Olivia (129 page)

He roared at her without words, blasting her face with the heat of his godly breath.

She closed her eyes against the worst of it, opened them only after she felt her flying hair resettle.  She looked past the raised hooks of his claws, wet her chapped lips, and calmly said, “But Kodjunn is here because he loves you.”

The Great Spirit drew back, his blazing eyes dimming.

“His oath was yours at the asking, remember?  He’s here because he wants to be.  He’s here because you are his father and his god.  And you’re hurting him.”

He retreated another step, his hands falling to his sides.  After a moment, his fists unclenched.  He looked back over his shoulder into the dark, at Kodjunn, perhaps, unseen in the distance.  Finally, the Great Spirit bent his head.  “
So be it
,” he said.  “
It is my nature to give in to heated fury, but I concede to your cool wisdom.  What do you offer as solution
?”

“How do you define the problem?”

He shrugged.  “
Kodjunn objects to my possession of his body
.”

“Wrong,” she said firmly.  “He objects to your abuse of it.  You can’t force him to carry me for hours at a time when the only rest he has is to stop and have sex.  Sex is not restful.”

The Great Spirit looked troubled.  “
The argument I gave before is still the truth.  I am an archetype of male energies, most of which cannot be shared out to a female.  I can only give you the raw seed of my essence.  It is your feminine nature that gives you the ability to receive that power and change it within your body.  What you think of as building up a charge is the act of conceiving a living body of magic of my divine seed
.”  He released her hand and stared up at the moon, his face inscrutable.  “
The process of such reproduction baffles me.  It always has
.”

She interrupted gently, saying, “I’m familiar with the process here, Great Spirit, but one of us is going to end up killing Kodjunn if we keep using him like this, and then where will we be?”

He bared his sharp teeth, but at last the snarl was not directed at her.  “
We have precious little time before we come to the Place of Binding, woman.  If you go as you are now, you will be at once consumed.  Do you think I enjoy the act of sex from within the unfeeling clay of my son’s mortal husk?  I use him only to arm you against the inevitable battle with the River Woman
!”

“If you really want to help empower me against Bahgree, you’ll let Kodjunn rest during his rest periods, sleep during the day, and eat whenever he can.  If you really feel like you have to be there to protect me when he’s carrying me, then leave him alone the rest of the time.  Stop using him to have sex with me.”  She reached out to take his hand; he started and looked down at it.  “One hour with you is worth ten nights with him, anyway.”

He dropped his eyes to her hand, then sighed and looked away again.  “
At least when Kodjunn couples with you, my aura is sufficiently constrained that I do not hurt you
.”

“We’ll work on that, but you have got to give us some space.”

He scowled at her.  “
You say this
,” he said dismissively, “
but you do not appreciate how my presence protects you.  You think that because you have not seen an enemy that you are safe?  This world belongs to Bahgree.  There are a thousand rivers, a million drops of rain.  She knows you are coming, she sees you even as I do not,  and she will have you if she is able
.”

“You’re doing it again,” she sighed.

He looked startled, and then frowned.  “
I am not threatening
,” he snapped. “
I am stating the facts
.”

“To scare me.”

“
To impress you.  You stand in altogether too much need of impressing
.”  The Great Spirit lowered his display of horns and scowled at the ground.  “
Very well
,” he growled.  “
I will not mention it again
.”

“I think it’s sweet when you humor me.”

“
Indeed, woman, you have no idea how I humor you
.”  He glowered at her.  “
But as you say, we manipulate one another.  I, to spare the lives of countless innocents.  You, for whatever trivial reason you think you have
.”

She raised an eyebrow and looked at him.  “Trivial.”

He folded his arms and tossed his horns at her defiantly.  “
It is not for my pleasure that you work your will on me.  You admit this
.”

“And you admitted it was worth my effort, so you shouldn’t be moaning on about how pointless it is now.  Unless you don’t want me to do it again,” she added.  “Now come on.  Are you really this determined to have a fight?”

He threw back his head, preparing for a full assault, perhaps just on principle, when he heard this, but then stopped and tilted his head to the side as if listening intently to something beyond her range.  His expression darkened slightly, and then smoothed out with mild surprise and faint chagrin.  “
Kodjunn
,” he said reluctantly.  “
Kodjunn is asking my forgiveness
.”

Olivia said nothing.

The Great Spirit bared his teeth and glared down at the ground.  At long last, he looked up at her and growled.  “
You are right
,” he said finally.  “
About a great many things.  I will go to my host and we will come for you.  We will carry you.  I will permit him to sleep at times, if you will promise to meet with me apart from him and give me pleasure when we couple
.”

She hesitated.  This was a victory of sorts; her argument all along had been intended to get the Great Spirit out of Kodjunn’s body.  If she took the god in his own flesh, so to speak, the raw stuff of his seed would empower her far more, and she thought the temptation of touching her with his own hands would be incentive enough.  But no, she had to put the idea of orgasm in his mind, and giving him one meant enduring the painful backwash of his divine power. 

But she could heal, and Kodjunn had been carrying him for days, suffering the dual agonies of the Great Spirit’s possession and Olivia’s sexual vampirism without complaint. 

“Agreed,” she said.

He showed his teeth again, this time in an unwilling smile.  “
Compromise
,” he said, mouthing the word as if it tasted bitter.  “
I am in danger of growing accustomed to this
.”

“But you are getting just awfully good at it,” she said.

“
Hm.  Indeed
.”  He vanished.

4

On the third day, Kodjunn banked clumsily for an emergency landing, struck the ground, and dropped like a stone atop Olivia.  “Sorry,” he gasped.  “Hurt?”

“Get out,” Olivia said.

The Great Spirit looked wounded, but not insulted.  “
So soon?  I should never have selected such a fragile male as host to me
.”

“Everybody’s sorry for something,” Olivia retorted.  “You’re killing him.  Let him sleep.”

“Please,” Kodjunn added wearily.

“
Every moment we spend out in the open is one more moment that Bahgree can plot against us
,” the Great Spirit warned.  He paused before saying more, perhaps exploring the extent of Kodjunn’s exhaustion.  “
But there must be risk.  Olivia, we will couple while Kodjunn sleeps.  Meet me there
.”  He lifted Kodjunn’s shaking hand and pointed it at a very distant outcrop of rock.

Quite suddenly, the Great Spirit was gone, and Kodjunn slumped again atop her, instantly asleep.

Olivia pushed him to one side long enough to slither out from under him.  She wondered if she should cover him with something, decided there probably wouldn’t meet too many people in the middle of the night this far in the wilderness, and set off for the meeting place.

She reached the correct spot after an arduous three-hour hike.  The Great Spirit was perched on a dead log, contemplating the sly, winking eye of the moon.

“
She will be in season in tomorrow
,” he murmured, his face a study in innocent lust.  He dropped his gaze to Olivia, and gave her a huge smile.  “
I have fashioned for you a spear
,” he said, producing one from its resting place against his flanks.  “
So that you might hunt for yourself and my son
.”

“Why didn’t you hunt while you were waiting for me to get here?” Olivia asked, irritated.

“
I require no food
.”

“So you just didn’t bother?”

His head cocked.  “
And so I have never learned how
.”

That couldn’t have been an easy admission.  Olivia turned the spear in her hands, studying it while she tried not to be so annoyed with him.  It was lighter than it ought to be, judging from its size, but didn’t appear to be either wood, stone or metal.  Whatever it was, it was all one piece, perfectly straight and smooth, the blade very thin and sharp along its entire edge, the haft molded perfectly for her hands.  “Thank you,” she said at last.  “For someone who doesn’t hunt, you make a great spear.”

He shrugged that off.  “
There is no skill in it.  Only a mere shred of whim, of will.  I do not need to understand a thing in order to duplicate its form and function
.”

“You don’t find it odd that you can magic up a perfect spear but not use it?”

“
I do not dwell on such matters.  It serves no useful purpose.  Now
,” he said briskly, folding his arms.  “
You will hunt for yourself and my host.  I will accompany you
.”

“That isn’t necessary.”

“
It is
,” he replied.  “
As I can neither hear nor see you unless you stand before my eyes.  Apart from the dangers of the River, there are other threats in the wild places of the world, still perilous to your mortal body.  Besides which, when you have done with hunting for the night, I mean to couple with you for many hours
.”

Of course.

Olivia looked at the spear again, then shrugged and led him off in search of game.  Doru’s training hadn’t advanced quite to the stage of recognizing game-trails, but it had rained fairly recently and she could see, here and there where the grass had thinned, the soft indentations of hoof-prints in the soil.  So deer had been here at some point, even if she had no idea just when.  The Great Spirit was content to follow along behind her, watching avidly as she searched the ground, but the closest she came to deer were a few more tracks and a pile of a pellets.  In frustration, she flew out from her body and at once saw the uncountable lights of animal life all around her.  She followed some of them  to a warren of rabbits, and spent the next forty minutes trying to scare them out long enough to kill one.

It didn’t work well, and her performance suffered severely by the presence of the Great Spirit, standing off to one side with his arms folded and his massive horn-crested head tipped thoughtfully to one side as he watched her.  At last, in desperation, Olivia flung out a bolt of power, which had the fortunate effect of stunning three bunnies long enough for her to rush up and bash them on their furry heads with the flat of her spear.

“
Is that how it is used
?” the Great Spirit asked, surprised.

“Yes,” she snapped, scooping up the corpses.

“
Well done
!” he said, nodding his admiration.  “
I always presumed it a throwing weapon, or perhaps a stabbing
—”

“Well, you’ve never used one, have you?”

“
No
,” he admitted.  “
I never would have thought to use it properly
.”

“How did you know I could hunt anyway?”

“
You burn at the fore of Doru’s mind
,” he replied, taking the rabbits from her.  “
He knows that you hunt and so I do also
.”

“Doru hunts,” she countered.  “Why don’t you know how to use a spear?”

“
Thoughts of you interest me
,” he said.  “
Hunting does not.  I require no food.  Why should I bother myself with the taking of it
?”

“Of the three of us,” she returned, careful to keep her voice neutral, “you are providing the least amount of service on this journey.”

He opened his mouth to offer some arrogant contradiction, but closed it again, frowning.  “
You are, perhaps, correct in that.  Very well, I submit to your will.  Show me how to prepare meat for food.  That shall be my function, apart from mating with you
.”

Olivia removed them from the game trail to a reasonably flat clearing.  “First,” she said, “we need a fire.”

“
Easily done
,” he said, holding up one hand.  Flames burst in a funnel from the ground before him, and died back to sullen embers.

“Can you keep it from spreading?” she asked uncertainly.

He narrowed his eyes at her.  “
Are you being insulting
?”

“No, I’m being nervous about setting the whole west coast on fire.”

“
Ah.  Then I answer you:  Fire is my element, the sum and substance of my immortal being.  I can scorch the earth entire, if I wish it, and I could contain these paltry flames even if I had set them in a field of dry straw
.”

“Can you make me a knife?” she asked.

“
Indeed
.”  He took the spear from her and it shifted at once into a sword.

“A smaller one?”