The Darkness at the Edge of Noon: a Thalassia novel Page 4
Ryanne stepped forward a little nervously. “Ahhh, Gunny, will we still get the same pay?” Waves of red were pulsing up her cheeks.
“Gunny?” Rhiannon was frowning. “What sort of rank is Gunny?” Her violet eyes seemed to lose focus for a few moments. “Ahhh. I understand now. Gunny indeed.” She looked at the terrified woman standing in front of her. “Yes, you will all have the same rank or better, depending on what Logan recommends. Pay will be the equivalent, except that we pay in...” The goddess tossed something to the quivering woman, something that flashed golden in the air. Ryanne snagged it deftly, and looked in shock at what she held. “This is gold.” Her voice was small. She bit down on the coin. “It’s real.” Her knees buckled and she sat down heavily on the carpeted floor. “This is worth a bloody year’s pay. A whole bloody year.” Her blue eyes were wide.
The goddess threw four more coins, and four hands snagged them out of the air. “You’ve taken my coin.” She said formally. “You are now soldiers of the Goddess Rhiannon.”
“Ooh-rah!” The squad bellowed, faces shining with enthusiasm.
Rhiannon turned and looked at Aileen thoughtfully.
“What? No gold for me, Goddess?” The medic sounded disappointed.
Logan opened his mouth to protest.
“I think I will pay you in a different coin, Aileen Cronin.” Rhiannon was smiling now. “You are a follower of my Sister, are you not?”
“Yes, Goddess.”
“If I could get her to release you into my service, would you do it?”
“But I serve Selene, Goddess. I love Selene.”
“I love her too.” Rhiannon sighed quietly. “How about this? Could you serve the both of us? Selene has plenty of followers right now, and many priestesses. I have none. Help me to get started again, and then serve us both. You won’t regret it, I promise.”
Aileen thought for several moments. “If Selene doesn’t mind, then I am willing. I will serve you both.”
Rhiannon’s smile was radiant, and she bent and kissed the woman on both cheeks, and then on the forehead. Aileen looked stunned, and walked back to the others in a daze. “Well, that’s that.” The goddess had a satisfied sound in her voice as she took Logan’s arm again and walked back to her sister. “Are you ready to go?”
“Go?” He sounded stupid. He felt stupid. He was so tired he couldn’t think straight.
Her laugh was like the sunrise. “Home, silly. We’re going to my home. Selene brought us to her home, but I get my power from Medin, the storm moon. I have just enough in me to get us there. Aileen will take care of things here until we get back. I told her what to do.” She leaned forward and kissed her sister on the cheek. “Thank you for saving me, Selene. I owe you my life.”
“Family never needs to say that, little sister. I missed you, all these years. I feared that you were dead. The Great Mother let me find you again and save you. It fills me with joy and love.”
Logan cleared his throat. “Ahh, I’d like to thank...”
Selene’s violet eyes rounded on him, pinned him motionless. “What did I say about family never needing to say thank you?” She was trying to sound angry but...
“But I’m not your family.”
“You became family when you saved my sister. You would have given your life for her, without even knowing who she was, just that she needed help.” She stepped closer, and her breath smelled of strawberries. “Welcome to the family.” She kissed him.
“That’s enough, sis. His feet left the ground a minute ago.”
Logan’s feet hit the floor with a thump, and he blinked, wondering if he had been kissing Selene for a minute, or an hour or a year. Every cell of his body seemed to be tingling. Selene was still smiling, that Cheshire Cat, “I’ve Got a Secret” smile that women get on occasion.
“Very nice on the inside.” Selene murmured. “And such potential. My, my, my. Bye sister.”
“Bye, sis.” Rhiannon took his hand and...
He sneezed. He was standing in three inches of dust. Spider webs festooned the walls, like sheer draperies, and the dim lighting was struggling to pierce the gloom. Rhiannon held her hand up over her head and shut her eyes. The other hand still held Logan’s tightly. Then she began to glow. It started at the tip of her raised hand, and slowly worked its way down. When the glow reached his own fingers it spread to his hand too, and kept going.
“Let the light of Medin fill you, Logan.” Her voice was soft, almost dreamy. “Let it become you.” Even her eyes were glowing now. “Let it into your lungs. Let it spread to your cells. Invite it in. Surrender to it. Surrender, Logan. Surrender.”
The whole world seemed to dissolve into white light.
“Logan?” He opened his eyes and beheld a glowing nimbus before him.
“You really are a goddess now.” His throat was dry, and his voice sounded—wispy.
There was a light laugh. “Hold your arm up, Logan. Hold it up in front of your face.”
Something amorphous and white drifted in front of his eyes. “Ahhh. Is that me? Am I dead?”
“Yes, it’s you and no you are not dead. Far from it. Just concentrate on your former shape. Your body will remember all the little details.”
He watched his various parts come together, and he felt revitalized, renewed. He blinked. The dusty chamber they had been standing in was now spotless, the gray marble floor shining, and bathed in a golden radiance.
“Welcome home, Logan.”
In front of him stretched an endless corridor, subtle lighting letting it dwindle to a pinprick in the far distance. He felt his jaw hanging open. “How... how big is this place?”
She cocked her head sideways, just a bit, thinking. Logan felt an urge to kiss her swanlike neck. “It doesn’t have a set size. It’s as big or as small as it needs to be. If I need a kitchen, then it’s there.” A door appeared on the right. “Or if I need a planning room, then it’s there.” A door appeared on the left.
He looked down the long echoing corridor. “Doesn’t it get lonely?”
Her hand was squeezing his. “You have no idea.”
He looked up into that perfect, sad face. “I’m a blunt sort of man, so don’t take this wrong. You’re a beautiful woman, Rhiannon. Your kind have a long life span. Yeah, I’ve figured that out without the fifteen minute lecture. Why haven’t you married and had a bunch of kids? Hells, skip the married part. This place could use a few kids and grandkids.”
“We’ve always encouraged the idea of untouchable gods and goddesses. I guess we did our job too well.”
“You might want to think about changing that rule.”
She gave him an unhappy little smile. “Your bedroom is down the hallway. There is a bath there, and you’ll find fresh clothes when you wake up.” Logan’s shoulders slumped. He had been half hoping that.... Turning, he walked down the long corridor without another word. Rhiannon watched the retreating back with an unreadable expression on her face.
“And then what did she do?” Grady asked with some enthusiasm, as he cleaned a fingernail with his boot knife.
“I don’t know. I took a bath and went to bed.” Logan shrugged.
“Aww, man. I always wondered what it would be like to make out with a goddess.” The big man gave a snort of laughter and leaned back in the couch.
Rhiannon had brought him back to Selene’s moon early the next morning, and he found his squad camped comfortably in the living room, around the roaring fire. The number of empty wineskins told him that they had passed a pleasant evening.
“Did you all get enough to eat?” Logan looked at the scattering of empty plates.
“Oh, yeah. There was lots to eat.” Grady let out a satisfied burp.
“Then why are the dishes still hanging about?” Logan growled. “This is a fine way to repay her hospitality. Get this place cleaned up... NOW!” He ended in a roar. “There will be a full equipment inspection, w
hat equipment you have, in fifteen minutes, so move it.”
Grady and Ryanne grabbed stacks of plates and ran for the kitchen. “Yes, Gunny!” They shouted over their shoulders. The rest started to fold blankets and polish armor.
Megan brushed back her thick red hair, and looked at him with inquisitive green eyes. “You know, Logan, if you’re lonely tonight, well... It’s been a long time for both of us and...” She didn’t get any further.
“Thank you for the offer, Megan.” Logan reached out and touched her soft cheek. “I just don’t think that it would work out.” Her look of disappointment was plain. “Get your things ready for inspection.” He turned toward the kitchen. From a doorway Rhiannon was watching the scene play out with a small satisfied smile on her lips, while a few feet away Aileen was watching Rhiannon watching Logan, and wondering.
Selene showed up shortly after the inspection, and the two goddesses called a meeting of their own, in a conference room that could have easily sat fifty. As it was, there were only four, or five if you included Jade.
“We have a problem.” Rhiannon began simply. “The Zzzkntti, the green four armed creatures you are familiar with,” she filled in for Logan and Aileen, “are getting more aggressive. Much more aggressive. At the rate that their aggression is increasing, within a year they will manage to invade both the underground and the above ground human habitations, destroying the human race on these islands. We can’t let that happen.”
Logan thought in a stunned disbelief.
Jade sounded shocked.
Selene, the usually radiant smiling goddess was grim faced. “That’s the conclusion we’ve come to also. As we see it, we have only two choices at this point. The first option is to kill all the Zzzkntti and K’Dreex attachments. Jade can twin to provide new companions for the remaining humans. The second option is to sit back and do nothing. In a few years all the humans and Zzzknti will be dead and we can nudge a few humans from the lands to the east to sail here and repopulate these lands. Their K’Dreex are much more stable.” Selene had a small inward smile.
“To the east?” Aileen leaned forward, hands flat on the table. “That isn’t just an old wives tale?”
“No, my dear.” Rhiannon was grinning broadly. “There are quite a few humans to the east. Selene has done quite well there.”
“Not as well as I’d have liked.” There was a sour note in her sister’s voice. I was down to a single human-K’Dreex pair at one point. The K’Dreex was able to keep her host alive long enough for her to twin several times. Then they were both almost killed in a stupid accident.”
“Ahh, I hate to interrupt, ladies, but I feel like I’m stepping into the middle of a lengthy conversation. I’d really appreciate the full story, if you please.”
Rhiannon looked over at her sister, who shrugged, before she gave a brief nod.
“Jade, would you like to take it from here? You can speak through Logan if you would like.”
She glanced at a confused Aileen and winked. “We’ll explain everything afterward. Go ahead, Jade.”
“Our race is old.” the voice coming out of Logan’s mouth was softer, slightly higher pitched. “Over a million of your years old. The story began eight hundred years ago, when the K’Dreex, my people, came to this planet from a world far far away; just one of the points of light in the vast heavens. We had studied this world with far-ranging probes; thought that it would make a suitable home for our species. We were right—and we were wrong. While the world was fine for our species, it was slow death for the creatures which served as our hosts. We are true symbiotes, you see, and must dwell within another organism in order to survive. When our hosts began to die we had no choice but to move to the Zzzkntti. We suspected that they were devolved from a more advanced race, but what choice did we have? There were no other unintelligent species available to us. We’re forbidden to host with intelligent ones. We took the chance, and it didn’t work. Fifty years after the last K’Dreex made the transfer to a Zzzkntti, the local creatures began to go mad. Violently mad. Insanely mad.
“One hundred years later humans, your people, arrived from a world closer than ours, but still very distant. A planet called Earth. There were five sleek ships, each carrying five thousand pioneers. As far as we know, only one other human ship survived. The human vessel arrived here, gleaming silver in the sunlight and unloaded her precious cargo of brave men, women and children. They never had a chance. A vast horde of Zzzknti swarmed over the camp of the humans in minutes, and then rushed up the gangway and into the ship itself. The ship started to rise and then it seemed to stagger. The insane locals must have reached the control sections. The vessel fell back into the sea and vanished. Twenty five hundred lay dead and the remaining humans split up. Half stayed on Cloch Dabhiolla. The other half set sail for the warmer southern island of Reachrainn, warmer but not safer. The people in the north had to build massive fortified cities to beat back Zzzkntti attacks. The people in the south were forced to flee underground to seek safety.”
“Why can’t you pair with an intelligent species?” Aileen sounded curious.
“Our oldest strictest law states: NEVER HOST WITH AN INTELLIGENT SPECIES. There is a chance you see, that both the host intelligence and the K’Dreex intelligence would merge into a new and potentially dangerous life-form, much, much greater than the simple sum of the two. We never even had the chance to try. Humans had so much to offer us, and we to them.”
Selene’s voice took over the narrative. “We monitored the human communications when they arrived. The first two starships, the Arnemetia, the ship that landed here, and the Oberon made it to the surface. Two others, the Valley Forge and the Copacati, crashed elsewhere. Some or all of the crew and passengers may have survived. One ship, the K’uei-Hsing, exploded when it entered the atmosphere. Five thousand brave pioneers were lost.”
“There has been no other communication or visits from other Earth vessels?” For some reason Logan felt a deep sense of loss.
“No, I’m sorry. There was some speculation shortly after your arrival and based on faint and garbled transmissions from your homeworld, that there was some sort of a war, but again, that is uncertain.”
“We are all alone, then.” He mused, a little sadly. He shook his head, as if waking up after a bad dream. “But I don’t believe that there are only two options available to us.”
Rhiannon’s left eyebrow went up. “And what other options do we have?”
“I have no idea.” Logan’s voice was impudent and his smile wide. “I guess I’ll just have to find out, won’t I?”
Aileen’s mouth was hanging open, but both Selene and Rhiannon were laughing.
Chapter 4
“And how will you find out, oh mighty detective?” Rhiannon’s violet eyes were intense, and made Logan uncomfortable.
“Well, I thought that the squad and I would make a patrol around the site of the children’s entrance. The Zzzkntti were waiting there, but I don’t think they were waiting for us. I think that they were waiting for the door to open so that they could seize it. The same thing applies to our gate. There were too many of them for a casual attack. This was planned and coordinated. If the Zzzkntti have regressed, they must have been fearsome warriors indeed, at the height of their power.”
Rhiannon’s violet eyes took on a far-away look for a moment. “The Zzzkntti were a peaceful people, a race of artists and painters and musicians. They didn’t even have police.”
“Then how...” Logan began, but she held up a hand.
“When they were a young race they had many competitors, and they had many wars. Terrible wars. Thousands died in those wars, hundreds of t
housands. They became brutal to survive, and it seems that brutality became a part of their genetic heritage. It was one of the reasons that they consciously devolved their entire race.”
“Consciously devolved their race?” His voice was incredulous. Rhiannon nodded sadly.
The voice in his mind was whimpering.
The creature that was Jade had shrunk to a small quivering entity, hidden in the deepest recesses of his consciousness. He could feel it there, minute and black, cowering, hurt, alone.
Aileen looked confused at the sudden silence while both goddesses stared intently at Logan.
There was a sigh; a subtle reaching out.
Without a word, Rhiannon rose from her seat, walked around the large conference table and kissed Logan, chastely and on the cheek. “Thank you, Logan.” She whispered in a voice that was just for him. Then she was going back to her seat. He stared with regret at the retreating back.
Selene, on the other hand, had a radiant smile on her perfect face, while Aileen just looked lost and confused. Finally the dark haired goddess took pity on her follower.