Storyteller

Avalon for Free

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

 

 

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A Gift

 

 

 

 

Avalon, Season Five is humming along for free on the website.  The travelers keep finding new and unusual ways to get in trouble, and there always seem to be new people and creatures following them, or hunting them.

 

 

Now, all for free… that is FREE… The Pilot Episode is available on Smashwords and whatever associate sites (Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Apple, etc) which are willing to make free an option.  Amazon will also match the FREE price, if you complain loud enough that it is already free elsewhere.

 

ALSO… Also… also, The Avalon Prequel, Invasion of Memories, as well as Avalon Seasons One, Two and Three will remain in all outlets at the low price of $1.99 until the new year.  That means a low price for anyone who might enjoy a good e-read for Christmas.

Happy Thanksgiving, and at the risk of setting some people off before the season… Merry Christmas — MGK

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Avalon 5.2 Palace Intrigue, part 5 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

When the travelers reached the place where they thought to find the Kairos, Lincoln began to have second thoughts.  “Maybe we overstepped our bounds,” he said.

Lockhart disagreed.  “Even if we did not kill the servant of the Masters, we ruined the mustard gas production for a good long time, I think.  Now, I suspect the Kairos will be able to track the materials needed for the rebuilding process, and pinpoint who all is involved.  That should be a win.  Of course, if we got the servant of the Masters, that would be a win as well.  I don’t see how our little intervention could be a bad thing.”

“Lockhart.” Boston called from the front.  Lockhart and Lincoln rode to the front and stopped.  They had come to an army camp in the middle of the wilderness.  Katie guessed.

“Hittite,” she said, and a large number of men came out carrying spears and not looking all that friendly.

“Notere,” Lincoln said, quickly.  “We are looking for Notere.”  That at least made the men pause.

“What do you wish with Notere?” one of the front men asked.

“We are old friends,” Lockhart tried, but Lincoln pulled a name out of the database.

“Is General Sapsulinita here?”  The Hittites began to talk among themselves while Lincoln explained, quietly.  “He is Notere’s husband.”

“Good thing you read that,” Decker said.  They thought he meant to praise Lincoln for finding the name of the general, until he added, “Because my tongue would not survive many names like that.”

“Come,” the Hittite speaker said.  “You may speak with Captain Andorinili.”

The captain looked young, but wary, and more so when they said they were old friends.  “She is young as a fresh cut flower,” the captain said.  “She has no old friends.”

Alexis took a chance.  “We have known the Kairos for centuries, though we have not met the Kairos, Notere.  It would be a great kindness if you would take us to her and let her decide.”

The captain’s eyes got big on the word, ’Kairos’.  He hushed the travelers and sent away the guard.  “Follow,” he said, and they walked their horses to a big tent, one worthy of a queen.  The captain stepped inside for a few minutes, and the travelers waited.

“Was that wise?” Lockhart wondered, without pointing at Alexis.  People could only shrug.

The captain came out after a bit and invited them in.  As they stepped into the tent, they heard a woman call out, “Boston.”  Boston ran, but the woman had a two-year-old on her knee.  Notere smiled and handed the boy to a nurse who took the boy out a back door, and she stood and hugged Boston properly.

“Wow,” Boston said.  “You’re my age.”

“I’m twenty-two,” Notere said and turned to hug Artie.

“And beautiful,” Artie said, innocently.

“Sit.” Notere invited her friends to relax and added, “You, too, Captain.”  Andorinili sat to listen, and watch the strangers.

“What have you been up to?” Notere asked, sweetly, and sat, also to listen, but near to the young captain’s hand.

Lockhart confessed.  He talked around Artie saying she had a sleepover.  And he confessed everything they did and how they suspected Huyak and his boys.  He left nothing out, and the others offered no corrections.  But Notere looked horrified.

“What have you done?”  Notere sighed and reached for her captain’s hand, who gladly gave it to her in a sign of support.  She told a story in return, and the travelers listened closely.

“In the first day, Hattusili became king after Labarna.  He was a great king, filled with power and strength.  He conquered the Hurrians, the Hatti, and all the peoples around, but when he came up against the Yamhad, and the city of Aleppo, he was humiliated. He lost his army, and people said he came home to die.  Many wished to rule after that, but finally, his grandson, young Mursili rose to the top.  Though not yet of age, he showed the same spirit as his grandfather.  He quelled the uprisings in the east and west, and thought to avenge his family honor on Aleppo.”

“Mursili succeeded where his grandfather failed so miserably.  He overran the city, and over threw the great men there.  He planned to raze the city to the ground, but the people of Aleppo bought him off with a great weapon of power.  Things got strange after that.  I do not know exactly what influenced him to do some of what he did, except the Masters may have twisted his ear and his thinking.  Mursili got caught up in conquest, but the weapon of power remained unused.  My husband, who was ten at the time, came with the weapon, to care for it.  And he waited.”

“The day came when Mursili found himself far from home, in an unfortunate alliance with the Kassite people, who were at war with mighty Babylon.  Mursili reluctantly entered the war, and fought his way right up to the gates of Babylon, where he prepared himself to turn around and go home.  The spirit of his youthful fervor had left him.  But my husband prevailed upon Mursili to use the weapon, at last.  And he, who wished to see no more bloodshed, agreed, if it would bring things to a swift conclusion.”

“My husband was responsible for lobbing globe after globe of mustard gas into the streets of Babylon.  The population was decimated, and many of those who survived were horribly disfigured and scarred for life.  Mursili was horrified.  He left Babylon to the Kassites and returned home, ashamed of what he had done.  He hardly dared to show his face again in public.”

“Now, at that time, my grandfather was the cup bearer to the king.  That meant he was like second in the kingdom.  He was married to the king’s sister.  He had a daughter, my aunt Arinita, who married a man named Zidanta.  And he had a son, my father.  When Mursili came home, my ambitious uncle, Zidanta arranged to have the king killed.  He then prevailed upon my grandfather to become king, and said, after all, he was married to the king’s sister.  Hattusa of the Hittites stayed at peace then for a time.  My grandfather kept the kingdom and empire together.”

“Eventually, though, being son-in-law of the king was not good enough for Zidanta.  As my grandfather aged, and lost sense of what was happening around him, Zidanta first had my father killed, the legitimate heir to the throne.  Zidanta had my whole family killed, my mother, my brothers and sisters, and he thought to spare only me, for General Sapsulinita., who had now become the chief general in the realm.  It seems the general had been spying on me since I was thirteen, or younger, and now that I was seventeen, the General needed to be appeased.  My family was murdered, and at seventeen, I was forced to marry a man of fifty-five years.  But what Zidanta and my husband do not know is I saved my youngest baby brother, Ammuna, from the massacre.  My brother will come of age in three years, and then I will kill Zidanta with my own hand.”

Notere took a deep breath and squeezed her captain’s hand before she continued.  “I have the suggestion of evidence that my husband was the one who killed my father and my family, even if he was under Zidanta’s orders.  I also have certain knowledge that my husband serves the Masters.  I only await finding out who else is in the loop so I can kill them all at once.  The knowledge of the making of the gas must be removed from the human mind for millennia.  The factory must be no more.”

“I saw the gas turned on the Egyptians, but I, Balor, would not let them destroy Memphis.  Mursili turned it on Babylon, and I do not doubt the plan was to have him turn it also on Assur and Ninevah.  But Mursili would not do the bidding of the Masters, and the plan went bust, for now.  I have no doubt that the complete destruction of Egypt, Babylon and Assyria would change the history of the world in ways too horrible to imagine.”

Notere took another deep breath.  “After the knowledge of that gas is no more, Zidanta the traitor and usurper will be no more.  Sadly, my baby brother Ammuna is not a man of strength and power.  The east and west will mostly rule themselves, even if they pay Ammuna lip service.  The south, the cities on the trade routes, will break free—from Aleppo to Kadesh.  Ugarit on the sea and Carchemish toward the Tigris will rule themselves.  My brother will hold the Hittite land, and the city of Hattusa, but not much more.”

Notere sighed again.  “Then Andor and I will find a nice home and live happily ever after, do you think?”  Notere dropped her face into her hands and began to weep.  Andorinili was right there for her, and the women all crowded around to comfort her.

“I thought she was going to yell at us for interfering,” Decker whispered.

“I thought we screwed everything up,” Lincoln said.

“I expected to get scolded for taking such a risk instead of doing my job of getting everyone home, alive,” Lockhart said.

Elder Stow looked at Decker, Lincoln, and Lockhart and said, “Me too, and I would guess that is what just happened.”

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***** Don’t miss tomorrow’s post for a special announcement *****

Monday

The travelers arrive near the Ganges River in Avalon 5.3, Perseverance.  Varuna’s feared war among the gods may be ready to start… Until then… Happy Reading

Avalon 5.2 Palace Intrigue, part 4 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Artie, Lincoln and Alexis kept the horses.  They had left the open ground where they camped, giving the appearance that they intended to leave by the gate and continue their journey.  Huyak’s wife and daughters even came out to wave good-bye, along with Huyak’s married son, the chief gate guard, who eyed them suspiciously.

“The city has several gates,” Lincoln told them, having looked it up in the database.  “No reason Huyak’s son should expect us to leave the city by the same gate we entered.”

Lockhart understood, and when they crossed the main road bridge, it did appear like they were headed for one of the other gates.  They paused on the other side of the river, at the base of the bridge, where some stalls, no doubt dependent on river traffic, had some items of interest.  But in fact, they were looking to see if perhaps they were being followed or spied upon.

Katie pointed out that sending poor men to slink around the city and spy on enemies for the price of a small loaf of bread or a fish was not unheard of, even as far in the past as they were.  But soon enough, they decided the way was safe, so they cut off the main road and on to the back roads and alleys.

Elder Stow’s scanner pulled up a three-dimensional map of the streets.  It showed a red dot where there were people.  He saved a bright yellow dot for zombies.  “Yellow being the sign of stop, danger.”

“We use red,” Alexis said.  Elder Stow did not understand.  “Humans use red for stop and for danger,” Alexis corrected herself about the ‘we’.

“That is nonsense,” Eder Stow responded.  “Red is not a good color in the dark.  Yellow is a bright color that can be seen, even on the darkest night.”

Alexis shrugged as Boston spoke.  “Humans use red for danger.”

“Homo sapiens do everything backwards,” Elder Stow grumped.  “On my sensible map, red dots are people.  Yellow is reserved for the undead.”

“Some of those red dots may be dangerous,” Decker said, and to their unspoken questions, he said, “Daytime guards.”

Elder Stow guided them to a secluded place in the shadow between two buildings.  The warehouse and manufacturing place could be seen on the other side of a grassy area.  It appeared that the building had an open area all around and was isolated from the rest of the city.

“Ripe for making WMDs,” Decker said.

Lockhart got everyone to turn their horses around so they would be pointed away from the building for a possible quick getaway.  They still did not know what they might find, but they all had begun to strongly suspect gas canisters, probably glass balls like they had a hundred years ago, in Balor’s day, and gas making equipment.

“The formula for mustard gas is not hard,” Boston repeated herself.  “All it takes is for someone to discover it.”

“Sulfur is one thing,” Lockhart said.  “Worse would be if they combined it with charcoal and salt-peter.”

“The Masters try that,” Lincoln admitted.  “Several times throughout history.”

Alexis suggested she and Boston could become invisible and go to the building, unseen.  They could open a window to let the others in, but Lockhart nixed that idea.  He was not risking their healer.  She might be needed.  He said nothing about Boston, because he knew she would come, especially if he said she should stay behind.

“Besides,” he said.  “If the goddess is still around and watching, I don’t imagine you will stay invisible for long.”  Alexis did not argue.

“I could go invisible,” Elder Stow suggested.

“No.  We need you to be ready to put a wall screen up,” Lockhart said.  “Mustard gas is a slow creeper, but if there is gas in there, and it gets free, we should be able to get out, but it will probably be right behind us.  We will need the wall to keep it contained until we can ride free.

So, Artie and Alexis kept the horses, with Lincoln presumably watching over the women, and Elder Stow stayed behind to work on his screen device.

The wall in the building that faced the travelers had no windows.  The other three walls had several.  Decker and Boston crept along one side of the building to a window that would let them into a small room.  The shutters were closed and barred from the inside.  Boston got to pull her wand and magically lift the bar to let them in.  It was an outhouse room, but they held their breath.  Decker thought it smelled worse than the mustard gas, but he didn’t say anything.

Lockhart and Katie crept down the other side of the building.  They had to crawl under one window that was open, before they could get to the small room on their side of the building.  They also found the shutters closed, but not barred.  The hinges, no more than strips of leather, made no sound.  Katie got in easily, but Lockhart got half-way through the window when a man came into the room.  The man immediately shouted, but the shout got drowned out by the sound of Katie’s handgun.  The man collapsed, and Katie and Lockhart took a moment to ready Katie’s rifle and Lockhart’s shotgun.  They pulled back the curtain and Katie pointed her weapon to the left while Lockhart pointed to the right.

On one side, there were tables, equipment, and a very sophisticated looking furnace with a chimney that went straight to the roof.  Great glass and metal vats of various chemicals lined the wall, and several catapult-sized empty glass balls looked ready to be filled with a hand pump.  One man worked there at present.  He looked covered, head to toe, in something like burlap.

On the other side, where the big front doors stood at the actual front of the building, a whole rack of filled glass balls looked ready for shipment.  Katie could hardly guess where they might be used.  She imagined the gas would devastate some walled city, with narrow streets that would trap the gas at ground level, and take a long time to dissipate.  Men, maybe a dozen guards armed with big spears, came into the building from that side.

Decker’s and Boston’s heads peeked out from a curtain on the other side.  Decker fired at the men, so Katie added her fire from the other side.  The guards fell rapidly, though the two did not fire long.  Some of the guards survived by ducking behind the mustard gas glass balls.  Not smart.

The man by the work table picked up a small glass ball, but Boston had her Beretta out and shot the man just before Lockhart blasted him with his shotgun.  The little glass ball fell and broke, and no one doubted what the sickly green gas was that seeped out.

One moment of silence followed, and Decker filled it with his shout.  “Get out.  Grenades.”  Boston’s head disappeared.  Katie and Lockhart ran to the window, and did not stop until they reached the horses.  Decker lobbed one grende toward the work area, and the other toward the balls ready for shipment, balls that were probably already cracked by the bullets.  He dove out of the window, and joined Boston, who deliberately ran slow so Decker could keep up.

They all heard the explosions, one, then the other.  The end of the building facing the group collapsed, and they all imagined the gas seeping out and chasing them down the road.  But they mounted and rode.  Elder Stow never had to activate his screen.

When they reached the gate, they found Huyak’s eldest son there with many guards, prepared to block the way.  Katie, up front, raised her rifle and fired several five-shot bursts of bullets as she rode.  The guards either fell or jumped out of the way of the galloping horses.  The travelers burst into the open, but Huyak’s son had men on the walls.  Fortunately, Elder Stow came at the back of the pack, and he switched on the wall screen as they exited the city.  The men on the walls fired on the travelers, but the arrows bounced off Elder Stows screens.  Then they got in the clear.

“The Kairos?” Lockhart asked.  He knew they would have to confess what they had done before they left that time zone.

“My prototype amulet is no good for that,” Katie said.

“That way,” Boston pointed.  “And he appears to be coming our way.”

“She,” Lincoln said quietly.

Boston and Alexis went out front for the time being.  Lockhart and Lincoln switched places with Katie and Artie so they could bring up the rear while Katie and Artie stayed in the center.  Of course, Decker and Elder Stow still had the wings.

Artie talked as they rode.  “That was exciting, and scary, and dangerous…” she thought of every way she could describe the events, and Katie just smiled.  Lockhart smiled, too, but he tried not to show it.  Lincoln went back to reading in the database.

Avalon 5.2 Palace Intrigue, part 3 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The night stayed quiet until an hour or so before sunrise.  Alexis regularly squinted across the river, and at the footbridge.  Light elves, who could see in daylight far better than humans, did not have the best eyes in the dark; but their ears could not be fooled at any time.  Alexis and Boston heard the shuffling across the bridge, and heard where the shuffling sound stopped.

Boston said she was glad for Elder Stow’s screens, several times

Alexis agreed, but made Boston concentrate on her lessons and learning.

Not long before the sun began to lighten the horizon, Huyak’s sons came out of the house and ran smack into the screens.  They complained, startled at first, before the elder came to the camp to ask about getting out.

“We have jobs to attend,” he said.  “How can we get there?”

Boston told them to wait a second.  She stepped over beside Elder Stow’s tent and looked at the Screen device.  It was linked to an Anazi device, like a battery of some kind that appeared to be keeping the screens charged.  “Clever,” Boston said, and thought it was like a laptop plugged into the wall.  At the end of the night, the screen device would still be fully charged, and it appeared as if the battery thing would charge up again in the sun.

“A-hem,” Alexis cleared her throat.

“Oh.  Right.” Boston said, and turned off the screens.  The young men ran down the road to town, and only then did Boston realize what she had done.  Alexis caught the idea at the same time, and both sets of eyes and ears turned to the river and the footbridge, where they heard a zombie wail.

“Oh, Crap,” Boston said, and tried to turn the screens back on, but suddenly the device seemed dead, drained of all energy.

Alexis sent a fairy light into the sky to light the area.  She pulled out her wand and made circles in the air in front of her.  The wind came, and it was strong enough to blow several zombies off their feet and into the river, but there seemed too many of them.

“It won’t work,” Boston yelled, before she pulled out her wand and sent her own fairy light up toward the footbridge.  Boston merely pointed her wand, and fire poured out of the tip, like a flamethrower, or dragon breath.  The zombies began to burn, but they were slow to stop moving, and with so many on the bridge, they would soon overwhelm the camp.

“Aim for the bridge,” Alexis said.  She touched Boston’s shoulder, and Boston’s flame thrower trebled in power, the fire being stoked by the added air.

Katie got up and grabbed her rifle.  Lockhart grabbed his shotgun and whistled for the horses.  The horses moved away from the flames and bunched up near Huyak’s house.  Katie fired, and her bullet knocked a zombie down, but she had no illusions that it would stay down.  Suddenly, from over her shoulder, Artie fired her weapon.  It made a streak of yellow light in the dark.  It burned zombies as easily as Boston’s flames.

Elder Stow came stumbling out of his tent because of all the noise, and saw the burning bridge, and so many zombies crossing the water.  He ignored his own screen device and pulled his weapon.  He practically cleaned the bridge with his first shot, as his hand weapon dwarfed Artie’s by many orders of magnitude.

Still they came, and Katie heard Hannahannah say, “Go on child.  You can do it.”

Arinna floated out in front of everyone, and said, “Shut your eyes.”  Everyone heard, and at least Katie thought Hannahannah helped make sure everyone had their eyes closed.  The travelers saw a light as bright as the sun, even with their eyes closed, and they felt the heat, besides, but it was only for a moment.

When the travelers reopened their eyes, and managed to look through their teary, spot-filled vision, they saw small piles of ash where the zombies had been.  They saw steam rising from the river, and later, when the sun came up, they saw the burn marks on the building across the way.  Presently, under Alexis’ and Boston’s fairy lights, and a stronger light that they guessed Hannahannah put up, they saw a dark-haired woman appear who in a way looked much like Arinna, though Arinna had medium brown hair.

“Lelwani,” Hannahannah said the woman’s name in a tone of voice that sounded near a scold.  Lelwani whined.

“Not fair.  I never got a sleepover with a friend when I was her age.  Grandmother, Arinna gets everything she wants, and she burned up all my undead guards.  All my hard work.”

Hannahannah ignored the woman and spoke sweetly to Arinna.  “Time to rise, dear.”

“Yes, Grandmother.”  Arinna turned to the travelers.  “It was lovely to meet you all.  Artie, my friend, remember me,” she said, and faded away as the first wisps of light touched the east.

Four people appeared on the grass and looked around.  One, a woman, stepped forward and spoke.  “Lelwani, what have you been doing?  You are over nine hundred-years-old, but you are sounding and acting like a child.”

Lelwani raised her chin.  “Mother.” she called the new arrival.

The travelers recognized the woman, and Lincoln named her.  “Hebat.”

Hebat turned briefly to the travelers and said, “Hello friends.  Has my daughter been bothering you?”

Lelwani’s chin fell.  She did not know these people were friends with her mother.  She returned to her whine.  “Mother, the man of the Masters said these people were dangerous and I should get rid of them.”

“We do not speak to such people, much less do we listen to them.”  Hebat let out a touch of anger.  “You know better.  And these people are surrounded by a hedge of the gods, which you would have seen if you bothered to look.”

Lelwani looked defeated, and something nearer to the truth came out.  “But mother, I have worked so hard, and my land is still so empty.  The gas the masters are making can fill my land.”

“That is not what you should wish for,” Hebat said, as the three who came with her stepped into the light.  One of the gods spoke; the one with the glasses.

“Your land will fill soon enough until you wonder if there will be room to contain them all.  Then you will weep for those whose days are only a breath, and who, like the flowers of the earth, grow in beauty and fade away so fast.”

The travelers recognized at least two out of three.  Boston called to the one who spoke.  “Enki!”  Enki looked and smiled for her, and pushed up his glasses.

“Enlil,” Lincoln named the other god, but only Katie remembered the third, a goddess.

“Shivishwa.  But you are a cathartic goddess, yourself.”

“In my fashion,” the woman answered.  “But here we are named A’as the wise, Ellil of the sky, and I am Sauska, and I have added healing, not just war to my name.”

“Congratulations,” Katie said, not sure if congratulations were in order.

“Mother.”  Lelwani wanted to get their attention back.

“No more.”  Hebat shook her finger.  “You have no business guarding anything, especially for the Masters.  Forcing spirits to take rotting, decaying flesh is cruel.  You were raised better than that.”

“Mother!” Lelwani vanished in a puff of smoke, and Hebat apologized to the travelers before she and her friends vanished, and they took Hannahannah with them.

“So, the sun is coming up,” Decker said in a flat voice, and looked to put something on the fire to burn for breakfast.

“Why did you switch off the screens, and why didn’t you switch them back on?” Elder Stow asked.

“The boys wanted out,” Alexis said, but she got drowned out by Boston.

“They wouldn’t go back on.  They got drained of all their power.”

Elder Stow examined things closely.  “They are working now, and fully charged.”

Artie came up to Katie and Lockhart, with wide eyes and shaking.  “Arinna is a goddess,” she said.

“Yes, dear,” Katie answered and hugged her.

“Goddess of the sun, I would guess,” Lockhart said, and offered a hug of his own before he retrieved his blanket and went into his tent.  Katie and Lockhart said nothing to each other, but neither complained about the night’s sleeping arrangement.

“What?” Boston came up with a question.

“I had a sleepover,” Artie said, happy again.  “That is what Katie called it.”

“And I missed it?”  Boston turned to Alexis.

“You’re not that young,” Alexis said, as she paused to give Lincoln a good-morning kiss.

An hour later, as the temperature began to rise, Decker had another comment.  “I haven’t seen Huyak, his wife or daughters come out of the house.”

People looked, and Elder stow spoke.  “It has been bothering me,” he said.  “Huyak seemed very interested in my things, and asked a lot of questions, which in hindsight, suggests he knew more about things than he said.”

“How could he have known anything at all about your gadgets?” Lockhart asked.

Katie agreed.  “Your equipment should have appeared magical and incomprehensible to someone in this day and age.”

“The sons came conveniently to get the screens turned off before dawn, when two women were the only watchers and everyone else was sleeping,” Boston said.

“Early morning does not prove anything,” Alexis countered.  “Nor does the fact that the zombies were just outside the screens at that point, ready to attack.”

“Suspicious,” Decker said.

“Convenient, as Boston said,” Lockhart did not disagree.  “But all circumstantial evidence.  Coincidence.”

“Well, someone is the man of the Masters,” Lincoln said.

“And making the gas that can fill the land of the dead,” Katie added.  “Mustard gas?  Where was it Balor said they were making the mustard gas in his day?”

“Somewhere up this way,” Lincoln said.

“Maybe we should cross the river and look in the building over there that the Zombies were guarding in the dark of night,” Katie said, as she turned to Lockhart to get his approval.  Lockhart said nothing for the moment and looked at Decker, Lincoln, and Elder Stow, the ones most likely to object to getting involved for one reason or another.  The rest waited quietly.

“It isn’t our job,” Lockhart said.  “Our job is to get back to the twenty-first century, and the Kairos often makes us move on before we get in the middle of whatever is happening.”

“We moved on before we found out what happened to my people,” Artie said.  People looked at her, but she seemed okay with it.  “I trusted Balor,” she said.  “I knew he would do better and more than I could even think to ask.”

Alexis patted her hand.  “Sometimes the Kairos does too much and works too hard.”

“Amphitrite would not let us near the trouble in her day,” Lincoln agreed with Lockhart.

“Not counting the pirates who tried to steal all our things,” Alexis countered with a true elf grin for her husband.

“We should just ride on to get to the next gate,” Lockhart said, as a suggestion, not a decision.

“I say we go look and do what we can,” Decker said.

“Mine is not that kind of scanner,” Eder Stow admitted, as he had been staring at the device for some time.  “I cannot analyze the material they are making inside the building without a sample, but I can tell you, they are definitely manufacturing something.  And I can pinpoint exactly how many and where there are people in and around the building.”

“We go look?” Katie asked.

Lockhart agreed.  “But we need to decide in advance what we will do if they are making the mustard gas.”

Avalon 5.2 Palace Intrigue, part 2 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“Can I see the zombie?” Artie asked, sweetly.  Her eyes were trained on the river where Major Decker shot the one that collapsed back into the water.

Katie raised her eyebrows.  “Teenage curiosity,” she called it.  “Don’t go bloodthirsty on me.”

Artie paused to consider what bloodthirsty meant.  Katie kept her elect senses flared, not only toward the river, but all around the camp, in case the zombies should come from the town, or along the shore in either direction.

Huyak hovered over Elder Stow’s shoulder, having sent his wife, sons and daughters back to the house.  Elder Stow worked on his screen device, preparing to set a particle screen around the camp that the zombies could not pass through.  In order to keep it up all night, though, he needed to charge the batteries, as he said.  He mostly worked with the pieces of equipment he gathered from the crashed Anazi fighter ship in the time zone before the last.  Huyak seemed fascinated.

Katie turned to look at the one girl Huyak left in camp.  She looked to be about Artie’s age of sixteen, and the thought crossed Katie’s mind to wonder why Huyak had not sent her to bed with the others.  The girl spoke to Katie, like she was reading Katie’s mind.

“Oh, I’m not Huyak’s daughter.”  She smiled and sat closer to Artie, as Artie continued her own thought.

“Because I have seen dead people before, but not with my human eyes.  It was different back then.  I wasn’t one of them.”  She turned to the girl and explained.  “I only just found out that death is not the end of everything.  My goddess, Anath-Rama has made a place for me and my people, and I thank her and praise her every day.”

The girl nodded.  “Anath-Rama is very nice, though a generation or two older than I am.”

“I am sure the place is wonderful,” Artie continued, wistfully.  “Edward is with her now.”

“Was he your boyfriend?” the girl asked.

“I’m not sure,” Artie answered, honestly.  “He might have been.  We didn’t get the chance to find out.”

“I’m going to have a boyfriend,” the girl said.  “I just have to figure out who it is going to be.”

“That would be interesting.  I had not thought of that.  Maybe I should get one.”

The girl nodded and looked up at Katie.  “My name is Arinna.”  She immediately looked down, like she got scolded.  Katie said the words after the fact.

“It is not polite to read people’s minds and answer before they have a chance to ask the question.”

“Yes,” Arinna said.  “But that is why I came to see you.  I can’t read your minds very well at all, and I got…curious?”

The hedge of the gods, Katie thought.

“That’s right,” Artie said.  “I can’t read minds at all, but I would be curious.  I am curious about a lot of things, since I became human.”

“What do you mean, became human?”

“I was born an android,” Artie said, with some pride.  “That is what Elder Stow calls us.”

“A machine,” Katie said, to Arinna’s curious face.  The word machine did not help much, either.

“You became human?”

“The goddess, Amphitrite changed me from a machine to a human.  I got like real hair and everything.”

“Wow, I didn’t know the gods could do that.”

“It felt strange, but good, like I was waiting my whole life to become human.  Like I should have been human my whole life.”

“Wow.  That must have taken great skill and ability.  I can’t do anything like that.”

“Can my friend stay with us tonight…mom?” Artie asked, with a hopeful look.

“It would be all right.  My…mom would not mind,” Arinna said, with the same hope written all over her face.

“A sleepover,” Katie said, and to Arinna she added, “And I am not asking who your mom is.”  She paused, a dramatic effect, but she needed a second to imagine this happening some day with her own daughter, and wondered what Dad-Lockhart might say.  “I suppose it would be all right.”

“Yea!” the girls shouted, and held hands, truly more like six-year-olds than sixteen-year-olds.

“Maybe I can help.”  An older woman stepped into the fire light, and Arinna jumped up to hug her.  “Hannahannah,” she called the woman, before she turned and introduced her.  “This is my grandmother.”

“Don’t worry, Katie, I will watch them,” Hannahannah said.  “Come along, Artie.  A growing young girl needs her rest.”  Artie popped up, took Arinna’s hand again, and the two went into the tent, both talking at the same time.  “Not that I expect to get any rest,” Hannahannah added, as she followed them.

“There.”  Elder stow announced, and Katie turned her attention to the Gott-Druk and Huyak.

“And nothing will be able to penetrate these invisible screens?”  Huyak sounded fascinated.

“Correct,” Elder stow said.

“Will I be able to get back to my house?  My wife will be missing me.”

“Of course,” Elder Stow said, and smiled.  “I included your house in the screen area of protection.  You will have to see us if you or your sons want to go out before dawn, but that should not be a problem.”

Huyak nodded and waddled off to his house.  Lockhart came out of his tent and said, “A nice one hour nap and I’m ready to go.”

“Nine o’clock?” Katie asked, surprised.

“You can get some sleep,” he said.

Katie harrumphed, stepped into Lockhart’s tent and stole his blanket, then went to lie down beside the fire.

“What?” he asked.

“Our little girl is having a sleepover,” Katie said, and Lockhart quickly looked at Artie and Katie’s tent.  “The girl’s name is Arinna.”  Lockhart looked again at Katie.  “I would guess she is a young goddess, but I would guess it will be okay.  The girl’s grandmother is with them.”

“Oh, okay,” Lockhart looked once more at the tent.  “If you think it will be okay.”

Katie grinned as she lay down and imagined her and Lockhart having a daughter, and him having that same silly, uncomprehending look on his face.

Lockhart sat quietly, watched Katie sleep, and kept the fire fed.  Elder Stow joined him, and they enjoyed the quiet of the night for over an hour.  When the moon rose, so did the sounds.  They came from the footbridge, and from across the river.  Zombies wailed and moaned, like ghosts in the dark.

“They are protesting, I imagine,” Elder Stow said.

“Yes,” Lockhart agreed.  “But I was thinking, they could only have been raised and activated by one of the gods.  If the god wants them on this side of the river, I can’t imagine your strongest screens will keep them out.”

“You might be surprised,” Elder Stow said.  “According to Yu-Huang, there is almost nothing the gods cannot do, but that does not mean everything is easy.  Some things are easy as breathing.  Some require learning, like learning to ride a bicycle or learning to read.  Young gods and goddesses don’t automatically know how to do everything.  Far from it.  They have to learn, like any children.  And then, some things are like scholarly tomes or higher mathematics.  There are some things that some, maybe many gods will never learn how to do.”

Lockhart slowly nodded, but then he said, “I don’t suppose any screen can prevent a god from appearing wherever he wants.  If he can’t figure out how to get the zombies through your defenses, no reason he could not appear here and simply turn the screens off.”

“If he thinks to do that,” Elder Stow said, but he went back to sit beside his equipment.

When the end of the shift came at midnight, and Decker and Lincoln got up for the wee hours, Elder Stow felt more confident that his screen defense would make it to morning.  He told Lincoln what was necessary and went to bed.

Lockhart looked at the tent he shared with Lincoln, but remembered Katie had his blanket.  He looked once more at the tent where Artie was, and all seemed quiet.  He took a deep breath, and lied down beside Katie.  Katie slung the blanket over him.  He put his arms around her.  Katie wondered in her sleep filled mind why they were not together every night.  Lockhart wondered what he did or said that caused them to separate.  He could not remember.  He didn’t want to be separated.  He loved this woman.  He feared for a moment that he might not be able to sleep for thinking about it, but soon enough he began to breathe long, slow breaths, and Katie snuggled into his arms.

Avalon 5.2 Palace Intrigue, part 1 of 5

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

After 1583 BC Syria, by the Euphrates.  Kairos 61: Notere of the Hittites

Recording…

“Carchemish,” Lincoln announced the name of the town. before he added, “I’m pretty sure.”

“Good to know,” Lockhart said, as he guided the group down a steep path and up to the gate.

Katie rolled her eyes, but Artie spoke.  “Carchemish.”  She got her horse over a rough spot, and continued.  “That reminds me.  I had the strangest dream last night.”  Katie showed she was listening.  “I dreamed I was flying, without a ship or parachute, like a fairy, but without the wings.  Then I started to fall, and it got frightening.  I woke up.”

“I had a flying dream once,” Lincoln said.  “No idea why.”

“Do you know what it means?” Artie looked to Katie, who shook her head.

“Ask the nurse,” she said, and pointed behind her.

Artie turned to face Alexis, but Alexis spoke first while Artie remembered that Alexis had become an elf again, for a time.  She looked the same, but different.

“When I took my nursing courses, I had not been human very long,” Alexis said.  “I thought it was not right for me to be analyzing humans, since my father told me they are all crazy.  I still think he was right, sometimes.”

“I hear that,” Decker mumbled from the back where he and Elder Stow had pulled in to join the column.

“I like flying dreams,” Boston said, and Artie nodded.

“But not the falling part.”

They came to the gate and had to stop.  The gate guards were checking everyone, for something.

“Got anything to declare?” Lockhart whispered, as he got down.  The guards looked up at him, so he added, “How can I help you?”

“Stick out your hands,” the man ordered.  Lockhart did, and the man turned one hand palm up, pressed on the ball of the thumb and watched it push back into place.  He turned the hand over and rubbed the back to see what came off.  Then he looked hard into Lockhart’s eyes to make sure someone was home.  Three other guards checked Lincoln, Katie and Artie.

“You see?” Artie said.  “I’m human.  I have human hands.”  She sounded so happy, but then the young man checking her reached out to squeeze her breast.  He had a big grin, but Artie shouted.  “Hey!”

“Hey,” Katie shouted the same, and Lockhart turned, grabbed the man by the shoulder and threw him to the ground.

“What is this all about?” Lockhart demanded.  The travelers looked angry, and the guards hesitated, not prepared to start a fight in the gate.

The chief guard gave his young man a hard look before answering.  “We have had dead people getting up and walking around.”  He said that with a straight face.  “I saw one.  There is nothing behind the eyes, and they fall apart in the hands and feet.  I’m not likely to make you take your shoes off.”

“Zombies,” Alexis said.

The walking dead,” Boston corrected her.

“Lelwani is angry,” one of the guards said, and nodded.

The chief guard looked at the four not checked, the two women, who wore glamours to appear like ordinary humans, the Gott-Druk, who also disguised himself with an illusion, and the big African who looked ready to growl.  The chief guard could not see through the illusion, but he saw something.

“These are clean,” he announced, and the other guards backed off.  “So, what is your business in Allepo?”

“Darn,” Lincoln interrupted.  “I was close,” he insisted.

“Trade,” Lockhart said.  “And a chance to sleep the night out of the wilderness.  We will see how good your hospitality is.”

The guard nodded.  They were on the main trade route.  “Go down this way to the square and ask for a man named Huyak.  He will know where you can room, or set your tents if you would rather.”

“Thank you,” Lockhart said, and the travelers walked their horses into the city to the sound of Artie’s voice.

“How can dead people walk around?”

“Very powerful magic,” Alexis said.  “Or in this age, a cathartic god with an agenda, or one that is being lazy.”

“She,” Katie said.  “Lelwani is a goddess of the dead.”

“I wonder if she is friends with Anath-Rama,” Boston asked.  They did not know, but Artie smiled at the mention of her own, personal goddess.

Huyak turned out to be an old man who solved one riddle right away.  “My eldest son sent you from the gate,” he said.  He took them to an open field beside the river and beside his own house where they could pitch their tents and light a fire.  The place for the fire was already marked out with a circle of big stones.  “You are here to trade, but you have no wagons or camels and donkeys to carry your goods.”  He sounded curious.

“Decker,” Lockhart said, but Decker had already started to unwrap the deer tied to the back of his horse.  The man stroked his beard and called for two others.  The travelers guessed he had more sons.

“And in return?”

“A chance to stay here for a couple of nights, undisturbed.”  They would likely move on in the morning, but it was better to have some wiggle room, and not specify exactly what a couple of nights amounted to.

“And some vegetables,” Alexis spoke up.  “And not all onions.”  She turned to Boston.  “I would kill for some greens.”

“I believe we have a bargain,” Huyak said, and he waved to the boys to pick up the beast.  They had a wagon handy, and hauled it off to disappear down the street.  “You camp, and I will be back with things to eat, and my own brew.  It is very good.”

“Good thing,” Katie said.  “I am beginning to mistrust the water.”

As soon as Huyak got out of sight, Decker and Elder Stow got the other deer down from the back of Elder Stow’s horse.  They took a moment to set their tents in a circle around the fireplace; not that they needed the fire for warmth, but it was safer to watch each other and not spread out too far.  That did not take long.  The tents were balls of fairy weave that set themselves up on voice command.  Alexis set up a tent for her and Boston, without having to speak out loud to get it to take shape.  She began to teach Boston how to do that.

They had wood in satchels on other horses, and Boston started the fire.  Her magic was fire based, so it was easy for her.  Then they tended the horses and let them wander down to the river, to drink.  By the time Huyak returned, Alexis and Katie had deer roasting and hot water ready for tea.  They used a little hot water for bread crackers, which became loaves of bread.  They shared some with Huyak and his sons when they returned from the market, and eventually with Huyak’s whole household, and Huyak kept them well supplied in fruits and vegetables, such as he had, and beer that Lincoln said was not terrible.

As the sun set, a ghostly wail came up from the river.  “They are out tonight,” Huyak said, and his eyes went to the rickety wooden footbridge someone had built across the slow-moving water.  “They stay on the other side around the place where the ground stinks of garlic.  They appear to avoid the water.”

“That would make them decay and fall apart faster,” Alexis said, and Artie looked at her with questions on her face.  “Zombies, sweetheart.”  Artie shivered, as did Boston and Lincoln.

“So, we should be safe in this side of the river.” Lincoln said, but it was honestly a question.

“I didn’t say that,” Huyak said, as his wife, two sons and two daughters came from the house to hear what stories these strangers might have to tell.  Storytelling was once the height of the entertainment business.  Sadly, like getting an important phone call during the last few minutes of a television movie, sometimes life got in the way.

They heard gunfire, and the locals jumped. Decker had pulled the trigger.  They heard a body plop back into the river.  “I wouldn’t have shot, but his left arm was nothing but bone.”

“Oh,” Lockhart said.  “Watch tonight.  Katie and Artie first.  Elder Stow, you are with me.  Decker, you get Lincoln…”

“Boston and I will take sunrise,” Alexis agreed, and then squinted because it appeared Huyak now had three daughters instead of two.

Avalon 5.1 Sirens Are for Emergencies, part 6 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Thalia, Alesandros and the travelers could not get Mother Evadne to calm down and speak.  Fortunately, old Mother Delphine came in, neither running nor screaming, and she explained.

“Lord Andipas and his Akoshian sailors came just before dawn.  They locked us in the orphanage, and scared the children, terribly.  They hitched the mule to the wagon and filled it with things taken from the barn.  They went into the temple and brought some more things, but they did not get the horses.  I believe they were afraid of the big horses.  But they left for the village when the light of Apollo first touched the horizon.”

Everything belonging to the travelers got taken from the temple, except Boston’s blanket, which they must have missed.  The travelers rushed outside, and found the horses grazing peacefully on the spring grass fed by the rain.  They called, and the horses trotted right up.

“We have to go after them,” Katie said to Lockhart, who nodded and held his head, like he was getting a headache in the sunlight.

“Bareback?” Lincoln did not object too loud.

“It is what we got,” Decker said, as he shouldered his rifle and helped Elder Stow mount without stirrups to place his feet.  Lincoln helped Alexis, and then climbed up on Cortez, who stayed remarkably patient for a horse.  Rodeo Boston jumped right up, no problem, and held her hand down to pull Thalia up behind her.  Decker almost fell getting Alesandros up behind him, but then they started down the hill toward the village.  Boston and Katie rode out front, and the other horses followed, which was a good thing since none of them had reins to direct the horses.

They stopped their slow progress when they got to the bay.  They saw men working on the small dock that got torn up in the storm tide.  They saw that the fishing boats had mostly gone to sea.  They also saw the Akoshians had managed to get to their big boat, anchored off shore, and at least Decker cursed.  No doubt, they had all the traveler’s things, and they looked ready to set out.

The Akoshians saw them dismount and stand there, staring, wondering what to do.  The Akoshian Captain’s man shouted to them.  “Lord Andipas laughs in your faces.  He has all of your things of magic and he will become greatness on Akoshia.  He has your bread makers, and he knows how to make the magic.  You are now small.”  He laughed, but apparently had to get to an oar.  They did not get far.

Amphitrite appeared floating above the bow, twenty feet tall, hands still on hips, foot still tapping, and making a tap-tap sound though she was standing on air.  The ship stopped when the oars all disappeared and reappeared on the shore, and Amphitrite spoke in a way that convinced everyone that the anger of the gods would be a terrible, frightening thing.

“You stole from my friends,” Amphitrite said, and all of the travelers things appeared in their proper places.  The horses were saddled with bit and reins.  The packs were all tied on perfectly with all their things neatly packed away.  The side packs they carried reappeared on the side of the people, and suddenly Lockhart’s head did not hurt, though he did not know if that happened because she did something to sober him up, or his fear in the face of an angry god did that all on its own.

“You stole from my people.”  The dock miraculously repaired itself while everything in the ship that was not tied down—sails, ropes, buckets and brooms appeared, stacked in a great stack on the dock.

“You frightened my mothers and children half to death,” Amphitrite yelled, risked a few heart-attacks, and everything else, mostly food and the very clothes from the sailors backs vanished and no doubt appeared at the orphanage.

“Most of all.”  She stopped yelling, and spoke in cold, clear tones that felt much worse than the yelling.  The travelers could hear the sailors wailing for mercy.  “You desecrated my temple and insulted me, and I take that personally.”  The ship that floated at the mercy of the waves, with no means to move otherwise, full of stark naked men, vanished, though Amphitrite finished her thought.  “You should learn respect.”

The travelers caught a glimpse of the island of the sirens, so they could have some men of their own, however briefly.

Amphitrite turned to the travelers and smiled, and it felt like the sun just came out.  She made a translucent, golden ball around herself and floated slowly toward the travelers, shrinking as she came so when her feet touched down on shore, she was back to her normal height.  The bubble burst, and she said, “I always wanted to do the good witch of the north, but no one in this age would have understood it.”  She smiled again.

Boston shuffled her feet and looked down at her shoes until Amphitrite opened her arms and yelled, “Boston.”  The elf flew into the hug.  After which she turned to Lincoln and said yes before he asked if she was Amphitrite.  Then she walked around the group and examined them carefully.  Finally, she spoke again.

“I heard Boston’s prayer.  I checked with Alexis and Lincoln, and apologize for violating your minds and hearts, and privacy; but here is what I have decided.  It will only be temporary, but for now…” she touched Alexis, and Alexis became the elf she had been when she was born.  She looked to Lincoln to be the same age she was when he first met her, and just as beautiful.  Alexis bent toward him, and he touched her pointy ears to see that they were real.

“See?” Alexis grinned.  “You did not even have to pay me a dollar this time to do that.”

Lincoln smiled at the memory, and Alexis grabbed him.  He grabbed her right back, and they kissed in a way that made Katie look at Lockhart and Thalia sigh.  Then Alexis went to stand beside Boston, and took her hand.  Alexis still looked twenty-six or twenty-seven, and that made Boston look like she was; like someone just out of her teen years.

“Hey, you’re breaking up the combo.”  Everyone heard the woman’s voice and watched as she walked up to stand beside Amphitrite.  For the men, watching the woman walk felt worse than the sirens, but this time, the women did not respond with jealous, protective eyes.  All they longed for was a touch of whatever the woman had.

“Just temporary,” Amphitrite said, and turned to Elder Stow.  “Artie?” she asked.  Elder Stow glanced at Katie, but he knew he would have to tell the absolute truth.

“She has developed a small gap in her flesh—miniscule, but she is taking on water in the rain.  It might kill her to cross a river.  I don’t know.”

Amphitrite folded her arms and put a finger to her temple.  “Of course, I can fix it, but I think I would like to try something else first.”  She waved her finger and Artie changed.  It looked like a much more complicated and extensive change.  “This may also be only temporary, but there is much to learn on the road.  I call this the Pinocchio solution.”  She stood back, and the woman beside her eyed the change and added her comment.

“I like it.  I can work with this one.”

“That is not what I made her for,” Amphitrite said.

The woman looked at Decker.  “And you are still on my list.”  The woman squinted, and pointed a sharp finger at Decker.

“Aphrodite,” Decker named the woman.  “Please, no,” he said, and Aphrodite laughed.

“What happened to me?” Artie said.  “I feel so different.  Wow.  Wow…” that was all she could say for a while.  Katie hugged her and Amphitrite spoke.

“As an android, she may have been six-years-old, but as a human, she is sixteen.  Katie.  You need to be like her mother.  Lockhart.  You need to be like her father.  End of discussion.”

Aphrodite whispered to Amphitrite, “Good job.”

Elder Stow smiled.  “They are the mother and father of the group.”

Aphrodite did not understand, but Amphitrite returned the whisper.  “I’ll explain it later.”

“I’m a real girl,” Artie said the inevitable line, and everyone congratulated her.

“Now, what?” Aphrodite turned to Amphitrite and asked what she wanted.

“I need your help,” Amphitrite admitted.

This time, Aphrodite put her hands on her hips and gave Amphitrite a hard stare as she spoke.  “Are you asking as my Aunt Amphitrite, Queen of the sea, or just between friends.”

“Just Trite to Dite,” Amphitrite said, pensively.

Aphrodite continued her hard stare for a few seconds before she laughed out loud, a most glorious sound.  “I love it when she says that.”

“People,” Amphitrite clapped her hands to regain everyone’s attention.  “Get mounted and ready to ride.  Sadly, this is not a good time for a visit, as I said.  In fact, it may not be safe for you to be here at all right now.”  Amphitrite gave Thalia another sisterly kiss and flipped her hand.  Thalia and Alesandros disappeared, and presumably reappeared back in the temple, overlooking the sea.

Aphrodite sighed to see them go.  “That recipe turned out great, and I hardly had to do a thing.” she sighed.

“Here is the scoop, everyone.”  Amphitrite added the last to regain Aphrodite’s attention.  Then she paused to think, and lifted herself up about five feet in the air, before she spoke.  “In simplest terms, our sun and earth formed about five billion years ago.  However, the first stars and planets in the universe formed about ten billion years ago.  After five billion years, human civilization reached the point that you are all familiar with.  Likewise, after five billion years, the people on that first planet reached a comparable level of civilization, only now they have had an additional five billion years to progress, or evolve if you insist.  No, in your wildest imagination, you cannot even imagine what they are capable of.  And no, Lincoln.”  She stayed Lincoln’s hand from his pocket in which he carried the database.  “You will not find information to read in the database.  There may be a few cryptic notes, but that is all.”

“What are they planning.”

“They don’t plan.  They don’t do things the way you and I do things.  I can’t explain. They will be rearranging the nature of creation.”

“Can they do that?” Katie asked.

“What do you need me for?” Aphrodite asked.  “I’m not sure I want to go there.”

“It will be all right,” Amphitrite said, and the travelers vanished to reappear in some totally new location.  Even the horses, who had done that before, hardly batted an eye.”

“Boston?” Lockhart called from the front, where he landed next to Lincoln.  Katie and Artie rode in the middle, while Alexis and Boston brought up the rear.  Decker and Elder Stow still had the sides.

“It looks like the time gate is right in front of us,” Boston shouted back.  Lockhart looked at Katie who nodded and held up her amulet.  It glowed green.

“We best go,” Lockhart said and let his horse walk through the gate.

“Wow.  I never felt excitement like this before,” Artie said as she and Katie came next.  Artie would say that sort of thing often over the next few weeks.

Decker and Elder Stow squeezed in to follow, Decker still worried, thinking about what it meant to be on Aphrodite’s list.

“Tell me more about Mirroway and Elfhome,” Boston asked, sounding almost child-like.  Alexis remembered a particularly juicy experience she had as a young elf.  Her head nodded, but as they were the last through the gate, she grinned a true elfish grin.

************************

Monday

The travelers from Avalon stick their nose where it doesn’t belong in episode 5.2, Palace Intrigue

Don’t miss it, and Happy Reading.

Avalon 5.1 Sirens Are for Emergencies, part 5 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

The early spring rain stopped pelting the earth with life-giving water, though the bubbling brooks, streams and rivers would run high and swift for a time.  The wind stopped shaking the trees and crashing the sea against the cliffs in great angry-sounding roars.  At the higher altitudes, the clouds cleared off to reveal the thousand-million stars of the heavens, but at ground level, the earth and sea becalmed, like a child falling into a quiet and restful sleep after the tantrum is done.  The earth, all asleep, knew a few hours of peace.

Sometime after four, when the Artemis moon rose over the western hills, a thin mist rose from the sea to cover the land like a blanket.  Four men in the temple awoke, though they said nothing in the dark.  The priest Alesandros continued to sleep peacefully next to the Priestess Thalia, his wife, but the rest quietly rose to their feet and stumbled out into the dark.  No one was there to notice Decker and Elder Stow, unless their dreams appreciated the quiet at the end of the snoring.  Alexis might have turned to her side, but she was no stranger to Lincoln getting up in the night to use the bathroom.  Katie, already tied more to Lockhart than she knew, mumbled briefly when Lockhart left the building.  That woke Artie, who felt better, her energy returned after her illness earlier in the evening.

Artie listened to the silence.  She thought about her people trapped in mindless slavery to the Anazi.  She understood, she would not even have a people, and she herself would not even exist if the Anazi had not built them to fight the alien blobs.  The Anazi, in a way, were her creator gods.  But as Elder Stow explained it, androids were not robots with sophisticated programming.  If built right, to rightly be called androids, they will, at some point, become self-aware, which is the hallmark of intelligent life.  In order to keep such androids bound or suppressed, then becomes an ethical issue.  Such oppression can be called cruelty.  Elder Stow said that was why species more advanced than the Anazi did not bother building androids, even if they could build them infinitely better than Artie… no offence.  Artie was not offended.  She just wanted help to set her people free.

“Benjamin,” Artie heard Alexis call out softly for Lincoln.  Alexis and Lincoln were given a bite of the apple of youth at the beginning of their journey, so they became like late twenty-year-olds who could withstand the rigors of their journey through time—and Lockhart also ate from the apple.  But that did not change the fact that Alexis and Lincoln had been married for over thirty years.  Alexis did not wake when Lincoln got up in the night to use the bathroom.  He did that often enough after they turned sixty.  But when he did not come back, she woke up, worried.

“Benjamin,” she called out a little louder, though still reluctant to wake the others.  She prepared to get up herself to see where he might be when she heard Artie answer.

“He left the building.  I don’t know why.  All the men did.”

“What?” Katie sat up, and her word was not softly spoken.

“They left the building.  They all did.”

“I saw them too,” the fairy spoke from the altar.

Boston, who stirred when Alexis called, came wide awake on Katie’s shout.  She got up to check and report.  “Lockhart, Decker and Elder Stow are not here.  And look, Elder Stow left his bag of equipment.”  She lifted something in the dark.  “And Decker left his rifle.”

Katie jumped right up.  “Okay,” she yelled.  “Everybody up.  Decker would never go anywhere without his rifle.  Something is seriously wrong.”

“What is it?” a sleepy Thalia asked.  She shook Alesandros who had a hard time rubbing the sleepies out of his eyes.

“Light,” Katie called, and Alesandros stumbled to light a torch out of the brazier where the coals were still red.  Alexis put up a fairy light, and it lit the front of the temple like an overhead sixty-watt bulb.

“They all left together,” Artie said.  “I did not know what to make of it.”

“I might,” Thalia said, as she came awake and appeared to sniff the air.  She looked at Alesandros, but he sniffed and shrugged.

“I don’t smell anything.”

“I do,” Alexis said.  “I smell lavender, pine, and maybe meth-amphetamines

Thalia pursed her lips.  “Come.  We must hurry.”  She headed for the door, Alesandros on her tail, and Lilac the fairy rushing to her shoulder.  Alexis came right behind, having grabbed her bag with the medical kit.  Boston, Katie and Artie followed, all armed, not knowing what they might face.  Artie had her Anazi handheld weapon, though she learned from Elder Stow and kept it for emergencies.  Katie had her rifle, and Boston carried Decker’s Rifle.  Boston might have been an electronic and technological whiz kid, but she was raised a Massachusetts redneck.  There are such things.  She not only rode rodeo, she hunted, mostly with her father and brothers, including at least one trip to Canada where she hunted bear.  Decker’s rifle might be a sophisticated, super advanced military rifle, like Katie’s, but Boston knew how to point and shoot very well.  Being an elf did not change that.

Thalia and Alesandros brought the women to where the grassy meadow met the rocky side of the hill.  They climbed right in to a small cave there, and made fairy lights to light the way.  Lilac sent her fairy light out front, Alexis raised hers to shine from overhead, and Boston made one and let it trail from behind.  She did not want something unknown to creep up on them from the rear.

The small cave quickly opened-up into a broad and tall cavern, which looked like a crack in the earth.  It made something like a giant staircase of boulders they could slowly climb down toward the sea.

“This ends in a grotto in the cliffside, facing the bay.” Alesandros said.

“Hush,” Katie scolded him.  “We are not here for a guided tour.  It would be best if whoever is down there did not know we are coming.”

Alesandros put out his torch so he could use both hands and help Thalia as they labored slowly down the rocks to get to the bottom.  Boston found her balance and agility greatly enhanced as an elf, but she yawned several times, being a light elf, and it was still night in the outside world.  Katie, an elect, had no trouble at all.  Alesandros and Thalia appear to have been down here before and knew where to step.  Alexis was the slow one, though she stayed right with Alesandros and Thalia, and Artie lost her footing a couple of times, but Katie was right there to catch her.

When they got to the bottom, the women all heard the song, sweet, sad, and literally enchanting.  To the men, it had been irresistible.  The women resisted it, but some eyes turned to Alesandros.  He tried to whisper.

“Amphitrite immunized me, and the people in the village.  She told the sirens if they started interfering with the normal course of life along this coast, they would be in big trouble.”

Katie nodded, and the group broke into the cavern which was lit from overhead like light from several chandeliers.  “We having fun?” Katie asked, and she looked to be sure the men had not been harmed.  The men were slow to respond, but the sirens noticed the intruders right away.  They probably knew they were coming, but did nothing, thinking their intrusion would be inconsequential.

The five sirens, women, beautiful almost to the point of hurting the eyes, and with their wings, looked angelic.  Boston recognized them as lesser goddesses.  She smelled the river god, and maybe the earth in them.  That would account for their draw to the water and their bird-wings, not to say that there was no such thing as sea birds.  Seagulls, though, they were not.  They felt more like vultures.

“Katie,” Lockhart finally noticed.  “We found these angels.  I was coming to get you in a moment.”  He took a handful of grapes and enjoyed them.

“Silenus come by?  Maybe Pan himself?” Alexis asked.  “I can smell the fermented grapes from here.”

“Bacchus, and maybe Dionysus,” Katie said, softly.

“No,” one of the sirens said.  “We got them for our guests.”

“But we are on a journey, and we need the men to take us there,” Artie said, innocently.

“I know,” one of the sirens said, and stuck her head up from beside Lincoln who looked to be lounging on a bed of straw.  “Benjamin has told me some of your wonderful adventures.”

“My Benjamin,” Alexis said.  “He sometimes says things he should not say.”

“If you have heard,” Katie said.  “Then you know we are travelers from Avalon and belong to the Kairos.  The hedge of the gods has been placed around us and around all of our things.”

One of the sirens lifted herself with her wings and came to a soft landing in front of the other sirens in order to face the women.  “I know,” she said, and her hands became claws and scratched at the air.

“I am sure you would not want to anger the gods,” Boston said.

“Oh no,” one of the sirens in the back spoke up.  “Cousin Medusa once angered Apollo, and he gave her snakes for hair.  Now any mortal that sees her, she turns to stone so her face is the last thing they ever see.”

“She hides herself in a cave and cries all the time,” another said.

Thalia found the courage to step forward and speak.  “You know our lady, Amphitrite, has said you must not interfere with the men of the coast, or any of the Akoshian merchants who come to trade here.”

“But these are not men of the coast, or Akoshian merchants,” the siren said.  “They should be fair game.  We did not know they were hedged about by the gods…”

“Until you tried to eat them?” Katie asked.

“What?  No.  Never,” the sirens protested, but it got drowned out by a crack of thunder in the room.  Amphitrite appeared, frowning, hands on hips, tapping her foot on the rock.

“If you knew they were hedged by the gods and not yours to have, you should have let them go right away.”

The one in front had hands again instead of claws.  “But majesty,” she protested.  “We have no men of our own.”

“No man will have us,” one siren said from the back.

“Black widow spiders,” Amphitrite mumbled, before she spoke plainly.  “All the same, playtime is over.  The storm is passed, for the present.  You can return to the sky and go to your own island now.”

The sirens stood and turned away from everyone.  They looked like scolded children, but put up no argument.  “Good-bye,” they said.  The one at the back even said, “Good-bye, Thalia.”

“Good-bye Meliope,” Thalia returned the word.

Amphitrite turned toward the women and said what the Kairos so often said.  “You came at a bad time.”  She raised her hand, and everyone reappeared in the temple to see the sun had already come up.  While the men shook their heads and struggled to come out of their drunken stupor, Amphitrite stepped to the window.  The curtains pulled themselves back so she could gaze out on the sea.  Thalia stepped up beside her.

The women, at least, watched the two together.  Thalia was a mature woman, not many years from the beginning of old age.  Amphitrite looked to be about twenty-four, at the most, and would likely stay that age until she moved on to her next life.  Yet, no one doubted that the two had been close friends when they were young, and in real terms, the same age.  They watched the sun and the sea side by side, and then kissed like the best of sisters before Amphitrite vanished.

One of the mothers from the orphanage, dressed surprisingly like a nun, raced into the temple screaming, “Thieves.  Thieves.”

Avalon 5.1 Sirens Are for Emergencies, part 4 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“Thalia,” Alesandros called from the entrance to the temple.

“Here,” a woman called back from the front of the great room, though no one could see her.

“We have company,” Alesandros said, and led the travelers toward the front.

Though it may have been as big, the temple hardly looked like some cathedral on the inside, since the inside was filed with regularly spaced roof support posts, that Katie called “Aeolian Columns.”  She said, “It is the only way to build such a big open space, though it makes the space appear not so big and open.”

When they got to the front, they found a woman of about thirty-five years or so, who was just beginning to become plump as some women did when they got older. Age was hard for the twenty-first century people to judge, because before the twentieth century, people aged more rapidly, and showed it.  The woman welcomed them, as Alesandros stepped up and gave her a quick kiss.

“I found these people in the village.  They are not like any I have ever seen or heard of, but they seem to know the lady, and I get the impression they may even be friends with her.”

The travelers were busy taking in the view.  The cathedral had a sacristy, set apart by a railing.  Most of the space was taken by a long table filled with bread, fish and flowers.  They could smell the fish.  Off to the left was a stone statue which Katie claimed was remarkable for the time-period.  The statue was of a most beautiful and noble woman who appeared to be walking on the sea.  Her right hand was lowered to pet the head of a rising dolphin.  In her left arm, she held a baby, wrapped in a blanket and close to her breast.  Over her left shoulder, a fairy fluttered, with a look on her face that said, ‘this is fun’.

Lincoln was especially taken by what he saw behind the altar.  It appeared a narrow opening that covered the whole back wall, like the biggest picture window, except without glass.  Obviously, a roof overhang protected the temple floor from the rain, but the window without glass showed the rain in all its fury.  Great strokes of lightning flashed over the sea and across the sky to light up the night.

“Nice view,” he mumbled.

“Yes,” Thalia responded, as Alesandros went to pull the curtains.  He helped the travelers set out places to sleep while Thalia continued.  “It is a small way down to the cliffs that overlook the bay and the sea.  On a clear day, I can see for miles.  I sometimes come and sit here, and look out on the sea for hours and hours.  I never knew the beauty and wonder of it all until I became friends with Amphitrite.”

“Thalia and Amphitrite are best friends, since they were young.” Alesandros said.

“On Akalantas,” Lincoln said, and Thalia stared at him.

“Yes, how did you know?”

Alexis answered.  “My husband keeps the database and reads it when we are not looking.”

“Lovely table,” Boston interrupted.  She felt something warm to look at it, knowing that all these gifts were offered to the Kairos, in a sense, and now that she had become an elf, that was her goddess, too.

“Altar,” Katie corrected her.

“Of course,” Thalia acted like she was forgetting her manners.  “If you are hungry, please take what you wish.  Some of the bread is very good.  Our lady would not wish any to go hungry.”

“We ate in the meeting house,” Alesandros said, giving Thalia another quick kiss.

“Don’t people object to taking the food offered to the goddess?” Katie asked.

“Not here,” Thalia said, with a big smile.  “We do not waste the offerings.  In the morning, the mothers will come and give thanks, and the food will go to feed the children.  Besides, after too long, the fish starts to stink, so it all works out well.  A few people collect and bring offerings every day.  We gather the village here about every fifteen days, and some come from other villages to join us.  We get people here from the cities up the coast every season, and we have seasonal celebrations…”

“And we get to share the love of our great lady,” Alesandros added, and this time, she kissed him.

“Too bad the children can’t eat the flowers,” Artie said, wistfully.

“Yes, well, some are not suited for hunting or fishing, or for baking bread,” Thalia knitted her brows for one minute before she called.  “Lilac, come here and meet our friends.”

“Yes, Lady,” the travelers heard a sweet voice before they saw a beautiful young woman of about eighteen years at most, step out from a dark corner where apparently, no one looked.  At least Alexis felt that was what they were supposed to think.  Alexis felt suspicious, and it got confirmed when Boston stepped up and spoke.

“Hello fairy.”

“Hello elf,” the young girl responded.

“My name is Boston.”

“My name is Lilac.”

“You can get little if you want.  My friends won’t hurt you,” Boston said, and removed her glamour to show herself, pointed ears and all.  “See?”

Lilac glanced at Thalia who closed her mouth and gave a slight nod.  Lilac immediately returned to fairy size, and fluttering her wings, came right up to Boston to commiserate on nothing in particular.

“I see you have your own little one to worry about,” Thalia said with a look on her face that said she was not unhappy about it.  “Mine keeps me young and is my heart.”

Elder Stow interrupted before anyone else could respond.  “My mother. My father.  I have worn my glamour faithfully for a long time.  It is as you said, I mostly forget it is even there.  But it would be a great kindness to me if I could take it off, just for this night.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Katie said, and with a brief look at Thalia, and Alesandros, who came up to slip his arm over his wife’s shoulders, she looked at Lockhart.

Lockhart looked unsure.

Elder Stow said, “I am sure I would sleep better, and maybe not snore so much.”

Katie shrugged and Lockhart nodded.  “Only if Thalia and Alesandros don’t object.  If they are uncomfortable, you must put it right back on.”

Elder Stow nodded, and to their credit, only Thalia made any noise, and it was a little gasp.

“He is not an elf or dark one or any spiritual creature I have seen.”

“He is an old one.” Katie said.  “One of the ancient races that lived in this land before the flood

“I really am a very nice fellow,” Elder Stow said.  “That is what young Boston says.”

“I’m only about a hundred and ten, elf years old,” Boston admitted.

“Miss Lilac is just over a hundred herself,” Thalia said.

“I just barely qualify to be called Miss Lilac,” Lilac said, sounding more like a ten-year-old than one who looked eighteen in her big size.  Lilac settled down to sit on Thalia’s shoulder, a place she was obviously accustomed to.

“One elf and one old one makes me wonder what other wonders you have to share,” Alesandros said.  He smiled, like he was enjoying the show.

Alexis shook her head, but Boston spoke.  “Just one.  Elder Stow, we have to give Artie a check in all this rain.”  Artie looked up, but she had been quiet all through supper, on the road to the orphanage, and now in the temple, where normally she would have been in the midst of it all, asking questions.  She did not appear to have the gumption to protest as Elder Stow nodded and rummaged through his pack.

“I don’t feel well,” Artie said.  “Is that the right way to say it?  I don’t feel well.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Alexis said, as Katie sat down beside the android.  Alexis looked like she wished there was something she could do.  Her healing magic worked fine for wounds and broken bones.  She could pull poison and infection right out of the body, but she was not as effective on illnesses, and in Artie’s case, Alexis felt powerless.  She could not heal wiring.

Elder Stow sat and placed a disc against Artie’s head.  Artie voluntarily closed her eyes, but when Elder Stow tuned the disc, Artie stiffened like a corpse.  Thalia let out a little gasp again, but Alesandros held on to her, so she stayed quiet.  Boston slipped into Katie’s place.  When she reached down to open Artie’s middle, Thalia muted her gasp in Alesandros’ chest so she would not have to watch.  Alesandros watched, fascinated, and eventually Thalia also turned to see.

“She is a machine,” Elder Stow said.  “But most of her insides imitate human insides.”  He spoke to Boston.  “Find something to sponge that water.”  Boston got her fairy weave blanket.

“A machine?” Alesandros got close.  “I thought… she seemed a fine young woman.”

“I suspect the moisture seeped in all day around her middle joints,” Elder Stow said to Alexis and Katie.  “She is rust proof, and her flesh, like human flesh, is designed to repel water, but when she bends, even like sitting, the flesh bunches up and makes a miniscule gap.  Human flesh is stretchier and tugs against the muscles so we can only bend so far and can’t make gaps.  After an all-day rain, sitting on her horse and all, enough moisture got in to her insides to begin to cause problems.”

“Can you fix her?” Katie asked, obviously concerned.

“Not without covering her in an entirely different kind of flesh, for which I do not have the equipment.  Very sophisticated equipment.  Magic might do it, I don’t know, but science can only offer a sealer, like a glue stop.  I can give Alexis a list of ingredients to look for.  Artie may find the glue uncomfortable, and in any case, it will only work as a stop-gap until a more permanent solution can be found.”

Boston finished wiping out Artie’s insides, and Elder Stow closed her up.  He paused on waking her when Katie said, “Wait.  Let’s not tell her just yet.  Let’s wait until we see the Kairos.  She has resources and knows thing that we cannot imagine.  Maybe she will have a solution.”

“You don’t want her to worry in the meantime,” Lockhart said, and everyone agreed, though some might have thought keeping secrets from her was not a good idea.

“Not keeping secrets,” Alexis told Lincoln.  “Just not confirming the diagnosis until we get a second opinion.”  Alexis was a nurse.

“Okay?” Elder Stow asked.  No one objected, so he removed his disc and Artie came around quickly.

“Am I going to be okay?” Artie asked first thing.

“How do you feel?” Alexis asked.

Artie thought first.  “Better.”

Katie helped Artie to stand.  “You are going to be fine.  We just need some rest.”  She escorted her to where they had laid out their blankets.

“No watch tonight,” Lockhart decided.  “Everybody get some good sleep.”

“Good,” Decker said from where he was already lying down.

Well,” Alesandros said.  “I knew you people were special, but I had no idea how special.”

“Don’t worry,” Alexis said.  “The rest of us are plain ordinary humans.”

Lincoln shook his head.  “Actually, Alexis used to be an elf, but became a human when we married.”

“No,” Thalia voiced disbelief.

“True,” Alexis said.  “I am Boston’s sister.  She was human and became an elf to marry my brother…who has moved on ahead of us toward our destination.”

“How can humans become elves and elves become human?” Alesandros asked.

“The Kairos,” Alexis answered.  “Amphitrite.  What can the gods not do?”

“Of course.”  Thalia and Alesandros understood when she put it that way.

Alexis looked at Boston, who chose to sleep by the altar.  Lilac, apparently, slept on the altar.  “And I am feeling terribly guilty about it, oh, not guilty about becoming human.  But I feel guilty not being with Boston, at least for a while.  She has so much still to learn about being an elf and about magic and everything.  She is such a young elf.  Right now, there is no one else, and though I cannot show her things like I could if I was an elf, I should at least be sharing with her those things I can describe and things I remember from growing up elf.”

Alesandros went around, putting out candles, and Lincoln took Alexis by the arm.  “Come along.  I want to be asleep before Elder Stow starts snoring.”

From out of the dark, they heard what sounded like a Neanderthal giggle.

It stopped raining by two in the morning, and the world slept well until after four, when things got strange.

Avalon 5.1 Sirens Are for Emergencies, part 3 of 6

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

Alexis and Lincoln took bread to the pirates that evening as the sun went down, not that anyone could tell what the sun did behind the clouds and rain.  The only thing they noticed, being shut up in the meeting hall, was the sky appeared to open-up with lightning.  They heard, and sometimes felt the thunder.

Artie asked sweetly, so Katie agreed and she and Katie took bread to the back room, where the old man, his two helpers, wife and daughter were grateful, and amazed. The giants Lockhart and Decker, with Elder Stow anchored the table.  They all ate well, and in blessed silence for a time.

After supper, the priest got up, waved to Boston, and left.

Then finally, with a full belly, and surrounded by his mates, one of the sailors did get stupid.

“Hey giant.  My mate thinks you are not as strong as you look.  He wants to fight.”  Lockhart rolled his eyes.  The man did not stand as tall as Lockhart’s over six feet, but he looked big enough.

“Want me to shoot him?” Decker asked.

“No,” Lockhart said, and found Katie’s hand on top of his.

“This is my job, remember?”  The thinking was, if the man beat a woman, that would not mean much overall; but if the man lost to a woman, hopefully the rest would think twice before starting something again.  “Besides, I need the practice.”  Katie said that nice and loud as she got up.  She was an elect, so not only as strong as any man, she had the reflexes and balance of a cat, and had mastered all the marine corps could teach her about hand to hand and mixed martial arts.

The man looked at Lord Andipas, uncertain.  Lord Andipas had no trouble if the man beat the pulp out of the woman.  The man reached for Katie, but she caught his hand and thumb with one hand in a move that sent him to his knees, even while she punched him wickedly in the solar plexus.  When she let go of the man’s hand, she swung her leg gracefully around and kicked him in the back of the head.  He fell hard, face to the floor, and did not get up right away.  Katie looked at the table of pirates and spoke.

“That was too easy.  I didn’t even break a sweat.”

“Gather your things,” Lockhart said as he stood.  He turned and captured Katie by the shoulders.  He kissed her on the forehead.  “That was very good.  I tried not to watch.”  Katie nodded dumbly for a second before she collected her things and a slight tear came to her eye.

“Alexis, don’t forget your pot,” Lincoln said, and pointed.

When they went out to retrieve their horses from the inadequate roof overhang where they left them, they found the priest waiting.  “Follow me,” he said.  “I will shelter you and your horses for the night where you can be safe.

Lockhart looked at Boston, and she did not hesitate.  “He is a good one,” she said, so they followed the man.

“Alesandros,” the man told is name to Alexis.  He would have to repeat it when they got to shelter and could all hear, but for the moment, he thought it best to move them swiftly from the village.  Questions could come after they began to dry.

The edge of the village came quickly.  The whole village was not very big. being little more than a small cut in the hills and cliffs that fronted the roaring sea.  The road, a slightly better or more well-used path that exited the village, turned away from the sea to follow around the base of a steep hill.  That cut off some of the noise of the storm, but the lightning still crashed all around, and the thunder kept the horses on edge.  The travelers walked their horses and touched, and petted them to keep them as calm as possible.  The horses had to be miserable by then, but they seemed willing to trust the people to which they had been magically tied.

“How far?” Lincoln tried to shout, and people heard something.

Alesandros stopped and pointed where the road came to a fork. “Straight ahead,” he said, “Argos.”  He assumed that would be their way in the morning.  To the right, where the hill turned gentle, he pointed slightly up, and said, “Shelter.”  Even if the travelers could not hear the man, they could all see the big building not too far up the hillside.

As they climbed, Alexis tried to shout to Lincoln.  “Looks like a big home.”

“Looks like a small hotel,” Lincoln shouted back.  “Maybe a bed and breakfast,”

Alexis grinned and took Lincoln’s arm.

The top of the hill flattened out, like a shelf of good land, before the hill became rocky again and split into several peaks further on.  The flat land held three buildings, the big house to their right, a big barn to their left, and straight on, a third big building that looked round, a difficult shape given the time and technology, and it appeared to have a ten or twelve-foot-high roof.  Katie looked for columns.  It also appeared to face the sea, and Katie imagined it edged up to sea cliffs where the people could look well out to sea, and maybe up and down the coast for some distance.  Most did not pay attention or particularly notice, until they took their horses into the barn and Katie spoke.

“A temple.”

Alesandros clarified.  “The Temple of Amphitrite.”  He sat and watched as the people brought their horses in, out of the rain.  Decker and Elder Stow closed the big barn door which at least cut the sounds of the rain and thunder.

The pen at the back of the barn had a couple dozen sheep that bleated and paced, and unable to sleep.  One pen held a couple of cows, and one held a mule that at least were resting, if not sleeping.  A small pig pen held two or three, and a smaller blocked off section had a mother pig and six piglets that crowded the mother as she tried to sleep.  Finally, a primitive coop for chicken sat beside the door, and while the chickens would not be corralled, they were at least quiet in the night.

The main floor of the barn made a big open space with only one two-wheeled wagon and some farm implements off to the side.  Katie, the doctor in ancient and medieval technologies and cultures examined the evidence carefully, but the rest, and Katie, had to attend to the horses first.  It took about an hour to stack the saddles and equipment where they would dry and brush the horses free of the wet and the hard day.

“I would really like a hot bath,” Alexis whispered to herself.  Boston heard with her elf ears, and responded.

“Me, too.”

During that time, Alesandros spoke now and then, and the travelers did their best to listen, even while a large bit of their attention got spent on giving their horses some much needed love and care.

“The High Priestess of Amphitrite, my wife, says Triton is in trouble.  She says she can hear it in the roar of the waves as they crash on the rocks.  She says, probably some young lady or another.  The storm is a reflection of Amphitrite’s inner anger at her son.  Amphitrite can’t help it.  All nature bends to her.”

“Triton is Amphitrite’s son?” Lockhart asked, and Alesandros nodded.  He watched Lockhart remove his horse’s saddle before he spoke again.

“I have never seen such things as you ride, and I have seen many things, more than most.  People come here from all up and down the coast, from Argos and even Mycenae to make offerings and worship the goddess.  Sailors stop in the bay, and many merchants from Akoshia.  They pray to the goddess for calm weather and good sailing.”

“You can hardly blame them,’ Katie said, and to the others she added, “The sea is never a safe place, not even in our day; but certainly in this age, and for centuries to come.  Any help to placate the spirits is a good thing.”

“I saw the fishing boats,” Lockhart said, and nodded like he understood.

“Fisherman wives and children come here often,” Alesandros said.  “Not only from our village, but from many villages close by.  They come especially when their men have been long at sea.”

“Must be a hard way to make a living,” Decker said, and this time Alesandros nodded.

“The home across the road is an orphanage.  Our Great Lady Amphitrite has the biggest, kindest heart in the world.  She has made this place where the children can come who have lost their families and loved ones to the sea.  When storms come, and the sea roils, and the monsters come up from the deep, men are lost; taken down to Poseidon’s graves.  But it is not in the goddess’ heart that the innocent should suffer.  She made this place for the children, and the grieving wives and mothers who come and pledge themselves to care for the children of Amphitrite in the name of the goddess.”

“An orphanage,” Boston said, with a big smile and a look toward the closed barn door.  “I can feel the love from here.”  She paused, before she added.  “And the fear from the scary storm.”

“We have presently eight mothers in the home, all dedicated to the goddess that gave them a chance to live.”  He looked down and spoke softly.  “I was raised here, myself.  I owe the goddess everything.”

“And now you are her priest?” Alexis asked.

“In name,” Alesandros answered.  “She calls me her handy man and general contractor.”  The men chuckled.  “My wife, Thalia, is the high priestess who watches over the mothers and children, and keeps the temple.  She says the daily prayers, accepts the offerings for the altar, and speaks with those who come, especially those who grieve.”

“Grief counseling,” Alexis called it and Alesandros looked surprised.

“That is what Amphitrite calls it,” he said.  “All of you must be very special to the lady.  I think I knew that when I first saw you, though you were strangers to me.”

“Strangers to me, too,” Elder Stow said, and Decker and Lockhart both looked at the Gott-Druk, like he stole their line.

At least Lockhart got to say, “We are all pretty strange, each in his or her own way.”

“Maybe we can see the temple,” Katie suggested.

“I thought we might sleep there tonight, with the storm and all,” Alesandros said.  “The home is pretty full, and Thalia is in the temple.  She will stay there until the storm subsides, and I want her to meet you.”

“Ready?” Lockhart asked.  Everyone had their packs.  He signaled for Alesandros to lead the way, and the man raised his hood and went out the door.  The others all complained when they followed.  They had forgotten how hard it was raining.