and coincidence might have resulted in picking the wrong Godslayer.”
“Horse hockey.” And muttered something about keeping it in the family.
“You’re in the process of killing what, once upon a time, was the most terrible Instrumentality of all. A weakened Kharoulke but the real thing, not some ghost of a god raised up by a lunatic sorcerer with a lust for immortality. And you have it in your power to extinguish an entire pantheon and one of the Nine Worlds.”
“More horse puckey, Asgrimmur. Get down. Time for another shot.”
Shafts from both engines struck the Windwalker. God flesh surged violently but did not come down in the water this time.
The violence continued, as though the god’s back had been broken.
Asgrimmur swore. “Oh, shit! Get down from there, Heris.”
Copper snarled, “Down, woman! Down!” He and his people started crawling under the nearest chunks of basalt.
Heris felt the imminence. She dropped between skittering rocks, turned an ankle, made cover with an instant to spare.
A blinding flash. A roar that overshadowed all the firepowder roars Heris ever heard. The earth shook, rattled, and bucked. Scree slipped. Boulders went bounding or sliding downslope. Somebody shrieked as his hiding place fell in on him. For an instant the air was too hot to breathe. Then a ferocious wind came rushing downhill.
A massive fireball climbed toward and tore into the low overcast.
“Well,” Heris muttered. “This is what Piper saw when the god worm died. Damn! Good thing the old asshole was worn down to where he didn’t have anything left.”
She could not hear herself. Nor anything else. Just as well. Her companions did not need to follow her ramblings.
She did review what Piper had said about the incident with the god worm.
An egg. There should be some kind of egg. Piper had been collecting those since he started killing Instrumentalities. Better find out if there was one of those here.
Asgrimmur and Copper both yelled and waved as she headed downhill. She did not have to pretend she did not hear them.
The explosion had not consumed the Instrumentality completely. Slime and chunks of rotten “lard” were everywhere, including on the water of the Ormo Strait. The stench was brutal. But there was no more sense of a divine presence. The opposite was true. There was a vacuum, an impression that something important had gone missing. Heris felt an abiding sorrow that was not at all natural.
She spied the egg. It was bigger than any Piper had described. It shed a strong inner light and so much heat that she had to stop fifteen feet away. The light kept fading.
She began to feel other presences, unseen Night things in search of the truth. Not threatening things, just small things come to witness. She began to hear their whispers and rustles.
Copper joined her, as did Asgrimmur. The dwarf squatted. The ascendant stood with feet widespread, his hand behind him. Both stared at the egg. Heris said, “We can go as soon as that cools down.”
Asgrimmur asked, “What do you want with it?”
“Two souls. That’s the one the Windwalker brought to this world. I want it under control. I want it taken to where it can be destroyed.”
“You’d probably be safer just leaving it.”
“Maybe. But I’m not going to do that. Copper. Have your guys started breaking down? Though it’s a crime to take those beautiful engines apart.”
Distracted, Copper shrugged. “They aren’t being destroyed, just disassembled. They’ll be stored till they’re needed again. And they will be. That’s the nature of these things.”
Heris thought Piper’s falcons were more likely to figure in future godly executions.
Asgrimmur took hold of Copper’s arm. “I’m not going back the way we came. I wouldn’t survive. I’ll walk back beside my new best friend. Unless he wants to stay here and set up housekeeping. It’ll be fun, come winter. I can teach him to ski.”
Heris saw Copper shudder. The dwarf was angry inside. But he did not refuse.
She knew she would get nowhere making the same suggestion.
The dwarf could not refuse. He was Aelen Kofer. Asgrimmur had the ghost of the All-Father inside him. Copper had no option.
Proof that every dwarf had to be out of the Realm of the Gods before any move involving trapped deities.
Heris said, “I understand. Copper. Will you make your journey on foot?”
The dwarf thought before answering, seeing what he might give away. “Yes. It’s a one-day journey. Goat carts will move the engine parts.”
“Great. You can do me a favor, then. Take this egg to the Realm of the Gods. It occurs to me that it wouldn’t be smart to be carrying it when I cut my chord across the Night.”
She saw no obvious reaction from Asgrimmur, though he had offered a gentle caution. Copper did respond, but only in the manner of someone who fancied himself serially victimized. He indulged in woe-is-me sighs.
It was always high noon in the Realm of the Gods so it did not matter that it was after dark when the egg finally cooled enough to be wrapped in leather ammo slings and moved over, whatever secret way the dwarves used, to a goat cart in the Aelen Kofer world. A moment afterward Heris turned sideways and transitioned to the Realm of the Gods.
Cloven Februaren had not yet returned. She was exhausted, physically and emotionally. She vanished into her local hole-up without announcing her return.
The Ninth Unknown and the Bastard were in the Aelen Kofer tavern with Iron Eyes when Heris, refreshed, wandered in looking for something to eat. The dwarf and the old man started barking questions.
“Copper is fine. He’s on his way. Asgrimmur is with him. He wouldn’t have survived another transition. If you’ve got the Night in you, you can get hung up out there. Forever. Double Great. We’re going to need to do some rethinking.”
“Rethinking? What do you mean? Rethinking of what?”
“What we’re going to do up there.” She jerked a thumb in the direction of the Great Sky Fortress.
“Why?” His eyes narrowed. He smelled something.
Heris smelled food. Her usual arrived. Before she tucked in, she said, “Because I killed the Windwalker already. Which I told you I could do, but you wouldn’t believe. Yesterday. With help from the Aelen Kofer.”
Iron Eyes and her human companions stared. They gaped. And they refused to believe.
“It took almost every weapon I had but I did do it in, Double Great. Copper is bringing its soul egg. Kharoulke the Windwalker is no more. And all the Night is in a panic and disarray.”
They still would not believe. They did not want to believe. “Yes. Me. A mere girl. I did it.” Her glare dared any of them to claim they had softened the Windwalker up. She had done the heavy lifting from the beginning.
Cloven Februaren said, “She’s right about the Night. I’ve never seen it as agitated as it is now.”
The Bastard nodded silent agreement.
Iron Eyes said, “We’ll wait on Copper and the ascendant. We’ll see what they have to say.”
Heris was profoundly irked but knew that was the best she could expect. For now.
42. Brothe: Commander of the Righteous
A servant rolled Paludan Bruglioni onto the flagstone patio. The Commander of the Righteous was sharing a morning meal with staff and liaison officers from the Imperial forces of southern Firaldia. Their commander, Prince Manfred Otho of Alamedinne, had refused to dine with a hired sword. The Empress, either drunk or drugged, brooded over the scene from a high seat a short distance away. Her presence dared the southern nobility to try
