“And I killed him. I killed a god! There is nothing to fear. Are you afraid of a girl? She is only a girl!”
“No, Slayer. She is death! You should put her back on the rock, and leave her there.”
“Deadeye! How can you say that, after what you did? You wanted to shoot the gortron with my E, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”
“Yes, Slayer. Yes. But I did not know how to shoot it.”
“Why? Why try to shoot the gortron? Why leap into the water, to fight it with your knife? You said it was a god. Would you kill a god?”
Deadeye sighed deeply, and looked into the cloudy sky. The flickering glow from the dying flare lit up his face. “It was for you, Slayer. I am your sword, and your shield. For you, I face the Gods. But not for her.”
Deadeye would not say any more. He just huddled miserably by the flare, still holding our captive by one arm. She looked at me closely, breathing shallowly. An icy flash shot through my veins as her dark misty eyes gazed into mine. My flesh crawled.
“She is afraid of you, Slayer,” Deadeye said at last. “But you should be afraid of her. She will kill you, Slayer.”
“I am immortal, Deadeye, remember?”
“Moontouch,” I said gently. “I am Slayer, and I bring death to all your foes.” It was the traditional Taka greeting, warrior to virgin. “I have come from out of the great dark to return you to your father, the King of the Dark Clouds. Can you hear me?”
Her lips trembled. “Hear.” Her eyes did not leave mine.
“Moontouch, you are cold. I give you something to fight the cold.” I punched a mag from my medkit, and showed it to her. “Put this on your tongue, and swallow it.”
Moontouch shuddered, and looked deep into my eyes. Then she closed her eyes, and opened her mouth. Her pink tongue trembled slightly. I placed the mag on her tongue and she swallowed it. Just like that. An alien monster from another world has just killed a god. Take this, says the monster. Swallow it. She closes her eyes, and opens her mouth, and swallows it. Something very wrong here, I thought.
“Deadeye, run up the hill and strip the soldiers. We need their clothing, all of it. For you and the girl.”
“Clothing!” He scrambled up into the rubble of that ancient city. Moontouch was looking into my eyes again, quiet.
“Speak to me, Moontouch. Are you cold?”
“I am dead.” She said it quietly, totally resigned to her fate.
“Moontouch, you are not dead. Your heart beats within you. You are a princess of the Dark Clouds. Your father awaits you!”
“I am the Food of the Gods. I am the slave of the dead. I cannot return, God-killer from the great dark. I cannot return. Your servant Deadeye is right. You should leave me here to die.”
“I will not leave you. Who is to know what happened here? The Soldiers of God are all dead or dying. The gortron is dead! I will say I took you from the soldiers. It is true! We don’t have to tell about the gortron. Who is to know?”
“The Gods will know. I am dead, Slayer of my foes. I am dead.”
“You are alive!” I almost shouted it. “You are alive, because of me, and I will not permit your death. I will bring you back to your father. I didn’t jump in that water, kill that creature and rescue you, just to let you die. I do not give you permission to die.”
“Your servant will know.”
“He is not my servant. He is my brother. He is my sword, and my shield. And he brings death to all your foes. We are one.”
“He is a Taka, and he fears the Gods, as I do. If he helps us in this, he is as dead as I am.” Moontouch shivered. “I was a princess of the House of the Past, guardian of the holy dead, a keeper of the truth. Now I am only a phantom, doubly cursed. My life will be a lie. I will walk the corridors of life like a ghost, a slave of Fate.”
“You are young, and should not die. We are all prisoners of the Gods. I have come from another world, to pull you from the very mouth of the gortron. It means you are not destined to die, but to live!” Predestination, and fate. The Sunrealmers believed in it just as much as I did.
Moontouch calmly gazed into the dying yellow glow of the flare. She turned her eyes to mine, and looked right into my soul. Her eyes were deep, dark pools, swirling galaxies full of stars, a sudden, secret gateway into another dimension.
“You are right,” she said. “I am yours, Slayer. I have lost my world. My life has ended.”
Deadeye returned with the skins, and we dressed Moontouch in the bloodstained clothing of her slain enemies.
Deadeye bowed to the Gods. “We are dead already,” he said. “Slayer and Moontouch and Standfast. We are only phantoms now, passing among the living, who do not know. It does not matter what we do now. We are all doomed. It is Fate. I stand by my brother, Slayer. Speak, and it will be done.”
Moontouch spoke. “Slayer, immortal Godkiller from out of the Great Dark, and Deadeye Standfast, Waterwalker, who defies the Gods, fearless enemies of my enemies, I do not mean to alter your fates. I am only a speck of dust in the wind. My Fate is already fixed. I am the Food of the Gods. I am doomed, and if you were wise you would tie me again to the rock and let me die. But I can see this is not to be. You have taken me back from the grasp of the Gods. My future is yours. I am nothing. I am your slave, Slayer. I am yours.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she bowed her head.
Deadeye moaned. He knew what it all meant, already.
A great sense of dread washed over me. Moontouch was stunningly beautiful, but something in her eyes made me hesitate. She would be an important prize to command for the Legion, I thought. I certainly couldn’t get personally involved-could I? I could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. She had plans for me. For a moment, I thought maybe she was right. Maybe I should throw her back to the sea! If I didn’t, Priestess certainly would. Or Valkyrie.
Chapter 10: The Eyes of the Dead
“You have killed it, Slayer!” Deadeye held an ancient trident. He was clad in loose camfax, his face smeared with dirt.
“It’s still alive, Deadeye.” We faced a huge exoseg deep inside the hive, just the two of us, running on adrenalin and terror. I had just zapped it with biobloc. “Snow Leopard, Thinker,” I said, as calmly as possible. “I’ve got one exo that’s trying to kill me. It’s kind of annoying.” We were assaulting a big exoseg hive deep underground, and we thought we had all the exits blocked. If so, many exosegs would surely die. And possibly some Legionnaires-starting with me.
The leviathan had stopped, stunned, filling the tunnel before us. It shuddered, briefly, then moved backwards and stopped, twitching. My flare crackled away, harshly illuminating the ugly creature.
“What are you using, Thinker?” Snow Leopard appeared, his E raised, ready to fire. His pink eyes glowed behind his faceplate.
“Nice of you to drop by,” I replied. “I’m using biobloc. It’s a driller. No sign of the soldiers yet.”
“Lasers?” Merlin moved up, prepped to fire.
“No, I think it’s dying,” Snow Leopard said. We watched. The beast shuddered again, twitched, and stilled. The flare hissed noisily. All of Beta had arrived by then, lining up against the tunnel walls.
“Command, this is Beta. We’ve got a dead driller blocking the tunnel. We are investigating.” Snow Leopard reported our situation to our CAT commander.
“Confirm.”
“Let me have the next one, Slayer,” Deadeye pleaded. He had wanted the creature himself. I decided he was a perfect Legion auxiliary. Completely insane, just like us.
“Command, Beta. We’re advancing. We need a probe here.”
“Tenners.”
“All right, let’s go. The sensors show there’s nothing there-let’s just squeeze past.”
