’m going to provide the speed. Pick the path that gets us to the king the fastest, and that includes factoring in obstacles and such.”
She nodded, and we took off.
Getting down was both harder and easier than getting up. Easier because, thankfully, Fancy didn’t choose to go down the way we’d come up, which was a relief to me and, I was sure, Reader, too, despite his saying straight down was a good plan. Unlike Fancy, Ginger, and Wilbur, we didn’t have claws to dig into the mountainside.
It was harder though because Fancy hadn’t been kidding—there were a lot of obstacles in the way. Hyperspeed handled most of them, of course, and they weren’t dangerous so much as really annoying, but still, I could tell Algar had had some fun designing the Seven Paths to Pilgrimage. That, it turned out, was the real name given for the ways up to the top of the All Seeing Mountain. I refrained from comment. Barely.
Fancy stuck with her first choice and we zipped down on the Purple Path. She wasn’t kidding about it being far less steep, and Reader hadn’t underestimated the number of switchbacks, either. Naturally, it also had the most obstacles on it, but that was just the Way of Algar and I didn’t complain about it. Too much.
The obstacles were really like what I’d seen in the movies about boot camp. Mud, water, climbing, sharp stakes and the like, all of which you had to get around “properly” in order to stay on the path. Fortunately, I was a God so I didn’t care about pleasing anyone but myself, and myself wanted us moving as fast and smoothly as possible. Plus hyperspeed ensured that when I told the others to jump, I could drag them along with me. Missed White a lot, but he’d certainly taught me how to do this right—even though he’d be the first to claim that he wasn’t a “real” Field agent.
Thinking about him meant that I, naturally, thought about Christopher. And then, of course, Jeff. I’d been avoiding thinking about Jeff and the others because I was as worried about them as I was about Jamie. If Reader was right, Jamie was safe somewhere. As long as she and Gower hadn’t been on the ship that now had parts of it falling down, to land on us sometime in our near future.
But panic wasn’t going to save my daughter, husband, and friends, so I shoved it aside and focused on getting us down as fast as possible.
The beauty of hyperspeed was that, tons of switchbacks and obstacles or not, we made good time and were down the hill in a matter of a couple minutes. Looked up. Saw nothing horrible falling out of the sky yet.
Stopped for a moment. “Not that I’m complaining, but why aren’t the animals or Fancy tossing their cookies?” Reader asked me as I ate another waterfruit. Hey, I didn’t want to run out of juice. Hoped that the juice was just juice and not “juice.” Decided I’d worry about Just Saying No once we were out of this mess.
“The beings on this planet seem adaptable to hyperspeed.”
“Huh. Interesting. Fancy, how many hearts to your people have?”
She cocked her head at Reader. “We have two, Leader of—”
“James. Please start calling me James.”
“He means it,” I added.
She nodded. “As you wish . . . James. I believe that all creatures on our planet have two hearts. Isn’t that normal?”
“Depends on your planet,” I replied. “Some of the beings in your solar system have three hearts, some two, some one. We only have one.”
She looked shocked. “But, how do you do all the wonders that you can with so little internal power?”
Reader and I exchanged a glance. That wasn’t really a Bronze Age Level question. “We’re adaptable,” was all I could come up with that wouldn’t require an anatomy and physiology lecture. “And clearly so are you.”
“Why didn’t you all go as fast as we are going before now, then?” Reader asked.
Fancy shrugged. “I don’t know that I could go as fast as Shealla on my own.”
“We’ll let the others do fun scientific experiments, James. We need to try to save the world and all that right now, if it’s okay with you.”
“Always nice to reverse roles with you, girlfriend.”
“I’ll hurt you later. Fancy, can we get into the palace without being detected if we’re going really fast?”
“Perhaps, but there are traps. I don’t know if you can go too fast for them or not.”
“Well, lead on and we’ll cross that exploding bridge when we come to it.”
Fancy smiled. “That was humor. I think I begin to understand you, Shealla.”
“Welcome to the Army of One, Fancy.”
CHAPTER 63
WE TOOK OFF AGAIN, running around the path that encircled the bottom of the mountain, only in the opposite direction than before, in part because we were closer to Greenland from where we’d exited and in other part because I didn’t feel like dealing with the Blue Waterway right now.
Greenland’s wrong tang hit my nostrils the moment we stepped past the extremely precise Bronze Land border. Only now I could connect the smell to something specific—the wrongness smelled like decay looked. Not musty or dusty or old, but more like sadness for what once was.
“Has it always smelled like this here?” I asked Fancy quietly as we got onto the Green Grass Spiral Road and started off toward the castle in the near distance.
“No, as James said earlier, this area has changed since the king declared.”
“The land isn’t happy.”
Reader shot me a sharp look. “You trying to say that the land can think?”
“This world is created, James. For all we know, the entire continent is actually a computer or a robot of some kind. And we know that there are robots and androids and such out there that can definitely think.” The weather was too bizarre to be natural, after all—something had to be creating snow and water, fresh water, in a place where rain and snow didn’t fall.
“Then why isn’t the land helping us?” he asked.
“A good ques
tion. Maybe it is.” But before we could continue this Fancy tugged at my hand.
“We’re here.”
“Here” wasn’t a castle, however. It was a tree. A very large, very green tree.
“Um, seriously? Is this like the katyhoppers, where there’s a whole city behind this tree that we can’t see?”
“Ah, no, Shealla. This is a hidden entrance to tunnels that go under the castle.”
“Well alrighty then.”
“How many people know about this?” Reader asked.
“Just mine.”
“Did your people build it?” he asked.
“No, the tunnels have been here as long as Haven.”
“Then it’s not just your people who know about it. Meaning that we could be ambushed the moment we enter.”
“We raid via this path regularly, James,” Fancy said. “And we have not ever faced any enemies on this path. Traps, yes. Enemies, no.”
Reader didn’t look convinced. “James, we can go in via Fancy’s preferred path, or we can try a frontal assault on that heavy, ponderous, and most importantly not green castle sitting off in yonder distance. With, as you’ve pointed out, not a lot in the way of troops here and ready.”
“Fine,” he muttered. “I just hope I’m not going to say ‘I told you so’ in the next few minutes.”
“Not as much as the rest of us.” Looked up at the sky. It was definitely falling. “We need to get to cover before the spaceship’s debris hits.” Really hoped it wasn’t going to hit the continent, and especially not the top of the All Seeing Mountain.
Fancy pushed at several spots on the tree that looked random but clearly weren’t, and part of the tree’s trunk slid inward to reveal a stairway going down.
I’d just done something like this in Bizarro World, and it had led to The Mastermind’s Lair. Started to share Reader’s apprehension. However, it was go down or risk getting hit with falling spaceship, and that was far too reminiscent of Operation Destruction for me. I’d take my chances with the Evil Overlord.
