The Gods Awaken

CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO

Rhodes was so intent on his daughter's charge that he didn't notice the airship soar out of the castle grounds. Jooli was sprinting toward his command post, smashing through every defense and cutting down every man that got in her way.

Her shrill war cry ululated up the hill, making his blood run cold. Even though she was still at a great distance, he believed he could see the fury and hate in her eyes. All concentrated on her father.

Running with her, the Kyranian troops were also taking a terrible toll on his men. And although he knew Jooli was only prolonging the inevitable-and his trap would close any second-the ferocity of her attack struck fear into his heart.

Brave though he was, Rhodes was so guilt-ridden by his treatment of his own flesh that for a moment he imagined her hot vengeful blade plunging into his breast.

"Get her! Get her! Get her!" he shouted to his officers.

Panicked by their king's hysteria, they ran around shouting confused orders to their underlings.

Only Tabusir kept his head. He walked quickly but purposefully to Clayre's litter. The spy had a duty to perform that he was looking forward to eagerly.

Clayre saw him coming and smiled a thin smile. Although she not only distrusted Tabusir and disliked him intensely, she'd been worried for some time now that her son was playing her false.

Her mind constantly ran wild with conspiratorial possibilities. Foremost among them was that Rhodes might make a last-minute alliance with her granddaughter, Jooli, and that the two of them would turn against her.

And even if this possibility was only the product of a fevered imagination, what if that was how it turned out? No matter their bitter past history, they were still father and daughter.

If Jooli survived her father's trap and struck a bargain with him Clayre had no illusions about what would happen next. A powerful witch, as well as a superb warrior, Jooli would make certain her grandmother didn't survive the day.

As guilt-ridden as her son over her treatment of Jooli, Clayre became fearfully obsessed with her granddaughter's intentions.

She had to be sure, no matter what the cost.

And so during the storm she'd sent for Tabusir, that most corruptible of corrupt men, and had dazzled him with gold and seductive promises.

Clayre was a beautiful woman and a rich woman who had years of practice in all forms of seduction.

She'd only needed a little gold and a few hot-blooded hints of pleasures to come to convince the spy to join her.

And now she was not disappointed when the moment of Jooli's death neared and Tabusir came to her just as they'd planned.

When she saw him, she quickly turned her thin smile of satisfaction into one of erotic warmth. And she bedazzled him with her beauty as he dropped to his knees and made suitable gestures of loyalty and obedience.

"You are such a pretty fellow," she murmured to him in her most alluring tones. "Kneeling there so handsomely before me you fair make my poor heart leap."

Tabusir knocked his head against the ground, saying, "I am but a man, Majesty. A worshipful man, burning with love for you. If only I dared take you in my arms and kiss you!"

"Soon, my handsome one, soon," Clayre said, only partly lying. "Pray be patient. For I yearn for you as much as you yearn for me."

Then she drew the spy up, looking full into his eyes. Delighting at her effect on him as he seemed to quiver and quake with desire.

She drew a long tube from her bodice and handed it to him. "I've made this for my son," she said.

And he pulled the two halves apart, revealing a sharp dart. Tabusir started to test the point with his finger, but she stopped him, saying, "Don't touch the point, my dear. It's poisoned, you know."

With a brisk intake of breath, Tabusir snatched his fingers away just in time. He glanced down and saw that the needle-point of the dart was smeared with a yellowish paste.

"One prick of the dart will do," Clayre said. She pointed down the hill, where Jooli and the Kyranians were hammering their way through her son's lines.

"If my granddaughter should win through," she said, "there's a good chance she'll try to turn my son against me. If this happens, you only need to get close enough to the king to throw the dart.

"It won't kill him, for, as I told you last night, that is not my desire. But it will immobilize him-freeze his body and his will-until we decide what to do with him."

Tabusir examined the dart closely. Marveling at its handworked design. The Lady Lottyr's face had been carved on one side. And the needle's shaft had been lovingly stropped many times before the poison was applied.

"But what of Queen Jooli?" Tabusir asked. "Even if we remove your son, she'll still be a threat."

"Never mind Jooli," Clayre said. "I have plans to deal with her. It is my son who worries me the most."

Actually, it was Kalasariza€™ presence inside her son that terrified her. The king and the cunning spymaster made a formidable combination. Naturally, she said nothing of this to her new ally.

Smiling, Tabusir leaned close to Clayre, whispering, "I am yours to command, my queen. But might I beg of you one kiss to steel my nerve and send me on my way?"

Clayre thought, Why not? Tabusir really was quite handsome as well as clever. Of course, after he attacked her son, he'd have to be put to death himself for treating a member of the royal family in such a manner. Still, there was no harm in a kiss, was there?

And so she kissed him, full and deep. She was delighted when she felt Tabusir shudder.

But as she gently pushed him away, he whispered, "Here's a gift, Majesty, from your loving son."

And he rammed the poisoned dart into her soft, heaving breast.

Instantly, Clayre become immobilized-freezing into a living statue. Her expression was one of great surprise.

"You see, Majesty," Tabusir said. "After I spoke to you last night, I reported to your son. And he made me a much better offer."

He kissed her immobile face, rudely crushing his lips against hers.

Then Tabusir turned away and strolled off to see how the king was faring against his daughter.

Leiria ground her teeth impatiently as she waited for Rhodes to spring his trap on Jooli. From her hiding place in the rubble of a destroyed farmhouse she watched her friend lead the charge through the castle gates.

Sequestered in other nearby places were fifty Kyranian soldiers, all aching to join the battle.

On either side of her were Renor and Sinch and she heard their gasps of alarm as several enemy soldiers confronted Jooli. Then they sighed in relief when the warrior woman easily cut them down.

"Silence!" Leiria hissed. "You'll give us away!"

Not that she blamed them for displaying their youthful tension. She was damned tense, herself. They'd all crept out into the teeth of the storm several hours before dawn.

Drenched to the bone, buffeted by fierce winds, they'd had to fight a battle with the elements long before they were set to engage Rhodes. In the end they managed to set up a perfect double ambush-finding hiding places on either side of the road that Jooli would use.

And they were well back from the positions Leiria knew the king's soldiers would take when they made themselves ready for Jooli.

She hated to admit it, but the whole thing had been Iraj's idea. A master tactician, Iraj had immediately guessed what Rhodes would do after Lottyr reported back to the king that the Kyranians planned a surprise attack the moment the storm ended.

With Queen Yorlain as her slave, Lottyr had obviously overheard every detail of their planning session in Safar's quarters.

"He'll have a surprise attack of his own planned," Iraj had said, using his own voice. "But we'll be ready for him!"

"With me as bait for the trap?" Jooli had asked, eyes glowing at the prospect.

"Exactly," Iraj had said.

Leiria shuddered at the memory of that odd scene. Iraj's voice issuing from the lips of her lover. It had made her feel filthy all over.

She pushed those thoughts away. This was not the time and place for such weaknesses. But she couldn't help wondering for just a moment if she and Safar would ever have a life together.

Leiria bit her lower lip, using the pain to wipe that question from her mind.

Hells, most likely they'd all be dead by the day's end!

She concentrated on Jooli and her soldiers. Saw them fight their way along the road, leaving dead and wounded men in their wake. Saw the shadowy forms of Rhodesa€™ troops creeping in from every side.

Saw the defiant flag of Rhodes fluttering over his command post far up the hill.

Then, as Jooli and her troops reached the bend in the road, Leiria saw the enemy soldiers leap up on every side of her. She heard them shout shrill battle cries as they closed the trap.

"Now!" Leiria cried.

Drawing her sword she leaped to her feet and gave the signal that triggered Iraj's double trap.

Rhodes gaped like a village fool when he saw Leiria and her men suddenly leap up and attack his men from behind.

"Where the hells did she come from?" he shouted.

But there was no one to answer, for his officers were as stunned as their king to see such a perfect plan foiled.

It was all over in a few moments. There were terrified shrieks of surprise from his own men, mingled with the clash of steel against steel as the Kyranians worked their awful will.

And then the ambush site was reduced to a bloody mess of soldiers groaning their last, while the Kyranians stood around, leaning on their swords and laughing or slapping one another on the back, no doubt saying what clever fellows they all were.

He saw Jooli and Leiria meet, embracing like sisters. Then turning to look up the hill in his direction. He saw Jooli point straight at him and had no doubt about what she was saying to Leiria.

Rhodes turned and caught sight of Tabusir standing nearby, as stunned by the turnabout as everyone else.

"Send for my mother!" Rhodes shouted at the spy, all his fears and anxieties spilling over the cliffs of reason.

Tabusir gawked at him. "But, Majesty," he said, "your mother can't come, remember?"

"What did you do? What did you do?" Rhodes babbled, drawing his sword.

"Only as you asked, Majesty," Tabusir replied, edging backward, trying to get out of the king's range.

But two officers moved in on either side, grabbing him by the arms.

"Please, Majesty!" Tabusir begged, feeling his carefully built world suddenly crumble beneath him. "I only dealt with your mother as she would have dealt with you. I only did what you commanded!"

"Damn you!" Rhodes roared. "How dare you turn my own words against me? I am the king!"

And with one blow he cut off Tabusir's head.

Then he raced to his mother's litter, his men leaping away when the saw the agony in their king's eyes and the bloody sword in his hand.

Clayre was all alone in her litter. Her slaves had already fled, taking with them every valuable they could find in their haste to escape the king's wrath when he learned that his mother had been murdered.

Her silk robes were gone, rent from her frozen body, and she was half naked. Her purse and jewelry were absent. And her magical table was shattered, the gold-tiled pentagram having been ripped from the very wood it had been fixed into.

Even the litter itself hadn't gone unscathed-gilded decorations and jewels had been torn from their settings.

Falling on her and embracing her, Rhodes cried, "I'm so sorry, mother! So sorry! I slew the villain who harmed you!"

But when he felt her stone-like flesh he leaped back, as if she were a leper.

And he shouted: "I need you, mother, more than I have ever needed you before! Please, please help me!"

But the only answer was the startled look frozen upon Clayre's face. And the poisoned dart sticking out of her chest.

Rhodes fell to his knees, weeping.

Inside him, Kalasariz sniffed the blood of failure and rose from his nest like a great white shark shooting out of the sea's cold, dark depths to seek his moment of gory opportunity.

He had the demons, Luka and Fari, crying in his belly, but he was hungry. Oh, so hungry.

And the Lady Lottyr whispered from someplace close: You were right, Kalasariz. The king has failed.

The spymaster said nothing in reply, but only ghosted toward the throbbing souls she was offering him, like pearls set in sweet oyster flesh.

First he gulped down Clayre and, oh, she was good and, oh, she was tasty. He felt the fires in his belly explode with increased power and energy. Then he found the soul of Rhodes, which was still weeping for his mother. And that soul was even more delicious and more power-giving than Clayre's.

He felt strong, so strong. And his mind, which he'd always prized above all things, became all-seeing.

Kalasariz/Rhodes whirled around, bellowing to his men. They fell to their knees before his awful majesty.

And Kalasariz thought, This is good. This is very, very good.

Coming up the hill he saw Coralean riding a huge horse. The caravan master was so immense that his feet dragged along the ground. He had a small woman in his arms. And she held a bundle that Kalasariz couldn't make out.

Marching on either side of Coralean were Leiria and Jooli, their armor sheening under the Demon Moon.

Their troops behind them-Kyranian troops. Eager for the final kill.

And beyond them, hovering over the cone of volcano, Kalasariz could see the fabulous airship floating free. Ready to move in at a moment's notice and bombard King Rhodesa€™ positions.

Kalasariz felt a flicker of disappointment. He'd come so far. Dared so much. But now, on the eve on his ultimate victory, had he already been defeated?

And the Lady Lottyr whispered, I promised you two battles, Kalasariz. And it is only the second onethat truly counts.

Kalasariz felt hope rise like a mighty spear in his fist. And, already knowing the answer, he asked , Whodo we fight?

And the Lady Lottyr replied, Safar Timura and Iraj Protarus. They're waiting for us now at thegates of the Hells!

The spymaster's hunger burned brighter at this prospect. And he said, Let's fight them, then.

But at that moment he heard a cry, coming from far away. It was like that of a newborn infant demanding new life.

He asked, What's that?

The Goddess Lottyr replied, Only a child, Kalasariz. Nothing to worry ourselves about.

But he was worried. And as the whole world shimmered about him, slowly dissolving, he heard the child cry once again.

Then he found himself striding along a broad beach, sword in hand. He heard drums throb and horns blow, then the voices of singing people.

Kalasariz found them dancing naked under towering palm trees, singing praises to a beautiful queen who led them in their dance. Beyond he saw the volcano, black smoke and angry sparks sputtering into the skies.

He knew he was still in Hadin, but it was a different Hadin. The armies and the ships didn't exist here.

Just these dancing people and the volcano that looked as if it were about to blow.

The Lady Lottyr whispered to him, Wait here!

And so he waited, leaning on his sword and watching the people dance. Feeling strong and confident in King Rhodesa€™ body. Powerfully cloaked in the magic radiating from his belly, where his enemies danced a quite different dance than the one that seemed to please the island people.

Kalasariz also didn't need to ask the goddess who they were waiting for.

He knew damned well it was Safar Timura and Iraj Protarus. The spymaster laughed aloud at the prospect.

When Jooli came up the hill, trotting beside Coralean's horse, she was only mildly surprised when her father's soldiers stepped out of the way, bowing to her respectfully.

These men knew her-she'd once been their queen. And if her father finally admitted defeat she'd be their queen once again.

Then she smelled the stink of magic and quickened her pace, moving ahead of Coralean toward a knot of officers gathered around what she knew to be her grandmother's litter.

They were pale and trembling when they saw Jooli, but not out of fear of her. The men parted as she strode forward, Leiria close behind-sword drawn to protect her friend's back.

When Jooli saw what had happened she froze in her tracks. Both her father and her grandmother were dead. Clayre was sprawled in her litter, while Rhodes was slumped on the ground.

One of the officers said, voice trembling, "It wasn't us, Majesty! They did not die at our hands!"

Jooli said nothing, but only shook her head. She knew quite well no mortal had slain this pair.

And then, while she was struggling for an answer, the corpses started to fade and to shimmer with a strange light.

"Get back!" she shouted to the men.

They didn't need her warning and were already scrambling away.

Then the light grew brighter and the corpses became fainter still.

There was a double crack as magical forces split the air-and the bodies were gone!

Jooli turned to Leiria. "It was the Goddess Lottyr who did this," she said, almost in a whisper.

She was keeping a heavy check on her emotions. It was no time to test her feelings about her father and grandmother.

And she added, "But they aren't really dead. Well, not as you and I know death."

"Where are they, then?" Leiria asked.

The ground rumbled beneath them and several soldiers shouted. "The volcano! The volcano!"

Jooli slowly turned, then pointed at the cone-shaped mountain. Thick smoke was boiling forth and lava was flowing down its sides.

"There," she said.

Leiria was bewildered. But then she became even more confused when Coralean called to them in his big voice.

"Eeda wants to speak to you!"

They went to her where she was nestled in her husband's brawny arms, the infant whimpering at her breast.

"Safar has need of us," Eeda said, voice weak but urgent.

"What should we do?" Leiria asked, fear clutching her heart.

Eeda gestured at the volcano. "The airship," she said. "We must get in the airship. It's the only way to save him."

Immediately, Leiria sent a signal for Biner to descend. Meanwhile, Jooli told her father's men to flee as best they could.

"Get back in your ships," she said, "and sail like the hells for Syrapis. I'll meet you there, by and by, and we'll put the kingdom into order."

The men didn't need to be told twice. They ran, shedding armor and weapons and never looking back when another blast shook the volcano.

Leiria gave the Kyranians similar orders. She was only going to keep Renor, Sinch and Sergeant Hamyr with her. The rest were told to get back to the ships and tell the pirate captains to stand far off from the island.

"And if we don't make it," she added, "return to Syrapis and tell our friends what happened here."

Then the airship was down and the others were boarding it.

Leiria ran to join them, praying that this time she wouldn't be too late.