Portals of Infinity

Book Six

Reprisal

Published by John Van Stry

Copyright 2015 John Van Stry

Copyright John Van Stry 2015

Cover Credits: eBook Launch (http://ebooklaunch.com/)

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Any resemblance between characters in this story and people living or dead is purely coincidental. This is a work of fiction created by the author and the author retains all rights to the material in this story.

License Notes

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Series Synopsis

There are an infinite number of worlds, or realities if you prefer, and they are all interconnected in a vast network of portals often referred to as 'The Infinite.' No one knows exactly why the portals exist, but the gods claim it is to balance the power and energies between the different realities or 'spheres.' Worlds tend to be connected to ones that are similar, but not always.

A few select people are able to perceive these portals, and travel through them. Traveling through a portal remakes you, if necessary, so that you fit in to the world you have entered. Because every world has its own rules, be they rules of physics, metaphysics, religion or magic, and every world has its own time, history, and politics. This means that even though some may appear similar, each is unique, and some can be very different than others.

All worlds contain gods and goddesses, and they too are bound by the rules of both their realms and the Infinite, as they play their own games, for their own reasons, and seek to increase both their power, and their religions. Some of these gods have champions, people who have sworn themselves to them, and in exchange, have gained power and powers, for as long as they stay.

When our hero William first became a champion, his god Feliogustus incurred a debt with another god, Aryanna, in another sphere. She had helped Feliogustus recruit Will, and helped him win a war in his greatest time of need. So Will, along with several other champions went on a quest, to search for a special item, located somewhere in the Infinite.

One of the party members, Cenewyg, quit his god going rogue at the end, and tried to steal the item for himself. He nearly killed Will and Aryanna's champion Stephanie, who the item was intended for. Cenewyg was thwarted in the end however, and escaped.

Many years later, Cenewyg came back unexpectedly and kidnapped one of Will's children, intending to sacrifice them to his new god in order to gain power against Stephanie (who had ascended to godhood). Things did not work out for Cenewyg, and in the process Will has learned that Cenewyg had been building temples on Earth, in his own bid for ascendance.

If he is to defeat Cenewyg, one final time, Will must destroy those temples, and destroy them soon.

And that is where we find Will today.

One

Garrison - Ireland

9 Months

It was raining outside, again. I took another sip of my beer and ate some more of my trout. I hadn't had much of a clue as to where to go when I started, Agent Addison's boss hadn't been too helpful before he'd suffered that fatal heart attack, really, who would have thought that a guy with a bad heart would be working a stressful job like that?

Then again, knowing the way Cenewyg often thought, that might have been less of a flaw and more of a feature. Yeah, I could have healed him and saved him, but why bother? I would just have had to kill him all over again, and this way, my conscience, as well as my hands, were clean.

All I had to go on were my memories of the pictures that I had seen, and fortunately for me, I now had near total recall thanks to Fel. One of those pictures had been of Cenewyg standing in front of the Melvin hotel, here in Garrison. A hotel, which I later learned, was blown up a week after the date on the back of the picture.

Obviously Cenewyg had been running arms and explosives to the IRA in this town, so I figured it was as good as any place to start my search for his next batch of followers. I could have tried Texas, as the responses to my comments to Botha made it likely Cenewyg had followers there as well, but Northern Ireland was a lot smaller, both in size and in population.

Also, with the Soviet Union's recent collapse, the IRA was definitely hurting for money. So any offers of assistance would undoubtedly bring a response.

"Mister Gatwick?" an older man said approaching my table in the back of the bar.

"Yes?" I said looking up, he was heavy set, and was wearing a dark green turtleneck sweater, as well as a dark jacket, which was wet from having been out in the rain. That made it hard for me to tell if he was wearing one of those necklaces. However his jacket did have a small bulge under his left arm, so the question I guess was, cop or terrorist?

"Sean Gatwick?" He said and gave me a searching look.

"No, William Gatwick. Sean is my uncle. Do you know him?"

"May I?" he asked and indicated one of the chairs at my table.

"By all means, be my guest!" I smiled and flagged down the bored looking waitress. "What do you want to drink?" I asked him as she came over.

"Whiskey, Katherine knows what I like."

I nodded to the waitress, "And another draft please," I told her and took a long pull off of my mug, nearly draining it.

He watched the waitress, until she returned to the bar, and then leaned over a little closer.

"What brings you here to Garrison, William?" he said in a lowered voice.

"Business," I said and smiled, "my Uncle Sean asked me to come up here and take care of a few matters for him."

"I see, and why aren't you staying at his house?"

"Well, you see," I started, my own voice lowered, then I stopped and nodded to the waitress as she approached with our drinks. I gave her a twenty-pound note and waved her off when she asked if I wanted change.

I leaned in again, with my voice lowered after she had returned to the bar.

"Uncle Sean is currently a guest of the Central Intelligence Agency, and it was rather difficult for him to get his instructions out to me. He wouldn't have time to tell them his nephew would be coming by, now would he?"

"We hadn't heard anything about that," the man said.

"Who would we be?" I asked, "And for that matter, before this conversation goes any farther, just who would you be?"

"Thomas Brennan, as for who we are, just some old business associates of your uncle's. We've been wondering what became of him, we've had some need of his, ah, services, but he hasn't been responding to our inquiries."

I nodded, "They've been holding him for some time now. Took my uncle Gerry a year to find out where they had him, now we're trying to get things back in order for him."

"I didn't think that the Yank's went in for secret prisons?"

I shrugged, "He's not an American citizen, so I guess they figured they could get away with it."

Thomas took another sip of his whiskey, and set the glass down. "So just why are you here then, William?"

I took a sip of my beer and set it down as well, "Like I said, business. Now if you have need of any of my uncle's services, well as his nephew, I'm sure I could provide you with whatever it is you just might be needing."

I watched as Thomas considered that for a few minutes. Finally he finished off his drink with a gulp and then stood.

"Come along with me, I think I have some people who might want to talk with you."

I nodded and stood up; at least things were getting interesting, though I still had no idea at all who I was really dealing with.

"Lead on," I said and I followed him out the back door of the Melvin Bar.

There were a couple of cheap tin-sided buildings out in the back, and there were two other men waiting, both of whom pointed handguns at me.

"Hold it right there, Mister Gatwick," one of them said.

I nodded and slowly raised my arms as Thomas moved around behind me and patted me down rather thoroughly and carefully.

"He's clean, no weapons, and I don't see any wires."

"Carrying a gun tends to make people nervous," I said with a smile. "So I leave mine at home."

Thomas relieved me of my wallet then, I only had one piece of ID, it was a fake driver's license for New York, I wasn't worried that they'd spot it, even if they were police, they'd probably not know what a real one looked like.

"Where's your passport?"

"In my luggage, where it can't get stolen," I said and smiled.

"My, you're a cool one," one of the men holding his pistol on me commented.

I shrugged, with my arms still up. "It's a rough business, you get used to it. Is there anyway we can move this conversation to a more comfortable place? Preferably one inside and out of the rain?" I asked.

"Now why would we want to do that?"

"Why wouldn't you?" I asked and smiled again.

"He's got a point, boys, let's go someplace a bit less public," Thomas said to them and then turned to me, "and you can put your arms down, but don't cause any problems, or my boys here will shoot you."

"Wouldn't think of it," I said. "Which way?"

"This way," Thomas said and taking my arm he led me around the side to a parked car. I got into the passenger seat, he got into the driver's seat, and his two men sat in the back, behind me, guns still drawn.

Obviously they didn't trust me.

"So, where to, Thomas?" I asked as he pulled us out onto the street and started driving.

"Well, I think the folks down at the station house might like to have a word or two with you."

I turned to look at him, "If you're the police, why didn't you handcuff me?"

"Oh, we'll do that once we're out of town a ways. If the local's saw me do that, they'd know who I was."

I shrugged, "I'd think my being carted off to the police station would tell them that."

"Oh, I wouldn't be worrying about that none!" one of the men in the back laughed.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because we do have secret prisons and the like, and I suspect you're going to be heading to one of those rather quickly."

"And here I thought the English were civilized," I chuckled. "By the way, does Sean really have a residence here?"

"What, don't you know?"

"Said I didn't. Wasn't sure there was one even, until you mentioned it."

"Well," He pulled over to the side of the road, we were out in the countryside now, Garrison was a fairly small town. "Let's get the cuffs on him, boys."

"So you don't know?" I asked as the one behind me got out of the car, and then grabbed the handle to my door, gun still in hand.

"Oh, I know, but it's not like the knowledge will do you any good."

I smiled, "Oh, I don't know about that," I said and I kicked the door hard, hitting the outside man and sending him flying as I shifted into high gear. I turned quickly and reaching into the backseat, I grabbed the gun out of the hand of the other man, just as it went off, the bullet passing through the seat just behind me.

I slapped Thomas on the side of the head to stun him, and then punched the man in the backseat, stunning him as well. I then dragged the man in the back bodily over the seat and threw him out the now open door, giving him a good toss, so he'd hit the other man, who was trying to get up, with some force.

Then I grabbed Thomas by the collar and dragged him out of the car as I got out. I had to slap him again, I was a bit rougher with the other two, knocking each out with a clip to the back of the head, though I had to be careful, I didn't want to kill anybody.

Then it was a simple matter of finding their handcuffs, cuffing their hands behind their backs, and searching them for weapons, ID's, and any other items of interest.

I checked the two men, both were unconscious at this point, but it didn't look like I'd done any serious damage to either of them. I then turned back to Thomas who was glaring at me.

"You won't get away with this of course, Gatwick."

"Yes well, apparently I already have. Also, my name isn't Gatwick, Sean is not my uncle, and no, he's not in a CIA prison. Now, with that out of the way, have you seen this symbol before?" I pulled out a piece of paper with a sketch of Cen's holy symbol.

"It's on the gate to his estate here."

"Huh, so I could have just spent my time driving around and looking for it?" I sighed and shook my head. I should have thought about that!

"Well, what's done is done. Let me get your men in the car, out of the rain, and you can tell me how to get there."

"I'm not telling you anything," he grumbled, still glaring at me.

I shook my head and put the other two men in the backseat, and belted them both in. I then did the same with Thomas. There weren't a lot of roads around here and I figured a place by the nearby lake would probably be the best spot to smuggle things from Ireland into Northern Ireland, which was the only reason I could see Cenewyg setting up shop here in the first place.

"Look, Thomas," I said as I turned us back towards town, "you were about to send me off to the kind of place where people do some really nasty things to get information." I looked at him briefly and smiled, "Or at least you thought you were." I turned right and started heading back towards town, it was raining still, so odds were good no one would notice the state of the car's occupants.

"So, you should be feeling rather charitable that I'm not doing any of that to you, and that I let your two men back there live, even though I don't need them at all."

"Why are you here?"

"Ah, that is a good question. Well, you see, good old Sean has been putting himself together something of a death cult. Typical sociopathic delusions of grandeur and all that kind of thing."

"Oh really now?"

"Hey, he sold arms to the IRA, and about twenty other terrorist organizations. Please don't tell me you think he's a nice sweet man," I said giving him a scowl for a moment.

"Okay, fine, he's a right bastard. But why would he want to start a religion?"

"Because he's a self-centered ass with a huge ego and an inferiority complex."

"You sound like you know him," Thomas said looking at me.

"All too well," I sighed, "and one of these days I'm going to kill him. But that's not why I'm here today."

"Alllll righty then. Why are you here today?" Thomas said, now giving me a worried look.

"I'm here to see if he's got one of those little 'temples' of his set up here. If he does, I'm going to burn it down and kill everyone in it." I looked at him, "When this is over, call Interpol and ask them about what happened at his estate outside of Johannesburg."

"What happened?"

"It was pretty nasty. They sacrificed a policeman."

"Were you there?"

I shook my head, "No. But it's my job now to find all of these places he had built up, and destroy them before anyone else gets hurt."

"And just who do you work for?"

"What, you think I'd tell you that?" I laughed, we were driving though town now, so I made a right and started to follow the road around by the lake.

"If I get caught, I'll just disappear in the middle of the night, and everyone will just pretend that they have no idea what happened. It's called 'deniability.'"

"Doesn't sound healthy for you there, does it?"

I grinned at him, "I always come back. So I wouldn't worry yourself much about it. Now, where is Sean's place?"

"That driveway on the left," he said and nodded up ahead.

"See, wasn't that easy?"

"My sister was at the wedding when his bastard friends blew the hotel up. She's in a wheelchair now."

I winced, "Sorry to hear that."

I turned into the driveway, and about thirty feet down it, there was a gate with the Gatwick symbol on it. I stopped the car, and got out.

"Well, here is where we part ways," I said to him. "After you free yourself, you can either go back to town and call for help, or you can wait until the shooting stops and come inside and take a look."

I checked the three guns, and the extra magazines of ammo I now had as well.

"Just don't come inside before then, I'd hate for you to get caught in the crossfire," I said.

"You're just going to go in there, and kill them all in cold blood?" He asked looking at me surprised.

I shrugged, "It's what they pay me for, and to be honest, it's not all that cold, I just hide it well."

I walked away from the car then, and let myself through the gate and walked up to the house.

By the time I got to the front door, there was a man there, with a shotgun.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?" He growled at me.

"William Gatwick," I said and I pulled the chain up around my neck and held out the ring that was dangling from it for his inspection. Aryanna had one of her finest craftsmen make it for me; it was Cenewyg's 'Gatwick' crest. I figured he probably had a ring; most religions had them for their leaders and such, especially here on Earth.

"Look," I said and held it up.

He looked at it carefully, and then lowered the shotgun. "Where is Mister Gatwick?"

"My uncle is dealing with some very serious issues in South America," I told him. "I'm not at liberty to discuss them."

"In other words, you don't know," He growled again, but the shotgun stayed down.

"Have you ever known my uncle to share anything with anybody?" I laughed.

"So why are you here?"

"That is private. Have you heard about what happened in South Africa?"

He shook his head, "No, what happened?"

"Trouble with the police. Now, let's go inside and talk in private."

"What about your car?"

"They'll be leaving once they finish eating their lunch," I said. "Now, inside."

He grumbled and let me in.

"So where's the altar? Who's your head priest here?"

"Old Norbert's in charge, this time of day he's out back doing his daily devotions. So what happened in South Africa?"

"The police raided the place, turns out that the estate manager was an Interpol spy. It got pretty nasty, everyone got arrested, several people were killed, and they burned the place to the ground."

"What?" He said sounding shocked.

"Yeah, so we're going to have to relocate the main temple. Do you have a list of the members here?"

"Yeah, it's upstairs in Norbert's office."

"Well, let's go get that first, and burn it, in case the police show up. Then I'll go talk to Norbert and see how things are with him."

"Do you think they'll come here?"

I shrugged, "Maybe, the thing is, better to be safe than sorry."

He nodded, "Follow me."

I followed him up to the office; there were a lot of interesting documents and such there. As well as a lot of correspondence. I guess Norbert was a busy guy.

"Is this from the other temples?" I asked and pointed to the letters.

"Some of it is, why is that bad?"

I sighed and spying a garbage bag I swept all of it off the desk and into the bag. "If the police come, it should be. Everyone was told to start locking stuff up or burn it. You got that list?"

He nodded and handed me a list he'd pulled out of the file cabinet.

"Good, is there an armory here?"

"Of course there is! It's in the basement."

"Thanks," I said and punched him in the throat, crushing his larynx, and then grabbing his head I wrung his neck, killing him.

I searched the body quickly; he had one of the necklaces, so I pocketed that, and a key ring. I took that as well, and then ran downstairs to the basement. It took me a minute to unlock the door, there were several down there, and they all looked beat up and unused, but this was the only one that was locked, and inside I found a nice clean room a bunch of weapons, and better yet, some explosives all wired up and ready for use.

I grabbed a bunch of explosives, and ran back upstairs. I set a few for ten minutes, hopefully the police wouldn't get here before then, hid a few of them in the building and I went out the back door.

There were two outbuildings, one was an old barn, and the other was much nicer looking than that. I walked over to the nicer one and let myself in, the door was unlocked. Obviously they weren't expecting me.

When I got inside, it was rather nice, there was a short vestibule area, and then as I walked through that, I entered a large room, obviously the temple. There was an altar at the far end, where there was a man in vestments standing, engaging in some sort of ceremony. Above the altar there was Cenewyg's symbol, along with a rather nice statue, that actually did look quite a bit like Cenewyg, if maybe taller.

There were also about a dozen people in the room.

I walked down the center aisle; I had a pistol in one hand, the bag of documents and explosives in the other. I stopped when I came even with the seats that were occupied, everyone looking at me. I gave them a quick once over, they were all middle aged or older, mostly men, but a few women. They all had the rough look of people who'd grown up rather poor.

"Norbert!" I said loudly.

"What?" The priest by the altar turned to face me, "Who are you? And what are you doing in the house of the Lord Gatwick?"

I shot him in the head, and then I quickly turned and unloaded on the people in the seats on my left. I dropped the gun when I ran out of bullets and pulled out the next one, and finished off the rest.

I quickly searched the bodies again, surprisingly they were all unarmed. However they each had that same necklace, though Norbert had a ring as well as a necklace. I took all of that, and stuck it in the bag, then I wiped off the three pistols and set them on the floor, and set the timers to one minute on the remaining bombs and after triggering them I dropped one under the altar and two more by the walls, then ran back outside, just in time to see the house blow up rather nicely.

I could hear the sirens of the police, so I ran further away from the temple building, and after it exploded I gated out immediately.

I did wonder briefly as I left, just what kind of a story Thomas and his two men were going to have to tell their bosses.

Two

Feliogustus's Temple - Hiland

9 Months

"So that went well," Fel said as I stepped out into the temple and collapsed the gate behind me.

"It sure did," I said and hefted the bag I was carrying, "I also got some information!"

"Yes, I can see that. Correspondence with his groups in Boston, Washington, Texas, and Nicaragua."

"Wait, what?" I said looking around, the one thing I hated when Fel wasn't in the room I was in, was that I couldn't stare at him in disbelief when he did things like this to me. Talking to a disembodied voice is something you never quite get used to.

"I'm a god, Will, the moment you entered the temple, I knew everything on all of the paper in the bag."

"Oh!" I said.

"But you're still going to have to go through it yourself," he chuckled.

"Can't help?" I sighed.

"Oh a little. Take it all out, and toss it all up in the air."

"Seriously?" I said surprised.

Fel laughed, "Trust me, Will."

"Oh, I trust you! Just sometimes I think you enjoy laughing at my screw-ups too much to not help a few of them along."

"Well yes, there is that," Fel agreed.

I pulled all the documents out and threw them up in the air. They literally exploded into a large cloud of papers that swirled and twisted around me. I watched then, rather fascinated as they all settled out into eight distinct piles.

"Wow," I said. "Impressive."

"Well, I am a god you know," Fel laughed.

"And you just love to show off for me," I said grinning.

"Well, you're about the only one who still appreciates it," I heard Fel sigh, which surprised me. "Everyone else just expects it from me."

"They still worship you, Fel." I pointed out.

"True, but I've got all these nice powers and tricks, and I rarely get to show them off anymore."

"Un-huh. So, what are the piles?"

"Each one contains the correspondence referencing each of the eight locations. The first two are for the South Africa and Garrison locations, that you have already taken care of."

I nodded, "So they're not important?"

"You might want to look them over for reference."

"You mentioned Boston, Washington, Texas, and Nicaragua," I said. "If I add the two others, that's just six. What are the other two piles?"

"There are references to two more places, one in Azerbaijan, the other in Afghanistan."

"I know where Afghanistan is, where's Azerbaijan?"

"Just outside of Russia."

"Ah, the old Soviet Union," I said. "So why do you think he had places in those two spots?"

"Well, Afghanistan has a large warlord population, and they buy lots of weapons, especially back when the Soviets were trying to take it over before the USSR collapsed. So if he was already doing business there, be probably figured he might as well set up a place."

"Makes sense," I agreed. "And Azerbaijan? The USSR was looking pretty solid back when he was last there."

"There have always been problems with rebels and such in that area, they were once an independent country, and they've wanted to be one again."

"Ah, so are they now?"

"Yes, they are."

"Well, that's good I guess." I looked at the piles and picking them up, I carefully put them back in the bag so they wouldn't get messed back up. "Guess I have some studying to do."

It took me a few days to get through all of it. There were addresses for the people who had sent the letters, which would help in finding the different 'churches,' at least the four Fel had mentioned. There was even enough information as to guess who the 'priests' of Gatwick were at those locations. Unsurprisingly they were all guys, kind of typical of Cenewyg I guess. As for the other two locations, while they were mentioned, there were no real details on them. Apparently they hadn't been writing anything to anyone lately.

From the correspondence, I discovered that yes, they were all very concerned about what had become of Cenewyg, or 'Mister Gatwick' as they referred to him. While at times he did disappear for a year or two, he'd never been gone this long before, and apparently the 'flock' had been losing members over it. They were quickly getting down to the core 'faithful,' who were now getting concerned about the shrinking size of their following.

There were also questions being asked about why the main 'temple' at Gatwick's estates outside of Johannesburg had rather suddenly stopped talking to anyone else, and there was a note from one of the people in Washington D.C. that something had happened between the South African government and the estate, and it was apparently being kept rather quiet.

They were still discussing if they should investigate, over a year and a half later, but it appeared that the Texas contingent were rather happy with this state of affairs, as it seemed that they were now the ones in charge, though some of the comments coming from a man named Alexander in D.C. showed there might be some friction there.

"So what are you working on there?" Rachel asked, coming over and looking at what I was doing as I was writing up my notes. "I don't recognize the language."

"Killing someone," I grumbled.

"Sure looks like a lot of work to kill someone," she laughed. "Is this something Feliogustus is putting you through?"

I shook my head, "This is related to a problem that cropped up back when I first had to go off on a quest for Fel."

"Ah," Rachel said and moving my arm off the desk, turned around and sat down on my lap. "I remember that, you were pretty upset the first few times you came back home while dealing with that."

I looked at her surprised. "You noticed?"

"Of course I noticed!" She laughed, "What, you don't think I pay attention to my husband?"

I shrugged, and gave her a kiss, "I figure with you being a queen and all that, you just have other things on your mind."

She leaned in and gave me a nip on the jaw.

I blinked and started a little, "What was that for?"

"Thinking that I don't pay attention of course, really now, William!"

I sighed and gave her a hug, "Sorry. I just don't like making my problems, your problems. You seem to have enough of your own after all."

"So," she motioned to the papers, "What's this all about then?"

"I have to track down a bunch of places for an upstart, and destroy them."

"Upstart what?"

"God. Or at least someone who thinks he is one."

"Ah, and I take it they're all well hidden?"

I nodded, "But I got my hands on some of the letters between the people in charge, so I'm hoping they'll lead me to their temples."

Rachel nodded and pondered that a moment, "You know they won't lead you to them, don't you?"

"Why wouldn't they?"

"They think this guy is their god, right?"

"But he's not a god!" I sighed.

"You sure about that?" Rachel smiled.

"Oh yeah, I'm sure about it," I grumbled.

"Are they sure about it?"

I shook my head and sighed, "No, they all think he's the real deal."

"So they're not going to talk, no matter what you do to them," she pointed out.

"Well, I've been trying to pass myself off as the guy's nephew and flashing one of their symbols."

"And how many times has that worked?"

I looked a little guilty, "Once. I sort of got it from my sister, she pulled it off once with even less than that."

Rachel laughed, "Yeah, I can see her doing that. You however? You're not a good liar, Hon."

"Oh? Really?" I looked at her surprised.

"You're too innocent," Rachel purred, "you're not used to a life of lies and deception. While I on the other hand...."

"Are a queen." I finished.

"And I deal with it all the time, when not doing it myself. The point I'm getting at however, is that if you keep trying to trick the true believers, you'll foul it up, eventually."

I shrugged, "So?"

"So, if you think they're hard to find now, how much harder will they be, when they know that you're looking for them?"

"Umm, you really think they'll figure it out?"

"Well, just how did you get all of this?" she asked and waved her hand at the piles of papers.

"I destroyed one of their smaller churches," I said.

"And you think they won't notice?" she, smiled and leaned into me.

"Well, the last place of theirs was destroyed by the local government."

"So, they're going to be even more worried, don't you think?"

I pondered that a moment. Yeah, they would be.

"So what do you suggest?" I asked.

"Well, the first thing is to identify and find your targets, you want to know who and where, does that information there cover all of that?"

I nodded.

"So how many people and places are there?

"Well there are six left, though no one has heard from two of them for a long while."

"And the remaining four?"

"Three are in the same country, two of those are pretty important."

"What makes them important?"

"Well, one of them is now the largest and most prestigious, it's now their main temple, with the other one located in the capitol, there are a lot of powerful people in that one."

"The other two?"

"One is tied to the one I just destroyed, the other one, I know nothing about."

Rachel nodded and pondered that a moment.

"The first one you mentioned, could it have been destroyed by the government as well?"

I thought about that, "That or a rival political faction," I told her.

"Okay, then that one should be next. They're the most likely to be the ones to run and hide right now."

"You think so?" I asked.

She nodded, "It might be political, and not religious, political factions have falling outs all the time. If the rest think it's just politics, they're not as likely to run and hide. They'll think it's just a local problem, nothing that they have to fear."

I nodded.

"I'd take the one out of the country next. Now what do you know about the two that no one has heard about in a while?"

"Not very much," I admitted, "Just an address for one of them."

"What are the chances that the locals already took care of them?"

"You think they might have?" I said surprised.

"Well, are there local gods where they're setting up their new temples?"

I nodded, "Well, yeah. But people are supposed to be tolerant of other religions."

"Oh, like they are here?" She asked grinning at me.

"Umm, well they are in some places," I said and I tried to remember what I knew about the existing religions in the countries those two temples were located in. I seemed to remember there being some fairly militant religions in that area.

"But you could be right." I admitted.

Rachel smiled, "Of course I'm right. The big guys always go after the upstarts. Just publicizing these people might be more than enough to take care of them. After all, wouldn't you go after anybody who tried to build a temple or start a new religion in Feliogustus's territory?"

I nodded slowly.

"So, go find these places, see what the people around them are like, maybe you can enlist the locals to do the dirty work for you, or at least help.

"For that matter," She continued, "you may want to seek out the heads of the local religions or at least some of the stauncher or even more fanatical supporters at the other locations too. They're not going to like another religion trying to horn into their territory, so you might gain a few allies.

I nodded again, "What about the last two?"

"Well, the main temple is last, they have to defend that, or they'll not just lose it, they'll lose all their followers and their god. If you won't stand and defend your last bastion, no one is every going to have faith in you. It's one of those make or break moments in any movement."

"And the other one?"

"The other one is going to be a bit trickier. It's the capitol, they're all politicians then?"

I nodded, "Some of them are, I don't know about all of them however."

"Politicians will scatter at the first sign of danger, like the rassa bugs do when the light is brought into the room. So you want to go after them all at the same time, gather them together, and strike them all at once. Otherwise there will always be a few left lingering in the walls."

"And just how do I do that?" I asked.

Rachel smiled, "I'm just the strategist, you're the tactician, I'm sure you can handle that, Dear."

I nodded and pulled her over to me, maybe I could get Agent Addison to help.

"So, to what do I owe all of this sage advice?" I asked.

"Just what kind of a wife would I be if I didn't help my husband when he needed it?" Rachel giggled playfully.

"Mmmhmmm," I said and kissed her.

"Now, be a good husband and show your wife a little gratitude," she purred.

"Oh, I think I can show you more than just a little," I purred back.

§          §

I looked around Fel's bar and smiled, "Yes, Fel?"

"So, going to take Rachel's advice I see," Fel said smiling.

I nodded, "I really hadn't thought about what might happen when I started picking the rest of them off."

"Well, it's good that you consider it now."

I nodded, "Especially with only eight or so months to get it all done."

"Yes, well about that," Fel started and I stopped and looked at him.

"I have something I need you to do, and it's important."

"More important than this?" I said a little shocked.

"Who do you work for, William?" Fel said softly.

I didn't even hesitate, "You, I work for you, Fel. If you want me to do something, I'll do it. But, I was hoping...."

Fel waved a hand, "This shouldn't take all that long, a couple months at most. But it is important, and I need it taken care of now, or it could lead to further problems."

I sighed and nodded, I did at least know where Cenewyg's temples were, so picking them off shouldn't be a problem.

"So what do I have to do?"

"Something was stolen from one of my priests at one of my outlying churches that serve the farmlands. I need you to retrieve it."

I nodded, "And punish the thief?"

"Bandits, there was a group of them. I would like to see them all punished."

"I will ride out in the morning then. Can you tell me where to go?"

"Stop by my church outside the Dellany farm, talk to everyone there. The bandits are heading to the town of 'Hidden Vale.' It's up in the mountains to the west."

I nodded, "Anything else, Fel?"

"Yes, find out why they did it. And don't worry about Cenewyg too much, you have time. Concentrate on the tasks in front of you first."

I nodded again, "Yes, Fel. I'll do my best, Fel." I said trying to hide my disappointment; I knew what I had to do, even if I wasn't happy with it.

Fel smiled at me, "Try not to pout, it will be fine, Will."

Three

South of Hiland City

8 Months

I'd walked the area's around Hiland city before, I'd even ridden south about halfway down the valley that comprises most of the original lands. The farther south you got, the fewer farms there were however, and the more ranches. The suzhen did okay in the poorer grounds that were further south, which had less fertile dirt and vegetation that was more scrub-like brush.

The church I was heading to was one of the older ones, built for Fel's followers who couldn't regularly make it into the main town easily. There was a second, even older one, all the way down at the southern end of the valley that I'd never been to, and a much newer one a bit north of here on the eastern side of the valley, which I had been to when it was set up five years ago.

I got off Tom, my wolat, and looped his reigns over a fencepost. He was smart enough to undo them if he wanted to, but he'd get the point that I didn't want him going anywhere.

I walked up the path, and in through the doorway. The door had been broken in, and as I walked inside, I could see there were several people cleaning up the mess. Someone had done some damage here, knocking over some of the pews, breaking a window, and damaging some of the other fixtures.

Whatever damage they had done, it couldn't have been too great, as I could feel that the ground was still holy, and Fel's presence was still there.

"Excuse me," I said to one of the workers, who looked up at me, eyes going wide as they realized who I was.

"Champion William!" she said and kneeled.

I tried to dim my 'aura' I never remembered that I had it in Fel's holy places, because up at the main temple, the priestesses and priests there were all used to seeing me around.

"Please, you don't have to kneel for me," I said to her, and motioned to her and the others to stand. "I need to know what happened, and what you saw."

She stood quickly and curtseyed.

"Bandits, Champion, they attacked late last night while everyone was asleep!"

I looked around; I realized at that point that there weren't any clergy in the room.

"Where is the local priest?"

"He's in his quarters, he tried to stop them last night, but they beat him up, Champion."

"Call me William, please. Could you take me to him?" I asked her.

"Yes, William, follow me."

I followed her out the back door of the church, and into a small cottage that was located on grounds. When we got to the door, I stopped and dismissed her, then went inside by myself.

"Who is it?" Came a weak voice from the one bed in the small one room cottage.

"It's William," I said and stepping inside, I closed the door behind me. I looked around, the room was rather simple, there was a hearth with some cooking implements by it, a table, two chairs, a couple of oil lamps, and the bed. Not much else.

"William?" the voice asked.

"Fel's champion."

"Oh!" the voice said and coughed a little. I walked across the room and looked down at the male in the bed. He was old, and his face was swollen. I kneeled down next to the side of the bed.

"How bad is it?" I asked carefully, wondering if I should pull back the blanket and have a look.

"Oh, it's just a beating; maybe a few broken ribs," he coughed again, "I'll heal. Eventually."

I blinked at that, "Why haven't you healed yourself?" I asked surprised.

"He's not allowed," Fel said in my head.

"I'm not allowed," the old priest said.

"Why not?" I asked loudly looking up.

"Because I sinned against Feliogustus, that's why not," he said and coughed again.

"What?"

"I sinned against our god; I didn't support him when he needed my support. I doubted him, I failed him in my moment of weakness, and so I am barred all priestly magic."

"Well, I'm not."

"No, William, do not heal him."

"Why not?" I asked aloud.

"Talking to Feliogustus are you?" the old priest asked.

"He just told me not to heal you!" I complained.

"Ah, it must be nice to hear his voice," the old man sighed. "Listen to our lord, do as he bids."

"Why?" I asked the old priest now.

"Because this is my punishment, and if I am ever to be forgiven, I must endure it. Feliogustus was kind enough not to have me killed, or even cast out, when I failed him. Instead he had me sent here, to tend to his flock.

"If I do well, maybe when I die, he will forgive me and welcome me back into the fold."

"What if he doesn't?" I asked worried.

"Then it shall only be as I deserve," the old priest said. "But I will not fail him a second time. I will take his punishment and do the best that I can, in the hopes that it is good enough."

"What did you do?"

"That, young Champion, is between our god and me. Now, why are you here?"

"The bandits last night, they stole something that Fel wants me to recover."

"Yes, they stole the Flask of Nikris," he said and coughed again.

"The Flask of Nikris? What's that?"

"It is a silver flask, it is very old, it belonged to the devoted follower of Feliogustus who had this church erected. He spent all of his time, monies, and effort in first building the church, and then paying for the priests to come and live here.

"When he died, the flask was the last thing of any value he had left; he had given everything else to the church by then. So we keep it here, as a reminder of his sacrifices."

I nodded, "Is there anything I can do for you, before I leave?"

"No, young Champion, you have done enough. Go with Feliogustus, and let justice be your guide."

I stood up, bowed, and left the cabin.

"You are going to forgive him, right?" I asked softly.

"That is not a matter for your concern, Will; he will be judged when his time comes."

I sighed, "That's pretty harsh, Fel."

"I'm a god, William, sometimes harshness is required."

I nodded, he had a point of course, but it didn't mean I had to like it. Fel was right; I'd make a lousy god. Until Cenewyg had come along, I'd never held a grudge in my life, and was way too quick to forgive people. Hell, I'd even forgiven Evean, who probably still didn't deserve it.

"Which way do I go, Fel?"

"There's a pass to the northwest, that's where they went, it leads to the town they're heading for."

I nodded and stepping off of holy ground I gathered up Tom's reins and mounted up, heading off to the northwest. With any luck, I'd catch them while they were still in the pass. They were undoubtedly on foot, while I wasn't.

I made the pass about an hour before nightfall, it was heavily overcast and I could smell that snow was in the air. I'd packed winter gear, it may be around late March, early April, but snows weren't uncommon this time of the year in Hiland, and I was moving into higher elevations now as well. Sunset came fast in the mountains, so I started looking for a good place to hole up for the night, before it got dark.

What I wanted was a cave, but what I got was a jumble of boulders and rocks, which after some grunting and pushing I was able to make into a decent windbreak. I secured the ground cloth over half of it, and got Tom under that as the snow started to come down. I fed him from the supplies I'd packed, ate my own dinner, and then got us both bedded down for the night.

When I awoke, I found that a good deal of my blanket was now covered with snow that the wind had blown in under the overhang I had rigged. Tom was covered in snow as well, but his coat was thick enough to keep it from getting close enough to his body to melt.

I stood up and shook the blanket out. My own pelt could probably do the same, however it was colder up here than my body could handle, fortunately I had brought a heavy cloak, as well as leggings and snowshoes.

After a quick breakfast we were off again, but the snow in the pass had gotten rather deep, and while I could walk on top of it with the snowshoes, Tom had no such ability, and was up to his chest constantly. By noon we'd made little headway, and he was exhausted.

So I made up a pack of the gear I needed, and opening a portal back to the temple, I sent him home.

I was sure I'd hear about it from Narasamman later, my sending a wet and muddy wolat into the temple, but it wasn't like I had much of a choice if was going to catch up with the bandits.

Without Tom slowing me down, I was able to make a lot better progress after that, able to stay on top of the snow and move easier. As the day wore on, I had to tie the cloak back as I started to warm up from all of the physical exertion, walking in snowshoes was a lot harder than it looked.

I kept going until well after the sun had set, until the temperature had dropped so far that I was forced to find a spot to spend the night.

It took me three days to catch up with them, and I did so in the middle of the night, taking them unawares. They hadn't posted any kind of guard, which I thought was a bit dumb of them. They were camped under a nice rock outcropping, apparently they knew the area rather well.

I sat there a while and looked at them, trying to decide what to do. Fel had told me to punish them, but he hadn't told me to kill them, and as they hadn't killed anyone, just beat up a priest who was definitely on the outs with Fel. But they had stolen from the church, and that couldn't be allowed to pass without some kind of response.

But they had to know the church would respond, and they had to know I'd be sent after them, if not the army or the guard. I was practically a legend in Hiland and the surrounding kingdoms by now. If they wanted money, why hadn't they just raided an outlying farm?

I shook my head, and made my way into their camp. There were seven of them, I didn't see any swords, clubs, maces, nothing in the way of real fighting weapons. The bedrolls they were using looked old and worn, same for the cloaks they had spread out over that. None of them looked very young either.

I was tired, and I could use some sleep as well. I left the camp, went a bit further up the trail, and found a good spot where I could wrap myself in my cloak and sleep for a few hours. I needed to think about this.

I woke before dawn, Fel hadn't visited me in my dreams or given me any hints or advice. That wasn't really unusual, it just meant that how I handled this wasn't all that important to him.

Plus he knew I was on a schedule, but I couldn't just kill these guys, and any serious punishment out here in this weather probably would kill at least some of them. I had to give them at least some sort of hearing, because they just didn't look like bandits last night, and Fel had asked me to find out just why they had done this.

I could hear them as they started coming up the trail, I hadn't heard them break camp, overall, they were pretty quiet, but there was the occasional hushed comment, as well as the sound of their snowshoes on the surface of the snow.

I sat there waiting for them, when they saw me; they all stopped for a moment and looked around. I heard a few more hushed comments, saw one of them shrug, and then they all started to trudge towards me again.

"Who be you?" the leader said when they finally came up to where I was sitting.

"I'm William," I said, "the god slayer. Feliogustus's champion." I watched his expression, I could see he was nervous, but he didn't seem exactly afraid. More like resolved.

"I'm the one that was sent to recover the flask that you stole."

"We didn't exactly steal it," he started.

I held up my hand stopping him. "My mother always told me that if you take something without asking, it's stealing." I looked them all over; none of them really had any kind of a weapon more than a knife. Two had bows, which were still slung. They looked tired, and they sure didn't look like bandits.

"You had to know that someone would come after you, so what I really want to know, before I pass judgment on you all, and punish you for beating up one of our priests and stealing one of our sacred items, is simply this: Why? Just why did you do something so incredibly stupid?"

"I told you we wouldn't make it back to town before they caught up with us," one of the males in the back grumbled.

"Quiet Karl," the leader said. "If I give it back to you now, will you still continue on to our town?"

"Why would I do that?" I asked. "Once I have the flask, I'm done here."

He shifted a bit, looking a little worried then, "Well, to let the folks know what happened to me and them," he said nodding towards the others. "So like, our women and children don't spend the rest of their lives not knowing."

"You think I'd kill you out here?" I asked looking at them.

"You are the god slayer. Folks say you're a mean and dangerous man, that you've killed hundreds!" the one called Karl spoke up from the back again.

"Yet you still stole that flask," I said.

"Well, we'd all a hoped to get to town before being caught," the leader said with a sigh.

"But you still knew you'd be caught?" I said tilting my head and scratching an ear. Why the hell would they steal something if they knew they were going to be caught?

"I'll give you my oldest daughter," one of the other men spoke up, "if you come to town." His facial fur bushed out when I pinned him with a stare.

"To pay back our crime, as your personal slave, Milord!" He said quickly. "Ask the others, she's as fair a female as any others you might find!"

"You'll give me your daughter?" I said, in a gruff voice, I was rather surprised by that. I'd never had a father offer me one of his children before.

"Yes, Milord! And I'm sure the rest of us here will do the same, if ya were to only ask."

I looked at the others, and they all nodded hastily. I looked at their leader.

"You too?"

He sighed, and looked down at his feet. "My older daughters  are both gone, but my youngest. He's seven, but if you want him, he's yours. Iffen you come to the town, Milord."

I shook my head slowly and sighed, standing up. "Fine, let's go to town."

The leader's eyes got wide, and his ears went up, as did those of the others.

"You mean it, Milord?" he said sounding surprised.

"Call me Will, and I wasn't planning on killing any of you. So don't do anything to make me change my mind, understand?"

They all nodded rather quickly.

"Here's the flask," the leader said and reached into his cloak.

"Hold on to it for now," I told him.

He nodded and started to head along the trail again, and I fell in at the back and just followed them all.

It was getting close to dark when we started to descend down into the valley that their town was located in. I could see why it was called 'Hidden Vale,' it was a pretty good sized valley, ringed by mountains, a couple miles wide, by probably twice that long, with a small lake in the middle, with the town built along the side.

If you didn't know how to get here, you'd probably never find it.

It took us several hours to wend our way down the side of the valley and into town; the path here at least was marked rather well, from many years of obvious use. It was late when we got there, and everyone had long gone to bed. The town had a six-foot-high stone wall surrounding it, that seemed in decent repair, and there was a guard at the gate who let us in.

I didn't see any other guards walking the streets, however as we made our way through town, stopping at the house of Rodd, the man who had been first to offer me his daughter.

"You can stay here, with my family, Will," he said and bowed.

"Isn't there an inn?" I asked looking around.

"No, just a couple of small taverns," Gunis, the leader said.

I nodded; at this point I just wanted a warm bed and a place to sleep. Or at least a warm place to sleep, it was pretty damned cold outside.

"Fine, in the morning I hope you will explain to me what this is all about," I said and yawned.

They all nodded and Rodd led me inside his house.

I was surprised by what I saw, the house was made of stone, all of the houses around here I'd noticed were, with steep peaked wooden roof for the snow, but it was by no means small. There was a large kitchen with a hearth that was glowing softly, obviously banked for the night, a second room, that I guess was the family room, with several doors leading off of it.

Rodd led me to the small privy to take care of any 'personal' business, which I did and I was glad I wasn't the one who had to empty the vessels in there everyday.

When I came out a few minutes later, Rodd was standing there with two women.

"Will, this is my wife, Karia, and my daughter, Laria."

I nodded to both of them, "I'm pleased to meet you both, now if you could show me someplace to bed down for the night, I'd appreciate it."

Laria looked up at me, and I could see she was a bit pensive, she took my hand and led me off, glancing back at her parents who both nodded, looking a little apprehensive as well.

"In here," she said and led me into one of the rooms. It was small, probably twelve by twelve, with a narrow window which was shuttered against the cold. There was a bed with lots of heavy blankets up against the wall, easily big enough for me to fit in, and a couple of dressers and closets.

"Ah, at last," I sighed, "It's been days since I've had a good night's sleep."

I took my cloak off and hung it over the end of the bed, then pulled my tunic off and tossed if on top of that as well, then turned and sat to start on my pants.

I noticed then that Laria was now nude, wearing only her fur. She kneeled down before me and started to help undo my pants and leggings.

I stopped and let her do it, while I looked her over. She was rather pretty and most definitely not a child.

"How old are you Laria?" I asked as she helped me out of my pants.

"Old enough, Milord."

"Your father was serious when he offered you to me then?" I said a bit bemused at this point. Ten years ago I would have been both shocked and outraged. Now, I just noticed that she was looking a bit nervous and determined.

"Yes, Milord."

I smiled and took her hand, and pulled her with me as I slid back towards the wall and into the bed. "You may call me Will, Laria. I'm rather honored that your father would offer you to me. However, I'm rather tired tonight, so why don't we just spend this night sleeping, okay?"

Laria nodded and gulped a little, "Do you not find me pleasing, Milord?"

"Will, call me Will. And I find you very pleasing."

I pulled her close and tucked her under my chin, and wrapped my arms around her, I could feel her trembling, I wasn't surprised she was scared.

"Father says you're a great and powerful warrior," she whispered.

"So they say," I agreed and yawned.

"He says that he gave me to you, so you'd come to our village and help us."

"Sounds about right," I agreed again.

"I've never slept with a man before, Will."

"Relax; I'm not going to rape you, Laria. I'm not even planning on having sex with you."

She pushed back away from me and looked up at me, "What?" She said sounding rather shocked.

"I have two wives, and several concubines. I am hesitant to add to that list."

"Am I not good enough for you, Milord?" She said, and I could hear some anger in her voice.

"Laria," I growled, and she stiffened in my arms.

"Yes, Milord?" she said meekly.

"You are more than good enough, and if you really want me, you will call me Will, or William. Now it is late, I am tired, and I wish to sleep." I pulled her close against me, tucking her back under my chin. "And I prefer to sleep with lovely fems such as you, rather than sleeping alone. Even if I'm not making love to them, understand?"

"Yes, William," I heard softly.

"We can continue this conversation in the morning."

"Yes, William."

I sighed and closed my eyes. I had forgotten her father's offer; I just hoped the others didn't show up with their daughters in tow tomorrow as well, or Rachel would kill me when I got home for sure.

Four

Hidden Vale

8 Months

I was woken up early the next morning by someone kissing me, and a pair of hands slowly exploring my body. I kissed back of course and rolling over on top of my partner I took the time to kiss her rather thoroughly as I woke up and remembered where I was, and that the female I was kissing rather enthusiastically was someone new.

"Good morning," I said and smiled down at Laria who was looking a little unsure and embarrassed.

"Morning, William," she said and blushed.

"You don't have to do this, you know," I purred and nuzzled her.

"But my father said I was yours now," she said a little breathlessly.

"Only if you want to be," I told her and kissed her on the nose, then raised up a little higher, placing my hands to either side of her, to take a better look. Enough daylight was now leaking in through the shuttered window that I got a good view of her beneath me. She was better looking than I remembered, and I was sure Rachel was going to be pissed at me if I brought her home.

"Father said that I was the price of your help, if I didn't go with you, you'd leave," she said and looked away.

"Laria," I said, "Look at me."

She turned her head and looked into my eyes.

"When your father offered you to me, I realized that he was desperate for help. Not many men would offer their own daughter freely to a man whom they only knew by reputation. Especially not when their daughter is as lovely as you are."

She blushed again when I said that.

"I should have told him that it was no longer necessary, once I decided to come here. That he did not have to offer you to me, for my help."

"Does that mean you don't want me?" Laria said to me, a little confused.

I smiled and lowered myself down to kiss her again. "Oh, I want you, Laria; you're a very desirable fem." I rubbed against her a little, letting my body make the point that yes, I found her very desirable.

"However, the important question is, do you want me? I already have a wife, you'd be my concubine. I'm also a busy man, I am often away, having to do the tasks my god assigns me. You will find yourself at home a lot, raising my children, I won't be there often."

"William," she said softly and reached up to touch the side of my face, "I'm the prettiest girl in the village, do you know what that means?"

"That you can have whoever you want?"

She gave her head a slight shake, "No, it means that I'll be bartered away to whomever they need to, to save the village.

"This is a small village, and it's not very powerful. There are bandits in the mountains that at times come together and threaten us. The elders buy them off by giving their leaders females. That's the reason I haven't been married off yet." She looked away from me, "I don't want to live in some poor shack in the mountains, belonging to a male who thinks of me as nothing more than cattle, to be bought or traded, who won't care about me or for me."

I blinked, that didn't sound like much of a life, even the women in Hiland got a say in who they were going to marry.

"And you think I'll treat you better than that?" I said.

"You'll take me away from here, back to your city, take care of me, and give me your children?"

I nodded, "Of course."

"Then I want you, William. That you asked me my mind shows that you will care more about me than any of the other men I thought I would end up with."

She smiled up at me then, and pulled my head down to kiss me.

I purred and kissed her back, I was sure Fel was laughing at me somewhere, and I was also sure Rachel was going to have words with me; she'd been getting a little more possessive of late. But Laria was hot, she was here, she wanted me, and she was right, I was her best option for a better life.

And yes, I was a male chauvinist pig with a huge ego and the ability to back it all up. Screw it, I'd make it up to Rachel, but damned if I wasn't going to make this lovely and very willing female mine.

"I want you too, Laria," I whispered in her ear, and then took the time to show her just how much.

Breakfast was cold when we left her room to join her parents in the kitchen, at the table set there. Laria was pretty much plastered up against my side, and was smiling and looking rather content. I had been surprised that I really was her first; most of the fems here in Saladin took an early, and active, interest in sex. I guess only being fertile a couple times a year made the problem of unwanted pregnancies an easily avoidable one.

Both Rodd and Karia, her parents, looked rather relieved when they saw their daughter, and the way she was leaning into me, as well as the way my tail was wrapped around her waist.

Whether that was because it meant I'd stay, or because their daughter was happy with me, I had no idea.

"Sleep well?" Rodd asked.

"Yes, Father," Laria said.

"Please make sure that the others know that I'm not interested in their children, okay?" I said sitting down and starting in on breakfast. I'd definitely worked up an appetite.

"Does that mean?" Karia looked at me questioningly.

"I'll be going with him, when he leaves, Mother," Laria said and moved to sit next to me on the trestle seat that the kitchen table had.

I smiled, and leaned over and gave her a kiss and a hug, yeah I love women, sue me.

"Now, tell me what your problem is," I said and nodded to Rodd and Karia as I returned to eating. I watched Laria out of the corner of my eye as I did so. She was serving me from the food on the table, but did not have a plate of her own. Instead she was eating off of mine, a rather curious custom.

I made sure to start pushing things over to her side of the plate for her to eat. She leaned into me a little more then, purring softly. I noticed her mother started to smile as I did this, Rodd however was looking up at me and completely missed the byplay. That or he didn't care.

"Gunis should be here soon, I sent my youngest to get him a few minutes ago."

I nodded, "Fine, he can explain the details to me when he gets here. But I still want to know, now."

Rodd looked a little uncomfortable.

"Giants," Laria said next to me, and Rodd scowled at her. I guess she was breaking hierarchy or something by telling me.

"Rodd," I growled softly and he looked up at me shocked, "Yes, William?"

"Don't look at my woman like that, understand?" I said and gave Laria a hug. "She's not your daughter anymore."

"Yes, William!" he said looking a little shocked.

Karia however, just smiled even wider.

"Tell me about the giants, Laria."

She shrugged, "They started to show up last fall, before the snows came. They would attack some of the herds belonging to the outlying farms, nothing closer, but come the heavy snows of winter, they stopped coming."

"Until now?" I asked between bites.

She nodded, "They started to show up again as the snows started decreasing. They attacked one of the farms and have even attacked the town twice now; the last was four nights ago, after my father and the others decided to lure you here to help us."

"Why not just ask the Queen of Hiland for help?" I asked her.

She shrugged, and I looked up at Rodd, but before he could answer, Gunis entered the room.

"I thought I asked you to wait until I was here?" Gunis said looking at Rodd as he took his heavy cloak off.

"I insisted," I told him. "So why didn't you just ask Queen Rachel for her help?"

"Because we're not a part of the Hilander kingdom, nor do we want to be," he told me.

"Well, too bad, you are now," I said and took a drink.

"You can't make that declaration!" Gunis said looking at me, "We've paid for your help," he said and motioned towards Laria, "We want nothing to do with the Hilanders and their ways!"

I set down my fork and turned slowly to look at Gunis, he seemed a lot surer of himself now in the daylight, back in his village.

"Don't like the idea of a woman being in charge?" I asked him.

"It's not right! It's not a woman's proper place; it is a sham for any woman to place herself above men! Queen Rachel is...."

"Gunis!" I said standing, cutting him off.

He stopped and looked at me.

"Queen Rachel is my wife," I growled.

His ears went down, and his whole body seemed to wilt just a little.

"You will keep a civil tongue in your head when you talk about her, or you won't have a tongue in your head at all, understood?"

He nodded mutely.

"I also still have your punishment to decide on, so it would be wise of you to consider your words from this point forward."

"But, but you said you wouldn't kill us!" he said looking a little worried.

"No, but trust me when I say I know how to make a man's life miserable."

I sat back down, gave Laria a hug when she looked at me a bit surprised. She then went back to cuddling up against me and eating from my plate.

"Tell me about the giants," I said.

"Well, they stand about thrice the height of an average male, their pelts look dead and unclean, with bare spots all over them, their faces are strange and ugly, with the fur there growing course and wild. They walk upright like we do, but seem to only scream and grunt and make other such noises."

"Weapons?" I prompted.

"They carry large clubs, they also use their hands to tear and smash things, and throw rocks and boulders."

"How many times have you fought them?"

"Two times now they've attacked the village, the wall doesn't stop them much; they can climb over it without much trouble. Our bowmen have been able to hurt them some with their arrows, but the few who have tried to attack with swords have all been killed."

"Have you tried flaming arrows?" I asked.

Gunis looked surprised at that. "Flaming arrows?"

"Tie a bit of cloth around the arrow, soak it in lamp oil, light it on fire," I told him.

"I ... we hadn't thought of that."

"Well, you can tell your bowmen about it, they'll want to prepare the arrows in advance to make sure they don't mess up the balance." I looked down at Laria, "Finished?"

She smiled and nodded.

"Good," I stood back up, "get your cloak; I want you to come with me while Gunis and your father show me around the village."

"Yes, Will," she said and went back to her room, I let my eyes follow her a moment before turning back to the others, Karia was still smiling, so I winked at her and then got my own cloak.

"Are you serious about making the village part of the Hilander Kingdom?" Rodd asked me as he donned his own cloak. Gunis was holding his tongue I noticed.

"Between the giants, the bandits, and everything else you deal with up here, how many years do you think this village has left?" I said looking back and forth between Rodd and Gunis.

"We've been here for almost a hundred years!" Gunis said.

"Yeah, and how many children do you have to hand over to the bandits? How many have starved to death because there wasn't enough food?"

"We can survive on our own!"

I laughed, "Right, that's why you went to all of this trouble to get me to come here, and bribed me with Laria," I said and turned to smile at her as she rejoined us.

"You're ripe for conquering, and you know it. Queen Rachel would have gotten around to taking this place eventually, you might as well go willingly, you'll get a better deal that way."

"A better deal?" Rodd asked looking at me.

"Yeah, you'll all get to keep your stuff, and you'll get to keep you positions of importance in the village."

"That sounds fair," Rodd said.

"Rodd!" Gunis said looking at him.

"Oh shut it, Gunis! I ain't raising my daughters to be bandit fodder. You may be fine with it, but I ain't."

I could see Gunis fuming over that rebuke as he turned and went outside. I followed, with Laria, as Karia gave her husband a hug, causing him to look a bit surprised. He didn't say anything, but followed us outside.

"What do you want to see?" Gunis said to me.

"Start with the center, and lets work our way out. I want to see everything."

He nodded and started walking; I followed with my arm around Laria, who seemed to be happy with that state of affairs.

Rodd walked along next to us, glancing at his daughter every once in a while, and apparently thinking about something.

"This is the village square," Gunis told me, and I was surprised to see that it actually was a square. There was a large well in the middle of it, with paths worn down through the snow from people going to and from it. It wasn't the first well that I'd seen as we walked here, there was another one a lot closer to Rodd's house, but from the size of this one, I suspected it was the first.

On all four sides surrounding the square were buildings. There were three taverns, a handful of shops, a blacksmith, and a meeting hall. Everything was built with stone walls and wooden roofs.

I gave the shops a bit of a looking over, one was just a general store, another was a tannery, a third was a tinkers, fourth a bow maker and fletcher, and so on. There were people busy in each of them, and they all looked at me suspiciously until Gunis introduced me as 'Champion William,' here to take care of their 'problem.'

The buildings behind most of the shops were the homes of the shop owners, and a few small warehouses.

After that came the homes of the rest of the villagers. There were a number of corrals interspersed with the homes, in which there were small herds of what looked to be a mountain variety of the suzhen, and of course regular suzhen as well. There were also quite a few cows, surprisingly, though they were a longer haired variety that I wasn't familiar with.

Closer to the wall, there were a number of small vegetable gardens, that weren't growing anything right now of course, and then on the outside of the wall, there were fields laid out across the valley. There were a few houses out there as well, and more than a few corrals with livestock in them. Laria explained that the flocks were brought into the valley during the worse of the winter, and sent back out to pastures up in the mountains in the spring.

The wall itself, was all made of stone, as I'd noticed last night, and was about six feet high. It would slow down bandits, and keep most of the livestock in and some of the predators out, but it didn't look very strong, the rocks were mostly stacked and not even mortared together.

"When do the giants attack?" I asked Gunis.

"If we knew that, we'd be ready for them," he said.

I wanted to smack him; he was a pretty snarky guy today. Guess he really hated the idea of having a queen.

"I meant what time of the day, or night," I said staring at him.

"Usually a few hours after sunset," he said looking a little embarrassed.

"How many days ago was each of the attacks?"

"Ummm," he said thinking about it a minute.

Laria leaned into me, "Four nights ago, nine nights ago, and fifteen," she said.

Gunis nodded, "What she said."

"So about every five or six days there's an attack here?"

Everyone nodded.

"So, tonight or tomorrow night. Okay. Let's go back to one of those taverns and have a drink," I said taking one last look around.

Five

Hidden Vale, Village Wall

8 Months

I was sitting on one of the 'guard posts' along the wall, which was really just a wider part of the wall with a place to sit, set at the west end of the village, which is where most of the attacks came from. The sun had set about three hours ago, and I had Laria with me, tucked under my chin and wrapped up with me in my cloak. I was only wearing leather armor, and was only equipped with the two long swords I normally fought with these days. If these things really were giants, I'd be better off in heavier armor, and with a larger, heavier sword and shield. Or maybe just a two-handed sword.

My reason for having Laria here was because I was curious about her and about the town. Plus it was boring out here all by myself. The rest of the townsfolk were more than willing to wait indoors.

"So the seven men I caught, they're the village elders?" I asked Laria.

"Not the elders so much, as the ones who run things," she said leaning back into me.

"And Gunis runs them?"

She nodded slightly, "He owns the tavern we were at today, he also owns the general store, and a large herd of the muzhen. One of the first places the giants attacked was his ranch to the west of here; the people killed were his farmhands."

I nodded, "What does your father do?"

"He owns the woolen shop, and produces and sells most of the wool dyes."

"Karl?"

"He owns the largest of the taverns."

"And who were the other four?"

"Ed, he owns the tannery, Tal, he owns the fletcher's shop and the third tavern, Kasin, he owns the largest butcher shop and is also the main supplier of lamp oil, and Serrin, he owns the biggest ranch and farm outside of the village."

"The blacksmith wasn't one of them?"

"No, Ulris won't set foot out of his shop when he has work to do and hates traveling. He also said, more than once, that it was a fool's errand."

"Well, it may have been, but at least it worked."

"Yes, it worked rather well," Laria purred and tickled my muzzle with the tip of her tail.

"So what was that comment your father made to Gunis about his daughters being bandit fodder?"

"Gunis had two daughters, he traded them each off to one of the bandit groups a few years ago when they raided the town," Laria sighed and leaned back into me again. "It wasn't pretty, neither of them wanted to go of course. Father thought we should have bought them off with food and money."

"Gunis likes his money, huh?" I mused.

"And he has little use for women, other than in his bed, and even then only if they give him sons."

"How many sons does he have now?"

"Three, the oldest is eight or nine now. Hamand I think his name is.

"He must have been pretty unhappy with his wife, if she gave him two daughters first," I pondered.

"He was, they say he traded her off to bandits ten years ago, and got a new one!" Laria growled.

"Wow, I don't think he and I are going to be friends," I sighed.

"Especially not if you follow through on your threat to make this part of your wife's kingdom," Laria giggled.

"Oh, it's happening, don't worry about that. Why do they call this place the 'Hidden Vale' anyway? If you get bandits raiding, it can't be all that hidden.

I felt her shrug, "The story is that when it was first settled, no one ever came here, the part they don't mention out loud is that the original settlers were all bandits and that this was a bandit camp as well. Over time, some set up a village and they stopped being bandits."

I chuckled at that. "And now the bandits come and prey on them, and not the other way around."

"Well, according to father, the last of the original bandits died off a couple of generations ago." She paused a moment, then asked softly, "Is your wife really the queen?"

I nodded, "Yup, she is."

"Is she going to be okay with me?"

"I don't honestly know," I sighed. "But don't worry about it; I'm the one she'll be mad at."

"But if I can't live with you, where will I live?"

I shrugged, "I can let you stay at my room in the temple, and if I have to, I guess I'll buy you a house or something."

"You'll buy me a house?" She said surprised.

"If I have to. I take care of my women, and well, you're mine now," I said and gave her a hug.

"So what's it like, being a champion?"

"It depends on the god you work for. I got lucky, mine is the best."

"So, you really do work for a god?" She said surprised.

"Yup," I noticed a couple of dark shapes starting to resolve in the distance. They looked fairly large, if I was judging distances properly.

"I think I see our friends," I said to her and I opened up my cloak. "You need to run and alert everyone, then go back to your room and wait for me there."

"Be careful, William," she said and turned to kiss me.

"Always," I said and kissed her back.

She jumped down from the wall then and ran off as I got out my longbow and readied my arrows. I had put an oil soaked cloth on the end of each of them, and I had a small lantern hanging off the inside of the wall, so I could light them easily. My only real shortcoming was that I only had a dozen arrows; I had only brought the bow along for hunting, I hadn't been expecting to actually use it for something like this.

I waited for the shapes to resolve into something I could distinguish, they weren't moving terribly fast, but their strides were rather big, so they approached at the same rate as a man at a fast walk.

I counted as they drew near, there were only four of them, but they were definitely big. Probably fifteen feet tall, maybe bigger. I put two arrows into the body of the furthest one back, to see what happened.

It stopped for a moment, fumbled around a bit and then started to slap at itself as it made loud grunting noises. The other's ignored it however, and the flames soon went out. So I started to shoot arrows at its head.

It screamed pretty loudly when the first one hit, I got it a second time, but it tuned around and started running away, so the third one missed. The lead one was almost on me at that point, so I sank two arrows into its face, and then had to drop my bow as everything shifted into overdrive and it swung its massive club at me.

I jumped over the swing, as it came around, and drawing my swords I jumped down from the wall and charged it.

The other two fanned out to either side, the lead one was now bellowing from my shots, I'd put an arrow in each eye, and while I hadn't killed it, I had definitely blinded it. It was stamping it's feet and flailing around with it's club, so I dodged around behind it, keeping an eye on the other two, who seemed more interested in stepping over the wall than helping their leader.

I took a look at its legs, now that I was close enough to see. It was wearing leggings of some sort, and either a boot, or it had leather wrapped around its foot. Winding up I chopped at where its Achilles tendon should be and was rewarded with a loud scream and it toppled over backwards as it lost the use of its foot, dropping the club.

I ran back towards the wall, and quickly vaulted over it, chasing the other two.

At this point the village archers had all started shooting flaming arrows at the giants, both of which were now trying to put the fires catching on their clothes out by slapping at the burning spots with their hands. Both had dropped their huge clubs and were no longer trying to attack anyone. I was looking for an opening to hamstring another one, when it struck me.

They were human giants! I would have expected any giants that lived here, to look like us, like felines, the dominate race in this sphere. But these all looked like humans. Their heads were a lot smaller than I would have expected, but they had skin, heavy skin. They were wearing animal hides as armor, but poorly cured skins, with the fur still on them, so to the people here, who had never seen a furless human, they just assumed that they had sickly fur with bald patches.

As for their bodies, they had legs bigger than tree trunks, and massive arms as well, but their shoulders were narrower than their hips, and you could feel the ground shake as they stomped around. As the arrow fire increased, they finally turned and ran, one of them tripping over the wall and falling to the ground with a loud crash.

It bellowed loudly, but the impact with the ground had put the fire on its chest out, the other one however ran away rather quickly, burning more and more as the skins it was wearing caught fire.

The one that tripped got to its feet and stomped off after it, and the one I hand hamstringed was still bellowing and was trying to crawl after them.

Running up behind it I jumped up onto it's back, and digging my foot claws in I brought both swords down on the base of it's neck, driving them through the thick flesh, the underlying bone, and up into the brain, with all of my might.

It shivered once, and then it collapsed to the ground, dead.

"You killed it!" One of the villagers said while the others cheered.

"I killed one of them," I said. "I'm going to track the others and see where they're going."

I wiped my blades off, put my cloak back on, and gathered up my bow and remaining arrows.

"Anyone coming with me?" I asked.

One of the ones from the original group of seven, Tal, nodded. "I'll go with you. I know these lands pretty well, been hunting them for years."

I noticed the rest of the males were looking unsure, they probably didn't want to go, but they also didn't want anyone to think they were cowards.

"I'm not planning on fighting them tonight," I told them, "so the rest of you can go back to your homes, and keep an eye on things."

They heaved a collective sigh of relief and started to break up and head back to their homes.

"Can't say as I blame them," Tal said softly.

I shrugged, "You're coming."

"Yeah, but I plan on letting you do all the killing," he grinned.

"I'll keep that in mind."

It took us a half hour to catch up with them, moving at a fast jog. The one that had been on fire was down on the ground when we did, and the other one quickly gave up on it and left it there. So I killed it just like I had the other one.

After that, we followed the remaining one, but made sure we didn't get too close. It followed a path up into the mountains, and eventually turned into a small canyon. We'd been following it for over two hours now; I was guessing it was probably three or four in the morning.

"That's a box canyon," Tal told me, "it doesn't go anywhere."

"You sure?" I said pausing to look around at the ground. It was pretty dark out, as the moon had set, but there was enough starlight, that even with my feline night vision I could see a lot of large footprints.

"Positive. I've been in here before. There's a cave about a span and a half off the ground, but that's it.

"Ever been in the cave?"

He shook his head, and then looked at me. "You think that's where it's headed?"

I shrugged, "Let's go see."

We followed it in, and sure enough, it climbed up into the cave, which was about twelve feet off the ground, and disappeared inside.

"Wait here," I told Tal, and jumping up, I grabbed the ledge and pulled myself up enough to take a look inside. It was a lot darker in the cave, with no light at all, plus it stunk something fierce. But I could feel a gateway!

Pulling myself up onto the ledge I stood in a crouch and slowly made my way inside. I listened for a minute, and after not hearing anything, I pulled out small torch and used a cantrip to light it.

The cave was empty, but the dirt and sand on the floor revealed large footprints, so moving cautiously I made my way further in. The cave itself was pretty large, and it ran fairly straight, with a slight downhill slope. The roof was pretty uneven, but it never got lower than fifteen or so feet.

It took me probably five minutes because I was moving so slowly, but I came to the portal which was against the back of the cave, where it ended. It looked a little different to me, so I approached it carefully and put my hand on it.

I pulled my hand back quickly as I got shocked unexpectedly, swearing as I did. It wasn't a big shock, but I'd never been shocked by a portal before.

Extending my hand carefully a second time, I touched it, and experienced the shock again, it wasn't too painful, but it was definitely uncomfortable. I couldn't make much sense out of what I was feeling, but it didn't feel good, and it didn't feel safe. So I withdrew my hand and checking my surroundings I quickly made my way back out of the cave.

"I was starting to worry!" Tal said when I dropped down from the ledge above him. "What did you find?"

"Trouble," I told him. "I need to talk to some people back at Hiland about this."

"That bad?" He said.

"Maybe, I don't know."

We left at a faster jog than we had used to come here, I wanted to be back not long after sunrise, so I could look over the bodies before the villagers had a go at them.

When we got to the first one, the sun was starting to rise, I looked it over, and using one of my swords, I cut the straps on some of the armor and peeled it back.

"What in the god's name is that thing?" Tal said.

"Recognize this hide?" I said and motioned to poor leather armor I'd cut off.

He shook his head, "No, not at all."

I was standing there looking at it and wondering if I could roll it over when suddenly the sun hit it, and it changed.

"Look out!" Tal said and jumped back, shocked.

I just shook my head and stared at it. Then I poked it with my sword.

It had turned to stone.

§          §

I was asleep in Laria's bed, curled up with her, when my dreams suddenly cleared and I was in Fel's bar.

"Hi, Fel," I smiled, "I have a lot of questions tonight."

Fel smiled back and handed me a beer, we were sitting at our usual table in his bar. "I thought you might. Like your new girlfriend, she's cute. But I must admit that I am surprised at how easily you were lead astray. Again."

I grinned, "Yeah well, I didn't want them to feel all insulted if I turned them down when they made a gift of her to me."

"Is that what you're going to tell Rachel?" he laughed.

"I'll burn that bridge when I come to it," I sighed, "I'm still getting used to the idea that I'm the best thing that could have happened to her."

"Well this village is a bit backwards, by even Saladin's standards. They're pretty xenophobic as well, a hold over from their bandit days."

"So that bandit story is true then?"

Fel nodded, "Yes."

"I think one of the first things I'm going to do, after I get back, is going to be to lead an army up here to claim this place. Rachel would probably appreciate an outpost this far west up in the mountains."

"Hoping she'll get over Laria if you take it for her then?" Fel chuckled.

"Actually I was thinking of building a temple here, and asking you to talk to her for me, sort of as a thank you," I said with a smirk.

"Too bad that's a part of your normal duties, and not something you would do as a favor, isn't it?" Fel said smirking right back at me.

I shook my head, "Why do I even try? Like I'm ever going to get the better of a god."

Fel laughed, "Oh, I don't know, it's kind of funny that you think you can get favors out of me, when I already can read your every thought."

I shrugged, "Man's gotta' dream."

"Apparently."

"Now, about these giants? What the hell are they? Why haven't they changed to fit in, and why did they turn to stone? Also, what the hell is up with that portal?" I asked, getting down to business.

"There are many aspects to the infinite," Fel said looking at me with a serious expression, none of his usual humor was apparently now. "Some of it is what you might call 'negative' energy, or perhaps an underside, laying below the spheres you normally associate with, like a shadow or an echo of the layers above.

"While quite rare, portals from spheres in those portions of the infinite, let's call it the 'underworlds,' do at times open up into our normal worlds."

"Is that why I felt the shock when I touched it?"

Fel nodded, "If you weren't a champion, you would have been injured by that shock, possibly knocked unconscious. Only a champion can even transit through a portal to the underworlds and survive the transit, and I would not recommend it. If you die there, the path back is long one and full of perils and nasty experiences."

I nodded, "Stay out of the portal, got it. What's the story with those giants though? Why didn't they change to fit in? And why did they turn to stone? Why the hell are they even here?"

"They didn't change, because of the nature of the underworlds being too different than the normal worlds. If you were to go through, you would find that you didn't change either. As for turning to stone, well actually they're not giants, in your original world they are known as trolls, and they come from a world of darkness and nightmares. Nothing from their world can survive the light in this one, which is why they only come raiding at night."

"I thought trolls were small and lived under bridges?"

"Different type of troll, these were called 'hill trolls' or 'mountain trolls' in your world. As for why they come," Fel sighed, "They like to eat meat."

"Like, suzhen, cattle, deer, and such?" I asked.

"And people. They especially like people."

"Well hell," I said. "If I had a couple of pounds of C4, I could collapse that whole tunnel and seal them in."

Fel nodded, "But you don't."

"How long have they been coming here? And why haven't they been around before this?"

"This end of the portal that they're using has a tendency to 'drift.' Most of their portals to our worlds do, because of the negative energy they embody. It probably came free of the rocks sometime in the last decade or so, and they only rediscovered that it was open recently."

"Wait, don't you know?"

Fel shook his head, "No. I cannot see the portals from the underworlds, nor can I see the creatures that come here from them. Because they are not natural to this plane, and are created of different energies, I cannot detect them. I can only see them through the eyes of you or my clergy. Just as I can only know about them, if you or the clergy know about them."

"Well that's going to make things harder," I grumbled.

"At least we now know the real reason why the flask was stolen," Fel pointed out.

"That was kind of stupid though," I sighed.

"You're dealing with people descended from peasants and bandits, Will," Fel chuckled. "Haven't you noticed that they're a bit slow on the uptake? That some of them are kind of stupid and petty?"

"Laria seems to be pretty quick," I pointed out.

"She gets that from her mother, who isn't a local."

"Why would a woman want to move to that place?" I asked curious.

"Because she murdered her husband and fled into the mountains. Rodd may look like he's in charge, but Karia is the brains in that household, and while he may not admit it, he knows enough to listen to her in private and treat her well."

"Murdered her husband?" I blinked.

"Don't worry, he deserved it. Some of the villages and small city-states up in the mountains are even more backwards than this village."

I nodded. "So, what do I do?"

"Find a way to close that tunnel, obviously."

"Got any high explosives?" I sighed.

"Not in this sphere, Will, sorry."

"Magic?" I asked hopefully.

"In order to have enough, I'd have to send Nara and a large number of my best priests up there, and I can't risk that, Will, sorry."

I thought about that a few moments.

"Do explosives work here? Or doesn't anyone have the ability to make them yet?"

"Most of what you know, won't work here, just as they won't work in Hillshire, those that might, well you can't introduce anything that doesn't already exist, because you're my champion, and there aren't a lot of resources to make anything else up there in the mountains anyway."

I nodded, "Good point. You do want me to stay here and fix this, right?" I myself was a bit torn, these people did need help, but I did have to get back to dealing with Cenewyg soon. As they weren't part of the kingdom, or Fel's religion yet, I didn't know that I really had much of an obligation to them.

"You did take the girl, Will," Fel pointed out.

"Yeah, I know, and I'm not planning on giving her back, either," I sighed guiltily.

Fel laughed, "Can't say that I blame you either! They may not be the smartest, but they sure know how to bait their hook! But yes, I want you to take care of it, and spread the faith while you do. There are other, worse things, which can come through that portal, and the trolls will eventually attract their attention."

I nodded, "I'll get a temple going then, Gunis still owes you, I think I'll just grab that tavern of his." I thought about that a moment, "I can bless things, right?"

"Of course you can, you just need holy water."

I sighed, "I don't have any with me."

"Try using what's in the flask."

"I hadn't thought about that! Thanks, Fel."

Fel smiled, "Good night, Will,"

"Night, Fel."

Six

Hidden Vale - Meeting Hall

8 Months

I looked around the hall; this was the only 'community' property, other than the wells and the wall, which the village had. I was honestly surprised that the building itself was in as good a shape as it was.

There were long benches for the people to sit on, and a dozen or so chairs up here in front, seven of which were occupied by the same seven who had stolen the flask, plus the blacksmith, and Karia, who apparently was the village scribe and was taking notes. I was surprised she could read and write, literacy was not a common skill in small villages like this one.

I'd slept in until noon, or rather Laria had been entertaining me until then and I was more than happy to let her. She definitely was developing a healthy appetite when it came to sex. Then again, it was new to her, and I suspect I was showing her more affection and attention than any man had given her in her life, even her father.

When we'd finally gotten out of her bed, I went and found Rodd and told him I wanted to speak to everyone this evening. He'd spread the message and everyone who mattered was now seated here, waiting for me to speak. Mostly it was a couple hundred of the men in the village, though there were some women here as well.

I detached Laria from my side, smiled at her, then stood. I wasn't a big fan of public speaking, but at least I'd gotten used to it.

"Okay, everyone knows that the giants attacked last night, right?" I asked.

Everyone nodded.

"I managed to kill two of them, but the other two got away. Not before I managed to follow them back to their lair. It's in a deep cave, in a box canyon, well to the west end of the vale. Tal can tell you where it is, if you need a more exact location."

"So when are you going to kill them?" someone in the back asked.

"I'm not," I said looking at them.

"But," he said surprised, "you're a champion! It's your job!"

I picked him out of the crowd; he was a younger male sitting in the back. No one that I'd seen before.

"I'm Feliogustus's champion," I corrected him. "I protect his priests, and his followers, even Hiland, the kingdom of which he is the official god. How many of you are his followers here?" I asked and looked around.

Laria raised her hand, and I smiled down at her. She really didn't know much about Fel, just that I worked for him, but apparently that was good enough for her.

I looked back at the rest of them; no one else had raised their hand.

"Now, if there were followers of Feliogustus's here, I'd be more inclined to do something about this. Or if this place was a part of Hiland. Which apparently is another idea no one is very fond of."

"You can't just leave us here!" Another person said.

"I didn't say I was going to, yet," I said and smiled.

"What can you tell us about the giants?" someone behind me said. I turned and noticed Tal had spoken.

"They're not from here," I said and a few people looked up and rolled their eyes in their head.

"And by that I mean, they're not of this world. They come from the underworld, and they come here via an ancient portal.

"Because they're not from here, they are bigger, tougher, and harder to kill. And because we can't go through the portal they take to come here, I have no idea of how many of them there are. But we do know that the sunlight kills them, so they can only come out at night. They're also not very fond of fire."

"So how do we destroy this 'portal'?" Tal asked.

"You can't."

"Can you?"

"No, I can not. However," I said and looked at the crowd.

"Yes?" Tal prompted.

"There are other ways of dealing with the problem." I turned and looked at Gunis, "But it's going to cost you."

"But we gave you Laria!" Gunis said jumping to his feet, "What more could you want?"

"Laria was the price of my coming here and seeing what your problem was. There still remains the matter of the punishments for the group of you, for your transgression, and then there is what it will cost to deal with these giants, before they kill and eat all of you."

Karia looked up at me in shock, "Eat?" she said in a soft voice.

"Why do you think they are coming here?" I asked looking at her.

"I, why I..." she shuddered in her seat, "I had no idea."

I nodded, "We're not much more than cattle to them, except perhaps tastier."

"Will you help us?" She asked.

"Feliogustus wants me to help, but first," I looked over the room, then back at the eight seated behind me, "he wants a church built to recognize him."

"But, that will take weeks, maybe months!" Gunis said.

"Nope, we're using your tavern. We'll convert it over into a church."

"You can't do that!" He said jumping back to his feet.

I took two big steps until I was standing next to him, and looked down at him. "Care to bet on that?" I growled. "This is your punishment, the others will be punished as well, but you were the leader, you get the worst of it.

"Besides, look on the bright side," I smiled at him rather toothily.

Gunis shivered at my smile and shrunk back a little. "Yes?" He asked in a shaky voice.

"Your 'donation' will help save the village and the people in it."

He nodded a little shakily. "Can I remove my wares from it, before you turn it into a church?"

"Probably not," I said. I turned to walk away, then stopped and turned back to him, and held out my hand. "Oh, the flask please?"

Gunis pulled out the flask, and handed it to me, I could see he was shaking slightly, I wasn't sure if it was fear, or anger. Probably both I figured.

"Thank you," I said and I tucked the flask into my tunic, I could actually feel that it had an aura. I'd look at it later.

"Does this mean that we are to become part of the Hilander kingdom as well?" Rodd asked, looking rather respectful. I suspect he was wondering what his contribution was going to be.

"Yes, and I will impose upon the queen to station enough troops here that the next time any bandits come calling, they never call again."

Everyone sitting on the bench seats all sat up straight rather suddenly at that pronouncement.

"She'll do that?" the young male in the back asked.

I smiled, "Of course she will, she values her people, she's not going to let you be preyed upon by bandits."

"You're sure?" He asked again, looking uncertain.

I nodded, "Very. As I've mentioned to your leaders here already, it was only a matter of time until we expanded our frontiers to include your village. If I tell her you're coming willingly, well let's just say she'll be a lot more inclined to not changing things much."

"What about the women who have already been taken?"

"Let's deal with the giants first, we can deal with the bandits after that, okay?"

He opened his mouth to say something, but changed his mind and closed it.

I looked around the room, "Anyone have any other questions?"

"I do," I turned and saw it was Serrin.

"Yes?"

"What do we do next?"

I smiled, "We take the best runners we have, and set up a relay. They'll watch the cave each night, and if they see any activity, they'll alert us so we can be prepared."

"Prepared how?"

"We're going to organize a militia. Tal can supply arrows and bows as required. Kasin will make sure those who volunteer are fed; you and Karl can help with that as well, Serrin. Ulris can help with any other weapons we may need."

"What? Why do I have to help! I didn't go steal your precious flask!" Ulris said standing up. He was a pretty big male, with arms probably as thick as mine, though I was still half a head taller than him.

"You live here, right?" I said looking at him.

"That still doesn't give you the right!"

I shook my head and looked around the room, "Let's get one thing straight. I'm in charge. I make the rules. What I say goes. My way or," I almost said 'highway' but that probably wouldn't make any sense to these folks. "Actually, it's just my way. The sooner we get this done and the giants dealt with, the sooner I can go home."

"Oh yeah!" Ulris said and stood up, walking over to me. "Well, I don't want no part of this foolishness!" and he took a swing at me.

I shifted into high gear, as always. I really didn't have any beef with Ulris, actually I could see his side of the issue. He just wanted to be left alone to do his thing. Problem was, as one of the village leaders, he had a responsibility to the people here.

I stepped inside his punch, and wrapped my arm around his, trapping his wrist in my armpit, and then I head-butted him. I leaned down and put my mouth next to his ear while he was momentarily dazed.

"You either make weapons, or you fight giants with me, take your pick," I whispered.

I did a hip throw then and he landed on his back as I stood above him, looking down, with my foot on his chest pinning him there.

He scowled back up at me for a moment, regaining his wits and thinking about what I said.

"Okay, I'll make your damn weapons."

I smiled down at him, took my foot off of his chest and offered him a hand to help him up.

"Thank you, Ulris, I appreciate your cooperation."

He scowled some more, but didn't say anything as I helped him to his feet.

"Anyone else have anything?" I asked.

"What can I do to help?" Rodd asked.

"I'm not sure yet," I told him, "but I will have something, don't worry."

He nodded and I turned to Gunis, "Let's go let your staff know about the change in ownership."

He nodded slowly and got up, everyone else stood then as well, and taking Laria's hand I followed Gunis to the pub.

"Why do you hate me?" he grumbled as we walked across the square.

"Because you beat up a priest of Feliogustus and you insulted my wife," I told him frankly. "Besides, you're still alive, the town is going to be saved, along with your ranch, and if they still live, you'll probably get your daughters back."

"Like I'd take them back," he muttered.

"Gunis," I said softly.

"Yes, William?"

"Please don't make me change my mind about killing you," I growled.

He wisely shut up after that.

When we got to the tavern, he called the staff over and told them that it was being turned into a church, and that I was in charge now.

"Do you have any kind of an office here?" I asked him.

"A what?"

"Are there any back rooms?"

"Just for storage."

"Okay, grab the cashbox and go." I looked at the three people who worked here, two of them were women, and one was a young man. The women were both rather attractive, one I'd say was probably in her mid-twenties, the other wasn't much older than Laria. "You three, stay a moment."

"I'm his wife," the older woman said and nodded towards Gunis.

"You can go if you want then," I said.

She nodded and followed Gunis out the door. I noticed the young male had his eyes riveted to her butt as she left.

"So, what do you two do here?" I asked them.

"I clean, run errands, move things up from the storerooms, and helped Anita serve the customers," the young male said.

"And helped Anita with other things too, I'm sure," I chuckled.

He looked shocked and shook his head rather vehemently. "No, Sir! I would never!"

The look on the young female's face was priceless.

"And you?" I asked her.

"I serve, the customers, and cover, for Stu here while he and Anita 'inspect' the inventory," she said grumbling.

Stu looked like he was going to die of embarrassment.

"Stu, if I was married to him, I'd cheat too." I laughed. "Now, show me around the place, and let me see what there is."

"Gunis left without paying us," fem told me.

"I'll pay you both, don't worry. I'll be needing your help for a few days at least anyway. Maybe longer. Where do the two of you live?"

"Here, in one of the back rooms," she said.

"Well, I won't be kicking you out anytime soon. So let's see what's here."

The tavern itself was fairly typical, a long room, about twenty feet wide and fifty feet long, with tables spread through out, a fireplace against one wall for heat, and the bar located at the back end, with the main door at the front. There was a hallway past the bar to the left, which led all the way back to the rear entrance, where the woodpile for the fireplace was.

There was a second, smaller fireplace in a small room at the back of the building. That room had two pallets made up for sleeping; one was definitely more comfortable than the other, which is where I guess Stu entertained Anita. Liz, the female then showed me the storerooms. One of them was completely empty; the other contained the kegs that were for the front room.

"Only one type of ale?" I said to her, as I looked it over. "I'm surprised he had many customers."

"Well, there were other things you could buy here," Liz said and smiled at me. I'd left Laria sitting in the front room with Stu to keep an eye on things.

"Like you?" I chuckled.

She nodded, "You're pretty handsome you know, care to sample the wares?"

I smiled and shook my head, "Perhaps another time. Did Anita sell her favors too?"

Liz smirked, "Her favors were free, but she was careful as to who she gave them to."

"Oh really?" I said surprised. "Who was that?"

"You know, you still haven't paid me."

I just grinned and got out my money pouch. I gave her two silvers, which was probably more than she got in a couple of months, even with selling her body.

"Whoa, sure you don't want a quick romp?" she purred looking at the money.

"I prefer my romps to be long and arduous," I purred back at her, "Now, names?"

She looked back up at me and licked her lips, "I'm sure you do. Let's see, Ulris is one of her favorites, along with Serrin, Kasin, and Karl."

"Huh, busy woman. But not Rodd, Ed, or Tal?"

Liz shrugged, "She's hot for Rodd, but that male is well trained, he doesn't stray at all. Ed is Gunis' cousin and best friend, so I'm not surprised she never gave him a go. As for Tal, he avoids her, and she him."

"I'm surprised Gunis doesn't know his wife is stepping out on him."

Liz shrugged, "He got three sons on her, that's all he cared about. That and his power in town. He stuck her in here to keep an eye on us, because he doesn't trust us with the money, and she doesn't care because she hates him."

I shook my head, "Probably figures he's going to trade her off eventually, like he did his previous wife."

I went back out in to the main room and looked around at things. The bar could easily be turned into an altar, especially considering Fel's history. But I was pretty sure that I couldn't consecrate it. I should be able to bless the grounds and put in the wards, I'd seen it done enough times that I remembered the ceremony and the blessings involved, and I was technically a member of the clergy, but it wouldn't be easy. That kind of work was draining on your spiritual energy, and I didn't have anywhere near as much as the priests and priestesses did.

"I want you two, to continue to live here for now," I pulled out a few coppers and gave them to Stu, he looked impressed. "This should tide you over for a while. Tomorrow I'm going to start working on changing this place, for now, just enjoy a night off."

"What about the ale?" Liz asked.

"Leave it; I'll deal with it tomorrow. Let me know if you have any problems."

They both nodded and I got Laria and left.

"Now what?" she asked.

"I need to hire a carpenter. Suggestions?"

She nodded and led me to one. It didn't take long to hire him to come out tomorrow morning. After that was done, I got her to take me to her father's wool works. I wasn't interested in the wool so much, though I was impressed at the size of the operation. They made a lot of heavy blankets and cloaks, which in the winter here I was sure were rather valuable. Mainly I wanted to check the dye works and see what kinds of chemicals might be available.

The idea of using something explosive to collapse the cave was still one I wanted to pursue. I just didn't know how.

The next morning I got out of bed relatively early. Not that Laria helped any. If it wasn't for the work on converting the tavern, and having told the carpenter to meet me there, I think I would have been content to spend the day in bed with her. Young women can be very enticing after all.

When we got there, things looked pretty much like they had the night before, though Stu was looking like he'd been rode rather hard and put away wet.

Liz just seemed rather pleased with herself.

I told the carpenter what I wanted, which was for the bar to be separated from the wall, and the whole thing raised up eight inches on a platform that ran five feet out all around it for the clergy to stand on. I also wanted all the tables and chairs removed, and a series of pews built, or at least benches, for the congregation to sit in. I was surprised by how many rows he said he could put in, the building was big enough to pack in quite a few.

After that was done, I wanted both of the storerooms turned into living quarters as well. He told me he'd have it all but the benches done in two weeks. The hard and time-consuming part would be building the long benches; he didn't have enough wood to build more than a third of them right now, and it would probably take a month or two to get them all done.

After that was done, I set about blessing all of the grounds, the place was long enough that I'd need six wards, and I wasn't exactly sure of what to use for that. They had to be the same, almost exactly so, and needed to be made of something that would last. I knew how to lay them, and even how to bless and set them. I was pretty happy now that I'd paid attention when I'd helped with the other temples.

But first I had to get everything blessed and consecrated. I used up most of the water in the flask doing that, and I was surprised at the amount of energy that it took. By the time I was done, I was feeling pretty drained. It was getting late by then, it had taken me about ten hours to cover all of the building and the surrounding outside grounds. I couldn't do as big a section at a time as the priests or priestesses could, I just didn't have that level of power.

"I don't think I'll ever tease Nara again," I groaned as Laria gave me a backrub much later as we lay in her bed.

"Who's that?" she asked curious.

"The high priestess of Fel's temple. I've watched her do that kind of work before, and I always used to tease her about being tired afterwards. I had no idea it took so much out of you!"

"Why did you have to do it, anyway?"

"The ground has to be sanctified, before the wards can be set. Then the wards have to be blessed and put in place. Once that's all done, it's holy ground. After that, the altar can be consecrated, and blessed. Then it's a church."

"Sounds like a lot of work."

"Without a priestess or a priest, it is," I sighed, her fingers felt good on the tired muscles of my back.

"Can you do the thing with the altar?" she asked.

I gave my head a small shake. "No, we're going to need an actual priestess or priest here for that. But if I have everything else done, they should be able to do that, once they get here."

"Ah, when will that be?"

I would have face palmed if I hadn't been facedown on the bed. I hadn't thought about that. I should have asked Fel to send someone here the other night.

"I have no idea," I sighed. "I didn't think about it, until you just mentioned it."

"What are you going to do about the giants? My mother tells me father says the others are all getting worried."

"Well, we have three more days until they show up again. I guess tomorrow I should check with how things are going with setting up some runners and training up our new militia."

"I don't think you'll be happy with what you find," Laria told me, working farther down my back.

"Oh?"

"The others aren't all that convinced, and getting the help of the other villagers isn't going well either."

I sighed, "Don't these people have any kind of survival instinct?" I complained.

Laria laughed and started in on massaging my butt, "They have a finely honed sense of when to run away, and let someone else take the fall."

I purred as she worked my glutes, she was very good with her hands, "Well, I guess tomorrow I'll go yell at them, and maybe make a few object lessons."

"Oh, I'm sure they'll just love that!" she giggled.

I rolled over onto my back and smiled up at her, "If they love it, I'm not doing it right. Now come here you," I purred.

§          §

"Fel," I said and nodded, "Thanks for seeing me, I forgot to ask you to send someone up to consecrate the altar."

"I know," Fel smiled, "I had Narasamman send a pair off yesterday with a couple of acolytes. They should be there in a week."

I nodded, "Thanks, I'm almost out of holy water, and I still haven't set the wards."

"Just refill the flask, William."

I looked at him surprised, "That's all I have to do?"

"It's a holy item, an artifact now actually. If you fill it with water, it purifies it and blesses it."

"Wow, I had no idea."

"Course not. But that's not why I'm here tonight."

"No?" I said wondering what he had for me now.

"Oh, nothing like that, just doing you one of those 'favors' you're always trying to get me to do for you." Fel said smirking.

"Oh?"

"You know, you should wake up now," Fel said.

And I was suddenly wide-awake. There was smoke in the room, not a lot of it, but enough. It was also stuffy, and the air felt wrong, heavy. I could feel my heart beating fast and I was breathing faster than normal, almost laboring to breathe. I shook Laria, but she didn't move.

I rolled off the bed onto the floor, where the air seemed better, and pulled her down there with me, then crawled to the door. I put my hand on it; it felt cool, so I opened it and looked out in to the main room.

There was a heavy haze in the room, and I could see the fireplace was glowing, perhaps a little brighter than normal, giving off more smoke. Apparently the damper was closed, or the chimney was blocked. In either case, the fire was venting into the house, filling it up with carbon monoxide and consuming all of the oxygen.

I took a deep breath, and picking up Laria, I stood up and ran to the door and unbarring it, I opened it and ran outside. Looking around I didn't see anybody, but smoke started to billow out of the open door.

I cast a healing spell on Laria and shook her awake.

"What, what's wrong?" she said and then shivered.

"The chimney backed up, the house filled with smoke."

"My parents! My brothers! My sister!" she said.

I swore, "Wait here," and I ran back inside and kicked in the door to her parents' room, and grabbing Karia, I dragged her outside, then went back and got Rodd. I got both of her brothers next, and after that her sister. By then both her mother and father were sitting up and coughing. I healed both of them and then all of her siblings. As far as I could tell, there wasn't a lot wrong with them.

I went back inside then and opened a few windows, and grabbed everyone's cloaks.

"Samuel, I thought I told you to check the damper before bed!" Rodd was saying to one of the boys.

"I did father! I swear it!"

I looked up at the chimney on the roof, and didn't see any smoke. I frowned at that, even if fully closed most dampers leaked. Going back inside, I check the damper, and it was open a few inches, which was normal for nighttime after you'd banked the coals.

Walking back outside I walked around the house, looking for any disturbances.

"What are you doing?" Rodd asked, following me.

"The damper was set, something is clogging the chimney." I moved over to the lowest spot on the roof. There were two marks in the frozen slush on the ground.

"Someone put a ladder here," I said and taking a few steps back, I ran forward and jumped up onto the roof.

"Frozen devils, how'd you do that?" Rodd said shocked.

"Clean living," I grumbled and carefully made my way across the slippery roof to the chimney. Sure enough, somebody had balled up a heavy cloth and stuffed it down the opening. I grabbed it and pulled it out, it was soaking wet at the top, probably to keep it from burning up right away. When I pulled it all out, the bottom, which was now dry, suddenly lit on fire, and the entire chimney lit off with a loud 'POOF' and a flame shot up a good ten feet in the air.

"Quick boys!" Rodd yelled, "Check the fireplace in house, and make sure the house isn't burning."

I ran down the roof and jumped into one of the remaining snow banks and rolled around for a minute. When the hot gasses in the chimney had lit off, it set the fur on my arms on fire, and I think my head hair got singed too. Once I was sure I was out, I stood up and cast a cantrip to clean myself and walked over to Laria who was watching me wide eyed.

"Are you okay, Hon?" she asked me.

"I am now," I said and gave her a hug and a kiss.

"Someone plugged our chimney? Why would they do that?"

I shrugged, "Carbon monoxide poisoning, we would have all died in our sleep, and no one would have known better. Whoever came in first could have closed the damper and just blamed it on bad luck."

"What's carb on mon ox ide?" Laria asked looking at me.

"The fire sucks all the good air out of the room, and you suffocate."

"Oh, that!" She nodded, "Everyone knows about that. Every couple of years, people who don't clean their chimney's either suffocate, or the chimney catches on fire and burns their house down. Sometimes with them still in it."

I nodded, "Exactly."

"But why would someone want to do that to us?"

"I suspect they were trying to do that to me," I sighed.

Her eyes got wide and she put a hand to her mouth. "Oh!"

I nodded, "I think tomorrow we're going to move into the church."

"Why?"

"Because I don't want to endanger your family, that's why," I said and gave her a kiss. "Let's go inside, I'm freezing out here."

We walked through the open doorway and back inside. There was grit and dust everywhere, I even saw a few puddles of water on the floor

"What happened?" I asked Rodd

"When the chimney ignited, it blew ash and coals all over the place! Thankfully my boys doused them before they could catch on anything."

I could see Karia looking at the mess and shaking her head, "It will take days to clean this up," she sighed.

"We can worry about that in the morning," Rodd said and taking his wife led her off to their room. "Bar the door boys, make sure you got all the coals before you go to bed and clean up the water. We'll clean the rest in the morning."

"Yes father!" they both said and got to work.

"Let's get back to bed," I said to Laria yawning. "I suspect we'll have a long day tomorrow ourselves."

Seven

Hidden Vale

8 Months

I ended up using a bunch of small glasses that looked a lot like shot glasses, which I found in the empty storeroom, for the wards. Blessing them took about an hour, then digging holes, setting them and covering them, and blessing them again took another couple of hours.

I was able to buy a bunch of rather large flat paving stones to set over each of them, rather heavy ones too, which would hopefully discourage any adventures there. Assuming of course, that anyone here knew what wards were and how they worked, hopefully no one did. When I finally finished with getting all of that done, it was getting late again, but my efforts had been rewarded: the entire building was now holy ground and I could feel it when I went inside.

The carpenter had done a good job of fashioning the altar and would start on the raised platform for it tomorrow. When I told him I'd be moving in, he'd changed his schedule and had spent the later half of the day with his helpers turning the one empty storage room into living quarters, it wasn't fancy, but it was livable. Tomorrow he'd start on the platform, after that he'd remodel the second storeroom and then move onto the benches.

Most of the tables and chairs had already been removed, with a few of the nicer ones set in the back rooms. Once the storerooms and the first set of benches were complete, I'd have him redo the back room that Stu and Liz were still living in. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with those two, though apparently Stu's attentions were now focused on Liz these days. I guess he'd gotten over Anita already.

"Well, let's go see what kind of food Karl's tavern offers," I said to Laria when I started to get hungry.

"They say its okay," she said. "Just not as good as my mother's."

I nodded, "Well I want to talk with him, and whichever other of the leaders I can tonight to find out just where things stand on the tasks I assigned them."

Laria laughed, "I seem to recall you mentioning something about that last night."

"Yeah, I'm running a little late. But until the folks from the temple show up, there isn't much more I can do with the church, so now I have time to deal with this mess."

We left the building then and headed over to Karl's tavern, which was the next one around the square. It was actually rather large, more than twice the size of Gunis's former tavern. It was also a lot nicer, and I could see as we walked inside that he had more than one tapped keg, there were even people drinking mead and wine, as well as eating dinner.

I noticed that one of the females waiting tables disappeared as soon as she saw me, coming back a minute later with Karl in tow. By then Laria and I had found an open table that wasn't too close to the other occupied ones.

"Champion, what can I do for you?" he asked looking a little worried.

"It's William, you're not in trouble, we're here for some food and drink and I'll even pay," I said smiling. "Though I would like to find out how things are going with our little militia as long as you're here."

Karl's expression fell when I said that.

"That bad?" I asked.

He nodded slowly, "Very few want to help, they're all either afraid, or just don't care."

"Not a lot of civic pride here, is there?" I asked.

"When we're under attack, they'll fight, those that don't run that is," he nodded. "But getting them to help otherwise? No, they're not much for thinking ahead."

"I'd hoped the offers of food and such would draw them in."

"Food isn't much of a problem around here right now, free ale however," Karl said with a smirk.

"Well, I guess tomorrow I'll have to go around and talk to a few people. We really need those runners, or some way of being alerted when the giants come out, so we can deal with them quickly."

Karl turned to the waitress and told her to bring food for me and Laria, and three ales, then dragged up a chair and sat with us as she left.

"Actually," he said lowering his voice, "the best thing would be for you to get some of those Hilander troops sent here. The sooner you could do that, the better things would be for all of us."

"Really?" I said surprised, "I thought you were opposed to that idea."

Karl shook his head, "I may be slow, but I'm not stupid. Every time the bandits come through here, I lose half my stock, and sometimes I even lose a waitress or two! And now there's these giants! Even if you do run them off, what's next? Gunis just doesn't like the idea that he'll finally have to answer to someone else."

I nodded, "He is a problem, isn't he?"

"Since you took his place, he's really mad at you." Karl nodded.

"Whose idea was it to steal the flask?" I asked curious.

The waitress returned at that moment with three mugs and set them down. Karl waited until she'd walked away before answering.

"His. I don't know how he found out about it, probably some farmer trading up here from the valley mentioned it; they come up here quite a bit in the spring and the fall."

"But I don't understand how he planned for this to work. No matter what happened, it meant that Hiland was going to end up coming here."

Karl looked a little lost for a moment, his eyes darting from one side to the other, and he lowered his head closer to the table. He continued in a voice that was barely more than a whisper, "Gunis figured that after you killed the giants, we could kill you, and that would be it. He figured the eight of us could take you on in an ambush."

I sat back a moment and just starred at him. I could hear Laria was growling softly and the grip she had on my arm was rather tight.

"Relax, Hon." I said to her, then turned back to him. "What changed your mind?" I asked, wondering why he was selling Gunis out to me now.

"Nothing changed my mind! I planned to tell you the first chance I got!" he said rather emphatically. "Even if we could kill you, which I don't see how a group of us could possibly kill a man who killed a god. Then what? I bet your god would be rightly mad at us, and probably would send his people to wipe out the town!"

I nodded, "Close. I'd come back here and kill all eight of you, for a start."

"See?" Karl said, "Like I said, I'm not stupid. I went along with the theft because we're desperate, or at least Gunis is, he lost all of his workers and half of his muzhen. But those giants have been moving closer and closer, eventually they're going to wipe out the town."

"I thought there had only been three attacks?"

Karl shook his head. "More like a dozen. There were no survivors from the first six; we thought it was bandits at first. We didn't tell the townsfolk, because we didn't want a panic."

"Why didn't you go for help sooner?" Laria asked, still a little bit growly.

"Because Ulris, Serrin, and Kasin all sided with Gunis, and the four of them are more powerful than the rest of us, and they're not afraid to kill us either. But after you put Ulris in his place the other night," he said looking at me, "Serrin and Kasin are undecided about continuing to follow Gunis."

I nodded, "Someone tried to murder us last night," I said softly and watched his face.

Karl swore, "That doesn't make any sense! Gunis wants to wait until you've dealt with the giants."

"You sure?"

Karl shrugged, "It was the original plan, and Gunis isn't one to stray from his plans. He's thick skulled like that."

I nodded, "Thanks, Karl, you're off the hook."

"What?" He asked looking at me confused.

"I'm not going to punish you. You're forgiven."

Karl blinked, surprised. "That easy?"

"Well, you might want to come to mass once we get the church up and running."

"Um, I'm not really much of a church going male."

"Feliogustus loves taverns and the people who work in them; he was once a tavern owner himself."

"You don't say?" Karl said looking surprised.

I nodded and then smiled, "Why do you think I grabbed Gunis's tavern for his church?"

Karl nodded and looking thoughtful he took a drink from his mug, and then stood up, "I think I just might check him out then. Have a good evening, William."

I raised my mug to Karl, "You too, Karl."

I watched as he walked away, thinking about what he had said.

"Do you believe him?" Laria said to me.

I nodded, "Yes, I do. Soldiers from Hiland will need a place to eat, and a place to come drink. Also soldiers always mean camp followers and the like. For him, that's a lot more business. Then there'll be the cessation of the bandit's attacks, which probably hit him harder than any of the others."

"So, money then."

"Self interest," I said nodding, "It's in his best self interest to support me and support my plans. That makes him honest."

"That's a rather self-centered reason, isn't it?"

I laughed, "I don't trust people who aren't up front about their own interests and claim to be doing things solely for the interests of others."

"Oh?" She said looking at me, "And what about you? Aren't you doing this to help us?"

I gave her an ear-to-ear grin, "I'm here for two reasons, and right now I'm looking at one of them."

Laria eyes went wide and then she looked down at the table, ears splayed and looking rather embarrassed. "You're doing this just for me?" she squeaked.

"Of course, you're worth it," I said and smiled warmly at her, as she looked up to see if I was joking or not.

"And what's the other reason?"

"My god told me too."

"Oh, so that's the real reason then," she huffed.

"He reminded me first however that I had accepted you as 'payment' and seeing as I was rather attached to you, I had to help."

Laria's eyes got wide again, "He said that?"

"Right after he mentioned how cute you were," I said and grinned again as she blushed once more.

"Now you're just teasing me!"

I shook my head, "Nope, ah, dinner!" I said as the waitress came over with a large platter of meat, and some fresh loaves of bread.

"Courtesy of the house," she said with a smile as she set it all down on the table.

I pulled out a couple of coppers, "well, share this with the cook, and thanks," I said with a smile.

She curtseyed and left.

"Wow, that's a lot of food," Laria said surprised.

"Looks good too. Let's eat."

The food was actually rather good, and so was the ale. About the time we were finishing up, Kasin came into the tavern, and on seeing us, he made a beeline straight over to our table.

"Champion, Laria," he said nodding.

"Have a seat, and please, call me Will," I told him.

"Thank you," He said sitting down in the chair that Karl has used earlier.

"So, to what do we owe the honor?" I asked looking at him.

"I was talking with Laria's father, Rodd a little while ago," he said a little uncomfortably, "and I wanted to let you know that I had nothing to do with it, nor do I have any idea of who did."

I nodded, "Anything else?"

He shook his head, "No, what else could there be?"

Laria started to say something, but I put my hand on her arm and she stopped, "I hear there have been issues with organizing the runners and militia I wanted all of you to put together."

Kasin sighed, "Oh, that. Yes, there are problems. Perhaps you could help us with that?"

I nodded, "Tomorrow, I'll see what I can do to help. These attacks seem to be every five or six days, so I would like us to be ready for the next one."

"When do you think you'll be able to put a stop to them?"

"If everyone does their part, fairly soon. A more permanent solution however is going to take a little longer."

Kasin nodded.

"By the way, have you talked to any of the others about last night's incident?"

He shook his head, "I'm not even sure that they know, William."

I nodded again, "Okay, thank you for telling me that. Tomorrow I'll look into our militia issues. Have a good night, Kasin."

He nodded and stood, gave us each a bow, "Good night," and left.

I stretched and looked over at Laria, "I think it's time for bed for us as well."

"It's still early, Will," she said.

"I didn't say sleep," I purred, "I said bed."

Laria didn't say anything, just smiled and getting up, led me back to the newly redone storeroom where we'd be spending the night.

I spent the next day whipping the villagers into shape, almost literally. Everyone who helped in town got lunch, and a mug of ale. I added the later when I thought about Karl's comments the night before. I donated all of ale, using the kegs that Gunis had left in the bar.

The villagers were pretty happy about that; I now had twenty bowmen, and five helpers who would keep them supplied with arrows in any combat, as well as maintain the small lamps we'd be using to light them.

For runners, I was only able to recruit a small handful of volunteers. Whoever did that job was going to be spending their nights out by the cave, and sleeping days. Which meant they wouldn't be able to work. But after talking with the others I had learned we could us signal fires, so we'd set a small group up on the side of the canyon above the cave, where they could keep watch. They'd light a signal fire, which at night would be easily visible from the village.

With that done, I spent the rest of the day looking for the best places to ambush the giants on their trek to the village, so far it appeared that they took the same route each time. As fire worked fairly well, I introduced the concept of the 'Molotov Cocktail' to those who had the best throwing arms. We'd use the cheaper oil lamps, they seemed to break pretty easily, and with any luck, we'd catch them unprepared this time around.

What I really needed though was some infantry, and a way to seal that cave. Or at least kill them back at the cave.

That night I was awoken by someone pounding on the door of the church. Jumping out of bed and grabbing my weapons harness I ran to it and opened it, it was one of the two night guards.

"The signal fire is lit!" he said, pointing off to the west.

I stepped out into the street, so I could get a better view, and sure enough, it was.

"Damn, they're early. Go wake the others, meet me at the wall."

"Yes, William!" he said and ran off.

I went back inside and got dressed quickly. I had our six Molotov's in a carefully padded bag, which I grabbed and took with me to the wall. We had an hour or two before they got to our ambush spot, so I wasn't too worried, yet. But it took almost an hour to get everyone together and ready to go.

"They're early!" several people said as we gathered and started off to the west.

"We haven't practiced our attack!" Tal complained as we started off to our ambush spot at a trot.

"At least we have a plan," I said.

"And a warning," Tal reluctantly agreed, "so we're better off than before."

Those that overheard us all nodded and agreed as well.

We got to our ambush spot about a half hour before the giants did, I wasn't sure if they were moving quicker than we were, or if maybe we'd been slower. Or perhaps the guard just hadn't been watching for the signal. No one had expected them to show tonight, after all.

When they started to come into sight, was when we got our next surprise. There were eight of them.

"Pass the word: attack the first four with the fire bottles;" I told them. "Me and the archers will deal with the second group after that."

They all nodded and when the giants got to the line we'd marked on the ground earlier, four bottles arced over and hit three of the giants, only one missed. All four bottles broke open and there were suddenly four very bright fires burning. The three that were hit bellowed, and two more bottles came flying out, both hitting the one who had been missed earlier, and lighting him up rather impressively.

While confusion reigned, the rest of us started in with our arrows, Half of the archers, the better ones, had been told to aim for the head, while the others aimed for the bodies. I noticed that maybe half of the arrows that hit were on fire, and that some of the archers were taking shots at the ones who were burning as well, but I didn't care, this was our first effort after all.

Two of the ones on fire fell to the ground and started to roll around, though I wasn't sure they knew what they were doing so much, more likely they had just tripped or bumped into each other in their panic and fallen down.

The four who hadn't been set on fire did not panic however, they started to push past the ones who were burning and lay about the trees we were using as cover with their massive clubs.

"Back!" I yelled, "Pull back!"

I noticed my militia were more than happy to comply with that order, though I also noticed that two of my archers circled around behind the advancing four, and continued to shoot arrows into the ones that were still burning.

I wasn't too worried about the ones on fire, even if they got themselves put out; I figured they'd be looking to retreat now. However, the other four seemed rather incensed and were pressing their attack.

"Everyone back to the wall!" I yelled out.

"You're in charge, Tal," I said and struck out to the left, if I could get behind them, I figured I could probably take out at least one from behind.

With everyone scattering and running back to town, the giants had a hard time deciding on targets, and from the way they shoved each other and bellowed a few times, I got the impression that they weren't cooperating very well either. About halfway back to town, they slowed back down to a walking gait, and they seemed to be panting rather loudly.

I guess moving all that weight wasn't very easy for them.

So I just waited until one of them lagged behind, then running up quickly behind him, I hamstrung him with a hard slash with one of my swords, then ran back into the cover of the woods.

The effect was rather educational. He bellowed, and fell to the ground, the other three stopping and turning back to look at him. He bellowed some more and one of the three bellowed back.

At that point some sort of argument took place, with the one on the ground holding its bloody ankle. It went back and forth for several minutes, and ended when the one apparently in charge suddenly crushed the skull of the wounded one with his club! The three of them walked off then, leaving their dead companion behind.

When they got to the wall, the leader held back and let the other two go first, as they were all being peppered with burning arrows. So I took my sword and hamstrung him as well, running back out of the way as he staggered back and screamed.

The other two turned and looked at him, but he didn't fall to the ground, instead he took his club and pressing it down against the ground he used it to steady himself as he turned around and started to hobble away from the town.

Seeing their leader abandoning them, the other two quickly turned and followed, another argument seeming to start, but it didn't continue long when the leader threatened one of them with his club, while he balanced on one foot.

I heard the villagers cheer as they left, and I started to trail them back towards the cave. Tal caught up with me shortly after that.

"Now what?" he asked me.

"I'm thinking," I said. "See if you can find the two archers who stayed to keep attacking the other four. I'd like to know what happened with them."

"Sure, Will," he said and ran off into the woods, giving the giants a huge leeway, so they wouldn't see him as he ran through the trees in the dark.

The giants had left the valley and were making for the box canyon that the cave was in when Tal caught back up with me.

"So?" I asked.

"One died from the fire, they got enough arrows into the head of another one to kill it, and the other two are in pretty bad shape. They're keeping an eye on them; they're crawling in this general direction."

"Well, sunrise is maybe an hour away, so I guess we won't have to worry about them much longer," I said.

"What about them?" Tal motioned to the ones up ahead.

"They've been pretty careful, so I haven't been able to attack."

"Too bad we're out of arrows; maybe we could join the watchmen and pour oil down on them as they go in the cave?"

"Nah, that wouldn't...." I suddenly thought about what someone had tried to do to me in the house the other night, and then remembered some stories about how they'd killed a lot of soldiers during world war two in the south pacific.

"Come on; let's go up there quick, I have an idea!"

I ran flat out to get up to where we had the watchers set, leaving Tal behind rather quickly as he struggled to keep up. When I got there, I could see the giants were just entering the little box canyon.

"Sir!" one of the three watchers said getting up rather suddenly as the other two yawned and looked at me.

"Quick, what do you have that will burn? And I need a rope."

"Well, we have a couple of skins full of lamp oil, and that stack of wood over there," he said pointing.

"Any rope?"

He nodded and pointed.

I looked around; they all had bedrolls that looked pretty heavy.

"Everyone up, put a bunch of sticks in your bedrolls, pour oil over it, then wrap it up and tie it," I said and grabbing the one guard's I started in on it.

"Wait! What? I need that!"

"I'll buy you a new one, now get to it!" I growled.

They got.

By the time the giants made the cave I had three nice bundles tied to the end of the rope. I quickly lowered it down until it was in front of the cave and marking where that was along the rope's length, I then pulled it back up.

"Set it on fire."

"What?" The guard said looking confused. Tal just grabbed one of their lanterns and set the whole bundle on fire.

I grabbed the rope near the bundle and tossed it out over the canyon, then got a firm grip on where I had marked it. Sure enough when it hit the end of the rope, the bundle came flying back at the cave entrance, and I let go of the rope as the bundle disappeared inside.

"What's that going to do?" One of the males asked.

"Know how everyone dies if the chimney on your house clogs at night."

He nodded, "Well yeah, everyone knows about that."

"Same thing. That fire will soak up all the air. They'll suffocate."

"Really?"

I nodded, "If they don't get to the portal in time, yea, they will."

"You know, a couple of bales of wool, soaked in oil, stuck down in that cave could cause some real problems," Tal noted.

I nodded, "Thinking the same thing myself. Set it on fire as soon as we hear them coming, and with any luck, kill them before they even get out of the cave."

I turned to the three watchers, "Head back to town, tell Rodd we need a couple of bundles of wool, and a lot of lamp oil to soak them with."

"What about our bedrolls?" He asked, still a bit upset with having lost his I guess.

I gave each of them ten coppers, "Buy new bedrolls, and eat a good meal. We'll need you back here by sunset."

Their eyes all got wide and they nodded.

"Fetch some arrows from my shop as well," Tal called.

The all nodded again and quickly left.

"You know, you probably just gave them more money than any of them has ever seen in his life."

I nodded, "I want someone here everyday now. The giants came early this time, and they brought more along with them. Next time I'm worried it's going to be a lot more, and probably a lot sooner."

"Well, the sun's coming up and it's going to take a while to get down there without a rope, so why don't we go see how you did?" Tal said nodding towards the path.

"Good idea," I said heading down the trail.

When we got there, I pulled myself up and looked inside. I could see the bundle, it was still smoldering in the entrance. Grabbing the rope, I pulled it out and was surprised when it burst back into life.

So Tal and I waited for it to burn out, and then waited another couple of hours, giving the air a chance to return in the cave before venturing inside. We took turns napping while we waited.

When we finally climbed up and started to explore we found two dead bodies, one was the leader I had hamstrung, he was about halfway to the portal, and the other one was ten feet from it.

"How come they're not stone?" Tal asked.

"Takes sunlight for that to happen," I said and started searching each of the bodies. "Wow, these guys stink," I said trying not to breath through my nose.

"Too bad we can't get any sun in here, should we drag them up to the entrance?"

"Sure, but lets go get that rope, I really don't want to touch these guys anymore, they're pretty filthy," I said and looked for something to clean my hands with. I finally remembered that I had the flask on me, and water is water, so I poured some on my hands to get the stink off.

"Will you look at that!" Tal said, and I looked down at the corpse of the giant at my feet, that was quickly turning to stone.

"What's in that?" Tal asked.

"Holy water," I said and looking over at the other corpse I went over and sprinkled some on it. Sure enough, it tuned to stone as well.

"Huh, interesting." I said and looked around the cavern. If we got enough bodies in here, I could easily block that portal by piling them all up and turning them to stone.

"Hold onto this a minute," I said and handed Tal the flask.

"Why?"

"I'm going to pop through that portal and take a look. I may be gone a while, so go wait at the camp until either I or the others come back."

"Sure thing, Will. Just be careful, okay?"

I nodded and quickly stepped through.

Eight

Underworld - Troll Camp

8 Months

My body felt like someone had just lit me up with a couple of hundred volts and I stumbled, dizzy and disorientated as I came out the other side of the gate. It took me a minute to get my bearings and figure out where I was; thankfully there was no one else around.

It was black, pitch black, and I couldn't see or hear anything. But I could smell the air, and the strong stench of the giants. So taking careful steps and feeling around, I found first one stone wall, then another. I was in another cave.

Having figured that much out, I moved slowly towards the source of the stench, and away from the portal. It didn't seem like a long cave, but in the darkness with no references, it wasn't easy to judge time or distance.

When I got to the end of the cave, it was without any warning, there was no 'sunlight' or even 'moon light' to let me know I was at the exit. I was just suddenly there, and it was all laid out before me.

The sky was dark, and it glowed weakly, sort of like the night sky outside of New York City on an overcast night. I didn't see any stars; I didn't see much of anything up in the sky, except maybe the occasional dark shape flying by, off in the distance.

There was a trail leading down the side of the hill, and there was a single giant moving down it. I watched him as he got to the bottom, and then started off across a rock-strewn field. Looking ahead of him, I saw it then, there was a settlement, of sorts. Perhaps it was a city even. It was hard to make it out in the darkness, but I could see stone huts, and I could see forms, other giants I guess, moving around in the dim twilight.

I started to pick my way down the path; I wanted to get a better look at what was down there.

It didn't take me long to get down to the bottom, I was a lot more agile and I moved quicker than the giant did. Oddly enough, I could feel Fel prodding at my mind, so I did the 'eyes and ears' thing and continued to move closer, going across the rock-strewn field.

The rocks themselves looked out of place. The field itself was dirt with some kind of grass growing out of it. The rocks, all craggy and ranging in size from a foot to three feet, were just strewn about everywhere. Like they'd been tossed there.

As I drew close to the settlement, or town I guess you'd call it, I could notice a lot more of the giants walking around, and even things that weren't giants. Some looked like they were half serpent, half man; I think I may have seen something that looked like a centaur as well, only it was bigger than the giants.

And there were a lot of giants. Dozens, probably hundreds. I watched carefully as the one I'd followed went into one of the stone huts, and after a minute, there was quite a bit of bellowing and other noises coming from the hut. Others slowly started to gather around it and even go inside, attracted by the noise I guess.

I decided that I'd seen enough at this point and turned around and left. This wasn't a small group that had been coming and attacking us, more like scouting parties that had been sent to look around. I'd definitely have to figure out how to get a large number to come through, but I did have a few ideas on that now.

Going back through the portal was painless; I guess that was because I was going back where I belonged. That made me wonder what it was like for the giants when they came through, a few moments of disorientation could be helpful. When I came out of the portal, there were a couple of bales of oil soaked wool and wood sitting about halfway up the cave. I was surprised at how quickly they'd gotten them here, it wasn't even evening yet.

"Is that you, Will?" I heard Tal's voice shout down the cave.

"Yes," I said and made my way up and out of the cave. He was standing guard there with another of the archers from the town. They had a burning lamp there, already to go. Looking up I noticed that the sun was approaching the far horizon!

"Damn, almost sundown! I had no idea I was gone that long," I said.

"You left yesterday morning!" Tal said, "What did you see in there that it took you so long?"

That brought me up short, "I've been gone a day and a half?"

He nodded.

"Huh, only seemed like a few hours to me, there must be a serious time dilation in their sphere. That might be why they aren't attacking every night, by the time they get back to their town, and return, it's been several days for us."

Tal looked at me and shook his head, "I have no idea what you're talking about."

I snorted and shook my head; I should have guessed it wouldn't make sense to him.

"Things move slower there, that's all." I said. "And I saw a large town there, hundreds of the giants, and some other things that I'd like even less to run into."

"So what's the plan then?"

"I think the plan is tomorrow morning, I'm going to go in there and stir up some trouble and see if I can't lead a whole bunch of them back through the portal and into the tunnel."

"Why would you want to do that?" the other guard asked.

"So we can kill them and stack up the bodies and block the portal," Tal said nodding slowly. "Could work."

I nodded, "Yes, I think it could. Is there food up at the camp?"

"Food and most of the militia. We're keeping a guard on this cave, so we can light up those bales the next time any giants come through."

I nodded, "Good. I'm going to go get some food; I'll talk to you later."

§          §

"So, your plan is to shoot up their town with your bow, and then run back through the portal?" Fel said to me.

I looked around; I was seated in the bar.

I shrugged, "I figured that would probably rile them up pretty good."

"It should, but there's a good chance that you're going to have a lot of them coming through the gate soon anyway. They do not like it when their own are killed. Especially as they view you as little more than livestock. Your wiping out most of their last party will incite them all by itself."

I nodded, "I just wondered what they were bellowing about when the one survivor went into that hut."

"You really don't want to know," Fel told me.

"Really? That bad?"

He nodded, "Their sensibilities are pretty alien to us. But it is also why I suspect going back through may not be necessary."

"I'm still going to do it anyway, Fel. I need to see what they're up to, and yes, if necessary I need to get a lot of them to come. The sooner I block that gate up, the sooner I'm done here."

Fel sighed and nodded, "I cannot argue with you on that, some of the creatures you saw while you were there are a lot more deadly and a lot tougher than the trolls are. If any of those come through, they could kill a lot of people before you could stop them."

"Well, hopefully tomorrow we'll take care of it then."

"There is one thing you need to keep in mind," Fel said. "You can not gate back to my temple from there. No matter what happens, you cannot do it. I can't impress that heavily enough."

"Won't reach?" I said curiously.

"Oh no, you can reach. The problem is, a gate to a holy temple of this world will show up like a beacon to them, and there are powerful creatures there that are more than capable of traveling through your gate in the short amount of time you would have it open. Having one of those set loose in my main temple would cause a huge amount of death and destruction."

I nodded, "So, no portals home, got it."

"Good luck Will, you'll probably need it."

"Thanks, Fel."

§          §

The next morning I set out, well before sunrise. I talked to all of the men there and told them what I was doing, and that there was liable to be a lot of giants coming through when I came back, and to have more bales ready to be tossed into the cave there, after the first ones were lit.

Then I went down, and crossed the portal.

It was lit up when I got there, that was a bad sign. I froze in place, I was still dizzy from the transition shock, and everything was blurry and still coming into focus. Then there was a grunt, and I shifted into overdrive as a dark shadow came my way.

I dodged to the left, smashed into the wall, then ran forward, tripped over a rock, and rolled into a leg.

I spent the next minute rolling back and forth, trying not to get stomped to death as the giant danced above me, trying to pin me down and kill me. Once I got one of my swords out I was able to start stabbing him, and I got him in the crotch twice, the second time making him give a rather high-pitched scream.

Which was when he stepped on my leg, snapping the bone in two.

I got him in the ankle then, as there wasn't much else I could do while he grabbed his crotch and keened in a high pitch voice.

After the third shot to the back of his ankle, he lost his balance and toppled over and I dragged myself up his back, and in a panicked rage of my own, I hacked at his neck until eventually I severed enough of it that he stopped moving.

I tried to heal my leg then, and found to my surprise that I was completely unable to do so!

Looking around I could see that there was no one else in the cave, currently, just this one giant, who I guess was guarding it. Or something.

It took me about ten minutes to cut strips of his clothing off, and I used my other sword, still in its sheath of course, to make a splint.

I got to my feet carefully then and trying not to swear too loudly I hobbled down the cave towards the entrance. When I got there I looked out over the ground below and there were quite a few of the giants, as well as a few other beasts that I couldn't identify, assembling on the edge of the settlement.

Just then something swooped down from the sky and I had to throw myself to the floor to avoid a pair of giant claws as they passed overhead, I didn't even see what they were attached to. I heard whatever it was scream as a shadow banked over in the air and came back to make another approach. I fumbled a few moments with my bow, and managed to get an arrow off just as it flapped down to attack.

I missed badly, but I had scared it off, for a moment. I heard bellowing off towards the town then, and suddenly the sound of something like a stampede. Taking a second shot at the thing in the air, I looked down, and sure enough, I was going to be having company real soon.

Using the bow as a cane I started to hobble back into the cave and down it, as fast as I could. I think it was about then that I realized I hadn't kicked into high gear when I had been attacked.

At that point I dropped the bow and started to scramble on my hands and one good leg as fast as I could; dragging the broken one along behind me, and trying not to scream each time it hit a rock, which was pretty often.

I could hear them echoing in the tunnel as I got about halfway down, and I could tell they were closing on me fast. For once it was adrenaline spurring me on, and not my abilities. When I hit the final stretch, and could see the portal, I heard one of them bellow behind me loudly, apparently they had me in sight.

I had just reached the portal when I felt something grab my broken leg; rolling onto my back I saw a big grinning face with broken teeth right in front of me.

I punched him in the eye as he jerked my leg back, causing both of us to scream. I could feel the bones cracking and grating in my leg as he squeezed, and my first instinct was to grab it, my hand instead falling on the hilt of the sword I was using as a splint, so I pulled it out and stabbed around my leg trying to get him to let go.

Which he did, but not before I stabbed myself as well.

I fell to the ground then, rather stunned, but the portal was right there, and I scrambled though it like a rat running from a dog.

The giant came through right behind me of course, but he started to stumble about, banging into the walls. I didn't wait to wonder why; I started to scramble down the cave towards the entrance, as I heard my pursuer bellow, and the sounds of more joining him.

"William?" I heard someone call.

"Light them up!" I yelled as I felt myself start to shift into high gear as my abilities came back, letting me scramble along fast enough to stay ahead of my pursuers.

I passed the first bundles as they exploded into flames. There were more than I remembered from the night before, and as I scrambled down the cave on my hands and one good leg I passed two more, each of which caught fire as I passed them. When I finally got to the end of the cave, I tumbled out and over the edge to drop down to the ground and land in a painful heap, my broken and bleeding leg at a most unnatural angle, as I passed out.

When I came too, I was at the entrance to the box canyon, my leg was bound and splinted, and I could see there was something burning rather merrily below the opening to the cave, it was still dark out, though I had no idea how late it was.

"What happened?" I asked looking around. Tal and a couple of the others were there.

"That's what we were going to ask you," he said.

"I got ambushed by one of them," I said. "I probably should have come back then, but I wanted to see what was happening, and well, I got attacked by a lot more."

"Well, that explains the one that followed you out of the cave. He almost landed on you, but he was burning pretty well at that point, so thankfully we didn't have to do anything other than pull you out of the way."

I nodded and grabbed my leg. I could feel that it was going to take more healing than I could muster right now; the bones had been smashed into a dozen pieces. But at least I could stop the bleeding and get the bones to start knitting properly.

"Any others get out?"

"I don't think so. But there was quite the ruckus going on down inside that cave, after you came out. So we all decided it would be better to pull back here."

I nodded, "Let's move to someplace a little safer, in the morning we can go take a look at what's left."

Everyone nodded, and they helped me up. Tal supported me as I hobbled along to a spot out of the way, should any of the giants make it out of the cave. I then laid down and fell asleep.

When I woke up, it was almost afternoon; the sun was rather high in the sky.

Sitting up carefully, I checked my leg, and healed it some more. I didn't think that I'd be able to walk on it any time soon, and it would still have to be kept in a splint. I looked around and found Tal.

"Has anybody checked out the cave?"

He shook his head, "We've been waiting for you. Nothing else has come out of it though."

I nodded, "Well help me up, and let's go look at it."

"How's the leg?"

"No longer in a dozen pieces," I grunted, "I can't heal that much damage as easily as a priest can."

"You can heal?" he said surprised.

"A little, but I really could use a priest right now," I grumbled as Tal helped me hobble back to the cave.

Someone had thoughtfully left a rope there, to climb up, so I was able to pull myself up onto the ledge. One of the other males was already up there, keeping watch.

"Anything burning down there?" I asked.

He shook his head, "The last of it stopped smoldering not long after the sun came up."

I nodded, "I'll go in first."

"No, you're wounded, I'll go in first," Tal said.

"Well, if you start feeling dizzy, come back quickly," I told him.

He nodded, "Don't worry; I know what to look out for."

He took one of the lanterns, lit it, and when down into the cave. I could see him moving back and forth, skirting either bales or bodies. After a few minutes, the light of the lantern was all that we could see easily, and then it got brighter as he came back.

He smiled at me when he came out, "There are more than enough to make a nice pile in front of that portal thing. Heck, from the pile of 'em right in front of it, it looks like they were tripping over each other!"

I nodded, "They probably were."

"Come on, boys, we got a lot of bodies to shift before nightfall," Tal said.

When night finally came, they had moved all of the bodies around the portal, piling them up one a top the other. Tal still had the flask, and was sprinkling water on each body as it was added. By the time he was finished there was a mound of solid rock right up to the ceiling, and twenty feet out. There had been dozens of dead giants.

"Let's head back to town," I said looking it over, "I think that should hold them."

When we got back to town, it was almost dawn. I'd been gone for over four days and Laria was rather anxious to see me, especially when she saw me being helped along.

"You're hurt!" She said and hugged me.

"Let's get inside, I could stand to lie down for a while," I told her.

"Yes, inside." She agreed.

I turned to the others, "Thanks for helping me, come by tomorrow and I'll give each of you a bonus for all of your hard work."

I got a lot of smiles and "Yes, Sir!" from the group as they all left to go to their own homes. When we stepped into the church, I could feel Fel's presence!

"When did the clergy get here?" I asked surprised.

"Yesterday morning. They finished things last night."

"Great, go wake one of them up, I need some healing," I sighed and sat down on one of the benches.

"I'm awake, I'm awake," said a female in a robe who came stumbling out of the back as I was still getting settled. I didn't recognize her, but I was fairly certain she was a priestess; I guess Fel had woken her for me.

"Over here," I said and waved.

"Ugh, this is too early for me," she said and yawned. "You know, you're in a church, you could probably do this yourself, Champion," she said and came over to me.

"Yeah, I hear that a lot, and it's Will. Save the titles for Nara and Fel."

"I'm surprised he lets you call him that," She said looking up at me as she kneeled down and put her hands on my leg.

I shrugged, "We have a different relationship than most of you do."

"And I don't envy you for it. How did you get so many breaks in your leg?" She asked as I felt her power running through it.

"Stupidity," I grunted. "Can you fix it?"

She nodded and started to pray while moving her hand over my leg. After about ten minutes she moved her hands further up my body, and didn't stop until she had reached my head twenty minutes later.

"What was that for?" I asked.

"You had bone fragments floating around in your body. Eventually they could have killed you."

"Huh, well thanks for fixing it." I gave Laria a hug, "Now, where can we sleep?"

"Stu and Liz's old room in the back," Laria said.

"Oh, where are they now?"

"Who knows?" the priestess shrugged, "I sent them off yesterday after we got here. I have enough acolytes that I didn't need them here as well."

I nodded and got to my feet a bit shakily.

"Stay in bed for the day," she looked at Laria, "Maybe two," and smirked as Laria blushed.

"What's your name?" I asked as I started for the back room.

"Tisha, the priest with me is Donny. I'm going back to bed myself. You can tell the acolytes to get out of bed and start cleaning and cooking."

I nodded and we went in the back and did just that. Laria spent a few hours showing me just how much she missed me until I finally fell asleep.

§          §

"Hi, Fel," I said and sighed.

"Don't worry, I'm not going to give you grief over almost getting yourself killed in the realm of a god far worse than the one back on Ithaca that you first experienced," he said smiling.

"You never told me not to go," I pointed out.

"True, to be honest, I was as worried as you were. They were a complete wildcard in the way things are working for me here. If I'd had to deal with an active portal, it would have set me back decades, maybe even caused Hiland to be open to attacks if they got bled dry enough."

I nodded. "So, will that stone wall we made from dead bodies hold them?"

He nodded, "You can't come through the gate, if you can't move freely into the space before it. You'll just get bounced back. Rather painfully bounced back."

"Well that's good. I'm just glad I figured out a way to block that gate," I sighed. "Now I just have to fend off Gunis's attempt to kill me, figure out how to punish the rest of them, find who tried to kill me, and get Rachel to assign some forces up here."

Fel smiled, "Easily done. Gunis is no longer the head of the town's leaders, Serrin and Kasin have taken that over, and Karl has already made fast friends with the officers in charge of the group of guards bivouacked in the town square."

"Guards?" I said surprised.

"Narasamman asked Rachel to send some guards along to protect the clergy on the trip. She sent a company. The Second who is in charge of them is going to set up permanent shop here."

"Wow, that's a load off."

"And who do you think would understand how a chimney draws better than anyone else among that group?"

"Ulris," I sighed.

"Exactly."

"Why didn't you tell me earlier?" I grumbled.

"Because I didn't want you distracted," Fel said matter-of-factly.

"Okay, and what do I do to the rest of them?"

"I'll deal with that, you don't have to worry about it."

I nodded, "I think I'm going to take a couple of days to heal, then I guess I'll come home, face the music with Rachel over Laria, and then get back to searching for Cenewyg's temples." I paused, "Unless there are more things for me to do?"

Fel shook his head, "Not right now."

"Thanks."

§          §

I spent the day in bed, as suggested, which made Laria rather happy. I also paid off the militia members who had helped, with my quickly dwindling funds. That night we had dinner with Laria's parents, Rodd and Karia. I had asked Laria if she still wanted to go with me, and she was rather emphatic with her desire to 'get the hell out of Dodge,' even if she didn't quite phrase it that way.

"We're going to be leaving tomorrow," I told Rodd and Karia as we were finishing dinner. "After I take care of a few final matters."

Rodd looked a bit worried and nodded, "So, you'll decide the final punishments then?" he said.

I smiled, "I wouldn't worry about it much, Rodd, after all, you gave me your first born. I think that's punishment enough, don't you?" I said and gave Laria a hug. "Besides, someone almost killed you, and your family, while trying to get at me. So I think the scales are even."

"About that," he said, "I still have no idea who did it. None of the others have heard anything."

"Oh, that's okay," I said and smiled again, "I know who did it."

Everyone at the table looked surprised. "You do?" Rodd said.

I nodded, "Feliogustus saw the whole thing, that's why I woke up. He saw what was happening and warned me, so I could save the rest of you."

"What?" He said looking shocked.

"He's a god, Rodd, and gods can see things, all sorts of things. As his champion, he tells me the ones that I need to know, I just needed to get those giants dealt with first."

"So, you know who did it?"

I nodded, "That's what I just said. Oh, and you might want to go down to the church and thank him for having me wake up and saving all your lives."

Rodd just stared at me, and then jumped suddenly; I think Karia kicked him under the table.

"We'll go tomorrow," Karia said.

I smiled, "Good, I'm sure Feliogustus would appreciate that."

"What ... what about the person who tried to kill us?" Rodd said.

"I will take care of him tomorrow, before I leave," I smiled. "As for the others, well Feliogustus has told me he will assess any remaining punishments himself, so you might want to tell them that this might be a good time to get some religion and start showing some faith. He might go easier on them then."

"That sounds rather wise," Karia said.

Rodd nodded, picking up on his wife's cue. "I'll keep that in mind," he agreed.

I stood, and the others followed, and we touched hands.

"Until we meet again," I said.

They all nodded, then Rodd looked up at me, "Please take care of our daughter, I never liked the idea she might end up bartered away to the bandits, that's why I was so quick to offer her to you, a male of power and means. You'll treat her better than I ever could."

I stopped and looked at him, surprised. It may be messed up by the standards that I was raised by, but here in this world, especially in this place, he had done what he hoped was best for his daughter.

"I will, don't worry."

Laria surprised me then by giving her father a rather strong hug.

"I'll miss you, Father," she said and then hugged her mother, "Goodbye, Mother."

We left then, and when back to the church for our last night.

"Why are you waiting until tomorrow to deal with the man who tried to kill us?" Laria asked later, when we were snuggling in bed.

"Because I want to see what he'll do," I said yawning.

"What he'll do?" Laria asked surprised.

I nodded, "Your father will tell the others tonight that I know who did it, probably after he finishes warning them all to start going to church if they want to get off easy."

"And they'll tell whoever did it?"

"Oh no, Ulris is the one who did it. I just want to see if he stands up like male of principle, or if he runs off into the night, never to be seen again."

"I'd kill him," Laria growled.

I grinned, why were all my women so bloodthirsty?

"I thought about it, but, I think him living in fear would be a much nicer punishment."

"Maybe he'll just try again tonight," Laria growled.

"Once he hears that Fel saw everything and warned me, he's going to be too afraid to set foot anywhere near here. No, I'm betting he'll run."

She nodded slowly, "If you say so."

I nodded, "I do."

"So what's it like in Hiland?"

"Well, for one thing, it's a lot warmer right now than here," I laughed.

"That would be a nice change," she purred.

"Well, tomorrow I'll show it all to you."

"I can't wait!" she said happily as we went off to bed.

Sure enough, the next morning when we finally bothered to get out of bed, Hidden Vale was in need of a new blacksmith. Ulris had loaded what he could into a cart, hitched up his oxen, and late in the middle of the night he ran off into the hills.

Nine

Hiland - Rachel's Castle

7 Months

I spent my first day back unabashedly in bed with Rachel, monopolizing her completely, and enjoyably. The second day perhaps was a little bit guilt inspired, but not much really. There were times when I wished that I didn't have other commitments, that I wasn't a champion, and that I could just spend all of my time here, with her.

But we are what we are, and part of what made us who we were was that she was a queen and I was a champion.

"So, where is she?" Rachel teased lying on my chest and looking down at me. It was noon of my second day back and I'd been lavishing my attention on her for some time now.

"Huh?" I said a little surprised, "I haven't even gotten into the guilt sex yet!" I protested.

"Oh? When does that start?" Rachel grinned.

"Umm, probably tomorrow," I said and slowly smiled back at her, "When I'm with you, it's pretty hard for me to actually think of anything else."

"Oh really?" she said and looked at me amused.

"Ask Fel," I told her, "Even he uses your name to get my attention."

Rachel laughed, "I find that hard to believe."

I gave her a kiss, "Your powers over me are rather extensive."

"But only when I'm around, hmmm?" she said propping her head up on her arms, which were folded on my chest as she looked down at me.

I sighed and I was sure I looked as embarrassed as I felt. "I seem to recall you telling me that it was sort of expected for the males in your family to stray a little. Yeah, it bothers me a little when I do it, but I'm weak. I'm sorry, Hon."

"Well, normally you don't bring them back with you, but I could smell her all over you when you came home. What, is she pregnant?"

"Umm," I smiled a little weakly at her, "Not yet."

"Oh, planning on keeping this one, are you?" she said with a slight growl.

"They gave her to me," I sighed, "she was the bribe to get me to come and help them."

"And you just had to take it, didn't you?" she growled a little more.

I looked at her, then decided 'what the hell' and I rolled over on top of her, grabbing her hands and pinning them above her head.

"Of course I did!" I said growling back, "You expect to be paid for your help as queen; well I demand payment as a champion! They gave her to me, and she's mine now and I'm keeping her! Just like I'm keeping you!" I said and pinning both of her hands with one of mine, I grabbed her hair and pulling it back I kissed her, hard.

She didn't like it of course, well not at first, but I dominated her and 'forced' myself on her, and the results were as spectacular as always.

When we were finished she was clinging to me as I held her, panting and purring happily.

"Well, maybe I'll let you keep her," Rachel sighed happily.

"Maybe?" I mock growled.

"But!" she said and looked up at me, and I could see she was serious now. "She lives here, in the castle, and if you bring home another one, then you'll lose this one, understand?"

I pinched her butt and she squeaked.

"I'll think about it," I purred and kissed her. But I knew she was serious, so I'd do as she said.

After we had cleaned up and had lunch I went to the temple and got Laria from where I had put her temporarily. She kissed me rather passionately and wanted to drag me into bed as well, but I told her to get her things, and then brought her back home.

"Rachel, this is Laria. Laria, this is my wife, Queen Rachel."

Laria's eyes went wide, and she curtsied and fell to her knees, obviously scared.

Rachel sighed, "I'm not going to kill you, girl, up." Rachel looked at me then, "She's younger than Goth! How old are you, Laria?"

"Umm, I'm old enough to marry by almost year now," she said to Rachel.

"So, just barely," Rachel said and looked at me, "it's not everyday that my husband brings home a lovely and barely old enough to marry young woman to join our household. In fact, this is actually the first time. So tell me, did they really give you to him?"

Laria nodded, "Yes, Ma'am, err, I mean, Your Majesty! I was supposed to be given to the leader of the bandits the next time they attacked, to keep them happy, but Will, your husband, well my father thought I'd be better off if he gave me to him instead."

I was watching Rachel as Laria talked, and when she got to the part about the bandits Rachel winced and looked up at me, I nodded, and she sighed.

"So you were the next virgin sacrifice?" Rachel asked her.

Laria nodded, still looking down at her feet. "Yes, Your Majesty," she said in a soft voice.

"Well, for once I can't blame him all that much," Rachel said and came over to Laria and raised her chin up until she was looking into her eyes. "However," she said and gave one of those smiles of hers that were both endearing, and threatening at the same time. "Your job, from this point on is to keep my husband's roaming hands and eyes on you, and away from anyone else. Other than me of course, try and take my place and I'll gut you with my own claws.

"Understood?"

"Yes! Your Majesty!" Laria literally squeaked it out.

"Rachel, call me Rachel, save the titles for when we're in public."

"Umm, Rachel love," I started, "what about Nara, my other wife, and well, some of the ones Fel set's me up with?"

"Nara and Darlene are okay. The others, I guess Fel and I are just going to have to talk," Rachel said giving me a rather toothy grin.

"And when I go out of town?"

"She goes with you," Rachel said, still grinning.

"But, sometimes I have to go, to well, some pretty far off places."

"She goes with you," Rachel said, still grinning. "What good is having a concubine if you don't use her, Hon? Like I said, if I can't be there, she will be."

I took a step closer to Rachel and looked down at her, I could see Laria was watching us and looking both confused and concerned.

I gave Rachel a big hug and kissed her rather thoroughly, for about a minute, then let her come up for air.

"I wish it could be you," I whispered in her ear.

"I know," she said, and then stomped on my foot, making me wince. "But I can't leave my kingdom, so she will just have to do."

Rachel turned to Laria, "Come, let's get you moved in, and find you some nicer things to wear. You can tell me about yourself while we do."

I watched as the two walked off and felt a little relieved, while she wasn't treating her like an equal, and I didn't expect her to, Rachel was treating Laria well, and not doing any of the many things I might have been worried about.

As for having to take Laria with me, I was sure that would be problematic at times.

But the idea of not traveling alone anymore might just make it worthwhile.

I spent the next several weeks teaching Laria how to ride, as well as how to shoot a bow, and several basic self-defense skills, as well as how to use a knife to fight. She already knew how to use one for most other things, and could dress and butcher an animal with rather amazing skill.

Rachel surprisingly warmed to Laria rather quickly and treated her almost like she was her younger sister. Except that she invited Laria to share both our bed, and me, fairly often. Which I doubted she would have invited her sister to do.

"You're taking this a lot better than I expected, Hon." I said to Rachel one night while Laria lay with us in bed, completely exhausted and rather deep asleep.

"I've heard of girls like her, they're raised from birth taught that they're going to be traded away for protection, and they rarely last long after they are. The bandits are pretty harsh on these young women." Rachel smiled, "Besides, she's sweet; I can see why you'd had a hard time saying no. I've seen the way she almost plasters herself up against you whenever she can."

"I was afraid that would make you jealous," I replied.

Rachel giggled, "She does the same thing to me, when you're not in the room."

"Really?" I said surprised.

Rachel gave a small nod, "In her mind, you own her. As I'm your wife and I'm her queen, I own her too."

"That's just, strange," I paused a moment, "and a little exciting too," I purred.

Rachel purred back and rubbed up against me, "Yes, I noticed."

"So, not mad at me?" I asked and kissed her.

"I can never stay mad at you, Love. What kind of a big, nasty, tough, brute of a male would you be, if you didn't act like one?"

"I love you," I purred and started showing her just how much, once again.

"I know," Rachel purred contentedly.

#                    #                    #

I was getting ready to leave for Earth, to continue my fight against Cenewyg when I had my first confrontation with Rachel over Laria.

"What did I tell you?" Rachel growled.

"But this is different!" I said looking back at her.

"How is it different?" Rachel asked, still growling at me.

"I'm going someplace," I wasn't sure how to say it, "I'm going someplace far away."

"Distance doesn't change things!" Rachel said staring at me, tail lashing angrily. "As much as I enjoy her company, I told you when you got her; she went with you, to keep you out of trouble."

"I don't need help staying out of trouble!" I sighed.

"With females," Rachel growled.

I looked at her, standing there with her hands on her hips, and damned if I didn't want to drag her off and have my way with her.

"I don't think she can take it," I sighed.

"Why not?"

"Well, because things are different. A lot different."

"Then explain it to me, William," she said giving me a look that made it clear that if I didn't, we were going to have one hell of a fight.

"You're not going to believe it," I warned.

"We won't know that, if you don't start, now will we?"

I sighed; the problem with being married to a queen is that they have excellent logic skills.

"Okay, it's like this. The world we live in here? It's not the only one, there are thousands of worlds, and they're all different. My other wife? She lives on a completely different world. This place I'm going to? It's the world I'm from, which is even more different."

"Different how?" she asked looking at me.

"The one my other wife is from, isn't too different than here, a bit more developed perhaps, but everyone," I tried to think of how to explain it, but really couldn't, "everyone is different from the people here."

"How?"

"They don't have tails or claws, and they're not covered in fur."

"They must think you're pretty strange looking then," Rachel said surprising me.

"When I'm there, I look like them, not like I look here."

"Why?"

I shrugged, "Those are the rules, when you go to one of these places, you're changed to fit in, to look like the people there."

Rachel stopped and thought about that a minute, "That's why you haven't brought your other wife here, isn't it. Because you're afraid she won't be able to deal with it."

I nodded, "Yeah, that and she'd not be able to visit her family, unless I took her back."

"So, you're saying that only you can make this trip? Others can't do it?"

"Some can, most can't. Being able to see the openings to these other places, well only some can do it."

"Can I do it?" she asked.

"Actually, I don't know." I told her, "I'd have to take you to one of them, and see if you can. Our children will all be able to."

"Because you're their father?"

I nodded.

"So you're worried that Laria might not be able to handle the change?"

"That's part of it," I sighed, "but there's more."

Rachel looked at me expectantly.

"I come from a hi-tech world."

"What is 'hi-tech'?"

"The world we live in here," I said and waved my arms at everything around us, "Is like my world was, about a thousand years ago. We have built things and developed things based on all those years of learning that to someone from here, it would look like magic."

"Such as?"

"We have machines that can speed along the ground faster than an arrow can fly, we have machines that can fly through the air, and we take it all for granted."

Rachel's eyes got wide, "Truly?"

I nodded.

"You are taking her with you, my mind is made up."

I started to open my mouth and she put her hand on my chest, "Do you love me, Will?"

I blinked surprised by the question, "Of course I love you! What kind of question is that?"

"Then you will take her there with you, and we will see if she survives."

I nodded slowly, "Okay, why?"

"Because, I've always wanted to fly. And if she can survive, then I know I can too, and one day, Love, you are going to take me to this world and show me its wonders."

"Rachel I—"

"Shhh," she said and pressed up against me, "this is one of those times where you just nod your head and say yes. Understand?"

I sighed, smiling, and nodded my head, "Yes, Dear, I understand."

Two days later Laria and I rode up into the hills, on wolats. I was riding Tom, and she was riding a female named Jeri. I had spent some time trying to think of which portal I wanted to take back to Earth. There were a couple I could have used, but none of them came out close to where I wanted to go.

I could have gone through Hillshire, but that would have added a few days, and to be honest, I wasn't sure I wanted to subject Laria to that many surprises just yet.

Fel had suggested the portal at the altar where I'd first entered the world here, and so we were now heading to that. As trips go, it wasn't too far of a ride, we got there in less than four hours.

I took a few minutes to look around when we arrived, I could feel the portal now of course, it was just to the side of the old stone altar on the top of the small hill. By the light of day I could see just how old it all was. The altar was covered with vines, I guess they had cleaned it off first, that time years ago.

The ruins were also fairly decrepit. At night it hadn't been easy to see just how run down and pitted all the stone remains were, but now it was pretty evident.

"What is this place?" Laria asked looking around.

"All I know is that they call it the 'ring of the seven mounds.'"

"What does that mean?"

I shrugged, "I don't know. Some people believe that the gods of the world all come here to watch what happens when a sacrifice is made on the altar."

"Do they?"

I laughed, "If they do, they sure don't show themselves. Then again I've never seen a sacrifice here either, just an attempted one."

I got off of Tom and took his reins, "Now, you remember what I told you, right?" I said to Laria as she dismounted and took Jeri's reins.

She nodded, "I'm going to change, and I'll look and feel different, but not to worry about it."

I nodded, "Exactly. Now take my hand, and we'll step through."

Laria smiled nervously, but she followed instructions and we walked through the portal together. I'd never taken a non-portal traveler through one before, but I had taken wolats, so I was fairly certain it would work, and sure enough, it did.

As before, the wolats had become dogs, wearing collars and leashes instead of a halter. They looked like Irish Wolfhounds, except possibly bigger and stronger.

"You, you look different," Laria said looking at me, and I smiled looking her over as well. To put it bluntly, she was hot.

She had long brunette hair, still only came up to my shoulder, which made her I guess about five and a half feet tall. She had a very beautiful face with pouty lips and almond-shaped eyes like Brigitte Bardot, and a long-legged slender body with a rather nice bust.

I was glad I had brought cloaks with us, because the outfit she was now wearing had become a rather snug tube top and short mini-skirt. She was still wearing the sandals I'd had her put on, as felinoids, it was common to go barefoot, both because of our claws, and the tough footpads.

"What, what happened to me?" she asked looking down at herself.

I stepped over to her and gave her a hug, "Don't worry, you look fine," I said.

"You think so?" she asked a little worriedly and looking herself over.

I gave her a kiss, "Oh, I definitely think so. Now, come. I need to see if I can remember how to get back to civilization from here."

It didn't take us long to find our way back to the road, which wasn't too surprising, I'd run from there to the portal in probably in five minutes the last time I'd been here.

What was surprising was that my car was still there.

And it looked exactly like it had when I left it there too.

"What is this thing?" Laria asked while the wolats, rather the dogs, sniffed at it.

"It's my car," I said looking at it and walking around it. The only way this could have happened was if Fel did it. My suspicions that he had were confirmed when I looked at the registration stickers in the window and saw that they were current.

"What's a car?"

"You'll find out soon enough," I told her. "Just remember from now on, if there are other people around, don't ask me about what something is, because people will look at you strange. Save it for when we're alone. Understand?"

She nodded. "Yes, Will."

I opened the car, and put the back seat down, then got Tom and Jeri to hop in the back and sit down. I noticed that all of the stuff I'd left in it was still there, which was most of my renfair gear, as well as a few changes of clothes, all packed away. Next I got Laria settled in the passenger seat, and belted in. I showed her how the seat belt worked, and made sure she had it on. I figured she was less likely to cause problems that way.

When I started the car, that got some shocked responses from everybody, and when I started driving it, that got quite a few more.

When Laria saw all the other cars and trucks when I finally pulled out onto the highway her eyes were rather wide, and I think she was shaking. The dogs didn't seem to care all that much, and just watched with curiosity.

I reached over and put my hand on Laria's leg.

"You'll get used to it; they're all just things that people have made."

"I can't believe that people could make such things, Will!" she said looking at me.

"I know," I said agreeing with her, "it's pretty amazing when you think that hundreds and hundreds of years ago, everyone here lived just like you did back home."

She just nodded and watched quietly as I drove.

I decided then to head to the Renfair and see if anyone remembered me there. I figured it was a good place to stay the night, and give Laria and the dogs a chance to get used to their new bodies.

Ten

Boston

6 Months

We ended up spending two weeks at the Renfair. Everyone remembered me, some because like Josh, they were still there and others because I'd been talked about more than once, a combination of my abilities and popularity. So when I asked to pitch my tent in the back and stay a few days, it was accepted rather quickly.

The reason we stayed longer was that Laria needed a bit of time to fit in, and learn about how her body was different now, as well as come to terms with this very different reality. I also needed to do a little 'opposition research,' which was primarily looking over maps, asking questions about Boston from those who had been there, and a couple of trips to the library to check some of the more recent newspapers.

But it was a lot of fun showing Laria that yes, some things still worked the same way as before, and that was rather well. A few of the male performers and faire goers were rather taken by Laria, but between myself and the dogs, everyone quickly figured out that she was off limits, which kept there from being any incidents I'd have to deal with.

I also taught the dogs a few tricks while we were staying there and everyone was quite impressed by them as well. As they were all Renfair types, they didn't even think it odd that most of those tricks had to do with taking down people.

Driving to Boston was more of a pain than I remembered it being, I guess traffic had increased a little in the last ten or so years since I'd made the trip. But I found us a nice little motel on the edge of town, where the manager looked the other way when it came to large dogs if I slipped him some extra cash.

"So, why are we here?" Laria asked, staring at the buildings and people as we drove around the city.

"I'm here to kill a bunch of people and destroy a temple. You're here to keep me out of trouble," I laughed.

"What trouble could I keep you out of?" Laria said looking surprised.

"The female kind and you did a very good job of that at the Renfair."

She grinned, "Oh, yeah, I guess I did."

Few of the women at the fair could hold a candle to Laria, so none of them tried flirting with me. Which was a refreshing change of pace. I checked the map and then the name of the street we were on one more time, then slowed down as the street I was interested came up, making a right turn onto it.

We were in a rather upscale neighborhood, with a lot of expensive houses in it. While they were fairly large, they were mostly packed rather closely, sort of like brownstones in New York, just bigger and more expensive looking. I'd already explained the numbering symbols to Laria and I had given her a cheat sheet to look at. We were now both looking for a particular address as we drove down the street.

"There, the blue one," Laria said pointing as we neared the end of the street.

I nodded and took a quick look at it. There wasn't much about it to set it off from the others; I drove down the block and around the corner and parked for a few minutes while I thought about what I'd seen. I'd go by it again in a few minutes; I just didn't want to be obvious about my interest.

I pulled out the ring I'd taken off of the dead priest back in Garrison, and showed it to Laria. "Keep an eye out for this design when we go back the next time."

"Oh, I saw that one already," she said and smiled at me.

"Really? Where?"

"The door in the front, it was on there."

I nodded, and pulled us out and turned around to go back and look. I'd been more interested in the fence around the property, and the car in the driveway. Sure enough, the glass of the front door had been made into the Gatwick design.

"That is most definitely the place," I said and drove off down the street.

"Now what?" she asked.

I smiled, "Shopping!"

"Shopping?" she said looking confused.

I nodded, "There are a few things I need to buy, then we'll go back to the room, feed the dogs, then come back here, when it's nice and dark."

Laria nodded. "Okay."

We spent several hour shopping, I wanted a nice pair of gloves for the both of us, no need leaving fingerprints after all. And I needed something to make a nice 'bang.' A bag of fertilizer and a gallon of diesel fuel solved that problem rather easily as well. I picked up some rope, and some duct tape, lighters, a few bottles of alcohol, and a few rags.

I would have liked to have bought a couple of guns, but that would leave a paper trail, and I didn't want that kind of attention. Assuming I could even legally buy a gun here.

Then it was back to the room to take care of the dogs, relax for a while, eat dinner, and wait for it to get late. I figured sometime a little after sundown, nine-thirty was about an hour afterwards in the summer, so that would probably work out well enough. My plan was fairly simple and straight forward, use the ring to get inside, kill everyone, blow up the altar, set the house on fire, and leave.

Should be easy, right? I just had a girl and two dogs to add into that, and I really had no ideas. Everyone seemed to think I was a tactical and strategic genius these days, when all I was really good at was applying and adapting the ideas of others to the situation at hand. That and having a fairly decent skill at just 'winging it.' Which, when you're not all that concerned with dying, is pretty easy.

However, Laria was important to me, and the last thing I wanted was to get her killed. But the clock was ticking, and I need to deal with this church quickly, so I could move on to the next one.

I cleaned up the room, as best I could, settled the bill in cash, got everyone in the car, and we drove over to the target.

When we got there, I was a bit surprised to see that there were quite a few cars in the driveway and all the lights were on in the house. Apparently someone was entertaining.

"What's going on?" Laria asked me looking at the house.

"Company, apparently," I said and parked the car in front of the house on the street. I rolled the windows down, and looked at Laria, who was dressed rather attractively. I myself was wearing a rather nice shirt and slacks as well. We'd only bought our current clothes two days ago to fit in, and weren't bothering to wash anything, which meant we wore new outfits every day, so we looked like we were dressed for an evening out.

"Change in plans," I said. "Get out, you're coming with me."

Laria just nodded and got out of the car.

"Tom, Jeri, out," I told them as well.

Walking around the back of the car, I got out the bag with the gear I'd purchased, and the fuel can with the diesel and fertilizer in it. I handed Laria the bag, then I took her other arm in mine and walked up the driveway, and over to the front door.

"Tom, Jeri, follow," I told them and they fell in behind us. I thanked whoever was in charge of the rules here for allowing my wolats to keep their intelligence now that they were dogs.

"What do I do?" Laria asked me.

"Keep quiet and look pretty, smile at everyone."

She nodded, "I think I can do that."

I set the fuel can down, out of sight of the door, and took the bag from her and put it next to it. Then I knocked on the door and waited until a man opened it.

"Do you have an invitation?" he said, taking a moment to give Laria a rather good looking over, not that I blamed him, apparently she preferred clothing of the 'skin tight' variety, and there was quite a lot worth looking at. I looked him over while he examined Laria's outfit and the way she was so nicely squeezed into it. He was about five foot ten, and heavily built, but dressed in a nice jacket with a bowtie. While I guess he was acting as the butler for the evening, the phrase 'gorilla in a suit jacket' was the one that came to mind first.

"I think this will suffice," I said, showing him the ring I'd taken off the priest in Garrison.

His eyes widened and then he first turned and looked behind him, I guess checking to make sure we were alone, and he then looked back at me, "This may not be the best time, Sir. Mister Allison has company."

I nodded, "That's why I brought her," I said and motioned towards Laria, "who is it?"

"The local IRA members, they're here to talk business, apparently they have some concerns."

I nodded, "I thought so, issues in Garrison, am I right?"

He looked at me surprised and nodded slowly.

"I'm William Gatwick, Sean's nephew; I deal with his problems for him," I said and burned a cantrip to put a little charisma behind my words.

"Oh," he said and straightened up. "I'm sorry, Mister Gatwick, I had no idea, please come inside."

I smiled as he stepped aside and we entered the house.

We were in an entryway; there was a closet on the left, probably for coats and such, and a hallway leading back into the house with several doors off of it.

"Where is everyone?"

"In the main room," he said motioning towards a set of double doors which were closed.

"Hey, we can't have those in here," he said as Tom and Jeri pushed by him into the hallway.

"Don't worry, Irish Wolfhounds," I told him, "IRA types love 'em."

He eyed me a bit skeptically then turned to close the door, "Mister Allison isn't—"

I pulled out the knife I'd been hiding up my sleeve as I switched into high gear and drove it through the base of his skull up into his brain. Death was instant and he never made a sound.

I caught him as he fell, "Open that door," I told Laria and nodded towards what I thought was a closet.

She did, and it was. I stuffed the dead body in it, retrieved and wiped my knife off quickly, re-sheathed it, then did a quick search under the suit jacket he was wearing. As I suspected there was a pistol there. I slid the slide back slightly to make sure it was loaded, then switched the safety off and stuck it in my belt, behind my back. It wasn't very comfortable there, but hopefully it wouldn't be there long. As my shirt was black, hopefully it wouldn't stand out too much if anyone should see my back.

I closed the closet door, moved the items I'd set outside, into the hallway, and then closed and locked the front door.

"Well, let's see what we're dealing with here," I said and walked over to the double doors. I listened a moment, I could hear several people talking, so I shrugged and decided to make my entrance.

"Gentlemen," I said sliding the doors open and taking a look around, there were nine of them, seated around a table, with the remains of a meal still on it. There were two more standing guard, one against the back wall, the other behind the man seated at the head of the table.

The people at the table were quite obviously split into two groups, there were three seated by the man at the head, one on his left, two on his right. I could see Cen's ring on one of the fingers of his right hand, so I knew who they were.

The other group of five were apparently the ones from the IRA, two of whom looked decidedly different, from the way they were dressed compared to the others, which was more like the way I'd noticed the locals in Northern Ireland had dressed in my short time there.

Plus I recognized one of them.

"Thomas!" I said and smiled, "So nice to see you again! Doing well?"

I was impressed that he didn't even bat an eye, "William, I'm sorry we didn't get to speak more before you had to go. Who is your lady friend?"

"Oh, we can do introductions later, I'm sure. I must say I'm rather surprised to see you in town, I'd have thought certain parties would be rather upset with you these days."

"Why do you think I'm here?" he said with a smile.

"Wait a minute, who is this?" the man sitting at the head of the table, whom I assumed to be Mister Allison, the one in charge of the Boston operation, asked. "Is he one of yours?"

"Oh, he's definitely not one of mine, John," Thomas said with a smile, "apparently he's a friend of Sean's; isn't that right, William?"

Mister Allison turned towards me, "What do you know about our Mister Gatwick? And where is Rodney?"

"Out fetching my bags, Rodney that is," I smiled and took a step into the room; I turned back to Laria, "Be a dear and find the kitchen and get me a glass of water please?"

"Yes, William," she nodded and left us, walking down the hallway.

"Hate discussing business in front of her," I smiled at them, "Sean is currently indisposed, there were some problems in South Africa and he's keeping a rather low profile right now, until things cool down."

"We've heard about what happened in South Africa," Allison said staring at me, "Now, who are you and what is your part in it? Answer me or I'll have Steven here kill you and your woman."

I slid the ring off of my finger and tossed it to him, "Interpol had infiltrated the estate, apparently there are a few moles in our organization. Uncle Sean," I said emphasizing the world 'uncle', "asked me to come and take a look around, until he's back in town."

He looked at me skeptically; I could see he wasn't quite buying it. "What were you doing in Garrison?"

"Following up a lead, I'd just left a load of explosives with Old Norbert and well, apparently something happened while I was in town discussing a deal with Thomas there."

Thomas started to stand, "We should probably be going, I suspect the two of you have some private business to discuss."

"Oh no, please, sit." I smiled at Thomas, as I thought about a comment Rachel had made and an idea popped into my head. "I think you might just enjoy this." I turned back towards Allison, "Have you shown any of them the altar in the basement?"

The shocked look on Allison's face, as well as the other three seated by him was rather priceless.

"You, you're not supposed to tell them about that! You're not supposed to tell anybody about that!" He said and swore jumping to his feet, "Steven, remove this man, immediately!"

"What's this about an altar?" One of the men with Thomas asked looking between me and Allison.

"While the good boys back home probably don't care all that much, I bet you Boston types are pretty solidly Catholic? Am I right?" I asked him, as the one guard, Steven I guess, strode quickly towards me.

"Tom," I said, and just like that, Steven suddenly had about two hundred pounds of wolfhound attached to his neck. He went down quickly, and you could hear the bones crunching as Tom killed him.

"Irish Wolfhounds, gotta love 'em, right guys?" I said and I quickly drew my pistol and pointed it at Allison.

"Keep your friends under control please, Thomas. I don't have any arguments with them."

"Put your gun away, James," he said to the guard standing behind him, "I think perhaps we'd all like to take a little look at what's in the basement."

"No! It's forbidden!" Allison said, his face turning an angry shade of red. The other three all had their hands on the table and were just looking unsure of themselves and the situation.

"Sacrifice anybody lately?" I asked with a smirk.

"Um, Will?" I heard Laria say in a soft voice. I turned to look and there was a woman behind her with a knife to Laria's throat.

"Drop the gun, whoever you are."

"Or?"

"Or I'll kill your wife," she warned.

"She's my concubine," I corrected her, "my wife is at home plotting her next war," I said looking the situation over. She was standing almost completely behind Laria, so shooting her was out of the question, even if I had any idea how well this pistol shot, or thought I could even make such a shot.

"Will!" Laria pleaded.

"I will not warn you again, drop the gun!"

I sighed, Laria was going to get hurt, no matter what I did, it would take some serious healing to save her life, and what healing I had, I was probably going to need for myself. I was probably going to need a priest, and I was going to need one rather soon.

Then I realized, I had a whole temple of priests, and they were all just a step away.

I opened a portal back to Fel's temple, and sent him a thought asking for someone to be there to save Laria.

Everyone in the room, gasped as a black void opened up behind the woman, who couldn't see it as she was focused on me. That was one of the differences with the gateways I could open, they were visible to anyone, if you were on the right side of it.

"Well then," I said and took the gun by the barrel in my other hand, "catch." I tossed it to her, but I tossed it just a little high.

She reached up with her free hand, stepping back and pressing the knife into Laria's neck, cutting it slightly as she did, which made Laria stumble backwards into her, and then they both fell into the portal which quickly winked out of sight.

I dove for the body on the floor as I let the gateway collapse, as gunfire erupted from one of the men seated at the table, he had drawn when the lady had made her demands and was now firing at where I had been standing.

Tom and Jeri both went for the one that was shooting, as I recovered the gun from the body on the floor. The other two apparently weren't armed, and Allison, who had started for one of the exits from the room, stopped as I put a bullet in the wall in front of him.

"Tom, Jeri," I called them off of the one they were savaging. Jeri trotted over, Tom was limping, and panting hard, apparently he'd been shot. I put my free hand on him and healed him as I looked around the room; he was covered in enough blood from the man he and Jeri had killed, that I don't think any of the others in the room noticed what I did.

As for the man Tom and Jeri had attacked, he had been torn open and ravaged rather nastily and was pumping his life's blood out rather quickly. Not a particularly pleasant scene, but I'd seen worse.

Allison and his two remaining compatriots were looking rather pale and were sweating rather heavily. With one exception, who was puking on the floor, the IRA guys were all taking it rather calmly.

"Now, about that basement," I said and smiled, "I'm sure these good Irish Catholic boys would just love to see your altar to an evil god, one that demands human sacrifices. Don't you?"

"What!?" the man who had asked earlier about the altar said and stood up, glaring at Allison.

"Is this true?" he yelled.

"No, no! Of course it's not true!" Allison replied, shaking in fear.

"For a high priest, you sure sold out your god pretty quick there, Allison," I said and motioned for him to come back to the table.

One of the two sitting at the table panicked then and started yelling.

"He did it! I had nothing to do with it! He did it! Please don't kill me! Don't kill me! It's true, it's all true!" He was babbling fearfully now, "I don't want to die! Please! I had nothing to do with it! Don't kill me!"

"Shut your mouth! You coward!" Allison yelled, advancing on the man.

"You said he'd protect us, he'd save us! Where is he?! Where?! I don't see him, it's a lie, it's all been a lie, all of it! And now we're gonna die!"

I watched amused, it was like a TV show. All these years I thought those things had been just over-hyped drama, but I guess some people really did lose their composure when everything was going mad around them and it looked like they were going to die.

Allison slapped him across the face, and then surprised all of us by grabbing the dinner knife sitting next to the guy's plate, and stuck it in his throat as he screamed.

I shot Allison in the head, and in the sudden silence that followed I looked at the last one sitting there, "What was your religion before you joined this group?" I asked him.

He gulped, "I, I didn't have one."

"Well, if you behave really nicely, and do as I ask, when this is over, you might want to go with these men here, and see about converting to theirs. Because they," I motioned with my free hand to the dead bodies, "all just went to Hell. You however, still have a choice and may even be saved. Understand?"

He nodded, "Yes, Sir."

"Good, now, please show us where the altar is."

He nodded, still pale and shaking, and stood slowly. "This way, Sirs."

Thomas stood and looked at me, "Why do you want us to see this, William?"

"I have issues with cults and religions that sacrifice people, I figure you're all good Catholics and have the same issues. There may be other followers of Sean's here in Boston."

"Not after tonight, there won't be," the other man said.

"See?" I smiled, "I'm William," I said to him, "You are?"

"Edward, I'm the head of the political arm of the IRA here in America." He stopped and looked at Tom and Jeri, "Where did you get them? They look like the very ones my grandfather used to have paintings of, back at his house in Ulster."

I smiled, "I have connections."

"I'd be willing to part with a great deal of cash, for one of those connections," he said as we followed the one leading us through the house, and then down into the basement.

"Tell you what, you clean up any followers of Sean's here in Boston, and I'll get you a breeding pair, no charge."

Edward laughed, "You have a deal." He looked at the one leading us, then back at me, and raised his eyebrows in question.

"If he converts, let him live," I said in a soft voice, "as for the rest, if you can convert them, fine. Otherwise, I don't care what happens, just as long as they're gone."

He nodded his agreement.

We came down into the basement then, and someone had obviously spent a lot of money setting it up right. The Gatwick symbol was done up large on the wall behind the altar, and the altar was like the other's I had seen, complete with a blood groove and a drain for the blood.

"I left some explosives up by the front door, would one of you be nice enough to go back and get it for me?" I said.

"Sean, go get it," Edward said.

Thomas was taking a close look at the altar, as well as the drain.

"This has been used," he said and looked at the one who had led us here.

He nodded, "Mister Allison sacrificed at least two people on it, which I know of. He said he had a dream that told him to do it. He said he got the dream from Gatwick himself."

"Lord above," Thomas said and looked at me.

I nodded, "I need to destroy this altar, and I think the rest of you might want to vacate the premises before I do. I doubt any of you really want to get tied up in this mess."

"No, definitely not," Edward said. "Here's my card, call me when you have the dogs," he handed it to me and then walked out, as Sean came down with the fuel can and the bag. He set those down and followed Edward, along with the rest. Thomas however stayed.

"I'll be up in a minute, you all wait outside," he said. "I need to discuss something with William here."

I moved the fuel container, which was my improvised bomb, under the altar and started rigging a simple fuse on it. I then set about pouring alcohol on everything that would burn.

"Surprised to see me?" Thomas asked me as I worked.

"Yes, actually. Also surprised to see you with those guys."

He looked around, and then lowered his voice as he came near me, "After you blew up the place back home, an opportunity to go after one of the major groups funding the provisional IRA at home presented itself, and well, here I am."

I nodded.

"Thanks for not giving me away."

I shrugged, "I don't really get involved in politics or any of that here anymore. If Cenewyg hadn't tried to kill me, and my ex, I probably wouldn't even be the one doing this."

"Cenewyg?" He asked looking at me confused.

"You know him as Sean Gatwick. That's his real name."

"Oh," he paused a moment, "what happened to your girlfriend and the other woman? What was that thing?"

"Something that doesn't concern you. Laria is safe, and whoever that woman was, well she's probably not very happy right now."

"I see, the less known then, the better?"

I nodded, "Something like that."

"So just who do you work for? Or is that another one I'm better not knowing the answer to?"

I'd finished setting things up down here, so I stood up and looked at him, "I'm not sure you'd believe me, even if you could understand the answer," I told him.

"Humor me."

"Do you believe in god?"

"I guess I do, yes."

I shook my head, "Don't guess, god exists, all of this," I waved a hand at the altar, "is Sean Gatwick trying to make himself a god. Which is why he needs to be stopped."

Thomas paused a moment, obviously thinking as he looked at me.

"Okay," he said and turning around he left the basement.

I lit the fuse, if I had timed it right; I had about ten minutes to get out of there. So I went upstairs, checked the bodies quickly for anything interesting, there wasn't and recovered my ring. Then I went into the kitchen and shifted long enough to use my strength to the rip the gas stove out of the wall, breaking the gas pipe, so that the gas would quickly start filling the upstairs room.

After that I went outside, put the dogs in the back of the car, and waited. When the explosion went off I watched to make sure that it lit the house on fire, then with the sounds of sirens starting to sound off in the distance, I drove down to the end of the block, opened a gateway, and I simply drove through.

Tom, Jeri, and I pretty much tumbled into the room in the temple, we still had the forward momentum from being in the car, and the car of course didn't come along. With the prohibition of champions bringing outside tech and such into their own world, I was pretty sure that would be the case, and I hadn't wanted to leave a car that was registered to me sitting outside a major crime scene.

Thankfully I'd been driving very slowly.

"How's Laria, is she okay?" I asked as soon as I stopped rolling.

"Yes," Fel's voice answered, "She's fine. I told her what you did to save her, and she's very happy."

I stood up and looked at Fel's device on the wall; I figured it was as good as any place to give him my 'incredulous' look.

"You explained it to her?" I said surprised.

"She's a nice girl, it's just too bad she ended up with someone like you," he laughed.

I grinned, "Well thanks for putting her at ease. I was worried. I guess I'm going to need to plan things better with the next place."

"Less showing off would be a good idea," Fel pointed out.

I shrugged, "The IRA has some pretty tough characters, if I can get them to deal with any remaining locals, it makes my life easier.

"By the way, are the wolats actually related to Irish Wolfhounds?"

"Direct descendants. About two hundred years ago, a portal traveler brought a bunch through a portal in Ireland to here. When she died, they continued on quite happily."

"Huh, guess I'll have to find a way to follow through on my promise then. So what about the other woman who came through with Laria?"

"She's dead."

"Who killed her?"

"Laria stuck her knife in her."

"And that killed her?"

"Well, actually I killed her, but I'd prefer Laria and everyone else think that she did it." Fel confided.

I nodded, "Sure thing. Did you get anything useful out of her before she died?"

"The Texas installation is pretty big, she'd been there. I'll have to create a map for you at some point."

"What about the others?"

"No. She'd been to the South African temple several times, but that's no longer an issue. She was actually Cenewyg's only priestess. He'd been rather taken with her some time ago."

"Well, I'm thinking the Central American one next. After that, the one in Russia and then the one in Afghanistan. I do have one question," I said thinking about my trick with the gateway.

"Yes, you can open a portal on the floor, but it wouldn't have worked in this case."

"Why not?"

"Because they were already standing there, you can't open it where somebody or something, is putting pressure on it, and would fall through when you did."

I nodded, it made sense.

"Well, let me go collect Laria and then we can head home and relax for couple of nights, then it's on to the next one."

Eleven

Earth - Managua, Nicaragua

5 Months

We were sitting in a nice hotel in Managua, looking out over the lake, enjoying a dinner on the balcony as the dogs snoozed. We'd been here a week, and I'd spread more than enough cash around, trying to find out what I could about the local situation.

The government here had changed hands several times in the last few decades, and there had been a lot of violence on both sides of the divide. Right now things seemed stable and I wondered just how much of that violence was due to an unethical bastard using his champion's abilities?

Did Cenewyg set up shop in these areas just to make money? Somehow, I don't really think so. I was starting to suspect he was using his powers and abilities to impress the easily led, and turn them into followers. With him being out of the picture for the last decade, things hadn't been going so well for him, as some of these war torn places, were no longer at war.

I'd taken the time to present Edward with two puppies, male and female, and had then wondered aloud if perhaps he could let any of his more religious friends know that Gatwick's cult had a following in Managua?

He said that he would see what he could do, and we had left it at that.

When I'd first gotten here I'd taken the time to hire a driver and take a tour of the town, getting a feeling for the layout and where both the good and the bad parts of town were. When I'd had our driver go by the location that I had for the Gatwick estate on the edge of town, I'd noticed that the Gatwick symbols on the gate had all been painted over.

Either they'd been warned someone was after them, or they'd been having some problems with the locals. I'd hooked up with a local underground gun dealer, so tonight I was going to go take a look for myself and see.

"This is such a lovely place," Laria said leaning back in her seat, looking out over the water.

"We're just seeing the good part," I said, enjoying the way she looked as she stretched. I had to admit, it was nice having her with me, and I took advantage of it rather shamelessly. I'd really have to do something special for Rachel when I got some free time.

"What, they live in something worse than a poor village that gets raided by bandits every couple of years?" she asked me with a grin.

"Hmmm," I said and thought about that, "The bandits there were smart enough not to kill off the villagers. Here, they get their money from outside factions, so they're pretty ruthless."

Laria nodded, "I could see where that would be bad. But the living conditions here are actually kind of nice; I could get spoiled here rather quickly."

"Uh, huh."

"So what is our plan for tonight?"

"We'll drive out to the estate, see what is there, and deal with it."

"You don't think they're still there, do you?"

I shook my head, "No, but even if they moved out, they probably left an altar there, so I still need to go check on it."

Laria smiled, "Well whatever will we do to pass the time?"

I got up out of my chair and walked over to her, "Oh, I'm sure I can think of something....

It was late when I pulled up off the road near the front gate in our rented car, well after midnight. We were both wearing black, in my case I was wearing loose fitting clothes as I was planning on shifting once we were ready. We had managed to buy two rather nice AK-47's from the gun dealer I'd met. Apparently there were a lot of them to be had here in Nicaragua, as well as grenades, mines, explosives, anything you'd need to fight a civil war.

I also had brought a sledgehammer along. If the place was deserted, I didn't want to attract undue attention by setting off explosives.

As for the guns, our helpful connection had gotten us a couple of Volkswagen oil filters that screwed on the end quite easily. Not the best of suppressors perhaps, but they worked well enough I was surprised to find.

Laria I learned, really liked submachine guns. I took her out two days ago to train her on using them, and the only thing I didn't like was that she was a much better shot than I was. Quite the blow to my ego there.

"Ready?" I asked and looked at her, she nodded.

I shifted then and led her and the dogs into the woods, along the fence line. When we got a bit further from the road, I used a pair of wire cutters to get us by the fence, and then led us up to the estate from behind.

There were four outbuildings, and I checked each of those first, three of them had gun ranges in them, each was set up for a different type of problem. Obviously this was used to train people in urban warfare.

The fourth one was simply a large garage for cars, and was now empty.

When we got to the house, I took my time checking it out before we went inside, I didn't see any alarms, or signs of anyone living there. The doors were locked, but I was able to break in rather easily.

The house was empty, almost all of the rooms had been cleaned out, the only ones that still had anything in them were the kitchen, which still had the appliances like the stove and the fridge, and the room with the altar.

Everything had been covered up, including the altar, which was under several heavy blankets. As it was made from marble, I could see why they hadn't tried to move it. I set the dogs and Laria to keep watch, and then I got out the sledgehammer and went to work.

It took a half hour to break it in two, and then for good measure I pissed on it.

"We found somebody," Laria told me when I came outside to where she was waiting for me.

On the ground there was an old man, he was face down and Jeri was sitting on him, I was surprised he was still breathing!

I shifted back from my champion form, and walked around him, looking for any weapons.

"Off, Jeri," I said when I didn't find any.

"Who are you?" I asked him.

He slowly got up onto his knees, and then sat back as he rattled off a bunch of stuff in Spanish, little of which I understood.

"If you can't speak English, I'll just shoot you," I said, which had the desired effect as his eye's got wide, "Don't shoot! I speak English! I thought you were from the Church!"

"Which Church?" I asked him carefully.

"The Catholic Church! There was much talk here when they left, about problems with the church, that they had to go, or they'd be found out."

"And why didn't you go with them?" I asked.

"I live down the road from here, when I saw your car; I thought I'd see what you came here to do. They asked me to watch the place for them."

"Uh-huh," I said. "And who were you supposed to call?"

"The police! They wanted me to call the police if there were any problems. You should probably go soon, before they show up!"

Laria looked at me, "Police?"

I shook my head, "This guy doesn't have a phone, and if he did, you can be sure he didn't call anyone." I looked at the old man, who was looking down, embarrassed at being caught lying. "Where did they go?"

He shook his head, "I do not know."

"What do you know then?" I asked.

"I know all their names!" he said and rattled off a dozen people's names. I knew half of them from having seen the letters.

"I already know who they are," I told him.

"I know the name of their patron!" he said looking up.

"Sean Gatwick, already know that one too."

He shook his head, "No, no. That was who they followed. They had a patron, in town, in Managua! I saw him out here many times, he's well known.

"What will you give to me, if I tell you?" he asked looking at me.

"I won't give you to the dogs to play with," I said.

He looked at Jeri who growled.

"Juan, Perone. His name is Juan Perone."

"Peron, like the rulers in Argentina?" I asked surprised.

"No, Perone with an 'e' on the end. He is a coca grower."

"Oh!" I said and thought about that a moment, yeah, I could see how a cocaine grower might want to buy weapons. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a wad of bills in the local currency, pealing off a few of the larger bills I gave them to him.

"Just remember," I cautioned him, "you tell anyone about that, and I'll tell Juan you're the one who gave me his name."

He nodded and standing up, he gave both of the dogs a wide birth, and then fled out of sight.

"So now?" Laria asked me.

"We go back to our hotel and see what we can find out about this Juan Perone."

Juan Perone turned out to be rather easy to find, I just looked him up in the local phone book. Later that day we took a drive through town, playing tourist, and went by his place. It was impressive, and it was rather large.

With a nice wall around it.

Plus it was well defended by guards with guns.

"Hmm, that looks interesting," I said.

"Do you think that they're in there?" She asked.

"Could be, but I'd hate to go in there and shoot it all up to find out that they're not," I said thinking about that.

"Maybe there is someone we can ask?" Laria said.

"Like who?"

"Well, isn't everyone around here supposed to be in the same religion?"

I nodded, "Yes, but if he's been a patron to them, he's probably not."

Laria shrugged, "Ask a priest, maybe he's just being nice to them, because of the weapons and stuff."

I thought about that for a few minutes as we drove around town, Edward had said he'd reach out to some of his more religious friends and connections, which I had assumed meant the church itself. I had no idea what kind of role the church here on Earth played in dealing with other religions. In this age of 'enlightenment' I doubted they got involved in the kinds of things I'd seen so far.

Then again, it might not hurt to ask. I pulled over and got directions to the nearest church in town, which was surprisingly rather close, and rather large. There was a cafe across the street, so I parked the car and went over to sit there and have a bite to eat with Laria, as I watched the place.

"Why don't you just go in?" she asked me.

"Champions of other gods are not usually welcome in the churches and temples," I told her. "I have no idea what will happen if I do set foot in there, and to be honest, I'm afraid to find out."

"You think something bad could happen?"

I nodded, "And I don't want to cause any more problems than we already have."

I sat there sipping my coffee, which being in coffee country, the stuff they were serving here was incredibly good, so I didn't mind wasting some time as I sat there watching the church. I was on my second cup when an older priest came out of the church and walked across the street into the cafe.

Apparently he was rather well known here, and when I heard the word "Monsignor" I raised my hand and waved to him.

"Monsignor, if you would be so kind as to join us?" I asked.

He looked a bit surprised; I think I was the first to address him in English. He came over and looked at me, and then Laria.

"Where are you from, my Son?" He asked, his accent sounded European, but I wasn't good at judging accents.

"Far, far, away, Father. If you could sit and talk for a while, I would appreciate your help."

"Why don't you come over to my office then?" he asked, curious.

"Because I'm not sure I would be much welcome over there. I really am from rather far away, Father. But please, join us for lunch, I have a bit of a problem, and I think the Church just might be able to help."

He noticed Fel's ring on my left hand at that point, which wasn't surprising as I was playing with it. His eyebrows went up a fraction.

"I've heard stories about people like you," he said.

"Sit, please, Father, we are not at odds."

He thought about that a moment then pulled out a chair and sat down.

"So what, brings you here."

"Do you know Juan Perone?" I asked first.

"Yes, he comes to church quite often, I wish he would choose another line of work, but I must still administer to his soul, why do you ask?"

I pulled out the ring from Garrison and showed it to him, "You recognize this?"

"Put that away!" he said in a low voice and made the sign of the cross, "How did you come to be in possession of such a vile thing?"

"So you know that the people who follow that sigil had a place down here?"

He nodded, "Yes, though I've been informed that they are no longer active."

"I have been told that they live within Perone's house. That he has given them protection."

"Are you sure of that?" the priest asked.

I shrugged, "No, put I have to go in and find out. However, I would rather Juan and his friend's be elsewhere, if such a thing is true, while I went and looked."

He thought about that for a few minutes, during which his coffee arrived, and he took a drink.

"Juan has been a fairly devoted Catholic, for all of his other misdeeds; I cannot see him aligning himself with those people."

"Maybe he does not know what they really are? They are also weapons merchants; they may very well have hid this from him."

He thought about that for another minute, and then nodded slowly again. "I'm Juan's confessor; do you know what that means?"

"Not exactly, Father."

"It means, when he tells me of his sins, I set his penance. I will have a talk with him very soon, if he is protecting 'those' people, I will require him to withdraw his protection as a measure of his faith, and leave his house until they are gone.

"Would that work for you?" The father said a little grimly and looked up at me.

"Yes, Father, it would."

"Why are you doing this, if I may ask?"

"Because some things just shouldn't be allowed to stand, and well, Gatwick is an evil ass and I want to see him dead."

"Points for honesty," he sighed, but nodded. "You are right however, some things cannot stand, and sadly there are too many in today's world who are content to look the other way and pretend that they do not see it."

I put some money on the table to cover the bill, "Have a good day, Father, and thank you."

We left then, and went back to the hotel. I was curious as to what was going to happen next. I knew that people here took their religion seriously, unlike many of the folks back where I grew up, sadly.

I guessed that we would find out tonight.

We were sitting down the street, in the car, the four of us waiting.

After about an hour, the gates opened and a rather nice Cadillac drove out, followed by three more sedans. The guards suddenly all walked out of the gate and got into the last car and then they all drove off.

"That must be our cue," I said and opening the doors Laria and I got out of the car, then waited until the dogs were out, before closing them.

"Don't kill any children," I said.

"What about women?" Laria asked.

"Use your own judgment," I said.

I had bought both of us ski masks, and we put those on as we walked towards the gate.

We made it through the front door before we ran into anyone.

"Juan? Dominga? Charles?" A man said coming out of one of the side corridors, he saw us and his eyes got wide.

Laria shot him in the head, before I even got my gun up.

We moved quickly then, going room to room. Several of the people we came across were wandering around, apparently wondering where everyone had gone, two more that we found were in bed, asleep. Another two were in bed, together.

"Go hunt," I told Tom and Jeri, once we hit the top floor.

"Think we got them all?" Laria asked. She had shot twice as many of them as I had so far tonight. I wondered if it was just a Saladin thing in general, or did I just have the fortune of attracting homicidal women? Not that I was complaining, there was something sexy about a woman who wasn't afraid to take matters into her own hands.

"If we haven't, Tom or Jeri should be able to sniff them out," I said.

Five minutes later, Tom found one hiding in the basement, and made rather short work of them.

I took the time to check all of the bodies before we left; they were all wearing the Gatwick symbol. I checked their ID's to be sure they were the ones we were looking for, including the local priest, who was wearing the Gatwick ring. Everything matched, so apparently Juan was serious both about his faith and his penance.

I didn't find any trace of an altar anywhere in the house, or in the garage, and after making a clean sweep of things, we went back to the car, left it at the rental place, which by this time of night was closed, and I opened a gate and we all went home.

Twelve

Hiland - Castle

4 Months

"We have a problem," Rachel said to me at breakfast, a few days after Laria and I had gotten back. She was reading a dispatch that had just been brought into the dining room as we were eating.

"What?" I asked.

"This just came on a rider from Hidden Vale, here look," she said and she handed it to me, Laria looked up from her breakfast concerned as well.

"Is it bad?" she asked.

"Possibly," Rachel said.

I read it; apparently they were having some sort of trouble with a monster, a large flying monster. I suddenly thought about the thing that had swooped on me, at the portal to the underworld.

"Damn," I swore, "I'll head out immediately."

"You know what it is?" Rachel asked looking at me.

"I think so. I'll have to stop and talk to Fel about this; I think it's related to that portal to the underworld we sealed. This must have come through before we took care of it."

Rachel nodded, "I'll send a cavalry company along with you, I'll have a messenger tell Holse my orders, hopefully he'll have them ready by the time you're done at the temple."

I nodded, "Let me go pack," I said and got up.

Laria got up as well and I looked at her.

"I go where you go, remember?" she said and then sighed, "Plus, it is my home, I may be able to help."

"Just keep him out of trouble," Rachel said, "And stay out of trouble yourself, Laria, I'd hate for anything to happen to you."

Laria smiled and ran over to Rachel and gave her a kiss on the cheek, "I'll be careful, I promise," she said.

"What, nothing for me?" I sighed dramatically.

"You've been getting yours for the last several days," Rachel smirked. "Besides, Feliogustus takes care of you; Laria however, has to depend on us. So don't let her get hurt."

I nodded, "Let's get our stuff and go."

I made it to the temple twenty minutes later, and walked in the back, I was surprised to see Fel's embodiment waiting there for me.

"Is it the same thing that attacked me?" I asked him.

"I think so, William, but I can't be sure yet. It's killed over a dozen people so far, one of which followed me. However they didn't see anything; they were attacked from above, at night."

"Can you give me any advice?"

"Get your arrows and your blades blessed every morning, and every night. Carry holy water with you. This thing is a creature of the negative plane, so the spiritual energy that comes from me will cause it extra damage."

"Will the sunlight destroy it?"

Fel nodded, "So it must be denning up in a cave during the daytime."

I nodded and gave a small bow, "Thanks, Fel. I better get up there."

I grabbed Laria who was just standing there staring at Fel in amazement. I guess she hadn't seen him before and his presence did tend to awe and overwhelm the mundane.

"Did, did you see him?" Laria said as we mounted our wolats and headed off west, to pick up the path into the mountains.

I smiled at her, "Yes, I saw him."

"How, how are you able to even talk to him?" she said, still amazed.

"You get used to it after a while," I said urging Tom onto a trot.

"He's amazing," she sighed.

"He likes you too," I said teasing her, and then quickly realized that maybe I shouldn't have as she looked both shocked and embarrassed.

"He likes me?" she squeaked, and then started coughing.

She spent the next two hours asking me about just how much. I didn't have to imagine it this time; I could actually hear Fel laughing at me in my head.

#                    #                    #

Two days later I was sitting in the church I had helped build, talking to the local commander, Second Willis.

"Thank you for coming to our aid, William," he said sitting down on the bench across from me. It had only been about three months since I'd left here, and the barracks for the company were still under construction. So I'd figured this was the next best place to talk. The place really did look a lot nicer now, with all of the benches put in, and everything cleaned up and repainted.

"If it's what I fear it is, this thing is going to take a lot of effort and people to kill it," I said. "It's a creature from the underworld, which means it's tougher and stronger than any normal animal, and much more intelligent as well. Also it means that it must hide from the sun during the day, and that holy water and holy items will harm it more than natural ones."

"Is that so?" The Second asked, his ears perking up.

I nodded, "I'm going to be imposing on our clergy here to make us a lot of holy water, and to bless our weapons as often as possible."

"That's going to keep them fairly busy."

I nodded, "Yes, it will. I'd appreciate it, if you loan them some of your men, should they ask for help."

"Done, I'll assign one of my fourths to talk to Priestess Tisha immediately and let her know."

"Tomorrow, I'll start scouting for this thing's den," I told him, "Is there anything else I need to know about?"

"We had a run in with the bandits almost four weeks ago."

"Oh, how did that go?"

"About as expected, we had a couple of men wounded, they lost about eight, we captured six more, which we hanged the next week once we discovered what they'd done and tried them."

I nodded, "I suspect they won't be coming around here again. Any idea on where their camp is located?"

He nodded, "It's west and a little south of here. I can show you on our main map if you come by the command tent. We got several of the bandits to tell us where it was before we hung them."

"I'll do that. How are the townspeople taking it?"

He shrugged, "About what you'd expect, the ones we buy things from love us, the ones we help love us, the ones we're reining in, they hate us. The rest really don't care, though there was a pretty large turnout when we hanged those bandits, that made a lot of folks very happy."

I nodded, "They've been preying on the people here for a long time."

Second Willis laughed, "Yeah, and now that the women aren't worried about being carried off, more than a few of them have started to investigate my men. I figure by this time next year, either I'll have men asking to settle here, or ones asking to take their new wives back to Hiland."

I smiled, "Well, then it's all good. I'll talk to you in the morning, Willis."

He nodded, we both stood and touched hands, and he left.

"I'm glad he's going to send us over some men to help," Priestess Tisha said coming over to me. I guess she'd been listening in, not that I blamed her, she was in charge here. "Donny and I are going to be strapped keeping up with all of the blessings and holy water you're asking for."

I nodded, "I know, but Fel told me that these things are weak to that."

"Feliogustus," she corrected me with a smile, "I don't want you corrupting our acolytes."

I laughed, "Uh-huh. Well, I'm going to grab Laria and go over to Karl's place for some dinner, then back here to sleep. Thanks for letting us have the acolyte's quarters to ourselves."

"Eh, sleeping on the floor builds character," she smiled.

"Well I guess that explains me," I grinned back at her, and went and got Laria. They had fixed up the living quarters rather nicely as well, I'd found. One of the former storerooms was now a rather nice bedroom that Tisha lived in, the other storeroom was now empty of kegs, and had been done over for Donny.

The room in the back, now had two bunk beds for the four acolytes that had come here with the priests, and while I wouldn't have minded sharing the room, nor would Laria I suspect as she was even more shameless than I was, I think Tisha and Donny didn't want them exposed to our antics. Or more specifically our love play.

Then again, maybe they were worried I'd personally corrupt their acolytes myself, as three of them were young females.

Not that I wanted to, nor would Laria have let me of course.

The sun was setting as we sat down in Karl's tavern for dinner. I was surprised when Karl came out and asked to join us with his wife Marsha. Apparently she ran the kitchen here, which I guess made sense when I thought about it.

"So, I guess you've returned to deal with the monster?" Karl asked after we'd all finished eating.

I nodded, "As soon as Queen Rachel found out, she asked me to deal with it."

"More like he volunteered before she even asked," Laria put in.

I shrugged, "I know my wife, she wouldn't have shown me the message if she didn't want me to deal with it." I looked at Marsha and then Karl, "This is part of her kingdom now, and she takes care of her people. I didn't ask for the extra soldiers to come along, but she wanted everyone to realize that she's concerned."

Marsha looked pleased with that, and Karl nodded, "I had hoped that would be the case, and I'm glad to see it is. The rest of the villagers will be happy to find out as well.

"This is connected to those giants, isn't it?"

I nodded, "We're fairly certain that it came through before we got the passage blocked. I'd hoped to seal it off before anything else got through; thankfully nothing worse was able too."

"This thing sounds pretty fearful," Marsha said, "I'd hate to think of what something worse would be."

I nodded, "Me too." I looked to Karl again, "So, how are the rest of the village leaders handling everything?"

"Gunis is slowly rebuilding his ranch, and isn't focused on much beyond that, I think he's still dealing with his loss of power here in town. No one has heard anything of Ulris of course, not even any rumors as to where he may have gone.

"Laria's father, Rodd, has actually been doing quite well of late, with the soldiers here the need to wool and leather has increased. Ed is also doing much better now."

"As are you, I'm sure," I said smiling.

He nodded, "Very true. Otherwise things are the same overall, Serrin and Kasin still wield the most influence, but both of them have embraced the new changes, probably because they see more prosperity for themselves, as well as the town. As for the rest of the people?" He smiled, "The females all love it, more males in town, less chance of ending up in a bandit's bed."

"What about the males?" Laria asked.

"With the barracks and other things being built, they see a lot more work, which means more money. Some of the others are looking at the soldiers and thinking that joining up might be a good way to get out of this 'dead end town,'" Karl said the last with a grin.

"Young men never change," I laughed.

"Yeah, there are a few who aren't happy about it," Karl continued, "they're either the ones who were the cock of the walk before a large group of males older and tougher than them showed up. Or bullies who have suddenly found out that the group of older and tougher men don't like them much." Karl grinned again. "We actually now have a city guard, Second Willis was kind enough to start one using his men."

"Sounds like things are looking up," I agreed. "So, what can you tell me about this creature?"

"There haven't been any attacks on the village, yet. But some folks have claimed they've seen a dark shape up in the sky, circling overhead when the moon is out."

"What about those outside of town?"

"Each of them was by themselves when they disappeared, in one case they were in the middle of a pen with some muzhen, and it was their screams of panic that brought others out to investigate it.

"It wasn't until we found a bunch of clawed up suzhen out in one of the pastures and the remains of the shepherd watching them, that we realized we had a problem. Alsten, one of the ranchers, told me he saw some footprints, they were like a birds, only bigger, about this wide," Karl held his hands up, about three feet apart.

I nodded, I remembered those claws that I saw, and that seemed about right.

"I'll be riding out in the morning, see what I can find."

"Riding?" Marsha said looking at me curious.

"They have these giant beasts that they can ride on," Laria said smiling, "Will taught me how! It's really fun!"

"I've heard about them," Karl said, "Haven't seen any yet thought."

"Well I just brought over two hundred of them with me," I said, and then almost laughed as I saw the expression on Karl's face. No doubt he was figuring his profits for the next month.

"I better double my order for ale," he said looking over at Marsha who nodded.

"You might want to see about building an inn," I mentioned, "people are going to need a place to stay when they visit."

Karl nodded, "Already started work outback, just most of the folks are already working on the barracks, so its slow going."

I nodded and finishing my ale I stood up, "Well, I need to get up early, nice talking with you Karl, Marsha, give my regards to the rest."

I helped Laria up and we walked back to the church. I looked up in the sky as we did, but I didn't see much of anything beyond the stars.

I took a hundred cavalry soldiers and rode out about an hour before sunrise. I led us to the box canyon where the portal to the underworld was. If this thing was living in a cave, that was the first one I thought we should check.

I also thought it would be a boost to morale for those living outside of the village to see that their new queen was taking this seriously and had sent out a large force to deal with the problem. Basically a 'show the flag' exercise.

We got to the cave not long after sunrise and jumping up; I grabbed the ledge to pull myself up, and then looked into the darkness inside. The smell coming out of the cave wasn't a good one, it smelled like rotten flesh. I drew my sword as I approached but I suspected that it was already gone. Most beasts wouldn't foul their own den like that; however this wasn't a natural beast, so I couldn't be sure.

I got out a torch, and lit it, then tossed it inside, and watched to see what happened as several of the soldiers climbed up to join me, lighting torches of their own and tossing them inside.

"Wait here," I told them and cautiously made my way inside, moving slowly and giving my eyes a chance to adjust as I moved in deeper.

There were bones on the floor, most of which had been cracked to get at the marrow. There were quite a few skulls as well, muzhen, suzhen, what looked like a bear, but nothing that looked like a felinoid.

"It's safe," I called back, "Bring a couple of lanterns." I then picked up my torch and went over to the pile of giant bodies that we'd turned to stone. It looked quite gruesome in the torchlight, all of those stone heads and faces, along with the stone bodies piled up. It took me a few minutes, but I could see claw marks in several places. It had tried to dig through the stone bodies, but it hadn't had much success.

Still, that didn't sit well with me; I'd have to see if something could be done about that.

"Sir," one of the soldiers said to me, "whatever it was, it hasn't been here in weeks, the remains have all dried out and there aren't any flies or maggots any more."

I nodded, "Let's go back outside and have a look at what's here."

We left the cave and I stood on the ledge looking around, there weren't any other caves in the canyon that I had noticed before. I'd have to ask Tal, and probably everyone else in the village, for the locations of every cave that they knew of. I could see this taking months and I didn't have months to go looking from cave to cave in the mountains, especially once the snows came.

And that assumed that this thing wasn't changing dens every month or two. I needed a plan, and I needed a trap, something to lure it in.

I'd have to think about that, and I'd have to ask Fel if he had any insights.

"Orders?" the Third in charged asked me. His name was Koglin.

"Let's ride around the hill here and head up to the top of the cliffs and see what we can. After that I think I'll have you break the men up into groups of five, spread out across the valley, talk to the locals, and look for any signs of the creature. Just make sure they all understand that they're to be back an hour before sunset for debriefing.

"Yes, Sir," he said and we climbed back down from the ledge and mounting our wolats, we rode up to the top of the cliff. There wasn't much to see up there, though it did give a rather good view of the valley, and I sat thinking as I looked out over it, while Third Koglin detailed the troops, pointing out the area's that he wanted each of them to investigate.

"Going to be a long hunt, isn't it, Sir?" He asked, coming over to me as his troops rode off to follow their orders.

I nodded, "Unless we get lucky, yeah, it sure is. What we need is a trap, something to lure it in, so we can kill it."

"Or at least trap it until sunrise," he agreed.

"The biggest problem I see however, is what do you bait the trap with? What would lure this thing in?"

Third Koglin shrugged, "People, I'd guess."

I looked at him, "What makes you say that?"

"Well, think about it, there are lots and lots of muzhen, suzhen, cattle, as well as deer and other critters around here for it to eat. All of which are probably a lot easier to catch than a person. So why is it eating people?"

I remembered Fel's comment about us 'tasting good' to the giants.

I sighed and nodded, "You may have a point. But who would want to volunteer for that duty?" I asked shaking my head just thinking about it.

"Oh, that's easy, Sir!" he said with a rather large grin.

"Oh? How so?" I asked puzzled.

"Well, we just take the company down to where those bandits are holed up, and ask them." He laughed, "Well, maybe not ask, so much as 'force.' Not like anyone will complain!"

I looked at him and thought about that, the bandits did need to be dealt with eventually, and we were going to be here a while, anyway. Dealing with them would be a lot easier and faster, so why not deal with them first?

"You know, after all the years they've been preying on this village, only fair that something preys on them for a change," I said slowly, and then nodded. "Thank you, Koglin, I do think that just might work. Let's ride back to the village and have a word with Second Willis, then I guess tomorrow we'll take your Company out and do a little bandit hunting."

"Yes, Sir!" He smiled.

"Please, call me Will," I smiled back at him as we got back on our mounts and headed back to town. I hated being 'sirred' all the time, but I understood it was necessary for discipline and all that, but I'd been told by Holse that it was the little gestures that were appreciated the most, and being on a first name basis was apparently one of them.

"That does sound like a good idea," Second Willis agreed. We were sitting in his command tent, looking over the map of the area he had made. "I've wanted to go after those bandits for weeks now, but with this creature flying around, I didn't want to leave the town exposed."

I nodded, "We will need a good place to set up our trap, once we get back here with the bait."

Second Willis nodded, "I grew up on a farm, can't say I have much experience with trapping myself. Koglin?" he asked looking up at Third Koglin, who was the leader of the cavalry company Rachel had sent with me.

"I used to trap some, down in the hills around Hiland, but this beastie I bet is going to be a lot harder than the rabbits and beaver I'm used to. Maybe we should ask around town and find out who the best trapper is?"

I nodded, "Karl or Tal would probably be the best to ask."

"I already know Karl," Second Willis said. "Who is Tal?"

"He runs the fletchery and bow shop, as well as the other tavern. I need to go talk to him anyway, he used to hunt all up and down the mountains around here, if anyone knows, it would probably be him."

"Okay, once we have a plan for a trap, I'll get my troops working on it."

"And I'll get my people ready to ride out in the morning to hit the bandits," Third Koglin said, "Will you be joining us, William?" he asked.

"Wouldn't miss it," I said and smiled at him.

"I'll go talk with Karl then, while you talk with Tal," Second Willis said and we all stood and left to deal with our respective tasks.

Tal was at his shop when I got there, and was happy to see me.

"Will! I'd heard last night from Karl that you were back to help deal with this new problem of ours."

I nodded, "It's actually related to the last one. This thing came out before we got that gateway sealed up."

Tal nodded, "Which makes me glad we got that taken care of before something much worse came out of it. So what brings you by here?"

"Two things. The first is that this beast needs to den up in a cave during the daytime, so I need to know where every cave in the area is, that people know about."

Tal nodded, "There are a lot of them, I can help with that, and spread the word to the other hunters out there as well. But that will take you quite a while."

"Yes, which is what brings me to the other thing; we want to set a trap for it. We think we've got an idea of what it wants, so we're going to go off tomorrow and get us a bunch of bait. But we really don't know what kind of a trap to build, and I was hoping you could point us out the most experienced trapper in town."

"What are you planning on using for bait?" He said looking at me.

"Bandits," I said with a smile.

Tal laughed loudly, "Oh! Well, I must say, that is quite the bait alright! Especially if this thing likes feline flesh as much as the giants did!"

"So you can help?"

Tal nodded, "Sure, let me talk to some of my friends from my trapping days, and we'll see what we can come up with."

"If I'm not here, talk to Second Willis, he'll be the one in charge of building whatever it is you give him."

"Sure thing, Will," he agreed. "Do you have a map I can mark the caves that I know of on?"

"Second Willis has one."

"Okay, I'll head over there after lunch and show him the ones I know."

"Thanks again, Tal."

"Oh, thank you, Will. Building this trap is going to be something to tell the grandchildren about," he laughed.

I smiled and nodded, then left to go find Laria. I had the rest of the day to kill, and not much to do.

Thirteen

Bandit Camp - outside of Hidden Vale

4 Months

The bandit camp was a day and a half away by wolat, considerably more if one went on foot. I left Laria back at the church, because I figured we wouldn't be gone all that long, and I honestly didn't want to bring her along when we'd be going into melee combat. We camped a day's walk away that night, so if anyone should see our camp, they wouldn't be able to get there in time to warn the bandits.

If it hadn't been for the creature, we would have attacked an hour before sunrise, to catch them while they were still asleep, but we didn't want our own men being preyed upon, and Third Koglin doubled the sentries and kept extra watch fires going through the night. If this thing was at all like the giants, we figured that it wouldn't care much for fire.

When we charged into camp the next day, we created instant chaos. There about two dozen tents that I could see, all of which were patched and looked rather old. I only saw one building, which was made from stone, though I did see what looked like the remains of two wooden ones.

There were maybe a dozen women running around, and I couldn't tell how many children. What struck me as odd was that the men came stumbling out of their tents looking tired and half awake. It was already noon, and the hottest part of the day being the middle of summer! I guess they really were that lazy.

All of our men were armed with clubs; we needed these men alive, if we were going to use them as bait. But we didn't need all of them, so any that tried to put up a serious fight quickly found themselves facing swords instead of clubs.

The others noticed this, and quickly laid down their arms and surrendered. Some of them even seemed happy to see us. All told, when we had finished, we'd only killed ten of the bandits, and had another twenty-seven in shackles.

There were nine females there, and sixteen children, ranging from newborns to what looked like eight years of age. Something about that number didn't add up, as the oldest female was maybe twenty. I let Koglin and his men handle all of them, while I walked around the camp.

I first went and looked at one of the piles of wood, which looked like a torn down wooden building. Those didn't make sense because these were the bad guys; they were the ones doing the attacking, not the ones being attacked.

It took me a few minutes, but I found them, claw marks, large ones, like I'd seen on the rocks in the cave. Looking around some more, I saw that quite a lot of the boards were splintered, others had what looked like teeth marks on them.

I stopped and looked around some more, and I felt myself go cold when I found what I was looking for, on a rise, a couple of hundred yards outside of camp, there were two large poles set into the ground.

"Tom!" I called and he trotted over. Hopping on I ran him up to the top of the rise.

There were cut and chewed ropes on the ground surrounding the poles, and the smell of old blood was heavy in the air.

Growling loudly I rode back down the hill and found Third Koglin, who looked up at me surprised.

"I found how we're going to bait our trap," I said and pointed up the hill towards the two poles that were set there.

I saw his eyes go wide and his ears go back.

"They didn't!" he growled.

"They did. Two guesses who they were using," I said and looked at the women who were huddling well away from the bandits.

"I'd kill them all, slowly, painfully, if we didn't need them," Third Koglin growled.

"You and me both," I agreed.

I walked over to the women, they were all a mess, their pelts were filthy and patchy. They were all undernourished and naked, same as the children. I could see the hope in their eyes though; they were looking at the soldiers, all of whom were in uniform, then back at me.

"Who are you, Milord," one of them asked.

"I am William, Champion to the god Feliogustus, and consort to Queen Rachel of the Hilanders, who now rules over the village of Hidden Vale and the surrounding areas. You are safe now."

"Can you, can you protect us from the flying death?" she asked me.

I nodded, "I'm here to kill it. Now, tell me what happened here."

She nodded. "About a month ago, it came. It attacked the village and carried off one of the men," she turned and spat on the ground, "good riddance. It came back two days later, and everyone hid in the houses. It tore down the first one, and made off with Mary. Then two days later it tore down the second one and made off with another of the men," she spat again.

"Then the chief," she motioned to one of the dead bodies, "decided that if we couldn't stop it, we could at least pick who it ate, and he put those two poles up yonder. Every other night, they'd tie one of us females to it, as a bribe for it to leave them alone."

"Why didn't you run away?" Third Koglin said, coming over with several other soldiers, who were all carrying food and water.

"That got you set up on the pole for the next time," she said and shivered, tears going to her eyes.

"Bastards," I swore under my breath. "What did it look like?"

"What, the flying death?" she asked.

"Yes, the creature. What did it look like?"

"It was big, big as a house, at least three times as tall as you are. It was black as night, and look to be covered in scales like a snake, but I saw guards hit it with the swords and they bounced off! It had two legs like a bird and nasty talons on its feet like an eagle, with a long snake-like tail." She looked down at the ground, obviously remembering something painful.

"What about its wings? Its head?" I prompted her when she stopped.

"It had huge bat-like wings, ten or twenty spans a side, easily! But the head, I'd never seen a head like that, it had a long muzzle with lots of teeth and two horns coming off the back of it, with a hard crest between them that ran down it's back."

"Thank you," I said thinking about that, it didn't sound like a dragon, but it still sounded big and nasty, a wyvern perhaps?

"Did it breathe fire? Or anything like that?"

She shook her head. "No, Milord."

"One last thing," I asked her, "When was it last fed?"

"Last night," she said and looked away, crying.

I sighed and felt like a heel for asking, but I had to know when it would be back.

"Where are you taking us?" One of the younger ones asked.

"Back to Hidden Vale," I said. "Is that where you're from?"

They all nodded, "Do we have to go there?" she said.

I looked her over, she had been pretty once, actually, I bet they all had been. Some good food, medical care, a bath and new clothes, and I suspect they'd be so again.

"Yes, but you don't have to stay," I told her. "You're all welcome to travel to any part of the kingdom you wish. The days of your village trading you away for protection are over; Queen Rachel does not tolerate that kind of nonsense," I said.

They all looked grateful to hear that.

"So now what?" Third Koglin asked me quietly as we watched them eat.

"Head back to the village, why?"

"Well, none of them look like they can walk far, and they're all flea infested, so they can't ride."

"Oh," I said. I had a cantrip that killed fleas, I had no idea however if it worked on others.

"Let me try something," I said, and for the first time since I'd come to Saladin I got down on my knees and prayed to Fel, and did so in public, asking him for help with this problem. Surprisingly, I actually felt him approve!

I then went to each of the women and each of the children, touching them on the head and casting my cantrip. I was exhausted when I was done, but each of them was clean, completely, no fleas, no dirt, nothing.

"Your god did that?" one of them asked me.

I nodded, "Feliogustus is touched by your fate, and bade me to help you." I told her, and looked at the others as well, "He has a church in the village now, you may want to thank him after we get back."

"You sound like a priest," Third Koglin whispered to me, as we walked over to check out the bandits.

"Yeah well, when you do those kinds of things, they expect to hear you say stuff like that," I said with a grin, "besides, maybe some of them will convert. Have you heard the word of Feliogustus?" I asked him.

"Please, my sister is in the church," he said.

"Oh? Who is she?"

"Priestess Tareassa," he told me.

I think my ears folded down flat at the shock of that.

"I know her," I said in a rather shocked voice, she'd had two of my children!

"I know," Third Koglin laughed, "I know."

Talk about your small world! I tried not to look too embarrassed and refrained from asking him how she was doing.

We forced the bandits to strip, then burned all of their clothing, I was able to cast the cantrip to banish fleas on them after I had rested, but it didn't do anything more than get rid of the pests. I wouldn't have even done that much, if it wasn't for having to bring them back with us. The last thing any of us needed was a flea infestation.

It took us four days to get back; the prisoners slowed us down quite a bit. When they started to complain after the first day, I walked up to one of the loudest complainers and took his head off with one of my swords.

They didn't complain much after that.

"How was your trip back?" Second Willis asked as we rode in that night. The sun had set two hours ago, and we'd left one of the bandits shackled to a large stone that looked like a giant on the outskirts of town. With the noise he was making, I honestly didn't expect to see much of him there come the next morning.

"Tiring, we had some problems with the wyvern, but we decided to feed it, and keep it happy."

"Feed it?" Second Willis said looking at me confused.

"It was preying on the bandit camp, so they had the brilliant idea of putting up a female sacrifice every other night, for it to eat.

"So in all due fairness, we decided that perhaps the men from the camp should have a go," I growled.

Second Willis looked shocked for a moment. "Then that screaming I hear off in the distance?

"Is tonight's meal. But we got a good two dozen left, so it's all good," I sighed. "Look, it's not just that they are scum and deserve it, but if we don't keep feeding it, and draw it here, to where the trap is, it'll just go off and eat some innocent villagers."

Second Willis held his hands up, "You don't have to explain yourself to me, William. You're the champion, I'm just glad I didn't have to be the one to make that decision."

I nodded, "I'm going to bed. Please make sure the prisoners are well secured for the night and that the rescued females and their children are put someplace safe. You can show me your plans in the morning."

"Yes Sir, William."

I went into the church and crawled into bed with Laria, I hadn't told him that on that first night, I'd watched it come and eat the bandit we'd put out as bait. I'd done it because I wanted to see exactly what I was dealing with, and also so that it would leave the rest of us alone and follow us here.

It hadn't been pretty, and my dreams hadn't been very forgiving either since then.

§          §

"Hi, Fel," I said, nodding hello and sighing.

"Don't beat yourself up too much, William. They did it to all those women, after all."

"Yeah, I know. Still, it bothers me."

"Only because you enjoyed it," Fel said and put his hand on my head. It may have only been a dream, but it felt comforting and I welcomed it.

"If it's any consolation, I would have enjoyed it myself," Fel told me. "They would bet on how long the ones they put up there would last."

"Why am I not surprised? I just wonder what their plans were for when they ran out of women."

"I don't think they ever thought that far ahead, honestly."

"So, is it a wyvern?"

"Yup, same as the ones from your myths and legends back home."

"Well, thank you that it's not a dragon."

"This was why I didn't want you to open a gateway from here to there, because it would surely have brought one through."

"I'd be bothered by the fact that dragons are real and exist and could one day end up here, but it's been a long week. Is it the same one that attacked me when I went over there the last time?"

"Probably, just be grateful that a dragon couldn't fit through that cave, or we might have had one of them here instead."

"Oh I am, trust me, Fel, I am. I do think I'm going to see about having someone fill that tunnel in with rocks and dirt, or something, just to cut down the chance of anyone messing with the rocks blocking the gate."

"That would be safest," Fel agreed.

"Any advice on how to kill a wyvern?"

"Actually, yes, I do," Fel said and I sat up straight and looked at him, giving him my full and undivided attention.

"While you are strong enough to breech its hide with your swords, and if blessed they are sharp enough to do it, you ideally need the best and strongest blade you can find. Something that won't lose its edge easily, and will punch through the toughest skin."

"Where do I find it?" I asked.

"The two daggers you bought Laria on Earth. She still has them. They're high quality carbon steel. Fashion them into spears, and you will have a weapon that can kill it."

I blinked a couple of times confused. "But I thought I couldn't bring higher tech items from Earth into Saladin because I was your champion?"

"You can't," Fel agreed. "But you didn't bring those, Laria did."

I was still laughing when I fell back into a deeper asleep.

Fourteen

Hidden Vale

3 Months

I looked over the plans for the trap, the thing was huge! They had built it next to the village wall, because they needed the wall to hide the parts behind and to work as a fulcrum.

Simply put, the bait would be attached to a heavy pole set in the ground, they added a second one, as I suggested two 'offerings' would be better than one, more likely to draw in our hungry little friend. Piled up behind the wall was a large net, they had bought up all of the rope in town, and were still working on that part, it was going to be huge.

Then there were two large poles to either side of the net, which were counterweighted with lines attached to the ends. The lines on those would quickly flip them up, then they'd fall into holes dug at the base of the wall, this would fling the net up, and there were four guide lines attached to the four corners of the net, those would steer the net to fall on top of the area the bait was in.

As if that wasn't enough, they were fixing large metal hooks to the inside of the net, the thinking being that they would hook through the thinner skin of the wings, causing the net to tangle up the wyvern's wings, keeping it from being able to fly, which would give me time to kill it, or at least keep it on the ground so it could be tracked and killed when it found a place to hide from the sun. That is if the sun didn't get it first.

They also had plans for several people to stand on the wall and throw bladders full of holy water at it, to see if that would help to kill it as well. I didn't know how well that would do, but it couldn't hurt. It was too bad we couldn't set it on fire as well, but that would burn through the ropes and allow it to get away.

"Do you think it will work?" Laria asked me later, while we were eating lunch.

I shrugged, "As long as it keeps it there long enough for me to kill it, that's all that really matters."

"Are those knives really that good?" she motioned to the two Gerber knives that I had bought her back when we were in upstate New York. She'd liked them, and they were pretty high quality, so I'd got them for her. I hadn't even realized they'd come through with us.

"Compared to the average knife around here?" I nodded, "These are higher quality than anything anyone could make in Hiland, or any of the neighboring kingdoms. And they'd cost a fortune. After I get these set on shafts, and have them blessed, I think I should be able to drive one through it, far enough to kill it."

"Well, I'm glad I had them, then," she smiled. "And I expect to be rewarded, heavily!"

I laughed, "Sure, if I manage to kill it tomorrow, I'll reward you all you can stand."

She purred and leaned into me, "I like the sound of that."

"So, miss me while I was gone?"

She nodded, "Of course I did! I went and talked to the ones you rescued from the bandits this morning, while you were meeting with Willis and them about the trap."

"Oh? How are they doing?"

"A lot better. None of them wants to go back to their families, and when Gunis showed up to see if his daughters had survived, the soldiers had to hold them back. They wanted to kill him!"

I shook my head, "Why am I not surprised."

"Oh, it wasn't just for him giving them to the bandits; it was because their mother was one of the one's that got fed to the wyvern."

"And he sold her to the bandits," I shook my head. "Why was he even there? I thought he said he didn't want them back when we brought this up months ago?"

"Well apparently, one of the young men in town still has a thing for Chelis, one of the girls, and had asked for her hand in marriage as soon as he learned she was back."

"Really?" I said surprised.

"So her father wanted to make sure she was there, before he accepted a dowry for her."

"Wow, that's pretty cold."

Laria nodded, "I know."

"What do you say we go find this guy?"

"Why?"

I shrugged, "Curiosity. After what she's been through, most men wouldn't be interested anymore, especially when the women here outnumber the men."

"Sure, shouldn't be hard to find, if he's bartering for a bride-price, they're probably over at the meeting hall."

I gathered up the two knives and we headed over to the hall, sure enough, Gunis was there, and he was talking with a young man.

"What are you doing here?" Gunis asked, and the young man turned to look at me. I recognized him as the one who'd asked about rescuing the woman at the town meeting when I'd first got here.

"Oh, I'm just saving you from breaking the law, that's all Gunis," I smiled. "Again."

"What? What are you talking about?"

"Well, you see, as the leader of the females that were rescued, I'm the legal guardian now of all of them, not you. So any dowries, bride-prices, or anything else goes to me, or rather the crown." I smiled at him again, and purred.

"What! That's outrageous! I'm her father! She belongs to me!"

I shook my head, "No, what's outrageous is that after giving her away to bandits, you think you still have rights over her."

"Why, I! I'll--"

"You'll what?" I growled and put my nose to his. "I heard you say that you no longer wanted anything to do with either of your daughters, should they be saved. Well, I'm just honoring that statement."

His eyes got rather wide then, I was still growling and I was still holding two rather large knives in my right hand.

"I think you should leave," I growled louder, "Now!"

He left rather quickly, the scent of urine accompanying him as he left.

"That felt amazingly good," I said and smiled at Laria who laughed.

"Sir," the young man said looking up at me, "I would like to buy Chelis's hand in marriage, if I may?"

"Son," I said and smiled, I probably wasn't really that much older than him, "keep your money, if she wants to marry you, you have my blessings. After what she's been though, I think it would be better if you spent it all on her.

He nodded, "Thank you, Sir!" and took off like his tail was on fire.

"What do you think?" I asked Laria.

She shook her head, "I have no idea, she's been through a lot. But if she liked him before, she'll probably love him now!" she said with a grin.

I agreed.

"Well, let's go fine a couple of strong wooden shafts and get ready for tomorrow night.

"Oh, I know where to find a strong shaft," Laria teased.

I sighed and pinched her butt, causing her to giggle. "Work first, play later."

"Spoil sport."

It was late out, we'd tied the two former bandits to their individual poles, after gagging them of course, we were all pretty tired of their pleas at this point, and to be honest, they deserved it. We'd let the women vote on which two to put out there, which some people may have thought cruel, but what's sauce for the goose after all.

Everyone was hidden at this point; all of the ropes and lines had been carefully covered and hidden as well.

I was hiding in one of the houses closest to the point where we'd set this all up, at full speed, I could cover the distance in about ten seconds, but I had advantages that no Olympic sprinter had ever had.

It was close to midnight when it showed up, I could see it circling about, I don't know why it was unsure, perhaps because this was a new place for it, or perhaps because it was so close to the village.

I guess one of the prisoners had managed to get the gag out of his mouth, because I heard him start to yell and scream, and I could hear him struggling against the chains holding him in place.

The wyvern dove then and fell on him like a rock. I guess it couldn't resist the signs of a struggle, or maybe it hadn't been sure they were live offerings. I was out the door and running hard, I heard a loud scream that was cut off rather suddenly, and then someone triggered the trap, because ends of both of the poles flew up into the air, launching the net, the guidelines going taut and spreading it out and pulling it down rather quickly.

I vaulted the wall just in time to see the net come down on the wyvern, which was already swallowing half of the dead prisoner, the other half still being chained to the pole.

Its head came up then, and it bellowed as the net came down on its body, the head was not caught under the net however, and it tried to start moving forward, right towards me.

I threw the first spear at it, with all of my might, it moved at that moment and instead of hitting it square at the base of its neck, I got it in the wing joint. It tried to rear back while roaring rather loudly then, however the net kept it from doing so as I attacked with my second spear.

I ran in close and started to jab at its face, trying for an eye shot, but apparently it knew better than to let me do that, dodging its head side to side and trying to snap at my spear.

It struck at me, but I dodged easily, the net was still holding it down, and it appeared that the hooks were working, digging into the wings, which it was trying to flap, but it wasn't having any success in freeing itself.

I lunged in again, then had to dodge again, as it tried to bite me with its mouth, it had a head like a T-rex, and a mouth equally as big, the horns on its head were probably three feet long, and there was a ridge of something, bone or scales I wasn't sure, running down its neck and back, continuing on down to the end of its tail.

We continued to dance, it would snap at me, and I would lunge back in as it recovered and try to stab it in the neck or the body. I wasn't getting anywhere, but at least it wasn't either, and the spear I had already lodged in its side had opened up a wound that was bleeding rather well.

I heard some yells at that point, guess the others had finally caught up and joined the battle, and someone started to shoot arrows at it, most of which bounced off, but it distracted it long enough that I got in and stabbed it in the neck, and then got hit by its snout and thrown back a good thirty feet.

At least I didn't lose my grip on my spear.

Getting to my feet and running back in, I noticed that the ridge along the back was slowly starting to saw through the net, a couple of ropes it was woven out of parting as I watched.

Swearing loudly I got back in there quickly, getting ready to hurl myself at it, if I had to when someone lobbed one of the bladders of holy water at it, and it hit the same wing that I had stabbed the under.

The wyvern screamed in obvious agony as the bladder ruptured and water flowed all over the wing, and reared up with such strength that I heard the ropes that the net was woven out of parting like gunshots.

I knew it was now or never, so running under its now exposed chest I drove the spear up into its body, where I hoped the heart was, grounding the butt of the spear with my foot to keep it from moving as the wyvern started to come back down. It got about halfway back down, driving the end of my spear a good two feet into its body, gave another scream as it tried to rear back up again, only to suddenly stop as two more bladders of holy water hit it, shudder, and fall down driving the spear through its body.

And landing right on top of me.

"I'm dead, aren't I?" I sighed looking at Fel as he smiled at me.

"Yes, but you did kill it, and nobody else died."

I smiled, "Well, that's a relief at least." I thought of Laria then and frowned, "Is Laria?"

"She's upset, she's been crying for hours now, but Tisha and Donny have told her that you'll be back in Hiland probably before she is. Once she falls asleep I'll talk to her.

"Can't you talk to her now?" I asked curious. "She's in your church after all."

"It's hard to reason with anyone when they're hysterical, unless you want to do something to shock them out of it, and she's been through enough. So it would be better for her to just to let her wind down on her own first."

"Huh, I'd have thought otherwise, but I'm sure you know what's best."

"Well of course, William, I am a god after all!" Fel chuckled.

"So that's what it takes to understand women!" I said grinning.

"Don't let Rachel hear you say that, or she'll strangle you in your sleep," Fel teased. "At least you're in a good mood."

I shrugged, "When the net started to split my worst nightmare seemed about to come true, I didn't want to spend months trying to hunt that thing down in the mountains when I still have unfinished business back on Earth."

"There is that," Fel agreed.

I looked around; I could see Fordessa's stuff was still on the stage, I was a little surprised she wasn't here however.

"We don't want to divide our champion's loyalties," Fel said, reading my thoughts.

"Well, I would like to pay my respects sometime in the next few days before you reincarnate me," I smiled and stood. "But for now, I think I'll go outside and spend some time with the recently departed and see what I can learn."

Fifteen

Lankaran - Earth

2 Months

I was sitting back at a table at the Gafgaz Sahil Hotel in the city of Lankaran in Azerbaijan, eating lunch and smiling at Laria, who was rubbing her foot along my leg under the table. It had been a month since I'd died and I think she still hadn't come to terms with it.

After I'd been reincarnated, I'd had to first spend some time with Narasamman, who to be honest, deserved it because I hadn't spent any time with her in months. Then I'd had to deal with Laria who was still fairly upset over the whole affair, and of course I always owed Rachel as much of my time as I could spare.

That had taken up a bit more than two weeks.

Getting here to Lankaran, had proven to be a lot more difficult than I had expected as well. I'd had to use the 'Portal Travelers' establishment set up in New York City to get us better identities, traveling as an American in the former Russian republics wasn't always the best thing, and it was even worse in much of the Middle East, especially near Iran. So our passports now proclaimed us as 'Canadians', who as far as I'd seen, nobody had any problems with.

We'd then flown to Paris, then to Prague, then some place in the Ukraine that I couldn't pronounce, Georgia next, and then finally into Baku, where we hired a car and driver to take us to Lankaran. All of that had taken more than a week, with flight schedules, delays, weather, customs, and of course, bribes.

The hotel we were staying in was surprisingly nice, the people here were rather friendly, even if we didn't speak the language, and more than enough people understood enough English for us to get around. I'd managed to find a map that had street names on it, and was slowly working my way through it looking for the address that Fel had discovered when he had examined the documents I'd gotten from Garrison so many months ago.

I also suspected that he'd gotten quite a bit of information from the mind of the woman I'd sent through the gateway back in Boston, but I didn't ask and he didn't offer.

I was hoping this would be a quick in and out job, we still had to deal with the place in Afghanistan, and I really didn't have much of a plan for getting there yet, other than taking a boat across the Caspian Sea and walking there.

I could see why Cenewyg had a place here; from talking with people during our trip, as well as the locals, I'd learned that the borders were a joke and there were a dozen different ethnic and historical disputes in the region. So of course the illegal arms business was booming.

Especially since the fall of the USSR, with all of the breakaway republics, many of which had old scores they felt they needed to settle.

Many of the ones not involved in any of these disputes had thrown the doors open to the massive soviet armories that they felt they no longer needed and were making a lot money selling off everything inside.

"So, any plans for today?" Laria asked, smiling across the table at me, rubbing her foot along the inside of my leg.

I sighed, smiling. I'd actually been enjoying her rather amorous nature during our travels; it definitely made people believe that we really were newlyweds on an extended honeymoon. But the purpose of our being here was not to enjoy the sights, or each other.

"I think I've found the address we need to go to. I was planning on going to check it out after we'd finished eating."

She nodded and sighed, "I'd hoped to lure you back to the room for a while."

"You can lure me later, Hon, this needs to come first."

She pouted rather attractively, but her foot stopped its travels and I signaled for a waiter, and asked him to summon us a taxi.

Five minutes later and we were driving through town, heading towards the address I'd given the driver, who spoke just enough English to understand what I wanted.

"Why didn't you just hire a taxi in the first place?" Laria whispered in my ear.

"Because then I wouldn't know what the layout of the area was, incase we need to retreat," I whispered back.

"Oh!"

"This is it," the driver said as we pulled up in front of rather plain looking warehouse.

I gave him some money, and a tip, then we got out and looked around.

"What you want with this place?" The driver asked out of his window, looking at us.

"Supposedly my uncle has a business here," I said, sticking to the same lie that had worked so well for me already. "I thought I'd take a look at it. Doesn't look like much, does it?"

"Your uncle, here?" The driver asked.

"Maybe he lied," I said with a shrug, then taking Laria's hand I walked away, he was definitely asking more questions that I would have preferred.

"Looks closed," Laria said softly.

"Looks can be deceiving," I said and went up to the door that looked like an office door, which was about a dozen feet from the large warehouse doors, and knocked on it, turning to look at the taxi driver and scowl a bit. I guess he got the message; he drove off at that point.

I knocked a second time, and then tried the door, it was locked.

"Hmm, let's look around a little," I said, and we walked around towards the back.

It was a good sized building, probably about the size of a football field. When we got around to the back, there was another door, which was also locked. We were out of sight of the main street however, and there were quite a bit of shadows here, so I stripped down to just my pants, gave my clothing to Laria to hold, and shifted into my champion form.

"How did you do that?" Laria asked surprised. It hadn't occurred to me that I hadn't done this in front of her since we'd been coming to Earth.

"Shh," I warned her and I jumped up to the window up above the door, and digging my claws in, I looked through the window to make sure no one was inside. Once I was sure, I broke one of the panes, then stuck my hand in and unlocked it, then climbed in.

I was on a second floor, in a small back room that looked more like it was for cleaning supplies. I guess the warehouse had some kind of an attic up above it. I listened at the door, didn't hear anything, and stepping out I found I was in a short hallway, with a second door next to the one I'd just come through, another across the way, and a staircase at the far end, on my left.

I made my way to the stairs, and still not hearing anyone, I went down them, and into the warehouse proper.

The warehouse was just a large empty building; there were a few crates in it, but other than dust, nothing else at all. There was an enclosed office space built into the building at the other end, along with another stairway.

I hurried down, let Laria in, shifted back, and then put on my clothes.

"Let's check out the offices," I said and I led her across the empty floor, and in through an unlocked door.

Other than the furniture and a few empty filing cabinets, the offices were all empty. Cenewyg's symbol however, was painted on the walls in several places, with the words "Gatwick Shipping" under it.

"Huh, looks like they're out of business," I said looking around.

"What was upstairs?" Laria asked me.

"I don't know, let's go take a look," I said and we went up the front staircase, which led to a rather nice room, containing a table, some chairs, and had a few doors off of it. It looked like an ordinary conference room. The first two doors I tried were just closets, but the third let into a short hallway heading towards the back of the building, so I went down that, coming to another door, which was locked.

Three good kicks later and it yielded to my champion's strength and we stepped inside.

"Bingo," I said looking around. It was the local temple, and there at the far end of the room, was the altar.

"I wonder where everyone is?" Laria asked, "Look at all the dust."

I looked around and noticed it as well. No one had been in here in a long time, years at least.

"I guess this explains why nobody has heard from them," I said and walked down the center aisle to the altar. Unlike the other ones I'd seen, this one was made of wood and not stone. Either the floor wasn't strong enough, or no one wanted to haul stone up those stairs.

"Wait here," I said and I ran back downstairs to where the fire extinguisher was hanging on the wall, sure enough, there was a fire axe next to it, along with a rope and a few other things. I grabbed the axe and when back upstairs.

"Well, this shouldn't take long," I said and started in on chopping the altar in half.

"Now what?" Laria asked after I'd finished.

I shrugged, "Let's check out the rest of the place," I said and led her through the one door behind the altar. Unsurprisingly, it led out to the hallway I'd been in before, I could even see the footprints I'd left in the dust. As they weren't human footprints, I figured I should clean those up before I left.

I went over to the door I hadn't yet tried, and opened it. It was an office, apparently the local priest's office. There were a number of items, which I guess were religious laying around, but the most interesting one, was the letter lying on the desk next to a ring.

It was a resignation letter.

"What's that?" Laria asked as I picked it up and read it.

"Apparently, about the time the old Soviet Union collapsed, the local priest here had a crisis of conscious, and quit."

"Old Soviet Union?" she asked.

"The country that used to rule here," I said, "This is now an independent country, and from what I see in this letter, the local religious types were getting suspicious and they're a pretty militant group. I guess he was getting worried."

I scanned down a bit, "Oh, here it is, Listen to this," I read the letter out loud:

"... the reports are true, the mujahideen of Afghanistan have destroyed our temple in Kabul. They tortured and killed Harris, as well as all of the followers that they could find. More than half of our followers here have since left, on learning of their fate, and I cannot blame them. Our leader has not seen fit to show his face for many years, nor has he protected his followers. I have begun to doubt the many 'so-called' miracles he had shown us, as he is obviously dead somewhere and not coming back!"

"It goes on, and ends with him denying Sean, resigning his position."

"So does this mean we don't have to go to the other place?" Laria asked coming over and rubbing up against me in a display of one of those feline habits that the women of Saladin had, and which honestly, I quite enjoyed.

"Yes, we can head back home now, and I can make plans to deal with the last two places." I started to summon the gateway.

"You know, we have that nice hotel room, why don't we wait until morning?"

I looked at her, "Why?"

"I think I'm in heat," she said, "Or whatever it is, the people here call it."

I laughed; I hadn't thought about that at all, human women cycled a lot more often than the felinoid ones did. "Okay," I grinned, "we can go back to the hotel for tonight."

I was woken up by someone kicking the door in. It was late, the clock said three am, Laria was cuddled up behind me, and we were both naked, having spent quite a bit of time engaged in rather, reproductive activities.

The lights came on, and I noticed there were three of them, all of them were wearing police uniforms, and the ones on the right and the left were holding what looked like submachine guns, which were pointed at me. The one in the middle stated loudly, in English, "Do Not Move. You Are Under Arrest!" as the lights came up.

I put my hands over my head and sat up slowly, as Laria groaned and put her hands over her eyes.

"What's going on?" she asked.

"Put your hands over your head, slowly," I told her, "and don't resist, we're being arrested for some reason, and I don't want you getting hurt."

"What?" she said and sat up rather quickly, but she had her hands up at least.

I noticed the eyes of all three of them go rather wide, Laria was a rather lovely young woman, and her charms were now being clearly displayed.

The leader said something in a language I didn't know, and the two gunners spread out to the sides, then two more men entered the room, and we were ordered to roll over, face down on the bed, and put our hands behind our backs. We were then both handcuffed, and moved to our feet, as four more men entered the room, and started to search it.

"How about a blanket to cover my wife," I said politely.

"Quiet!" the one in charge said, and I got poked rather hard in the back with what felt like a baton.

I shrugged, the room had to stink of sex, we'd been having it for hours after all, and I'm sure we both stunk of sweat and other things as well. So it was probably having more of an effect on them, than on me, especially as even as mussed up as she was, Laria was still rather hot looking, standing there naked.

One of the searchers said something, and the leader went over to him, the searcher handed him our passports, wallets, and the Gatwick ring which I was still carrying around. He looked through our passports, then he looked at the ring, then looked at me. "You will both be coming with us!"

"Can we get dressed first?" I asked, and this time I got hit on the side with the baton, hard enough to make me grunt.

He said something to the others, and we were paraded out of there naked, down the stairs through the hotel and out onto the street. We were then put into separate cars, which drove off through the empty streets. About ten minutes later we pulled up in front of a rather severe looking building and we were both marched inside, past a number of police officers and other people, down several halls, past a couple of heavy gates made from bars like you typically find in a prison, and then into separate cells.

I saw them pushing Laria into the one next to mine, as I was similarly treated.

The room itself was rather bare, red brick walls, rough concrete floor, and what looked like a plaster ceiling. There was a small bright light in the center of the ceiling, and no windows. The door was a solid metal one with a wire reinforced window, about a foot square in size, and that was it.

"Will?" I heard Laria call out. The rooms at least weren't very well insulated.

"Don't worry, Hon. Everything will be fine," I told her.

"I want to go home, Will."

"We will, soon, I promise. I just want to find out what's going on here first."

I checked the door, in my champion form, I could probably break it down, then again, the brick walls probably wouldn't last too long either.

"Okay, Will." she replied.

I took a few minutes to look around my cell and pace it off. Except for the light, it was pretty featureless and barren. I was starting to think about just shifting and breaking through the wall and leaving, when I heard the locks on the door being worked.

I looked over and it was the man who had arrested us, he only had one guard with him, a rather strong looking man who was carrying a nightstick. I was a little surprised that he wasn't carrying a gun after the show of force with the machine guns at the hotel, maybe guns weren't allowed in the prison?

"Come," he said and motioned to me. I nodded and padded over to him.

"This way!" he said and the guard withdrew as I followed the man down the hallway, the guard coming up behind me and putting his nightstick under my arms and grabbing the center of it, while his other hand grabbed my shoulder and he steered me down the hallway, keeping me on my toes.

They led me into a room at the end of the hallway; this one had a table bolted to the floor, as well as several chairs around it.

"Sit!" the one in charge commanded as the guard released me, and pushed me towards the chair.

Doing my best not to stumble and fall, I managed to land in the chair, with my wrists still handcuffed behind me. The guard then stood next to the door, and the man in charge stood against the wall across from me.

"So, what's this all about then?" I asked as I sat up, still naked.

"Silence!" he warned and the guard took a step forward and gave me a whack on the top of the head with his nightstick. I yelped unexpectedly, it was a lot heavier than a piece of wood had any right to be.

A moment later another man entered the room, and sat down in the chair across the table from me. He was dressed in a suit and tie, but not an overly fancy one. He had short dark hair and a fairer complexion than my other captors, who looked more like locals.

"Mister Gatwick," He said looking at me.

I shook my head, "Nope, try again."

I got hit on the head again, and I swore, "Knock it off with the nightstick, I'm not a Gatwick," I growled.

That earned me another hit on the head. I burned a healing spell; I was starting to get dizzy.

"Oh please now, Mister Gatwick, we know who you are, we found this on you after all," he said and produced the Gatwick ring. "You were heard to claim that Sean Gatwick is your uncle."

I looked at him, then at the guard.

"You may answer now."

"I said that so the taxi driver would think we belonged there and wouldn't call the police on us."

"I find that hard to believe, in light of this," he said setting the ring down.

"What's this all about?" I asked him.

He nodded to the guard and I got hit on the head again.

"I'm the one asking the questions here, Mister Gatwick."

"Then maybe you should try asking the right ones!" I growled at him again.

This time when the guard moved to hit me on the head I leaned forward as I shifted into high gear and stood up.  His swing missed me, passing just behind my back and I side kicked him in the gut with enough force that he hit the wall behind him and fell to the floor gasping for air.

"I'm willing to cooperate," I said, sitting back down, "If you stop hitting me on the head."

The one leaning against the far wall took a step forward, but the guy sitting across from me raised a hand stopping him.

"We have your wife, Mister Gatwick; I would suggest you behave yourself."

"I'd be more than happy too, call me William, please. Now, what is it you want to know, and what is your interest in Gatwick?"

"Very well, I'll agree to your little game for the moment. We know that Sean Gatwick has been running illegal arms through our country for decades. Under the Soviets, he paid the proper bribes, and those in charge looked the other way. However those times are now over."

"So, do you represent the government, or the competition?" I asked.

"Really now, William, we represent the government."

I shrugged and leaned back in the chair, keeping an eye on the recovering guard as he slowly regained his feet.

"With all of the illegal stuff running through this area, I wasn't sure. But I'm not interesting in those activities; I'm here for very different reasons."

"And those would be?"

"You searched the warehouse after I left, didn't you?"

"Yes, we did."

"You saw what I did to the altar, and if you read that letter you probably have a pretty good idea what Gatwick was up to."

He smirked, "You expect me to believe, that you came all of this way, paid all those bribes, and got a fake passport, solely to destroy an altar?"

"Religion is a very serious thing to some folks; there are people who don't care for what Gatwick is trying to do, and who will go to rather extreme measures to stop him."

He laughed, "Oh please now, William! You hardly strike me as a fanatic!"

"What do you know about religion?" I asked and leaned forward looking at him.

"Platitudes and words to live by, rather poor words to live by too, if you ask me, that is all that it is. Now, enough of this, you will tell me the truth, Mister Gatwick, and I think I can guarantee that!" he said with a nasty smile.

"My name is William the God Slayer," I growled and shifted as the guard took a step towards me, already swinging the nightstick down towards my head. Quickly snapping my head back I caught the nightstick in my jaws as it came down and bit hard into it as I easily broke free of the handcuffs with the enhanced strength of my champion form. I could taste the lead core of the nightstick as I bit into it, another mystery solved.

Jumping up to my feet I grabbed the guard I threw him over the head of my interrogator into the man standing back against the wall, who was just now starting to move.

Spitting out the nightstick I growled and looked down at my rather shocked looking interrogator. "And you are about to have a very religious experience!"

Laria looked up and ran over to me as I opened the door and entered her cell.

"Let me get those off of you," I said and unlocked the handcuffs with one of the keys I'd taken off of the guards.

"You okay, Hon?" I asked her and gave her a hug.

She sniffed a little, "I'm cold and I want to go home."

I thought I heard someone yell something at the end of the hall, I guess my handiwork here had already been discovered.

"Yes, home," I smiled and opening a gateway, I picked her up and stepped through.

Sixteen

Washington, D.C. - Earth

1 Month

"Agent Addison," I said turning on the bedroom lights, "moving up in the world I see."

He groaned and sat up, "How the hell did you get in here? And it's Executive Assistant Director now."

"So, where are the wife and kids? I hope you didn't get divorced."

"Waiting for the house to sell before we move, I can't afford another one until we do. Now why the hell are you here?"

"Go shower and shave, I'll go make coffee," I said and walked out to the kitchen. It was a rather nice apartment, but it was still on the outskirts, outside of the D.C. city limits, where the rents weren't as high as in the city.

He walked in, ten minutes later, showered, shaved, and dressed in his suit. I handed him a cup of coffee, and took another sip of mine.

"So, what have you found?" I asked him.

"You really do have a hell of a lot of nerve, do you know that?"

I shrugged, "Comes with the job."

"And what job would that be?"

I smiled, "I think you'd sleep better not knowing, assuming you even believed me that is."

"After the last time I saw you, I've got a much more open mind. Did you kill my boss?"

I shook my head, "Heart attack. When I confronted him about what he was doing, it was too much of a shock for him."

"I find that hard to believe," Addison said.

I shrugged, "He knew what I was, and he was expecting the worst. His own fears are what killed him."

"So, what, are you an angel or something?"

"Or something, so, did you find anything? Or did I waste both of our times by getting you out of bed early."

Addison gave a little "harrumph" and sighed, "No, I found something. My boss had this little secret society thing going, and was trying to recruit agents and other D.C. area officials into it."

"Oh? Got a list?"

"Why? So you can go talk to the people on it? I'm not ignorant; you'll kill them, won't you?"

"What makes you say that?" I asked surprised.

"Well, because I've been talking to Interpol, and I've also been talking to the Brits over at MI5. Does the name 'Thomas' ring any bells?"

I laughed, "So he's with MI5? And here I thought he was just a regular police detective."

"He told me all about what went on at Garrison, and up in Boston. I've also heard about South Africa. You've been a busy man, Will."

I nodded, "Very. Almost done too, which is good because time is running short."

Addison sighed, "This whole thing has blown up into a rather large investigation, when I took it to my boss, he had a fit. There are people on the staff of the Whitehouse involved in this thing! We had to bring in the Treasury Department."

"What does the Treasury Department have to do with it?" I asked rather curious.

"The Secret Service is run by Treasury," he explained.

"Oh, didn't know that. Were any of the officers implicated?"

"No, thank god, that would have been a complete meltdown. We've been pulling agents files, authorizing wiretaps, the whole nine yards. It's been a complete headache, but so far we think we've identified them all."

"Just how many are there?"

"Thirty-six so far. Four are junior staffers over at the Whitehouse, they look to be recent recruits. Nobody with access to the president, thankfully. We have over a dozen at the Pentagon, three of which are active duty military, another four over at the DOJ, one of which is a senior attorney, five here in the FBI, two congressmen, a senator, and five more civilians, all of whom are lobbyists."

I nodded, "How many of them know it's a religion?"

"About half, most of them think it's just a secret society of rich powerful people. Even the ones that do I think are fairly cynical, after all, their 'savior' or 'god,' or whatever the hell Gatwick was calling himself, hasn't been around for a decade now."

"And once we get this all stamped out, he won't be around ever again," I said. "Have you seen anyone wearing one of these?" I asked and showed him the ring.

"No, what is it?" he said picking it up and looking at it.

"The leaders of the different groups wear one. You boss didn't have one, and I need to find the guy that does."

Addison gave a small laugh, "Kind of brings new meaning to the word 'ringleader' doesn't it?"

I groaned, "You didn't strike me as the sort for puns, Mister Executive Assistant Director."

Addison grinned, "Just the good ones. But whoever they are, they're not wearing this around when they're working."

"Well, give me your list of people, and I'll see what I can find out."

"You're not going to go on a killing spree, are you?" he asked looking at me.

"I don't really have the time, and if they're as cynical as you think, once I removed the ringleader, they'll all drift away from it on their own."

Addison walked over to his briefcase, opened it, and pulled out a manila folder and handed it to me.

"These are them," he said. "Do me a favor?"

"I'll try, what do you want?" I said sticking it inside my shirt.

"Make sure that you leave a lot of incriminating evidence around the body, when you kill them. Without proof of criminal activities or intent, I won't be able to stick those five agents in the pen where they belong."

"You'd put your own men in jail?" I asked surprised, "I thought the FBI took care of their own."

"Well, they're not working for the Agency anymore, no matter what they might think."

"What do you mean?" I asked him

"You don't have to say that you quit a job to quit it. Not showing up is the most common way, but if you stop doing the job you were hired for? And start working for someone else?" He looked at me, "Then you've quit, regardless of whether you gave notice or not. These agents don't work for us any more, they're just pretending to, and I'm going to hang their asses out to dry the first opportunity I get."

I nodded slowly, "Interesting way to look at it. Well, I need to get going," I said and headed for the door.

"It's not just interesting, it's also the law. So when will I hear from you next?"

"Hopefully, never." I said as I opened the door and left, closing it behind me.

"So which one do you think is the leader?" Laria asked me as I went over the files.

I shook my head, "No idea. This being the capitol, everyone is pretty paranoid about getting caught at something they shouldn't be, so they never referred to this guy by his real name, they just called him 'Alexander.'"

"'Alexander', I wonder why he picked a name like that?"

I shrugged, "Maybe he thought he was great."

Laria looked at me, "I don't get it."

I laughed, "Local history, a thousand years ago we had a very famous conqueror who was named 'Alexander the Great.'"

"Oh."

"Well, might as well start with the lobbyists," I said looking over their profiles. Each of them was worth a considerable amount of money; hopefully one of them would know something.

"Why start with them?" Laria asked looking over my shoulder at the pictures.

"Because they're influence peddlers."

"Hmm?" she asked looking confused.

"They influence the congressmen and senators to vote certain ways, by using their money."

"Okay, who tells them what to do?"

"Huh?" I asked looking up at her.

"My father was one of the village leaders, when people came with bribes to try and influence him, they were always asked to by the people who really wanted something done. They knew if they went to my father, he'd ignore them, so they would pay friends of his to talk to him, and offer him things."

"So you don't think the guys handing out the bribes are the ones to go after?"

"Of course not, they'll sell themselves to whoever has the money. You want the guy at the top."

"And that would be?"

"Who has the most powerful position there? When Gunis was in charge, he always knew who was really behind what was going on, whether it was a storeowner, or one of the other leaders. You don't stay on top long, otherwise."

I nodded, it kind of made sense to me. Politics was never my strong suit anyway.

I shuffle through the files and laid one out. "That would be this man."

"Oh? And who is he?" Laria said looking at his picture, "He looks kind of cute for an older man."

"That is Senator Doland," I said. "And he will not be an easy man to get to."

"Oh, I'm sure you can do it," Laria smiled and leaned into me, giving me a hug.

I shook my head smiling. "Well, tomorrow we can start figuring things out, for now, let's get some dinner and relax."

The plan turned out to be incredibly simple; I dressed Laria up in a Catholic High School outfit, gave her a tape recorder and a stolen press pass from the local Catholic High School, and sent her in with a list of questions to interview the Senator.

Laria was already a pretty attractive woman, and in that outfit, she was stopping traffic. Why so many guys are hung up on Catholic High School girls, I honestly don't know, but she did look pretty hot in it.

As soon as the Senator saw her, he was quick to give her an interview, and when Laria started to flirt with him, after asking him questions about what it was like to be such a strong and powerful man, he took the bait and started to flirt back.

Twenty minutes later, when she left the interview, she had his phone number, the address of a 'private' apartment of his on the west side, and an invitation for tonight at seven pm.

"Well, that was easy," she laughed when I picked her up out front.

"His file did mention that he has a weakness for young girls," I grinned at her.

"I'm not a girl, I'm a woman!" Laria protested.

"In that outfit, you look like a sixteen-year-old virgin," I laughed.

"Is that a good thing?"

"It's the kind of thing that gets him going. Come on, let's find this place, then I have to get ready for tonight."

"What about me?" she asked.

"Oh, I think you're already ready for tonight," I smirked.

When we got there I drove around the building twice, it was a pretty standard apartment block, with his little 'love nest' on the top floor. Security was pretty good, so I wouldn't just be able to walk in. But I was fairly certain I could climb to the top in my champion form, it was an older building with a brick facade and a lot of balconies for the apartments there.

We went back to our own hotel room to get ready, and I showed Laria that yes, I too could be motivated by her outfit, and impressively so! Then we got cleaned up, she put on something that was a little less outlandish, but still the kind of outfit we'd noticed the young women around here wearing and I dropped her off in front, then I parked in a parking structure we'd found earlier in the day.

It was dark enough that I was able to sneak over there rather quickly, and climbing up the building probably only took me fifteen minutes. Then it was a matter of going around balconies and peeking in until I found the right one.

Considering the number of older men with younger women, or even boys, that I was seeing, apparently there were a lot of congressmen and senators with apartments here.

When I finally found the right one, he had her down to her panties, and was seriously going to town.

That didn't sit very well with me, even if this had all been my idea. I walked into the room from the balcony without stopping to even open the glass door, the sound of the breaking glass caught his attention and he turned to look at me, rather shocked.

"Oh dear, I was afraid he'd be jealous," Laria said grinning at me. I got the distinct feeling that she was enjoying my possessiveness.

"What the hell is that?" the Senator gasped, as I was still in my champion form.

"My boyfriend," Laria said and threw her top over his head, blinding him.

Two steps later and I had him in my grasp, and I tossed him down on the bed, "Get me something to tie him up with," I told her.

She nodded and went to look in the closet, coming back with a bunch of short ropes all cut to the same length, and a black hood with a gag, and several pairs of handcuffs.

"Looks like the senator is a pretty kinky one," I sighed, and using the ropes I bound him up fairly quickly, then gave Laria her top back and prepared to slip the hood over his head.

"I'm a US senator!" He said, "Let me go, or you'll be spending your life in prison!"

I stopped took out the ring and dropped it on the bed, in front of his face.

"Where did you get that?" he demanded.

"Off of one of your priests, after I killed him. And you're going to tell me where the one is you report to around here, so I can kill him too!" I growled.

"Never! I'll have your ass! Gatwick will save me."

"Don't you count on it," I laughed, and pulled the hood down and stuck the gag in his mouth.

"Now what?" Laria asked me,

"I'll climb down with him on the outside; you can just go out the way you came in."

"I had to sign in when I came here, they'll know I was the last one with him," she pointed out.

I shrugged, "Can't be helped. But no one knows who you are, so I don't think it will matter."

"I have a better idea," she grinned.

"I'm all ears," I said.

"Give him to Feliogustus. Let him question him. You can carry me down, and no one will know what happened to either one of us."

I looked at her, and then I looked at him. Then I opened a gateway and tossed him through.

"I didn't want to interrogate him anyway," I sighed, "he probably would have bled all over me."

We searched the place then, just in case he had any kind of evidence there about who 'Alexander' was, and then took the time to clean things up and make sure there were no traces of either one of us having been there. The only thing of interest we came across was quite a bit of cocaine; apparently the good senator was also a bit of a cokehead.

Then we left.

§          §

"I told you I liked her," Fel grinned at me, "she's smart."

I nodded, "Yeah, I wouldn't have thought of doing that on my own."

"So, who is the local priest? Who is this Alexander?"

"Will, I have some good news, and I have some not so good news," Fel told me.

"And that is?"

"His name is James Oakenbeck, I can give you his address, where he works, and where they meet, and a much longer list of members."

I nodded, "What's the bad news?"

"He goes by Alexander, because that's the man who founded the Treasury Department, of which he is now the head."

"Damn," I swore, "so he knows everything that Addison knows."

Fel nodded, "And they also know about you."

"Well, considering that the former assistant director fingered me, we already suspected that much."

"But now they know you're in town, and looking for them. Everyone is going to have a photo of you, and they're going to be watching."

I nodded, "That is going to complicate things. So, was the senator really a true believer?"

"He was." Fel laughed, "He's since learned the error of his ways."

"Couldn't happen to a better man, I'm sure. I can just imagine the furor when people realize he's missing."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that much," Fel said.

I looked at him, "What does that mean?"

"William, a U.S. senator is not something you just throw away!" Fel said grinning, "Doland is going to be very useful to me, plus once you've dealt with Oakenbeck, he will be there to very publicly and loudly throw Oakenbeck under the bus, which will help Addison when he moves to clean up the mess."

I shrugged, "If you say so, that's fine with me. I did promise Addison to try and keep the body count low."

Fel gave me the information I needed then, and there was quite a lot of it. Oakenbeck was going to be a tough one to crack, but I had a few advantages that they didn't know about. After all, they still thought I was human working by myself.

§          §

Now that I knew they were actively watching for me, I restricted all of my activities until after sundown, which this being November, wasn't that big of a deal. I bought a couple of sweatshirts with hoods, and made sure I wore hats a lot, and added a pair of fake glasses sometimes.

It may sound simple, but anything that made it harder for people to get a look at your face, helped. They weren't putting my picture up on the news of course, or spreading it around with the police, because that would get back to Addison, who'd then know he'd been comprised.

But I was sure the Secret Service and other Treasury agents had it, so I did my best to be careful.

Oakenbeck had a nice estate outside of D.C. in the nicer part of town, one of the more expensive suburban areas, it had pretty extensive security as well. But I also knew that he didn't do his dirty business there, or keep any traces at his house. That would be the first place people would go search, if he ever came under suspicion, after all.

Their secret meeting place was actually in one of the older basement storerooms of one of the Smithsonian Institution Buildings, the one known as 'The Castle'. This had several benefits, the first was that if anyone accidentally came upon the storeroom, when there wasn't a meeting going on, they'd just assume the items there were of some historical merit and being stored for future exhibition.

The second was being on the Capitol Mall made it close by to all of the major government buildings, no one would have to travel any distance, which might draw suspicion, and they could easily walk there, and get lost in the general press of people while doing so.

Third, being over a hundred years old meant that it was well connected to the underground rabbit warren of steam tunnels and other utility access ways that also existed under Washington. This latter point made it easy for everyone to show up unnoticed when necessary.

I had to admit, that I was impressed. I was a bit surprised at first that there was little security, you'd think they'd have a few cameras set up to watch the approaches, and maybe even some hidden access ways, but apparently the best way to draw attention to something was to try and hide it. Also, when it came to cameras, the last thing any of these people wanted was a record of what they were doing, because those could easily fall into the wrong hands.

So now I knew who they were, and I knew where they were. I even knew when the next meeting was going to take place; I just didn't have an idea of how to best solve this problem. Oh I could kill Oakenbeck, and if there was in fact an altar down there, I could destroy that too.

But the issue, the real issue, was how to ruin all these people? And how to ruin them all at once? How do you get them in trouble? Put them in jail? What kind of scandal can you expose a politician and all the rest of these government workers to, that will actually ruin them?

It took me a while to come up with a solution to that one: Prostitutes. And not just female ones, but male ones as well, all preferably underage ones to boot.

I had thought about that for a while, if Addison and the FBI were to suddenly bust in, while a party full of underage boys and girls, all nude, with the men there also in various states of undress, well that would ruin all of them. Assuming that the press got pictures.

So I just had to arrange for about thirty underage prostitutes, or at least kids wild enough to pretend that they were, the FBI, and the press, to all show up at about the same time. Nobody would actually have to be having sex; just appearances alone would do the damage.

I'd also have to get the attendees to get into the swing of things as well, but considering the morals of most of the denizens of D.C. these days, I suspected it wouldn't be all that hard. Still, I'd need to find a little something to help with the mood.

I sent Laria off to find my group of morally lacking youths, ones who'd be willing to do this kind of thing for money, and willing to lie that they were having sex with the men there.

Addison, I figured I could prep with a visit, and then give him the location when things got rolling. As for the press, with the way things worked in this town, I suspected they could be on the scene ten minutes after they got the phone call. Especially if it was a juicy scandal.

So that just left me with how to set the mood.

I knew from the coke I'd found in Doland's apartment, and from what Fel had told me he'd learned from him, that these guys were already heavy drinkers and drug users and were always just looking for an excuse to party, so I just had to give them one.

I had one too; I had a really good one: Me. They knew about me, they knew I was after them, and they knew I had messed up at least two of their churches so far, Addison had unwittingly told them so after all.

They just didn't know what I was, so getting their hands on me would give them all a cause to celebrate.

#                    #                    #

Two nights before the upcoming meeting, I broke into the basement of the Castle to check out their meeting room. It was an eclectic arrangement of furniture and decorations, but the Gatwick symbol was hanging on the wall, and there was a small altar there as well. I'd have to destroy that, and that was when I got my idea of how I was going to get caught.

The next night I made another appearance at Addison's apartment.

"I thought you weren't coming back," Addison said sitting up in bed.

"I need you to put together a raid for tonight, after work." I told him, "At least forty agents, there's going to be a lot of people there."

"That's a lot of agents, William!"

"Yeah well, it'll pay off. And keep it in house, you know who your problem boys are, make sure they don't know about it."

He nodded, "That's easy enough to do, but I may have to call in other agencies to help."

"The D.C. police should be fine, but don't call them until the last minute, we don't want word of this spreading," I told him.

"That goes without saying," Addison agreed.

"One last thing, don't tell anyone over at Treasury."

Addison frowned, looking concerned, "Someone over there is dirty, aren't they?"

I nodded, "Yes, and I can't tell you who, yet. Just be ready to roll on a moment's notice."

Addison grabbed his wallet off of the night table and opened it, taking out his card. "Call this number, and tell us where you want us, and we can be there in ten minutes or less, anywhere in the capitol."

I nodded, "Thanks, don't be late."

I looked around the room, I'd paid a massive bribe to one of the staffer's at the Castle to use one of their backrooms, this was supposed to be an 'underground rave' for the kids of the senators and congressmen here in town. At least that was what I led the staffer to believe. It was surprising what you could get people to agree to around here for a wad of cash and a promise of an increased budget in the next round of appropriations.

I looked around the room, Laria had found quite the crowd of lookers alright, half these kids were already high on something, and they all looked ready for a wild night.

"Okay," I told them, "The job is simple, two hundred bucks now, and five hundred more after it's done. Remember, get naked, and get them naked. When the cops show, tell them about all the sex you've had with these guys, lie, and lie a lot!"

"How do we know you'll pay?" one of the girls asked.

"Will you keep lying if we don't pay?" I asked her with a smile.

"Hell no!"

"That's how you know," I told her. "We've even got lawyers lined up for you, but you're all too young to go to jail, so don't worry much."

I turned to Laria, "Keep an ear on the radio, when the time is right, send 'em on in, and call Addison, then start calling the press."

She nodded, "Are you sure this thing will work?" she asked motioning to the new wireless phone I'd bought today.

"I hope so, if not, use the one on the table over there," I nodded to the landline.

"Good luck, Hon," she said and gave me a kiss.

"You too," I said and left the room.

I quickly made my way down to the meeting room, and after setting up a small radio transmitter for Laria to listen in on, I took the small sledge hammer I'd left there earlier, and started in on smashing the altar. I didn't know when Oakenbeck was going to show, I just knew he was usually here first. But from what they knew about me, this would be something they'd expect.

I'd been at it for about fifteen minutes when the lights came up, and I heard someone yell "Freeze!"

I dropped the hammer and stood up. The altar was already destroyed; it had been ten minutes ago, I'd just kept at it to make it look good for when they got here and 'caught' me.

"Turn around," they said.

I did and sure enough it was Oakenbeck. He had one person with him, and both of them were armed.

"Well, well, what have we here? Will Taylor, I believe?"

"You're too late, I got your altar, 'Alexander,'" I told him.

"Maybe, but now, I have you." He looked at the man next to him, "Cuff him, I want the others to see him when they get here."

"Others?" I said looking around, surprised.

"Don't worry, you'll find out soon enough!" he laughed.

The other man came near, I tried to make a break for it, and when he grabbed me, we fought for a moment. It was hard not using my abilities or training, but I wanted it to look good, so I let him beat me, then he cuffed me, and kicked me a few times afterwards.

"Al here is an expert wrestler, William, you never had a chance." Oakenbeck laughed, coming over to help Al put me in a chair, and then tie me to it.

As one of the kicks had been to my head, I just acted like I was stunned and let my head loll.

"Must have kicked him harder than I thought," Al joked.

"Don't worry about it, he's going to be dead soon anyway. Too bad he ruined the altar, would have been nice to christen it with his blood."

"We could save him until a new one is ready, James."

Oakenbeck shook his head, "No, too risky."

Over the next fifteen minutes people started to show up, and Al told the first few who I was, and how he and Oakenbeck had captured me. At that point, a couple of flasks came out, and they all toasted Al and Oakenbeck's success in catching me.

As more people showed up, the word spread, and the celebration increased. Apparently these people all knew about me, and they all had been rather afraid. I heard the word 'Boston' tossed around more than once, even Garrison, and Nicaragua.

"Attention everyone! Attention," Oakenbeck suddenly stood up and raised his arms.

I was surprised at how quickly they quieted down and were seated. From some of the sounds I was hearing, there were obviously more than a few cocaine users in the audience as well.

"I want to thank you all for coming tonight. I was going to lead us in a discussion as to how we were going to deal with our latest problem," he said and nodded to me, there was some nervous laughter from the audience. "But apparently we're going to be doing a little celebrating instead!"

That got a bunch of cheers from everyone in the room.

"Pay the bastard back for Boston!" someone in the crowd yelled.

"Oh, trust me, we're going to pay him back for Boston, and then we're going to ask him all about what happened at Garrison," somebody cheered, "South Africa," he continued and more people cheered, "we'll even find out what exactly happened in Nicaragua!" he said and everyone cheered again.

"But for now, let us enjoy the good fortune that our leader, our god, Sean Gatwick has brought our way once more!"

That got a lot more cheers.

"As always, he has delivered unto us, our enemies during our time of need, and he has made us more powerful, and invincible!"

I heard more cheering then, and then I heard someone yell, "Hookers!" and there was even more cheering.

"Wait, what?" Oakenbeck said, looking confused.

Looking up, I could see the teenagers were all shredding their clothes and helping the others out of theirs rather quickly. Oakenbeck called for attention again, but they were all way too focused on the lithe naked bodies among them.

I looked up at Oakenbeck, "You freaking pervert," I slurred at him, getting his attention. "Those are freaking kids, not adults."

He looked confused a moment, then looked back at the scene before him. I could see it wasn't adding up for him and just then the FBI came charging in.

"FREEZE! FBI! THIS IS A RAID!" someone yelled over a bullhorn, and things got even more confusing.

"Kill him!" Oakenbeck yelled at Al, and then turned and bolted from the room, heading for one of the exits behind me.

"Stop!" I heard several of the agents yell.

I watched as Al fumbled a moment, and then pulled out his gun, I guess he'd been partying quite a bit since he got here, probably celebrating beating me up.

"Freeze! Drop it!" I heard, but he raised the pistol and pointed it right at me.

I tipped the chair over, and tried to roll away as he took his first shot and missed, then he corrected to follow me and suddenly his head exploded as someone shot him from behind.

It was about then that the press showed up and started taking pictures. I found it interesting that the FBI agents didn't try to stop the photographers at all, and would even hold up the heads of those that they were arresting, so the press could get a nice view of who it was, though they did cover the heads of the naked 'prostitutes' telling the photographers that they were all minors.

That led to another round of photographs being taken.

Fortunately, Addison himself quickly came over and released my handcuffs, and threw his jacket over my head before anyone thought to come over and take my picture.

"This man is working undercover for the FBI, he told the reporters when they asked, "No pictures please," and he led me out the back of the building away from all the press.

"Thanks, Will," he said taking the jacket off my head once we were outside.

"Did you get Oakenbeck?" I asked him.

He looked at me shocked, "Oakenbeck was there?"

"Oakenbeck was the one in charge, he was their priest."

Addison swore, "No, we didn't get him, we were too busy shooting that congressman before he killed you." He thought about it a few minutes, "I'll see if we can't get some of the others to give him up, in exchange for a plea deal."

"Well, don't cut them too big a deal," I grumbled, "these guys are all pretty slimy."

Addison laughed, "After the newspapers are done with them, they're all going to be finished around here. Hell, I expect some of them will commit suicide eventually."

That stopped me; an idea was forming in my head.

"Really?" I asked, "You think so?"

He nodded, "Yeah, you just took away all their power and made them national disgraces, for some men, they can't live with everyone knowing just what kind of a man they really were."

I nodded, "Well, thanks for coming, and getting here so quickly."

Addison stuck out his hand, "Thank you, it's always nice to catch the bastards in the act."

I smiled and shook hands with him, then went to find Laria and head back to our hotel. I felt some celebrating was definitely in order.

#                    #                    #

It was three days later, and I was sitting on the roof of Oakenbeck's estate. It was early evening, and as I watched, his wife came out of the house with their children, got into a waiting limousine and drove off.

The media attention had been huge, everyday more and more pictures were being printed, more and more things were being discovered about the "satanic sex society" that had "taken over in the halls of power in Washington." Several people had apparently fingered the head of the department of the Treasury, one James Oakenbeck, as being the ringleader; however he'd been maintaining his innocence and been claiming he was not involved.

With an election having just taken place, and a new administration coming into power, the writing was on the wall for his career, but at least it was looking like he would escape the scandal.

Until a press conference that took place in New York City two hours ago, where Senator Daryl Doland told about the investigation he and his staff had been conducting about misbehavior over in the Treasury Department, and he personally fingered one James Oakenbeck.

He even had pictures.

I smiled and slipped down to one of the windows, and carefully let myself in. Security on the grounds was still present, however with all the yelling and screaming that had been going on, the house staff had fled over an hour ago.

Shifting back to my human form, I walked into the room where Oakenbeck was standing, watching his wife drive away.

"After everything I've done for you, you ungrateful bitch," I heard him swear under his breath.

"Gotcha," I laughed, and he turned around, looking at me in shock.

"Why you--" was as far as he got, as I grabbed him by the neck. He tried to fight me off as I dragged him along, but I was too strong for him, with the hand on his throat, it wasn't easy going for him, as I wasn't letting him breath.

I came to the balcony that looked out over the entranceway to the house. I grabbed the railing that ran along the edge of it with a hand and gave it a good shake checking it, it was rather solid. I pushed him down onto the floor and put a knee on his back to hold him there, then shucked the backpack I was wearing, and pulled out the rope I had in there. I tossed the end with the noose over the side, pulled it up until the height was right, and tied it off.

Oakenbeck started to struggle harder, he could see the rope, he knew what was coming.

"Stop it! Let me go!" he groaned as I pushed down with my knee, driving his breath out and making it hard for him to talk.

I put the noose over his head, and snugged it down, then yanked the Gatwick necklace from around his neck.

"They'll see the bruises, they'll never believe it!" he yelled as I picked him up.

"Oh, thanks for letting me know," I said, and then healing all the damage I'd just done, I dropped him on the other side of the rail.

He screamed briefly, but it was cut off rather abruptly when he hit the end of his rope and his neck snapped.

Grabbing my bag I quickly moved away from the balcony, and then back to his office, as I heard the front door open.

"Someone, call an ambulance! He's hung himself!" I heard a yell.

I took the newspaper that was in the backpack out, folded it so the story was face up, circled the detail about rumors of his involvement, and then set the Gatwick necklace on top of it.

It wasn't much of a suicide note, but at this point, I don't think anyone was going to care all that much.

That done, I shifted and slipped out of the window and left, going back to where I'd left Laria waiting.

Seventeen

Texas - Earth

1 week

The drive to Texas took two days, I wanted to get there fairly quickly, so we drove for fourteen hours a day, ate drive-thru food in the car, and only stopped for gas and to use the toilet.

I knew exactly where we were going, I had all the details fairly well in my head, I also had a pretty simple plan for what I wanted to do when we got there. All I needed now was a gun shop.

We found a room in a motel about a half-hour's drive from our destination, and got a good night's sleep. The next morning I went out and bought a nice Remington model 700, in seven millimeter, and the most powerful scope on the market. And a lot of ammunition.

Then I went back to the hotel, got Laria, and spent the next three days teaching her how to be a sniper.

And damned if she wasn't good at it.

I got a large plastic soda bottle and some duct tape and fashioned a very crude silencer for the rifle as well. It didn't really have to work all that great for this job, primarily I just wanted something to cut down on muzzle flash. She'd be far enough away that they wouldn't be able to figure out where she was anyway.

Next I hit up a radio shop for a nice set of two-way radios, so we could talk to each other, then an Army-Navy store where I got a bunch of desert camouflage. They had flak jackets there as well, surprisingly, so I got a few of those too.

Then we went and crashed for a while, with the alarm set for three am.

"Okay," I told her as we drove up into the hills, "We're going to set you up on the east end of the compound. When the sun comes up, it will be to your back. I'm going to come in from the west. Take out any men that you see once they know I'm there."

Laria nodded, "How much time do you have left?"

I shook my head, "I don't know, could be a day, could be a few days. I just know that it's close. If I get killed, take the car and drive back to the motel. I'll try to send somebody for you as soon as possible."

"Yes, Will." She leaned over and hugged me then. "Be careful!"

"You too," I said and parked the car off the road, out of sight. We then got out, and moved down the trail a ways and I helped her get set up. Once that was done, I gave her a kiss, shifted, and started to jog down into the valley. If things went well, I'd be driving back, if they didn't go well, I'd either be on foot, or I wouldn't care at all.

It took me over an hour to get down and around to the far side of the compound.

I started in about an hour before sunrise; there were three large outbuildings, in which I found cows, goats, and horses. I had to shift back to human form as I checked them out, just to be on the safe side. I was afraid my champion form might stir up a ruckus, and I didn't need that right now.

I didn't come across my first guard until I came to the split rail fence that surrounded the house. He was sitting in a little hut, listening to the radio, and looking outside every once in a while. I guess he figured he'd see anyone coming from a long way off.

He never even saw me coming.

I was surprised that he was unarmed. But he had a two-way radio, so I took that with me, in case anybody started talking on it.

When I got closer to the house, I saw that there were four more guards standing around outside, each of them was carrying a rifle, and each of them was wearing a headset with a radio. What was interesting was that they weren't walking back and forth, each one had a position and they stayed in it. I don't know if it was laziness or just the way they did it here, but in the dark it made my job a lot easier.

I killed the first one with a knife to the back of the neck, the second one I just broke his neck, then I dragged the bodies into the bushes and took one of the rifles, they looked like mini fourteens, and I also took the bandoleer full of magazines off of one of them, then made for the back door.

I keyed my microphone, the one on the radio I had for Laria. "If the two guards on your side of the house leave their posts, kill them,"

"Yes, Will."

I made my way inside then. It was a big house, three floors, and a lot of rooms. But I knew the layout, and I knew where I wanted to go.

Moving to the back staircase, I went up to the second floor, and down the hallway, then turned right. At the end was the master bedroom and I moved up to it quickly, carefully opening the door just enough, and slipped inside.

"Cathy, is that you?" I heard a man mumble from the bed.

I carefully circled around and got a good look at him, just as he opened his eyes and saw me.

He blinked and rubbed his eyes, his body frozen in place. I guess he was finding it hard to believe what he was seeing, a large catlike face just a couple of feet away. He started to inhale while reaching for something, but I struck first, and ripped out his throat with my claws. This was Cenewyg's high priest, and the last of his priests alive.

Oh, there might be a few neophytes or such in one of the rooms down the hallways, and there was still the temple in the grand ballroom beneath this room on the ground floor, but this was the big one.

He pulled the trigger on the gun he was trying to grab under the pillow as he flailed, and it went off with a muffled report, and then he passed out and died.

I looked around the room, there was nothing important that I could see, so I took out my lighter, and set the drapes, and then the bed on fire.

Then I left the room, closing the door behind me, and went into the first door on the left. There was a woman sleeping in it, so I left it and went across the hall. Another woman. Third and forth were also women, apparently the high priest liked to keep them close.

About that time a man stepped out of a bedroom, so I shot him, and that woke everyone up.

I ran to the main staircase, and laid down on it, with just my head and the rifle peaking up over the top step, and each time a man stepped out, I shot him. When a woman came out I told her to run the other way, most of the others did. Two ran by me however, as by then smoke was starting to fill the hall, I guess the fire was growing.

When shots started coming from the third floor above, I decided it was time to retreat down to the ground floor. As I reached the ground floor I came across five armed men and women and a brief, but vicious gunfight quickly ensued.

I got them all, but I got shot six times and used up most of my healing then and there.

I got out my lighter again and set a few more drapes on fire, then I dove out through a window as I heard footsteps behind me. I moved back to the west side of the house, taking up a position by where I had stashed the two bodies and started to shoot everything that came out of the house on this side, except for any women who weren't carry a weapon.

"I've got ten," Laria called on the radio. "With all of the noise you're making, they don't even seem to know I'm here."

"Good. How well is the house burning on your side?"

"Pretty well, there's a lot of smoke coming up from it too, people are going to see it."

I nodded, it was starting to burn pretty well on this side as well, and I noticed everyone was running away as fast as they could, and they weren't stopping. I had stopped shooting all of the people running when they dropped their weapons, and I don't think Laria was taking them out anymore either.

I was wondering what the rush was, and I started to hear popcorn.

"Oh shit!" I swore and got up and started running as well. I circled the house and started to run as hard and as fast as I could, back towards Laria, dropping the rifle, the ammo, and just pouring on the speed.

"What's wrong, Will?" Laria asked.

"I forgot that he had an armory under the house," I panted back as I was running.

"What's an armory?" Laria asked, and just then, it blew up!

I was picked up and slammed into the ground by the shockwave, which popped my eardrums and made my whole body go numb. I cast the rest of my healing spells on me, as I slid to a stop, and then gasping I got up and started to stumble forward towards the hill.

If Laria said anything more to me, I couldn't hear it. It took me an hour to get back to where she was, I was sore all over and exhausted. When I got up to where she was at, I had her pick everything up and move it back to the car.

"You drive," I gasped.

"Where to?"

I pointed down the road, "Just go, that way." Then I shifted back and fell asleep. I was far too tired to form a gate now, I needed rest.

It was dark out when I woke up; we were parked in a parking lot, with a lot of trucks and stuff around us.

"Where are we?" I asked.

Laria shrugged, "I don't know. I just thought this would be a good place to hide with all of the other vehicles here."

I nodded and yawned, I started to stretch, but too many things complained. I opened a portal up in front of us.

"Start the car and drive forward slowly."

Laria nodded, "Sure," and drove us through the gateway.

I healed myself as soon as we were in the temple.

"Well, that's the last of them," I sighed and stretched out on the floor, still tired, but too content to move. "Take that Cenewyg, you bastard!"

"Aryanna just contacted me," Fel said in the room and I groaned.

"What?"

"Stephanie says that Cenewyg reincarnated two days ago. You missed him by about twenty-four hours."

"Son-of-a-bitch!" I swore loudly, then sighed, "Sorry Fel, didn't mean to swear in your temple."

"You're forgiven, after all of the rushing around you've been doing the last month, I can't say I really blame you."

I nodded and sighed. "Well, guess I'll go back to the castle and give Rachel some quality time, then off and visit Darlene for a few months, I'm sure she's upset, it's been almost a year now.

"Then off to that wasteland Stephanie calls home and hunt the bastard down. Again."

"Who's Darlene? And don't I get any quality time?" Laria asked.

"You get nothing but quality time, Hon," I said and smiled at her. "Darlene is my other wife."

"You really do have two?" She said looking at me surprised.

"What, you think I'd lie to you?" I said and shaking my head I rolled over to my knees and got up slowly. "Come on, let's go let Rachel know we're home," I said helping Laria up.

"Sleep well, William," Fel said as we left.

"I'll try."

Eighteen

Riverhead - Hillshire

"Will!" Darlene said and, as usual, flung herself into my arms. Not that I was complaining mind you! It had been almost a year since I'd seen her last, and I hadn't been able to spend much time with her then.

Yes, Cenewyg was out there, and yes I was going to kill his ass once and for all, but his death could wait a while, I'd spent the last month with my wife Rachel, and Laria, who was pregnant and finally starting to show. Right now, I was going to spend the next three months with Darlene, and make sure I gave her the attention she deserved.

Come April I'd go after Cenewyg. But not right now, I had more important things in my life to take care of, and I was holding her.

"I missed ye, Love," she said when she finished kissing me and came up for air.

"I missed you too, Hon."

I looked around the bar, and was surprised to see Chaucer of all people behind it.

"Looks like he ended up here, after all," I said to Darlene, a bit surprised.

She nodded and smiled, "He retired a few months ago. Sarah's pregnant again, and he said he might as well stay home and raise his family." She laughed then, "Besides, all of the guard hang out here now, anyway, so it's not like he be missing his friends."

"They do now, huh?" I said surprised.

"Well, the free drinks for a month got them all coming, and seeing as Chaucer is family, we started giving the guard a discount, and well," she smiled, "they're here a lot!"

I laughed and hugged her. We had so much gold in the bank here now that we were actually rather rich. We didn't need for the inn to make much of a profit really, and after what happened I was sure that having a lot of soldiers hanging out here all the time probably made her feel a lot safer.

I know I sure appreciated it! Everyone in the guard knew I was well acquainted with Duke Lias of Riverhead, close friends with Captain Bersheres their boss, and that my sister Nikki was now Aryanna's champion. They'd protect this place like it was their home, because they knew they'd be rewarded for it.

And then there was all the free ale and wine they'd get afterwards.

Yeah, having them here would be nice, and as Chaucer was the former first sergeant for the guard, they'd also be minding their manners as well while they were.

I picked Darlene up and nodded to Chaucer as I walked by the bar, he smiled and waved.

"What, not going to help me out during the busiest part o' the day?" He said as we went by.

"If you're lucky, maybe we'll come out tomorrow and give you a hand," I said with a smirk as I carried Darlene back to our room.

"Will?"

I yawned and buried my nose in Darlene's hair taking a deep sniff as I put an arm around her and pulled her closer as she spooned back against me.

"Hmm?" I mumbled half asleep. It was late and we'd just finished making love, again. I wasn't sure who had missed who more; Darlene definitely answered some needs in me that the others didn't, and well, she was the first woman I'd ever made a real commitment to.

"I wanted to thank ye," she said putting her hand over mine, the one I had wrapped around her.

"For what?" I whispered.

"For showing me that ye really do love me," she whispered happily and then wiggled back against me making a rather contented sound.

"Hmm?" I responded a little surprised, "I'd have thought that the bar, the children, and the money would have made that clear."

"Those just showed that ye care, but when ye came to the temple, and I got to see what ye really look like, ye told me the reason ye kept coming back, was because ye love me."

I pulled her a little closer in a hug and kissed the back of her head, "But I always tell you that I love you, Hon."

"Yes, but you were angry, and upset, and dealing with an emergency, yet ye just tossed it off and said it with notta' moment's hesitation. You didn't stop and take the time to think of a lie, ye just said the first thing in yer mind, told the truth." She rolled over and looked up at me then, "I've always known ye cared, but there are times I've had my doubts about if ye loved me or not."

"I've always loved you, Darlene," I whispered and kissed her.

She nodded, "And now I know for sure. You're a champion, like your sister, you have a job, you have duties, ye even have another wife. Ye're a famous and powerful man, and yet ye continually leave that behind to come here, and spend time with me, a woman who used to sell her favors ta men."

I wrapped my arms around her and smiled down at her and kissed her again, "I've thought of bringing you and our children through to where I live, so I could spend more time with all of you, but I don't know if you'd like it, things are so much different there, than they are here."

Darlene nodded, "And I'd miss me family, me friends, plus," she smirked, "I'd have to share ye then. When ye are here, yer with me, and only me. I'm a greedy woman, Will, I don't like ta share."

"I'm sure there would be some truly epic fights then," I agreed, smirking back at her.

"So tell me, what's it like there?"

"Things are a little less developed, and life is a little rougher, the winters are colder with more snow, and the kingdom is smaller than Hillshire, but it's grown quite a bit over the time since I've known you."

"What's yer other wife, what's she really like?"

"She's a very strong woman, she runs the kingdom after all, and yes, I love her very much too."

"She runs the kingdom?" Darlene asked surprised.

"Well, yeah, she is the queen," I grinned.

Darlene's eyes got wide, "Ye married a queen, and you still come here to see me?" She hugged me very tightly then and kissed me rather passionately.

"So, is she any good looking?" she said after she'd taken her time kissing me rather thoroughly.

"She's very attractive, like you," I grinned. "We have three children," I told her a little more about Rachel and each of our kids after she asked.

"So, what's it like being a huge cat? Do you miss it when you're here?"

"It's kind of fun, actually. And I was born a human, just like you, Hon." I grinned.

"Well, it was a bit of a shock seeing ye like that, still it was kind of cute, is yer fur as soft as a regular cat's?"

I laughed, "Yes, it is."

"Warm?"

I nodded.

"Ye know, it is getting kind of cold in here, and I'd rather not get up and get another blanket, do ye think ye could?" Darlene asked giving me one of her 'innocent' smiles.

"Sure, I'll get up and get it for you," I grinned.

She slapped me on my chest with her hand. "Funny man. Now show me!"

"Only if you promise not to scream," I told her with mock seriousness.

"I won't scream," she said, "unless of course ye make me," she added slyly.

"Ooo, this is nice," she said running her hands through my fur after I shifted for her. "Nice and warm too."

I just purred, enjoying the company.

"Oh! Better still," Darlene laughed at my rumbling, "soft, warm, and vibrating!"

"Shameless hussy," I rumbled.

"Of course I'm shameless, I'm yer wife, I'm allowed to enjoy me husband!" she giggled.

I purred a little louder, but when all was said and done, I think that shameless best described my wife's behavior for the rest of the night.

#                    #                    #

"So, Will, I've been wanting to ask ye about something," Chaucer said to me. I was sitting at the bar, relaxing and having a drink. I could tell Chaucer had something on his mind for quite a while; I'd been here for almost three months, just enjoying my time with Darlene and the kids. I'd be leaving in another week, the weather was still cold and wet, but I had a long trip ahead of me, there really wasn't a quicker or faster route to the wastelands than the one we'd take before.

"Ask away," I smiled.

"What ever happened to Cameron? Why didn't ye bring him back?"

I nodded, I'd actually explained most of this to Darlene, weeks ago when she'd asked.

"Truth is, I'm Cameron's father," I told him. The whole gender-swapping thing would have been way too complicated to go into, and he probably wouldn't have believed it anyways.

"Cameron's mother is a very powerful person, head of a major religion, he's with her now."

He looked at me for a moment, "Why wasn't he with her from the beginning?"

"There was a lot of upheaval going on, and they were having problems with another religion, so we thought it would be safer to raise Cam here." I sighed then, "Unfortunately, I was wrong. Their champion found out about it, and well, you saw what happened here."

"Did ye kill him?"

"I did a lot to him, but he's not quite dead yet," I said and I thought about what would be coming next. I was looking forward to killing Cenewyg, I really was looking forward to it.

I don't think I'd ever looked forward to someone's death with such anticipation before. I looked back up at Chaucer, and from the expression on his face, I guess it must have shown.

"Understand, you can't just kill a champion as easily as you'd kill a normal man," I said lowering my voice, "It has to be planned, and it has to be done carefully. Champions have certain," I hesitated; I don't know how many people knew that we reincarnated, "abilities, that make it harder for them to die, and to stay dead."

Chaucer nodded, "Aye, I've heard some of the stories me'self." He paused in thought a moment, his own expression turning rather dark for a moment, "Any chance I can go with you, when you leave here, and help ye kill that bastard?"

I sat back and thought about that for a minute. Chaucer was a pretty good sergeant, and from what I'd seen over the years I'd known him, a good soldier as well.

But the weapons I'd be facing would be different, and the tactics would be different as well. Plus if I got him killed, how would I explain it to Sarah? And Darlene would be pretty upset with me as well.

I shook my head slowly, "I wish I could, I really wish I could. But where I'm going, its different, the things there, where this guy is now, it's not like here, and well, you're not a champion."

"And ye are?" Chaucer asked looking at me, "Ye are, aren't ye?"

I nodded, "Yes, I am. I wasn't when we first met, but I am now, which is why I'm able to go after that sonofabitch, and put him in his grave, and make sure he stays there!" I almost growled it out.

Chaucer nodded slowly and then smiled, "That's what I wanted to hear, Will. I wanted to now that someone was going to avenge my father's murder."

"He was important to me too, Chaucer," I sighed. "If it wasn't for him, and his advice, I wouldn't have Darlene, and you see how much she means to me."

He nodded, "She must, if your god can't even keep you away!" he laughed softly.

"That is the truth of it," I said agreeing with him. "Plus, I feel a lot better with you here to keep an eye on things and ride herd on the soldiers when they come here."

"Ya know, it's funny, me ending up here. Never thought the day would come when I'd be working at me father's old inn."

I nodded, "Life it strange like that. I honestly thought I was going to end up here raising kids with Darlene for the rest of my life."

"Any regrets?" He asked.

I shook my head, "Not really, no. You have to take the good with the bad after all. You?"

Chaucer laughed, "Honestly? Now that I'm here, I see why me father liked it. Thinking I like it too, now that I'm older and getting me own family going."

I tipped my mug to him and took another drink.

"So when are ye leaving?"

"Soon," I said. "Very soon."

Nineteen

Wasteland - Stepheen's City

I stepped out of the portal. It had taken quite a few weeks to get here, though most of that was spent on the first three spheres, where things were more primitive. Once I'd gotten to the more modern spheres, air travel had cut down on travel times significantly.

I looked around, and then stopped and then looked around a second time.

When I had been here last, it had been a deserted, debris strewn, ruins on the edge of a desert. I was still standing on the edge of a bunch of ruins that had once been a fairly large town, but the scattered debris was gone, things were obviously being cleaned up, and some of the buildings actually looked like people were starting to fix them.

That brought me to the people.

There were people here now, quite a few of them, possibly even a lot. I saw a dozen right off, including the six well-armed ones who were now looking at me from something that looked like a guard station. It was behind the portal, so it hadn't been obvious when I first stepped through. I also noticed that there was a small monument across from where the portal let out. At least I think it was a monument, it looked like something made from wood and carefully stacked stones and was occupying the spot where I think Cenewyg and I had fought it out the last time.

"Who are you," one of the men asked me. He didn't point his rifle at me, it was pointed down at the ground, but he had his hands on it and probably could do that fairly quickly, if need be.

"William, Cameron's father," I said looking around. "What's going on here?"

Three of them swore, five of them made some sort of a sign with their hands, not quite a warding sign, but they all did it the same. Something religious perhaps?

"We're building our settlement here; this is the place where Stepheen has decreed we are to settle, now that this land is ours."

"Oh, okay." I said and nodded. "Any chance I could perhaps, speak to someone in charge? Maybe my son, if he's around?"

I asked the last bit rather nervously. The last time I'd seen Cameron, he'd been sucking on his fingers and still wearing diapers. Well, that was the last time just before he became a demigod and I died. Now he was a full-grown adult with some very godlike powers.

But he was also only about four years old.

What do you say to your child that is now a demigod? I had no idea.

"You don't look like the War Leader," The one talking to me said, "You just look like a normal man."

I sighed and shifted into my champion form, and this time they all made that sign again, but at least they didn't swear.

"I'm sorry, War Leader!" he said rather fervently, I had no idea!"

I shifted back to my local form, "That's the idea," I replied. I figured I might as well go along with it, not like I'd probably have a choice.

"And please, just call me Will, or William? Okay?"

He nodded, "Yes, Sir! Please, come this way! I will take you to Oliff."

"Oliff?" I asked curious.

"He is our god Stepheen's high priest."

"Oh," I said and nodded, I never had gotten his name when I was here last.

I followed him through the town, and we ended up at a house that quite clearly resembled the house that I had met Stephanie in, in her realm, after I had been killed here. Oliff was waiting for us, but I wasn't surprised, no doubt Stephanie, or rather 'Stepheen,' the goddess, had told him.

"Ah, William, it is good to see you again," he said and shook hands with me. He then turned to my escort, "We are expecting two more visitors, please escort them here after they arrive."

"Yes, Sir!" he said and quickly left.

"So, you run the place now?" I asked and looked around a bit more. They'd obviously taken the time to fix this house first, and while the outside seemed to jive with the one in Stephanie's new realm of godhood, that was where the similarities ended. Inside almost all of the walls had been taken down, and it had been converted into a church.

"Nice place," I said looking around, "is Cameron around?"

Oliff shook his head, "No, he is off thwarting our enemies and spreading mayhem in their ranks."

"Isn't that a bit much for the kid?" I asked.

"Cameron is a demigod!" Oliff said and looked at me rather scandalously.

I sighed and rolled my eyes, looking towards the ceiling, "Is there anyway Stepheen and I might speak in private?" I asked him.

"The Goddess Stepheen regrets that she has not yet obtained that level of power, William."

I sighed, "So, it's all through you then?"

Oliff nodded, "I am most humbled by the goddess's choice of me, to be her voice."

I nodded, "Okay then. Do you have any maps? I need to know where Cenewyg is, if you have any idea of just where that may be."

"Ah, Stepheen tells me that you are here to strike down the vile champion of the evil Fuerston! Such a weakening of him would undoubtedly serve our goddess well!"

I tried not to roll my eyes again, "Yeah well, whatever. What information do you have?"

"Oh, quite a lot, William, we have maps, and we can show you on them where the temple of Fuerston lies! Which is where you would most probably find his vile champion."

"Been dealing a lot with Cenewyg have you?"

"In the last two months he has attacked several of our smaller camps, murdering all he has caught, men, women, even their children. He tortures them quite severely when he kills them, and he has gone as far as to desecrate the graves of our dead."

I nodded and yawned, I was really in need of a good night's sleep. "Yeah, that sounds like Cen, all right. Though I'm surprised he'd go out and risk his life, seeing as he has no powers."

"Oh, but he has," Oliff said. "Stepheen says that because he was already a demigod here, that will not change, even though you have since removed the means by which he became one."

"Well, that's great," I sighed, "here I thought I was hurting him."

"Oh, but you have hurt him! His power will no longer increase, so he remains incredibly weak with few demigod powers. However, now that those means are gone, he can and does have some of the champion's powers that his god can give to him."

"Does that mean if I kill him, he'll come back?"

"Yes, but not for another eleven years."

"So, what's the point then?"

"If you kill Fuerston's most vile champion, then you will have eleven years to destroy Fuerston, which will then render his vile champion gone for good."

I shook my head, that was a lot more of a fight than what I wanted to get involved in right now.

"So what kinds of powers does he have now?" I asked.

"He can heal himself, and he can do those things that Stepheen tells me are called 'cantrips.' Those are the only powers he now derives from his evil god."

"And what about from being a demigod?"

"His speed, his strength, his toughness. Stepheen tells me that he is also effectively trapped here, his demigod powers, as well as his champion ones, will not extend to any sphere outside of this one, and if he were to be killed off plane, his spirit would not return for reincarnation, but that he would die."

"Well now, that's some good news at least!" I said with a smile. "So, do you think I could get some food? And perhaps a place to sleep?"

Qliff nodded, "Of course, let me summon Jebediah, and he can show you around."

"Thanks."

Two hours later I was studying a map after a rather filling, if average, dinner. Fuerston looked to be about a week's walk from here, if you went direct. Most people, from what I gathered when asking around, took a longer route, unless they were traveling in force.

Apparently there were some rather bad areas between here and there, places that had been the target of more than one nuclear bomb, bombs which apparently had some rather nasty side effects on the local flora and fauna. I guess radiation worked a bit differently here, than where I had grown up. There it mainly killed things. Here apparently it gave rise to new life forms, some of which were rather nasty.

"Will!" I heard a woman's voice, one that I knew too! But what was it doing here? Standing up and turning around I saw Dezba! And Joseph too!

"What are you two doing here?" I asked surprised.

"What, did you think we were going to let you have all the fun?" Joseph asked laughing.

"That asshole got me killed twice," Dezba said with a growl. "I want to pay him back just as much as you do!"

I looked at Joseph who nodded, "He tried to get me killed as well, and if I had stayed on past Circe, I'm sure he would have. Plus there were all those nasty comments of his," Joseph said with a frown. "We started this together; we might as well finish it together."

"I'm touched, guys, really. How did you know?"

"Aryanna told us, how do you think?" Dezba said with a smirk.

"Have you guys been by Steph's church? Talked to Oliff yet?"

They both nodded.

"Sucks that she can't talk directly to us yet," Joseph said. "But I'm guessing this is her first church, so it shouldn't be that many more years until she's settled in enough to be able to."

I shrugged, "If you say so, I don't really know that much about this sort of thing."

"I'm just surprised she set her temple so close to a portal," Dezba said. "It's only a mile away. Most gods set them farther away than that."

"I think events sort of determined that," I told them.

"Oh? How so?"

"When our child came through the gateway, it led to a holy event." I shrugged at them both, "It had been prophesized, so it made the spot important and the city is now considered holy."

"Why would it have been prophesized?" Joseph asked confused.

"Cameron's mother is a god," Dezba said and whacked Joseph on the back of the head, "why the hell to you think?"

He shrugged, "Like I thought they knew that?"

I grinned and shook my head, "It was a hell of a thing when he came through, Cen and I were fighting at the time, and well, it was definitely accompanied by a light show."

"Didn't they come through at the same time?"

I shook my head, "Nah, it was pretty weird. Had to do with Steph being his mother and all of that, some kind of rules stuff."

"Actually, Steph is his father, you're his mother," Joseph smirked.

"Yeah, and that probably made it all that much stranger," Dezba said.

"So, where do we have to go? And when?" Joseph asked.

"And what's the story on this place?" Dezba asked.

"Well, come over here and sit down, and I'll tell you what I know."

They nodded and joined me, and I went over the map with them showing them where I figured we had to go, to find Cenewyg.

"So, the war they had used weapons that altered the plants and animals?" Dezba asked me.

I nodded; I forgot sometimes that she was an American Indian born in the early eighteen hundreds. She didn't have the high tech exposure that the rest of us had.

"Back where we came from, the same kind of weapons pretty much killed you, but here, well they apparently have had some strange side effects."

"Magic then," she said.

I nodded, "Might as well be as far as I'm concerned."

"Well, we might as well set out in the morning," Joseph said and stretched, yawning.

"Sounds good to me," I said, "You guys bring any weapons?"

"I am a weapon," Joseph laughed.

I looked at Dezba.

"He's a huge freaking dire wolf now. I think Circe did some tinkering with him, because the hide under his fur is pretty tough."

I nodded, "And you?"

"Oliff said he could loan me a carbine and some ammo. I also brought my usual knives and sword."

I nodded; I had a carbine and a pistol that I'd picked up in the sphere before Chocogo, along with a lot of ammo. I'd also taken the time to buy some really nice austempered swords and knives that I came across while there.

"Well, lets go find our beds and get some sleep," I told them. "The next few weeks promise to be interesting."

"Sounds good to me," Joseph said standing.

"Me too," Dezba said and standing up came over to me with a gleam in her eyes.

"Hmm?" I said looking at her as I got up.

"Care to keep a woman company?" she said smiling, "It has been a few years, Will."

I looked at Joseph who grinned, "Don't mind me, I monopolized her the whole trip here!"

Dezba smirked, "That he did; now it's your turn."

I smiled and pulled her into a hug, "Yeah, it has been a while, hasn't it?"

We got up just before sunrise, I would have liked to have slept in personally, Dezba was still a demanding lover and she'd really put me through my paces last night. But this task wouldn't take care of itself, and just sitting around wouldn't get it done any sooner.

We left the town on foot as the sun was coming up. I looked at Joseph; he really was a pretty big wolf. Not as big as a wolat, but still pretty damned large; and considering how cool it was in the morning, I was envying him his fur coat. I could shift into my champion form, but I wanted to get farther away from town first, in case Fuerston had any spies keeping watch.

"So, how do we do this?" Dezba asked as we trotted along.

"What do you mean?"

"Well, we just can't kill him; he's a champion, right?"

"Not exactly, his status is a bit screwed up right now, because of the limbo thing he got himself sucked into."

"Why isn't he still in that?" Joseph growled.

"He had a little cult worshipping him back in his home sphere. Their worship was enough to pop him out, but not enough to do anymore than that."

"That's pretty messed up," Dezba said.

I nodded, "I spent the last year wiping them out, so at least he's lost that benefit."

"So, does that mean we can kill him?"

"If we kill him, he goes back to limbo, for about eleven more years; because he's still a champion."

"Well, that's nice and all, but how do we actually kill him?" Joseph growled again.

"Let me guess, we destroy his god while he's in limbo," Dezba said with a sigh.

"That is one way," I agreed.

"You know, Steph's a dear friend and all that, but I don't know if I want to be coming here for the next decade helping to destroy her competition," Dezba grumbled.

"Me neither," Joseph growled.

"Yeah, I hear you," I agreed. "But check this out; if he dies on another sphere, he's dead! No reincarnation, because he doesn't have the full set of champion's powers!"

"So once he's off plane, he's fresh meat," Joseph growled softly. "I like that idea."

"Yeah, me too, but how do we get him out of this sphere?" Dezba asked. "It's not like he'll leave willingly, not if he loses all of his powers when he does so."

"I don't know, yet," I said with a shrug. "Maybe we just overwhelm him, and knock him out? Truss him up and make for the nearest portal, then just slit his throat once we're through?"

"Or eat him!" Joseph growled with a grin.

"You would, wouldn't you?" Dezba laughed looking at Joseph, who just looked smug.

"So, we're going to have to keep an eye open for portals," I told them both, "because once we catch up with him, we'll have to make a run for the nearest one. Also we'll have to make sure we don't kill him."

"Or let anyone else kill him," Dezba agreed.

"It's too bad we can't just ask his new god, what's his name, Fuerston? It's too bad we just can't ask Fuerston to fire him." Joseph said. "I'm sure that by now he's suffering from a fair deal of 'buyer's remorse.'"

Dezba and I both snickered at that.

"Yeah, he's got three champions on his ass now, and what was that I heard about your son, Will? He's some sort of a demigod now because of Cen?"

I nodded, "Yeah, Cen has definitely screwed this up for Fuerston."

"Makes you wonder how much control Fuerston even has," Dezba said wondering, "I mean, he had to know that stealing a champion's child would draw the champion, and he had to know it would probably bring allies as well."

I shook me head, "To be honest, I have no idea."

"We can ask him, when we start killing his priests," Joseph said with a short laugh.

I thought about that, "You know, you may have a point there."

"How so?" Dezba asked.

"Well, think about it, if Cenewyg really is causing this Fuerston problems, he might be inclined to look the other way and not send his own people out to help Cenewyg."

"You mean, hang him out to dry?" Dezba said looking surprised.

I nodded, "Well, wouldn't you?"

"Of course, but then I hate the bastard already."

Joseph nodded, "Me too. But it may not hurt to ask. Nothing ventured, nothing gained."

"Now we just need to figure out a way to ask," I said and thought about that. I'd ask Fel to talk to Aryanna about it, but I got the impression that brokering deals at their champion's behest was not something that a god would be willing to do.

We spent the rest of the day moving north, through the wasteland, mostly in silence as we kept our eyes open for any problems. We probably could have used a local guide, but we were all moving at a pace best described as a 'lope', that helped us to cover the ground quickly, which most regular people could not have kept up for more than a few hours at best, while we kept it up all day.

The landscape was, well, different. It started off as a sort of light reddish stone and sand dunes with little in the way of trees and very few bushes, mostly it was grasses and weeds. But as we moved further on, the ground changed, becoming a lighter shade of brown, more like the type of dirt you'd normally see, or at least like what I grew up with.

Bushes became much more common, and there were the occasional trees, but they looked more like scrub pine, the ones that were alive that is. Most of the rest were stumps, or old dried out dead ones. I guess the war had brought a change to the weather patterns, and things had become a lot drier here than they had been before the war.

And then there were the ruins: they were scattered everywhere. The signs of habitation that you just took for granted when you grew up with it, like roadways, we crossed several, and they were now just ribbons of broken concrete with grass and weeds growing through them. Then there were the things like houses or businesses that you'd see along the roads, or even just scattered here or there across the countryside. Here instead we found the occasional foundation for a house that once was there, or perhaps some wreckage of some other kind of building, anything made of wood was pretty much destroyed, though buildings made of stronger materials had left anything from a wall or two, to a an empty, trash filled, husk. We'd also occasionally see the mangled remains of either radio towers, or perhaps high voltage transmission lines, even a few rusted road signs as well.

But what made it the most different, was the lack of wildlife. There were insects aplenty, but I didn't see many birds and rarely heard them as well. The ones we saw the most of were hawks spiraling up on the thermals looking for food I guess. We also didn't see a single mammal at all that first day.

When nighttime came, things changed. We could hear the yipping and yapping of coyotes, and when they started to get closer, Joseph got up and let off a series of howls that must have sent them running, because we didn't hear them anywhere nearby for the rest of the night.

"Wolves eat coyotes," Dezba explained.

"Oh," I said. I had shifted into my champion form earlier in the day to make it easier to keep up with Dezba and Joseph, seeing as they were already in theirs.

"I think I smell venison," Joseph growled.

"Really?" I asked and sniffed the air myself, I didn't get anything.

"It's pretty faint; they're probably a good ways off yet."

"Well. your howling probably will keep them just as far away as the coyotes," Dezba laughed.

"Still, now that we know they're here, maybe tomorrow we can get some fresh meat," Joseph said licking his lips.

"He really does make a good wolf, doesn't he?" I said to Dezba.

She laughed and nodded, while Joseph just grinned.

"Though, I am kind of partial to the lion, because of that big fluffy mane of his," She joked.

"She made me give all of her kids rides, the last time I visited her," Joseph grumped.

"Oh, you loved it!" Dezba chuckled.

"Well, maybe just a little bit," Joseph agreed.

I listened to them a bit surprised, apparently the two of them were a lot closer now than when we'd first met ten years ago.

"You guys visit a lot?" I asked, curious.

"Oh, about once a year I'll go visit," Joseph said.

"Huh, well that's a surprise."

"Well, understand, Will, it's nothing personal, but you're just not my type."

I laughed, "No, that's fine actually! I'm just surprised you can tear yourself away from Circe."

He shrugged, "She's a goddess, sometimes I just need someone I can relate to on a more personal level, and well, Dezba and I relate pretty well."

"What about Suzona?" I asked curious.

"Ha! She'd probably cut my head off, just to mount it on her wall."

"Probably right after she screwed you silly too," Dezba laughed, "She's a kinky one!"

"She's just too invested in that whole 'Nordic' mythology of her god. I can't believe you even slept with her, Will." Joseph said.

I shrugged, "She guilt tripped me into it, said I owed it to her, for her help."

"Well, I hope she was good at least," Dezba teased.

"She was okay," I said and tried not to blush. At least with the fur and all it wouldn't be too noticeable this late.

"Well, as much as I'd like to tease you about that, I think I'm going to turn in." Dezba said with a yawn. "I'll take morning watch. You two can figure out the rest on your own."

Joseph ended up taking first watch, and I took second. I didn't think anything would be able to sneak up on either of us, as we both had rather good hearing and were light sleepers, but neither one of us wanted to take that chance.

We ran into our first problem around noon of the third day.

"Would you look at the size of that thing?" Dezba said pointing.

Joseph and I both stopped and looked.

"Is that a scorpion?" I asked.

"Big stinker," Joseph growled.

"Big? He's larger than a city bus!" I replied.

"I wonder how many more of them there are around here?" Dezba asked.

"Lookout!" Joseph growled and right about then we found out. There were dozens of them, and they came boiling up out of holes in the ground rather suddenly.

I tried shooting the first few, but that didn't work very well, as apparently you had to hit them in just the right spot to kill them. So dropping the carbine, I drew my swords and went to work. Fortunately these were only about the size of a car; say a big one, like a Cadillac, not like their huge cousin that was slowly lumbering our way.

It was hectic for the first few minutes, I was hacking off pincers left and right, and a few tail stingers that came dangerously close to hitting me. Joseph was darting around and grabbing them by the tail and either crushing them, or tossing them off to the side.

Once Dezba and I got the pinchers off of a few, he started darting in and crushing their heads between his jaws, killing them instantly. So she and I switched tactics, to just taking off one of the pinchers and if possible the tail, and leaving them for Joseph to finish off. Apparently his hide was tough enough that the stingers weren't able to hurt him.

When they all suddenly scuttled off, I looked up, and sure enough, the big monster one was upon us.

Joseph wasn't going to be able to crush the head of this one, or even get a grip on its tail, that was obvious from the start, but he was fast, faster than Dezba and I, and he started growling, barking, and snapping at it, drawing it's attention.

"Will, go for the tail, I'll go for the heart!" Dezba yelled.

I nodded and ran around behind it as Joseph distracted it, then running towards it I started to hack into the back of the tail with both swords.

I didn't know much about scorpions, so when it swatted its tail down flat to try and crush me, I was surprised and had to dodge to the side rather quickly. I attacked again, after its tail came back up, and the next time it tried that, I jumped onto its back, and sinking my foot claws in for a better grip I started to hack away with one of my swords with all of my might.

It obviously didn't like that, and it tried to get me with its tail, but I was too close to the end, so it couldn't bend it that far. I got about halfway through the tail when suddenly the whole thing shuddered and it then stopped moving, except for the occasional twitch.

"I think that did it," Joseph growled. "You okay, Dez?"

"Yeah, I just need to clean all of this gunk off," she said.

I jumped down to join the other two, as Dezba cleaned off her sword.

"I had no idea scorpions can use their tail like that," I said cleaning my own weapons off, and then reclaiming my carbine."

"They can't," Dezba said. "Or at least the ones I grew up with couldn't."

"What do you say we get out of here, before all the little ones come back to feast on big brother?" Joseph said.

"Yeah, I like that idea," Dezba said and I agreed.

We put some distance between us and the carcass, and then we slowed down to a walk, taking the time to watch for any more scorpions.

We didn't see anymore of those, but about an hour before sunset we did come across a pack of boars, or maybe they were just feral hogs, I wasn't sure, but they were pretty big. Fortunately for us, we saw them first, so Dezba and I were able to drop two of the big males first, and then Joseph drove the rest of the pack off while Dezba and I butchered one of the dead ones.

"Fresh pork tonight!" Joseph laughed trotting back.

"Yeah, let's build a fire and cook some of this."

"What, and ruin the taste?" Joseph said grinning.

"I don't feel like getting worms," Dezba said.

"We're champions, we don't get worms." Joseph said and then tore into the carcass of the one we hadn't butchered.

"He has a point you know," I agreed.

"I'm not a fan of raw meat, especially not pork," Dezba said. "Besides, I thought you cat people cooked your meat."

I shrugged, "Usually, if you want to, go right ahead. Don't let me stop you. I just didn't want to draw any attention to ourselves."

"The only people liable to come investigate at this point are probably Fuerston's," Dezba pointed out, "and we want to talk to them, anyway."

I nodded, "Then let's get a fire going."

"See them yet?" Joseph asked softly as I peered out over the rise, away from our camp.

"Yeah, they're in the direction you said, they just crested the hill," I whispered back.

It was late, and the moon had set some time ago. While Joseph had the better nose, and probably the better hearing, I had the better night vision, and he'd heard these guys sneaking up on where we'd had the fire and cooked dinner.

"They're doing pretty good in this darkness for humans," Joseph said.

I shook my head, "They're not humans."

"Really?" he said surprised.

I nodded, "I can see enough of them now, they're more like apes than people. At least the way they're walking, their heads look rather misshapen as well. Looks like they're wearing rags or something though."

"Too bad the wind isn't blowing this way."

I nodded.

"How many of them are there?"

"I'm not sure, maybe ten? Twelve? I'm thinking if they turn this way I'll just pick them off one at a time, otherwise, why waste the time or ammo on them?"

"Well, I'm gonna go to sleep, wake me if they start to come this way."

I nodded, "Sure."

I continued to watch the, well creatures, as they traveled. They were pretty much on a straight course for the two dead pigs from earlier, and when they got to them, they started in on ripping pieces off and eating them fairly quickly.

They squabbled some among themselves, probably fighting over the best pieces, or something like that. I didn't really know, or care, as long as they didn't come this way, I wasn't going to worry about it. By the time Dezba's turn at watch came, I woke her and told her what was going on and let her deal with it.

I woke to the distant sound of gunfire.

"What's that?" I asked Dezba as Joseph rolled to his feet.

"I think the people we were looking for just showed up. They're shooting the creatures."

"Are they now?" Joseph asked yawning, as a few more shots rang out.

"Yup. And whatever those things are, they're tough. They're taking a couple of shots to put down."

We both came to the top of the rise, staying low of course, and watched as more and more shots were fired.

There were about twenty of the attackers, and they were all uniformed. I recognized the uniform as that of the Fuerston army and told the others that.

The soldiers killed the creatures, then rather methodically they went up to each body, put a bullet through its head, and then chopped the head off.

When one started to twitch before it got its bullet, I started to be glad we hadn't had to deal with them. Obviously they were another strange mutation born out of the radiation from the bombs.

"So, now what?" Joseph asked.

"Hmm, give me a minute to think," I said watching them.

"Looks like they found our trail," Dezba said.

"Do your gods interview their dead?" I asked.

"Diannion does," Dezba said. "Why?"

"Circe doesn't have to, she's in the world with everyone, but my old god did, again, why?"

I nodded, "Try to leave one alive."

"Sure," Dezba said.

We waited until they were about fifty yards away, then opened fire while Joseph circled around behind them as we provided covering fire against the few that didn't die in our opening salvo.

As firefights went, it took about five minutes.

I walked up to the one Joseph had pinned under a paw; he was pretty badly wounded, and probably wouldn't last much longer.

He swore when he saw me, "You're the War Leader for that evil bitch goddess, aren't you?!" he said swearing.

"Yup, that's me. Tell Fuerston that we're after Cenewyg, none of us gives a damn about him, it's Cenewyg's ass we want to kill. If we have to go into his main temple and burn it to the ground to get Cen, we will.

"But if he was to face us out here somewhere and then maybe be abandoned rather conveniently by the army...." I smiled "Well then, we'll just take him with us and go home."

"Fuerston will never..." He shut up then as I shot him in the head.

"So, think Fuerston will take the hint?" Dezba asked.

I shrugged, "Maybe if we make it worth his while."

"And just how do we do that?"

"Joseph, do you think you could follow their trail back to their camp?"

Joseph grinned, "Easily."

"I think if we start by wiping out their outlying settlements, he'll have to do something to stop us, and well, if we burn down a church or two in the process, wouldn't it be Cen's job to stop us?"

"How does he know we're not lying?"

"Have you ever been able to lie to a god?"

"Good point," Dezba laughed. "Well, let's get to work then, shall we?"

Twenty

Wasteland - Outlying Settlements

I looked down on the village from the top of the rise; this would be the third one we'd attacked in the last week. The trail we'd backtracked had led to a rather small one; it hadn't even had a shrine. We'd run everyone off from that town, killed any who tried to make a stand, and then burned it to the ground.

Two nights later we found the next one, and it had a shrine, but it wasn't a very large one, the ground wasn't even holy. We'd run those people off, and again, burned it all down.

Tonight however, this town had a church, and we were going to burn it down, and kill any of Fuerston's priests that we found.

Part of me found it distasteful, even objectionable, that we were just killing these people and destroying their villages. But they had started it, they were trying to wipe out Stephanie's religion before it even got started, and they were killing her people. It was only fair that what they visited on others was visited on them.

Besides, they had Cenewyg, and I was going to pay him back for kidnapping my child, and murdering Harold and Emma. Not to mention planning to kill Cameron. Now I'd been perfectly willing to just walk away from his attempt at killing me and Stephanie, after all, it had failed, he had lost.

But no, he couldn't let it go, let bygones be bygones. He came after mine, and well, until Fuerston gave him up, I was going to go after Fuerston. I'd learned as a child, that when people started to play 'keep away', the best course was to take out each of the people in the game, one at a time, until either they gave up and gave you back what was yours, or there weren't any left standing.

It was a hard lesson, and people never looked at you the same afterwards, but it worked.

"Okay, let's go," I said and we started down the hill at a run, opening fire as we went. Joseph streaked off into the darkness ahead of us; he'd get those guards that we couldn't see from here.

We moved quickly, always moving, not standing still, shooting anyone who looked like they had a weapon, or who might stand against us. By never staying in one place and running back and forth across the village in the darkness, we sounded like a much bigger force, and with Joseph's actions, they weren't even sure if we were human, or monsters.

But I knew what we were, we were monsters, and in my champion's form, I know that I definitely looked the part.

"You can't come in here!" the priest screamed at me as I kicked the door, in.

"Watch me," I growled and shot one of his acolytes in the head. I shot him in the knee as he others turned and ran, I really didn't care what happened to them, if they got away, or not. This was a campaign of fear, if Fuerston wasn't willing to give up Cenewyg on his own, maybe the cries of his people would inspire him to do so.

I picked the screaming priest up by the neck, "Tell your boss that maybe he should sue for peace," and I whipped his body around hard down onto the altar with enough force that the altar cracked in two.

I left the dead body there and set fire to the building on the way out. When I caught back up with Joseph and Dezba, more than half of the town was on fire.

"Well, think we got his attention?" Dezba asked sitting down.

"It was about as subtle as a punch in the face," I told her.

"Well, now he knows we mean business. He either sends out Cenewyg, or we'll continue to pick off his churches, one by one."

"I wonder if Cenewyg is going to come willingly, or have to be forced?" Joseph asked.

"We won't know until he gets here." I said.

"Let's see what they throw at us first, if it's just the military, then we know he's balking."

I nodded, "Well, let's go find a place to camp for the rest of the night, and see what gives come the morning.

They all nodded and we moved off to the east, leaving the burning town behind.

"Will," I heard Dezba call, and I woke up instantly and moved over to where she was.

"What?"

"Look," she said pointing.

I looked, there were several dust columns rising up into the air off in the distance.

"Looks like quite the response, doesn't it?" I said.

"Wonder which of those groups Cen is with," she said looking at them.

"Assuming he is," I said. "He has to know we're going to kill him."

"I don't know, I've been thinking about it. He's under pressure right now, and he knows it. If he doesn't make a good showing, he's going to be on the outs with his god from this point on. Also, his chances of ever getting picked up by another god become scarce.

"But if he gets killed, killed here that is, he goes back into limbo for a while. The pressure is off, and once he comes out of that, his powers unlock, and he can just quit and move on someplace else."

"You're assuming that he doesn't know we're planning on taking him out of here to kill him," I pointed out.

"Well, does he even know that will work? He may think that would just kick him back into limbo as well."

"I'd think Fuerston would have told him."

"That's assuming Fuerston isn't fed up with him," Dezba said. "They can't fire us, and they can get pretty annoyed at us. Normally, they just try to work through it, and get us back on track. But right now, Fuerston may be looking at his options and thinking that the sooner he gets rid of Cen, the sooner he can get somebody in who can do the job properly."

I nodded slowly, "That makes a certain amount of sense, so it is possible."

"Further, Cen's got a huge ego. Do you really think he's afraid of us? And do you think he wants to be seen as a coward?"

"He can't be that narcissistic!" I told her.

"You sure about that? He's a demigod now, right? Has extra powers? Does he even know that his power base is gone? He's not a real god, so he probably doesn't have any kind of real connection to them. In either case, his power has continued to grow since you two fought that first time.

"I think he's out there, Will, and I think he's looking forward to this fight. If he dies, he's out of the line of fire, if he wins, he's a big hero with the people and his boss. That's how I bet he sees it."

I shook my head, "I don't know, Dez."

She grimaced, "Will, I slept with that asshole for years, and then he stabbed me in the back. Not once mind you, but twice. No, I think I understand him pretty well now, I just wish I had years ago."

I thought about that for a few minutes.

"So, you think we should go engage their military?"

"Yeah, I think we attack one of their scouting groups, and then he'll come running, all hell bent for slaughter."

"Well, might as well wake up Joseph and get started," I sighed.

I felt like I was in a Clint Eastwood movie. I was standing out in the open, there was a vehicle of some sort in the distance speeding in my direction, kicking up a small dust cloud in its wake. Dezba and Joseph were hiding, for now; I wanted it to just be me. I was the one Cenewyg hated the most, so I figured I'd be the biggest draw.

I got down on one knee, and putting my elbow on the other one, I took sight on the approaching vehicle. When it got to about a hundred yards I emptied the full magazine, until the bolt locked open, then I inserted another clip and pushed the cartridges down into the magazine, then let the bolt snap close and sighted the vehicle again.

It had stopped, and from the steam billowing up, I had obviously taken out the radiator. From a few of the screams I could hear, I guess I hit someone in it as well.

But I could also hear someone yelling for help, that they had found "the one called the War Leader." I smiled and moved back a few feet, sitting down behind some cover, and proceeded to slowly put one round after another into the vehicle, each one about a minute apart from the previous, until I had to reload again.

Then I just waited.

I had time to think about what I'd done over this last year, as I waited. I'd killed quite a lot of people, and while that by itself wasn't all that new for me, I had killed most of them rather coldly. It hadn't been in the heat of combat, it hadn't been in a life or death struggle to save friends or family. It hadn't even been because my god had ordered me to.

I'd done it on my own, because I was determined to get Cenewyg, to get him back and kill him.

Cenewyg deserved to be killed, I had no doubts about that, and I don't think anyone else did either. In some ways he'd become such a loathsome person, that I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out that even those on his own side looked at him a bit funny, well any that had any morals or decency left to them that is.

Yes, quite a few of the people I'd come across who worked for him were pretty nasty types, even down right evil. But the people I'd shot in that first church of his? I didn't know that, I'd just pulled that trigger. The ones in Boston? Especially the ones I'd set the IRA on later? Maybe they just were conned into it. Until people started getting sacrificed, it was just another crazy cult run by a guy with a magnetic personality.

And how many of the followers even really knew about the sacrifices?

I'd wiped out everyone at that ranch, and odds were good the hired help and maybe even the guests there, had no idea what was going on, or what they'd gotten themselves into. But I hadn't cared, and I wasn't sure I even cared now.

I used to feel a little guilty about myself, because I had become a womanizer, but the truth was I enjoyed it, I liked how it fed my ego. But that was pretty harmless, all things considered. Now I was becoming a killer, and a rather seasoned and cold one.

I wasn't happy with that revelation, while I could and did blame Cenewyg for most of that, for putting me in this position, some of it was still my own damned fault. I was not happy with myself over what we'd done in the last few days. When this was over, and hopefully it would be over soon, I'd have to think about what I was becoming, because the last thing I wanted to become, was another Cenewyg.

"Fel," I said softly as I watched what looked like a column come into sight as it approached, "I think we need to talk. Or maybe you need to talk and I need to listen. I'm not so sure I'm the kind of man you want any more."

The approaching trucks resolved into a rather small group of three, with a smaller vehicle in the lead. They pulled up behind the damaged truck, and troops started to pile out of the back of the two larger ones, but I wasn't paying attention to that. In the first smaller vehicle a man stood up.

"William, come to die again?"

It was Cenewyg.

"Big words for a small man!" I called back to him. "I killed you the last time, and I can do it again this time."

"Then why don't you come out and play, William? Or are you too afraid?"

I picked up my carbine and sighted on the man sitting next to him, and then pulled the trigger. His head exploded rather nicely.

"I think I'll just sit back here and kill your men, until you come and face me, you coward!" I called out and then I started picking them off one by one.

A few started to return fire, but I could see that most of them were not armed with firearms. As Oliff had told me when I was here last time, ammunition was rare, and was hoarded rather carefully.

"Cease firing, you idiots!" Cenewyg yelled, "Save your ammo, you can't kill him, that's my job," he said and jumping down from the car he started to walk towards me. I took the time to shoot a few more of his soldiers, picking on the ones who were stupid enough not to take cover.

When he finally got close enough, I tossed the carbine to the side and stood.

"Why do you bother, William? You know you're only going to die."

"Because you're an asshole, Cen. You just had to come and kill my in-laws and steal my kid."

"I'm surprised you even had it in you!" Cenewyg laughed, "What kind of a man would give up his balls to have a child?"

"One who's fathered a hell of a lot more than you ever will, runt," I growled. "Now, are we going to fight? Or are you just going to bore me to death with idle chatter and your lame wit?"

Cenewyg drew his sword, and attacked, I was surprised he wasn't even using a shield. I stepped back and let him come at me; I wanted a bit more space between me and his troops.

"No shield, Cen?" I said surprised, "Feeling brave are we?"

"You can't kill me, Will!" He laughed, "You see, I know your little secret!"

"My little secret?" I said surprised, and then stabbed him in the left shoulder, just for good measure.

"You don't want me to die; you want to take me alive. If you kill me, I'm out of your reach, and I'll be out of your reach for years!"

"Oh? And how did you come to that conclusion?" I asked him surprised.

"Fuerston told me of course!" And he attacked me seriously then.

I spent the next several minutes parrying his attacks and then countering his with my own, about this moment I heard Dezba open fire on Cenewyg's troops, Joseph would be joining that fray soon enough, so I wouldn't have to worry about them for awhile at least.

"I'm surprised he told you," I said. "After all, you haven't been a very good champion now, have you, Cen?"

"I have been an excellent champion!" Cenewyg said laughing as he took a slash at my head. I took advantage of his over extending himself to stab him again. I noticed at that point that he hadn't healed his previous wound.

That made me worry.

"Oh really?" I said and backpedaled some more. "So, getting Stephanie a powerful ally? A demigod? That was a good move?"

He frowned a moment, but then came back at me, "How was I to know that the bitch had a plan?" he swore.

"Whose idea was that anyway? Yours? Or Fuerston's?"

"It was a good idea!" Cenewyg yelled and attacked rather furiously again, and for the next several minutes I was once again rather occupied. He scored on me twice during this volley and I was forced to heal myself the second time. I restrained myself from attacking him further however, because he was right of course, I couldn't kill him. And it was getting to be obvious he wanted me to do just that.

I just wondered why his god had told him our offer. Eleven plus years without a champion in an upcoming war against a side that had a demigod was not a position I would think any god would like to be in.

"So whose idea was it to butcher those helpless innocents? An old man and and old lady?" I asked next.

"Liked that one did you?" Cenewyg laughed, "I knew you would! You're such a pathetic little sod, William!"

"So, you lured me, and several other champions here, why?" I asked. "Do you really want us to wipe out Fuerston that badly?"

"Ha! You can't wipe him out, it would take years of work to do that, and none of your gods would stand for it!" He laughed again.

"But they don't have a say, Cen," I said and smiled back at him, "After all, just like you, we can't be fired. So we could do it all just to spite you."

Cenewyg swore and attacked, he was swinging wildly and leaving himself open as he did, knowing I couldn't counter, he was able to throw all caution to the wind, and I was finding myself very hard pressed to defend myself.

"None of you would do that! You all love your gods way too much to leave them hanging, to abandon them like that!"

"But not you, Cen, not you at all right?" I grunted and burned another healing spell as he stabbed me in the side.

"Tell me then, Cen, why'd you do it? Was it because you thought you could beat us all?"

"No! I did it, because I wanted you to watch as I destroyed that bitch! Spurn me, would she? Take away the thing that was rightfully mine? The thing that I'd earned after so many years of putting up with that bitch, and her bitch mistress! Oh, I'm going to make that bitch pay; while you, her bitch mistress, that savage, and that fairy poof are all going to know that I laid her low!

"That's why I did it! I did it for me! I'm doing it all for me!"

"So, you're not doing it for Fuerston? For your god? For the god you swore your service to?"

"Hah! I serve myself first; everyone else can wait in line, even the gods!" Cenewyg crowed.

I took another step back and smiled toothily, "So in other words, you just quit."

"Hardly! I'll never quit, and he can't fire me! He's stuck with me!" Cenewyg laughed and took a step forward and took another wild swing, only this time I took a step forward and ran him through the side. Not an instantly fatal wound, but one that hurt like a bitch and would take a while to kill him.

I had figured out what Fuerston was doing to him, Fuerston hated Cenewyg alright, and at that moment I could see why. He wanted a champion who would serve him first, all the gods did, they were gods after all. But Cenewyg's ego wouldn't allow him to do that anymore.

"A man I know told me something once, Cen, you might find this interesting," I said pulling my sword out of him and stepping back. "He said that you don't have to tell your boss that you quit, for you to actually quit your job. He said that once you stopped working for them, once you started working for someone else, it was just as good as quitting, especially when it became obvious."

I grinned at him.

"You just quit."

The look on Cenewyg's face at that instant was priceless, apparently at that moment Fuerston pulled the plug.

"What?! NO! NO! He can't!" Cenewyg said, his eyes going wide.

I charged and attacked, stabbing him again.

Cenewyg backed up and started to fight defensively, healing his wounds as he did so. But those heals were limited, and we both knew it.

"I think your time has finally run out, Cen," I purred and now I was the one attacking recklessly, because I just needed a few good hits, and he knew it. If I died, I would come back. He would not.

"You bastard!" Cenewyg swore, starting to breath heavy, "I'll get you for this, I don't know how you did it, but I'll get you."

"That's going to be pretty tough, being that you're going to be dead soon," I said smiling at him.

Dezba had started silently walking up behind him then, she had her own sword out and a very evil look in her eyes.

"I'm not done yet! I'll find a way!"

"I've been to all of your temples on Earth, Cen," I told him, "All of them; did you know that the locals wiped out the one in Afghanistan? Or that the ones in Azerbaijan all quit?"

"Liar! They're my followers! They'll never desert me!"

"Oh, like you deserted them?" I laughed, "Don't worry; I hunted down all of your priests, and then I slew them! I blew up your churches! And I set the IRA on what was left of your followers!"

"You lie!" Cenewyg yelled again, but I could see he was starting to look desperate, I wounded him twice more, and he healed the first slash, but not the second.

"I have senators! Congressmen! I have important people, rich, powerful people!"

"Not," I stabbed him again, deeply. He got me as well, but I still had healing left. "Anymore!" I finished and took a step back to heal myself.

I watched as he healed himself, and suddenly looked panicked. He turned then to run and took one step, impaling himself on Dezba's blade, as she had been standing behind him, waiting for this moment.

"Hi, Cen!" She smiled at him, "Savage huh? How's this for savage?"

And as I watched she ripped her sword out of his guts, and then took his head off with a heavy slash. Sending it flying a good ten feet away.

"Well, that was easy," Joseph said padding over, and as we watched he crushed Cenewyg's head between his jaws, and swallowed it.

"I don't think I needed to see that, Joseph," Dezba said.

"Of course you did, you're just a hot little savage girl, right?"

I looked back at Cenewyg's troops. As far as I could tell there weren't any left alive, or at least not any left standing. There were however quite a few columns off in the distance, and they were all converging on this spot.

"I think we should be leaving now, don't you?" I said and motioned towards the on-coming forces.

"Excellent idea." Joseph agreed, and the three of us turned around and ran off, back the way we had come.

Twenty-One

Wasteland - Stepheen's City

"Hi, Dad,"

I looked up, it was Cameron. Joseph and Dezba had left two days ago, but I had decided to stick around until Cameron returned, I really wanted to meet my son, sentimental perhaps, but I was worried about him.

"Cam!" I said and standing I strode over to him and hugged him.

He looked a little surprised, "What was that for?"

"A father needs an excuse to hug his son?" I said and smiled at him.

"Well, maybe not," he said looking a little sheepish.

"And as your mother, I need even less of a reason," I teased him quietly.

I was surprised that he actually blushed at that!

"Come, I want to talk to you for a while," I said and taking his hand I led him off.

"Is this, err, really necessary?" he asked, still blushing.

"You went from three years old to being an adult, you're my own son and I hardly know you," I said, "Of course it's necessary! For me, if not you."

He nodded. "I guess I can do that, Dad," he said with a smile.

"I guess the biggest question I have, is how are you? How are you managing? What have you been doing?"

He told me everything that had happened in the last year, what he had done, and what he had hoped to do. I was surprised at his personality, and his knowledge, he had gone from being a baby to being an adult in just an instant after all.

He told me then that much of what he knew, and much of what he was, had come from his parents, namely me and Stephanie. Because he was now a demigod, he had actually gotten a lot of knowledge from her, and that they were linked as well, he could talk to her much like a high priest could. However he received no power from her, simply knowledge. What power he had, came from what he was.

I asked him about his powers next, and he confessed that he was still learning them, and that they were still growing a little as well. He really had no idea what he'd end up being able to do, and Stephanie either couldn't or wouldn't tell him. Apparently there were rules at work there too.

He was a little socially awkward as well, he might have had a man's body, and an adult's knowledge, but he had little experience with any of it. I could see at times that he was still finding his way though some situations. He wasn't quite a child, but he definitely wasn't an adult, and with the level of power he had, I could see that would cause him problems for years to come.

I spent another two weeks there, with him, and I guess you could say we did some father and son bonding, though I don't think raiding enemy camps and wiping out scorpion infestations are what most fathers would consider typical 'bonding' sessions.

But then of course, we were anything but typical, so it worked for us.

When the time came to leave, I left late at night, because when I showed up back at Fel's temple, I wanted to have some private time with him.

What I didn't expect however was for him to kill me the moment I set foot in his temple.

"What was that for?" I said looking at Fel, we were sitting in his bar, and he wasn't smiling for a change.

"Do you want to quit?" He asked.

I shook my head, "No, of course I don't want to quit!"

"Then why do you want to talk to me, why do you want to have this conversation?"

I sighed and looked down at the table, "Do you still want me to be your champion?" I asked quietly.

"Why wouldn't I?" he asked just as quietly.

"I've changed, Fel, and in the last year I don't think it was for the better either, I'm not sure that I'm still the same man that you signed on, the same man that gave you his oath." I paused a moment and then sighed, "And after what Fuerston did to Cenewyg, that was pretty cold, setting him up like that to be killed by us."

"Would you quit if I asked you to?" Fel asked me.

I nodded, "Of course I would! You mean a lot to me, I still think of you as my best friend! You've done so much for me too! If I was dragging you down, of course I'd step aside, I've told you before that I'm loyal, Fel, and I'm loyal to you."

Fel smiled at me, "And that's why I still want you as my champion, William, because if I asked you to leave, you would do it. You're more committed to me than any other champion I've ever had, some of my priests aren't even as committed as you are.

"Now, what's really troubling you?"

"I don't want to become an uncaring narcissistic self-centered, ass like Cenewyg was. I don't want to become a cruel sadistic bastard like those cops back in that jail. I don't want to become as unfeeling to the plight of others as those jerkwads raising money for terrorists to wipe out innocent lives."

"But you're a champion, William, you are above those people now, whether you like it or not."

I sighed, "Am I really?"

"Afraid so, especially with what happened to you because of Cameron."

I sighed again.

"But it doesn't have to go to your head," Fel said and smiled.

"Well, thank god for that," I smiled wanly.

"You're welcome," Fel said.

I couldn't help myself, I laughed. "So, did you really need to kill me to tell me all of this?"

"Actually, William, yes, I did. You needed some time to decompress, to distance yourself from everything that went on this last year. Also I wanted some time with you myself. The kinds of things you've had to do for the last year have been rougher than normal, and at the end there you were doing things that I know you didn't care for.

Those things take a toll on a man, even a champion, especially one like you, William. This is why I said you wouldn't make a good god, god's need to be self-centered and they need to think of themselves. Cenewyg would actually have made a decent god. Yes, he would have been an evil one, but he would have been good at it."

I looked at Fel, "How can you say that? You're not like that! Neither is Stephanie or Aryanna!"

"Actually, William, we are to an extent. We are all very self-centered, we think of ourselves and our religion first, we believe we are the center of everything, and we expect everyone to serve us.

"However, we understand the give and take between us and our followers, we understand the rewards that loyalty deserves, and the return on our investment in our people, and our followers. But when we do those things, we are always thinking about how it will effect us, ourselves, when we do.

"That's why you wouldn't make a good god, William, and why you wouldn't like it. You think too much of others before you think of yourself, you put the welfare of your wives, even Narasamman and Laria before your own! Why, you were even considering risking my wrath to help that old priest who was being punished. You are a great champion, because you care about the people and want to fight injustice, you empathize with their plight, you feel their pain, which is why the best champions always make the worst gods."

I sat down on one of the stools and thought about that.

"I really can't picture you as a self-centered narcissist, Fel," I said shaking my head.

"Oh, ask Aryanna about it sometime, she'll talk your ear off about it I'm sure," Fel laughed. "I gave her lots of headaches, sometimes I think I'm the reason she doesn't have male champions anymore!"

"Then why did she help you become a god?"

"Loyalty. That was one of the big differences between Cenewyg and Stephanie, or even me. We believe in loyalty. I may have given her a hard time about a hundred things, but I was loyal to her, and her first. I kept my word and fulfilled my vows."

I nodded, "I guess that makes a certain amount of sense. So what now?"

"Just like when you came back from the torture of that first evil god, I'm going to take a little time to rebuild you, put you back at ease with your own self. I don't want you second-guessing your decisions, and I don't want you agonizing over what's right and what's wrong. You have good instincts, and I want you to remember to trust them."

"Rebuild me?" I said a little surprised, I know I had been broken that one time, but I didn't feel broken now.

"Think of it more as therapy, William. No, you're not broken, but you are a little bent. Now, let's go talk with our people, and learn their stories, after that I believe Fordessa and Jane are planning a little concert for our benefit."

"Sure thing, Fel." I smiled and standing up we went outside. It did feel good here, and I always enjoyed talking to the people, it felt like coming home.

END Book Six

As an author, I would ask that if you liked this book, please take the time to rate it. Ratings are an important part of success as an ebook author, and four or five star ratings are of course the ones that help us the most. So while I feel a little embarrassed about asking for ratings and reviews, the reality of this business is that without those reviews my work will not rise in rankings and will not be seen by others. So please, if you liked the story I would greatly appreciate your taking the time to write a short review and rate the book.

Thank you,

John Van Stry

www.vanstry.net (vanstry@gmail.com)

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If you liked this book, you might like my other stories:

Urban/Modern Fantasy:

Portals of Infinity, Book One: Champion for Hire

William is just your typical engineer fresh out of college with a stressful job, a boring life, and not a lot of prospects of anything better in the future.

Until one weekend while hiking in the woods he stumbles across a portal to another time, or perhaps another place. The more he investigates this new world the more he realizes that it may just be able to offer him a lot more than the one he's been living in.

However, there are forces at work beyond anything that Will has ever come across before and the local goddess seems to have taken a liking to him. Will may soon find himself getting an offer he cannot afford to refuse.

Portals of Infinity, Book Two: The God Game

Will’s life has definitely changed since that day he went hiking in the woods of Pennsylvania. He’s discovered that reality is a lot bigger and stranger than he had ever imagined. Learning about the portals that link the infinite number of worlds opened his eyes to that wider reality. Learning that he was being groomed to become the Champion of a God in one of those realities was an even more startling discovery.

But now it’s time for him to pay the bill for his ‘recruitment’. Just as the Gods on a single world fight and jockey for power and position, the older Gods from the many different spheres of the infinite play a much larger and more complicated game. The Goddess Aryanna has a quest she needs completed, and William and four other Champions are the ones tasked to do it.

What bothers Will however is what could a Goddess possibly need? And why would it take five Champions to retrieve it?

Portals of Infinity, Book Three: Of Temples and Trials

With the first of what he suspects will be many favors completed, William finds himself busy with important tasks back at his home on Saladin. Queen Rachel has several jobs she needs him to do, and Feliogustus has similar tasks in mind for him as well. All in all, it seems easy enough to Will, it’s not like he’ll be fighting in any wars, or traveling across the infinite on a strange quest after all.

But things aren’t always as easy as they might seem, and both politics, as well as the other gods, aren’t going to ignore Will, or the tasks he’s been set to complete. And is if dealing with that isn’t problem enough, when the time comes to do some serious diplomacy between Hiland and a neighboring Kingdom, a deadly problem comes from a most unexpected quarter, forcing Will to take immediate action to payback both his, and his God’s foes.

Portals of Infinity, Book Four: The Sea of Grass

With no otherworld tasks to run for Fel, Will has spent the last year mainly helping Rachel consolidate her hold on her expanded kingdom. Barassa has been set back, for now, but Will knows it’s only a matter of time until they’re at odds once more and Barassa still has the bigger army. So taking the time to learn more about their enemy seems like a good place to start, and of course, Rachel has more things she expects him to do, even if he has no idea just how he’s going to do them.

Fel also has things for Will to do as well, even if they are the more mundane jobs that a Champion of the faith must perform. Escorting missionaries isn’t the most exciting or glamorous job, but its one Will must do. At least the people are different, interesting, and friendly, and some perhaps a little too friendly. But that’s never gotten him in trouble before, right?

Portals of Infinity, Book Five: Demigods and Deities

Life can be complicated for those who the gods pick as their champions, and for William, it's no different. Between dealing with issues at home and abroad for his god, and helping Queen Rachel defend Hiland against the threat of Barassa, William has been busy.

With a trip back to Sireen to deal with one of the consequences of an earlier quest, William finds he has more to deal with than expected, especially when his youngest is kidnapped for unknown reasons by a god with a grudge. That leads to some further discoveries about one of his earlier enemies, as well as enigmatic instructions from his god about his child. A child that there is more to, than it would seem.

The Hammer Commission

Mark just watched his partner and best friend of ten years torn limb from limb by the kind of unholy horror which leaves most people gibbering in terror. Only a combination of luck and skill kept Mark from sharing his partner's fate and being killed by an abomination that by rights shouldn't exist in this day and age.

When asked, Mark tells people he works recovering stolen artifacts, and that's true. However he's also a member of a very old and secret organization that protects the world from devils and demons summoned here to do evil. A foot soldier on the front lines of the eternal war between Heaven and Hell, things had been favoring the side of Heaven for some time now. Until today that is, when someone discovered how to summon a devil that no one had seen since WWII.

Never popular with his boss, Mark finds himself sidelined as he tries to discover just what happened. Upset with being taken off the case, Mark does discover one thing rather quickly: whoever is behind this is now after him, and if he's not careful he'll be joining his partner sooner, rather than later.

Lost Souls   (Shrean Universe)

Jarith was exiled from Elsheval, one of the great Elvin kingdoms, eight years ago for political reasons. A powerful and loyal warrior who led the Queen's armies to many victories, he was angry and upset, but he followed his orders and left. Now, eight years later, he is being summoned back from his exile to deal with a problem that apparently the Queen believes only he can handle.

Despite his still strong feelings over this betrayal, his desire to see his home and family wins out and he decides to answer the call. But living an exile among humans for the last eight years has left its mark on him, having been forced to hide his Shrean form from those who wouldn't understand.

And what of the lover Jarith was forced to leave behind? The woman he once thought destined to be his? How will all of this affect her?

Science Fiction:

Children of Steel

Raj is just your average everyday genetically modeled and artificially created anthropomorphic worker for one of the many corporations of the future. Extensively trained and conditioned from birth he's now indentured for the next fifty years of his life; assuming he doesn't die first, or somehow manage to pay off his creation and training debts.

Created by the corporations to deal with the harsh labor shortages of the twenty second century when humans will no longer take on the dangerous jobs Raj finds himself now in the harsh world of space exploration, trading, corporate maneuverings, and sometimes the even more dangerous fanatics that hate Raj and his fellows. No longer in safe confines of the training academies he must learn how to live and deal with both his fellow workers and the humans he encounters and not get saddled with extra bills or fines because he's screwed up or worse yet, get 'put down' because he's lost his temper one time too many.

After all, it's not like he's human...

Interregnum (Sequel to Children of Steel)

The war is over, Raj and Cassandra are together, and everything should be 'happily ever after', and return to normal, right?

Well, they would be, but Cassandra still has issues to overcome after spending three years in POW camps where abuse and even torture were commonplace and many of the guards were sadists. Raj has gotten over most of his problems, after all, he did save his mate's life, but there are still issues from his past that are dogging him. And of course, there are just a few minor things that need to be cleaned up, leftover issues from the war, and some of those issues shoot back.

Interregnum is the sequel to 'Children of Steel' and picks up where it left off, continuing to follow the life of Raj, a genetic construct and wage slave to one of the major corporations that dominate Human explored space.

Danger Money

Jotun was born and bred to be a corporate assassin, back in the days of the Corporate Wars. Confined these days to life in a gilded cage, Jotun welcomes any opportunity to get out and lately he's been getting out a lot. But as a genetically designed and Laboratory bred animorph by a company that isn't quite sure if it trusts him anymore his choices are few: do the jobs that eventually will kill him, or refuse, which will also kill him.
Of course it isn't like he doesn't enjoy the work, but when everybody wants you dead you start to wonder if there isn't more to life.
When an unexpected betrayal kills the few friends he has and nearly him as well, Jotun realizes he has bigger problems than his lifestyle, namely finding out who betrayed him and paying them back, no matter what the cost.

Danger Money is a Science Fiction story that takes place in my Children of Steel universe, a future where genetically created animorphs serve as second-class citizens and handle all of the dirty and dangerous jobs that are part of humanity's extension to the stars.

Dialene

Dialene's Captain decided to play pirate, and one well placed nuclear torpedo later she finds herself prisoner of the Corporation whose ship they were attempting to raid; her friends and lover all dead. With no corporation to ransom her back she finds herself in the unenviable position of having to work off the debt assigned to her for her part in her Captain's actions. With concerns as to where her loyalties lie she has but two choices: Work in the mines on an airless rock where a small fem like her would not last long, or work in the company bar entertaining those very same miners.
At least working in the bar beats the alternatives, until one day an interesting character inserts himself into her life.

A Novella from my Children of Steel universe, Dialene is a foxmorph who until her capture was a highly rated shuttle pilot working a deep space trader for one of the more notorious corporations. Like most of her kind she had no choices in her employer who considered her nothing more than a disposable asset.

Shorts: The Furry Years

A collection of short stories that I wrote years ago for several of different anthropomorphic fanzines. Includes the following short stories:

Changes: The hero of the story wakes up in the morning to find his world has changed, rather drastically for him, hardly at all for others.

Old Business: This is from my ‘Children of Steel’ universe, it’s about the beginning of it all, the very first of the sentient animen (or animorph) ever to be created.

New Beginnings: Jack is the new bartender at a small pub, a nice quiet pub in the business district. The patrons tend to find his opinions humorous, as what does a bartender know after all? (More of a slice of life type story).

Fox Hunt: A joke that I just could not resist.

Easy Money: What happens to spies who come in from the cold? Especially ones who grew up on the wrong side of the tracks? Nothing good I’m sure...

Available in eBook format at Amazon, available in print from CreateSpace or Amazon.