One screaming, insistent thought had made it through the noise, and that was that the God of Undeath was now idly lounging against Kelsey’s body.
His mouth, never having been particularly well controlled by his better judgment, was crying, “Don’t take him! Not Kelsey, please.”
“He’s your friend,”Teliaz said with some jealousy.
“Yes,” said Dylrath still averting his eyes.
“As We were?”
“Yes.” Do Not Lie to Gods. They Know What You are Thinking. “No. Not exactly. I have a lot of friends. They’re all different.”
“Of course. You’re the man who’s friends with every person in Oursk.” Teliaz still sounded somewhat petulant.
Dylrath dared to look up. “And every single one of them is important. Do you know I mean that? When people look at me and I see their souls--it’s not just a tally--I know them, like they know themselves. There isn’t any one that isn’t important to me.”
“You never saw Us like that. Your Talent doesn’t work on Us.”
“No. You I had to get to know the old fashioned way: I spent time with You,” Dylrath said. “It was time well spent,” he added, hoping it didn’t sound like meaningless flattery. It was true, in its own way.
“Dylrath, We can’t go sparing everyone you claim as a friend. There’d be no one left.”
“But, just this one? For old time’s sake.”
“Why just this one?”Teliaz thundered.
“Because . . . Kelsey is the first friend I ever had who didn’t have the authority to give me orders.”
Teliaz looked at the body on the berth, considering.
Then he shrugged. “As you like. We don’t particularly need this one. So many have died of the negative energy poisoning already, We hardly know what to do with them just yet.”
“Negative energy poisoning? The Plague is from You?” Dylrath said, horrified. The scale of Teliaz’s power was far larger than he had ever imagined.
“No. It stops because of me. Er, because of Us, that is. Without a god controlling the heart of Undeath, the neg energy just leaked out all over the place. Whatta mess. That much of it is toxic to most living things. So on the whole, it’s probably a good thing Stone Bear didn’t succeed in blowing the thing up. We need living things, ‘cause you can’t get undead from stones, right? They got to go through that larval ‘living’ stage first, if you follow. So I’m . . .We’re gathering it back in. Right? We can just suck the negative energy out of this boy like a Divine sponge, see?”
He looked at his unglowing hands and smiled. “Who’s the god?”
“You are,” Dylrath replied automatically.
“Right.” Teliaz thought about that for a moment and then added, “Which, by the way, means I don’t need your pity anymore. Or a chaperone or tutor either.”
Dylrath looked at Teliaz, uncertain what to say. It was true. He hadn’t given a moment’s thought to the offer of power and knowledge, immortality or fun. What had almost led him to concede was something else altogether. It was something he wasn’t sure he was proud of doing, or not doing.
“I know your friend Cadrienne. Or, uh, of her anyway,”Teliaz added.“And I’ll tell you what she would have said.”He leaned forward, very close, looking down directly into Dylrath’s eyes. His presence at that range was overpowering, and the only thing that kept Dylrath from bolting into the wall again was a fixed immobility that seemed to have paralyzed his limbs.“’Trust me.’ And then maybe she’d have added ‘Teliaz is a Big Guy now. He can handle it.’”
Dylrath nodded. Cadrienne had a daft gift for trusting people whether they deserved it or not.
Teliaz looked at Kelsey, considering. “Tell you what, just so we’re quits, Let’s call it a swap. We leave him as he is, the Outgrabe stays with Us.”
Dylrath forcibly silenced his urge to bargain for a better deal. Do Not Bargain With Evil Gods. You Will Wind Up in a Bag. Nod and smile. Good.
“Good,”said Teliaz. Looking at Dylrath, Teliaz suddenly realized that now that he could see through Dylrath’s mind, and all its myriad convolutions.“You always meant to give it to Us,” he said, understanding it for the first time.
Dylrath nodded, and averted his eyes again. “I thought it would help,” he said truthfully.
“It has.”Teliaz smiled. “And you. You get immortality without sacrificing more than a small piece of your soul.”
“Side effect,” Dylrath shrugged sheepishly. He had tried not to think about that part for a very long time. He wasn’t sure he wanted to think about it even now. Not real immortality, but the other kind. The Outgrabe’s soul was its own now, but it would live as long as Teliaz, and there would always be a small piece of Dylrath in it, chattering away in Teliaz’s ear.
And there might be legends some day, although given the way things had gone, he was no longer sure he wanted to be recalled in them. It would have been different if Teliaz had chosen the Really Dangerous Hobbies thing. Undeath was more than Really Dangerous.
“I . . . I was just trying to think about what was best for you. It’s lonely at the top, and you’re going to need a friend who doesn’t change, who doesn’t need favors or spells or whatever from you. Just . . . someone who likes being there.”
“Someone like you. But not actually you.”
Dylrath shrugged again, almost apologetically. “Everybody wins?”
“Consider yourself a winner, then. "
“Cleverrr,” said the Outgrabe. “Well, thanks for everything! Well, nearly everything. All the good bits, anyway,” it added cheekily. “Is it time to go yet?”
“Most likely. Farewell, Dylrath Birdhouse,”said Teliaz. “We do not think we will meet again.”Hestepped on to the Outgrabe with a graceful and practiced air. “Unless you change your mind, of course. You may shortly find this ‘death’ of yours to be highly . . . overrated. When Calphas calls you home to those Dreary Havens, you may think of Us after all. For you, there will always be an alternative. Although perhaps not so fine a one as you might have had. I’ve found a more interested party for that role.” He smiled as the Outgrabe rose. They vanished with swirling smoke and mist.
Dylrath knew they had vanished, but were not quite gone. The intolerable blood hunger and the soul imprint of the Outgrabe were still with him.
“One last thing,”Teliaz’s disembodied voice echoed through the room. “We advise you to keep the door well barred. Kelsey’s sailors will see you home to Oursk, but without their navigator, it may take them some little while to get there. What’s left of the dying should keep them fed for a bit. They shouldn’t need your blood if they make landfall by next month. And your precious Kelsey, he might buy you a few more days if you need them.
“Fare well.”
And then he was really gone.
Dylrath rose, and walked across the bleached, bone-white floor. The berth where Kelsey lay, and Teliaz had leaned, was a lacy framework of worm-eaten ivory. He heard dragging and scraping movements above his head, and looked up. The cabin ceiling was bone white as well, and it was clear that there were men . . . bodies . . .making footsteps . . . walking above. The familiar sounds of sail being hoisted and ropes creaking filled the room.
Kelsey drew one ragged, gasping, gurgling breath, and then coughed blood, weakly.
They set sail for Oursk.
Very nice work.
