'Known, not necessarily arranged,' Chronos said. 'But the details adapted where necessary,' Fate added. 'Because we had to have the office filled by a person of the appropriate nature,' Nature said.
'So that he could lead the battle against Satan,' Mars concluded.
'Damn you! Damn you all!' Zane cried. 'I never asked for this onus! What right did any of you have to meddle in my life?'
'The right of necessity,' Nature said. 'All mankind will be damned if we don't meddle.'
'Exactly how can my pain and Luna's death do anyone any good?' he demanded.
'Her life,' Fate corrected. 'It is her life we need, not her death.'
'I showed you that,' Chronos said. 'In twenty years, Luna will balk Satan's political takeover of the United States of America, thus preventing him from instituting policies that will render the nation and the world decidedly unamicable and send much of the living species of man directly to Hell. But Luna can not balk him if she dies prematurely.'
Zane's understanding was coalescing, but he was not pleased. 'So you arranged to install a man in the office of Death who you knew would not take her,' he said bitterly. 'Because he was fool enough to love what was thrust at him for that purpose. And Magician Kaftan did that to his own daughter — '
'It is a terrible thing we do,' Chronos said. 'But the privations any of us face today are but an eye blink to those we shall face in a generation if the Prince of Evil wins. We sacrifice the now for the sake of the hence. I am in a position to know.'
'But you used me — and her!' Zane cried in continuing anguish. 'Where is your morality?'
'It is our business to use people,' Fate said. 'Have you yourself hesitated to employ your power to change the circumstances of your clients?' Of course she was scoring there, for Zane was in deep trouble for doing just that. He had hardly hesitated to impose his own view of what was right, sparing some clients, taking some, and changing the manner of the dying of others. Holy, Holy, Holy!
'Now, in the hour of crisis, we are using ourselves,' Fate continued. 'We have made it possible for you to save the living world by saving the life of the woman you love. You were ready to oppose us, though you knew our power, when we tested you on this just now. Now you can aid us, to your own advantage.'
It was, of course, true. They had spun him into an inextricable commitment. Without Fate's intervention in his life, he would probably have shot himself and — no, of course she had also set up his need to shoot himself by denying him his romance with Angelica — or had she set that up, too? How far back did this go? Probably, left to his own devices, he would have looked at the stones in the Mess o' Pottage shop, been able to afford none, and returned to his dreary former existence. He would at this moment be scrounging for back rent by selling pornographic photographs of unsuspecting women. Instead, he had been launched into a fantastic new realm of death and love…
Nature smiled. 'Mars grasped the essentials of the battle between God and Satan,' she said. 'Chronos spotted the key episode to come. I defined the qualities of the person who could and would do what had to be done, and Fate arranged to put him — you — in the proper situation. We collaborated, and touched your life as you looked at the Deathstone, and now the matter is in your hands. We can not fight this battle without your acquiescence.'
'But you didn't tell me!'
'Had we set it up openly, Satan would have known,' Fate reminded him. 'He would have acted to prevent this encounter, just as he acted to eliminate Luna before her turn. The Prince of Evil has no civilized limits; he seeks only his own aggrandizement, and his craft and power are enormous. But now the deed is done, and even he can not rescind it, though he is surely listening to us now. The time for secrecy is past.'
'What deed?' Zane demanded, exasperated. 'I have not saved Luna's life; I have only refused to take her soul.'
'And will you take that soul hereafter if Satan asks you to?' Nature asked cannily.
'No! And not if you ask me to. Green Mother! I love Luna; I don't care by what machinations the rest of you arranged this thing, or whom I might have loved otherwise, or whom she might have loved; I'll not betray her myself.'
'We thought you would feel that way,' Nature said. 'We never wished you evil, Thanatos; we always wished you success. We deeply regret having to plot against your predecessor, who was a decent officeholder — but he would not have balked at taking Luna. He was too experienced with the mischief of opposing the status quo and would not try to thwart God or Satan. We had to have a headstrong, emotional Death, new enough and young enough not to be jaded by experience, and alive enough to respond to an attractive and intelligent young woman. We chose you and we used you, and for that we apologize — but we believe we had no choice. We could not do the job ourselves. The brunt must be yours. Satan wants Luna dead, but only you can complete that death. As long as you hold out, Satan is foiled.'
Zane looked at Luna's body, the welling and dripping blood frozen in place. 'Much good may it do her or the world,' he muttered. 'She is not dead, but neither is she alive.'
Chronos raised his hourglass. 'Now I can act.' He turned his hand, reversing the glass without inverting it, so that the sand flowed upward. Outside their circle, time ran backward, as it had on the night of the fire.
The dragoness' mouth opened. Blood welled into Luna's body, rising in swift drops from the ground and coursing in rivulets to closing wounds as the monster's teeth withdrew. The dragoness' head jerked back and Luna sprang out, blind and flayed. She reeled backward — into a coalescing cloud of smoke. She screamed. In a moment the smoke squeezed into the reptile's mouth, and Luna backed away unharmed.
Chronos gestured with the hourglass, and time refroze.
'Now you can take her back, on temporary license. But there are some cautions. Satan can not make you take her soul, but he can make you wish you had. You will have to be brutally steadfast.'
Zane looked at the restored Luna, suddenly so healthy. He blinked. The horror had unhappened! 'I shall be.'
'But you can not decline this client without declining all,' Nature said. 'On others you could choose before, for you were merely juggling their situations when no other supernatural entity was concerned. But in this case the issue has been joined. Satan will hold you to the technicality of the law, for all that he honors no technicalities himself. You will not be permitted to take any soul without first taking Luna's. You must take none — or all.'
'Then I'm on strike,' Zane said. 'I will take none — until Luna is released from this wrongful schedule of demise.'
'Yet Satan will press his case,' Mars warned. 'Never in your life or death have you waged such a campaign against an Eternal. We do not know whether you will be able to prevail.'
'I won't take Luna's soul,' Zane insisted. 'No matter what. You conspired to put me into love with her, and I know that and resent it, but I never betrayed one I loved, though my own soul be in peril.'
'Yes, we know,' Nature said. 'That was your prime qualification for our purpose. You are intemporately loyal to your loves and your beliefs.' She kissed him on the cheek.
'The fate of humanity depends, however deviously, on your resolve,' Fate said, kissing his other cheek. 'Never forget that.'
Mars and Chronos nodded grave agreement. Then there was a swirl of mixed impressions, and the others were gone. Zane was left with Luna and the Hot Smoke dragoness.
Zane touched his watch, and the motion resumed. Luna moved toward the dragoness. But she stopped, for there was already an offering before the monster.
Evidently Nature had procured a sacrificial lamb for the occasion. The poor lamb gave one terrified bleat before getting chomped. For an instant Zane wondered how it could die, if no souls could be collected, then remembered that the collectors of animal souls were not on strike. Only human souls were at issue.
In moments the dragoness consumed the virgin lamb, wool and all. She licked off her chops, burped, and limped over to rescue her precious egg. She picked it up carefully in her mouth, breathed just enough fire to melt a spot on the shell, and stuck it to her back. Then she unfurled her wings, scrambled along the sand runway, headed into the wind, got up velocity, and took off. Soon she was a diminishing speck in the sky.
Zane strode across the sand and intercepted the leader of the Dragoons, who was staring as if at a miracle. 'Are you satisfied? Then release the virgin.'
The man nodded. 'Did you see that?' he asked raptly. 'Suddenly a lamb! It must be an Act of God!'
'The virgin's onus is abated,' Zane said insistently.
