Kalaya had recoiled as if he’d slapped her and gone as pale as a bedsheet. “You…,” she gasped. “You killed a demigod?”
“Is that what he was?” Hickok said, and snickered. “All those eyes, and no brain.”
“Describe him. Please.”
Hickok did, down to the uniform and the badge, ending with, “The lunkhead asked for it, treatin’ me the way he did. You’d think somethin’ that goes around callin’ it self a god would know better than to rile folks without cause.”
“You poor man,” Kalaya said.
“What will they do? Put me on trial? Keep me in this cell the rest of my days?”
“No. Your crime is too serious. There is only one punishment for slaying a demigod.”
“What might that be?” Hickok asked, thinking it was probably death by a firing squad.
“They will eat you.”
CHAPTER 31
Yama should be searching for Blade and Hickok. The more intel he could glean, though, the better he would be to carry out the remainder of their mission. It helped that the old man was being so friendly.
The son and the wife hadn’t uttered a word. They were clearly frightened that he had invaded their home. As for the little girl, she was playing with colored sticks in the corner.
“I’ll be leaving soon,” Yama informed them. “But there’s more I need to learn about the Lords of Kismet. And about Bangkok.”
“Such as?” Chuanchen said.
“You say this Dhurga runs the city. That her trident is a powerful weapon. What other weapons does she use?”
“She needs no others.”
“Have you met her? Talked to her?”
Chuanchen translated for the benefit of the others, and the son and the wife gave Yama looks that implied Chuanchen was right about him being insane. “I do not move in such illustrious circles,” the father said. “I am a low functionary. The only times I have seen her is when she passes by, and they have been few. When she does, we are required to kneel and bow low.”
“So these gods treat you as their slaves.”
“They treat us as what we are to them. As we are to the Gualaons. To the Chimeras, as well, but that is to be expected. They are beasts, after all.”
“Be more clear. What are humans to the Lords, exactly?”
“Their sustenance.”
Yama wasn’t sure he’d heard right. “Say again?”
“Did I use the wrong word? My English is, how would you say, rusty. When I was young I could speak it well. I even read a few books in English.”
“About the Lords?” Yama prompted.
“We are their food. They breed us as our kind once bred cattle and sheep and other animals. They eat us. And they use us in their tests. Also as menial functionaries in their government. Those so honored, such as myself and my family, are spared from the food vats so long as we perform our duties well.”
“The demigods? Do they eat people, too?”
“Of course.”
“And the people stand for this?”
“What else can we do?” Chuanchen said, and shrugged. “It is the way of the world.”
“You could rise up against them,” Yama said.
“Revolt, and wipe them out.”
“Wipe out the gods?” Chuanchen laughed.
“Truly, you do not understand how powerful they are. It is not just their weapons. And their flying machines. They are more intelligent than us. They are physically stronger than us. In short, they are superior in every way.”
“How do you know?”
“They have told us so.” Chuanchen gestured.
“And the evidence is all around you. The city itself, like all the others they rule.”
Yama found it difficult to conceive that the least little spark of resistance had been snuffed from the human population. “No one has ever rebelled? There’s no effort to overthrow them?”
“In the early days, there were attempts,” Chuanchen said. “The gods crushed those who dared challenge their might. As they crush all who oppose them.”
Yama had a troubling thought. “But they can die? They can be killed, like everyone else?”
“If they can, I have never heard of it,” Chuanchen said. “The gods are eternal. They live forever. We doubt they even age. Those who emerged from the underground over a hundred years ago are exactly as they were when they first appeared, based on accounts we have.”
“That’s impossible.”
“For humans, yes. Not for the Lords.” Chuanchen shook his head. “Do you begin to see what you are up against? To see your folly in coming here thinking you can slay them?”
“I have no choice,” Yama said.
“Neither do we,” Chuanchen said. “Were it to be reported that we did nothing to stop you, my family would be consigned to the food vats. I am sorry, but I cannot permit that. I was willing to answer your questions because I was curious, and because I can give the Lords information about you and perhaps receive some reward.”
Yama placed his hands on the Wilkinson. “What are you saying?”
“That my daughter-in-law blew the whistle without you noticing. But you could not hear it, in any event.”
“Whistle?”
Chuanchen spoke to the woman, who grinned slyly and held out her left hand. In it was a small reed whistle.
Yama could kick himself for not paying attention to her. Since she was unarmed, he hadn’t deemed her a threat. He did recall that several times she’d leaned in close to her husband. Out of fear, he’d assumed. But secretly she must have used the whistle. “What does that do? Alert the demigods?”
“Oh, no,” Chuanchen said, and laughed. “It calls our household pets. They are trained to deal with the snakes that plague our land. But they will kill anything we want them to.”
“They?” Yama said.
“Behind you,” Chuanchen said. “Your death awaits.”
CHAPTER 32
The creature that entered the hut did so stooped over because the doorway, fashioned for humans, was far too short. When it unfurled, it stood between seven and eight feet in height, and was as thin as a broom. It had green skin, yellow eyes with vertical pupils, small holes where the nose should be, and
