The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven) (21 page)

“Don’t be absurd! I’m standing right before you as living proof!”

A’Nu-Ahki smiled. “
Perhaps
you’re not the ‘living proof’ you think you are. Maybe humanity amplified is just humanity
exaggerated
. Certainly you are a son of a marriage
contrived to be
legal in these parts, but has anything been added to you beyond the
wide
range of
body types, sizes, and skin color
ing
s that E’Yahavah gave to the
human
creation code in the beginning?
Are you ethically and intellectually a better man?
”

Psydonu
thrust
up his hand. “Count them! I have six fingers on each hand and six toes on each foot!
A well-documented variety of s
acred stigmata set most of my kind apart
!
”

“Not without
help from
a
wide
range
of
mutagenic
potions, techno-sorcery, and other forms of manipulation—again,
distortion,
not new creation. It seems to me that
the idea
of divinely bred super-men is convenient for the seizing and
holding
of power, but good for precious little else.”

The Titan seemed ready to explode, but then suddenly laughed it off, pointing at A’Nu-Ahki
as though responding to a good-natured tease. “What then is the Promised Seed if not a new human
ity
?”

A’Nu-Ahki nodded, “That is only meaningful
for
the
actual
Promised Seed. Whether you titans are
real
blood offspring of the Watchers
,
or
fraud
s
who
weav
e
a
superficial
illusion based on
legal redefinitions of marriage
with
the
contorti
on
of
human creation codes
added
for show
,
it’s
all
still a
vast
l
ie.
It’s like glakka oil
tossed
on
to
the fire of the
very
evil embraced by
man in the beginning
. That being the case, I don’t think I can help you.”

Psydonu grinned. “Oh, don’t sell yourself short, my good Seer. There is still much you can do! And
,
to
get back on subject,
I think you know very well which of your sons is to carry on the family torch, so to speak. You see, this one here,” he clasped U’Sumi by the wrist with amazing speed, “has had visions, and dreamed dreams, haven’t you my sweet boy?”

U’Sumi’s eyes must have told the Titan all he needed to know.

“Nooo, don’t try to deny it,” Psydonu crooned. “Who else could have slain one of my Agents of Judgment? Typhunu was among the best of my relatives—a child of Earth Mother herself
,
or at least a being engineered from the broadest combination of creation codes that Mother Earth brought forth in the beginning. Did you know he had a wife?”

U’Sumi could not fathom any woman wanting to be near such a monstrosity. “No, I didn’t,” he said.

“Her name is Ekhid-naa
; a woman
blessed by birth with more sacred stigmata than any
other
alive
;
poor
dear
,
a truly hideous sight.
She l
ives in a cave not far from here, on the mainland. She’ll be vexed when she hears the news. Too
bad,
you didn’t realize at the time that we’re really on the same side,
you
and I. I doubt she will be so forgiving, however.”

U’Sumi narrowed his eyes.
“Give her my condolences.”

Psydonu squeezed U’Sumi’s wrist tighter. “
The well—
wishing
of a seer should be heartfelt and sincere.
Tell me about your dreams
, lad
.”

U’Sumi tried not to look into the Giant’s eyes. “They’re nothing special—just battlefield nightmares!”

“Leave him be!” A’Nu-Ahki said. “Your business is with me!”

The Titan grinned. “Now, as a father, you must agree that it’s a sin for seers to lie. Besides, I have a witness that the dreams are more than that.”

A familiar voice spoke from behind U’Sumi’s back. “I’m sorry, lad. But I was worried about you, what gettin’ all screamy and such.”

The dais rotated until U’Sumi could see the stubbly-faced guard he had befriended on the ironclad.

The Sailor said,
“They pulls me aside and asks me all pointed-like. They says, ‘does the lad make dreams when he’s awake?’ What was I to answer? I hopes no harm comes to you
from
it.”

Psydonu dismissed the Sailor with a wave.
“Thank you
.
Don’t worry, he’s a good lad. We likes him. Go back to your ship now.”

“Yes, m’Lord.”

U’Sumi looked int
o his father’s questioning eyes and went cold.

“Why didn’t you tell me, Son?”

“I don’t know. It wasn’t like I thought it would be. It was horrible!”

“All the more reason you should have come to me.” The hurt in his father’s voice was more than U’Sumi could handle.

“I’m sorry, Pahp
o
. Maybe I wasn’t so sure I wanted to be a seer anymore.” He stared down at the platform and tried to push back
his
tears.

“This is so touching!” Psydonu leaped upright. “I think I’m going to weep too! But then, why weep when I have the answer to our problems?”

The Titan waited for a response. Getting none, he
sat down again and
said, “You, young man, do not wish to be a seer, which you would need to be in order to carry on the Promised Line. You, A’Nu-Ahki—may I call you A’Nu-Ahki?—need a son willing to be a seer. I have visions, dream dreams, and work many wonders. I slay dragons and crush their heads in the prescribed way of the Holy Seed in sacred arenas all the time! I only
need
confirmation
from
a genuine scion of Q’Enukki to set my claim in steel!”

Psydonu’s voice leaped to a shrill falsetto. “Why don’t you simply adopt me as your foster son, A’Nu-Ahki, and name me as
the Promised Line? I would make a grand big brother to this lad here! Cheer him up good and proper, I think. What do you say?”

A’Nu-Ahki grimaced, whether to keep from laughing
,
or out of disgust
,
or out of an odd mixture of both, U’Sumi could not tell.

“I think you’re missing the point,” A’Nu-Ahki said. “It’s common for seers not to want their gift when they first discover it; to even be afraid of it—especially if it happens when they’re young, or under stress. I
discovered my gift at a much older age
. It terrified me at first! I didn’t like what it
revealed to
me about myself
;
much less about where the world was headed.”

The
Titan
leaned forward, “My
S
eer, I think
you
miss the
point. How can you not
like
your gift?
M
ine
is
euphoric! Either way, I’ve seen it in a vision. I swam
Underworld’s
vortex
,
unscathed
,
to the golden shore
…
”

The minstrels sang, “He swam unscathed to the golden shore!”

“Shut up!
Shut up!
Shut up; you bleating
toadie
s!
” Psydonu
shrieked
at them.
Then, turning back to A’Nu-Ahki, all smiles;
“As I was saying
;
I’ve spoken words of power over it and believe it with no doubt in my heart. So it has
to be from E’Yahavah, you see.”

The Titan flicked the lever that disengaged the rotation gears and brought his throne again to a grinding halt. “Guards, take the lad back below to the Compartment of Comforts. Treat him kindly, since he is my little brother, but
guard his door carefully
. Also, have the attendants prepare a suite for the good Seer high up in the tower. Both must attend my confirmation ceremony.”

U’Sumi heard one more exchange between Psydonu and his father that made his skin crawl, as the guards led him away:
“A’Nu-Ahki, please keep in mind that people have been known to disappear down below. The natives say that there is a direct passage to Underworld beneath Thulae.
W
e
also
will also need to take some flesh samples from both you and your son
;
you understand. We need your creation codes to engineer more seers from the proper line.”

A’Nu-Ahki laughed.
“Do you seriously think that the gift of E’Yahavah can be robbed from our creation codes?”

“Don’t be naive! Everything a man is lies inside his creation code. Possess that and you possess the man
with
all he can ever hope to be.”

U’

Sumi gazed at the lizard that kept watch over the door to his new chamber. The little creature represented the perversion of not only Aztlan
,
but also
the world
;
it had two heads and three forward legs. If not for the easy pickings of food scraps and blind crickets in the cavern’s sheltered environment, the twisted thing could have never survived.

His lodgings were
a
big
step up from the dungeon he had shared with his father on their arrival. Quickfire pearls lit the spacious three-room subterranean suite. Hot and cold running water fed into a pool-sized jade bath. The furnishings could satisfy a prince.

He even found a scroll
and codex
library filled with unfamiliar titles.
In this alcove, a
glass orb with slots in its base sat ne
xt to
the reading table
, similar to a larger device recently installed in the Immigrant Quarter of Akh’Uzan Village, where recent settlers
sat
about the square,
watch
ing
moving pictures for hours on end
. The orb’s slots fit
the shape
of milky crystals stored inside wall racks on either side of the machine. Titles like those of the scroll and codex library
etched
below each crystal slot caused U’Sumi to wonder
if this smaller orb might not be a reader of some sort.

He pulled one of the milky crystals from its wall niche and slid it into one of the slots in the orb’s base. The spheroid lit up with a dark blue light followed by words and moving pictures.

A smile creased his face.

U’Sumi doubted
that
Psydonu would have left him alone with these writings and this device on purpose—unless the Giant had believed a rustic youth from the East
incapable
understand
ing
such literature and machinery. If so, that assumption would have only been partly true—U’Sumi understood chemistry and advanced mathematics rather well. Many of the scrolls had handy glossaries, as if originally written for student adepts. The orb required only that the user
know
how to place the crystals in
to
its
slots.
Orb images were often spectacular
, but they served mostly to
help him understand the
more
complex written
material quickly
through moving illustrations
.