I pointed my sword at Lutigan. “No, I want more than one square.”
I wanted more power for excellent reasons, or they seemed excellent to me. I wanted to restore my leg. I feared we’d have a nasty reunion with bitter, angry water spirits when we recrossed the sea. But mainly, whenever I escaped a truly awful situation, Harik ignored me for weeks or even months. I didn’t want to be caught short while Harik disregarded me.
Lutigan shrugged. “Two squares.”
Harik stood. “Murderer, I will offer you three squares for all your memories of the Tooth. She is gone for once and all. Ease your grief.”
“My grief and I get along fine,” I said. “No deal.”
Harik tapped his fingers against his leg. “Then since you intend to start a war, you shall bring the war to a king you consider a friend. Engage the King of Glass in this war.”
The king in question was a young man I had come to know well when I saved him from an extremely comfortable imprisonment. I could start the war and then help him win, probably, if he never knew what I had done. “I want five squares from you.”
“No, three,” Harik said.
I walked toward the gazebo. “Four squares and heal my wounds from Memweck.”
“I can offer four squares if you ensure that your friend loses the war.”
Sighing, I leaned on my sword. “Forget I said anything about four squares.”
Harik chuckled. “I can’t forget it now. You said it. Deal with the consequences. To receive four squares, you must bring war to your friend and lose the war. I will not heal your—”
Before Harik had finished, Sakaj said, “I feel I should join this fun. Murderer, I will heal your wounds if you ask me for knowledge. You must accept this bit of knowledge gratefully, even graciously.”
“Hell no!” Whatever Sakaj decided to tell me would be something I wished I didn’t know. It was the most dangerous kind of bargain a sorcerer could make. Despite my intentions, I glanced at Sakaj’s face. It was like being hit with a hundred-pound sack of weakness and lust. I almost staggered over to kiss her foot. I hauled my gaze to Lutigan, who was as ugly as a bunion.
“Murderer, you sweet boy,” Sakaj crooned, as tender as the most loving mother in existence. “You dear, lovely creature. Think of the obligations you’ve already assumed. How can you do battle in your war if you possess just one leg and one arm? You’ll be beheaded in the first minute. Or you will default on your deal with Lutigan instead. I can’t imagine how he’ll punish you for that, but I doubt even Harik could protect you.”
Sakaj stood and crossed the gazebo with a gait that was part slink, part saunter, and part promise of ecstasy. She lay one hand on Harik’s shoulder, and he shrugged her off.
The hell of it was that she was right. Unless I was healed, I’d never survive my other deals. “Mighty Harik or equally Mighty Lutigan, would you extend your offer to include healing?”
Harik shook his head. Lutigan grinned and made a filthy gesture.
“Sakaj, will you provide six squares in addition to healing me?” I asked.
“I’ll offer four squares. Which brings you to the ten that you wanted. Isn’t that accommodating of me?”
I ran through the deals once in my mind. I didn’t dare run through them twice. “I agree to all three bargains.”
The gods started laughing. Lutigan slapped Harik on the back.
“Done!” Sakaj was smiling as she yelled it. I could only tell because of the sound, since I was still staring away from her toward Lutigan.
If I could have blotted them all from existence, I would have. Without thinking much about it, I said, “Hey, how much are these ten squares costing you boys and girls?”
“What are you babbling about, rodent? I mean, Murderer?” Lutigan said, still chuckling.
I lay my sword across my shoulders. “I’ve been led to understand that gods don’t just produce power like it was a fruity belch. You’ve got to pay something. Or gather it maybe.”
Sakaj eased herself down on the bench. Lutigan’s mouth opened as he squinted at me. Then he stared at Harik, who was examining the ceiling of the gazebo.
“You misunderstand,” Sakaj said in a much less motherly tone. “Your limited faculties cannot encompass the subtle mysteries of the cosmos. So, shut up about it. Here is your knowledge, Murderer. Your greatest friend caused your most enduring suffering.”
“What? That makes no sense. It’s hardly even good grammar.” I shook my head.
Sakaj went on: “The Freak, your greatest friend, is responsible for your open-ended debt with Harik. Without her doing, you would not be bound to murder people for him.”
“Bullshit! How do you think this supposedly happened?”
“Oh, I know it happened,” Harik said. “As for how, ask the Freak.”
I felt like I’d been dropped into the ocean and was swimming for the surface. “You mean she knows?” I shouted. “It wasn’t some incidental bargain that she never even knew about?”
“She knows.” Sakaj giggled. “Goodbye.”
I was catapulted back into my body, where I collapsed and skidded across the dirt, my stick flying off someplace behind me. When I sat up, I felt something wet on my neck. Blood was running from a gash on my chin.
Zagurith guffawed. “Is that an assault? Are we supposed to laugh ourselves to death now?”
A big hole in the air whisked open, showing the mountain valley inside. Paal poked his head out and said, “Hey.”
“You wait there!” Gondix pointed at me. “Don’t even get up.”
Gondix and Zagurith strode over to the hole, and the brothers conferred. Demigod conferences seemed
