The Afterlife Series Omnibus: Heaven, Hell, Earth, Wasteland, War, Stones

by Mur Lafferty

Above them, Horus circled.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  With Daniel’s story of his adventure, and the story of how he had taken on Izanami and Horus, now over, Anubis lowered his head and spat the soul back out, now with traces of gray around it. Aspects of Anubis? The other hovering ribbons of godstuff settled down within the orb again, and Daniel’s body coalesced around it.

  Kazuko bowed to the gods and picked up Daniel’s body. Thoth led us to a door in the pit that opened, unexpectedly, to a beach, where a boat waited.

  I squinted my eyes against the sun. I wanted to stay where it was dark.

  Neither of us spoke. Kazuko lay Daniel on a bier and covered him with a white sheet up to his chin. Whatever force drove the boat pushed it away from shore.

  The boat cut silently through the water as I stared over the side, looking for any sign of land. Kazuko - Izanami, I mean - sat behind me, sitting vigil beside the prone body of Daniel. I couldn’t look at him, so I watched our progress, wondering where we were going, and quite uncomfortable in the fact that we had no control over the boat.

  I spent the next several hours in stunned silence. I didn’t know the two beings behind me. I felt very alone.

  After a while longer, she came up behind me. Now that she had revealed herself, I wondered how I didn’t see it before. The edges of my consciousness tingled when she came near. She was as divine as any other god we’d encountered.

  “I have spent the last several days wondering what happened when he lost his eye the second time. Now that I know, I think I’m even more confused,” I said.

  “I will answer what I can,” she said.

  “Okay, start with you. Who is Kazuko? Is there a Kazuko? Why did Izanami need to go with Daniel? And why were you disguised?”

  “There is no Kazuko. This is the shape I had before I went to the underworld. My natural form now being insectoid, I am able to split myself. Part of me resides with my son, part of me is before you, and part of me rests within Daniel.” She pulled back the bandage on her hand from where I had accidentally cut her, and a fly wriggled out.

  “And Cerberus…”

  “I devoured him,” she said.

  I swallowed, imagining the huge dog covered in flies. No wonder she had been obviously divine after all that. She’d eaten a dog that was eons old.

  “I owed Daniel and decided to join you two. Joining you as myself would cause you two to lean too much on me and my knowledge. So I was disguised, helping where I could, but making you choose your own way.”

  “Okay, why can’t you and Daniel touch the souls?”

  “I was once goddess of all creation,” she said, her voice far away and sad. “I am now a goddess of death, of the underworld. Those souls destined for heaven are not mine to touch.”

  “But the souls are already dead. You should be able to touch them more than anyone. And what about Daniel?”

  “You are asking the wrong questions.”

  I slammed my hands down on the ship’s railing and gripped it hard. “Dammit, stop being so mysterious. I didn’t know what we were doing when we were supposed to be traveling Heaven - oh, and apparently ending the world - and now I don’t know what we’re doing here in hell, either. Are these souls real, or are they just trinkets leading us on a wild goose chase?”

  Izanami remained so damnably calm. “You touched the souls of the clones. You saw better than I did that they were salvageable. Did they feel like trinkets to you?”

  My rage subsided.

  “You and Daniel have a destiny. Destinies are not awarded to those who sit around and do nothing.”

  “We are dead! How can we have destinies? There is nothing left to us!”

  “Kate. Did you ever wonder why all of this was happening? Why it was important for you to feel the touch of both the divine and Daniel before you were corporeal? Why was it important for you to come to hell with us? Why you found the Metal Tiger sword? Why were you not judged by Anubis?”

  “I. Don’t. Know!” I wailed.

  She didn’t let up, her voice getting harder and harder. “And why did the most powerful god of all creation start losing souls? Why is it you who has to clean up after Him? Why are both you and Daniel catalysts for the end of the world, and why do you both easily take on aspects of every god you meet?”

  I cradled my head in my hands. “I thought I was supposed to be asking the questions.”

  Hermes moved in my mind, gently, pushing memories to the surface. Hades’s mention of Elohim’s loss of power. The excited or honored way many of the gods and servants had greeted us in hell.

  Daniel’s voice came from behind us both, rough, but strong. “I know.”

  Izanami smiled. “I expected Kate to get it first, but then again, the story of what happened with Horus has shocked her.” She turned to face him. I kept my back to him, stiff and angry.

  “Anubis told me. Is telling me. We brought it all to an end. Now we have to rebuild.”

  Izanami nodded. “Go on.”

  “Out of Ragnarök came the hope for a new world. Once Set was killed, Osiris will return and bring hope for a new world. After Armageddon’s battle will come one thousand years of peace. We broke it. Now we fix it.”

  I turned, finally, too angry to keep my silence. “That answers nothing. How the hell are we supposed to do that, Daniel? We haven’t even finished our other job; remember those souls? Remember your sister? If we can’t even do that, how do you think we’re supposed to rebuild the world?”

  “Look, we’re almost done with the souls. Megan is the only one left. If you would stop ranting and think for a moment, you’ll see I’m right.”

  The look on his face was serene and serious, no longer the joking, cynical Daniel I knew. Was this Anubis talking? I looked away from his clear eye and stared over the water again, searching for the familiar pull.

  Suddenly it blinked at me, fiercely, dead ahead. There was only one, and it was strong. One left. Megan. And we were heading straight for her. As I sensed her, I saw the shore ahead, finally visible.

  I sighed angrily. I hated it when he was right. “Fine, so we’re almost done. But you didn’t answer the rest. How are you and I going to rebuild the world? It’s not like we’re gods.”

  Daniel got up and approached me. I glared up at him, my anger the only defense against this stranger in front of me. He took my hand and placed it on his chest. Inside, his soul blazed; pure Daniel. Divine Daniel.

  “Aren’t we?”

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Izanami left us at the shore. She embraced Daniel, holding on tight for a moment. I frankly stared at her as she wiped a tear from her eye as she looked at him in the eye for a moment. He whispered something to her, and she smiled.

  She then came to me and hugged me like a sister, telling me I would grow into my role. I hugged her stiffly, silently begging her to stay. I didn’t know how to talk to Daniel anymore; I needed her between us.

  She didn’t get my telepathic message, which made me cynical again about the whole god thing. Either that, or she ignored my request; which, knowing her, would be just as likely.

  She removed the bandage from her hand and a swarm of flies buzzed out, turning the human form inside out until nothing was left. Izanami in her true form hovered over us for a moment, then sped back across the water.

  “That’s still weird,” Daniel said, watching her go. I didn’t answer.

  He sighed. “Which way?”

  I pointed down the one path that led away from the beach. “You could have figured that one out, I think.”

  “Why are you so mad?”

  I laughed bitterly. “Oh, I don’t know. I don’t know my best friend anymore. I can’t trust why we’re doing anything. You’re apparently brave enough to tell a god to blind you, but you’re too cowardly to tell me why you did it. Now you tell me that we’re turning into gods and have to remake the world, when all I feel like doing is running to my room and crying my eyes out. And I don’t even have a room anymore! How
’s that for why I’m angry?” My voice cracked with the tears I fought back, and I turned away from him to get control again.

  He laughed then, and I looked back at him. He suddenly looked so much like Daniel that I nearly broke. “Those are all good reasons. Listen, Kate—”

  I didn’t want to hear what he had to say. “Look,” I interrupted. “I don’t want to do this now. Let’s just get done what we have to. Let me run ahead and see what I can find out. I’ve got this god in my head, so I might as well use him.”

  I ran off without looking at him. It felt good to run, and the speed at which I could maintain at a comfortable level made me feel as if I were leaving all my problems behind. The scrub beyond the beach blurred and I found myself in the middle of a dusty Midwestern US town. I stopped in confusion and looked around me. A general store stood in the center of the dead town, with two men on the porch playing chess. Well, the town was dead except for the sound of two kids playing inside the store.

  “I can do that too, you know,” Daniel said behind me, making me jump. “Kagut-suchi can move like a wildfire.”

  I forced myself to look in to the alien face. “Do you know where we are?”

  He pursed his lips, and I felt a small triumph that I had finally irritated him. His eye flicked around and he shrugged. “No idea. Is she here?”

  She was. It was clear. She was inside. But the two men on the porch of the store had spotted us and waved us over.

  They were craggy men, somewhere between eighty and a billion. One was bald and clean-shaven, liver spots staining his head. The other had a shock of white hair on top of his head and sat next to a glass with a pair of dentures in it. He grinned at us with bright pink gums, and I was caught between disgust and nostalgia, remembering my grandfather.

  He nudged the bald one. “They’re finally here. Looky there.”

  The bald one motioned us up the stairs. “Let me look at you. Very nice, very good. Kate doesn’t accept the truth. Daniel has embraced it. Completely unexpected, but that’s why we like you. You are unexpected.”

  It all became clear to me then: Satan was the bald man. The Adversary, playing checkers with God. Their casual attitude simply made me angrier. “Is Megan here?” I asked bluntly.

  They glanced at each other. The bald one shrugged and the other one motioned us inside. “She’s playing in the nails again, silly girl. Always makes a mess of my inventory.”

  “And you knew that all the time? You dangled her here for us to wander all over eternity to find?”

  “The journey is as important as the destination,” God said mildly.

  I grabbed the door and yanked it open, motioning for Daniel to precede me. He did so, finally showing some of the tension I felt. I felt tiny and mean. It felt good.

  In fact, I was so busy being tiny and mean that I didn’t think to wonder Megan played with. Daniel walked down an aisle to the back of the store, following the sound of laughter. I bumped into him as he stopped abruptly, gasping.

  A smiling, dark haired four-year-old girl stood beside a pole where drawers sat on disk. Each drawer held a different size of nail, and she spun the disk, laughing as the nails whizzed by her.

  Behind her stood a boy, several years older, with bandages on both forearms and one over his left eye. He smiled and watched her protectively, a gentle, patient smile on his face.

  He glanced up at us then, his dark brown eye widening. “Megan, they made it.”

  The little girl shrieked, making me jump, and ran to Daniel. She grabbed him hard around the middle and he disengaged her arms so he could pick her up and hug her tightly.

  The anger in my chest loosened as I watched him hold her, laughing.

  The boy came to me, his face still holding onto youth but his deep brown eye (not to mention the tell-tale wounds) showing me unmistakably that this was Daniel.

  He took my hand and smiled at me. “I’m sorry, Kate. I’m so sorry.”

  I was tired of being utterly flummoxed. “Why?”

  The girl Megan raised her head from the adult Daniel’s shoulder and pointed to the boy. “Because that Daniel died with me. You never got to meet him.”

  “You split yourself, like all these gods have been doing?”

  Daniel, still holding his sister, looked down at his younger self with shock. “I had no idea. If I did it, it wasn’t conscious, that’s for sure.”

  “What are you, then?” I asked the boy.

  “I’m surprised you don’t know.”

  Daniel put his sister down. “Are you all right?”

  She shook her head, ponytails bobbing. “I’m good! I am just here because I’m your last stop. You found me. You win!” She clapped her hands.

  He nodded and stood up. He looked at his younger self, thoughtfully. “And you have to wait a little longer.”

  The boy nodded.

  Daniel sighed. “Well, Kate, I guess it’s time.”

  “For what?”

  “Remember how Anubis said you had yet to be judged?”

  “Uh, yeah.”

  “It’s my job to do that.”

  Confusion and anger woke in me again. “Fuck, Daniel. Why? When will I know what is going on? And what if I say no? What if I just sit here and spin nails for the rest of eternity?”

  Daniel looked down. “It’s not my decision. If you refuse to be judged, then I guess you can stay here. We’re not in hell anymore. This is a middle place, a wasteland place, like where I met Horus and Set. You will be safe here. But I promise you, after you are judged, I can tell you everything.”

  Tears of anger and confusion ran down my face. Daniel left me, then, holding Megan’s hand and leaving the store.

  The boy looked at me with concern, but did not move to comfort me.

  “So who are you again?” I asked, trying to bite back the tears.

  “You met me once,” he said quietly, maturity aging his face. “In heaven. I’m the part of Daniel that has the capacity to show love. I died with Megan, but I was always connected to Daniel, absorbing the feelings that he refused.”

  The air left my chest, making it cold with shock. “You were the Daniel I was with in Heaven.”

  The boy nodded.

  “But I thought you were fake. You were too perfect.”

  He smiled sadly. “I was built solely on the love that Daniel refused. Love for his parents, love for any woman, and mainly love for you. I don’t have much depth beyond that.”

  I honestly thought the shock was going to shut me down. I’d had enough. I turned, my head in my hands, and followed Daniel.

  He stood on the porch, watching Megan get a horsey ride on Satan’s knee. I stormed out, holding onto the anger as strength. “Fine. Judge me. If only so I can get some answers. I can’t take this anymore. You used to be the only thing I could count on, and now I don’t even have that.”

  He put his hand out and took my shoulder. “You can always count on me, Kate. That’s not what this is about.”

  “What is it about then?”

  “It’s about the store, of course,” God said.

  “The store?” I asked.

  “Sure. We can’t run the store forever. We’re old. It was falling apart before the end of the world, but now it’s clear someone new has to take the reins. We just want to play chess,” Satan said.

  “Checkers, sometimes,” God said, cackling.

  “And this was all a game to you?” I asked.

  God blinked. “All of it is a game. It always has been. Every war, every conflict, is a game.”

  I looked from them to Daniel. “Answers?”

  He nodded. “Everything.”

  “Fine. What do we do?”

  #

  In the back supply closet, the bald one helped me out of my robe and took off my Traveler’s necklace. He turned his back as I removed my t-shirt and jeans and replaced them with a black linen shirt and pants. “You will move around better in those,” he said, beaming at me. He tied my hair back and told me to remove my
socks.

  Barefoot and clad in well-fitting clothing, I exited the storage room. The boy Daniel watched me silently, his eye wide with worry.

  Daniel stood outside in the street, similarly dressed. He held his katana out. I reached back and took the Metal Tiger sword out. For perhaps the first time, it felt totally comfortable in my hands.

  “This doesn’t feel like a judgment,” I said. “It feels like an execution.”

  “We have to battle, Kate. Only through this will you find your answers. If you are unworthy of the knowledge, I will win, and Hermes will escort you to your afterlife. If you win, you win everything you want to know.”

  Hermes. Shit, he wasn’t only the messenger of the gods, but he led souls to their afterlives. Was that why he was with me? To escort me to – wherever?

  The presence in my head was still there, but silent.

  “I don’t want to hurt you,” I said.

  He laughed. “You’ve always been a bad liar, Kate. You were ready to hurt me several times today. You have found strength in only your anger as this situation has gotten away from you. Now is your chance. I lied to you about traveling through Heaven. I ended the world and caused your death a second time. I was angry and elusive, and I frightened you in hell more than once. I drew my sword on you. I resented your holding a god in your head while I carried several. You have a ton of reasons to want to hurt me.”

  I thought of how he had withheld his feelings from me, and gritted my teeth. I drew my white sword and attacked.

  Never attack when taunted, came an admonishment in my mind as Daniel easily parried my strike.

  “Oh, don’t you fucking start,” I hissed. “I don’t need two people attacking me.”

  Daniel grinned – he knew my argument made me weaker. He swung wide, going for my sword arm, and I stepped back and to the side, avoiding it.

  My heart pounded with adrenaline and the outlying abandoned buildings and general store dropped from my awareness. All that I knew was the man in front of me, whom I had loved for years, and who had driven me to insane rage to attack him. His eye narrowed a bit as he saw the change in my focus.