Godnapped!, page 4
“What makes you think that?” Bolonius asked, checking the dying deity’s pulse.
“Well, these little creatures managed to come into our dimension and bring back a god to theirs, all the while avoiding the gruesome encounter we’ve barely escaped from. How do you reckon they did it?”
“But… I can’t think of any god who would travel through dimensions, least of all circumvent the nihil, especially if they’re not supposed to leave for too long lest they die.” Bolonius gestured at the pitiful bundle of skin and bones shivering at his feet.
“Can’t you though?”
The Galdoshian king observed Vejuna with great interest. The other one had taught him about thinking throughout the years, and showed him that if he thought hard enough, he could create other beings like him, and not be alone anymore. But after a while, because his sons couldn’t think like he could, they had turned against him and taken his throne. That’s when the old devil had begotten a stronger, somewhat taller and definitely more brutish son. He had thought hard about how to remain on the throne without having to fight anymore, and this creature had appeared to him. Making a bodyguard had been easier than he would have, well, imagined. But seeing the herbologist gathering the crumbs of information she had and turning them into a coherent answer to the mystery that had brought her all the way here was a whole different story.
Frrrty realized he still had a lot to learn, when Vejuna addressed him again.
“Why did he tell you to bring Mabon here? Surely, he should know better. And here I thought they were friends…”
“He does not tell us that. He says, Mabon can help, but BrrrGrrr hits the god and he sleeps. We do not have time, so and I say, we bring him here. He can help when he wakes up. But he does not help, he cannot.”
“I see. It’s a big misunderstanding, really. A dreadful misunderstanding though, but hopefully, we’ll be alright.”
“Wait, what?” Bolonius was more lost than ever.
“I think I know what happened and why. But we don’t have time for explanations just yet. We must bring him back, and now. Bolonius, love, do your thing!”
“I—I can’t… Look, Vejuna, I’m not that good. We’d have to go through the nihil again, and I really don’t believe he’ll survive the trip. Golly, I’m so sorry, Vejuna. I’m letting you down. No, I’m letting us down. I’m letting the whole of Ze World down.” The wizzer fell on his knees, his face in his hands; his wand hit the ground in a loud clanking sound that echoed on the walls of the cavern.
Vejuna didn’t stop to watch her friend have a meltdown. She turned to the king.
“Call him, now!”
“I cannot. He comes when he wants. I never call. He says he likes coming here when he has a break, but he says, now he has no breaks, because too many people die. We do not understand. We do not die.”
Vejuna turned a nasty shade of red.
“Well, he’ll have a lot of work alright if he doesn’t come around this second! I can’t believe it. I swore I wouldn’t meddle… Oh, bugger! I’ll have to pay for this mess anyway, might as well have a good reason to cash out. Right…”
The atmosphere became still. Bolonius looked up, hardly believing his eyes. The herbologist he had come to know a little and like a lot was literally bursting with energy. He’d always thought of auras as being the stuff of wishy-washy New Age sort of magical mumbo-jumbo—a bit like herbologism, really—but he couldn’t deny that Vejuna had an aura about her right now. It was lighting the whole cave, giving it colors it wasn’t supposed to have.
Her eyes had been closed, but when they opened, they were burning white. Her entire face, which had looked somewhat aged so far, had smoothed out and was glowing intensely, as though it was made of incandescent glass. Her whole being seemed to extend as she deliberately brought her hands to her face and placed her fingers on her temples. She closed her eyes again and whispered a name: Samhain.
The next second, it was all over; everything was gloomy and grey again, and Vejuna was back to being a small wrinkly herbologist. She looked around them and heaved a heavy, disgruntled sigh, then snapped her fingers. There appeared the semi-god of death, the Passer, Mabon’s best friend, the one and only Samhain.
He looked surprised.
“What the—”
“What the, indeed. You’re supposed to come when summoned, but you still make me work for it! You will hear about this! But not now. Open a portal back to Ze World, and quick!”
The semi-god was stunned. He took his surroundings in and stopped at the poor dying creature shivering on the floor. When he realized who that was, his heart stopped, and he dropped on the floor.
“Mabon! No! Oh, I’ve been looking everywhere for you… I’m so sorry…”
“Everywhere? Are you kidding me?? You haven’t even been here! And here he was!” Vejuna’s anger illuminated her cheeks. Her hands twitched, clenching and opening several times, her fingers itching to smack his face.
“I have! But this filthy goblin king told me he had no idea what I was talkin—Oh…” Realization hit the Passer hard. “I was so worried; I didn’t hear it.” His kind face contracted with contempt as he looked down on the imp king. “Since when do stupid brainless creatures have ideas, anyway?”
“Well, they do have brains, that’s the whole point, and this one has started using it, all thanks to you!” Vejuna turned to Frrrty. “Yes, I figured that out too. It helps to be able to read people’s minds. And yes, you do still have a lot to learn, silly bugger!” She turned back to Samhain, who was crying his heart out. “Now, open that portal so we can bring him back before it’s too late.”
The Passer got back on his feet and resolved to slit through the fabric of this dreadful reality.
“You cannot go. You say you help, but you do not. You must help.” Frrrty growled, and BrrrGrrr prepared to attack.
“Oh, I know what I said. I said I would do what I can, and I still need to figure out what that is. I’m not sure I want to help nasty goblins. Then again, I’m not sure you really are nasty goblins. I’d say you’re lost with powers you don’t understand and yearnings you can’t control. So, here’s the deal: we’ll come back when things are better at home. In the meantime, be nice, and ponder on what it means to be able to think and make choices and take decisions. You’ll need to give me solid arguments if you want my support, so think hard.”
Bolonius and Samhain lifted the trembling god and helped him through the slit. Vejuna followed closely while keeping an eye on the grumpy old king and his bodyguard. The slit closed behind them as they set foot in the Enchanted Forest.
Chapter 10
The misery that greeted them on their return echoed the grimness they had just left behind. Mabon’s grove, once joyous, colorful and alive, resembled now a setting for ghoulish stories. All the trees had shriveled and turned ashen, the ground was cracked and parched, the sky itself was dull and the sun dim. As far as the eye could see, Mabon’s absence had left a dire mark.
The band took the declining god back to his lair, where Samhain tried to reorganize the bedding. But the golden straw had long since turned to dust, and the down’s feathers had spoiled and rotted. The Passer laid his friend down on his lap and covered his scrawny body with his cloak. He proceeded to cradle and rock him, all the while crying warm tears that bathed the dying deity’s face.
“Oh, my love, I’m so sorry. Can you ever forgive me? I never wanted this to happen. It wasn’t supposed to be like this. Please, don’t die. How could I go on without you?”
Vejuna’s eyes filled with tears at this sight, and she turned to Bolonius, who welcomed her in his arms, his eyes glistening as well.
“Are they—” He didn’t know how to finish his question.
“Yes, they are. They have been for eons. They only have one night a year to spend together, but in a god’s life, it’s like seeing each other every weekend, innit? It was enough for them.” She buried her face in Bolonius’s chest and listened to his heart beating fast. A human’s heart, pounding his brief life away too fast.
“Can he really die? He’s a god, for crying out loud! A god cannot die. Can he?”
Vejuna tapped into Bolonius’s mind. He was remembering how he had almost died himself trying to save this deity. Not just the deity, no. Ze World. A puny human like him almost died to save a god and a planet. And now, he was alive, but the immortal being and the eternal world were coming to an end. That made no sense to him.
She squeezed him as hard as she could, sending a wave of warmth that engulfed him. It was all too much, and he began to cry. “Is there nothing more we can do?”
The herbologist inhaled his sent as hard as she could. She had done too much already. She had done all she could, short of giving Mabon potions she knew wouldn’t work on him. Only time would reveal if they had repatriated the god soon enough, but time stood still in this gloomy cavern where only sniffles could be heard now.
Then a light appeared at the entrance of the den. It wasn’t radiant per se, but with the absence of vitality striking the place, it shone like a sun. It moved down into the lair and revealed itself to be a beautiful woman dressed in flowers and green leaves, yellow hair flowing down to her waist and held together with budding twigs and ivy.
She had the tired look of an artist who was down to her last ounce of energy after spending several sleepless nights working hard on a beautiful project. In her case, it had been several months, and being called back from her retreat before her time was due didn’t help the matter. Nor did the fact that she was also withering away because the balance had been broken. She had felt her brother’s presence back in this dimension, however feeble the feeling was, and she had come straight away to assess the damage.
“Samhain? You found him?” The goddess paid no attention to the wizzer and the herbologist, whose tears dried at once in the face of such beauty. She rushed to her brother’s side and cupped his sunken face in her delicate hands.
“They did. I’m so sorry, Ostara. It’s all my fault.” He couldn’t stop crying, guilt and utter sadness overwhelming him.
“Who did?” The goddess turned around and saw the couple behind her. “Oh, hello. Thank you.” She focused on her brother again. “Mabon? Can you hear me?”
“He’s dying, Ostara! He’s almost gone! I can see his soul leaving his body. Please, my love, fight it! Don’t leave us, please!” The Passer was beyond grief.
“Mabon? Come back, brother. You are home now, you are safe. Hear me, Mabon. Your work here is not done. We need you still, and will always do. Come, let me revive you.”
On these words, Ostara, goddess of rebirth and renewal, handmaiden of Life and daughter of Nature, kissed her brother back to life.
Samhain’s companion opened his eyes one eyelash at a time; the cadaveric hue of his cheeks was already a bad memory, his silver hair was recovering a golden patina even now, and after a good meal, he’d probably be able to stand on his own. The god of Harvest would go on living.
“Does this mean Ze World is saved?” Bolonius remained quite the down-to-earth character. And indeed, as soon as he’d asked the question that was burning Vejuna’s tongue, myriad spots of color and light surfaced from the grime and misery all around them. Ostara herself felt replenished as the balance of Nature had begun harmonizing itself again.
“The damage the Forest has suffered will heal in good time. The Magic has been harmed, but the elves will restore it and it will rejuvenate what has been destroyed. Ze World will go on turning mostly unscathed and unaware of how close it has come to complete annihilation. Thank you all for bringing my brother back in time.”
Chapter 11
Samhain should have rejoiced, but he didn’t have it in him to forgive himself for what had almost happened. He left his lover in the care of his sister and went outside. Vejuna and Bolonius followed him.
The sun’s warmth reached them at once, and it felt awfully nice. However, Samhain seemed impervious to it despite the good news. Vejuna decided to clear the air without further ado.
“Let it out, son. Get it all off your chest, allow us to understand and forgive. And forgive we will, and you must too. You cannot go on forever blaming yourself for what ultimately didn’t happen. Mabon is safe. And I’m pretty sure he won’t hold this whole mess against you. Not for long anyway.”
Bolonius marveled at the familiarity of Vejuna’s words for the semi-god. Samhain may have been only half a god, but the rest of him was something else. Inhabitants of Ze World didn’t truly understand what an Other was or did, but there was a saying, passed on from generation to generation throughout the species able to reflect on it: Others keep the balance when gods and concepts screw things up, which is quite often. Samhain’s ability to cross the veil between their reality and the Nether—and it seemed, to easily travel to other dimensions without suffering the consequences Mabon had faced or confronting the atrocities of the nihil—came from his Other side. The wizzer might not understand an Other’s power, but he knew enough to feel very humble next to the Passer. Vejuna, however, treated him like an equal. When she had called Samhain “son”, Bolonius had almost believed they were indeed related. Then again, the wizzer mused, it would explain a lot.
Samhain heaved a heavy sigh, tears streaking down his smooth cheeks. He looked like a teenager whose heart had been broken for the very first time—and all things considered, he probably was.
“I first heard of the Galdosh dimension a few decades ago, in one of Mabon’s books that he hoards for the long winter nights. We’d been drinking a bit too much, and he’d shown me the few lines pertaining to these forsaken creatures that nobody knew anything about, only that they exist and nothing else does in their dimension. I found it odd and interesting, and I went looking for them. When I found them—I don’t know—I felt moved, compelled to give them a bit of attention. Nobody deserves to be ignored like they are. Nobody deserves to be denied the basic needs every living creature craves for: consideration, kindness and support. I gave them that. I came back often. These creatures are amazing, clever, funny. They’re survivors, and above all, they’re alive, against all odds. They find food where there’s none, they find shelter and clothing where there’s nothing. I was getting tired of humans taking what they have for granted, of elves going through the motions without batting an eye, of gods playing with everything and everyone without taking responsibility for the consequences of their games. These creatures, they were different, they had become my friends, and I could be myself with them. I wasn’t a half-god, half-whatever, I was just Samhain. It felt good. Only Mabon gets me, and I only get to see him once a year. The rest of the time, I’m so lonely. Souls aren’t really chatty or interested. I guess I felt a bit left out myself.”
The semi-god paused to blow his nose into the sleeve of his cloak, but somehow, Vejuna had forestalled his need and handed him a handkerchief she had found somewhere in the recesses of her bottomless pouch. Samhain looked at her with gratitude. She nodded at him. Bolonius watched the scene, enthralled and deeply touched.
The Passer cleared his throat and continued. “Then one day, one of them asked me what it was like where I came from. So, I showed them Ze World, the sun, the sky, the forests, the seas, everything. I never should have. The sadness… It was unbearable. I had opened a wound they didn’t even know they had. They were suddenly yearning for our dimension, for our riches. Not out of greed, but out of need. They had seen the beauty of our world and they wanted to experience it. They asked me to help them experience it. I didn’t really think it through. I—I opened the slit and told them to find Mabon, that he would help them. I don’t know, I guess I trusted them to ask him and thought he would find a way to bring them all here. I mean, I obviously knew he couldn’t go to their dimension. I never wanted that to happen.”
He started crying again. This time, Bolonius acted on it. He patted him on the shoulder, which had the impact he was hoping for: Samhain sniffled loudly and sighed once more before resuming his tale.
“But I was naïve. They could not think that far. They did what they do best: they took action. And what better action to take than fight first, ask questions never? I swear, as soon as I heard of Mabon’s disappearance, I went back and asked their king. I swear. I went everywhere I could, I literally left no stone unturned, except that filthy cave. I had no idea there was a cave… I swear…”
“I know, son. I know. We know.”
The herbologist took the semi-god in her arms and gave him the best healing hug only a woman with her talents could give. Bolonius could have sworn he saw her glow again, just for a quarter of a second, but it was there—the glow she had had in the cave. She was something else alright, of that he had no doubt anymore, if ever he had had any.
Samhain took the handkerchief from his sleeve and blew his nose again. He smiled tentatively as the herbologist patted him on the shoulder.
“Now, boy, go back to your loved one. He will need your support for the next few days.”
“Oh, but I can’t possibly stay! I’m already in trouble for being here now. Nobody’s helping the souls pass the veil at the moment, and that tends to make a mess if left unattended for too long.”
“Hush, hush! Don’t worry about a thing. Take care of Mabon; Bolonius and I will take care of the rest. But first, if you could open the portal back to that wretched Galdosh dimension, we still have a conundrum to untangle there.”
Chapter 12
“Gather around. Good. Now listen to the lady. You! Stop punching your neighbor and pay attention!”
Bolonius was flocking the Galdoshian people towards the entrance of the castle. At a rough guess, he counted about six hundred heads. Altogether, they took as much space as a big table. An entire dimension with no end and no beginning for six hundred tiny creatures. Whoever thought that was a good idea should be checked for a brain tumor.
