“I guess you intended that to sound poetic, mighty Sakaj, but no. I’ll build a monument to you. A small one, no bigger than a donkey.” The Nub held up his hand at just the height of a donkey.
“Pathetic. For four squares, you will father a child. Once it walks, it shall be cursed to kill its weight in creatures or men every day until it dies.”
The Nub dared to laugh. “Definitely no. I’ll tattoo ‘She-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named’ on my chest. For four squares.”
Ooh. What manner of curses might I visit upon him through the agency of that tattoo? But it is not enough power for our purposes. “While that is flattering in a slutty way, no. Let us bring the bargain to three squares, and whenever you create something, you must destroy something equally precious.”
The Nub laughed again, louder, and then paused. “For three squares, I won’t be able to laugh for a month.”
“A meager offer. For three squares, you shall never know happiness.”
“Forget it. I won’t laugh for a year. Three squares.”
“No, that is not enough.”
“What do you mean, mighty Sakaj?” The Nub peered around. “Do you need a certain type of sacrifice for something? What do you need?”
“You idiotic lump!” Krak whispered. “Why did you give him that bit of information? Has deicide clouded your thinking?”
Sakaj shook her head. The Nub is just a young man, almost a baby. He doesn’t know what he knows. “It was a figure of speech. I was merely commenting on the deficiency of your offer. You will not know happiness for ten years in exchange for three squares.”
“So that’s the amount you need. Well, I might consider it then. But not for three squares.”
“Four squares then, but you’re stretching my patience like a harp string. If I let you die now, it wouldn’t diminish my joy at this evening’s dance.”
“Good lie,” Lutigan whispered. “That was convincing.”
“I want an open-ended debt.” The Nub yawned. “Five squares every day, forever.”
Even though the end of all things was at hand, the gods all laughed in silence.
Sakaj kicked at the black grass. “Perhaps you would like a goldfish that grants wishes too? Hm? No! Of course not! No god has ever paid an open-ended debt, and I will not be the first! Take five squares or accept death.”
“No, Sakaj. I can hear that you need this. Three squares per day, open-ended.”
“Bah! Bah, fie, and ram your offer up your pinched human ass!”
The Nub said, “Oh, you really do need this, don’t you?”
An earthquake thundered and crashed into existence on the other side of the pond in the Dark Lands. Sakaj looked around and saw Cheg-Cheg’s head emerging from the ground.
“No, I don’t!” Sakaj’s voice implied that yes, she might. “You… just go off to die if you want to! Or you can take six squares and be denied happiness for ten years.”
“Two squares per day, forever.”
Krak whispered, “Do not take an open-ended debt, Sakaj. Better that we all die. It would be an appalling precedent. Every being in the Void would mock us.”
Cheg-Cheg had climbed fully out of the ground, shaking Dark Lands dirt off like he was a dog. He pointed at the gods and roared.
The whole Void can suck itself out of existence for all I care! “No! No, no, no! Seven squares!” Sakaj screamed.
“Two squares per day, forever. Otherwise, I’m taking my chances with Louze back there.” The Nub pointed in a random direction, since he couldn’t see Louze at all.
Cheg-Cheg charged across the pond, rather agile for a creature with the same mass as a hill.
Krak bellowed, “You will not make this bargain!”
“Father Krak?” the Nub said.
All the gods but Sakaj dropped to the ground as they abandoned their bodies.
“Just a few seconds more…” Sakaj knelt as she watched Cheg-Cheg knock down ancient trees like they were toddlers. “You will not know happiness for twenty years, in exchange for… one square per day. Open-ended. Forever.”
“The power to accumulate every day!” the Nub said.
“No! All right! Yes! Done!”
Sakaj tossed today’s power to the Nub. “Such a pleasure being utterly violated by you! Bastard!”
The Nub nodded as if he’d just purchased a pair of boots. “I’ll call on you again some time.”
An avalanche of power enveloped Sakaj.
The sorcerer snatched the wooden toy porpoise off the ground and held it between his knees. He began scratching a symbol on it with the iron crosspiece that Louze had used to saw off his nipple.
As Cheg-Cheg’s impossible nightmare of a hand swept toward her, Sakaj abandoned her body in the Dark Lands.
Sixteen
(Fingit)
Fingit’s new armor pinched a little in the crotch, but he’d forged it in a rush. Considering that he had created armor and weapons of divine power for twelve gods, and that he’d accomplished it before Cheg-Cheg had shown up to squash his new forge flatter than Weldt’s penises, anyone who wanted to quibble about the tailoring could just bite themselves on the ass.
Sakaj had provided the power required for all of this.
Amazing how all was forgiven when she showed up with a positive ocean of power. Krak even hugged her.
Now that the gods were preparing for battle, Sakaj handed out power as if it were sand. Fingit had asked her, “Why so generous? You wanted that power so much you killed Harik like he was vermin. Almost killed.” Harik had abandoned his body at the last instant and survived.
Sakaj clenched a fist between her breasts. “All victory now flows through me.”
Fingit waited for more. When it didn’t come, he said, “Good to know. I’ll engrave that on the buttocks of your armor.”
Krak used some of Sakaj’s power to remove the taint of insanity from the land so all the gods could fight Cheg-Cheg in their homeland. Chira, Goddess of Forests, prepared the ground for battle. Lutigan called his fourteen demigod shield-men, although his host of fourteen thousand warriors had withered to fourteen thousand fat, old, or dead men. Harik and his wife, Trutch, the Goddess of Life, fueled their battle-rage by arguing about what Harik
