Duty Calls: The Reluctant War God Book 1 (8 page)

“Damn. That’s pretty good. This guy is better than you ever were. You had to get up and make a bold speech about the glory of the gods and all that garbage to whip them up to fight.”

“True. And even then, I was having them either defend their land or take someone else’s away. I wasn’t having them collaborate for their own downfall and occupation.”

“Do you know where he came from?” she asked. “This Jegu sounds powerful. Not some sort of demon with dreams of grandeur. This is the sort of primal stuff Pandron talks about from the days of creation.”

“I have no idea, and nothing so far has become clearer.”

Enyo stood and brushed the dirt from her pretty rear, then stood over me. She slowly turned sideways and lowered herself to sit on my lap. Then she put her arm around my shoulders and touched my cheek with her index finger. “And you, a war god,
the
war god, are going to let Jegu just waltz in here and kill all these poor, stinky mortals, and you aren’t going to defend them with your shiny sword?”

I grasped her hand and drew it away from my face. “I am not who I was, and I don’t want to be him again.”

“He was a lot more fun. He could kill a thousand men and then come to my bed laughing about it as he took me.”

“He was evil, and so are you. I put that aside. I killed that part or myself. I am not the same.”

She leaded forward to whisper in my ear. “Bullshit.” She then bit my ear with her sharp white teeth, latching on as if she were biting into a steak. I swung my right fist toward her jaw.

She vanished from my lap before I made contact. The space she had occupied collapsing with a loud “pop.”

My ear hurt like hell and goddamn it…I liked it a lot more than I cared to admit.

CHAPTER NINE

INTERLUDE:

THE HALL OF PANDRON

Enyo took a delicate finger and wiped the blood from the corner of her mouth. Looked at it and then sucked it clean. “He’s still yummy,” she said. “But boring as hell. He’s a lost cause, a sad, pathetic shadow of a god much less a war god. He should be the lord over accountants or something, instead.

Pandron sighed. “You think there is no hope, then?”

Enyo shrugged. “He’s obsessed with being human. He considers his previous time as a war god to have been evil.”

“He’s not subject to the morality or judgment of man. He followed my will. I am chief among gods. How can that be anything but righteousness?”

“It’s not me you need to convince. You tell me to kick a puppy I’ll do it for your holy cause. Kaltron is the one who needs the sales pitch. You should go tell him yourself.”

Pandron stiffened in his throne. “Absolutely not. I refuse to beg my son to do his duty.”

Enyo examined the tip of the nail on her index finger. “Well, how you do you suppose to convince him, then? You could always rain down death and destruction on his head, that would get his attention.”

“No, I can’t. If I were to unleash such force it would destabilize the balance between the worlds. We live a precarious existence which allows our realities to touch but not overlap. Too much raw chaos could shatter the worlds like soap bubbles. That is part of my fear about Jegu. There is too much energy being collected, if it isn’t stopped there will be a horrible consequence.”

“Yeah, well whatever. I don’t understand or care about all that blah-blah creation magic stuff. I just want to see Kaltron kick some ass like the old days.”

Pandron scowled at Enyo, obviously displeased. “Since you failed, I suppose I will have to send someone else. Perhaps a bit more sugar and less vinegar.”

“You’re sending the slut aren’t you?”

Pandron chuckled. “Don’t be demeaning to the goddess of love. She has the power to give you more misery than your black little heart can conceive of.”

Pandron raised his hand, and again the raven came to his call.

CHAPTER TEN

The next night, I made a great show of bedding down for the evening. I purposely picked a spot away from the fire to make it easier for me to sneak away. I lay down on my bedroll and pulled the blanket over my head to wait for the others to fall asleep. I could have just vanished, but far better to have them see my in my bedroll first.

I was almost immediately interrupted by Olo.

“Psst. Carl, are you awake?” The farmer was standing over me with his hat in his hand. He’d made a good accounting of himself in the last week, working hard and training hard. He was actually becoming a decent man-at-arms. I did what little I could to give him pointers here and there, but he was somewhat of a puppy in the way he followed me around.

“No, Olo. It so happens I’m awake.” And a good thing or I would have been pissed. “What can I do for you?”

“I know you get to go into town sometimes with Rosten and the others. I was just wondering if you might do me a favor. It it’s not too much trouble.”

“What is it?”

The man hesitated. “Well, it’s my wife. I didn’t see her this evening.”

“Oh, I see.” Usually the women would come out to the camp and visit their men. Bring them something to eat. Give them a tumble to keep their fighting spirit up. His wife Molly had come out every day until today. “I’m sure something must have come up.”

“The next time you go to the Inn to play for the commanders, do you think you could stop by the tailor shop to check on her?”

The man was obviously worried. “I’ll check on her, Olo. Now get some sleep. You will need your rest.”

He thanked me profusely, then went away to his own bedroll.

About an hour later, things in camp had quieted down. When I deemed it a good time, I made my way to the latrine. They’d replaced the canvas tarp around the enclosure, but you could still smell the ash and smoke from the fire. It was actually a great improvement. Thankfully, however, I didn’t need to use the facilities. I just closed the flap behind me, then slipped between the veils of worlds and walked back out.

I called Blackflame to me and he appeared at the edge of the camp in his natural, regal form, also cloaked within the veils. I had decided to delay my liaison with Angelina this night and visit the enemy camp. It was time I had a look at what our army would soon face and take an up close look at this Jegu.

Angelina wouldn’t mind me being late. My absence would only make her the more ardent when I finally arrived at her door. She would be certain I’d sneaked past armed guards and sentries and had risked the charge of desertion and the hangman’s noose for her. No matter how she protested, I knew she loved the fact I was willing to risk my life to spend a few hours in her bed.

As enjoyable as thinking of Angelina was, other darker thoughts were dominating my mind. My dilemma was soon to be upon me. The Jegu were going to come, and I was going to have to fight. But I refused to blind the eyes of the Guldon army with my bright armor and fell sword, lie to them with promises of eternal happiness and rewards in the afterlife. Even though such lies were a conduit for great power. In addition, my nature and talent while enhanced by my magical arms would allow the amplification of the power of the gods combined. All the gods could loose their full destructive potential if I stood with them and they chose to participate. All their pleading for me to intervene didn’t guarantee their participation when the fighting actually started. They were a fickle lot.

So quick to spend the lives of others and so protective of their own personal safety. But the brief instant of time of a mortal’s existence should not be cut short because they thirsted for a better life in death. It was this sickening betrayal of humanity my family thrived upon. And yet, if what my brother Yond had shown me was a true vision, how else could mortal man hope to prevail?

The moon provided ample light for me to clearly see the countryside I traveled through. I followed the king’s highway past the large, but now abandoned estates near the capital, and through the poorer farms on the outskirts. The crops were dead, or the fields actually burned, the livestock taken to the city or slaughtered—a quiet and ghostly landscape. The slighter altering of my perception caused by my mode of travel made the feeling of unease even worse.

I forded a small creek and began to enter a wooded area beyond. I was getting close to the outskirts of the Jegu camp. They were settled around the base of a small mountain range. The trees made it impossible to make out many details, but I could catch the occasional glimpse of the lights of campfires in the distance, twinkling between the branches.

I could also hear the sound of work being done. Trees being felled, even at night, and what sounded like the crash of many heavy blows against stone in some sort of mining operation.

As I neared, I could see there was some sort of activity going on against the side of the mountain. Groups of men were digging and others were carrying buckets of excavated material to be discarded. Teams were tearing at the mountain with pickaxes.

What were they digging for? Boulders for a catapult?

The trees were becoming thicker to either side of the path. Blackflame started at something in the shadows. This surprised me because Blackflame was not by nature skittish. Even though logic told me there could be nothing to fear while we traveled the veil, I warily drew my sword.

As we passed an oak tree, something leapt from above and attacked me, knocking me off Blackflame. A cold burn raked across my chest. I struck out as I rolled on my back, pushing the dark mass away as we both returned with a jolt to mortal reality.

The creature was some sort of large black cat, and yet longer of leg Tall like a man, and obviously magical. It hissed and snarled at me. I put the point of my blade between us, in-line with its eyes. Muscles rolled under the cat’s black fur as it coiled for another pounce. I felt blood trickling down my chest where the claws of the cat had torn my flesh.

I struck before it could get another chance. I executed a low, fast thrust, extending far and jabbing the sharp point of my slender blade past the paws of the creature to strike its breast—the blade wouldn’t penetrate.

The cat charged and I was forced to fall to my back and fend off the slashing clawed hands. I dropped my sword, grasped the cat man’s arms and avoided the disemboweling strokes of his feet by kicking the beast in the belly with my boots and throwing the animal back.

Again we spun and turned, facing each other. I managed to snatch up my blade again. The creature was immune to mortal steel, but this time, I drew from the eternal fire within me and traced a line around the edge of the blade. It glowed with lethal energy.

The cat looked at the flaming sword with fury. The rage it exhibited was astonishing. It slung spittle from its curled back muzzle and roared first, and then spoke.
“Who are you? No man, surely. You walk the silent path. You have the sacred fire. What is your name?”

“Just Carl, the good ole boy. And you must be Fluffy.”

“You are making a mistake, godling. Hissss…You should join Jegu. You belong to Jegu. We all do.
”

“Sorry, but you started this. I just want to end it,” with that, I attacked again.

This time I feinted another thrust, which caused the cat to retreat back with its neck extended. I neatly switched the plane of my attack and swept the blade across the broad black neck of the cat. The enchanted steel cut cleanly through the creature as if it were made of smoke.”

The cat’s body writhed and began to boil into a black liquid and was utterly consumed in an instant. Gone as if it had never been except for the lingering smell of cat piss. But then again, that never seems to go away no matter how you try.

I released my breath, which I had been holding, and bent forward, resting my hands on my knees. From far off I could hear the sound of a hunting horn. My struggles with the cat creature had alerted the guard. I could just see the faint impression of tents and watch fires in the distance, but trees blocked most of my view. I wouldn’t get any closer tonight. My hopes of reconnoitering the camp were over. Obviously the Jegu were prepared for threats of all kinds.

I mounted Blackflame and rode like hell for Tarnon. As I rode away, I sensed a presence following me. I looked over my shoulder and saw a red glow in the distance. This false dawn was Jegu the god, searching for me. I faced forward and hunched down against Blackflame’s back, spurring him on for greater speed.

I felt the consciousness of Jegu seeking me out. I felt the cold touch of its mind. It filled me with a sensation I had not felt in a millennium. I felt the icy breath of fear as it rose up my spine. “You have got to be kidding.”

Jegu found me. I knew it with a certainty that could not be questioned. I knew the touch of his mind. Jegu had found me and Jegu could have swatted me then and crushed me as if I were an insect. I felt the momentous weight of Jegu’s power looming over me. And then I felt a release—a sense of amused tolerance, and then Jegu was gone.

Holy shit!
What had I gotten myself into? This Jegu was something beyond my understanding.

CHAPTER ELEVEN