The Wayward Godking (10 page)

“My anti-self?” Omar returned the frown. “Then if she is my anti-self, then by definition, she is opposite of me in every way. If I am male, she is female. If I am tall, she is short. If I am rough, she is gentle. If I am ignorant, she is wise. Would you agree?”

“I would indeed. The Ba soul power to your Ka self spirit.” The judge affirmed.

“Then if I am guilty, she is innocent,” Omar said and raised his chin slightly.

The judge froze and his ‘bailiff’ leaned close to his ear, speaking rapidly.

“Sir,” the shadowy creature whispered. “It is not wise to allow them to speak. Their filthy tongues are made of quicksilver and their minds full of treachery.”

“You make a good argument, Omar ibn Adalune,” the judge said after a moment’s consideration.

“Perhaps there is more to be said than you would allow simply because you fear to consider the truth.” Omar pushed his luck and Luke Andrew moaned audibly.

“Don’t provoke him, Omar.” Meredith punched him in the ribs with her elbow.

“You dare to strike the son of Anu?” The judge rose from his seat and leaned on the table, glaring at Meredith.

“It was nothing, Your Honor,” Omar answered for her. “She, too, is a daughter of Anu.”

“Ahhhh. So you are right now twice, Son of Anu,” Kinmalla acquiesced and resumed his seat. “You have many words arranged in a way that supports your convoluted wisdom. Do you spout this wisdom off to all who be in ignorance of them? Do you cast your pearls before swine? Why do you believe that mankind is worthy of redemption? Did not your father or your father’s father teach you it is not the duty of the lesser gods to interfere in the affairs of the children of men? Did they not explain that men belong to Anu? They are his special domain and to interfere kindles his wrath.”

“My Lord, please, I beg you,” the ‘bailiff’ stiffened. “You waste precious words on these criminals.”

“Lord Kinmalla, this one…” Omar held out one hand to Meredith, “is a daughter of Anu. Can she not be also concerned with her father’s business? Cannot Lord Nanna be concerned with Lord Anu’s children? Does Lord Anu answer to you, sir? Do you know the ways and minds of the elder gods? Do you presume to know Lord Anu’s will concerning
his
people?” His tone was not one of arrogance or in the least disrespectful.

The judge actually laughed. “You are a presumptuous upstart! In answer to your questions: no. I do not presume to know the mind of Anu. I merely interpret the law governing the actions of the gods.”

“Did you ever hold court on Anu?” Omar persisted while he had the judge engaged. “Is it not against the law to kill, maim and torture even the children of men for the entertainment of the gods?”

“It is not in the books. It matters not to this court what befalls the children of men. They have their own laws and their own judges.”

“So it would not be against the law to kill men for pleasure, yet it would be against the law to lead them into battle against one another?” Omar was appalled.

“To observe, to guide when implored, to serve through knowledge well-bestowed. To protect. That is the law. To give gifts as rewards for special behavior. These are permissible. To join with humans? To influence the outcomes of their endeavors by physical intervention? Not permissible. To destroy when boundaries are over-stepped. Yes. This is permissible. It is in the best interests of the gods to disallow certain knowledge to the children of men. Is it not written in their Holy Books that knowledge that would bestow godhood was forbidden under pain of death?”

“These were laws, yes,” Omar agreed. “But times change. Men change. Even the gods change, and the spirits evolve. Do you know nothing of Atlantis?”

At the mention of the lost world, Kinmalla’s entire demeanor changed. He picked up his gavel and banged on the table.

“Take the Lord Nanna and her offspring away,” he commanded. “I will keep this son of Anu for a bit longer to determine the nature of his mind.”

The shadowy creatures on either side of the judge and his ‘bailiff’ started forward. Meredith grabbed hold of Luke’s arm, and they tried to run, but two more of the guardians stepped into the mouth of the cave. Marduk was thrown aside as they advanced on the mother and son.

Merry struggled and kicked and fought with her captors in vain. One of the guardians struck Luke Andrew on the back of the head and his struggle was over before it started. The two creatures picked Meredith up between them and headed for the glowing mouth of the adjoining cavern.

Marduk and Omar shouted futilely for them to cease and come back, but their shouts were cut off as a tremendous rush of air swept into the cavern from outside. The wind was followed by a terrible disturbance and noise that made them all fall back against the walls as the cavern filled with a dark essence resembling a cloud of thick, black smoke. The smoke condensed and took shape in the center of the room. Before them stood a menacing dark angel of hideous proportions with spiked tail, horned head, flashing red eyes and two pairs of leathery black wings.

“Come, Meredith!” His voice was as hideous as his appearance and caused small pebbles to fall from the roof of the cave. “Come to me!”

He held out his clawed hands and spread his lower wings behind him.

The judge roared a protest and the ‘bailiff’ leapt onto the table, threatening the demon with his curved blade.

Meredith broke from the startled guardians and ran toward the dark angel.

“Meredith!” Marduk shouted at her, and Omar tried to grab her as she passed.

The demon wrapped her in his upper pair of wings and the cavern filled with more blinding smoke. When the smoke and noise died, the demon was gone and so was Meredith. The guardians carrying Luke Andrew’s limp body were gone as well, and the judge stood staring at Omar and Marduk accusingly.

“Who is this who dares to obstruct the justice of this court?” Lord Kinmalla demanded to know.

Marduk smoothed down his robes and ignored the judge’s question. Omar pulled Dunya close to him, saying nothing in response.

“Son of Adalune!” The judge focused on Omar. “Is this some trick of yours? Who has taken Lord Nanna’s part in perpetration of this crime?”

“I’m not sure who it was,” Omar answered him at last. “But it was none of my doing, else I would have rescued her son as well.”

“You are, indeed, insolent, little one.” Kinmalla tugged on his beard. “I will consider your arrogance mitigated by your courage and your wisdom while contemplating your sentence.”

Two guardians blocked the way into the cavern. Two more had come from the depths. The ‘bailiff’ followed Kinmalla as he swept angrily from the room.

((((((((((((()))))))))))))

The assembly hall at Sir Barry’s Academy was filled with anxious faces as the Grand Master prepared to address them. The Knights sat in the first three rows, somewhat apart from each other as if they needed room to think. There were eight of twelve present. Four were missing. There were seven apprentices, though they did not all match up with present masters. The apprentices sat together on the fourth row, and the rest of the Villa’s residents sat in the back three rows.

Edgard stood behind the podium while Barry took up a position on his right alternately chewing his bottom lip and scratching his head.

“Ladies… Brothers and gentlemen,” he began slowly. “I consulted with Brother Simon and Brother Ramsay concerning our predicament here. They have come to the conclusion, after mulling over the various possibilities, that we may be intertwined or somehow contained within a dream state, or possibly, within someone else’s dream state. They are convinced we may be actively participating in this plot, or whatever it is, every time we dream. It seems Brother Lucio dreamed of Brother Ramsay just prior to his arrival here. Simon, that is,
Brother
Simon, dreamed of Sister Meredith just before she appeared. Brother Lucio further claims he dreamed of Galen Zachary and his wife, Catharine just prior to their arrival at his door in Naples. We still cannot explain why the party from Naples was allowed to drive here, but they did accomplish the feat, and most likely it was simply because they were all of the same accord. They all
wanted
to come here. If that is true… if all of these speculations are true, then we may, in fact, be able to control some portion of these… this… damnable situation by being single-minded of purpose or, by dreaming ourselves free of this situation.”

He paused while everyone digested his announcement and a round of murmurs circulated throughout the assembly.

“Since we are not accustomed to controlling our dreams,
per se
, I suggest we attempt to utilize the former, rather than the latter method to extract ourselves from this place,” he continued after a moment and his suggestion was met with numerous nods of approval from almost everyone in the assembly.

“That is the nature of the beast at this moment and, if we all understand what it is I am suggesting, I will open the floor now for comments, suggestions or questions.” He nodded to Barry and the Seneschal took his place behind the podium, asking them to               raise their hands to be recognized.

At first, no one raised a hand, and most of them sat silently glancing about at one another.

Finally, Catharine raised her hand.

“Mrs. Dambretti,” Barry called her name.

“I would like to know what common goal we might be expected to share.”

“We might agree on a particular place we wish to go,” Edgard answered.

“We are open to suggestions,” Barry added. “It should be someplace we are all familiar with.”

“Then we might then just try to drive away?” She followed with another question. “Drive away all thinking of a single destination?”

“Possibly,” he nodded. “There should be enough vehicles to accommodate everyone.”

Another hand shot up immediately.

“Mr. Corrigan,” Barry called on Carlisle.

“I do not believe we can drive out of this place,” he stated. “I do not believe it would be possible, even under the best of conditions, to drive from southern Italy to Ireland.”

“Of course, it would not be possible to drive from here to Ireland,” Edgard agreed.

“I submit then,” Carlisle continued “that we are not really in southern Italy in the first place and attempting to drive away would be foolhardy, at least, and, at worst, even dangerous.”

“Given,” Edgard said. “We may have to agree to a simple meditation on a common thought.”

A third hand went up.

“Brother Issachar,” Barry recognized the Knight of the Wisdom of Solomon.

“Brother, ladies, gentlemen,” the amiable son of the Healer stood to address the assembly. He was the most dashing of all of Simon’s sons, by far the most handsome and while not the most brilliant, his sense of humor was without equal. He could have remarried with ease after the death of his wife, Gloriana, but he chose to remain true to her memory and a dream to many of the young ladies residing on the Isle of Ramsay. “I propose we all join hands and think of the meadow in Scotland. That is the most benign place I can think of. Surely, we are all familiar with the meadows, perhaps we can sort of transport ourselves there.”

Philip’s hand went up next as expected. Izzy could never say or do anything without being challenged by his slightly older, more intellectual brother.

“My esteemed Brother Issachar makes a good suggestion, however, he should know better than most of us, since he is, after all, the historian of the Order, we have, historically speaking, been unable to agree upon whether the Villa or Scotland is the better place for conducting the affairs of the Order. Isn’t that correct, Grandfather… er, Your Grace?” The Knight of the Sword’s blue eyes sparkled as he turned his attention to the Grand Master. “I ask you how he might believe Scotland would be more benign than sunny, southern Italy?”

“Point taken,” Edgard nodded. “But seeing as how we are already in
sunny
, southern Italy or something that appears to be southern Italy, it would be best to try to get to another place. In order to test our theory, we should agree on another place familiar to all of us as Brother Issachar has stated. I’m not sure if the word ‘transport’ is correctly used here, however.”

“Mr. Zebulon d’Ornan,” Barry called on the next man when Edgard stopped speaking.

“Sirs, ladies,” Zeb said, not to be outdone by Izzy, also stood and turned to bow to the ladies at the back of the assembly. They had added several more young ladies and women from the Isle of Ramsay in the past few days. It seemed some of them were doing quite a bit of dreaming. One in particular caught his eye and blushed though no one else noticed. “I must agree with both of my esteemed Brothers. We must decide on a place commonly known to all of us. I have noticed some of the later arrivals may not be familiar with the estate in Lothian, yet they are quite familiar with the Isle of Ramsay and St. Patrick’s Island. Does anyone here not know of those islands? At least enough to visualize them in a concentrated effort?”

Several ‘ayes’ and nods of approval greeted his suggestion.

“That is a very good suggestion,
Mr.
Zebulon.” Edgard smiled at Barry of Sussex’s apprentice, and then scanned the back of the room for Marceline Brandel.