Fourteen
Ithaca, Two Temple Square
"So you retrieved the spear, the helmet, and the shield?" Priestess Anasa asked.
"Yes, we did, and we cleared out all of the Sun God's followers in the cave," Suzona said.
"What of the Sun God?" Priest Pietre asked.
Suzona turned and looked at me.
"He's gone from this world," I said.
"He's what?" Pietre said.
"Are you sure?" Anasa added.
I sighed. "Yes, I killed him; he's gone."
"You do know that Will here is a godslayer, right?" Evean said, grinning.
"Evean!" I interjected. "Please, you know I hate being called that!"
"We heard," Anasa said.
"But we didn't believe it," Pietre added.
"It's not like there was much left of him," I said.
"Well, we were not allowed to do it," Anasa said.
"Our gods were quite clear," Pietre said, then added, "However, they are grateful that you did it. Lofos tells me we would have not succeeded.
"Selini tells me the same," Anasa agreed.
"I wonder why. It wasn't hard, was it, Will?" Evean asked.
"The front temple was a con," I told them.
"You would have killed them and cleaned the place out, but there was a young priestess at a much older altar farther in.
She would have eventually left, after everyone else had been killed, and started his religion over somewhere else.
It would have been hidden from you because your gods can't see into temples or churches, or know their locations, nor can you see their priests. "
"But you can?" Anasa asked.
"Not exactly. I could feel his fear; I could feel that he was trying to hide.
" I took a deep breath and blew it out. "I'm not just a champion.
I'm a mythic. Killing gods is part of my myth.
I have certain… advantages, I guess you could say.
If the Sun God hadn't been such an ass to me, I would have looked the other way.
But we had a history, and there was no way I wasn't getting payback. "
"Oh."
"Yes, oh," Pietre agreed.
"I apologize for my rude words," I said, bowing to both of them. "On a different topic, I'm looking to travel to Scherie in Calypso. Are you engaging in trade with them? And if so, might I tag along?"
"Yes, we have recently begun trading with them, though it is still fairly limited, as we've only recently started to produce trade goods," Anasa said.
"I will inquire when the next trip is, and if it could take place sooner rather than later," Pietre added.
"Thank you."
"Now, we would like to invite the three of you to a feast," Anasa said.
"We would be delighted," Suzona said. "Oh, do we still have the room at the inn you set us up with?"
"Yes."
"Great, please send someone to get us when it's time," Suzona said, and with that, she grabbed my hand and Evean's and dragged us both off.
"What's the rush?" Evean asked.
"It's not good to stand in a square between two temples and casually let it be known that killing gods is one of your skills."
"Don't they already know that?"
"Their gods undoubtedly do; however, they obviously do not. I want to talk to Aryanna, and you, William, might wish to talk to Feliogustus."
"About what?"
"If you need to leave now, before the feast."
"Oh. Right." I sighed. "You know, maybe I'll sit the feast out and let you two go instead."
"Out of sight, out of mind, right?" Evean said.
"Exactly that. I like these people, I like their gods. I don't want to cause any issues."
§ §
"So, am I in trouble?" I asked Fel, taking the beer he handed me.
"No, but Suzona was right; she picked up on their unease, so getting you out of there was the right thing to do.
The idea that you killed a god and then talked about it like it was no big deal?
That bothered them a little. Aryanna told me their gods knew, and that was why they wanted you to come: they were worried the Sun God would do something their people wouldn't have seen. So they're grateful."
"So stay in the room and don't go to the feast?"
"Probably a good idea."
"Going to Scherie?"
"You're already most of the way there, so you might as well."
"It's been what? Twenty years?"
"Nineteen. Any children you may have gotten on those three women would be around eighteen now."
"It's going to be a bit strange, going back and trying to find them."
"It will be stranger still when they realize you haven't really aged at all, William."
"Yeah, I'm debating between lying and telling the truth. Problem is, I'm not the best at lying."
"Sometimes you're not all that good at telling the truth, either," Fel said with a laugh.
"Yeah, there is that. Anything I need to know?"
"Evean is probably not going to go with you, but Suzona probably will. Aryanna has been getting involved in these spheres, so she might send Suzona with you to gather intelligence."
I nodded. "Well, if there's nothing else I need to know or do, I guess I'll wake up and let the girls know I won't be going to the feast."
"Until later, William."
§ §
"So how was dinner?" I asked when Suzona and Evean finally returned.
"It was good. Very good. I think they understood your desire to keep a low profile after what you had to do. That you didn't want to give anyone any ideas," Suzona said with a smile.
"Still, it would have been nicer if you were there," Evean said. "You did them a huge favor, and they know it."
"Did they say anything about a trip to Scherie?"
"There will be one the day after tomorrow. I, however, won't be going with you," Evean said with a sigh.
"Business at home?"
"Very much that. This also took longer than expected, and with you haring off to visit your kids, who knows how long that could be?"
I nodded. "Sue?"
"Honestly, while I'd like to go home, as well, Aryanna has been involved in some of the trading of favors in this area and wants me to go so she can gather further firsthand information."
"I'm not surprised. She was definitely involved in whatever went on here. So, Ev, when are you leaving?"
"Sometime tomorrow," Evean said, smiling at me. "I thought maybe we could have a little fun first?"
"And then a lot of fun after that, right?" I teased.
"Works for me!"
#
The morning of the day after Evean left, a guard from one of the temples showed up to escort us to the docks so we could board the ship that was going off to trade. We took a carriage there, and the ship we were shown to was definitely not an ocean-going vessel.
"Suzona, William, this is Bennoit. He is the man in charge of the trade mission," the guard said, and as Suzona and I shook hands with Bennoit, he left.
"What's with the boat?" I asked as soon as we'd finished shaking hands.
"What do you mean?"
"This isn't something I'd want to sail across an ocean, or even a sea."
Bennoit laughed. "Oh, right! The portal isn't that far offshore, and we don't sail in bad weather. Once we go through, we wait for one of the Phaeacian vessels to show up. They'll secure the ship aboard their vessel and take us the rest of the way."
"Why do they do that?" Suzona asked.
"They don't care for other people sailing ships in their waters."
"Wait until you see their ship, Suzona," I said, smiling at her. "They're amazing boat builders."
"You've been here before?" Bennoit asked.
I nodded. "About nineteen years ago. I'm going back to visit a couple of people."
"Oh, I didn't know. We were just told to take you with us."
"Ah. When we arrive, I'll talk to whoever's in charge and make my own arrangements. Is Awie still the master of the Eastern Port?"
Bennoit nodded.
"Great! If you could direct us to a place to sit so we can be out of everyone's way, we'd both appreciate it."
"Well, come up front to the pilot house; there's a fair bit of room up there. I'll introduce you to our helmsman, then I need to get back to supervising the loading."
I nodded, and we followed him to the front of the boat and the pilot house, or I guess the bridge. It wasn't as wide as the boat, and the top of it wasn't very high. Then again, this close to the front, it didn't need to be.
"Geordi, this is Suzona and William. They're traveling with us today."
We all shook hands, then Bennoit left.
"So, why are you joining us?" Geordi asked.
"We did a service for your gods, and William asked if we could ride along with the next trade ship," Suzona said.
I could see that Geordi was having a hard time not staring at her chest, so I took her over to a couple of chairs, and we both sat down.
"How often do you sail there?" I asked.
"About once a month. This trip was moved up a week, I'm guessing so you two could go. Why would you want to go to Scherie? Everything is weird there."
I chuckled. "I'm looking to visit a couple of people I met the last time I was there."
"When were you last there?"
"About nineteen years ago."
"Oh! Okay. We've only been trading regularly for about four years now. They had us build the boat like this to make it easier to take us aboard."
"So why are you the pilot? Can you see the portal?"
Geordi looked around to see if anyone else was aboard, then nodded. "We're not supposed to share that with others. Not everyone can see them, you know."
"Yes, we know. We can both see them," Suzona said. "How long will it take to get there?"
"With the light winds we have today, probably about two hours. We use a team of oxen on the shore to tow us down the channel, then we use our sails to drive through the portal."
"How do you keep from capsizing?" I asked, since the boat was only about ten feet wide but at least forty feet long, and I could see they were stacking cargo a lot higher than I would have thought safe.
"Oh, we have pontoons that we'll rig once we're in the canal. We have to raise them, however, to fit through the portal. That's part of the reason why we don't go through in rough seas."
I just nodded, leaned back against the rear bulkhead, and closed my eyes. Suzona leaned into me, and we relaxed and waited. They'd still been loading when we arrived, so I was sure we'd have a while.