Chaos God 3, page 13
part #3 of Chaos God Series
There wasn’t anybody strolling around this part of the town at the moment, so I decided to take a closer look at some of the houses. The three-story building where the village leader, Gaelyra, had been was across the square, and the red-haired woman’s place was next door. I recalled the lovely glow of the freckle-faced woman’s presence, and before I knew it, I found myself skittering over to her door.
The simple glass panes of the windows in the front of the building were dusty and dirty around the edges, but I could see inside well enough.
The space was well organized, and I finally could tell what the red-haired woman’s role was in the village. Three wooden beds, each with a thin pad, filled the open space of the house, and a small table stood beside each one with a silver bowl and a stack of clean white bandages. The wall straight across from me was lined with shelves, and the top shelf was filled with leather-bound books. The other shelves held dozens of glass jars filled with dried plants and more bandages, and they were all capped with large corks. Three mortars and pestles of different sizes sat right in the center of the middle shelf, and I knew after assessing all of this that she was undoubtedly a healer.
Excitement filled my mind at the possibilities this could bring for my people. Based on the extensive collection of her supplies and books, this woman was very knowledgeable, which was a huge relief. Shalanna would be giving birth in a matter of months, and the idea of her going through that without someone who knew what they were doing was unpleasant at best.
The red-haired woman walked through a door that led to the back of the house, and I was once more struck by her beauty. She had a spray of adorable freckles across her nose, and a little mole right by the left corner of her mouth that I suddenly longed to kiss. Her jaw was somehow the perfect balance between elegant and strong, and there was a little cleft in the middle of her chin.
She straightened her supplies as she walked through the house, and she replenished the stacks of bandages beside each of the beds. It was clear by her precision and preparedness that she took her job as a healer very seriously, and I wondered if this was why she was so angered by the stacks of supplies outside Gaelyra’s place yesterday.
I turned back around as footsteps approached from behind me, and I saw the graying red-haired elf from the fields walking up to the front door. Now that he was close enough to get a good look at him, I could see a strong familial resemblance between him and the healer.
He rapped his knuckles gently on the door, and I spotted the red-haired woman walk toward the door from the corner of my eyes.
“Good morning, sweetheart,” the man said.
“Good morning, Father,” the red-haired woman said with a soft smile. “Come inside, I have prepared the tea already.”
I flung myself into the air and rushed through the open door with the broad-shouldered elf before they could close it. Then I flew high up against the ceiling to try and keep out of the way, and I chuckled to myself about the old idiom of being a fly on the wall.
The freckled woman led her father through the door, and I followed close behind them.
The back of the house was a small kitchen with a rough wooden table in the middle with a bench on either side, and a wood-burning stove sat on the opposite wall with a scuffed tea kettle on top. A wooden ladder in the far right corner of the kitchen led up to what I assumed was the second floor of the house, and a small window was cracked open a few inches on the other side of the room.
The kitchen was quaint and comfortable, and it smelled nicely of black tea and hibiscus flowers. The table was set with two places, and the simple tea cups had small chips in the rims. There was a plate of dark toasted bread in the center of the table, and the man sat at the table as his daughter picked up the tea kettle and poured steaming hot water into the cups.
I landed on the middle rung of the wooden ladder and watched silently as the father and daughter looked at each other.
“How are you, Freesia?” the man asked, and his tone was heavy with fatherly concern.
“How do you expect me to be, Father?” Freesia scowled with irritation as she returned the kettle to the stove. “You know how I feel about our situation.”
“I know, sweetheart,” the man sighed. “We could always leave.”
“And abandon all the people here?” Freesia shook her head. “No, you know I will never do that. This was our home long before Gaelyra took a stranglehold of it. I will not leave them to starve to death under her thumb.”
Ah, so Gaelyra was as awful as Wyn had claimed, but I had to wonder what power she had over the people.
“You are so much like your mother,” the man said, and he swiped at his eyes quickly. “She would be very proud of you.”
“Mother would have been heartbroken to see her home fall to this,” Freesia said.
“I can’t argue with you on that point,” the man sighed.
“If only there was more we could do,” Freesia said without hope.
“Did you notice the supplies are still sitting out there in front of Gaelyra’s office?” the man asked with interest in his green eyes. “The demons were supposed to come and collect everything in the middle of the night, but it seems they did not come at all.”
“I did see the supplies are still there.” Freesia nodded. “I hope they rot before the Demon Lord’s minions arrive.”
“That wouldn’t do any good for anyone.” The man frowned. “Perhaps Gaelyra will allow us to return the supplies to everyone.”
“I would fall down dead from the shock if she chose to do so,” the red-haired woman scoffed. “She sends enough supplies to feed an entire village and watches as the people who look to her for leadership survive on the brink of starvation.”
Freesia’s red eyebrows knitted together with frustration and anger as she stewed silently for a moment.
“Sweetheart…” her father murmured.
“No, Father, you know as well as I do how disgraceful it is,” Freesia objected. “She allows the animals to have more food than the rest of the village because they ‘have use.’ It’s horrid!”
The disgust in Freesia’s voice said everything about her opinions of Gaelyra’s choices, and I found I liked this woman quite a lot. She had a fiery passion that was as bright as her hair, and it was clear she had a deep compassion for the others in the village.
What I couldn’t figure out was why the people tolerated such treatment from their leader. I got the feeling Gaelyra didn’t have any physical power over the people, she looked way too old and wiry to pose a true threat, so why did they allow themselves to live under such harsh treatment?
A sharp knocking at Freesia’s front door drew all of our attention away from the conversation at hand.
“Coming!” Freesia called, and she sighed heavily as she pushed away from the table. “I’m sorry, Father. My anger does no good for anyone, and I should focus my energy on doing what I can to help our people.”
“Go tend to your patients, sweetheart,” the broad-shouldered elf said. “I’m going to finish my tea, then I must return to my stables. Twilight is due to give birth to her foal any day now, and I wish to be there for her.”
“You are a good man, Father.” Freesia stepped behind her father, hugged his shoulders tightly, and then pressed a quick kiss to the top of his graying red curls.
“Go along,” the man chuckled.
I flew into the air and followed Freesia back out to the front room, and I landed on the full shelves just as she opened the front door.
A middle-aged woman stood on Freesia’s front porch with a skinny adolescent boy who looked to be no more than fourteen beside her. Their hair was the same shade of golden-brown, and they had the same shape to their hazel eyes, so I felt it was safe to assume they were family.
“Oh, Mabel, please come in,” Freesia said with much more kindness in her voice than when she’d spoken about the village leader, and then she turned to the boy. “Good morning, Sten, how are you feeling today?”
“I’m fine, ma’am,” Sten said in an unconvincing voice, and even from across the room, I could see he swayed slightly on his feet.
“You are not.” Mabel pushed the boy inside and steered him to the nearest narrow bed. “Oh, Freesia, he’s been having fainting spells again, and he bruises at every little bump.”
“Have a seat, please,” Freesia said, and she turned away from the pair.
She walked over to the wall where I was perched, and I could see the heartbreaking frustration on her face as she picked up a jar filled with inch-long oval leaves. There was a faded label on the side of the jar with the words “Moringa Leaves” written in an elegant handwriting.
“Here, make Sten a cup of tea with these leaves three times a day,” Freesia instructed as she scooped half the jar of leaves into a little paper parcel. She folded it carefully and handed the packet to Mabel. “This will help return some of the nutrients to Sten’s blood and body. It will give him a bit more energy and stamina, and it should help with the bruising as well.”
“What ails him, Freesia?” the woman asked in a voice that trembled with worry. “What’s wrong with my son?”
“Rest for a moment, Sten,” Freesia said to the boy as she patted his skinny knee gently. Then she tugged his mother over to stand just in front of me, and she lowered her voice. “Sten isn’t getting enough food. His body is still growing, and he needs more sustenance.”
“Oh, dear.” Mabel frowned, and her hazel eyes filled with tears for a second before her entire face suddenly relaxed. Then her eyes became hazy and unfocused. “Thank you for the tea, Freesia. I’m sure he will enjoy the flavor very much.”
“Three times a day, Mabel,” Freesia urged the mother as she saw them both to the door. The red-haired healer sighed heavily when she closed the door behind them, and then she hit her tight fist softly against the wooden panel.
“Be kinder to yourself, sweetheart,” the broad-shouldered elf said as he entered the room from the kitchen. “You are doing the best you can under the circumstances.
“I wish they could remember.” Freesia’s shoulders heaved with a wary sigh.
“Even the worst of things do not go on forever,” her father consoled her. “I must go.”
“Give Twilight some oats for me,” Freesia said as she hugged her father.
The elf kissed his daughter on the top of her bright red curls and then walked out of the building.
My heart broke at the wretched look on her beautiful, freckled face, and I couldn’t stand here doing nothing for another second.
I took to the air and flew back through the kitchen to escape out the cracked open window, and I flew around the outside of the healer’s home and directly over to the three-story building in search of Gaelyra. Then I buzzed right up to the open window at the front and went inside the empty room.
There was a huge wooden desk in the center of the office that was covered with stacks of books and loose papers. The back wall of the office was filled with dozens of identical-looking leather-bound books, and one was spread open in the middle of the desk.
I flew over and landed on the back of the chair so I could look down at the open book. It looked like business ledgers with rows and rows of itemized food supplies, and I realized Gaelyra and her manservant had been keeping very careful track of all the food they’d been providing to the Demon Lord, as well as the pick-ups.
A door at the side of the room slammed open suddenly, and I darted to the bookshelves at the back wall just as Gaelyra and her balding servant, Berk, walked into the room.
“But why didn’t the Demon Lord complete the pick-up last night!” the white-haired elf woman growled angrily through clenched teeth.
“My Lady--” The man’s hunched shoulders were curled so far forward he looked like he was trying to cosplay as a candy cane. “I--”
“Shut up, you idiot,” Gaelyra snapped. “I have no time for your simpering foolishness. I need to know what is happening!”
Berk stood there and trembled like the last leaf on a tree at the end of autumn, and his mouth opened and closed like a fish gasping for oxygen.
“Ugh!” Gaelyra grumbled. “You really are useless, aren’t you?”
“My lady…” Berk mumbled, and he knotted his bony hands together. “What would you have me do?”
“There’s nothing you can do, you imbecile,” Gaelyra growled, and she flung herself dramatically into the chair at her desk. “My very life is on the line. If the Demon Lord has decided this arrangement no longer suits him, then what will stop the demons from spilling forth from the forest?”
My first thought was the albino demon queen and her drones, but that idea was quickly extinguished as the white-haired elf continued ranting.
“Those scaly beasts will consume this village like locusts, and then where will I be?” Gaelyra whined.
Scaly demons?
Well, that definitely ruled out the white-skinned albino fucks I’d rescued the dwarves from. I hadn’t encountered any demons with scales yet, so they must be coming from somewhere other than south of this village. Unless there was a lot more lurking in the far north of our forest than I’d imagined yet.
But then I thought back to the freakish howling I’d heard echoing from further north.
Just remembering the eerie sound made me shudder, and as if on cue, a sharp, screeching howl suddenly echoed in the distance.
I could tell it was coming from the same direction as the abandoned orchards in the north, and it was undeniably the same haunting sound I’d heard on my last visit here.
What the hell kind of demon monstrosities were lurking in those trees?
Whatever it was, their call made both Gaelyra and Berk’s heads swivel immediately toward the window. Then the white-haired elf shuddered, and her servant’s jaw clamped down so hard I thought he might break every last tooth out of his head.
After a moment, Gaelyra started up again, and Berk just stared at his mistress with silent terror in his watery eyes as she carried on in what sounded like a very self-pitying manor.
“If the Demon Lord decides I am no longer of use to him by means of the food supplies I send, then my seat of power here will be at an end,” Gaelyra grumbled.
Berk swallowed hard before he spoke in a low voice. “But my lady, you still have--”
“Silence!” Gaelyra hissed. She walked over to the open window and forced it closed. “You will give all my secrets away, you utter fool.”
“A thousand apologies, my lady,” Berk cowered and hunched so low he’d nearly folded himself in half.
“If only Ryfon would answer my messages,” Gaelyra muttered.
My heart nearly stopped at the mention of the one-eared asshole, and I forced my breathing to slow down so I wouldn’t miss her next words.
“He is supposed to keep me abreast of the situation.” Gaelyra frowned angrily.
Chapter 10
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I could hardly believe my ears, or whatever part of my anatomy I was hearing with in my current beetle form.
Not only had this bitch made a deal with the Demon Lord that seemed to put her desires and the tyrannical fuck’s needs above her people, but she’d been conspiring with Ryfon as well.
I’d known that one-eared bastard had been up to no good. His disappearances from camp at key moments, like right when a group of demons attacked, were far too suspicious for him to be anything but a manipulative asshole, and here was all the proof I needed.
“What if Ryfon has betrayed me?” Gaelyra muttered. “We had a deal. I deliver the food supplies, and he delivers the blood sacrifices. If that snake has gone back on his end of the bargain, it would destroy the protection I negotiated for myself.”
“I do not understand, my lady,” Berk whispered in a terrified voice.
“And why would you?” the white-haired leader shouted suddenly. “You were never privy to the details of the arrangement. Ryfon and I presented the parameters of a deal that would protect the both of us and give the Demon Lord what he craved. It kept us in power and safe from the demon hordes around us. In return, I was allowed to retain power in this village and shape it to my will, and Ryfon was given domain over the barren wastelands of the dunes. Why he wanted the area, I will never understand. All I knew was that the village was finally, finally mine, but I should have known better than to trust him.”
My brain was reeling from the bombshell that Gaelyra’s angry outburst dumped all over me, and I completely missed the next thing she said as I tried to process everything.
Ryfon wanted the dunes for himself? He’d picked them?
I couldn’t understand what he could have gained from the place, except maybe the illusion of power he had over the people, and over Elora. I knew the dunes had once been more than rocky ground before Ragnarok, so maybe Ryfon thought there was something in the area that was worth staying to search for.
No matter what his motives had been, Ryfon was long gone now, but we still had to deal with his counterpart.
Gaelyra seemed a bit more transparent in her motives. She wanted the village, and that made a lot of sense. The whole place seemed like an oasis in the middle of a ruined world that crawled with hundreds of thousands of demons. I could understand her desire to keep the village as her own, but I couldn’t condone the methods with which she’d done it.
Berk’s trembling voice brought me out of my internal monologue and back to their conversation.
“My lady, is it possible the squirrel has been discarding the messages instead of delivering them?” Berk asked.
If I had any control over my stiff bug face, I would have frowned at this weirdness.
A squirrel was delivering the messages?
