Avalon 1.9 The Elders part 1 of 4

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After 4176 BC on Malta. Kairos 16: Odelion

Recording …

“I think it is ugly.” Boston rarely minced her words.

“It’s artistic,” Lincoln tried to give the benefit of the doubt. He had his pad and pencil out to make a rendering.

“It looks like it has been here for a long time. Let me see.” Katie Harper finally pulled out one of the mysterious bits of technology from of her backpack. She examined the carving by scanning it and checked the readout.  The object, a flat faced carving on a stone, not really a statue, sat all alone in a clearing in the jungle.

“A representation of some demon-god,” Boston suggested.

“No. A true rendering of a spiritual reality, I would say.” Mingus touched it carefully. “I would call it a greater spirit of the night.”

“Call it a dream spirit,” Alexis suggested.

Lincoln amended that. “A nightmare spirit.” It had a flat head with high brows like a Neanderthal, eyes that glared and were far bigger than necessary, fangs for teeth, and four arms that ended in claws and looked to be reaching for the onlookers.

Katie spoke again. “According to my best estimate, this carving is about nine thousand years old.”

“Let me see.” Boston stepped over to look at Katie’s equipment. “The amulet also has a temporal setting. It says ninty-four hundred years.” She showed Katie so they could compare.

“But you said, or rather Lincoln read from the database that we have only traveled three hundred and fifty years since the beginning.” Captain Decker did the math. “You are saying this is older than the Kairos.”

“I would say nine thousand years older.” Katie nodded. “That would make it pre-flood.”

“Gott-Druk,” Mingus said.

“Neanderthal,” Lockhart translated for those who did not know.

People nodded. “I had forgotten,” Alexis admitted.

“This is Malta,” Katie said. “There should be some old temples around here as well, though they may be ruins already after the flood. It would be a good way to check the readings.”

“Quiet.” Roland’s word came sharp. His hunter senses were on alert since they climbed down the mountain and entered the jungle, and he was presently the only one paying attention to the wilderness. People looked up as he waved quickly to one side of the clearing. Everyone scattered, hid, and did their best to remain perfectly quiet.

They heard the strangers before they saw them. There were three, and they clearly looked Neanderthal. They all had on orange jumps suits of a sort that looked technologically way beyond what the humans imagined the Gott-Druk should have. Lieutenant Harper and Captain Decker, in particular, looked for classic cavemen.

“But the locals are resistant, our ancient cousins are behaving stupidly, and there are Elenar reported in the area.” One of the Gott-Druk complained as he counted off his fingers.

A second Gott-Druk, the evident leader of the group quieted his fellow. He held up a device of some kind. He pressed some buttons and looked into a screen. “An ancient Ankaron Battleship. I don’t think we even have one of those in a museum.” He turned his device off and reassured his comrade. “You could take it down with a handgun.”

“Still, there is the one favored by the powers of the earth. He has already cost our cousins dearly.” The Gott-Druk counted a fourth finger.

“Yes,” the leader said. “But if we can eliminate him and take down the Elenar, the first plan may yet go forth as ill-conceived.”

The third one spoke. “But if the first plan succeeds, we may never be born.”

“Worth the risk,” the leader said as he lifted his device and punched some more buttons. He lowered it and scanned 180 degrees of the forest where the travelers were hiding. “But come. We are too out in the open here.”

The others looked. “I see nothing,” one said, but the leader moved off and the others were obliged to follow.

Captain Decker and Roland cautioned everyone to remain silent. They led them through the trees, and not in a straight line. Roland scouted up front to pick out the trail and Captain Decker watched the rear. They went a mile beyond the carving in the clearing before Roland let anyone speak.

“What were they on about?” Katie Harper wanted to know.

“I met the Elenar in the future—back home,” Lockhart said. “They are like Cro-Magnon, maybe Denisovan and if not the enemies of the Gott-Druk, they are watchers at least determined to make sure the Neanderthals don’t come back and try to retake the earth.”

“I see,” Boston said. “But where would the human race fit, if the Neanderthals were successful, I mean, in retaking the earth?”

“We would not fit,” Lockhart said.

“Or become a permanent slave underclass,” Mingus suggested.

“Well, one thing.” Lincoln spoke up. “I suspect the favored of the gods is the Kairos and if the Gott-Druk plan is to eliminate him, it might be a good idea if we find him first.”

“Right.” Boston spoke with some vigor. “This way.” She had the amulet out and pointed. Roland joined her at the front.

After hardly another mile, they came to the sea, and not the best beach in the world. In fact, the jungle marched right down to the water in several places where they saw a ledge. They could see where the waves were digging the dirt out from beneath the trees and imagined there might be a beach someday, but not yet.

“I thought we might find a village,” Alexis said. Lincoln shrugged. Roland, Mingus, and the marines kept quiet. Boston shook the amulet the way Doctor Procter used to shake it.

“What?” Lockhart asked.

“The amulet points straight out to sea, twenty miles.”

“Nautical miles?” Captain Decker asked.

“Let me see,” Lockhart imitated Boston’s curious attitude and she showed him. “But it is a little to the south. Let’s try this way. Maybe there is a peninsula or something.

“Not on Malta,” Katie shook her head.

“Another island?” Boston turned to face the marine.

“No,” Lincoln answered. “There are two or so other islands in the Malta group, but they are north, not south.”

“The woods!” Roland spoke sharply again, and everyone jumped. An airship of some sort came into view. It sounded plenty noisy, like driven by an internal combustion engine, and it flew low and slow across the water. Lockhart and Lincoln agreed it had to be a shuttle, probably four to six passengers plus crew.

“Surgical strike,” Captain Decker suggested.

“Hurry!” Lockhart said, and they hurried south in the wake of that ship.

“Hold.” Captain Decker threw his hand up when they got close, and no one argued. They peeked out from behind the trees. They could see smoke from fires high in the sky and guessed it had to be the village, but they saw no houses because of the small hill that blocked their view.

The airship looked to have more in common with a glider or navy seaplane than a spaceship from their angle. It landed on the water, skidded, bounced, and slid to a stop, like a rock might skip across the surface of a lake. The Gott-Druk climbed out. There were six, and they wore something like rubber mukluks that allowed their short, squat bodies to scramble to the shore without a serious wetting.

Lockhart started to rise. He had in mind to talk it out, but Roland held him down. The three Gott-Druk in orange came out from the trees to meet the newcomers on the shore, and the first words out of the orange leader’s mouth were not kind.

“Idiots! How are we going to surprise anyone when you come blundering in with your noisy antique? Did it occur to you to stop up shore and walk here, quietly?”

“Elder,” One of the other orange men spoke. “Look at these primitive weapons.” He pointed at his fellow Gott-Druk and the handguns they carried.

“Better than the sticks and stones we will be facing.” The leader ignored his fellow to give out his instructions. “Kill everyone, males, females, and children. That is the only way you idiots will not miss him.”

“Right,” Lockhart nodded to Roland and instead of getting up, he pulled his shotgun up to sight. Captain Decker already had his up. Lieutenant Harper, Boston, and Lincoln readied themselves. Roland unhooked his sword but got his bow ready.

Avalon 1.8 The First City part 4 of 4

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Everyone had plenty to eat and plenty of beef as things got back to normal, except Risah sat with the children for the rest of the evening, something unheard of. The beef left over from the tables, got promptly worked by the cooks to preserve for lunch on the following day, but Dantu would not let Risah get up and help.

At the head table, the travelers were fascinated by the entertainment. Anenki sat between Bashte and Gagrena and had a hard time staying straight in the middle. He wanted to lean in Bashte’s direction and away from the woman who would not leave him alone.

Gagrena focused all her attention on Anenki. She spoke cold and civil words to Lili, clearly despised Niudim and ignored Nanna because Nanna was not hers. The rest might as well have been invisible. The woman fawned on Anenki. She kept touching him, his hand, his arm, like they were lovers of old. Everyone figured she wanted the best deal she could get for her city, Uruk, and she willingly used her looks and sex to get it.

Anenki tried to be polite, but he could not always help himself. Gagrena’s ego appeared boundless, so perhaps she did not notice that whenever she touched him, Anenki turned up his nose. When asked, Gagrena admitted she had not dedicated her city to any particular god. She was a woman who believed that the purpose of everyone in the world was to serve her so after that, it did not really matter. Boston acted surprised she had not built a temple to herself and later regretted that she put the idea in the woman’s mind.

“Nanna.” Bashte finally spoke into the void. Nanna started yawning again. “Let’s go check and see that the children are in bed.” Anenki grabbed Bashte’s hand, but Bashte simply said, “You will be fine,” and she let go. Everyone paused to watch them go and then Gagrena spoke.

“We finally got rid of the nursemaid.”

“Not at all,” Anenki responded. He had just about reached his limit of politeness. “She is my good wife, my living wife as opposed to my dead one.” Back when Gagrena first left Anenki, he counted her as dead. He had not mentioned it in many years but just then he could not help himself. Gagrena did not look put off.

“Anenki, I worry about you. You are not as strong as you think. You need a woman beside you, a real woman.”

“I have one, thank you.”

Gagrena frowned ever so slightly as she took his hand and tried to catch his eyes. “I just wanted you to know that I am here for you, just like we were meant to be from the beginning. I would hate to see you all alone; I mean if something should ever happen to young Bashte.”

Lincoln, Lockhart, Katie and Mingus all sat up straight. Anenki looked at them, looked at Gagrena and jumped out of his chair. “Bashte!” He ran for the stairs. The others followed. Lockhart pulled the pistol he wore at his side. Captain Decker brought the rifle that never got out of his reach. Lincoln grabbed the wicked looking knife with which he had cut the big servings of beef. Roland pulled his sword as they ran.

The children were huddled in one bed, crying. Gagrena’s little army of seven men were all there in the big room. Bashte was there too, down on the floor. She did not appear to be bleeding or unconscious, but her hand went to the back of her head where she got struck. Nanna had her hands up, and that made a small shield against the men. She could easily deflect a spear, but she had no confidence of holding the men if they decided to rush her all at once.  No one said, wait or what are you doing, or let’s talk about this. Lockhart and Captain Decker simply fired. Lincoln threw his knife and put his man down—a talent no one knew he had. Roland also put his man down easily with the sword. The other five went down just as fast. Captain Decker got three to Lockhart’s two.

The children screamed at the noise. Nanna dropped her hands and her jaw. Doctor Mishka spoke up from the floor because Anenki had gone away, and the good doctor had taken his place to make sure Bashte did not have a concussion.

“Men and guns. How sick I am of such things,” Mishka said. “Nanna, help your Mama to walk over to the children.”

“Yes, Doctor,” Nanna said, to what was obviously a familiar face. She helped Bashte stand as the rest of the crew piled into the room, which suddenly did not seem so big. Doctor Mishka immediately took Alexis to see which of the men might be saved. She instructed Boston and Katie to staunch the bleeding on the two who only looked wounded while she quickly checked the two who were clearly dead. They saved the other five, though the one with the shattered knee would never walk well again.

“Anenki?” Gagrena straggled in at the end of the line. It took her a moment to realize what happened.

“Here,” Mishka said. She did not have time to play games.

“Where?” Gagrena wondered, before she looked twice at the doctor. This was not the first time she had seen Anenki become a different person, and not even the first time she saw him become a woman. “I am glad you are all right.”

“Bull.” Mishka got in her face. “Anenki is too polite. Let me tell you something. On your own, you are a danger to yourself and to others. You know, in the Soviet days we lock up people like you for your own protection and for ours.”

“What if she had someone to watch over her?” A voice spoke up near the bed where the children had quieted in Bashte and Nanna’s arms. A woman’s voice spoke, one that could only be described as perfect, and it turned every head in the room. Most that could, including the travelers, went straight to their knees at this vision of holy beauty. Gagrena became terribly frightened and fell to her face.

“Inmama.” Little Nippur called and reached out, and Innan picked up the child, kissed her, and held her for a moment on her hip.

“Someone to watch over her might work,” Mishka said. “It would be a headache though.” She went straight back to work on the wounded. That was what she was there for.

Innan appeared to shrug. She raised her free hand and the bullets all extracted themselves. “I believe these are yours,” she said, as the bullets set themselves in front of Lockhart and Captain Decker.

“Yes, er, thank you.”

“That was remarkable to watch.” Innan looked over the dead and wounded and clicked her tongue.

 “Yes.” Mishka poked her head up once more. “You can tell Enki and Enlil that in the future, the human race becomes very efficient at war and killing. That should help them since they have now been given oversight for war. And you…” But it is too early in the game for a rogue city, and maybe a war. “Let us get closer to a dozen cities, get trade going and all that first, I think.”

“Wise as always,” Innan said. She handed Nippur back to her Mama, gave Bashte a sisterly kiss on the cheek and stepped up to Gagrena who trembled and dared not look up from the floor. Mishka noticed before she went back to work. It sometimes felt hard for the Kairos to remember just what the fear of the gods could do to a person. It could transform them, though she doubted anything would transform Gagrena in the long term.

“I will take your city of Uruk,” Innan said. “I am sure Anenki will help us get things on the right foot. Meanwhile, a temple would be nice. Enlil and Enki both say there is nothing like it.” Innan put her finger to her cheek to think. “And now I have to ask.” She stepped up to Lockhart. “Why are you here? You don’t belong here.”

Lockhart’s tongue refused to work in the presence of the goddess of desire. Fortunately, Mingus and Roland were most respectful, but being spiritual creatures themselves, they were not affected by the goddess in quite the same way as the humans.

“We are travelers through time,” Roland offered a more thorough description than Lockhart usually offered. “We will be moving on in a day or two.”

“And this one?” Innan snapped her finger and a ghoul appeared beside her. The ghoul’s face looked expressionless. It appeared unable to move or speak. “He also does not belong. I don’t suppose this is one of yours.”

“Not ours, Lady” Mingus answered. “But I believe he may have been the source of the poison, earlier.”

Innan smiled which just about caused several people to faint from her beauty. “The elder elf is wise. I think we need not retain this one.” She waved in the ghoul’s direction and the ghoul skipped the dying part. He turned straight to a misty green smoke and left only a green smudge on the floor. “And now, my children.” Innan clapped her hands and she, Gagrena and the seven dead and wounded from the floor all vanished.

“Hey!” Only Doctor Mishka protested. “I wasn’t finished with that one yet.”

“A ghoul scout.” Mingus shook his head. “That means there are nine more out there.”

“Eighty-nine,” Boston corrected.

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

MONDAY

The Elders, another 4-part episode so another Thursday post. Be prepared and read as the Travelers from Avalon find spaceships on Malta and people who are there who threaten history and plan to ruin the future. Until Monday, Happy Reading

*

Avalon 1.8 The First City part 3 of 4

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The travelers gathered early for supper, full of guarded praise for Anenki’s little city. “A bit too communal for my tastes,” Captain Decker summed up the consensus of the freedom-loving Americans.

“Of necessity,” Anenki responded. “Before we began it was anarchy. I mean, most people were nice and helped their neighbors when they could, but ultimately it was every man for himself. Now, in order to make the kind of division of labor a city needs, it has to be communal. You want a man to spend his days working in clay, not soil. But he is thinking he has to grow crops and hunt and fish and tend to his goats and oxen to feed his family and have some to trade. That way very little time can be spent on the clay. So we guarantee, as well as we can, that he will receive the food he needs for his family, and the cloth or clothing and whatever else may be necessary so he can concentrate on the clay. We have to be communal to do that. You might call it excessively high taxes.”

“I understand,” Katie Harper spoke up. “It makes sense to me, at least. Sumer was marked with a more communal kind of living than later civilizations.”

“Remember, we are transitioning,” Anenki added. “To be honest, I think Marx got it completely backwards. Communism was really the first step, not the last. Capitalism only developed with a money economy, but that won’t happen for, what, three thousand and some years.”

Several women interrupted by placing trays of fruit and vegetables on all the tables. Some of the people began to come into the banquet hall as well, talking and laughing in their own little groups.

“Tell me about your guest, if you don’t mind.” Lockhart finally asked the question everyone had been avoiding. Anenki glanced at Bashte who encouraged him without a word.

“All right,” he said, and set himself to hold nothing back. “About twelve years ago when we were first starting out, some of the motivation to build a city where people could live safe and secure was because of one man. Nogao had convinced a number of people it was easier to take the labor of others than do the work themselves.”

“Thief,” Lockhart said quietly. Anenki nodded.

“Well, we just got things going and he showed up with more than a hundred followers to try and take over the whole work.”

“Don’t tell me, egged on by Gagrena,” Alexis said.

“Sweetheart,” Lincoln reached for her hand. He imagined she might be wrong accusing the woman.

“Sorry, she just reminds me of the type of personality that I despise in women.”

“You have very good insights,” Bashte said, to confirm the accuracy of the accusation.

“Yeah, they give all women a bad name,” Boston added.

Anenki nodded the whole time, but then they all paused again as two men carried in half a bull for the main table. There were roasts brought in for the other tables as well and the room started filling up.

“Where is Gagrena?” Bashte asked.

“Fashionably late?” Alexis suggested.

“Wanting to make a grand entrance,” Anenki nodded again.

“Anyway,” Lockhart wanted back to the story.

“Anyway, Nogao got killed. I killed him, and his people were left leaderless. My brother Agur took most of them with some well-trained experts in the various disciplines and went north, back to the Tigris where we originally found him. He started a second city, one that Enlil named after our baby, Nippur.”

“We chiefly worship Enki in Eridu,” Bashte said.

Anenki cut off the questions with a simple word. “I flipped a coin, so to speak. Besides, Agur had met Enlil, and the god had always been associated more with the Tigris and Enki with the Euphrates, so it all worked out.”

“Except for Gagrena,” Katie pointed out. “I take it she did not follow your brother.”

“No,” Anenki said the word with an underline. “She was not about to have any man rule over her. Not even Enlil. She took about a third of the group and broke away to build her own place. She calls it Uruk. It is on the Euphrates, but upriver approaching half-way between Eridu and Nippur.” Anenki’s voice trailed off and silence fell only interrupted by Lincoln tapping his knife gently on the table.

“Where is that woman?” Lincoln asked.

“Hungry?”

“That beef smells great.”

“Why not cut yourself a steak?” Captain Decker offered.

“Wait,” Anenki held up his hand. “It is polite to wait. Though maybe I should eat before she gets here. She will just give me indigestion.”

“You don’t like her much,” Boston understated the case.

Anenki countered. “Actually, I feel sorry for her. She has been at me all afternoon about how she misses me, and we really had a good thing and she foolishly let me get away. I would say she is trying to put the moves on me, and she is still rather nice to look at. But you know, now that I am not a teenager with hormones ruining my brain, I can see that she does not lie very well at all.”

“Father,” Lili spoke up. “Maybe I should fetch Mother.”

Anenki did not have time to answer because his sister Dantu came in with Risah in her arms. “Anenki!” She shouted. “Don’t eat the roast!” Risah collapsed to the ground.

Everyone moved, but Alexis got there first. She laid her hands over Risah, and that familiar glow appeared for those who could see it. “She has been poisoned,” Alexis announced in the sudden silence of that big room.

“Keep back, give them room.” Captain Decker and Lockhart had to play police officers.

“Maybe I can draw it out of her,” Alexis suggested. She began to work with her hands. No one saw Gagrena come into the room, but when she realized what was going on, they all heard her.

“You are trying to kill me!”

Bashte jumped. “You are not stupid. If we wanted to harm you, we would not test it out on Anenki’s sister.”

A sudden flash of darkness rose-up and knocked Alexis back on her rump. “Magically protected,” she managed to say as she rushed her hand to her head to fight the dizzy feeling.

“Nanna!” Anenki immediately called for his daughter, the daughter of the goddess Innan.

“Me? Daddy?”

“You can do it. I’m right here, but right now you are the only one who can do it.”

“Daddy?”

“Hurry, please,” Dantu pleaded.

Anenki brought Nanna to Risah and had her kneel. When he let go, Nanna closed her eyes and put her hands out like Alexis. Nanna’s glow looked much richer, much fuller and more golden in color. They saw the darkness come up and push against her hands. Nanna shrieked, but Anenki laid a hand on her shoulder and encouraged her.

“You can do this. You are stronger than any darkness. Get angry.”

Nanna got angry, and the darkness cracked and broke and blew away on the wind.

“Son, your hand,” Mingus said, and Roland gave it. “Concentrate,” Mingus added as he reached down and snatched Alexis’ bone wand. He waved it slowly in the air, twice and then gave it a sharp jerk. A pale blue light popped from the wand, like a globe of light. It began to float around the room, slowly at first before it got up a good head of steam. It went from table to table, separated twice and came back together before it finally lighted on the roast at the head table. The whole roast glowed soft blue before the darkness came out of the roast and swallowed the light.

“Only our roast is poisoned,” Roland said, as Mingus paused to catch his breath.

By then, Alexis had gotten up to coach Nanna. “There it is,” Alexis said. “All gathered in one place. Now raise your hands, slowly.” Nanna did, and a small drop of something came right out of Risah’s body. It followed Nanna’s hands into the air. Nanna squealed.

“I did it. I did it.”

Anenki handed Alexis a cup in which she caught the drop, while Bashte hugged Nanna,

“Mama, I did it!” Nanna hugged her back.

“I’m so proud of you,” Bashte said.

As Risah began to come around, Lili, who had knelt beside Dantu and held Dantu’s hand, looked up at Bashte. Bashte put her other arm around Lili and kissed her cheek as well. “I’m proud of all my children,” she said before she apologized to Dantu. “I’m sorry I don’t have another arm for you.” Dantu looked up and nodded, but her eyes were full of tears, and she had no words.

“And you too.” Bashte let go of Nanna and Lili to give Niudim a big hug. The young man understood enough to know he almost lost his aunt Risah, and he was in tears as well. Nanna and Lili also went to him and joined in a kind of group hug.

“Ah, the power of love,” Anenki said, and turned to face Gagrena. “True love conquers all.” Anenki paused. “Did I just say that?”

“Yes, you did,” Lockhart responded from the table where he and Captain Decker were lifting the roast on its tray. Lincoln and several of the men were there to help. They intended to bury the beast somewhere out of town.

“But I hate clichés,” Anenki finished.

“This far back it probably isn’t a cliché yet.” Katie Harper grinned.

“But father,” Roland turned to Mingus. “Who would do such a thing?” In answer, they heard an angry moan come from beneath their feet. Lockhart and Decker had to shuffle their hands to keep from dropping the roast. It sounded like someone was very frustrated.

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

THURSDAY…

Don’t miss tomorrow’s conclusion of the story.

*

Avalon 1.8 The First City part 2 of 4

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The travelers slept around the campfire that night. No one said anything in particular or suggested it, but everyone felt the same. It was that feeling that they were being watched, and that feeling would not go away easily. They all felt the need for company and the need to watch each other’s backs.

When the stars glistened and the moon rose, Boston woke up feeling antsy. She felt like she missed something, but her hand went straight to the amulet and found it hanging around her neck where she had vowed to always keep it. She thought that perhaps she missed something in her backpack, so she got up as quietly as she could and inched to her tent. The tent flap was closed. When she opened it, she screamed. Two dog-yellow eyes peered back at her.

Everyone woke and hurried to her. But she watched as the eyes darted to the side. Boston almost looked in the same direction though nothing could be seen through the tent. Then the eyes sank into the ground. Lockhart and Katie arrived in time to see the last bit of the eyes before they vanished in the dirt. Then they heard the sound of thunder.

“That’s the river!” Lincoln shouted, drawing on some memory from his years in the CIA before he came to work for the men in black.

“Make for higher ground!” Alexis shouted, and they started for the temple they had seen earlier in the day. Boston tried for the palace, but Lockhart and Roland combined to drag her to the temple steps.

“Someone has to warn Anenki,” Boston protested.

“Can’t worry about that now,” Lockhart said, as he shoved her up the lowest set of steps. The temple consisted of five terrace layers of solid bricks. Each layer stood a man’s height and set back a man’s height in distance from the lower level. The fifth and topmost level looked about the size of a house. It was, in fact, the actual temple part, where priests sacrificed the animals on a stone slab, and dedicated the fruits in season to Enki, god of Eridu.

When everyone got to the temple, they saw the water. It looked like a black snake against the ground. Curiously, it kept its shape even when driven out of its banks. It curved and ran right over their camp. It extinguished the fire there and came on to the temple. It crashed against the bricks and shook the structure, but the temple seemed to be too much for the river, and the travelers had climbed too high up to reach.

A man came out of the building when the water arrived. After one good crash against the bottom most layers of the step pyramid, the man waved his hand. The waters obeyed some imperative and turned away. They rushed right past the front door of the palace and reentered the riverbed. No further water came from the river after that.

“Looks like you have a bug problem,” the man said. “Like a cockroach, you know.” He pushed his glasses up on his face and smiled. That action got the ones close enough to see in the dark to raise their collective eyebrows. What was a Neolithic man doing with eyeglasses?

“A present from Anenki,” the man answered their unasked question and vanished.

“What?” Boston wondered.

“Enki, I presume,” Lockhart responded.

“I think he means the bokarus,” Roland responded differently. “The cockroach, I mean.”

“Darn.” Lincoln walked up to join the group. “And for once I was having a good dream. Now all our stuff is going to be soaked.

Their stuff, as Lincoln called it, turned out to be in place, dry and the technology all functioned normally. Their tents were amazingly still up, and the fire got relit. “Enki went to great lengths to be thorough,” Lincoln commented.

“Yes, thanks,” Lockhart said with a look to the sky. He explained to Boston’s curious face. “It never hurts to be polite.”

“Exactly,” Lincoln agreed. “Thank you. I recall from the stick people what it means to get on the wrong side of the gods.”

“Oh, Lincoln,” Alexis protested and dragged him off. “I was trying to forget about all that.”

Everyone slept well after that. They felt that if they were being watched, they were also being watched over by someone far more capable than a bokarus cockroach.

~~~*~~~

When the morning came, they felt refreshed and after some fake coffee, they trooped down to the cooking fires.

Risah, already up and moving, worked on the luncheon for their coming guest. Lili was there with Nanna and Niudim, but Lili presently talked with a young man. When Alexis and Boston walked up, Lili introduced Gordon who said he was pleased to meet them and promptly decided he had better get to work. Alexis and Boston both watched Lili as Lili watched Gordon leave.

“He seems very nice,” Alexis said, as they went to join the others. Lili only smiled and nodded. Her tongue seemed tied.

Nanna, though, had no trouble talking. “Gordon, Gordon. It is all I hear.”

“Oh?” Boston got nosey. “A boyfriend, or maybe more?” Lili turned a little red.

“No way,” Nanna shook her head. “At least not until Gordon finds the courage to speak to Daddy.”

“Nanna!” Lili scolded her little sister, but Nanna thought it was funny, so Lili stomped off to help Aunt Risah with the mush.

“Careful,” Alexis spoke wisely. “It will be your turn one day.” Nanna paused but shook her head. That day seemed an eternity away. She responded typical of the way teenagers thought.

They all ate the mush. The gruel did not taste like grits or oatmeal or cream of wheat, exactly. It tasted like mush, helped with a little fruit on top, but not helped much. Lockhart gladly set his aside when he saw Anenki and Bashte arrive. They cooed at each other like they were the only two people in the world. Alexis and Boston sighed to see them, but Nanna thought it was gaggy.

“I mean, they are so old,” Nanna said.

“Good morning.” Niudim said and waved, like they were far away. Actually, nothing in Eridu was that far away as the morning proved. Anenki gave the travelers the grand tour, as he called it. They got done in an hour and ended up at the irrigation camp.

“Kiluk,” Anenki pointed. “He is the chief of the irrigation project. Presently he and his staff are setting the minimum standards for plowing new fields. As the city grows, we will need to cultivate more and more land.”

“Standards?” Katie asked.

“Sure,” Anenki smiled for her and waited for Lincoln to catch up in his notes. “Right now, innovation is highly prized. We are all trying new things and looking for ways to do things. But we need to set the standards to make sure the best ideas are not forgotten. In a generation, standards will become rules and we will be able to make improvements, but innovation will be harder. Another generation, and rules will become regulation as we give birth to inspectors. By the third generation, regulations will become traditions, and then innovation will be very difficult.”

“As quick as that?” Lincoln asked.

Anenki nodded. “About a hundred and fifty years, or so.”

Kiluk waved to the visitors and limped over to talk to a man. Alexis noticed and felt more concerned with the limp. “Crippled?”

“Since birth,” Anenki confirmed. “People like Kiluk and Niudim are one of the main reasons I agreed to build the first city. Normally, I don’t interfere like this. It isn’t safe, given all I know about the future. But in this case, I have innovated nothing. I just made it possible.”

“I suppose in the old days the life expectancy for someone like Kiluk would not be good,” Katie suggested.

“Or Niudim, or anyone who got old,” Anenki confirmed. “Now, at least they have a chance—for a few generations anyway.”

“I understand,” Lockhart said, and as they wandered over to the temple, Anenki heard all about the river in the night.

Anenki looked at the temple. Some of the bricks crumbled and several looked more like mush than bricks. “But hey, Duban is still working on the formula. Innovation, remember?”

~~~*~~~

Gagrena arrived close to three in the afternoon. She came into town seated in a plush chair, carried on the shoulders of four rather large men. Seven men followed her carrying spears like a kind of honor guard. Another dozen people came after that, women mostly, to attend to Gagrena’s needs.

“Welcome to Eridu.” Bashte had to say it. Anenki wanted to say some other things. To be sure, Gagrena looked like a beautiful girl who had become a stunning woman, especially with all the pampering. But she had the personality of a snake, and she had a bad attitude about everyone. In short, she only thought about herself, and believed everyone else should think about her too.

“Anenki.” Gagrena smiled at him. “Put me down, put me down.” As soon as her feet touched, she rushed up and threw herself into Anenki’s arms. He gave her a hug before he extracted himself from her bear-like grasp. He drew a line at the kiss. He did not want her kissing even his cheek in a friendly greeting.

“Welcome to Eridu,” Bashte tried again.

“Yes you.” Gagrena acknowledged her at last. “The nursemaid. And how are the children?”

“They are wonderful,” Bashte answered with a friendly smile. “I am sure they would love to see you. Why don’t we visit them? We could spend the afternoon in playtime.”

The look of horror that crossed Gagrena’s face looked priceless. Anenki felt impressed. Bashte did not have to do anything except tell the truth and be sincere.

“I did not come here to play with the children,” Gagrena responded. “That is your job, isn’t it?”

“Oh, it’s not a job. It’s fun.” Bashte stepped up and kissed Anenki, and they shared some passion in that kiss. Anenki responded with his whole heart, which made it worse for Gagrena. Then Bashte wandered off slowly toward where the children were playing.

“So, what brings you to Eridu? I thought you and Pak were going to build your own city?”

Gagrena watched Bashte and steamed. She looked at the sky and offered a suggestion. “Can we go inside where it is more private?”

“Of course,” Anenki could be gracious. “But your people will have to stay out here.” He shrugged. “We have a nice place for you to spend the night. It is right beside the rooms for the children.” Gagrena paused. “Of course, if you would rather stay out here where you could be attended by your people, I will understand.”

Gagrena frowned and waved Anenki to go with her to the door. “Pak is an idiot,” she said. “I have to do everything myself.” Anenki knew that meant she made all the decisions. He well remembered their few years together. He felt sure that did not mean she did actual work.  She would never lift a finger. “I am going to need some of your chief men for a while—just to teach my own people or my city will never be more than a big village.” Anenki understood. Eridu pioneered most of what would be needed to build and maintain a successful city. His only fear was once Gagrena got her hands on his experts, he might never get them back, alive.

Avalon 1.8 The First City part 1 of 4

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After 4233 BC in Eridu, along the Euphrates River. Kairos 15: Anenki

Recording …

Anenki woke just before dawn. He felt a chill in the air. That did not feel right.  He rarely, if ever, felt a chill in the air along the Euphrates and as close as they were to the Persian Gulf. As he opened his eyes, the feeling passed. Nothing stood out of place in the room, so he shrugged it off and pulled Bashte from her back to her side so she could face him. She responded in her sleep by slinging her lovely arm around his waist. He wanted to kiss that arm—to kiss her, but he did not want to wake her. He could just make out her beauty in the dim light before dawn and he contented himself with that vision. How could he be so blessed? He stared, and then thought he might catch a nap before the sun brought him fully awake.

~~~*~~~

Anenki cupped Bashte’s perfect breast in his hand. She still slept but warmed to his touch and inched closer at his attention. Her breasts were full and firm, and terribly unfair, he thought. He just turned forty. He looked it and felt it. Granted, she was only thirty-three, but she still had the look of someone more like twenty-three. She still had the energy, too.

Anenki shifted his hand to her back and inched closer himself. Then again, perhaps it was just as well that one of them had the energy. Niudim, though twenty-one, remained a special needs child. Lili turned eighteen and always helped with her brother, but she was presently garnering the attention of every eligible bachelor in the city, so she did not have much time to spare. And they were just the two from his first unfortunate marriage.

Anenki shifted his weight to a more comfortable position and Bashte responded with a sigh. He considered Nanna, his daughter with the goddess Innan, the one he called the goddess of desire. Innan was desire itself—far more than a simple love goddess. Nanna got birthed by Bashte, the way the goddess worked it out; and Bashte served as a surrogate mother almost from inception. Nanna called Bashte Mama, like the other children. She called Innan Mother. And at fourteen, she had started to garner some real attention from the boys herself. Takes after her mother, Anenki thought.

Bashte peeped, a sweet sound and pulled up tight against him. That turned Anenki’s thoughts to the five children he and Bashte had. Annie was twelve. The boys Erech and Kish were ten and eight, and the girls, Larsa and little Nippur were five and just three. He ran his finger down Bashte’s side to her slim waist and then let it rise-up her hip. No way she bore six children, he thought. With that, he let his hand slide to her backside.

“Anenki.” Bashte opened her big, brown sparkling eyes and looked up at him. “What are you thinking?”

“I was just thinking about the children,” he answered, honestly enough.

Bashte giggled a sound of pure joy that reverberated down in Anenki’s soul. “I can feel what you are thinking.”

“That? Oh, that is just an automatic reflex every time I am near you.”

Bashte said nothing. She backed up just a smidgen to pull her hands up and then counted on her fingers. “Niudim, Lili, Nanna, Annie, Erech,” she counted one hand. “Kish, Larsa, Nippur,” she stopped and looked up at him again. “I still have two fingers’ left.”

“What are you suggesting?”

“What you are thinking.” She grinned again so Anenki had to grin with her. “We could try anyway,” she said shyly in a most alluring way.

“And for how long?” Anenki asked. He started thinking of the years, but she took it differently.

“I wouldn’t mind forever, or until your reflexes give out.”

Anenki wondered what he ever did to be so blessed, even as his sister Risah came running into the room. The woman looked hot and sweaty, but that was from the cooking fires where she and her best friend Nephat loved to be. They cooked for the palace, such as it was.

“Anenki. There are strangers at the gate, and they are strangers like I have never seen before. One has yellow hair. One has red hair. One is darker than a herd follower, and two of them are your elves. I noticed them right off.”

“Risah.” Anenki said her name to quiet her. “Tell the captain to treat them with his best and I will be right there.” He gave Bashte a peck on the lips, got right up, and quickly got dressed. “Hold that thought,” he suggested.

Before Bashte could say anything, Nippur came toddling in at her fastest speed. “Mama. Mama.” She crawled right up on the bed and pulled the covers over her head. Nurse Hannah came in a moment later dragging Larsa by the hand. Bashte finally said something.

“What did they break?”

~~~*~~~

By the time Anenki arrived, he saw Nanna had gotten there ahead of him. She had wandered down from the market along with a couple dozen other people. The people mostly just stared at these very strange travelers, but Nanna got in the middle of them. She had Katie Harper stand next to Lockhart. Alexis and Lincoln of course went together, being married. She had Roland stand next to Boston, which made Mingus very uncomfortable, and she presently apologized to Mingus and Captain Decker.

“I’m sorry, gentlemen. I seem to have run out of playmates.”

Mingus spoke first. “I am married already. I have a son and a daughter.” He pointed to Roland and Alexis. “And that is quite enough.”

“I was married, too,” Captain Decker said to everyone’s surprise. He looked surprised that they looked surprised. “Why do you think I am so quick to volunteer for hazard pay?” he asked, with a perfectly straight face.

“Captain!” Alexis protested with just the word while Katie and Roland stepped slowly away from their designated places. Captain Decker stared back at Alexis without expression. He meant what he said and felt no need to apologize.

“Nanna.” Anenki called, and she turned at the sound of his voice. Niudim, her watcher, also turned, and Niudim who spoke first.

“I tried to stop her.” Apparently, Nanna’s watcher had been watching.

“Father.” Nanna stepped toward him and planted a kiss on his cheek. She only called him Father when she pretended to be all grown up.

Anenki responded to Niudim first. “That’s okay, son. No harm done. You can smile.” And Niudim did, while Anenki turned to his daughter. “I think your Mama needs your help, unless you would rather help your aunt Risah in the kitchen.”

Nanna made a face at the thought of helping in the kitchen, but Risah jumped. “Oh, the roast.” She shouted and rushed off.

Nanna looked back once.

“You can get to know them over supper,” Anenki said.

Nanna smiled a smile hard to resist. It came from being the daughter of desire. “I think Mama needs me with the little scamps.”

“Not the boys?” Anenki asked. Erech and Kish were notorious for getting into trouble.

Nanna shook her head. “No, father. Larsa and Nippur have been bad, I think.” She started to walk off, but as she walked by, Anenki let his hand give her a soft spank on the rump. Nanna wheeled.

“Daddy!” So now he was Daddy again.

“Don’t forget Niudim. Take his hand.”

“Come along big brother,” Nanna said, and Niudim took her hand and went willingly. Anenki finally turned to the travelers.

“Welcome to the beautiful city of Eridu, population two thousand and something and growing. The biggest and best city in the world.”

“City?” Boston wondered.

“I see they learned to put some straw in their bricks,” Katie noticed.

“Anenki?” Lincoln had the database out.

~~~*~~~

Supper got held in a big, banquet hall, which had plenty of columns to hold up the bedrooms on the second floor. The hall stood next to the outdoor kitchen area so the food could be good and hot. Altogether, there were some fifty adults on a staff which acted something like a government, though the people had no concept of government. These were simply the experts in their various fields. They were the chief carpenters, brick makers and builders, workers in clay, soft metals, and cloth. There were chiefs among the herdsmen and chief farmers who oversaw the irrigation system, and there were hunters, of course.

The children had their own tables out by the kitchen. They were under an awning in case it rained. The children from all the families ate together, but sometimes they were allowed in the big room to eat with their parents. Anenki’s young children were presently out by the kitchen so his family at the adult table included his little sister, Dantu and her husband, his sister Risah and hers, if Risah ever sat down to actually eat something, Bashte with Niudim beside her and Anenki with Lili and Nanna beside him. Nanna just made the leap from the children’s tables, so this was still special for her.

Over supper, Anenki convinced his guests to stay a couple of days and rest. They looked worn and they knew it, so it did not take much convincing. After that was settled, there were the questions, and Anenki and Bashte, who took the travelers to her heart as she took everyone, did their best to answer.

“Actually, Bashte and I function more like a High Priest and High Priestess than King and Queen. We got caught talking with the Gods, you see, like we were old chums.”

“I’m the chum part,” Bashte admitted. “I grew up with Innan except for a couple of years when Dantu became my best friend.”

Anenki leaned over and gave Bashte a kiss on the cheek. “She is friends with them all, too. I’m just the old part.”

“Anenki! That’s not true.”

“True enough. Okay, but some of them don’t like me very much.”

“Varuna seemed to like you well enough,” Lockhart pointed out.

“And Astarte liked Saphira pretty-well,” Alexis added.

“I know Astarte,” Bashte said, “But who is Varuna? Is she nice?”

“He,” Anenki corrected. “And yes, he is very nice.”

“Nagi and Shengi, too,” Boston added.

Anenki thought about it, but he shook his head. “That was only because Dayus, Tiamut and the Shang-Di didn’t like me at all, and still don’t, I might add. Anyway, something much worse is coming here tomorrow morning.”

“What?” Lincoln had to ask.

“My ex-wife. Lili and Niudim’s mother.” Niudim turned up his nose. Lili simply turned to Nanna who looked determined to stay awake.

“I would rather have Mother Innan,” she said. Nanna nodded in mid-yawn but could not respond.

Anenki smiled at his daughters before he turned to Captain Decker. “You are very quiet tonight. What’s up?”

Captain Decker appeared to pull his mind back into the room. “Sorry. I can’t help it. I feel we are being watched, but I don’t see anything.”

“Maybe it is just being in the midst of over two-thousand people, sir,” Katie suggested. “That is a lot compared to what we have been through.” Decker shook his head while Roland added his thoughts.

“I feel it, too.” He spun his head around but saw nothing there.

Avalon 1.7 Peace and Prosperity part 3 of 3

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Dayni led them all down the grasslands path for a short way before she turned on to a side path and reentered the jungle. The jungle did not seem as thick in that place and the path looked good as well, worn down by years of sheep. The clearing where the house sat looked barely inside the trees, like a border house between two lands.  That turned out to be what it was. Dayni was of the jungle people. Vanu was born in the village on the grasslands, and their marriage brought those two tribes into peaceful relations, but neither Dayni nor Vanu wanted to live with his or her people.

“Just as well,” Dayni said, as she closed the gate to the pen where they kept the sheep in the night. She shook her head sadly at the mention of Vanu’s people and turned her nose up at her own.

“Lockhart!” The word came before they saw the young man. Dayni ran to him for a big hug and kiss. Gana ran a little slower, but he wanted to be picked up, and Vanu did just that, as he carried the boy to the door of his house.

“A front porch on a log house,” Katie Harper noted. “Aren’t you playing a little with history here?”

“A little,” Vanu admitted sheepishly. He, above all, was not supposed to do that. “But wait until you taste my barbeque sauce.”

“I could go for some of that,” Captain Decker admitted.

Vanu nodded. “No tomatoes, of course, but a pretty good recipe. I’ll invent it about a hundred years from now.”

“That’s my Kairos.” Lockhart smiled.

It became well after dark by the time they were all fed and ready to call it a night. Some lounged on the porch. Some sat down below on the grass. Gana sat in his mother’s lap and struggled to keep his eyes open. The stars came out by then, bright in the sky. The moon also came up, full. “It is the third and last night of the full moon,” Vanu said.

“What do you mean the last night?” Boston asked.

“I mean the last night with the moon full enough. You see, every time the moon goes full it is not just a one-night deal. There are three nights where there is enough power to make the wolf.”

“Werewolf?” Lincoln asked.

“No,” Mingus objected. “It is way too early in history for a Werewolf. The Were people are still present and haven’t mated with humans enough to pass on the genetic anomaly. And there is no record of the virus this far back.”

Vanu shook his head. “It is the only explanation. Ashtoreth must have thrown the poor man back this far to see if it was possible.”

“Were people?” Katie Harper had a different question.

Lincoln got out the database, but Mingus answered first. “Shape shifters. They were among the many people the gods brought from other worlds to fill the dead spaces. You humans were all bunched up around Ararat and the Plains of Shinar if you recall.”

“But the amulet is gone. Varuna protect us,” Dayni spoke, and looked up into the night sky.

“Ah, the amulet,” Alexis said. The topic had not come up. Vanu took Alexis’ words like a question.

“The amulet of peace and prosperity. My bloodstone ruby fashioned by the dwarfs in the mountains and endowed with the powers of peace and prosperity. It seemed to hold the beast at bay on the first two nights.”

“But you lost one sheep,” Roland said.

Vanu nodded but raised an eyebrow. “Dayni was bringing the flock home just after dark. The wolf caught the straggler. I am just happy it did not catch Dayni.” He reached for her hand, and she squeezed his.

“Let us hope the wolf is far away tonight,” Dayni said. It was not. As they were thinking and preparing to end the night, they heard it close. Captain Decker and Lieutenant Harper armed themselves. Lockhart got out his shotgun. It appeared on the other side of the clearing, drooling and snarling, and looking like it was trying to decide which human to kill first.

Decker and Harper both tried to fire at the werewolf, but the guns just went click, click. The same nothing happened with Lockhart’s shotgun. Roland had an arrow, but Vanu stopped the elf.

“It won’t do you any good unless you have a silver tip.” The wolf moved slowly and paced back and forth, looking for the best way to approach this killing spree. As it moved, the answer to why their guns did not work became apparent. The wolf was wearing the amulet.

“Oh that poor man,” Alexis breathed, thinking that surely the wolf killed the man. No one else got fooled. Clearly the wolf was the mad man in wolf form.

“Wait,” Vanu said. “I may be able to do something here.” He held his hand out and called to his stone. “The necklace was made, and the stone cut and fashioned by my little ones. I may have some power over it. He concentrated, and the amulet moved. It did not fly off the wolf and return to Vanu like Thor’s hammer might fly back to the hand of its owner, but it did wiggle. Then it began to glow. The glow in the stone increased, and it warmed.

“It is picking up the moonlight and amplifying it, like a laser,” Boston said.

At first, the wolf paused and appeared to enjoy basking in that glow, but the heat kept increasing, and after only a few moments, the wolf began to howl. It stood up on its hind legs, not exactly like a dog, and not like a man. Clearly, it could stand and be stable, and it could use its front paws like hands. The heat still increased, and they began to catch the smell of burning hair and flesh. The wolf began to scream, like no real wolf ever screamed, and it pushed the chain away as it wriggled its long snout through the necklace.

The amulet fell to the ground. The wolf eyed them warily before it spun around, fell to all fours, and darted back into the jungle. It left only a trail of the smell of burning flesh and hair for anyone to follow—not that anyone was so foolish. Vanu relaxed. He almost collapsed, but Alexis and Boston caught him. Lockhart, Lincoln, and Captain Decker all moved to retrieve the amulet, but there came a distant explosion that caused them to pause and shut their eyes.

The sudden flash of light left them seeing spots. Before anyone could clear their vision, two young men came crashing through the underbrush. They dove into the clearing, screaming. “Help! Save us!” A tiger came, chasing them. Curiously, the tiger stopped at the edge of the clearing and started to lick its paw, while the two young men crawled over to hide behind Vanu and Dayni.

“Dayus ordered me to eat them, you know.” The tiger spoke without moving its lips. Everyone heard clearly, and no one doubted it was the tiger speaking.

“You are welcome to have them,” Vanu said. People paused to look at him and wonder before all eyes returned to the tiger.

“Can’t. The amulet,” the tiger said. “Anyway, I told you once. I don’t like human meat. Too stringy and distasteful.” The tiger made a face. Everyone saw the disgust just before the tiger vanished.

“Look! There it is!” One of the young men shouted, and both made a dash for it as Lockhart, Decker, and Lincoln all jumped. None got it, because a man in ragged clothes stooped down and picked it off the ground. The ragged man eyed the amulet with some concern on his face while Dayni and Vanu went to their knees. The others joined them; the two young men last of all. They made up for their tardiness in reacting by falling all the way to their faces.

“You know, you should really keep a better watch on this,” the ragged man said, as he tossed the amulet back to Vanu. Vanu immediately handed it to Dayni who slipped it around her neck. Then another man showed up.

“What have you done?” he yelled at the raggedy man.

“I returned the amulet to its rightful owners,” the ragged man said, calmly. “Should I have not done that?” He sounded innocent enough.

The new arrival got hot. In fact, they all felt the heat. He turned on the crowd and shouted again. “What are these still doing here?” He pointed at the two on their faces.

“Ah,” the ragged man spoke like this was a question he could answer. “I believe the tiger said he could not eat them because of the amulet.” Alexis at least thought she saw steam rise from the other man.

“And who the hell are all these people?”

“Travelers,” the ragged man said. “They will be gone in the morning and out of our land before two days have passed.”

The other man paused while he looked around at the travelers. None of the travelers lifted their eyes. Then the man spoke to Lockhart, and Lockhart knew it even without looking. “Take these two with you,” the man said, and again Lockhart knew the man meant Vanu and Dayni even if it did not get spelled out. The man left in a flash of light so bright it rivaled the sun. In fact, it was the sun, the sun god, but fortunately, the ragged man did something to prevent everyone from being burnt and blinded.

“You two.” the ragged man spoke while people once again lifted their heads, except the two on their faces who began to tremble. “If you dare to touch that amulet again, I will be very angry. Just so you understand, I am not like Dayus. I do not have to follow the rules in order to maintain my position. I have ten thousand eyes in the night sky. I am always watching. If you so much as touch it, you will regret it.”

“Lord Varuna.” Vanu lowered his head in a bow. He wanted to be sure the two young men knew who was speaking to them.

“For the rest of you,” Varuna spoke in a different, light and airy voice, and he smiled. “Get your rest. The wolf will not bother you again tonight. But understand, none of us are authorized to end its life. You travelers were kind to it after a fashion. You healed it and fed it, and it now has your scent. It will no doubt follow you through your next time portal and beyond. At some point, I do not doubt you will have to deal with the man wolf. May the gods in that place be able to do more than I am allowed.” He vanished, and they were alone apart from the two, now humbled young men who joined them.

“You see. It is a man wolf like I said.” Mingus looked satisfied.

“A rose by any other name,” Alexis said.

“Not a help,” Lincoln countered. “Ghouls ahead of us, a werewolf following us.”

“Don’t forget the Bokarus,” Boston reminded everyone.

“I kind of hoped we lost that one and saw the last of it some time back,” Lincoln said.

“Don’t count on it,” Lockhart spoke quietly as he stood and brushed himself off to ready himself for bed.

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

MONDAY

The  First City is another 4-part episode so there will be a post again on Thursday. Anenki and Bashte entertain the travelers but they keep getting interrupted by the bokarus, the ghouls, and worst of all, Anenki’s ex-wife. MONDAY. Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 1.7 Peace and Prosperity part 2 of 3

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“We found this one sleeping beside the path,” Captain Decker explained.

“Oh, but he needs help,” Alexis hurried forward to meet the man. The man took one look at her and shrieked. He tried to back up, to get away from her, but the Captain and Roland each had an arm, and they were not going to let go. “Lay him down and hold him,” Alexis ordered, and the men complied.

She stepped up then and the man struggled, but he could not escape. Alexis laid her hands a few inches from the man’s chest. A warm glow of golden light covered her hands and then covered the man. The cuts began to close and heal, and the bruises lightened in color and became less pronounced. With that, the man relaxed, and as Alexis worked, the man’s hand bent up at the elbow. Roland noticed and almost slapped the man’s hand down again, but the man did not reach for Alexis. He reached for the amulet, cupped it gently in his hand, and for the only time, smiled, his eyes only on the stone, and he said one word, “Pretty”—the only word he ever spoke.

Mingus stepped up as Alexis finished. He had a bit of fairy weave and made a loincloth grow around the man’s private parts. Lockhart had another thought.

“We don’t have a strait jacket. Handcuffs would not help.”

“Lockhart?” Several sets of eyes turned to him and wondered why he thought such things. Obviously, the man had been mistreated and driven mad.

“My thoughts, exactly.” Captain Decker had no trouble understanding what Lockhart had in mind. He produced some rope from his own backpack, and since the man lay on his stomach so Alexis could heal his back, he took advantage of that and grabbed the man’s hands. He tied them securely and lifted the man to his feet. The man made noises at him. He growled and whimpered at having his hands tied, but no one set him free.

“Move out,” Lockhart said, and they found they had to drag the man with them at first to get him to move at all.

After a couple of hours on the path through the jungle, they found a clearing large enough to stop for a late lunch. Man, as they called him, got good after a while. He stumbled along with the pack and only turned his head at sounds. He paused now and then to sniff at the air. He drooled now and then, but never showed any sign of comprehension in his eyes. Estimates got revised. Man was entirely mad. Obviously, he could not have been born mad or he would have never survived his childhood. Something must have happened, and all anyone could think was it must have been horrendous.

By lunchtime, Man was taking some simple orders. Lockhart told him to sit, and Man sat. Lockhart felt inclined to treat Man more like a dog than a human. Alexis, Boston, and Lincoln all imagined him more like a three-year-old, albeit one that was not yet verbal. Captain Decker just seemed glad Man was willing to take orders.

After lunch, Alexis excused herself. Outside of the general comments about not wandering far, Lockhart imagined no immediate danger. Lincoln added, “Watch out for snakes,” but that had become his mantra, and no one paid much attention except to be a bit more careful.

Back in the trees, Alexis paused and fingered the amulet. She held it and studied it as deeply as she could with all of her senses. It looked and felt ordinary enough. No human would give it a second thought apart from the size and beauty of the precious stone. The stone looked like a blood red ruby. She felt sure it was, and a ruby the size of her fist. When she looked with her magical senses on full alert, she felt the power. It felt way beyond anything she could comprehend, much less duplicate. She did not feel surprised the gods themselves could be stymied by the thing.

“Alexis!” Lincoln called from the camp.

“I’m fine. I’ll be right back,” she shouted. She smiled to think he worried about her. He spent two years looking for her after she vanished. He really did love her. She decided that if he was having trouble adjusting to the two of them being young again, she could wait, however long it took.

Alexis took the amulet off and laid it out carefully beside her. She did not want to get it dirty. When she squatted, she got a surprise. Man came racing through the bushes. Somehow, he freed his hands. Alexis glimpsed the rope burns and would not have been surprised if he scraped off strips of skin to get free. He snatched up the amulet before Alexis could catch her breath and he disappeared into the jungle.

Alexis hurriedly pulled herself together as the others came running. “He went that way,” she shouted and pointed. “And he stole the amulet.”

“What?” Mingus turned on her. “Why didn’t you stop him?”

Alexis frowned. “I was not exactly in a position to stop anyone.”

Lockhart had no recriminations. He simply pointed to Roland and Captain Decker. The captain jumped through the brush in one direction, and Roland picked a slightly altered course. Then they had nothing to do but wait. Boston, Mingus, and Lockhart spread out in case Man doubled back. Alexis set a magical barrier at some distance down the path on either side so she would be alerted if anyone came their way. They waited, and about two hours later Captain Decker and Roland returned together with a negative report.

“There is a river some distance from here. He could have easily run the whole way and jumped in. After that, there would be no way to follow him.” Captain Decker shook his head.

“There is a way,” Roland disagreed, respectfully. “But I found no evidence of that.”

“Get your stuff,” Lockhart said. “Let’s find out where this trail takes us, hopefully before dark.”

~~~*~~~

It did not take long to get to the edge of the jungle. A broad field of sweet green grass spread out in front of them and continued for a good stretch before it came to some distant rock covered hills. The trail split there. It ran along the tree line in both directions—an odd sight. It looked like the jungle simply stopped and the trees stood like soldiers at attention. The line looked straight and made a sharp demarcation between tree land and the grassland.

“Way?” Lockhart asked, knowing they had followed the trail and not strictly the amulet. They might have been turned around.

“This way,” Boston pointed to their right. Roland stared to their left.

“Smoke, I think,” he said. “Probably cooking fires. Maybe a village.”

Mingus squinted but saw nothing, so he took a great whiff of air instead. He shook his head. “Wind is not from that direction.”

“We follow the green arrow,” Lockhart decided. No one argued. They walked quietly, and about an hour before sunset, they found the sheep. They smelled them first before they saw them. As they came up close, a woman stood from the shadow of the trees.

“Hello.” The woman stepped into the light. She looked young, about Boston’s current age of around twenty-three. She had a three or four-year-old that clung shyly to the back of her dress and she looked pregnant besides. “Are you hungry and thirsty? Please, you must come stay the night with us.” The petite young woman glanced at the sun. “It is not safe right now to be out in the dark. Please.”

“Yes, thank you very much,” Alexis spoke out loud, because Lockhart merely took his own glance at the sun before he nodded.

“Oh, wonderful.” The woman looked pleased. “Come Gana.” She pulled the boy from behind. “Say hello.” The boy merely stared at the strangers. “My husband will be very happy to have visitors. He only has me to listen to most of the time, and he says that is all he needs, but I know he will be happy to have a change in conversation. He knows so much, but he has no one to talk to. Sometimes it keeps him awake at night and sometimes it gives him a headache. Do you know what I mean, headache?”

“That can’t be good.” Katie Harper stepped up to take the point with Boston.

“Oh,” The woman said with the biggest smile seen in a long time. “I know how to cure a headache.” She patted her stomach. Alexis and Katie smiled.

“I wouldn’t know about that,” Boston said, but she found her eyes wander over to look at Roland. The elf looked at the sheep.

“Children!” The woman called and several sheep bleated and began to follow as she walked. “My name is Dayni,” she said. Several people stopped, so the rest stopped. Lincoln said it.

“So, of course. Your husband is Vanu.”

Roland had another thought. “You’re the one those two fools on the trail were afraid of?”

Dayni did not seem to hear. She shouted at her stray. “You, too, Lumpy. You better come if you don’t want to be supper.” The sheep let out a loud Baa of protest, but it came from the edge of the trees and rejoined the herd on the path.

Avalon 1.7 Peace and Prosperity part 1 of 3

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After 4289 BC in the foothills of Kashmir. Kairos 14: Vanu

Recording …

Boston sat by the fire and alternately stared at the amulet and Roland. She did not know what to say to the elf, but she felt she ought to say something. Lincoln inherited the database from Boston and found the place for taking notes.

“Beats my notebook,” he remarked casually. Alexis simply nodded as the howl came again. Her eyes got drawn to the sky while her ears tried to judge the direction and distance.

“Full moon,” Katie noted.

“Don’t start,” Lincoln looked up from his notes. Lockhart laughed, but Mingus waved off the laughter.

“There may be something to that,” he said. “But I would think we are too early for a man wolf.”

“Werewolf, father.” Roland and Alexis both corrected the elder elf.

“Man wolf. Were wolf. Anyway, it is too early in history. The Were people still have a strong presence in several places around the globe. The disease and genetic component responsible for that rarest of troubles won’t connect for a thousand years, maybe two or three thousand.”

The howl came again. It sounded closer, but not by much.

“Well, I do not think there are regular wolves in this part of the world,” Lincoln said.

“Ah!” Mingus raised a knowing finger. “But again, this far in the past may prove different. We might find elephants stretching all the way from Africa to India in unbroken herds, even across the plains of Saudi Arabia, before the land there turns to dust and the elephant herds separate, India to Africa.”

“I recommend we watch in the night,” Captain Decker interrupted.

“Father, you are very talkative tonight.” Alexis shifted her seat to sit beside the elf while Lockhart considered the captain’s suggestion.

“Just thinking of my old friend, Procter. I am sorry you did not get to know him the way he really was. He should have been babbling and rambling and sharing all this sort of information all along. He could be very annoying, but he was a likeable fellow. He was likeable.”

Alexis leaned in and kissed her father on the cheek while Lockhart stood. “Team watch,” he said. He knew everyone felt exhausted from lack of sleep over the past couple of days, but he did not spend all those early years on the police force for nothing. His instincts were acting up. Something did not feel right. Team watch put Lincoln and Alexis up first. Mingus and Lockhart got the dark of the night. Captain Decker and Roland watched through the wee hours and Katie and Boston got the dawn shift. A single watch of an hour or two each through the night would have let everyone get more rest, but something tweaked Lockhart’s nerves. Lockhart glanced at Katie, and she nodded as if to say it did not feel right to her, too.

The howl came a third time, but this time it sounded further away.

The morning arrived without incident, but Lockhart’s feelings would not go away easily. Someone had to be engaged in something criminal and dangerous, and not too far away. Katie handed him a cup of herbal coffee to help. He said thanks, but honestly, the coffee was something he still had to get used to.

The travelers did not go far that morning before they came to a jungle. They had to spread out a bit, as each tried to find the path of least resistance through the thick undergrowth.

“Don’t move out of sight and sound,” Lockhart ordered.

“And watch out for snakes,” Lincoln added. He imagined the place was full of monster pythons and cobras.

An hour in, and the elves stopped still.

“Leopard?” Mingus suggested. Their good ears picked up something the others did not hear.

Roland shook his head. “Tiger, I believe.” Most thought that was worse. Tigers sometimes became man-eaters.

Another hour and the jungle showed no signs of thinning, and thus far only had what Boston called rabbit trails through the brush. They looked promising for a few yards but quickly petered out.

The elves stopped again, and this time everyone else stopped with them, quieted, and wondered what they heard. Then Captain Decker heard and raised his rifle. Then the others heard and became deathly quiet.

“This is a good place.” They heard a man’s voice.

“This is the middle of nowhere.” A second man argued.

“So, no one will look here.”

“But how will we remember to look here?”

Roland moved in absolute silence. He leapt past Captain Decker and climbed the nearest tree in the blink of an eye. No one felt quite sure how he did that, except Boston who chalked it up to him being an elf and young and a hunter. Roland stood on a thick branch and spied on the men. He waved down to Decker, pointed to his eyes, and cupped his hand. Captain Decker tossed up his binoculars. Even the Captain knew that elf eyes were as superhuman as their ears, but clearly Roland wanted a closer look at something.

“It is only until tonight,” the first man said.

“Tonight? But there is the wolf about. Didn’t you see Vanu’s shredded sheep?”

“Ha! I’m more worried about Dayni. If she knew we had this, we would be the ones shredded.”

“But the wolf—”

“You worry too much. You know the day god cannot meet us while the sun is up. It has to be at night.”

“Hey, hey. Do you think he will do everything he said?”

“He is a god. How can you question that?”

“Yeah. I guess Vanu isn’t the only one with friends. But how are we going to find this exact place again?”

 “Easy. We just come to the place where that goblin up the tree there is staring at us with boogly eyes.”

A moment of silence followed, before everyone heard two men scream like little girls and the thunder of crashing through the bushes. Roland tossed the binoculars down to the captain and zipped down the other side of the tree. “Over here,” he shouted. He wanted to find whatever it was the two fools dropped.

~~~*~~~

“It appears to be an amulet.”

“Let me see.” Mingus held out his hand, but Roland only held up the amulet. He caught Boston’s eye, but she looked at Alexis, so he handed it to his sister.

“You better hang on to this.”

Mingus followed with his eyes. “There is great power in that amulet,” Mingus announced. “Of course, I have never seen it, but that might be the amulet of peace and prosperity. Reportedly made by the same folk who made Thor’s Hammer and the armor and blades of the Kairos.”

“Peace and prosperity?” Lockhart asked. Mingus nodded, but Captain Decker scoffed. The captain started getting a handle on this Kairos business, but magic still seemed like so much nonsense to him.

“At least there is a clear path here through this jungle,” he said.

“Boston?” Lockhart asked without spelling it out.

“This is more or less the right direction.” Boston pointed. Without being asked, Roland and Decker trotted down the path and out of sight to scout.

“The amulet of peace and prosperity,” Lincoln read from the database. “Made from a stone found by the Kairos and blah, blah. Ah! The greater spirits of Peace and Prosperity willingly filled the stone with a reflection of their own being. Even the gods are restrained from causing disasters and hardship against the owners and their people.” Lincoln looked up at Alexis who gently fingered the stone that hung from her neck. “Sounds very powerful.”

“I can feel it,” Alexis admitted.

“It belongs to the Kairos?”

“Yes.” Lincoln looked again at the database. “In a thousand or so years, it will go north with the Kairos, Devya, and become the centerpiece of the city of Sanctuary that she will build on the silk road.”

“The sun god, Dayus.” Lieutenant Harper remembered and looked at Lockhart. Lockhart nodded and thought like a police officer.

“Dayus was the one who hated Dallah so much he created the Thar desert to get rid of her. Now Vanu is within his grasp again, but he is frustrated by the power of the amulet. So he gets two locals to steal the amulet for him so he can make a desert in the Kashmir to get rid of Vanu.”

“Dayni,” Boston remembered what she heard. “I bet the amulet belongs to him.”

“Her,” Lincoln corrected. “The Traveler’s wife.”

“I read that book,” Lockhart smiled as Roland and Decker reappeared with a man between them. The man looked ragged, cut, and bruised everywhere. He stood stark naked, and he also looked like he was not in his right mind.

Avalon 1.6 Freedom part 4 of 4

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By morning, all nerves were stretched to the limit and hardly helped when Xiang gathered them for her good-byes. “God willing as we move south the gate will catch up to you before the demons do. They are two days behind, but they move faster than we do. My people rested some when the rain came, but we have five days to go.” She shook her head. She all but confessed that they would be caught.

“We could slow them down a little,” Captain Decker suggested.

“No!” Xiang shouted. “That is the one thing you must not do. Killing them will just set the demons free to infest others, maybe you. They cannot possess you without your permission, but the lies and temptations can be very persuasive.”

“But if we can’t kill them…” Captain Decker did not know what to say. He had to think of options.

“A sleeping gas?” Lieutenant Harper suggested.

“Demons don’t sleep,” Xiang said. “That might just make them act like zombies. Come to think of it, killing them might not stop them either.”

“Great!” Lincoln frowned. “So what do we do?”

“Avoid them,” Lockhart said. “Go out of our way if necessary and wait until they pass.” Boston reached for Lockhart’s hand, and he gave it to her. Touch was something they all needed.

“Yes, avoid them,” Mingus agreed, and he put his hand on his son’s shoulder. Roland looked toward the rising sun. It looked pale and wan, though the sky hardly had a discernible cloud since the rain cleared off. Everyone had been hoping for a bright, sunny day. It would have lifted all their spirits, but it was not to be.

Unlike the day before, everyone talked while they walked. Something about hearing a voice, even their own voices, kept them from collapsing in dread of the demons. They spoke about memories and tried to relate the good times. They tried to laugh, but by lunch, even the best of times felt strangely ominous and became harder to recall while the wicked and sinful moments of life bombarded them with pain and regrets.

Mingus, Roland, and to a smaller extent Alexis felt the oncoming evil as a palpable fear. Mingus did collapse a couple of times, but Lincoln and Lockhart were right there to lift him and get him walking again. “It can’t be much further,” he kept saying. They kept walking. Lincoln did his best to let Alexis lean on him. Roland did his best to keep breathing and keep his feet moving.

Boston squeezed herself between Lockhart and Roland and held on to one or the other at times for the comfort of their touch. Roland smiled at first when she took his arm, but by afternoon, his expression turned to pity and sorrow. Lockhart’s expression remained stoic throughout, but after lunch, there came a moment when he reached out for her hand.

Katie Harper felt the sweat on her brow. She felt a chill in the air, like an early mountain spring, but the sweat could not be helped. She felt like she was burning, perhaps with a fever, or perhaps, she thought she was getting too close to the lake of fire that waited for the demons in the deepest pit of Hell. She checked and kept checking to be sure Captain Decker’s rifle had the safety on. He did not seem to mind. He did not seem to notice. His eyes simply darted back and forth between the trees and bushes, like he expected some terror to jump out at them any minute.

“It can’t be much further,” Mingus droned and shook his senses to keep to his feet.

“Shouldn’t we be looking to sidestep soon?” Boston asked. When Lockhart looked at her with incomprehension on his face, she explained. “To get off to the side and hide until they pass us by.” It took a minute for her words to penetrate.

“Doctor Procter?” Lockhart spoke to the man out front.

“This way,” the Doctor said in a voice that sounded too sprightly, like a man becoming excited. Lockhart had been watching the man since the beginning and especially since their visit with the Ophir. He came suddenly awake and sharp at the sound of that voice.

“This way,” he said, and turned the group ninety degrees to the Doctor’s prescription. Doctor Procter clearly wanted to object, but as the group turned aside, a thick fog rolled in, instantly, or as Alexis later surmised, it suddenly appeared in their midst. No one could see more than a foot ahead, and as they were all in the process of turning aside, some turned too far and some not far enough. It did not take many steps for them to separate.

“Hello?” “Where are you?” “Come toward my voice.” They all spoke, but the fog echoed the words and threw them back at the speaker, which made orientation and direction impossible. Instead of finding and getting closer to each other, they walked further apart. Only Lincoln and Alexis held on to each other, and Boston, whose sweaty hand was not about to let go of Lockhart. Then everyone stopped at once. They heard a voice. It sounded raspy, cold, and chilling in a way none of them had ever heard before or hoped to hear again. It sounded like the voice of death. It sounded like the voice of damnation.

“They are here.”

Boston pulled herself into Lockhart’s arms feeling sure they were going to die. She looked up into his eyes as he held her close, and the strangest thought crossed her mind. She did not want to die without knowing, so she kissed him, full and firm on the lips, and he kissed her back. When they separated, they looked each other in the eyes, momentarily oblivious to their impending doom. They shook their heads at the same time and the same word escaped their lips. “No,” and they almost smiled.

The fog began to lift, and Boston saw two things at once. She saw Roland right beside them, still. She was not sure what all he saw, but she felt sure he saw something. She felt overwhelmed with the need to tell him she was sorry and that she didn’t mean it. But she said nothing as the faces became clear not too many yards away. Those faces looked twisted and distorted. Some hardly looked human. She turned her own face and buried it in Lockhart’s chest. She tried to get away from the sight, but she closed her eyes too late. Those images got burned into her retinas and her brain. Alexis screamed. Katie Harper also screamed, but it was words.

“Decker, no! We can’t kill them. That will just set them free.”

Doctor Procter jumped forward, straight toward the faces. He turned and walked backwards in the direction of the demonized people as a smile spread across his own face. Everyone saw the tears form in his eyes as he spoke gleefully. “Kill them. Kill them all and have your supper.” He pointed at his companions, tripped over a root, and fell straight to his back. He began to struggle, but he could not get up. What is more, the demonized people appeared to be unmoving. They looked frozen in place, and the travelers could only stare at them in return.

Doctor Procter screamed this time. They heard the horse before they saw it. It appeared indeed, like a medieval-looking knight from the High Middle Ages, covered head to toe in dazzling armor. The long lance looked deadly, but they saw something of grace, perhaps chivalry in the knight’s demeanor. The knight said nothing. He simply walked his well-trained steed until he stood beside the Doctor. He lowered his lance and touched Doctor Procter gently on the chest where the heart rested. A brilliant white light spread slowly all the way around the Doctor until he became bathed in it.

Now, the Doctor truly screamed and writhed, or something writhed, twisted, and tried to get free. The thing, a pall of darkness, looked devoid of all light, not simply dark or black. It looked like the enemy of light but proved no match for the lance. The darkness slowly separated from the doctor and began to squirm like a wounded snake. It tried to lash out again and again, but the light from the lance contained it. At last, the darkness began to dissipate. Outmatched, it had nowhere to go. It became like smoke from an extinguished fire. It turned pale gray and vanished at last, like that smoke in a strong gust of wind.

Still without a word spoken, the Knight of the Lance turned his horse around and step by step he became insubstantial, until he disappeared, not behind a tree, but simply in the air. The travelers all stepped up to the Doctor’s side. They were heedless of the others for the moment. Doctor Procter smiled and glowed with residual light.

He began with one word. “Free.” Then he pulled the amulet from beneath his shirt. “Boston. You must take this. You understand it better than the others, and I trust you will guide everyone safely home.” He took it from around his neck and held it out. Boston accepted it, but her eyes were too full of tears to see it properly. “Alexis. I am glad you are safe. I still remember you scampering around the workplace, and Roland, you were worse.”

“Eh?” Roland glanced at his sister before he looked down at the man.

“Yes. Always breaking things, isn’t that right, Mingus?” Mingus nodded, but he could not answer. “Anyway, I think Mister Lincoln is a fine man so Mingus, leave them alone. And Mister Lockhart, I am sorry I never really got to know you properly.” He paused to look around at his surroundings and gave the impression in his eyes that this was the first he was seeing of it. “I am sorrier that all those years of study will now be missed, eh Mingus? I would dearly love to actually see and experience the lives of the Traveler.” He began to have trouble breathing and Alexis and Katie Harper both began to reach for him, but in a flash of light that made everyone blink and throw their hands toward their eyes, he vanished utterly from the world.

“God rest his soul,” Lockhart breathed. The elves did not object since after all, Doctor Procter had been half-human.

“We better move before these others come around,” Captain Decker said. He nudged Lockhart. Lockhart looked at Boston and it took her a second to remember and check the amulet. She pointed, and they walked around the mass of men and a few women who were still frozen in place. The time gate turned out to be barely a hundred yards away. Boston slipped the amulet around her neck as they hurried through. They heard the demons behind them begin to stir.

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

MONDAY

Peace and Prosperity as long as the wolf does not get in the way. Until Monday, Happy Reading.

*

Avalon 1.6 Freedom part 3 of 4

M G Kizzia Leave a comment

“I’m dying,” Xiang said. “Everyone knows it. You might as well know it, too.” The young man beside her bowed his head. Xiang tried to smile for him. “But I won’t let go until all of my friends and neighbors are safe.”

“But what happened?” Boston could not contain her words.

“My husband.” Xiang spoke without flinching. “The chief demon leading the ones who are chasing us. I have no doubt they have something like this in mind for all of us if they can catch us.”

The young man beside her spoke up. “They pulled Nanhai’s skin from his body and all of it, even after he was dead. They left only his face intact so we would know him.”

Everyone looked at Xiang with mouths agape. “They pinned his eyelids back,” she said. “They left his mouth open in a scream so we would find him that way.”

“And they are chasing you?” Lincoln looked off in the direction they had been walking as Xiang nodded.

“Now.” Xiang got their attention before she had to pause and cough. The coughing looked painful. “Mingus, please get a fire started. The wood is wet, and it will need your help, but don’t wear yourself out. You will probably have to help several families start their fires. Blossom—sorry Boston. Blossom, go and say goodnight to your husband but come right back before dark—darker. Roland, take Boston and Katie on the hunt. Shengi has made the game plentiful, so the hunting should be easy.”

“Take them on a hunt?” Roland asked.

Xiang paused to look up at the encroaching darkness. A chill in the air felt far colder than the end of a cold rain should be. “I don’t want anyone alone.”

“We can set up camp here,” Lockhart waved, and Captain Decker leaned his rifle against a tree so he could shed his backpack and get his tent.

“Can I help?” Alexis’ eyes never wavered from Xiang.

Xiang shook her head. “Some warm bread I have heard so much about, and some water. That is all I need.”

“No, I mean—”

“I know what you mean. You can’t help me. Shengi and Nagi can’t help me. It is time for me to pass on, you see? If I don’t die, how will I be born again?” Xiang began to hobble away.

Alexis stepped up and pulled Xiang’s good arm over her shoulder. Xiang was willing. “Actually, Shengi already said I was not allowed to heal you, but I thought I would ask anyway.”

“Not a good idea to do what the gods have forbidden,” Xiang said, but she smiled. It did not make it easier for Xiang to have help walking, but it did not make it any worse, and she did not mind the company.

“Where are we headed?” Alexis asked.

“The top of that little hill,” Xiang answered and stopped. She turned her head to be sure no one watched. Then Alexis found her arm around a twelve-year-old boy whom she recognized right away.

“Pan.”

“Uh-huh,” Pan said. “Race you.” They ran up the hill. Alexis felt winded at the top though Pan did not.

“I am young again.” Alexis caught her breath. “But not that young.”

Pan just laughed, sat down with his back to a tree, got comfortable and traded places with Xiang once again. “Well, I certainly could not run uphill,” Xiang said.

Alexis sat beside her and for a long time they sat in silence as they watched down below. The people came in and set up makeshift tents and shelters for the night. Campfires got lit, though they appeared dismal and dim in that atmosphere, and no doubt provided little warmth against the cold. Alexis finally had to ask.

“It is the ones after us,” Xiang explained. “Their very nearness projects a terrible pall around everything. I am not surprised with your magic you are still sensitive to it. All my little ones are.”

“Boston, Katie, Lockhart and Captain Decker are sensitive to it, too.”

Xiang nodded. “Not Lincoln?” she asked.

“Him most of all,” Alexis answered, and smiled before they got interrupted by the arrival of the goddess, Nagi. Alexis turned down her eyes.

“Shoot!” Nagi said. “I thought I was getting good at appearing like a normal mortal.” She turned to Alexis as she sat on Xiang’s other side. “Xiang is teaching me how to do that and how to block my mind to the thoughts and lives of others so I can walk among people and see and hear for myself. You know, it gets quite boring after a while knowing all the answers up front.”

Xiang just smiled at the goddess. “It might work better if you didn’t appear out of nowhere.”

“Oh, yeah.” Nagi apparently had something else on her mind. She smiled too much. “Stop it,” she told Alexis. “I know you are older than I am, though I can’t imagine how that is possible.” Alexis simply pointed at Xiang. “I should have guessed.”

“She was born an elf,” Xiang confessed.

“No way,” Nagi reached for Alexis’ hand and Alexis found that a very curious thing for a goddess to do. “You see, I didn’t know that in advance. It is so much more fun this way.  But…”  She turned again to Xiang. “I didn’t know you could do that. That is remarkable, for a mortal I mean.”

Xiang shrugged as well as she could and changed the subject. “You and Shengi getting along?”

Nagi let go of Alexis’ hand and looked away. “Is it obvious.”

“Even without reading minds,” Xiang nodded.

“He said if I was willing to help clean up the mess, we might form a partnership. We sealed the bargain with a kiss, a real kiss.” Nagi looked up at Alexis. “But you are married. You know.”

“Husbands have their good points,” Alexis admitted before she remembered and looked at Xiang. Xiang’s husband was demon possessed and leading the ones chasing the people. It became an awkward moment, but in the perfect timing the little ones so often show, Truffles the fairy chose that moment to zoom up.

“Lady, Lady!” Truffles spouted. “Your children are looking for you and Myming is crying.”

“Husbands have their good points,” Xiang said, as Truffles acknowledged the two other women. They watched as the fairy paused, got big eyes, and turned again toward Nagi.

“Lady,” the fairy breathed and curtsied properly.

Xiang started to get up. It looked painful, Nagi interrupted. “Let me,” she said, and Xiang, Alexis, and Truffles found themselves at the bottom of the hill where the children were gathered.

~~~*~~~

Everyone woke in the night at one time or another. Some people screamed in the night and tears could be heard every now and then. It was hard to tell if they were tears of fear or tears for those friends and relatives now lost to the demons—the very ones pursuing them with nothing in their minds but to kill and destroy them. Lincoln woke when Alexis woke, and they whispered for hours. Boston got up when the moon rose high and found Roland sitting quietly a short distance from the camp. Captain Decker hardly slept and kept his rifle close. Lockhart found Katie up and they talked for a while. They both needed reassurance. Mingus joined them after a while and stayed up long after they tried to get some rest.

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

Don’t forget, the final part of this episode will be posted tomorrow, on Thursday.

Don’t miss it.

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