Cheg-Cheg yawned. “A gentle white snowfall will be your sign. It should arrive just… about… now.”
Enormous snowflakes began wafting down through the still air of the Dim Lands. Sakaj caught one, and she saw that it was pink.
Despite her fear of Cheg-Cheg, Sakaj screamed at him, “What did you do? What’s wrong?”
Cheg-Cheg sniffed. “I did nothing wrong. You must have contaminated the wash. It must have bled.”
Sakaj gaped at the monster. Then she looked at her hands and saw a drop of blood on her left palm. She must have cut it on the eggshell.
“Well, that will have some unintended consequences, I’ll bet,” Cheg-Cheg rumbled. Then he looked hard at the goddess. “Really, you should know better. Upon how many humans have you perpetrated these very sorts of shenanigans? Now I must go. I shall assail your land again the next time I happen to wander by. Perhaps I shall destroy you utterly next time. I do enjoy my little visits with your people. Say hello to your father for me.” With a final caress of the trees, Cheg-Cheg faded out of the Dim Lands.
That was how Sakaj had caused the Veil to fall, and she’d been laboring ever since to fix things. And she would damn well be boiled like a shrimp and served to Cheg-Cheg on a cracker before she let anyone else take credit for the work she had put in to fixing this unholy mess.
Sakaj suspected that if she called out to Cheg-Cheg from the Dim Lands right then, he might answer, and that if he answered, he might offer help. But she had not yet reached the crisis of desperation that would lead her back to Cheg-Cheg for assistance.
Sakaj sighed and padded back downstairs to her waiting noose.
Ten
(Fingit)
“Make it rain toads for me. Or even better, porpoises.”
“I can’t even make it rain water.” Fingit grimaced at Sakaj as they lay side by side on the black grass.
“Well, raise a volcano then. These sorcerers are less interesting than mud. I miss the old days when we could just make things happen to people.”
Fingit ignored that and gazed back up at the Unicorn Town sky with its window onto mankind. There he saw the Nub and his river spirit, arguing among some rocks on a mountain slope. It was at least a three-day journey through these mountains, because Fingit and Sakaj had watched them walk across rocks and gravel for three soul-numbing days.
“I almost wish Cheg-Cheg would try to kill us again.” Sakaj yawned.
“Huh.” Fingit heard the pout in her voice. Four days ago, Cheg-Cheg had roared into Unicorn Town, forcing the gods to flee by jumping back home. The beast had snatched Lutigan and was lifting the God of War to his mouth just as Lutigan abandoned his Unicorn Town body. If Lutigan had been a second or two slower, he’d have been destroyed forever.
In that case, I might have thrown a little party. I wonder what kind of gift Cheg-Cheg would like? Fingit chuckled, drawing a frown from Sakaj. Oh, well, all this useless watching has made me a little irritable too.
Cheg-Cheg had ignored Unicorn Town since that attack, and Fingit had spent most of his time watching the Nub limp along during the daytime and sleep at night. The boy had created a magical false leg to replace his destroyed one, and it looked like he’d done a handy job, though unsightly. Fingit had also eavesdropped on the young man, whose conversations were less informative than the grunting and vomiting of drunken longshoremen, but without any interesting profanity. The Nub hadn’t said anything that gave Fingit good ideas about how to betray the young sorcerer.
“All right.” Sakaj sat up. “Describe the situation to me again. What have you found out? And do it in one sentence, you babbler. I do not need to hear how humans first learned to use fire and cover their private bits.”
Fingit held back a nasty statement about her being a giant whiner. “The Nub is headed for some awful city to free the Murderer and some woman, although why he wants to do it perplexes me. The Farmer severed the Murderer’s hands, thank the nasty Void-beasts for that. That’s justice for that foul-mouthed, irreverent sorcerer. He’s now a eunuch where magic’s concerned, soon to be a corpse where everything’s concerned.” Fingit glared at Sakaj and waited for her to say something about his using more than one sentence.
Sakaj pressed her lips together, but she said nothing about his long-windedness. “Good. I predicted this. The spirit will not accompany the Nub into that city. Men have laid too many stones one against another for her to bear it. The Nub will therefore ask you for help entering the city. He cannot do it without magic if he expects to save the Murderer, or if he even expects to live.”
“The spirit has been telling him to find another way,” Fingit said. “She’s made the same argument using the same words in the same tone of voice for two days. I wish I could send a hundred lions to eat her.”
“Stay focused. Betray the Nub, and I’ll send the spirit after those children. Then the Freak will trade us a lake of power, I’ll help the spirit save the Nub, and you will still have the Nub to squeeze until he’s a flaky husk.”
Sakaj lay back down beside Fingit, and in silence they watched the Nub and his river spirit walk and walk and walk.
When sunset scraped across the world of man, it turned the mountain valley hazy or stark by turns, depending on the shadows. The Nub and his river spirit stopped for the evening, made camp, and began preparing a meal for the young sorcerer.
Fingit nudged Sakaj. “I wish there was something to eat here. Or that we could bring something with us.”
“How do you know we can’t bring things with us? Have you tried? I haven’t.”
Fingit didn’t argue, nor did he ask her how
