Dark Gods Rising (16 page)

The guard’s mouth twitched into a knowing smile as he brushed the dust from Vere’s clothes. “My King, this is Anothosia’s most High Priest. He and the other priests of the Seven have always been welcome here.”

Vere’s beady eyes shifted right, then left, and sweat beaded his brow. “Where’s Belsac?” he whispered. “I need my medicine.”

The guards looked at the king and then back to Calto. The captain stepped forward. “Lord High Priest, what would you have us do?”

“Take him back to his room. Make sure he lies down. I have business with the queen to conduct.”

“Yes, he does, and next time,” Elise’s eyes lit with green fire, and her voice became a low growl. “You will address
me
as to what is to be done— not my priest.”

The guard’s bearded face became stiff. “Yes, Your Majesty. Forgive my lapse of propriety.” Bowing deeply, he took the king’s arm and led him away.

The guard gone, Calto turned to face Elise. Her pale, oval face looked drawn and sad.

“Calto, what am I to do now? You have just seen a part of what I’m facing.”

With Anothosia’s godhead still upon him, Calto placed his hand upon Elise’s forehead. Power leapt from his hand into her body, lighting her from within. The queen’s eyes instantly turned a soft gold, and her hair reflected a coppery haze of dancing lights. Rapture came upon her, erasing the sorrow from her eyes.

Never before had Calto felt such power course through his body as he had this day. Shaking his head, he wondered where the added strength came from and why. For a moment, the image of the unknown guard flared bright and intense in his mind, revealing to him someone other than an aged warrior. Then, just as quickly, it faded, leaving behind an odd afterimage which fused with the power of his goddess. Another surge of raw power filled his body and then passed into the queen’s.

Elise’s visage became even more radiant and, if asked, Calto would have sworn he looked into the beauty of her soul. It was like a flickering white fire, intense in the middle, soft around the edges.

Words not his own issued from his mouth. “Child of light and courage, none may take another from your womb. The light of the gods will walk with you in these dark halls, never leaving your side so long as our lights shine within the heavens.”

Elise and Calto gasped as the light released them. Swaying, the queen stumbled into Calto’s arms. He held her tight against his chest, relishing her warm, feminine curves, afraid to let her go. Despite the blessing he had delivered, he loathed the thought of leaving her alone. He wanted to bury his face in her soft curls, inhale her delicate scent, and swear his allegiance to only her, but that would be far past what was proper. Holding her like this was indecent enough, and besides, the muck upon his robes was certainly ruining her green silk dress.

The queen seemed to think of this as well for she suddenly pulled herself from his embrace.

Swallowing, Calto dropped to his knee. “Forgive me your Majesty. Your beautiful dress— I–I meant no—”

Her voice was warm, soft. “Please rise, Calto. You did nothing but bring me peace and give me the comfort and reassurance no one else had the courage to give. Besides, I have dozens of beautiful dresses just like this one. None hold meaning.”

Calto dared to lift his head and look into his queen’s eyes. Heart stuttering, he locked his gaze with hers. Could she see his adoration, feel the love nestled deep in his soul?

Glorious woman! She shone not only with her own beauty, but with the beauty of the blessing just granted her. He could not keep his eyes from trailing down the length of her body and back up to her face. The afterglow of the blessing still flashed in her eyes, and her smile radiated pure peace. At that moment she looked more goddess than mortal.

Calto stood. “I will send two of my knights here to guard you.”

She waved a hand in dismissal. “No, Calto. Neither the king’s advisor nor his whore dare touch me now. I have faith in the power of Anothosia’s blessing. The next child I carry shall come to term, and I will be gifted with a son. This I was promised by the gods themselves.”

Elise smiled, slow and sweet. Calto’s heart warmed. He nearly fell to his knees. Her beauty was a thing of awe and her presence a balm to his aching soul.

She sighed. “And the safety of the kingdom comes before my own. You cannot afford to pull even one knight from the task of finding the second hellhole in our kingdom. Thank you for coming for me. You are truly one of the few I can call friend. I’ll be fine now. Go. Go before more problems arise or your king gains any sense about him.”

Calto’s heart crumbled. He longed to hold her flesh to his in an intimate embrace. He knew this impossible, but a heart will want what it wants. His wanted Elise.

Chapter 7
—
Nursemaid

Thump, drag, thump, drag, thump, drag
.

“Berferd is almost useless. There must be some way I can get some other help.” Phrandex reached the rock wall of the nursery and turned around to pace the other way.

Swoosh. Thump, drag, thump, drag, thump, drag. Chomp!

Painfully wincing, Phrandex looked down at the teething demon locked securely around his leg. Drool coated the black and copper colored scales on the baby’s face. The devil smiled at his young charge. “By the Dark Lord, you are a cute one! But there are just too many of you.”

Phrandex turned his attention back to pacing. The child mewled and hissed and began dragging itself up Phrandex’s leg. Long, scaly arms rasped against his upper thigh as the child pulled itself up to the older devil’s waist. It found a soft spot on Phrandex’s hip and sank its fangs into him.

Phrandex winced again. He didn’t mind the teething so much, just, of late, so many new demons were being born lately. He couldn’t take care of them all, especially when the new babies started teething about the time the older ones decided they were ready for solid food. Every inch of his six-foot frame was often covered in biting, hissing— and most often angry— demon babies. Of late, it had become so bad he barely kept things under control. If he were not careful he would eventually lose one of the little demons into the belly of several others.

Phrandex shuddered at the thought. If he were to lose one, Athos, the lesser lord of Hell, would personally see to tearing his scales off one by one until he was a bloody mass of exposed tissue. Athos would then allow Phrandex’s scales to re-grow and do it all again. He might even invite their shared father, Zorce, to join in. Neither of the hellgods would tolerate a hint of a delay to their planned takeover of the upper world.

“What is it those humans use to take care of their young?” Phrandex mused. “Milk maids? No, no. I’ve had one of those before.” He grunted. “Taste nothing like milk. Hmm. And maids clean. What was that confounded name again? I know it has something to do with a human woman.”

The baby climbed onto to Phrandex’s back and clawed its way up to his horns. Phrandex sighed at his young half-brother. “Orloc, please go to sleep. I need to think, and you’re not helping.”

“I’ll take him.”

Phrandex whirled around, accidentally flinging the baby from his head. Inertia carried the demon across the cave and into the arms of the similian standing in the doorway. He laughed nervously. “Nice catch.”

Scowling, Sulya’s skin turned dark magenta. Two cat-like eyes glared at him as she cuddled the demon close to her chest. She was tall and lithe, and had no need to fear the little demon’s bite because she was dressed in black battle armor. “Careful Phrandex. We’re trying to get you noticed by Athos in a good way.”

Nodding foolishly, Phrandex bowed furiously at the woman. Sulya deserved respect. After all, she served the father of Hell, Zorce, as his general and was considered a nasty bit of work by most of hellkind even though she was not, technically, one of them. “My apologies, my lady. My apologies.” Phrandex hated bowing to the similian. It was demeaning. He was a half-blood devil, a tough as hell being, and she was nothing but weak flesh and blood. But Zorce needed his weapons, and Sulya was his most cunning tool. Not to mention she was not only Orloc’s mother, but Phrandex’s as well.

The baby nuzzled her armor for a place to gnaw. Phrandex thought about warning her Orloc was teething, but he needed some relief. Besides, if the child did manage to bite through the armor Phrandex would enjoy hearing his mother scream. The sound of strained vocal chords often helped him think, and her screams would be more pleasant to hear than most.

To Phrandex’s displeasure the child only nuzzled her. After long moments of cooing, a detestable humanoid trait, Sulya hugged Orloc before walking across the room and placing him in his crib. Asleep.

Phrandex scowled. “How did you do that?”

“I’m its mother, idiot.” Sulya smiled fondly down at her offspring and gently stroked his head. When the baby gurgled, Sulya smiled wider and then turned to sneer at Phrandex. “Not much of a nursemaid, are you?”

Nursemaid! That was what he needed! Yes! Phrandex smiled broadly and shook his head. “No, General. I’m not, but I’ll soon find somebody who is.”

* * * *

Feeling nervous, Phrandex clutched his cloak around him. He didn’t like the idea of being above ground at such a terribly young age. According to the tales around the caverns, humans smelled funny, had weird habits, and resented being eaten. He hated the thought of walking among them, but really, how else was he going to gain experience so he could properly teach his precious brood about the world they would someday own.

The devil peeked around the corner of the Hellhole Tavern’s kitchen door. According to his teaching the low amount of light coming through the window indicated it was early morning as humans reckoned things. The place appeared empty. Good. He didn’t want to face off with one of those pesky knights he had heard were often lurking about. The tales said human knights had always tried to catch his kind as they came out of the hole back before the king forbade them doing so. They waved their swords about, shouted, whacked, jabbed, and just generally annoyed his brethren. Pains in the ass, every one of them,

Or so he had heard.

Phrandex quickly scuttled across the dirty wood floor and took up a position near the entrance. He glanced carefully about and found the street full of loud and nauseatingly sweet smelling people.

How in the two hells was he going to find his way around and get what he needed? He clacked his jaws in frustration. Maybe he wasn’t going to get a nursemaid after all. Ideally, he could reach out the tavern’s door and just snatch a woman, but what if she hated children, and what if one of those knights were out there with their pointy things? No. He had to have a milkmaid. Or was that a nursemaid? But how?

“Can I help you, stranger?”

Phrandex nearly jumped out of his scales when a man’s voice spoke from behind him. How had he missed the fellow? He turned slowly, making sure his face was in shadow and his shape change remained mostly intact. Standing behind the bar was a large, stout man with his hands resting on the bar top. He was as tall as Phrandex and almost as hairless. What little hair he did have swirled in gray wisps around his head. He wore a brown shirt with sleeves rolled up to his elbows.

“I…ah…am looking for someone.”

“Hmm. Who would that be?” The man’s hands remained carefully near the bar’s edge, probably because he had a weapon of some sort hidden there. Was he one of those knight things?

Phrandex frowned. The man was most likely the owner, but he had heard human knights were slippery fellows good at deceiving even the most careful of devils. No easy feat. This human seemed to be sizing him up as well. Maybe he should eat him and be done with it. Still, the man didn’t appear to be armed so he might not be a knight. What a quandary. To eat or not eat, that was the question.

Not. He needed answers, and this human was the only intelligent being around who could give them to him. If he proved useless, well— it was past breakfast time wasn’t it?

Phrandex stepped closer to the bar and examined the surroundings. Behind the bar were many bottles of liquor, one of them labeled ‘Evertrue Whiskey.’ At the sight of the bottle Phrandex drooled. He loved Evertrue Whiskey. His mother once brought him half a bottle of it for his seventy-fourth birthday.

Fishing out a large diamond, the devil threw it on the bar. “I want two bottles of your best Evertrue.” He looked down to see that a large puddle of his drool had fallen to the bar top.

Looking disgusted, the bartender eyed him suspiciously before picking up the diamond and biting it. “Huh. Feels real. Where did you get this?”

Phrandex pulled his tongue back into his mouth and allowed his shape to revert slightly back towards devil. “In Hell.”

With his expression suddenly cool, the bartender moved through a doorway leading to, Phrandex assumed, the kitchen.

Phrandex frowned. Was the man being tricky? There were tales of tricky humans, and this one, Carrid Brewer, Phrandex remembered from the tales, had a reputation of being especially tricky.

Just to be careful, he walked around the bar and into the kitchen. When he walked through the door, the bartender wheeled on him with a pan, smacking Phrandex directly in the face.

Phrandex blinked. “You hit me.”

Carrid looked at the ruined pan.

Casually, Phrandex grabbed the man by the throat. Carrid gasped when Phrandex lifted the bartender off his feet and shook him. “Now
that
was not nice. You will give me back my diamond plus four bottles of whiskey. Now!”

After shaking him once more to make sure the fellow got the message, Phrandex released his hold. The bartender scuttled quickly out of the devil’s way, ran into a back room, and reappeared moments later with the requested items.

“Good. Furthermore human, you will get me a…” Phrandex paused. Was it a nursemaid he wanted? Yes, yes, at least he thought that was it. “A nursemaid. Now.”

With a slow shake of his head, Carrid Brewer’s face scrunched into an odd, perplexed expression. “I ain’t got no nursemaids. All I have are barmaids, and none of them are here yet. You have to go uptown to get yourself a nanny.”

Phrandex tilted his head. “A what?”

“A nanny, nursemaid, brood mother. Same thing. Just depends on where you’re from.”

Puzzled Phrandex didn’t know if it was better to have a nanny, a boob mother, or a milkmaid? This human was confusing him. Irritated, Phrandex grabbed and shook him again. “What is a boob mother, and is she better than a milkmaid?”

The man’s feet kicked frantically as his face turned an odd shade of blue. “Gack!”

Frowning, Phrandex loosened his grip and allowed Carrid’s feet to touch the ground. After a considerable amount of coughing, color returned to his face.

“Fascinating. You humans change color just like Similians do?” Because he liked experimenting, Phrandex played with the man for a while, testing his color range until he passed out.

“Oh hells bells, now what?” Phrandex nudged the big man’s still form for several minutes before a shrill scream rent the air. For the second time that morning, Phrandex nearly shed his scales.

“By Nedross, you killed him. You murdered Carrid.” A skinny, bedraggled, young woman stared at Phrandex from the kitchen doorway. Her long skirted dress was the same drab brown as her hair and eyes. A filthy gray apron was tied at her waist, and she looked like she had just crawled out of a garbage pile. When her eyes grew huge, Phrandex remembered he still wore his devil face.

“I did, most certainly,
not
kill Carrid,” Phrandex replied, allowing his features to shift back to something near human, a bit insulted at the idea he would kill someone without first torturing them for a day or so.

The woman looked up at him with wide, terrified eyes. He liked that. A feeling of perverse pleasure stole over him. The urge to grab her and experiment was nearly overwhelming. He resisted the temptation. Maybe she knew about boob mothers.

Reaching over, he casually snagged the woman by her hair. She screamed and kicked in a useless attempt to hurt him. “Now look, stop this nonsense. I only want to ask a question or two, and then I’ll let you go.” At least he thought he might. After all, she had brought up the subject of killing first.

The smelly creature stopped howling. Tears still ran down her dirt smudged face, but the noise was gone. Much better.

Phrandex grinned with satisfaction. “I need to find a boob mother or a ninny or something like that. Or a milkmaid if you know of one. Hmm. No. Wait. I don’t think milkmaid is it. What was that word again?” Phrandex’s mind twisted and turned as visions of mother’s with three and four boobs popped in and out of his head. “No, no, milkmaids are the women who don’t taste like milk.”

His captive whimpered. “I ain’t no milkmaid, and I don’t know what any of those other things are either.”

Blast it all. He had played too much with the bartender so he had to start all over with the explanations again. Fortunately, this human looked intimidated and pliable. She seemed like someone who would give him the information he needed with almost no persuasion. However, she kept one hand near her pocket, probably where she concealed a knife. A trace of anger stirred in him. Briefly, he thought about breaking her for her effrontery, but refrained. She was the only human he had left.

Compromising, he stopped hurting her after she wore only a couple dozen small bruises. Phrandex carefully released the woman and once more explained what he needed. She rewarded him with detailed instructions on what he had to do.

“So, I have to go uptown to 356 Workers Lane and apply for a nanny? Correct?” Phrandex asked ten minutes later.

She nodded quickly. “Please, may I go now?”

“No, I can’t possibly go out there and do this. I’ve never actually walked in the human world before. I would end up lost.” Or worse, he thought darkly, he might run into one of those knights he had heard about. The king’s stricture about them leaving hellkind alone didn’t apply outside the tavern. “You go. Give them these diamonds and tell them I want their best milkmaid. When you have her, bring her to me here. If you don’t—” Flexing his talons, Phrandex snapped his jaws shut. “I have your scent. I’ll know where to find you.”

The woman shuddered and shrank toward the door. “I’ll be back soon.” She turned and ran.

After she left, Phrandex sighed and sat down next to the unmoving bartender. He hoped the woman returned with his–what was that again? Boob mother? No! Oh, damn it all, he just wanted to get back to his babies. Hopefully his threat was enough to bring the woman back because he honestly didn’t know if he could find her again. These humans all stunk the same, probably the result of too much bathing.