She rose from the roof and stood tall. A growl escaping from her inhuman maw, Hela leaped from her roof and began to hunt.
*****
Finding the men wasn't difficult. She'd crept along the city walls until the gate came into view. Once again, the trio had left their posts. The lone soldier stood at the gates and faced the desert's darkness.
Hela left the walls and returned to the rooftops. She looked up into the sky and noted the moon's position. After trailing the trio for over a week, she knew their patterns and where they would be.
She headed to the hostel where she'd found Ushar's broken body. Hela crouched on the edge of a house's roof and watched for movement. Through the tavern's upper window, she made out the flickering light of a lamp. Her dark eyes turned crimson and suddenly the world was lit in red-tinged shades.
The lamp light burned bright through the beast's vision. In the open tavern windows, she made out people sleeping on pallets. A young woman and man made love in one corner. In another, an old woman snored loud enough for the beast to hear. She cocked her head and focused on the world.
Beneath the snores, the beast's pointed ears picked up whispers of conversation.
"No one here," a gruff voice said.
"We need to head to the other side."
"That'll put us in Etragar's area. He hates you, Tantula."
The beast grinned. Hela dropped down from the roof to the alley. She could have bent her knees when she landed to cushion the shock, but she didn't bother. The sound of her hitting the street was a loud thump.
"What was that?" the gruff voice asked.
Hela scanned the alley. She found what she was looking for and scooped up several rotting bones in her fist. She peered around the alley wall. The three soldiers stood facing the street outside the tavern. The trio's swords were drawn. She raised her head to the stars and loosed a high pitched whimper.
"Ah," the gruff voiced soldier said, "we have quarry." She watched the soldiers approach. Hela stepped back from the alley entrance and leapt back to the roof.
"What was that?" one of the soldiers asked.
"Probably a bird."
Hela smiled. She watched the men enter the alley. When they were far enough in, she threw one of the bones behind them. It hit the street with a clatter.
The three turned as one toward the street. She heard the crescendos of their heart beats, the blood pounding through their veins. The beast laughed in her mind. She threw another bone to the far end of the alley.
The soldiers stiffened. One remained facing the street while the other two stared into the cramped darkness.
"I don't see anything," one of them said.
"Quiet," the older soldier said.
Hela waited a beat. Their breaths were more rapid now. Adrenaline, fear, and knowing they were the hunted, had made them jittery. The beast flashed its stony teeth.
She crept to the far end of the roof in silence. The soldier facing the street was directly below. The other two soldiers walked deeper into the alley. Hela dropped the last bone on the roof and leaped.
The beast flew down toward the soldier facing the street. Her talons slashed through the tender meat of his throat. Her other hand grabbed his neck. She launched herself toward the opposite roof, her prize grasped in her stony arm. The move and kill had taken little more than a few seconds and was silent except for the ping of his sword off her rock-like flesh.
As she reached the roof, she heard the men below cry out. Hela dropped the warm, bloody body and peered into the alley. The two remaining soldiers had turned around.
"Cyrus?" one of them asked the darkness.
Hela looked at the body lying at her feet. She flicked her talons through her prey's neck and the head came free. Hela picked it up and stared into its lifeless, wide eyes. The beast grinned.
Their heartbeats pounded. She smelled their fear and it excited the beast. For Ushar, she told herself and flung the severed head into the alley.
It struck the wall by the remaining soldiers with a crunch. The two men jumped at the sound.
"What is that?" one of the men said.
She heard the scrape of fingers scrabbling through dirt and trash. "Jabru," one of them hissed. The soldier dropped the head in disgust.
The beast shook with rage. Hela finally loosed it completely. She jumped off the roof and landed in front of the two soldiers. The glare from her glowing eyes lit their faces. The two men trembled with fear.
"Jabru," she growled. "Your god of the underworld." The soldiers walked backwards away from her. Hela flashed her teeth and held her arms out in the narrow alley. Her talons dragged against the stone and clay of the walls. The sound was a high-pitched squeal. "You will be visiting him soon."
The older soldier broke first. He turned and ran for the alley exit. The younger soldier dropped his sword and shook his head. "No," he said. "No."
"Kneel," Hela said.
The soldier did as he was told. "Mercy. Please." His hands were folded, his young face staring up at her with tears in his eyes. She could smell sweat and warm shit.
"No. Mercy is not for animals." She brought her left hand down and smashed it into the back of the soldier's head. It exploded in a cloud of red mist and shards of skull. She kicked the corpse in the chest. Its bones cracked before it struck the wall. Hela picked up the dropped sword and snapped it in half.
She cocked her head and listened. The beast heard the old soldier's footsteps on the street, the thumping of his heart, and the wheezing in his lungs. Hela ran from the alley and began her pursuit.
Returning to the rooftops, it didn't take her long to spot the soldier. He was winding his way toward the other half of the city. Instead of taking the alleys, he was trying to stay in the torchlight of the main streets. Hela could hear his breathing; the man was nearly spent.
Jumping from house to house, building to building, she followed. Tantalus continued his swerving run, but he was slowing. Hela took her time; she had plenty of it. She carefully chose her jump points and landings to ensure the silence of her approach.
The soldier finally came to a stuttering halt. He had dropped his sword earlier in his run and was now defenseless. He cast furtive glances down the street to the nearest alley as if afraid she would pop out at any second. Little did he know, she was already above him.
Hela leaned over the roof, claws dug into the side of the house. She paused and waited for him to catch his breath. He began walking backward and Hela jumped. She flew through the air and landed behind him with a crunch.
The soldier whirled around and stared up into her glowing crimson eyes. She raised her arm, talons flashing in the torchlight. "Rapist," the creature hissed.
He shook his head, mouth open in a wide 'O' of horror and fear. "No, no, no--"
She swung her arm in a tight arc. The fabric whispered as the sharp talons sliced through his tunic. Tantalus looked down at his stomach. Blood spurted through horizontal slashes in his gut. Grey ropes of intestine welled out of the bottom hole. He placed his hand against his stomach.
Hela growled. The wounded man slowly raised his head to stare into her flaming eyes. "Better than you deserve," the beast said. The words echoed off the walls as Tantalus crumpled to his knees.
Blood splashed to the ground. He gurgled something, eyes still locked with hers. Hela pushed his head and the man fell to his back. She crouched down and clicked the talons together before his eyes. "This won't hurt a bit," she growled.
The high-pitched scream that followed echoed through the city.
*****
Hela stayed on the roof until a patrol found the corpse. Citizens of Ur stayed in their homes as they'd been commanded, so only the Elamites saw what she'd left behind.
She'd savaged the soldier. While he was still alive, she castrated him and cut off his penis. While his eyes still flickered with life, she drew cuneiform on the wall. "Rapists die." After she was done, she stuffed the remains of his manhood in his mouth.
&nbs
p; When the patrol first found him, one of the two men vomited on the street. The other? He said some words Hela didn't understand. She imagined it was a prayer. Or perhaps an epithet.
The soldier who hadn't loosed his guts took a torch and raised it to the bloody symbols on the wall. He read them, nodded to himself, and replaced the torch. Hela watched the man slap his compatriot. "Find the Captain. Now," he said.
While his partner ran into the darkness, the remaining soldier stared around the street. He saw something near the body and crouched down. His fingers traced an outline and she saw him shiver with fear. He looked up at the roof opposite hers. Hela ducked out of sight.
She wasn't sure what the Elamite had found, but it had shocked him. And he looked as though he knew she was still there, watching.
*****
By the time she reached her home, Sin had set in the east. The Elamite patrols had doubled and made her return journey somewhat complicated.
When the "Captain" had arrived with his entourage in tow, he'd shaken his head at the corpse and the writing on the wall. He'd yelled at his men to clean up the mess, including the writing.
Hela had seethed at that. The beast wanted to drop down on the nine men and destroy them as it had destroyed Tantalus and his accomplices. But there were too many of them. She'd fed the beast earlier that day, but its power was limited. Staying in its form as long as she had, she'd already started to drain it.
As the men cleaned the wall and carted away the corpse, a patrol came across the soldier she'd left in the alley. A runner told the captain. The next morning, they might find Cyrus' body or the residents of the house would. All in all, she'd slain three of the Elamite army. Now it was a question of how they'd respond.
When she reached her home, she caged the beast and lay back down on her shawl. The blood from the creature's talons were stains beneath her finger nails. Her naked breasts were streaked with a dull maroon. She would have to visit the river as soon as daylight broke. If the soldiers found her like this, there would be questions. Worse, they might decide she was the killer.
Hela napped while Sin disappeared and the sun rose in the east. When she opened her eyes, the horizon wasn't just glowing. The sun was already beginning to bake the world.
She was exhausted. She'd have to feed again within a few days or... Hela dressed in her shawl and climbed down the ladder into her home. After eating the last of the rough, overripe, and diminutive figs, she headed out into the daylight with a pocket full of lapis.
11
WHEN Hela had awakened after viewing the village, Darika had been sitting on the side of her bed. Her mind was fuzzy and her stomach grumbled. Worse, the beast was famished and desperate.
"Where did you go?" Darika asked.
Hela sat up on the pallet and rubbed her arms. Hanging in the tree as long as she had had left her sore. Her fingers were stiff and creaked when she flexed them. She smiled. "To see the world."
Darika nodded with a sigh. "The world. And what did you see in this 'world?'"
"Others," she said. "They live without our influence. And they don't seem to know you or or your followers exist."
"Yet," Darika said. "But what did you see?"
She cracked her knuckles. A brief bolt of pain shook her wrists and then died. "I saw people. Being people. Hunting. Cooking. Living." Darika's face relaxed, but there was a hint of sadness in it. "Why don't the worshippers have that life?"
"They do," Darika said. She stroked her daughter's shoulder. "They raise their children. They hunt. They provide. And they learn."
"The book," Hela said.
Darika nodded. "Yes. The book." She looked down at the hut's dirt floor. "Teaching them to read took much longer than you would believe, little one."
Little one. Darika always used those words when she was trying to make a point. "Then why teach them?"
A slow grin spread across Darika's face. "Do you know how long I've been here, Hela?" Silence. "The river has flooded hundreds of times. I've watched the mountains slowly crumble beneath the weight of rain and wind. I saw the sky explode and then the light of its leaving disappear over twenty seasons." Darika gestured to the hut's door. "I have raised countless generations here. And I shall continue to do so as long as I have breath."
"But why?" Hela asked.
"There are lessons," Darika continued, "you must learn. I had hoped you would one day leave the village and find your own way. But I had also hoped we would discuss it before it happened." Darika moved to sit cross-legged at her daughter's feet. She clasped her hands together. "The world is not safe for us. There are many that are like us. That can destroy us. Or worse."
Hela chuckled. "What can be worse than destruction?"
"Slavery," Darika said. The smile on her face had disappeared into a thin line of concern.
"How is that even possible? The shadow--"
"Garaaga's shadow doesn't have limitless power, Hela. It can die. You can die."
"From what?"
"Starvation. The children of other gods. Or loneliness. This," she said and held up her hands, "is my home. It took me a very long time to find it. Longer still to keep it. And I chose it for a reason."
"What reason? Why don't you venture beyond this place?" Hela asked.
Darika grinned. "Little one, I have been alive longer than you would believe. I have seen mountains that throw rock and fire into the sky. I have swam the ocean. I have seen the great buildings and statues of the ancient people. I have watched men tear themselves apart over food, water, and shelter. Entire civilizations have risen and fallen. And I have seen it all."
Hela frowned. "How many children do you have, mother?"
Darika thought for a moment. "Dozens," she said. "They are spread across the world. And the world is much larger than you would believe. But that is something you will discover for yourself."
"Where are my brethren?" she asked.
Her mother shook her head. "I don't know. Garaaga chooses whom I have children with. When It commands, I listen. I do what It wants. And for that, I'm blessed with you and your brothers and sisters. And I'm blessed with this place."
"I don't understand."
"You will in time," Darika said. "But I think it's time for you to discover the world, little one."
"But, you just--" She stopped at the frown on her mother's face. "What?"
Darika shook her head. "I'd hoped to stave off this conversation until we were both ready." She brushed a hand through Hela's hair. The feel of her fingers was both reassuring and somehow foreboding. "I wasn't ready for you to leave," Darika said. "It gets so lonely after one of my children leaves."
Hela stared at her mother. "Then why do you stay?"
Her mother shrugged. "As I said, Garaaga wills it. I love all my children, just as I have you."
"But if you left this place and moved, you could experience the world."
"As I said, I have experienced the world. It has nothing more to offer me, daughter. My village. My altar. My river." She sighed. "What more could I want apart from you at my side?"
"Then I'll stay," Hela said. The look in her mother's eyes made her want to cry. "I'll stay and I'll--"
"No," Darika said and wiped a tear from her eye. "When it's time, it's time." She touched her daughter's shoulder. "And it's time for you to find your way." She shuffled off Hela's bed and stood to her full height. "Today, I want you to swim. And I want you to play. I want you to enjoy your last day of childhood." Darika raised her hand. The fingers elongated into stony talons. "Tomorrow, you learn how to fight."
12
CURFEW was over, but the city was hardly bustling, except for the patrols. The army's presence in the city had significantly increased. She passed more than two dozen soldiers in the streets on her way to the river.
For weeks, pairs of the soldiers had walked the city more as a reminder that the Kingdom of Elam now ruled Ur. Citizens carrying out their daily routines of shopping or visiting one another hadn't been interrupted. Bu
t now? The soldiers glared at every passerby, hands on the hilts of their swords.
The lapis in her pockets kept the beast subdued. It also kept the soldiers from noticing her more than any other citizen. When she reached the city gates, a line of soldiers stood facing the city rather than the desert beyond. Hela smiled at them. None of the men smiled back.
They parted to allow her through, but she felt their eyes study her body. The citizens were a possible enemy now. Anyone, man, woman, or child, would be considered a possible combatant. Hela's confidence in what she'd done while Sin was still in the sky, faded.
She tried to ignore the feeling she was being watched and continued toward the river. The army camp was no longer a resting place. Instead, the soldiers were geared up and standing in lines. If she didn't know better, she'd think the Elamites were preparing to sack the city all over again.
It may have been morning, with the sun less than halfway to its zenith, but the heat radiated off the desert in waves. She quickened her step toward the water. When she finally reached the banks of Mother River, she hung her shawl from her favorite olive tree and walked into the water to her waist.
Unlike the previous day, no one was fishing. The shores of the river were vacant. Hela reached down into the water and pulled up handfuls of black silt from the river bottom. She scrubbed at her bare chest and waist. Once certain she had removed the stains of last night's battle, she walked deeper into the water until it lapped at her neck.
Just as Darika had taught her so many years ago, she flipped over and floated on her back. The sun shined down with an unforgiving stare. The coolness of Mother River was a pleasant contrast to the morning's heat. Hela closed her eyes.
She wondered what her mother was doing now. Was she still in that village? Was she still waiting for her children to visit her? Or had a flood drowned her sanctuary and sent her deeper into the jungle?
Or maybe she's finally dead. Hela ignored the voice. The idea of her mother dying in the jungle was lunacy. Darika would no doubt move on before allowing herself to perish at the hands of the herd or from weather. Garaaga had protected her for millennia. It would no doubt keep her safe so long as she stayed in her village.
Daemons of Garaaga (Children of Garaaga) Page 6
