Into Darkness

48

“The Golden Goddess is smart, cunning, and knows how to win followers. She prizes the power she has. She craves the loyalty of her followers and is pleased that they would do anything for her. They would die for her. As you know so well, many have already died for her. As we speak, many more are preparing to come here and slaughter all the people living in this place.

“Those like me, who believe in consuming what our beautiful, wonderful world has to offer in abundance, have tried many things to make the others see that what they are doing is wrong. But they see us as simply weak and too timid for the dangerous hunts of your kind.

“More than for the food, they enjoy their power over your kind, much as the goddess herself enjoys her power over her followers. After trying everything to reason with the goddess and her followers, we now realize that there is no way to turn them back from their new ways.

“If they are not stopped, she will see to it that the Glee come to roam this world and hunt your kind until there are none of you left. They think of eliminating your species as a goal and as an accomplishment. Finding new worlds for her followers to hunt, especially this one, gives the goddess power over them.”

Richard stared into the large, glossy black eyes. “So why, exactly, are you are telling me all of this?”

“Because for your kind to survive, they must be stopped. For my kind to survive, they must be stopped.

“To stop them, the Golden Goddess must be killed. There is no other way.”

Richard leaned back a little as he tried to judge the truthfulness of Sang’s words. It was possible, after all, that there was a power struggle in Sang’s world and he was just as bloodthirsty as the goddess, and simply wanted to win Richard’s sympathy in order to help eliminate his opposition for power.

Richard supposed that it was even possible that Sang was trying to win Richard’s trust in order to eliminate him for the goddess.

On the other hand, what Sang was saying did seem to ring true, and if it was true, this could be the key to ending the threat that Richard hadn’t previously thought was possible. More than that, not ending the threat could very well result in the end of everyone.

“We were told that this goddess is merely one of your kind that takes the position of goddess, as others before her, and that if she is killed, another will simply take her place, and then another, and so on, so that killing her is not a solution to stop this madness.”

Sang didn’t hesitate to answer. “It is true that if she is killed, her followers may not stop simply because she is killed. Hunting and killing has given them a taste for power, so another leader will likely emerge to take her place. If killing her would stop this war with other worlds and what she is doing to her own kind, we would have tried to kill her ourselves if we could.

“But she is very powerful, with many who believe in her and do what she tells them. She teaches them that through eating the flesh of intelligent beings, like your kind, they will gain the strength and wisdom of those they eat, making them superior beings. Unlike eating our traditional food of float weed and muscle snails, they find a thrill in the danger involved. It gives some of them the chance to rise to be champions of the kills. Champions gain the favor of the goddess. That means that if she is killed, another would very likely want to take her place.

“Those with me could never succeed in stopping them because they have learned to fight, and they are vicious at it. Those who believe like me that what they do is wrong are not fighters and we don’t have their fighting skills.

“But on the other hand, if she is killed and if her followers are dealt a severe enough blow with many in their ranks killed on their home ground, they may then for the first time fear for their lives, fear for their world, fear for their offspring, and they may go back to the way we have traditionally lived for as long as any of us knows.”

Richard studied Sang’s emotionless face for a moment. “It’s also possible that even if she and a number of her followers are killed, they could still hold to their belief in collecting and hunting other worlds, gather followers and revert to this savage life.”

Sang nodded. “Yes, this is true, and this is why, besides killing the goddess and enough of her followers as only you would be able to do, there is another important aspect to what must be done.”

Richard had thought there had to be more to it. “And what would that additional thing be that would need to be done?”

“The device that allows them to go to other worlds must be destroyed once and for all. If they are denied any possibility of ever hunting other worlds, they could not win over followers, and without followers—believers—they could not continue.”

Richard felt goose bumps ripple up his arms to the nape of his neck. He didn’t like the idea of being an assassin. He remembered telling Zedd once that if he took the sword, he would not be an assassin. Zedd had told him that he could be whatever he wanted to be. Not only the world, but he himself had changed since he’d taken the sword. He now understood that there were times when it was necessary to stop a deadly threat and that killing was often the only way to do that. The difference between him and those he had to stop, like the goddess and the Glee, was that they killed because they wanted to; he killed because it was the only way to survive and prevent killing from continuing.

“I presume you are here, then, to ask me to somehow return to your world and kill the goddess for you along with enough of her followers to discourage them.”

Sang bowed his head. “Yes. You have it exactly right.”

“Let’s just say for the sake of argument that I agreed. So then, if I went to your world and could accomplish such a thing for you, you would then send us back here and you would then destroy the device so it could never be used again?”

“No,” Sang said with a sorrowful shake of his head. “You must also destroy the device with that weapon you carry.”

“How could I possibly destroy a device that I don’t even understand?”

“We cannot destroy the device because there is nothing in my home world that would be powerful enough to harm it.” With a claw, Sang gestured to Richard’s left hip. “I have seen you use that weapon. I have seen it do things that I find hard to believe. I have seen it do things that nothing else could do. We do not have anything like it. I believe it is the only weapon that could destroy the device.”

Richard was feeling a rising sense of dread. “If I were to agree to come to your world and I succeeded in defeating the Golden Goddess and her followers, and then destroyed this device that allows them to go to other worlds, how could I come home, to my world?”

Sang reluctantly shook his head again. “There would be no way. With the device destroyed, you would not be able to return to your world.”