For Love of Evil (31 page)

It was ridiculous, he knew, but Parry wanted a pretext to remain a while longer with this giri. He knew she wasn't Jolie, but the atmosphere of the encounter was so evocative that he could not help himself. Perhaps it was also her innocence that fascinated him, for that was a quality he seldom saw these days.

"Show me," he said. He stood from his throne and extended his hand.

The girl nerved herself and took his hand.

He worked his magic, and suddenly they stood in Prague, in the Kingdom of Bohemia. As a mortal he had been virtually unable to conjure, but his office enhanced his powers of magic, and he had been at pains to master useful disciplines. Now he could conjure himself and others anywhere with ease, not merely within Hell but in the mortal realm.

It was a horror. There were bodies piled in the street, and these were purplish, almost black in hue, the features of their faces locked in the rictus of their closing agony. Men with wagons were going about, picking up the bodies, piling them up and hauling them to a mass burial pit beyond the city.

They walked through Prague, hand in hand. Parry did not need to maintain the contact to keep her with him, but the girl did not know that, and he did not undeceive her. The feeling of being with Jolie was heart-wrenchingly strong.

They saw the victims in every stage. The early sufferers had headache, aching joints, and a general feeling of malaise. Some had nausea, and some were vomiting. Swollen nodes developed in the groin, some the size of hens' eggs; it was possible to spot a sufferer of the plague by the way he walked. They developed high fever and congestion of the eyes and face.

Many suffered from severe thirst, gulping down water that often was simply vomited out again. Their tongues were gross, thickly coated.

Those who were more advanced were exhausted and depressed. Some ran around crazily, as if they thought they could escape their pain. Others seemed dizzy, and some evidently suffered delirium. Then they sank into stupor, and their color started to turn. That was the signal that death was imminent. Many, Parry knew, required the personal service of Thanatos, for their souls were nearly in balance between good and evil, but Thanatos was not in evidence. That meant added suffering, for they could not quite die until the Incarnation of Death arrived.

Indeed, it was much worse than Parry had thought. He had started the plague, impinging on Gaea's domain, thinking it would embarrass her and cause her mischief, but the ploy had succeeded beyond his expectation. It was wiping out one third of the population it attacked, and doing it in a grotesque manner.

"O my Lord," the girl said. "When I think of this coming to my own city, to Warsaw, to Poland-"

Parry released her hand and snapped his fingers. "Beelzebub," he said.

Beelzebub appeared. He glanced around. "Hell on Earth!" he said approvingly.

"Turn off the plague," Parry said.

Beelzebub had held the office of the Incarnation of Evil in olden times. He had become an increasingly open supporter of the present regime as the plague progressed; Parry was doing the Office proud, scoring a coup against Gaea and Thanatos and perhaps against God Himself. This order could hardly have been to his liking! But he had discipline.

"My Lord Satan, the magnitude of it is too great. Only Gaea can suppress it, when she masters her powers. I can halt it only in a limited region, by piping away the rat fleas that carry it."

Parry nodded, knowing that Beelzebub was giving an accurate report. "Then save Poland," he said. "Make sure Prague is included in the plague-free area."

"That I can do, though it is the limit of my power," the damned soul said. He vanished.

The girl turned a wondering gaze to him. "That demon will stop the plague?"

"In Poland," Parry said. "He can do no more. It will proceed elsewhere until it runs its course."

"Then I am ready for my fate," she said simply. "Throw me into Hell."

Parry took her hand again, and used his magic to take them to Warsaw. Here life was normal; the plague had not struck, and would not. "Return to your family," he said. "You are not dead, and need not die soon. You will never come to My realm, good woman." He turned her loose.

She stared at him. "But I gave up my soul-"

"For one interview with Me. I granted the interview, but will not take your soul. You are good, not evil, and do not belong in My realm." He turned away.

He was about to conjure himself back to Hell, but he paused, lingering one more moment in the presence of this girl who so reminded him of his lost love. He knew he had done the favor not because it was right but because he could not resist the foolish impulse to please her, and thereby in some devious manner perhaps make up for what he had done to Jolie by his defection to evil.

She spoke once more, her voice almost a whisper. "Thank you. Parry."

He stiffened, hardly believing what he had heard. Then, slowly, he turned, but the girl was gone.

Had he heard her call him by the name that only Jolie would have known, or had he imagined it? He realized that he might never know for sure, but he preferred to believe that Jolie had awakened for this moment, when he was out of Hell and away from the demoness and doing a bit of good that was out of character for his office, and that she had in that moment animated the girl and spoken to him.

He had his reward.

The plague did run its course, proceeding through the rest of Europe in 1350 and 1351 but bypassing the huge area of Poland from just north of Prague to north of Warsaw. In 1352 and 1353 it moved on past Novgorod and through Russia, doing decreasing damage. By that time Gaea had gained facility with her office, and though she still had a problem with other illnesses, such as smallpox, she never again allowed as massive a sweep of the Black Plague as had occurred in these eight years. Parry had, in his fashion, his revenge, and now it was done.

He continued to dabble in mortal affairs, exploiting any weaknesses he discovered. His most notable success was in 1378, when he managed to fan the fires of divisiveness within the Church to the point where the Papacy itself split asunder. One Pope was established in Avignon in southern France (Parry simply could not resist putting the land of his birth into the picture again), and the other in Rome in Italy, with the entire continent divided in its loyalties. Heresies nourished, and it was evident that it was no longer possible to suppress them in the manner of the past. .

He also made a score in the political arena. His visit to Samarkand had alerted him to the potential of that region, and he fostered the development of a powerful and ruthless lame king, called Tamerlane, who wreaked havoc in that region of the world and generated pyramids of skulls. But this was in the Moslem society, so had limited impact on the Christian framework, and his harvest of damned souls was not what he had hoped for.

In fact, all this fencing with God in the indirect medium of the mortal realm seemed increasingly pointless. It was true, as the Polish girl had said, that innocent folk were the main sufferers. The errors of classification, the inefficient confusions between good and evil-whom did these benefit? The real struggle was between Good and Evil; why not tackle God directly?

The more Parry thought about this, the better he liked the notion. It was time to have the two Primaries settle things in person!

But how should he go about broaching God? Never in his mortal life or in his time as an Incarnation had he ever had direct communication with the Incarnation of Good. He knew that mortal folk often prayed to God, and certainly the Church interposed itself as the mediator between man and God, but all this was based on faith. What tangible response had there been?

Rather than argue the case rhetorically with himself, he went to his friend Chronos in Purgatory. The Incarnation of Time greeted him positively, as always. "To what do I owe the honor of this visit, Satan?"

"I wish to have a facedown with God," Parry said, "so that mortals do not have to suffer the effects of our differences. But I don't know how to approach Him. I hoped you might have an insight."

Chronos pursed his lips. "I do not believe I have ever encountered God directly."

"Exactly my problem. I am prepared to go to meet Him, if I can find the way."

Chronos frowned. "I will help if I can, my friend. But perhaps you should explain to me in more detail why a personal confrontation is necessary."

Parry summarized the questions that had developed in his mind. "I have been thinking about my purpose as the Incarnation of Evil. Is it to generate evil in the mortal world, or merely to locate existing evil? Am I here to encourage greater evil, or to discourage it by the threat of infernal punishment? Am I supposed to defeat God and become the major figure of the universe, or to be defeated? There is so much I do not know!"

Chronos nodded. "I have wondered about that on occasion myself, and about my own true mission. It is my job to establish the timing of every event in the mortal realm, and my staff handles most of this; I step in only when the situation is special. But what is the point? Why should events need to be timed at all? I have concluded tentatively that my job is necessary to facilitate the diminution of entropy. Perhaps yours is similar."

"Entropy?" Parry asked blankly.

Chronos smiled. "Sometimes I forget that some of my terms are from your future. The complete concept of entropy, I think, would be too complex to define readily. Let me summarize an aspect of it this way: entropy may be considered as a measure of uncertainty. In the beginning, all was without form and void, what we call chaos. Nothing was known or, perhaps, knowable. We are laboring to bring order and understanding to it, and in so doing we are decreasing entropy. We are fighting the natural current, for the universe, left to itself, would in due course relapse back to its disorganized state, with maximum entropy. Eventually, if we succeed, we will accomplish the maximum organization of the universe, and all will be known. Thus all Incarnations, Good and Evil included, may be working toward a common goal."

Parry nodded. "You have thought about it, Chronos! It never occurred to me that Good and Evil might be on the same side, but perhaps that is so. But why, then, should we oppose each other?"

"I suspect we should not. But perhaps my theorizing is mistaken."

"I doubt it! Maybe it is just that because we have been assigned to different aspects of reality, and have assumed different identities, we believe that we are differing forces. We become competitive, each trying for a greater share of power. This may be folly!"

"This may be folly," Chronos agreed.

"Here I am, fighting God for a greater share of mortal souls-and why? What do I want with yet more soiled souls? What does He want with yet more pristine souls? Why should either of us care how many souls the other has? As you say, what is the point?" He found himself carried away by his vehemence, but now the question loomed much larger than before.

"What is the point," Chronos repeated.

"Now, more than ever, it seems proper for me to meet with God, not in the competitive sense, but for the sake of understanding. Perhaps we can abolish the confusion that has surrounded our endeavors. Perhaps we can hasten the process of bringing complete order to the world."

"I favor that," Chronos said. "Perhaps if you talked to the other Incarnations-"

"I tried that once, in the time of one of your successors,"

Parry said ruefully. "They humiliated me. Of all the major Incarnations, only you and Nox have treated me decently, and I am afraid to approach her again."

"Oh, I have not encountered Nox. Is she fearsome?"

"Not in the negative sense. She-but perhaps, for you, she would be all right. If you have need for a female companion who understands-"

"I do," Chronos agreed. "Normal women do not adapt well to my direction of living."

"I shall send Lilah to guide you to her, if you wish. But be warned; Nox is a most seductive creature."

"I thank you, Satan. However, do not send Lilah, for that would occur necessarily in my past. Merely allow me to borrow her without challenge in your own past."

"Of course." Parry, even after all this time, kept getting caught by Chronos' reversal! "She understands, and will cooperate." Had cooperated, he now realized, and had not informed him. That was best, to avoid confusion.

"But now let me see whether I can help you similarly. I do not know the route to God's domain, but I do know that the good souls find it. Perhaps if you could follow one of them-"

Parry nodded."I have a number that have been misallocated. I could release them, and see where they go."

"I wish you well, friend." But then Chronos frowned. "However, I must warn you that in my particular time line, there is no change in the rivalry between Incarnations. This does not necessarily indicate that none will occur for you, for my past, like your future, is malleable. But it does suggest that the probability of success in your venture is suspect."

Parry was used to his friend's circumlocutions. "You mean I may fall on my face."

"That is what I said," Chronos said with a smile.

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Chapter 12 - HEAVEN