A Plethora of Deities:
Book Four
The Tree
by
Jonathan Edward Feinstein
I’ve never
really been satisfied with the first book of this series, Downhill All the Way. For starters, I never liked the title but
couldn’t find one I liked better. And there were things I tried to say about
the nature of Divinity and Infinity that I really was not comfortable with.
Perhaps the problem was that I wrote that story too soon.
Whatever the
reason when I wrote In the Sky With
Diamonds I kept the connections between the two books somewhat tenuous.
Yes, these were the same gods who had appeared in Downhill, but aside from cameo appearances by Marcus and Jael from
the first book, I left a lot of explanations for the differences in the worlds
of the two books to myself. I was trying to move on from the flaws of the first
book. It was successful in that I liked the second story much more than the
first.
When I came up
with the idea for Book Three, The Seed,
I had to admit “A Plethora of Deities” was a series and I finally explained
what had happened at the end of the first book and why Hawk Wilton’s world was
so different from the one Marcus Steele had lived in. This time I liked the way
I handled matters that made me uncomfortable in the first book and there was
another difference. The first two books were not really about the gods. Downhill was about Marcus although Jael
became a major character as the story progressed. Sky was really about Hawk and how he whipped the gods into a viable
team, but in The Seed, while Eddie
was definitely the main character, several of the gods and Jael became equally
important characters. I had a pretty good ensemble cast going, so when I
realized I had only told half the story, I was more than willing to continue on
with the ensemble.
So here you
go, the other half of the story I started in The Seed. Of course, I liked this one so much, I’d like to write
still more stories in this series. However, I’ll have to wait until inspiration
strikes. For some strange reason, I’ve never been able to force these
particular characters to do anything…
As
with all the others, this book really is offered to you free. However, if after
reading it you feel it was worth a dollar or two, rather than sending it to me,
why not make a donation to the Jewish Federation of Greater New Bedford, 467
Hawthorn Street, North Dartmouth, MA 02747
email: mailto:jfgnb@meganet.net The Jewish Federation hosts and/or supports a
wide variety of services and programs in the Greater New Bedford area and
internationally including assistance in resettling families from the Former
Soviet Union, their “Wheels in Motion” transportation service for the elderly,
college scholarship programs, recruitment for local blood bank drives, a
permanent Jewish video lending library, many educational programs and the
allocations to other local agencies in the New Bedford, Mass. Area. For more
information write or call them at (508) 997-7471.
Jonathan E.
Westport
August 24, 2006
The Tree
Skuld walked alone. The Valkyr had become used to being on her own of late, but not
normally under these circumstances. Her footsteps reverberated as she
progressed down the long dark corridor. She hated this place, so unlike the
halls of Asgard where she had spent most of her life.
Skuld, who was just as often called Necessity, had
never truly appreciated Asgard until she came here for the first time. Asgard
had certain grim responsibilities, but it was a friendly and cheerful place in
all. The realm Skuld now progressed through was designed only for punishment
and repression. There was no
Skuld strode with long, purposeful steps, but somehow
she failed to make any progress. That was a feature of this place, she knew,
but understanding didn’t make it any easier to bear. It had never been this
long to her before. She was being punished. Idly, Skuld wondered if she would
ever be allowed to reach the room at the end of the corridor. Then, just as she
started to despair a harsh female voice growled, “Oh hurry up already!”
In three swift steps, Skuld reached the tall black
doors and pushed them open to reveal a cavernous room beyond. Most of the rooms
in this realm had been modernized and, in fact, looked very much like any
office building in a large city, but this room was half volcanic caldera and
half medieval torture chamber.
Skuld kept her eyes from lingering on the
intimidating devices that lined the room. These days they were supposedly just
for show, but they had all been used at one time or another and each, she had
discovered, had absorbed the torment of those on whom they had been used. The
result was that anyone, with even a whisper of empathy in his or her soul,
could feel the pain when looking at the racks, thumbscrews, iron maidens,
water-boards and all the rest. Skuld knew she was tough, a Valkyr had to be, but even she could not bear to dwell on the
devices in this room.
There was a throne at the far end of the room. It was
not a tall chair with a high back but one of a medieval design, that a man
wearing a sword might sit on in the same manner he would ride a horse and on
which a woman would sit “side-saddle.” The female figure on this throne,
however, was seated in the masculine style as she glared at Skuld.
The woman on the throne could not be seen clearly in
this room. Instead she had intentionally cloaked herself in shadow so that all
anyone could see were a pair of glowing orange eyes. It was not her natural
appearance, Skuld knew, but it was the guise in which she held court. Skuld
reached a familiar spot approximately nine feet in front of the throne, kneeled
and waited.
“You failed me, Skuld,” the woman on the throne
observed an eternity later.
“I did my part!” Skuld replied defiantly. She had
never let Odin or the other gods of Asgard know they intimidated her and she
refused to show her fears here either. “I got the Tree. It’s not my fault Loki
and Iblis wouldn’t listen to a woman.”
Her outburst was met by another long silence. Finally
the reply came. “There is that. Never trust a man to get anything right on the
first attempt. They won’t read the instructions and they refuse to stop for
directions.” She paused again, while Skuld waited respectfully. “We’ll do
things differently this time.”
“Our forces are scattered, Mistress,” Skuld informed
her. “Most of our allies are dead, maybe permanently.”
“We’ll need new allies, then,” the woman on the
throne snapped at Skuld, “Don’t worry. I have that well in hand, and we’ll stop
relying on men.”
“Good idea, Mistress,” Skuld agreed instantly “The
others are relying almost entirely on women, Nature, that harlot Venus, and the
demoness Jael.”
“Jael!” the mysterious woman snarled. Her eyes became
twin flames of hate for a minute before she calmed down enough to continue.
“That one has a lot to answer for.”
“I can fix her,” Skuld replied confidently. “She was
entirely too smug for my taste when we met. It would be my pleasure to give you
her head as a gift.”
“No!” the other woman stopped Skuld. “That one is
mine. I’m going to deal with her personally. I owe her so very much.”
One
Eddy Salem took the kettle off the stove and poured
the steaming water into the teapot. He really preferred coffee, but sipping tea
with the goddess known to the world as Mother Nature, or as he knew her,
He had chosen today’s blend carefully, using a base
of
“Anything I can do to help?” a female voice asked
cheerfully from the kitchen door.
“The pastries, perhaps, Ina,” Eddy suggested and
pointed toward a tray of small creampuffs sitting on the kitchen table. “Did
you just get back?”
“I didn’t go very far,” Ina replied cheerfully. She
had, in fact, been much more relaxed and cheerful in the last two weeks than
she had been when Eddy first met her. A change had certainly affected her for
the best. Ina was better known to most folks by other names; Innana, Ishtar,
Astarte, Aphrodite and Venus, just to name a few, but in Hattamesett, on the
Southcoast of Massachusetts, the local shopkeepers had come to know her as Ina
Loveall. “I just thought I’d try walking a few miles for exercise.”
“You need exercise?” Eddy asked disbelievingly.
“Even a goddess needs to keep her weight down,” Ina
replied primly.
“You look great just the way you are,” Eddy assured
her.
“You’re sweet,” Ina smiled, “but I don’t want to
out-grow all my clothes.”
Eddy kept his thoughts to himself as he lifted a
second tray with tea cups and the pot on it. He was convinced that Ina simply
created whatever outfits she chose to wear on the spot. He was correct about
one thing, however. Ina was gorgeous, but when
“No need,” Ina told her, smiling. “There were only
two trays after all and Eddy did most of the preparation. Where’s Jael?”
“Right here!” Jael responded from the far end of the
garden. “I’ve been weeding around the peppers. The weeds got away from us while
we were busy in Yarmouthport.”
“Weeds do that sort of thing,” Eddy chuckled. “But
the garden is my hobby. You don’t have to work on it.”
“I don’t mind,” Jael replied in two voices at once,
one soprano, the other her more usual contralto. She abruptly grew a few inches
taller, her face lengthened a bit and her hair lightened to honey blonde.
“We’ve been thinking of buying a house with Marcus and this is good practice.
You never know if you’re going to like garden work until you get down and try
it.”
The higher-voice blonde was actually not Jael at all,
but a woman named Rona. Eddy had still not heard the entire story of how it had
happened, but some fourteen or fifteen years previously, Jael had become
possessed by Rona’s spirit, or something like that. They had evidently had a
few rocky years together after that, but had eventually come to terms with
their predicament and, in fact, made a very good team together if one could
ignore their occasional squabbles.
Jael, the demoness, however was the default
personality, so whenever they relaxed it was her form they assumed. So while it
was Rona who had just spoken, it was Jael who stepped around the large tree
that was the centerpiece of Eddy’s
backyard and came to join them for tea.
“So, do you like gardening?” Eddy asked as he poured
for Jael.
“Very much so,” Jael agreed enthusiastically. “I’d
never actually tried it until we built the water garden.” She looked toward the
tree; there were a pair of small ponds with a waterfall running between them at
the base of the tree. The top pond had been left clear, but the lower pond was
filled with blue lotuses and dwarf papyrus that had been specially enchanted to
be hardy to the
Jael’s normal responsibilities included punishing
unrepentant polluters in Hell. It was not a job she loved. She much preferred
when souls got the point of why they were being punished sooner rather than
later, but it was a job from which both she and Rona got a certain amount of
satisfaction.
Afternoon tea had gradually become a welcome quiet
time for them all and a time during which they could contemplate the tree. It
was that tree that brought them all together. Seven months earlier, Eddy had
come home from grocery shopping one afternoon to discover he had “won” the
grand prize in the Springtime Seed Company’s contest. It was a contest he had
only vaguely been aware of. Never having won anything in a contest or a
lottery, it was not something he had expected to ever affect him in the
slightest.
The grand prize had been a single seed. He didn’t
learn until much later that it had come from what he thought of as the Tree of
Life but which the three goddesses who had become as close to him as family
usually referred to as Yggdrasil, or the World Tree.
He also learned that what he thought of as history
was divided up into long cycles and that in a very literal way each cycle ended
with the destruction of the world only to be replaced by something new, but
which bore a strong resemblance to what had come before it, complete with the
remembered history of those past cycles, although each cycle was different and
unique.
Eddy would never have believed it had he not come to
grips with the fact that Dee and Ina were goddesses and that Jael was a
possessed demoness, but according to them, magic had been real during the
previous cycle. Given all he had witnessed in the last few months, however, he
was not entirely certain there was no magic in the world he knew now.
Once each cycle, the World Tree produced a single
viable seed. That seed, if it managed to sprout and then grow to maturity,
would create an entirely new universe. That seed had also grown into the eighty
foot tall tree in Eddy’s back yard.
For the gods, that Tree represented the ultimate
power. Whoever was in possession of the Tree at the moment of transcendence,
that single instant in which the new universe came into being, would become the
supreme being of that new universe, It was a temptation few deities could
resist.
So far they had defended the Tree from a multitude of
attacks, although as a seedling it had been stolen by the Valkyr Skuld and delivered up into the hands of the Norse god Loki
and Iblis, the Islamic aspect of Satan. The Seedling had been retrieved safely
but at the cost of many divine lives on both sides. The special lotuses and
papyrus in the pond had been gifts to commemorate the sacrifice of the Egyptian
god Osirus although he had been in good company before the tree was safely back
in Hattamesett.
Most of the gods would come back to life at the
beginning of the next cycle, but Eddy too had nearly been killed when he single-handedly
fought Loki. Eddy survived, but Loki had not been quite as fortunate, although
had he survived he would have had to face Odin’s wrath. So maybe Loki had
gotten off easy after all.
Eddy had taken weeks to completely recuperate even
with the assistance of
“Are you sure the Tree won’t interfere with air
traffic?” Eddy asked
“She’s only eighty feet tall,”
“Supposed to yes,” Eddy agreed, “I think they’re
supposed to cruise at one thousand feet or higher but there’s one idiot around
here who gets a kick out of flying just over the tree tops. I know the tree
can’t be seen from the front of the yard, but wouldn’t that make it all the
more dangerous?”
“I doubt it,”
“Unless she’s a moth,” Ina cut in.
“I’ve never had any trouble telling the difference,”
“Well, I wouldn’t expect you to make that sort of
mistake, no,” Ina admitted, “but the rest of us aren’t so gifted, not with bugs
anyway. Now trees are something else altogether.”
“Trees, Ina?’ Jael asked. “I didn’t realize you had any
special affinity with trees. Was it as Innana?”
“All of my aspects have been associated with gardens
and vegetation, to one extent or another actually,” Ina admitted. “Well, all
the ones I’ve conjoined with in my current form anyway. Did you realize Athena
is one of my aspects?”
“Never heard that,” Jael admitted.
“I have,” Rona cut in, taking over Jael’s body in the
process. “But you haven’t merged with her, have you?”
“No, we don’t always merge with all our aspects,” Ina
replied.
“But I still don’t see it,” Jael admitted, flashing
back to her natural form, complete with the cute little horns and tail. “How is
Athena one of your aspects?”
“Even though you think of me as Inanna, you’ve
forgotten what I was like as her,” Ina replied. “As Inanna, I was very much a
goddess of war. So too were Ishtar and Astarte. The Athena aspect diverged from
Astarte. By the time the Roman pantheon had started to wane we no longer had
all that much in common and we never merged.”
“So if Astarte was a goddess of war,” Eddy asked,
“how did you become Aphrodite?”
“Interesting question,” Ina admitted. “That started
during the Canaanite period when I diverged into three goddesses, or maybe it
was two goddesses, one with a pair of closely related aspects. There was always
a bit of confusion on that matter especially when the Israelites put their own
spin on my nature. In that period I was literally two or three completely
different goddesses, depending on how you count and exactly when you’re talking
about. I was Astarte, the wife of Ba’al, but as Astarte my other aspect was
Anat, a hunter and warrior. In that period I was once more the Queen of Heaven,
but there was another, older queen who was the wife of El. Her name was Asherah
and she reigned with El even as I reigned with Ba’al. They were the older,
somewhat tired,
couple. Ba’al
and I were the young up and comers, at least according to the Canaanites. Among
the Israelites it was a different story. El Shaddai and his consort Asherah
were mature but vital deities. Anyway,” Ina continued, “Asherah was also one of
my aspects.”
“You were a goddess to the Jews?” Eddy asked incredulously.
“No,” Ina shook her head, “to the Israelites. Judaism,
as the monotheism you think of it, did not really start to develop until some
centuries after David and Solomon, toward the end of the Monarchy or maybe
during the Babylonian Exile.”
“Don’t you know?” Eddy asked.
“I wasn’t there at the time,” Ina shrugged. “We’re getting
off the subject, however. Asherah was closely associated with trees and the
sea, associations that Aphrodite and Venus had as well.”
“So what became of Asherah?’ Rona asked. “Did you
merge with her too?”
Ina looked puzzled for long moment. “I don’t know.
Isn’t that strange? I suppose I must have merged with the Canaanite version of Asherah,
too many of her associations became connected to my later aspects, but I
honestly don’t have any recollection of having done so.”
“What about the Israelite Asherah?” Jael asked.
“Can’t say,” Ina shrugged. “She was always so close
with Asherah of Canaan that they often merged with and diverged from each
other. I don’t have very many clear memories of the end of the Israelite
period, though, I was a bit scattered at the time, being both Tanit to the
Phonecians and Aphrodite to the Greeks and a host of other goddesses as well.
That’s odd, Tanit was as close an aspect of Asherah, maybe closer, as she was
of mine, but I recall merging with her. Well, I didn’t coalesce back into my
current form until the Roman period. Still, I remember merging with my various
other aspects, maybe Asherah went somewhere else?”
“I wasn’t watching at the time,”
“It would involve leaving Hattamesett for a longer
amount of time than we ought to,” Ina pointed out. “Maybe I’ll take the time to
look into it when this is over though. Until then I’ll use my few spare moments
to nurture that new cult of mine.”
“I really would have loved to see the expressions on
the faces of your followers when you actually showed up in person,” Jael
laughed.
“Now that I’ve had time to get over it myself,” Ina
smiled, “it was fairly amusing.”
“Have you gotten around to telling them you’re not
that kind of girl anymore?” Jael inquired carefully.
Ina sighed, “Repeatedly. Some of them have even
listened. Naturally, the one who listened most closely was the one I chose as
my new high priestess. That helped a lot, though there’s no cause so good and
pure that it won’t attract some fools anyway and my old reputation seems to
have attracted some fairly shallow and immature people. I haven’t culled them
out of the cult, but I have been encouraging them to grow up. Most of them are
improving.”
“Eddy,” Rona asked, “do you mind if I pick some of your
veggies for the salad tonight?”
“Not at all,” Eddy told her. “That’s why I grow them,
after all. I picked some tomatoes earlier, but you’ll find some nice cucumbers
still on their vines, though the fall crop of peas won’t produce for another
two or three weeks. And there are some nice ripe peppers now too.”
“There’s still some summer lettuce left, isn’t
there?” Rona asked. When Eddy nodded, she continued, “Good. I noticed there are
none in the fridge.”
“It’s been very quiet around here lately, hasn’t it?”
Ina noted.
“We came out of Yarmouthport in better shape than we
might have expected,” Jael pointed out. “Anyone thinking of making a move on
the Tree has to be having second thoughts. There have been a few comparatively
minor incidents lately, but I think they’ve mostly involved tail ends of Loki’s
and Iblis’ army. I haven’t seen a frost giant in weeks.”
“Jotunheim is likely looking like a ghost town about
now,”
“What do you mean?” Eddy asked.
“Not really sure,”
“A pole?” Jael asked.
“A tree goes through four stages of development as
defined in the lumber industry,”
“And if we were,” Ina pointed out, “he’s already
thick and tall enough to be considered sawtimber, but he’ll get much larger yet.”
“Indeed,”
“Hmm,” Ina considered. “We are under siege, aren’t
we? That’s not my usual forte in any guise. I’ve always been prone to direct
action. I don’t like to just sit and wait.”
“I’m with you there,” Jael agreed, but continued as
Rona, “but that’s our situation whether we like it or not. For myself, I think
I’m more comfortable when we’re shoring up our defenses, even if Jael would
prefer to take the attack back to our enemies, Mother Nature, how do you feel
on this?”
“I’ve been known for my patience,”
“In a sense,” Jael added, “we’ve always been under
siege, you know.”
“Well, yes,” Ina allowed, “but anyone after the Tree
is not going to be able to transplant him. If we are forced into another battle
it will be right here in Hattamesett.”
“Now that bothers me,” Eddy told them. “We were able to isolate the
battle in Yarmouthport from the rest of the town, but any fighting here is
certain to be noticed. Not only noticed, but likely to kill quite a few of my
neighbors and possibly the authorities who come blundering in to investigate.”
“Possibly not,”
“Sort of?” Eddy pressed.
“This is a very special case, Eddy,”
“In Mister Waters’ tricked out van,” Eddy replied,
“yes.”
“That too,”
“Some of it,” Eddy admitted. “It sounded like a
fairly mystical explanation at the time, until Jael started bring in modern
physics. Then it just got weird.”
“Well, in a sense, the Tree is doing the same sort of
thing, except she isn’t moving,”
“The area around the new Tree,”
“Such as?” Ina asked.
“Well, it seems to me,”
“If that’s the case,” Jael replied decisively, “we
need to find it quickly and protect ourselves from attack along that route. But
how are we going to find it?”
“We need an expert,”
Two
“The place seems quieter now,” Ratatosk remarked from
one of the branches of the Tree. Ratatosk was a giant squirrel, roughly the
size of a full grown German Shepard. His normal job was to carry strife and
rumor up and down the trunk of Yggdrasil, but he was also one of the guardians
of the great World Tree and so was also interested in the development of the
new Tree.
“It would,” Eddy told him. “Not only are we not
currently under attack, but the summer people have gone home.” Eddy was cooking
burgers on the grill.
“I still see a lot of boats in the harbor,” Ratatosk
observed.
“Well, most of them come back for the weekends and
will, at least through Columbus Day and quite a few will keep visiting right
through Thanksgiving. Also the weather will have its little ups and downs but there
are usually some nice sailing days through October and sometimes even in
November. So while some owners have put their boats in storage already, most
will wait until after Columbus Day and a few will tempt the fates by putting
off that chore until Thanksgiving. That’s often too long, of course, and there
are always one or two who fail to get their boats out before it becomes too
inclement to do so. With a bit of luck, though, the boats will survive and only
need minor repairs.”
“And if they don’t have a bit of luck?” Ratatosk
asked.
“Their boats will have to be scooped up off the
bottom of the harbor,” Eddy shrugged. He looked down at the grill he was
working at. “Are you sure you want this burger rare?”
“Why?” Ratatosk asked. “Is there anything wrong with
the meat?”
“I wouldn’t be serving it, if there was,” Eddy
replied, slightly offended.
“Then rare will be just fine,” Ratatosk replied.
“You’re one of the few guys who actually feeds me something other than nuts and
fruit, you know?”
“So you tell me,” Eddy shrugged. “
“Yeah, so she says,” Ratatosk laughed, “but let’s see
her survive on nothing but fruit and nuts for a millennium or two and see how
vegetarian she is at the end of it all. So, where are the babes?”
“In the kitchen, I think,” Eddy replied, “although
Jael went out to pick up some dill relish.”
“Not on my account, I hope,” Ratatosk commented. “Too
sour. I prefer the sweet stuff.”
“No, it’s for me,” Eddy laughed. “So has
“Oh yeah,” Ratatosk nodded. “You’re afraid that some
sort of backdoor way into Hattamesett may have opened up when you plopped the
Tree into the ground here. He has gotten big, hasn’t he. You know I don’t
recall that Yggdrasil was quite this tall before it transcended.”
“You remember the world before Yggdrasil?” Eddy asked
interestedly.
“Not really,” Ratatosk admitted. “I was just an
ordinary squirrel that happened take up residence on the adolescent Yggdrasil
before it transcended. If I hadn’t actually been on the branches at the right
moment, my job would probably have been held by an errant ant or something.”
“I think I prefer you as a squirrel,” Eddy chuckled.
“A giant rat with a fluffy tail?” Ratatosk shot back.
“Well, I guess it’s better than being a reject from a B-grade movie. I think
you’re burning those burgers.”
“Am not,” Eddy denied. “You ordered yours rare, not
raw.”
“What’s the difference?” Ratatosk asked.
“About fifty-five degrees in this weather,” Eddy
replied easily. “So what do you think? Is there a back way in here like
“I don’t know,” Ratatosk replied. “I seriously doubt
there’s a back way into Hattamesett at the moment. I’d be surprised if there
was a back way into the neighboring towns for that matter.”
“I think you’re wrong, Ratty,”
“The whole area is cut-off from Yggdrasil, Toots,”
Ratatosk snapped at her. “I ought to know.”
“The Tree isn’t the only way we travel, Furby,”
“If there were, wouldn’t we have been using them to
get to Yggdrasil?” Ratatosk countered.
“Only if we had known where they were,” Jael chimed
in as she carried a large pitcher of ice tea outside.
“Also,”
“Well, I’ll look for a way in, Toots, but I don’t
promise results this time,” Ratatosk warned her. “Even if it does exist I may
not be able to find it. There are only a few universes that have been born from
the seeds of Yggdrasil and each one only has one way in from this one. The only
reason I’m agreeing to look is that if there is a way it’s probably the
beginning of the one path into the new world. Otherwise I’d say you’re just
being paranoid.”
“It’s not being paranoid if the whole world really is
against you,” Rona remarked, abruptly appearing in Jael’s place.
“It can be,” Jael disagreed, reappearing for just a
moment before being replaced by Rona again.
“But probably isn’t,” Rona told her.
“Will you two stop that?” Ratatosk complained.
“You’re making me dizzy.”
“What is?” Ina asked as she entered the garden with a
bag of groceries. “Did I miss anything?”
“Nothing you haven’t seen or heard a dozen times or
more,” Eddy told her tiredly.
“Are you okay, Eddy?” Ina asked. “You sound tired.”
“I’m fine,” Eddy assured her. “It’s been a long day,
is all. I’m not as young as I used to be.”
“You’re not as old as you used to be either,” Jael
reminded him, “thanks to that berry I fed you,”
“Perhaps,”
“I have to put the garden to bed this month,” Eddy
protested.
“There’s plenty of time for that, dear,”
“Eddy,” Ina added, “I know what it is. You actually
feel younger than you did a few months ago and your body is fooling you into
thinking you’re younger still. As you grew older, you learned to pace yourself,
but now, because you wake up with a bit more vigor that you had before, you
think you can step up that pace. But you know, being seventy again doesn’t make
you a young man. Just try working back at the same pace you used to.”
“Easier said than done,” Eddy remarked.
“I know,” Ina nodded sympathetically, “but you’ll do
it for us, right?”
“Oh, man,” Ratatosk chortled. “They have you by the
nose ring!”
“Let’s see,” Eddy retorted, “You wanted that burger
well done, right?”
“Whoa, mate! Sorry!” Ratatosk reversed himself. “I’ll
be good!” Eddy smiled and served the squirrel a rare burger.
“That’ll be a first!” Jael laughed.
“Eddy,” Ina insisted, ignoring the byplay between
Jael and Ratatosk, “I want you to promise me you’ll let Jael and me do the
harvesting for you tonight.”
“Tonight?” Eddy asked. “Why would you be picking
anything tonight?”
“Haven’t you been watching the weather?” Ina asked.
“Hurricane Oscar is headed this way.”
“Hurricane Oscar?” Jael asked. “When did that one
spin up?”
“Just this morning,”
“That was ten hours ago,” Ina shook her head. “I
don’t think Oscar bothered to watch the Weather Channel, so he decided to come
visit the Southcoast. You think he wants to meet the new tree as well?” Her
tone indicated she was amused, but
“That’s a distinct possibility,” she told them
grimly. “I’d better check on that.”
“Can’t you do it from here?” Eddy asked.
“Not for the duration, dear,” she told him. “The Tree
is blocking my abilities along those lines. May I borrow your car to get beyond
the effect?”
“Of course,” Eddy replied instantly. “But aren’t you
going to eat first?”
“This is too important, dear,”
“No need,” Jael told her, cell phone in hand. “I have
Nin-ti on the line right now. Yes,” she continued to Nin-ti, “I think we need
to pull our perimeter defenders closer in to the house tonight and put
additional forces where they’ve been. Oh, yeah, definitely! Tell them to bring
food in with them. Eddy? You don’t have a generator, do you?”
“No, I usually just tough out the occasional power
outage,” Eddy informed her.
“Better bring one of those in too and enough gasoline
to get us through a week,” Jael continued to Nin-ti. “Why of course you can
come too! Yes! Eddy! We’re going to have a hurricane party!”
Three
“I didn’t realize we had so many guards around the
house,” Eddy remarked, by the time everyone had come inside the house. Most of
the guardian gods were sitting in the
garden, where the evening weather remained warm and the winds continued to stay
calm for now, but some had quietly made themselves at home in the kitchen and
living room. “We may feel a bit crowded after the storm strikes.”
“There are only a couple dozen of us here, Eddy,”
Jael reminded him. “Mmm, do you mind if I grab another burger?”
“Go right ahead,” Eddy laughed. He had given up his
place at the grill to Gilgamesh thirty minutes earlier, but had remained
outside in the warm evening air. “I don’t know how you can eat so much.”
“Hey!” Jael protested, “I’m eating for two you know.”
“You make it sound like we’re pregnant,” Rona
observed.
“It could happen,” Jael retorted off-handedly.
“Not if we don’t start sleeping with Marcus a bit
more often,” Rona retorted.
“There’s no big hurry, Rona, you know that,” Jael
explained around a bite of the burger. “We’re immortal and so is Marcus. We can
wait millennia to have children if we want.”
“Are you sure?” Rona asked seriously. “A lot of good
people have died defending this tree so far.”
“Well, it wouldn’t no how be permanent,” Jael
replied, paraphrasing an old comic strip.
“You don’t know that,” Rona accused. “You’ve never
died, have you?”
“True enough,” Jael admitted. “Are you saying you
want out of guarding the Tree?”
“Of course not!” Rona exclaimed, “I just want to
point out that even immortals don’t always know the future.”
“Well, the odds are we would live again in the next
cycle,” Jael assured her. “The worst thing that might happen is that after
being out of circulation for so long, we’d probably have to start at the bottom
in Hell again. I don’t particularly like working in Legal, but at least they
have air conditioning.”
Eddy watched them talking back and forth and decided
Ratatosk had been right, watching them really could make you dizzy. The
squirrel had left with
He looked around and saw the various gods and
goddesses chatting as though they were at the after-hours cocktail party of a
professional conference. In a sense, he reminded himself, maybe they were. He
wondered how many times they got to meet like this outside their pantheons and
just talk for no particular purpose other than to pass the time. He listened to
a few of the conversations and was surprised to discover that the gods seemed
to make the same sort of small talk humans did. It was particularly amusing to
hear Hercules describing to Ina what he thought of the mocha-maple latte he’d
had recently at Starbucks.
Finally
“It’s a natural storm,” she told them. “No one is
directing it or sending it our way, but if it holds to its current heading
we’re looking at sustained winds of category 2 or 3 force for several hours
just after dawn.”
“Couldn’t you redirect it?” Eddy asked.
“I suppose I could,”
“Not even steering the storm away from us?” Eddy
asked.
“I don’t have the power to push it directly away, not
this soon before land fall,”
“The weather of New England is not a closed system,”
“I thought that was a natural occurance,” Jael
commented.
“Not hardly,”
“Are you sure, Ceres?” Hercules asked from near
Eddy’s greenhouse. “The forecast I just saw puts the likely track over
“I’d like to think I understand weather patterns a
little better than the National Weather Service, Herc,” she replied with a
mixture of humor and irritation.
“Well, that’s a relief,” Enki replied as he entered
the garden. Enki had set himself up as the president and CEO of the fictitious
Springtime Seed Company when it first turned out that Yggdrasil was producing a
viable seed. Being a stickler for details, he had set up an actual corporation,
based in
“Waters,” Eddy greeted him by the name Enki used as a
mortal guise, “when did you get here?”
“Just now,” Enki replied with a grin. “Wouldn’t want
to miss a good party, now would I? Seriously, I felt my place would be here
defending the Tree in case of attack. Just because this is a natural storm
approaching, it doesn’t mean our enemies might not use it as a cover, right?”
“Who are our enemies now?” Eddy asked. “I thought we
pretty much wiped out that army in Yarmouthport.”
“We did,” Enki replied, “but Loki and Iblis aren’t
the only ones who would love to get their hands on the Tree.”
“So who are we up against now?” Eddy reworded the
question.
“Maybe no one,” Enki shrugged.
“Then why are we all so worried?”
“One part of our situation, Eddy, has not changed,”
Enki replied. “We are still sitting on the greatest power source available in
any universe. Whoever controls it becomes one of the Infinites, like Allah or
Yahweh. That’s a temptation for anyone except an Infinite.”
“Surely not you,” Eddy remarked, “Or Dee or Ina or
even Jael.”
“Don’t kid yourself,” Ina replied very seriously.
“Dee, Enki and I are tempted, yes, but we’ve been around long enough to have
the wisdom and maturity to resist that temptation. Also each of us has been the
supreme deity in our times. We know what that’s like. Even if none of us were
Infinites, we do know what it is like to be the most powerful. Heh!
“Not quite,”
“You’re as powerful as a goddess can get without
becoming Infinite,” Ina countered.
“I notice you left me out of your list of mature
elder gods,” Jael remarked. “It’s true I am relatively young.”
Ina laughed and reached out her arm to hold Jael’s
hand in her own. “Yes, you are young, but you’re young enough to still be
idealistic about such matters. Also unlike a lot of your kind, you have a
conscience.”
“A conscience named Rona,” Jael smiled.
“Don’t sell yourself short, Jael,” Rona told her from
Jael’s mouth, not bothering to change outer aspect this time. “I’ve never had
to push you into doing the right thing.”
“Ah!” Jael sighed, “but you didn’t really know me
before. The only reason I first helped Marcus when we met was that there was a
political advantage for me in it.”
“Maybe so,” Rona argued, “but you had already fallen
in love with him before we joined.”
“Eddy, ask any of our allies here tonight if you
like. There’s not a one of us who doesn’t feel at least some temptation to want
to possess the Tree next April when it transcends.”
Eddy looked around and saw a lot of sober nodding of
divine heads. He also decided that was too somber a thought to let the evening
proceed on. “Hey!” he told everyone. “What’s with all the long faces? I thought
this was supposed to be a party. I’m out of burgers, but I saw those slabs of
ribs that came in an hour ago. Anyone still hungry? I know I am!”
The truth was Eddy was pleasantly full, but his
suggestion had lifted the mood and soon Gilgamesh was barbecuing the ribs while
Dee and Ina prepared more salad.
“Here, Eddy,” Jael offered him a glass. “I know you
aren’t hungry, but you looked like you could use a drink.” She kissed his cheek
as he took the glass, then glided off to help Dee and Ina. She abruptly stopped
and returned to Eddy’s side a moment later, however. “You know? Ratty’s going
to be sorry he missed this!”
Four
Hurricane Oscar struck Southcoast
“At least nothing will blow away,” Jael commented as
she closed the glass door against the rising gale, “but how will all this glass
fare under hurricane winds?”
“I can reinforce them, I think,” Ina remarked.
“Reinforce them?” Jael asked. “How?”
“Magic, of course,” Ina laughed. “I may be a bit out
of practice, mind you. In the latter days of most pantheons we gods were
expected to work entirely by our innate divine powers and we pretty much
adapted to that viewpoint, but originally we used magical spells as easily as
we breathed. I have no natural talent with glass, but I do know spells of
strength. I need merely lend strength to the glass and it should withstand
anything Oscar cares to throw at us.”
“Literally,” Jael chuckled. “Mind if I watch?”
“I couldn’t stop you,” Ina admitted. “I’ll even show
you how it’s done, assuming a modern demon girl wants to learn how to do things
Old School.”
“It could come in handy some time,” Jael admitted.
The process was a simple one. Ina muttered an
incantation in a language now only known to a few select scholars capable of
reading the hen tracks known as cuneiform. When she was done the glass had a
different luster to it and Jael could see countless fine waves of energy
flowing through it back and forth as though each pane was a wave tank.
“Nice job, Inanna,” Enki praised her.
“Thanks, granddad!” Ina responded, “I learned it from
you. Too bad we can’t use that trick to protect the Tree.”
“We might,” Enki replied speculatively, looking
toward the Tree.
“No!” Jael told him softly, but emphatically.
“But,” he protested.
“You have not the slightest idea of what such a spell
would do to the Tree,” Jael told him firmly, “and I am not going to let you try
to find out.”
Enki laughed. Jael was talented and self-assured, for
certain, but she was a minor demon and Enki had been a major deity in his time.
A contest of power between them would be very much like pitting a marmoset
against a leopard. The marmoset might get in a few good shots by throwing
pebbles or pieces of fruit, but in the end, it was going to be a late night
snack for the cat. His eyes sparkled and, with obviously innocent curiosity, he
asked, “How?”
“I’ll tell
“Thank you for that mercy,” he breathed, having been
reminded of just what she could do.
“
“We may have to do something to protect the Tree,”
Enki noted. “Where is Ninhursag?”
“She’s with Eddy,” Nin-ti told him as she entered the
greenhouse..
“Eddy’s asleep,” Enki noted. “She doesn’t have to
sleep.”
“
“He’s asleep,” Enki repeated. “He wouldn’t know she
isn’t there.”
“She would,” Ina told him.
“You too?” Enki asked. “I must be wrong if you’re all
ganging up on me.”
“Ah,” Jael laughed. “So you really are the god of
wisdom!”
“Well, I think I got to be the god of wisdom by
learning everything the hard way,” Enki shrugged.
“At least you learned,” Jael pointed out. “I think
we’ve all known those who never could. Oh, here’s
“About time,” Enki grumbled.
“Oh hush,”
“He has good taste in beer,” Enki noted. “And I ought
to know, having invented the stuff.”
“Yes, he does,”
“I can do that,” Enki agreed. “I thought Eddy liked
being a good host, though.”
“He does,”
“Point taken,” Enki told her. He paused a moment then
announced, “All right, I’ve replaced it. Now we need to discuss how to protect
the tree against these winds. They’re starting to get pretty fierce out there.”
“They are,”
“Oh?” Enki asked. “What are you up to?”
“It’s very simple,”
“We don’t know what those branchlets might have led
to in the new world,” Enki warned her.
“I’m not worried,”
“I think it is on several levels,” Enki replied.
“Okay, we play it your way this time.”
“Who do we have out there in the storm?”
“Thor is in command out there with a host of weather
and storm deities of various sorts,” Enki informed her. “I figured they could
take the wind and rain better than some of the rest of us. Now how about
telling me why you think there’s a secret way into Hattamesett?”
“It seems like a possibility,”
“I’m hearing the word ‘if’ a lot in there,” Enki
remarked, “but I don’t disagree with your reasoning. I’ve been watching the
weather reports all night and it looks like this storm is going to go a little
further to the east than they originally thought.”
“I know,”
“
“I’m not surprised,” Enki replied. “So how close is
the center of the storm coming?”
“It has a small eye,”
“Any idea of when we’ll lose power and for how long?”
Enki asked.
“I’m not precogniscient,”
Just then the lights flickered. “If you don’t want to
make a prediction,” Jael remarked, “I think I could try an educated guess.
Should we set up the generator now?”
“No,” Rona chimed in, abruptly replacing Jael again.
“We can’t run it inside the house and the nice thing about a tropical storm is
that it’s warm. It won’t matter if the furnace isn’t running, we just won’t
have hot water for long is all.”
“Might be nice to have a hot breakfast,” Ina
remarked.
“Hello!” Rona remarked acidly, “I’m surrounded by
gods and existing in the body of demoness. Are you seriously telling me there’s
no one here who could prepare a hot meal without the benefit of electricity to
run the kitchen?”
“What about the food in the fridge and freezer?” Enki
asked.
“You guys really don’t know how mortal technology
works, do you?” Rona observed, although this remark was not made insultingly.
“Food will keep for a few days in the freezer if we don’t open the doors. It
doesn’t last as long in the fridge but a few hours without power won’t do any
harm. We can wait until the worst of the storm is over before turning the
generator on. Besides, it seems to me that with all the talent we have here,
someone can probably keep the modern conveniences going even if NStar’s lines
go down.”
Everyone in the vicinity turned to look at Rona
closely. “What did we ever do without you?” Enki wondered.
“You didn’t,” Rona laughed. “I’ve been part of
Springtime Seed as long as Jael has.”
Hurricane Oscar didn’t manage to turn out the lights in
Hattamesett until almost eleven in the morning. By that time everyone had had
enough breakfast and even midmorning coffee to keep them happy for a while.
“We’ll need the generator if we want water,” Eddy
pointed out over the howling wind, “or even to use the bathrooms more than once
each. There is no town water in Hattamesett. I rely on a deep well, so if the
pump isn’t running the pressure tank will only give us running water for so
long.”
“The worst of the storm will be past in another two
hours,”
Five
The generator got a lot of use over the next four
days. “When things calm down,” Eddy decided, “I’ll arrange to have it installed
with an automatic switch for when the power goes out and a cut-off for when it
comes back on. We sometimes lose power during winter storms too and we’ll
really want the furnace working if that happens.”
“What have you done in the past?”
“I usually just wait it out,” Eddy replied. “The last
time we had any extended outage was in the wake of Hurricane Bob in 1991. We
were lucky then. The house is far enough from the water and just high enough up
that the storm surge didn’t reach us even though the storm struck at high tide.
Other areas weren’t so fortunate, but even here it was five days before we had
power. I would have bought a generator at the time, but by the time I realized
I needed one it was too late. Fortunately, we had a friend on the other side of
town who brought a small generator over once a day so we could run the pump.
Also we filled the bathtub with water which helped get us through as well.”
“You drank that?” Rona asked with a hint of disgust.
“No,” Eddy replied. “We could have, though. We
cleaned the tub very carefully, but we bought sufficient bottled water for
drinking, so the water in the tub got used for washing only, and for running
the toilets. We used buckets to fill the tank. Anyway, having our own generator
is a better solution, if you ask me.” Eddy looked out his front window and
noticed that the wind seemed to be blowing much harder in the front than the
back. “
“I’m protecting the Tree,” she responded. “I’m fairly
certain she could survive this storm on her own, but why take chances?”
Eddy nodded. “Pretty nasty out there. It’s going to
take weeks to clean up all the fallen branches and the Hemmings’ house across
the way looks like it’s going to need a new roof. Half the shingles have blown
off. How are we doing?”
“We’re fine,” Ina informed him. “After I reinforced
the glass in the greenhouse, Enki decided to show off and reinforce the entire
house. We’ll have to remove that enchantment when it’s over though, or the
neighbors will talk.”
“It shows?” Eddy asked.
“It sort of looks like the entire house was covered with
a thin layer of oil,” Ina explained. “I doubt anyone will notice that in the
middle of the storm. We still have a few cheese rolls in the kitchen, by the
way. Would you like one?”
“Do we have any coffee in the thermos?” Eddy asked.
“As much as anyone could drink,” Ina laughed. “
“I didn’t make it perpetual,”
“Could have done the same thing with the
refrigerator,” Eddy noted. “Makes me wonder if we needed the generator at all.”
“Technically? Probably not,” Jael told him, “but
after the storm it will look less strange if the house still has power while
your neighbors are dark.”
“I ought to invite them in after the storm too,” Eddy
remarked, “at least if they don’t have generators, although I think most of
them do. Will we have room for anyone else?” he looked pointedly around at the
lounging deities. As though for the first time he noticed Hercules, Gilgamesh,
Isis and Athena playing Bridge at the kitchen table. They were still wearing
their ersatz security uniforms.
“We’ll be redeploying the guards to their regular
beats in another hour,” Enki informed him, “and soon after that Nin-ti and I
will return to the Springtime Seed offices. We need to be there in case anyone
shows up on legitimate business.”
“I thought Springtime Seed was just a front,” Eddy
remarked.
“That was our intention,” Enki admitted, “but I was
maybe too much of a perfectionist when I set us up. I formed an actual
corporation based in Mount Pleasant, South Carolina and of course we put up the
web site, because nearly every business these days has one, and we didn’t know
how our order from you might come in, so, even though you got the only paper
catalog we sent out several hundred other garden enthusiasts somehow found us
and ordered seeds from the company’s on-line catalog. Of course, we filled all
the orders as it would attract less attention to us if we weren’t inundated
with customer complaints. Our seeds are slightly more viable than most and
quite a few of our customers have already placed orders for next year.”
“You could always just close the company,” Eddy
pointed out.
“I could,” Enki agreed, “but I find it’s nice to have
a paper trail. The money we spent at the beginning was simply created by us,
but now we’re using money earned by selling seeds. We still need to supplement
that a bit, but we’ll pay our taxes and keep earning real cash so when we need
to buy something on credit, we’ll have money in the bank to pay for it. There’s
only so many times you can plunk a sack of gold down to buy something without
making trouble for yourself. Naturally, we don’t need a lot of money, but every
so often it makes things easier, like when we step out for a pizza.”
“I can see that,” Eddy nodded. “Is it getting quieter
outside?”
“The sustained winds are down to fifty-five knots,
dear,”
“You can always create one,” Ina suggested.
“I could but I really like the blend Eddy has,”
“Then create a pot of hot water and brew some,” Rona
suggested.
An hour later the winds had dropped to a more normal
five to ten knots and the sun was threatening to come out. The guardian gods
returned to their usual posts while Eddy and the others went out to inspect the
damage.
“Not too bad,” Eddy noted. “There are a lot of leaves
and small branches down but I think most
of these branches are off the other trees in the neighborhood.”
“I should hope so,”
“Something smells wrong though,” Jael noted.
“You’re right,” Ina agreed. “There’s a certain odd
scent on the air. It’s not unpleasant, but…”
Just then a large drop of water fell from one of the
branches of the Tree and hit Eddy directly in the face. A bit of it got in his
mouth and tasted, “Salty?” he wondered. “Uh oh!
“Well a lot of rain missed the tree since it was
wind-driven,”
“Did you forget?” Eddy asked. “Land-falling
hurricanes often bring salt water rain.”
“Well, yes,” Dee nodded calmly, “The fierce winds
whip the water right off the surface of the ocean and drop it for miles inland.
You can usually see its effects when it kills the leaves and needles of trees
in it’s path, and sometimes it kills the trees completely… Oh! I see what you
mean. The Tree should survive that, but it won’t be good for her. We need to
get the salt water off.”
“Let’s fire up the generator, then,” Jael suggested.
“We’ll still need to do a little magical jiggery pokery to get a strong enough
stream to wash off the entire tree, but at least the generator will make us
look vaguely natural.”
“The Tree can’t be seen from out front,” Eddy
reminded her.
“It can’t?” she asked. “I hadn’t noticed. Well we
should still use the generator for while we’re hosing the house off as well.
The neighbors will see that. Will the salt water that seeped into the ground do
any harm?”
“There’s a lot of ground water here,”
“Better not,” Ina advised. “We still need to show
we’re taking a hands-off policy with the raising of this Tree, that sort of
encouragement could affect him.”
“I doubt that.”
“For myself, I would bow to your greater knowledge
and experience,” Eddy replied, “but some of our allies might not see it that
way, and as you said, it likely isn’t necessary. Let’s just clean off the
leaves so they’ll last their normal lifespan, which is what? Another three or
four weeks?”
“Closer to three than four, I would say,”
“Yes?” Eddy prompted.
“She could be shocked into a second growth cycle,”
“What’s with the hose?” Enki asked Eddy a short time
later. Don’t you think everything got watered enough?”
“I thought you were supposed to be an expert,” Eddy
laughed. “It was the wrong sort of water. We need to wash the salt residue off
the tree before it starts killing the leaves.”
“They’ll be falling off soon enough anyway,” Enki commented.
“Why worry?”
“Because
“My reach is a bit better,” Enki chuckled. “Just open
the faucet and I’ll handle the rest.”
Under Enki’s guidance, the stream from the hose
became a fountain that soon washed all the salt off.
Six
Jael found Eddy in the garden a few mornings later
looking up at the Tree. Following his gaze she looked up as well to spot
several wispy white shapes covering leaves and branch tips.
“So,” Jael spoke after a long hard look at the webs
in the tree, “Gypsy moths, do you think? Or tent caterpillars?”
“Neither,” Eddy replied, deeply worried. “Those pests
only attack in the spring and they aren’t the only insects that spin web tents
and eat the leaves of trees. I need to figure out just what we have up there.
This could be worse than the salt.”
“I’ll get a sample branch for you,” Jael replied and
started climbing the tree.
“No, wait!” Eddy stopped her. “Wouldn’t that harm the
tree and the world that is to come?”
“I don’t see why,” Jael replied. “I wouldn’t be
pruning that world, just the tree. Yggdrasil has many broken branches. That
just means there are parts of the world you need to take a different path to.”
“I thought the condition of this Tree would affect
the shape of the new world,” Eddy pointed out.
“I think an infestation of parasites will have a greater
effect than a single missing branch,” Jael countered. “We need to find out what
they are, don’t we? Don’t worry, dear, I’ll be gentle,” she concluded in her
normal flirtatious manner.
Eddy had half expected for Jael to float up to one of
the branches but the graceful way in which she climbed the trunk was the next
closest thing. He marveled as she made her way up over thirty feet and then way
out on a branch. “Careful!” he warned her as she inched out on a perilously thin branch. “I don’t
know if that thin branch can take your weight.”
“Are you saying I’m fat, Eddy?” Jael asked pointedly,
not taking her eyes off the tent web she was headed toward.
“No, I’m calling that branch thin,” he called back.
“I can’t imagine why it hasn’t even bent yet.”
“Relax, Eddy!” Jael laughed, “I’m cheating. I could
sprout wings, but demon wings are really just for show. They‘re almost never
really large enough to lift the demon they’re attached to. About all they do is
push us along as we float. I don’t need wings for this, but I can float.
Besides,” she added as she finally reached the nearest web tent, “if I sprouted
wings right now I’d ruin a perfectly good t-shirt.”
She carefully detached a section of the webbing along
with some of the leaves, but left the branch intact, then she floated herself
back down to ground level. “I’ve handled worse than this,” she remarked, “but I
wasn’t happy about it then either, I should have brought a bag and worn gloves.”
“I’ll get a plastic bag,” Eddy offered quickly and
rushed back into the house to get one. He returned a minute later with a
gallon-sized plastic bag that could be zipped shut. Jael put the sticky,
wiggling mass into the bag and Eddy quickly closed it. “Why don’t you wash up
while I try figuring out just what sort of tent worm we have here,” he
suggested.
He was still searching the World Wide Web when Jael
returned. “Any luck?” she asked.
“Not yet,” he admitted. “I still haven’t got the hang
of using the search engine, I guess.”
“Here,” she offered. “Let me give it a try,” although
as she sat down she gradually transformed until Rona’s tall and blonde form
replaced Jael’s. “The trick in any web search is learning to use the right
phrase.”
She spent the next half hour looking up various pests
know to infest trees and finally identified these as Fall Webworm. “They aren’t
a serious problem,” Rona told Eddy. “At least they’re no threat to the tree,
but they will eat a lot of leaves and make them look pretty bad.”
“I’m more concerned on how they might translate out
into the new world,” Jael replied, returning into sight. “I know the tree will
pick and choose what it will take into the new world, but I don’t think much
good would come from having webworms to choose from. Now the question is, what
will be the best way to handle this?”
“I think infected branches are generally cut off and
burned,” Eddy commented.
“It hasn’t actually happened yet,” Jael pointed out,
“but it is said that the end of the world will come with the burning of
Yggdrasil. Now I’m of the opinion that all that means is that when the world
comes to an end it will be in fire. Since our current knowledge of stellar
physics supports that notion, I figure I can wait a few billion years for the
Sun to go nova. However, Yggdrasil and her children are very special trees with
quite a few divine attributes. I really don’t know what would happen if we
burned the wood of this tree, even as a cure for this infestation.”
“What then?” Eddy asked. “Do you propose we hand pick
every caterpillar off the tree?”
“Good idea!” Jael commended him. “I’ll be right back.”
She ran into the next room. “Ina, keep an eye on things,” Eddy heard her say.
“I have some calls to make. Thanks.”
“What’s going on?” Ina asked Eddy a few minutes
later. He brought her outside and explained. “You say it’s not a serious
threat?”
“Not really,” Eddy admitted, “but they would disfigure
the Tree’s leaves and possibly stunt the growth in the branches where they
are.”
“So what does Jael have in mind?” she asked. Eddy
just shrugged.
They didn’t have too long to wait, however. An hour
later, Jael returned with the two dryads Eddy had met before, Mina and Nina.
They cooed and ahhed over the Tree, not having seen it since it was only
fifteen feet tall. Then once Jael explained the problem they scampered eagerly
up into the branches with garbage bags and went to work removing every web and
webworm from the branches of the Tree. It took them all afternoon and then the
next morning as well, but when they were done
“We found another problem,” Mina reported and held
her hand out to reveal another sort of bug.
“What have we here?”
“I only found the one,” Mina reported, “but I
recognized it immediately. It’s one of the worst pests that attack our oaks.”
“Hmm,”
“This Tree has been an oak quite often,” Jael
remarked, “although he seems to prefer appearing as a maple over all his other
aspects.”
“That might be saving her just now,”
“I’m no expert on pests that infect trees,” Eddy
admitted. “How do we rid the Tree of the borers?”
“There are some chemical controls that can be used,”
“Then we’ll have to use chemical insecticides,” Eddy
concluded.
“You will not!” Nina told him fiercely.
“Wood nymphs are very much allergic to such
treatments,”
“But this isn’t a stand of trees,” Ina pointed out.
“He’s a single Tree.”
“True enough,”
“Inside the tree?” Ina asked. “I can’t do that, can
you?”
“Not easily, but dryads can,”
“We’ll do it!” Mina told her enthusiastically.
“I think I should get you some help, however,”
“Ooh!” Nina cooed excitedly. “Three threes of us! We
can accomplish almost anything with that number.”
“That’s what I had in mind,”
“There’s something that bothers me,” Rona remarked
from the computer in the greenhouse room.
“Only one thing?” Jael countered.
“You two really need to stop talking to yourself so
often,” Ina remarked sourly. “Normally when one talks to herself she is at
least guaranteed a sympathetic listener, but you…” she trailed off as Jael
laughed.
“Having someone to talk to who always agrees with you
would be boring!” she told Ina. “Anyway, what’s bothering Rona is that Twolined
Chestnut Borers normally only attack distressed trees. Our Tree is very healthy
and should not be subject to such an attack.”
“Now you’re an expert on Chestnut Borers?” Ina asked
skeptically.
“No,” Jael shook her head, “but the author of this
article is. As soon as
Ina sat down in front of the monitor and read the
article Jael had found. “Maybe the Fall Webworm distressed the Tree
sufficiently to give the Borers access to it?” she speculated.
“Fall Webworm isn’t listed as one of the associated
pests,” Jael pointed out, “but you may be right. If someone planted those pests
intentionally, they might have chosen the Webworm as a diversion as well since
we might not expect a double attack, especially by non-related insects.”
“We’ll have to point this out to
“Do you think she doesn’t know?” Jael asked.
“She didn’t mention it,” Ina replied. “None of us are
omniscient - it might not have occurred to her.”
“Good point,” Jael agreed.
“You know,” Ina continued, “I think I’ve been
overlooking this computer technology. I never realized how useful it could be
on a day-to-day basis. Could you show me how to work this thing?”
Jael spent the next hour showing Ina how to do basic
web-surfing and e-mailing. “Why aren’t
we using instant messaging?” Ina asked when Jael got to that side of the
Internet.
“It’s not as instant as its users claim,” Jael
explained. “Oh, it’s fine, I suppose, for chatting with a dozen friends at
once, but if you need to have a long or intense discussion, nothing beats
actually talking to one another. We did consider it when setting up Springtime
Seed, that was before Enki got you involved, but decided we were all too
verbose a lot to be comfortable with typing out all our communications. That’s
why we use the cell phones instead. We call. We talk, and then we get on with
what needs to be done.”
“Couldn’t we use IM on the cell phones?” Ina asked.
“Have you ever tried that?” Jael asked. “You’re
either stuck punching out everything in long form or using inane, code-like
shortcuts like CU L8R for ‘See you later.”
“What about those Blackberry things I keep hearing
about?” Ina asked.
“Status symbols for executives who don’t know any
better,” Jael laughed. “Maybe in another decade they’ll be truly useable, but
the ones I saw, at least, didn’t have a touch screen and worked by something
called a clickwheel making the whole rig as counterintuitive as possible. If I
didn’t know better, I’d swear one of my colleagues in Hell invented them. The
silly little keyboard is moderately better than the virtual jobs in some
hand-held computers like the Palm or Windows Mobile devices, but only if you
never learned to touchtype. It’s hunt-and-peck all over again except most users
tend to use their thumbs.
“I have another gripe against them as well,” Jael
continued. “With the addition of a fleet of Blackberries, corporate employees
are expected to be on demand all day and night every day of the year. Unlike
even a few short years ago, now there is no real escape from work even when on
vacation. Mark my words, if anything signals the end of civilization, it’s the
handheld computer!”
“They sound like fun to me,” Ina opined.
“Ah,” Jael laughed. “You’re being lured in by the
seductive bait in the technological trap. Sure, a good PDA - that stands for
‘personal digital assistant’ by the way – can hold hundreds of pieces of music,
a library full of books, and even a host of games and sure, it’s fun to sit
back with a good book while listening to a Beethoven symphony and then quickly
switch over to solving a Sudoku puzzle and then back again and have that all in
the palm of your hand, but somewhere in there, you suddenly find you’ve grown
dependant on the address and phone list you’ve built up in the device and can’t
bear to live without being able to send mail out from your favorite coffee
shop. Trust me, Ina, there is very little true relaxation to be gained from
such things and mortals, at least, need to be able to kick back every once in a
while, without still being tethered to their desks by a metaphorical solid gold
chain.”
“You preach nicely, Jael,” Ina observed. “I’m not
sure I agree with all of that, but you do make a convincing case. I’m surprised
you haven’t been put on temptation duty. You do have the equipment, both
physically and mentally.”
“I’m not a succubus, Ina,” Jael replied primly.
“Besides, contrary to what your average televangelist might say, we don’t need
to tempt sinners to Hell. Most of us would be perfectly happy if they remained
virtuous and went straight to heaven in fact. The sad truth is, though, they
tempt themselves and sin of their own free will. We’re just there to teach them
the errors of their ways if they haven’t managed to do so while still alive.”
She was saved from having to go on in that vein when
They found only a dozen of the borers in the first
hour then, two in the hour after that.
“You’ve been most thorough, Mina,”
“Mother Nature, we will, but you know we all have our
own trees. We want to help the new World Tree, but we can’t give him the
constant attention he deserves,” Mina told her.
“I believe I understand what you’re getting at, and
it’s a good idea,”
“I understand,” Mina agreed. “We can’t start until
the full moon rises anyway.”
“That’s two days from now,”
Two evenings later the back yard was filled with
laughing, giggling nymphs, all dancing in a ring around the Tree. Eddy and Dee
were cuddled together on the couch watching a movie and Ina was in the kitchen
making a fresh batch of popcorn.
“Just what is going on out there?” Eddy asked as he
got up to put a new disk in the machine.
“Don’t worry, dear,”
“But what…?” Eddy began.
“You don’t really want to know, dear,” she told him.
“Really.”
Seven
It was raining gently the next morning when Eddy woke
up.
He showered and shaved, brushed his teeth and hair
and finally wandered out to the kitchen where Dee, Ina and Jael were talking to
a dryad Eddy was fairly certain he had not yet met. “Eddy!” Jael greeted him.
“Good morning.”
“Morning,” Eddy replied with a nod of his head that
he hoped would be correctly interpreted as a request for an introduction.
“Welcome to the family,” Eddy replied dryly.
“Thank you, Mister Salem,” Tanise replied politely.
“Call me Eddy,” he told her. “Everyone else does.”
“Tanise is a new-born dryad, Eddy,” Jael explained.
“She’s the dryad of the Tree.”
“I thought dryads were only born in association with
oaks,” Eddy remarked.
“Tanise is a very special dryad, dear,”
“They were making a baby dryad?” Eddy asked.
“That’s not particularly accurate,”
“That would explain the dress,” Eddy remarked, “or
would it?”
“It does, Eddy,” Tanise explained. “A dryad dress is
made from the leaves of her own tree. It will last as long as she and her tree
does.”
“I always thought they were supposed to be green,”
Eddy told her.
“Normally,”
Eddy waited until he was alone with
“No,”
“Not much like Ratatosk,” Eddy observed.
“True,”
“So he told me,” Eddy nodded.
“Well, the same is true of the other creatures on the
World Tree,”
“The birds I have no problem with, but what about the
deer and the goat?” Eddy asked. “They don’t normally live in trees.”
“I wasn’t there, but I imagine they were grazing near
the base of the Tree, although they might have come along soon after
transcendence. All that happened before my time, you see, and they don’t
remember since they were just normal animals at the time.”
“I suppose it doesn’t really matter,” Eddy decided.
“It all happened in a different universe, right?”
“Well, yes,”
“Maybe you just don’t know how?” Eddy suggested.
“Ratty said that there’s only one way into another universe. Perhaps you just
haven’t found it.”
“If so, it has been hidden from the Infinites too,”
“Maybe it is just omniscience within this universe?”
“And every one we know about,”
“Then maybe there is something special about our
universe,” Eddy told her. “Maybe ours was first.”
“Then where did Yggdrasil come from?”
“Which came first?” Eddy asked, “the chicken or the
egg? Are the people and gods of the child universes aware of this one?”
“Interesting question,”
“This house is getting crowded,” Eddy remarked.
“Where is Tanise going to sleep? Not the couch, I hope.”
“She won’t need sleep for another week or two,”
“The basement is unfinished,” Eddy considered. “I
think it could be turned into two or three rooms. One for the laundry, since
the washing machine and dryer are already in there, and the others could be
guest rooms.”
“And Springtime Seed will pay for it,”
“What? That’s not necessary,” Eddy replied instantly.
“Yes, it is,”
“Excuse me?” Tanise interrupted them. “Jael says I
have to go to someplace called school. What is that?”
“School?”
“It’s simple,” Jael told them a few minutes later.
“Tanise is a new-born dryad. She knows everything a dryad instinctively knows,
yes, but she has no experience. She’s sweet, but… Uh,” she looked at Tanise and
tried to compose a non-hurtful way of calling her shallow. “She’s the dryad of
a very special Tree. She needs to be a very special dryad.”
“We can’t send her to public school, though,”
“I’ll teach her how to read,” Jael maintained.
“And while doing that,”
Eddy looked at Tanise. She was looking frightened.
Dryads, he had come to learn, were normally gentle creatures, more given to fun
and harmony. The few he had met since the birth of the Tree had become mature
through experience so while still somewhat vapid, both Mina and Nina knew there
were times they had to be brave. Tanise had never encountered two people
arguing before. Dee and Jael were not arguing particularly fiercely. They were,
in fact, being quite polite about it, but Tanise was still scared by the lack
of harmony and she instinctively sought protection in Eddy’s arms. Ina was
there in the room as well, but was wisely staying out of the line of fire.
“Ladies,” Eddy interrupted Dee and Jael, while giving
the trembling dryad a reassuring hug. He used a calming voice so Tanise would
not think he was joining the fight. “Perhaps a compromise is in order. We
cannot send Tanise to school. Her apparent age would place her in the junior or
senior year of high school, but she is not at all prepared for that level of
classes. For that matter, we don’t have a birth certificate or proof of having
entered the country legally for her.”
“We can fake that if need be,” Jael shrugged.
“It won’t be necessary,” Eddy told her. “Jael, you had
a good idea with teaching Tanise to read. Let’s take that a bit further, shall
we? We’ll have to consider this a form of home schooling. You don’t really have
a lot of time, but also keep in mind that there is such a thing as
informational overload.”
“I know that, Eddy,” Jael agreed. “We’ll take it at whatever speed
Tanise finds comfortable.”
“Tanise?” Eddy asked. “How do you feel about this?”
“Do I have to?” she asked timidly.
“It will be good for you and your Tree,” Eddy
reassured her.
“Well, if you say so,” Tanise nodded reluctantly,
“I’ll try.”
A few minutes later, Eddy stopped Jael as she was
about to leave to buy textbooks and other learning materials. “Are you sure
this is necessary?” he asked.
“I don’t want the new Tree protected by a dumb bimbo,”
she whispered back to him.
“But just what are you planning?” Eddy asked. “A
crash course in nuclear physics?”
“We’ll see,” Jael laughed. “Hey! If she’s really
hopeless, I can always train her in marketing.”
“How would that be of use?” Eddy asked.
“How would nuclear physics?” she countered. “It’s all
experience that will enrich her. We don’t want a two-dimensional character as
the guardian of an entire new universe.”
“Not unless it’s entirely populated by adolescent
boys,” Eddy agreed.
The next two weeks passed quietly. On her first day
of life, Tanise found five more Twoline Chestnut Borers in the Tree, but after
that she was confident the infestation had been removed.
“Are you sure?” Eddy asked.
“I’m a part of the Tree,” she replied. “I can feel
every part of him, every leaf, every branch, every drop of sap. I feel the
earthworms tickling his roots and the feet of every bird who comes to rest in
his branches. There are no more parasites left.”
“That’s a relief,” Eddy sighed.
When Jael returned with Tanise’s school books, she
also brought an assortment of clothing for her. At first Tanise didn’t see any
reason for them. “I have my leaf dress,” she explained, “and if it’s warm
enough I don’t even need that.”
“Not every one who visits here,” Ina told her, “is a
god or goddess. We do occasionally have mortals among us. They wouldn’t
understand. Just wear the clothes, okay?”
The remaining leaves turned gold and red as the
autumn weather began to turn cold and then finally they started falling.
“Shouldn’t Tanise be getting ready to hibernate with the Tree?” Ina asked
“Not this year,”
“What do you mean by ‘more or less awake?’” Ina
asked.
“Well, I doubt she’ll be able to stay up all night
like we can,”
“Then you’re in favor of Jael’s plan to teach her
stuff modern school children are expected to know?” Ina asked.
“I am, yes,”
“What would I teach her?” Ina asked.
“Morals,”
“Morals? Me?” Ina laughed. “Not exactly what I’m
known best for.”
“Maybe not, but isn’t that what you’re trying to
teach that new cult of yours?”
“I suppose,” Ina nodded.
Eight
“What are you doing, Eddy?” Tanise asked late on the
afternoon about two weeks after she was born. The new bedrooms in the basement
were finished just in time for her to pick one before she started feeling the
need to sleep at night.
“Harvesting the last of the tomatoes and peppers,
dear,” he replied. “There’s supposed to be a frost tonight and while the garden
is sheltered I’m fairly certain it is going to get cold enough to kill the
plants. Want to help?”
“Okay!” she agreed instantly. “What do I do?”
“Just pick all the fruits and put them in the
basket,” Eddy instructed.
“Even the ones that aren’t ripe yet?” Tanise asked.
“Even them,” Eddy confirmed. “Some of the tomatoes
will ripen inside and the rest we’ll pickle just like we did with some of the
cucumbers last weekend. The peppers we can eat green anyway.”
“Then why didn’t you pick them sooner?” she asked.
“I like them fully ripe when I can get them that
way,” Eddy replied. “Even the hot ones are sweeter that way.”
“What about these root plants?” Tanise asked as she
started picking tomatoes.
“We’ll leave them for now,” Eddy told her. “I picked
the potatoes weeks ago, before you were born, and the carrots and parsnips
won’t reach their peak of sweetness until after the frost. I usually leave some
parsnips in the ground to use in the spring anyway. You know I don’t think I’ve
ever had so many vegetables come out of this garden before. It’s been a
remarkable year on a number of counts.”
“I think
“Could be,” Eddy nodded. “If so, we’ll have to make
sure she does her share of cooking and pickling the excess. I know we have more
here than we all can eat comfortably before they start to go bad. On the other
hand, it might have been the Tree too, you know. Your Tree is a force of life
and affects everything around it.”
“Maybe,” Tanise nodded. “I’ll ask Jael about it or
Ina.”
“Why not ask Dee herself?” Edded inquired.
Tanise leaned close to Eddy and whispered, “She
scares me.”
“
“But she’s so powerful!” Tanise worried. “She could
kill me with the blink of an eye.”
“But she won’t, dear,” Eddy assured her. “Ina and
Jael are powerful too, you know.”
“But they don’t scare me,” Tanise admitted. “I just
can’t get close to
Eddy chuckled. “I shouldn’t laugh,” he told her. “I
think the reason you can’t get close to
“I think our enemies want to kill the Tree,” Tanise
confided. “Why else would they have planted borers on him?”
“Maybe they had a cure in mind and were attempting to
blackmail us?” Eddy suggested. Then he had to explain that concept. Tanise
wasn’t convinced, but she went back to picking tomatoes and soon they had a
large basket full of them.
“What are we going to do with all those?” Jael asked
when they eventually brought the baskets filled with tomatoes and peppers into
the kitchen.
“We can cook some of them into soup and sauce and put
it in the freezer,” Rona suggested practically. “We’ll need some herbs, though.
Is there any basil left in the yard?”
“Quite a bit,” Eddy admitted. “I was planning to go
back for that next.”
“Good,” Rona replied. “It will go well with the
stewed tomatoes and we’ll use the rest to make pesto. Do you have any pine nuts
and parmesan cheese?”
“I doubt it,” Eddy admitted. “I’m not much of a cook,
remember.”
“Then why do you grow all this?” Jael asked.
“I can make a decent salad,” Eddy replied, “but
really it’s mostly because it got to be a habit.”
“Well, if I might borrow the car, I’ll do some
shopping and be back in an hour or so,” Rona replied. Jael added, “Just let me
tell Dee and Ina I’m going out.”
Eddy and Tanise went back outside and cut down the
basil, then for good measure pulled up a few green onions. “These are nice and
mild,” Eddy commented to Tanise, “so they can be used in a salad or in whatever
Rona and Jael have in mind for cooking.”
“What are these?” Tanise asked, pointing at a row of
berry vines filled with purplish-red berries.
“It’s a late-season raspberry,” Eddy replied. “Thanks
for pointing it out. I hadn’t realized there were so many ripe berries. They’re
good for baking with or just eating straight off the vine. Try one, but be
careful of the thorns.”
Tanise reach out gingerly and selected a single berry
and put it carefully in her mouth. Eddy was amused by the care which she
exhibited, but decided it was better she be cautious than boldly experimental.
“I like it!” she told him happily.
“Good,” he replied as she reached for more berries.
“Why don’t you go into the kitchen and get a basket to put them in. If you
can’t find one, ask Dee or Ina.”
“You want to pick all of them?” Tanise asked, popping
three in her mouth at once.
“They’re only rot on the vine if we don’t eat them,
unless you plan to eat them all right now,” he told her. She started reaching
for more and he added, “if you do that, there won’t be any more for you later.”
“Right,” she nodded, taking only one more berry
before racing into the house. Eddy chuckled and went back to looking through
the garden.
He was surprised to find two summer squashes that had
hidden behind the raspberries. They had gotten rather large, but he picked them
anyway, then, on pulling on what he thought was another onion, he discovered it
was a bud of garlic. He was tempted to
separate the cloves and replant them for the spring, but remembered he
had already done so with another bud a couple of weeks earlier. So he tossed the
garlic into the harvest basket then helped Tanise pick the rest of the berries.
Jael and Rona had returned by the time they were done
and Eddy was feeling tired, so they brought it all into the kitchen and let
them go to work. Tanise was fascinated with the whole process of cooking and
she stayed to help, while Eddy wandered into the living room where Ina was
watching the television.
“Where’s
“She had to go out,” Ina replied. “Something about an
earthquake in
“Without waiting for Jael to get back?” Eddy asked.
“No, you just missed her is all,” she replied. “I’ve
protected you by myself before, though. What’s the problem?”
“Nothing,” Eddy assured her. “I’ve noticed that since
we got back from Yarmouthport you almost never leave me with less than two of
you in the house. That’s all. I thought it was a new plan or something.”
“We have been keeping a closer guard on you and the
Tree since then,” Ina admitted. “
“Loki and Iblis were more direct than that,” Eddy
noted.
“They were,” Ina agreed. “That’s what bothers
“Why did we all go?” Eddy asked. “The Great Tree only
wanted to meet me.”
“You need protection every bit as much as the Tree
does,” Ina replied. “We traveled with you because it was decided we were
primarily your guardians. So we left the Tree in the care of what we thought
was our second string.”
“The plan would have worked had Skuld not already
been working for Loki,” Eddy pointed out.
“Was she really working for Loki?” Ina asked.
“What do you mean?” Eddy asked.
“That never sounded right to me,” Ina explained.
“None of the Valkyrier are likely to
have been taking orders from Loki. They respect worthy warriors, but the only
man they are likely to take orders from is Odin.”
“So was she working on her own?” Eddy asked.
“Maybe,” Ina shrugged. “Or maybe she was working for
or with one of the Norse goddesses. Some of them are pretty blood-thirsty,
although I wouldn’t have thought this of them either. It could be we’ll never
really know, you realize, but it’s something we all have to consider.”
“Why haven’t any of you mentioned this to me before?”
Eddy asked.
“We didn’t want to bother you unduly, Eddy,” Ina told
him. “We have no proof there’s anyone out there conspiring to take the Tree.”
“Funny,” Eddy remarked, “but it’s been sounding to me
like it’s not a matter of who, but of how many.”
“Well, that’s what we think,” Ina admitted, “but so
far there’s been no verifiable signs of an opposition, except, maybe for those
bugs.”
“Well, I think we have any sort of parasite or
disease handled with Tanise,” Eddy remarked. “She’s better in tune with the
Tree than the rest of us combined.”
“I should hope so!” Ina laughed. “That’s the whole
point of her being a dryad.”
“She seems like quite an intelligent young lady as
well,” Eddy added. “I wouldn’t have expected that in a nymph.”
“It is a surprise,” Ina agreed. “However, why
shouldn’t a nymph be intelligent? They tend to be naïve because they live
sheltered lives in general and I don’t know that anyone has ever actually tried
to teach one more than how to tend to their trees and that would be an exercise
in futility if I ever saw one, since they know everything on that count from
the moment they open their eyes.
“You know,” Ina continued, “come to think of that, I
don’t think nymphs have been treated fairly in all the old stories. They’re
portrayed as beautiful, eternally young, incredibly naïve and ripe for any god
who happens their way. However, nymphs are often under-rated. They are deities;
minor ones to be sure, but deities nonetheless. The thing is you don’t hear the
stories about the ones who told Zeus where he could take his goods or who gave
Apollo his walking papers.”
“Neither of those two were known for their ability to
take rejection well,” Eddy noted, remembering his mythology.
“Hera and Artemis had a hand in keeping them in line
in those circumstances,” Ina laughed. “There are a few stories about how Hera
treated the ones Zeus seduced, but you don’t hear about the ones she protected
and Artemis took her brother out behind the woodshed, so to speak, more often
than I can count.”
“I’m surprised that was never mentioned,” Eddy
remarked.
“You don’t see the paparazzi reporting on celebrities who behave themselves either,”
Ina pointed out. “The same sort of people who wrote spicy cautionary tales in
the ancient world are taking lewd pictures and writing spicy stories about
celebrities today.”
“I had wondered about the evolution of that
particular subspecies,” Eddy laughed. “So you think Tanise is pretty sharp
too?”
“She seems to be,” Ina agreed. “Of course, I don’t
know what her attention span is like yet. If she doesn’t stick to her lessons
all the intelligence in the world won’t help. On the other hand, I’m not as
worried about that as much as Jael is. That does remind me, though. I’m
supposed to be working with her on arithmetic this afternoon. Is she doing
anything important?”
“She’s helping Rona by preparing the veggies we just
harvested,” Eddy reported.
“Schoolwork first,” Ina decided. “Now who would have
ever thought of me as a schoolmarm?” she fired off as she left the room.
“I know I’d have paid more attention in junior high
had you been my teacher,” Eddy noted to himself.
Nine
“Eddy, I recognize the signs,”
“It’s not so bad,” Eddy denied.
“The heck it isn’t!”
“My, how time flies when you’re having fun,” Eddy
replied stubbornly. “and I have left the house. I’ve walked into the center of
town at least once a week to buy groceries.
“Eddy!”
“You’ve told me repeatedly that the Tree is only safe
in my presence,” Eddy reminded her. “Now you want me to leave her vulnerable?”
“I never meant to shackle you to the house
permanently, dear,” she told him. “And I’m not suggesting an extended vacation.
I just thought we could go into
“That would mean staying overnight,” Eddy pointed out.
“Not really,”
“Those shortcuts must include the ticket office if
you can arrange seats on Broadway on a moment’s notice,” Eddy replied.
“We have our sources,”
“Isn’t Bacchus the god of wine?” Eddy asked.
“And the Theater,”
“Tell him to keep them,” Eddy decided. “I never
really got Monty Python, but I’ll
meet you half way. How about dinner in
“Tonight?”
“Why not?” he shrugged.
Eddy had thought to take
“There, you see?” Eddy told her as he turned the car
on to the entrance ramp of I-195. “You didn’t even need the phone tonight.” He
had tempted the Fates once too often by that remark because it rang as soon as
he said it.
“Hello?”
“What’s wrong?” Eddy asked.
“Eddy,”
“Cute,” Eddy muttered. “Can you talk while shredding
reality?”
“Jael and Ina are beside themselves,”
“Tomorrow morning there,” Eddy remarked.
“Whatever,”
“Your phone won’t work here,” Eddy remarked.
“How did you know that?”
“How many months have we been together?” Eddy asked.
“I’ve managed to pick up one or two things along the way. One of them is that
cell phones don’t work on the divine plane and this place, if it is a place, is
half divine and half mortal.”
“You have been listening, haven’t you?’
“This is like the time Ina, Jael and I went out to
buy that pot,” Eddy noted. “There was a whole bunch of activity in the
“I hope you’re right,”
“But they didn’t do it that afternoon,” Eddy replied.
“If this is more covert action we aren’t likely to know what it means until
later.” Abruptly the road turned black again and the lights near the exit
appeared. Eddy took the exit and headed toward US Route 6.
“Well, we know that neither Loki nor Iblis is
involved this time around,” Eddy pointed out. “It’s always possible that what
happened over there has nothing to do with us.” They reached Route 6 and Eddy
turned left.
“Possible? Oh yes, very much so, but in my experience
when you have all the information it usually turns out that almost everything
is connected one way or the other,” Dee responded. “If two events appear to be
unrelated, it’s probable that you just don’t know enough about what is
happening.”
“Okay,” Eddy nodded as he took the turn off of Route
6 that would lead them directly in to Hattamesett Center, “but if that
connection is esoteric enough then maybe we don’t need to consider it.”
They continued the debate right into Eddy’s driveway
where Jael and Ina were waiting anxiously. “We do have one problem,” Jael reported.
“What?”
“Tanise got scared and bolted,” Jael replied. “She’s
hiding in the Tree and won’t come out.”
“That’s not a bad reaction,” Eddy replied. “That’s
where she is at her strongest, isn’t it?”
“It is,” Jael confirmed, “but we need her to be a bit
less timid and flighty than the average nymph.”
“Give her a chance, Jael,” Eddy requested. “She’s
just barely over three weeks old. Everything is still so new to her.”
“Normally it wouldn’t matter, Eddy,” Jael told him,
“but she only has a few months to grow up.”
“I know, but if you push her too hard you won’t
accomplish anything,” Eddy told her as reasonably as he could.
“I have to agree with Eddy on this,”
“Me?” Eddy rebelled. “Shouldn’t you talk to her?
You’re Mother Nature after all.”
“And you’re the closest one she has to a parent,”
“I’ll give it my best shot,” Eddy shrugged and walked
into the house and then out into the back yard. The evening in
“Eddy?” She asked softly, her voice muffled by the
wood of the Tree.
“Right here,” he replied sitting down next to the
lower pond. He made a mental note to put nets over the pond to keep it from
filling up with leaves. “Are you alright?”
Tanise stepped out of the Tree. She was wearing her
dress of leaves for the first time since Ina and Jael had convinced her to wear
human clothing. “I’m not harmed in any way,” she told him.
“I hear you got scared tonight,” Eddy remarked.
“I’m better now that you’re back,” she replied.
“What happened?” Eddy asked.
“I got scared when Jael and Ina started acting all
worried,” she explained.
“That’s it?” Eddy asked.
“Well, I thought that if they were scared then I
should be too. And the pictures on the teevee were frightening,” she added with
a shiver. “I was afraid they might do that here.”
“I see. Tanise,” Eddy put his arm around her
comfortingly, “just because others are worried is no reason to become
frightened yourself. I know you can’t help being scared when people you know who
are generally quite brave like Jael and Ina start getting worried, and fear is
not really anything to be ashamed of. But we all need to learn how to deal with
our fears. Running is not always the answer. More often than not you need to
stand up to your fears.”
“Well,” she replied hesitantly, “maybe it wasn’t only
the teevee.”
“Then what really sent you back to the Tree, dear?”
Eddy asked softly.
Tanise was silent for a long time before suddenly
blurting out, “Why do I have to learn all that stupid stuff Jael and Ina keep
trying to teach me?”
“What are they teaching you?” Eddy asked.
“History, reading and writing, something called
mathematics,” Tanise replied. “It’s all so stupid! I don’t need to know those
things.”
“Need to?” Eddy echoed. “Well, I don’t know how
necessary it is, but we all think you’re a very special person and we want you
to have a special education to go with it. You are going to be the partner and
guardian of the new World Tree.”
“I thought you were the guardian,” Tanise replied.
“I am for now, but nothing lasts forever,” Eddy told
her. “Soon it will be your turn to protect her,”
“Him,” Tanise corrected him automatically.
“All right, him,” Eddy nodded. “And it’s a very
important job, you know, and Jael and Ina just want you to be properly prepared
for it.”
“But why mathematics?” Tanise asked. “I know each and
every leaf on the Tree. I don’t have to count them. I don’t need to study human
literature either. I can just watch the movies.”
“Movies are fine for what they are, dear,” Eddy told
her, “but the stories they tell are simple and shallow compared to the ones
you’ll read in books. A movie has to be made in a certain amount of time. It
doesn’t really have the time to delve into all the details a book does. But
more importantly, knowledge is power, and we want you to be as powerful as possible.
Knowledge is also habit-forming and you never know what datum will turn out to
be important.”
“Really?” Tanise asked, wanting to believe.
“All information is potentially useful, dear,” he
told her, “even if you can’t see the use of it now. You will probably need to
know many things beyond the immediate Tree himself. Besides, he will be fully
asleep soon. This will give you something to occupy your mind. If you don’t like
the subjects they’re pushing you toward, suggest something that does interest
you.”
“Like what?” Tanise asked.
“Botony, perhaps,” Eddy suggested, “the study of
plants, or ecology, the study of how natural systems interact. I imagine you
would be interested in all sort of life sciences really, although there are
certain basics you’ll need to know to go far in any of them. Jael and Ina will
still want you to learn math and all the rest, but at least this way you’ll
have things you want to learn as well. And you may be surprised at just how
often the ability to do your sums is necessary in all of them.”
“Oh, all right,” Tanise sighed. “I’ll try a bit
harder.”
“Good girl,” Eddy commended her, “and I’ll talk to
Jael and Ina so they realize you need to be able to study subjects that
interest you as well.”
The next week and a half was one of transition. As
the final leaves fell and the Tree slipped into its first annual hibernation,
Tanise became more serious about her studies and, to Jael’s surprise started
absorbing knowledge at a rapid rate. “She’s a right little data sponge at the
moment, Eddy,” she told him. “What did you say to her the other night?”
“Not much,” Eddy shrugged. “Just that learning was
good for her.”
“That must have done the trick then,” Jael remarked,
“because now it’s hard to get her to take time away from her studies. I’ve never
known a wood nymph to apply herself so thoroughly to matters that don’t
directly concern her tree in fact.”
“Maybe that’s because the Tree is asleep for the
winter,” Eddy conjectured. “I believe you were the one who pointed out that
when the dryads visited Yggdrasil they
had trouble keeping their minds on the reason we brought them there, at
least at first.”
“Hmm, that could be,” Jael agreed. “Without the Tree
to distract her, she’s more like a normal, intelligent and highly inquisitive
human girl.
“
“Could be,” Jael considered. “You know, I may end up
teaching her nuclear physics after all. She seems to have the brains for it.”
“Only if she’s interested,” Eddy warned her. “If you
haven’t discussed the basic structure of the atom, then by all means add that
into the curriculum, but let her choose which advanced subjects she wants.”
“Oh, we haven’t gotten that far yet,” Jael laughed.
“So far everything is at the basic level, but I think we may have her up to
grade six by now. And you ought to see her on the computer! Is that the
doorbell?” she asked suddenly.
“The back doorbell,” Eddy replied. “I’m not even sure
why I have one there. For that matter, who got to the back door without setting
off any of the alarms? Isn’t the perimeter armed at all times?”
“It’s supposed to be,” Jael remarked.
They rushed to the greenhouse room to find Ratatosk
verbally fencing with Dee and Ina while Tanise watched from the computer
terminal. “Hey!” Ratatosk commented delightedly, “Who’s the new girl in town?
Cute!”
“Keep your eyes to yourself, Ratty,” Ina told him
sternly.
“Or I could train them on you, sweet stuff,” Ratatosk
chuckled. In the corner, Tanise blushed furiously.
“Only if you want to lose them, rodent,” Ina told
him.
“You wound me, Venus,” the squirrel told her
insincerely. “You stab directly to my heart.”
“That can be arranged,” Ina snapped.
“So what brings you here today, Ratty?” Eddy cut in
at last.
“Just making a regular report to Mama Nature here,”
Ratatosk replied.
“Regular?”
“I’ve been hard at work for you, babe” Ratatosk
informed her, “but I still haven’t found any back way here from anywhere at
all.”
“Keep looking,”
“I’ll keep looking,” Ratatosk sighed, then he sidled
up to Tanise and suggested, “Hey cutey, wanna go play in your Tree?” Tanise
blushed even deeper than before, but Ina picked up a baseball bat and
threatened the squirrel with it. “Okay! I was just kidding around, you know.”
“Do it elsewhere,” Ina snarled.
“Where did the baseball bat come from?” Eddy asked
after Ratatosk had left again.
“It’s mine,” Ina admitted. “I brought it back from
Dilmun yesterday.”
“You missed the Celestial League this year, didn’t
you?”
“Baseball is fun,” Ina admitted. “Knocking the ball
down the throat of any jerk stupid enough to razz me is even more fun though.”
“What’s baseball?” Tanise asked.
Ten
Eddy and Jael were out shopping in
“What’s a package store?” Jael asked, seeing the
sign.
“They sell wines and spirits,” Eddy explained.
“Not packages?”
“Not as such,” Eddy laughed. It had been some years
since he had to explain this to anyone. “State law requires that no alcoholic
beverages be carried in public without being covered.”
“That part is fairly common,” Rona remarked. “It was
a typically silly political solution to keep the people of the temperance
movement happy after the repeal of Prohibition. Supposedly it was to curb
public drunkenness and was roughly as successful as Prohibition itself, but the
laws persist. In some states the laws prohibit the carrying of open containers,
in others the law only mandates that the label not be seen, hence the
caricature of a drunk drinking out of a brown paper bag.”
“In
“Le Nouveau
Beaujolais Est Arrive!” Jael
read. “Oh it is that time of year, isn’t it?”
“What time?” Rona asked.
“Each year on the third Thursday of November,” Eddy
explained, “the new
“In some of the large cities, restaurants have races
to see which can get the bottles in to their place first,” Jael chuckled. “As
wines go, you can’t take
“At its best,” Eddy added, “drinking it is fun and it
was always something Julie and I looked forward to each fall. Like you said,
Jael, the nouveau isn’t a serious wine, but it is usually a nice light red with
crisp fruity flavors and just enough acid to make it go well with a
Thanksgiving turkey. That’s right! Next week is Thanksgiving. We should do
something about that. We had to cancel the Fourth of July barbecue and the
thing we did on Labor Day weekend was just an impromptu affair. I wonder if
it’s too late to order a large bird.”
“Not if the signs in the market window are true,”
Jael pointed out. “Who are you planning to invite?”
“I figured everyone from Springtime Seed,” Eddy
replied, “along with their partners. You know I still haven’t met this Marcus
of yours. Seems to me that you two haven’t spent much time with him lately. The
least I can do is give you an entire weekend together without forcing you to
stay away from Hattamesett. I haven’t done a real Thanksgiving in years either.
After Julie died and with Maggie out in
“At least,” Jael chuckled. “That crowd could polish
off a whole stuffed moa if they weren’t already extinct. Are you sure you can
afford this?”
“It’s only money, Jael,” Eddy replied.
“Yeah, but there’s no need to waste it,” she told
him, “especially since
“It wouldn’t be the same,” Eddy replied. “I can’t go
declare a party and then let
“
“Hmm, how about you?” Eddy suggested. “I mean you’re
a demoness and fire ought to be a natural for you…”
“Only if you want it tasting like you cooked it over
a bituminous coal fire,” Jael told him, with a twinkle in her eye. “Bituminous
coal with extra sulfur, I should say. Although, actually, maybe I could.”
“Not if they’re going to have your special brimstone
sauce,” Eddy laughed.
“No!” Jael laughed as well. “Ina’s been teaching me
magic lately. I’ll bet we could roast the rest using sympathetic magic.”
“Figure that one out and we’ll consider this a
warm-up for New Year’s Eve,” Eddy laughed. “Maybe I can arrange for a whole
roast ostrich by then.”
“Been done,” Jael teased him, “but I never get tired
of it!”
They left the market with only a few bags of
groceries, but left a very large order to be filled the following Tuesday. Then,
before heading back to Hattamesett, they stopped into the package store and
bought just over a case of the new
“What’s this?”
“Special occasion,” Eddy explained. “It’s Beaujolais
Day.”
“Oh, is that what it is called?”
“Plus an extra bottle,” Eddy told her, raising the
thirteenth. “We’ll drink the first this evening and the rest we’ll serve to our
company next week.”
“Next week?”
“Eddy’s decided to invite all of Springtime Seed in
for dinner,” Jael informed her. “It should be an even bigger blowout than the
one last May. Hmm, I ought to see about getting the word out.”
“Just call Nin-ti,”
“We could serve in shifts, I suppose,” Jael
considered, “or you could arrange for unseasonably warm weather and we could
put some tables in the backyard.”
“We’re having enough problems with global warming
lately,”
“I have an idea,” Jael told her and explained.
“Sympathetic magic?”
“I did some years back,” Jael confessed, “but that
didn’t teach me how to do it. Ina’s been showing me some of the old ways lately.
I’m surprised we still don’t use them more frequently.”
“We don’t need to as much anymore,”
“Where would we put them?” Jael countered. “Where’s
Ina?”
“Off with her new cult,”
“I thought I spotted her a couple times,” Jael
remarked. “She’s not all that subtle.”
“She’s never had to be, dear,”
“That’s starting to worry me,” Jael commented.
“Shouldn’t she be more curious about the world. It’s almost as though it
frightens her.”
“Young dryads are usually a bit agoraphobic,”
“Not much of an adventure if you ask me,” Jael
opined.
“It is for a young wood nymph just under two months
old,”
“Has that ever happened?” Jael asked.
“Not yet, that I’m aware of,”
“I thought that was a given,” Jael remarked.
“Nothing is certain when it comes to a World Tree,
Jael,”
“Or she may continue the same sleeping habits she’s
developing now,” Jael added as she put the last of the food away. “Where did
Eddy go?”
“Good,” Jael decided. “He’s treats her so much like a
daughter you’d think they really were related.”
“He is the only father figure she’ll ever have,”
“There is that,” Jael remarked. “With his real
daughter in
“We shouldn’t interfere, dear,”
“A strange thing to say to a demoness,” Jael
remarked.
“Well, you’re a very strange demoness, dear, if you
really want to know the truth,”
“I don’t think
“Well, it’s something he probably should have said,”
“A minor one at best,” Jael admitted modestly.
“You’re not a major demon either,”
“Nice to know I could have cut it in the ancient
world,” Jael remarked, “but it’s just as well I’m who I am here and now. I’m a
very modern girl, you know.”
“I know, dear,”
Thanksgiving dinner was an amazingly cramped affair
even though tables stretched out of the greenhouse room and all around the back
yard. There was no need to serve in shifts as they feared, but with almost
fifty present, the cooler air of the backyard was a relief.
Even with three large turkeys, Jael’s prediction was
correct, they needed more food, but
“No, silly,” Ina told him. “I’m not that kind of
goddess anymore. You should find yourself someone, though. I think most of the
dryads were watching you all day.” Eddy was surprised to see the ancient
warrior blush at that.
However, none of the misunderstandings turned into
arguments and all in all it was a chance for the gods who had been working to
protect the new Tree to just relax and be themselves for a few hours.
They started serving around two in the afternoon so
that by seven even the gods best known for their ability to pack food away
prodigiously were satisfyingly filled. Everyone pitched in to clean up and then
in ones and twos, they said goodnight until only those who had been present
when the seed had sprouted and their partners were left. Jael/Rona and Marcus
retired to the guest bedroom early, but Eddy and
Just before the movie started there was a mild earth
tremor. “What was that?” Eddy worried.
“Probably nothing to worry about,”
“Are you sure?” Tanise asked, not entirely certain
that was the case.
“Fairly,”
“I still think we ought to be watching It’s a Wonderful Life,” Hawk muttered,
“not Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.”
“Oh hush, dear,” Nin-ti told him affectionately as
she cuddled into the crook of his arm. “Don’t ruin the mood.”
One
Eddy was awakened a few days later by a deep rumbling
and scraping sound coming from outside the front of the house. Getting out of
bed he discovered it was snowing and that several inches had already accumulated
from the early season storm.
“Are we expecting much snow?” he asked
“Five or six inches, dear,”
“I should probably get ready to start shoveling,
then,” Eddy decided.
“That’s dangerous at your age, dear,” she warned him.
“We don’t need to take such chances. Besides, Jael and Tanise are already using
both shovels.”
“That’s not right,” Eddy insisted.
“Do you really enjoy shoveling snow so much?’
“I hate it,” Eddy admitted.
“Then why do you want to go out there and do it?”
“Well,” Eddy began lamely.
“Ah,”
“Yeah, no,” Eddy began, then tried starting over,
“But you’re company… Well, I should hope you’re all more than company by now.”
“By now I think we’re family,”
“You’re right,” Eddy admitted, silently reminding
himself that Julie had always won every argument too. “I admit that it will be
nice not to have to shovel snow for a change.”
“Good, now why don’t you sit down and enjoy that
coffee. I think I’ll see about making hot cocoa for the girls.”
Eddie’s sidewalk was not very large so Jael and
Tanise made quick work of the snow. “Eddy!” Tanise shouted gleefully as they
came inside. “It snowed last night!”
“I noticed,” Eddy replied dryly.
“Why didn’t you tell me snow was so much fun?” she
asked.
Eddy chuckled, “We’ll see how much fun you think it
is in a few months. However, if you like, have your cocoa and I’ll show you how
to make a snowman.”
“You can make a man out of snow?” Tanise asked.
“More like a crude statue,” Eddy laughed.
“I’ll bet
“I’ll bet I wouldn’t even try,”
“You’re no fun,” Jael laughed.
“Let’s just say I’d prefer the back yard not look
like a scene from a really bad monster movie,”
“It’s a sort of tomato?” she asked remembering the
movie of a few evenings before.
Jael tried not to laugh and nearly choked on her
cocoa. “No,” she sputtered at last. “That wasn’t a real monster movie, just a
spoof on one. If you like, though, we can rent King Kong or Godzilla tonight.”
“Okay,” Tanise replied.
“We’ll make it a double feature with, Return of the Killer Tomatoes,” Jael
added blandly.
“Hey! It snowed last night,” Ina observed as she came
in the front door.
“We can’t put anything past you, can we?” Jael shot
off.
“What’s wrong?” Ina asked, looking hurt.
“Sorry,” Jael apologized instantly. “It just slipped
out.”
“I think you pulled a muscle in your back, Jael,”
Rona told her, quickly regaining her natural form in Jael’s place.
“You should feel it from my side,” Jael remarked,
allowing Rona’s form to remain manifested. It was a sign of the pain her
natural form was in.
“I can,” Rona told her. “I’m calling Oriel.” She
reached into her purse for her cell phone.
“Ladies,” Ina remarked, “you’re confusing Tanise
again. I’m sorry I wasn’t here to help shovel, but I am back two hours earlier
than promised. It wasn’t snowing in
“
“What of it?” Ina asked. “It’s a big city, you know.”
“
“And you’ve been spending all your spare time in
“Our husband lives and works in
“Some of the members are moving to
“And so the new religion begins to grow,” Jael
remarked, but in a gentle tone.
“If you’re really in pain, you’d better call Oriel,”
Ina told her.
“Maybe I should have been out there shoveling after
all,” Eddy remarked.
“No, Eddy,” Jael told him. “You could have been hurt
a lot more than I was. I’ll bounce back, maybe even without Oriel’s help, but
if your heart gave out while shoveling, I doubt Oriel could get here fast
enough.” It was only a few days later that Eddy realized that if he suddenly
died both the Tree and Tanise would as well.
When a tall, dark-haired woman arrived an hour after
Rona called she was briefly introduced to Tanise before being allowed to look
at Jael’s injury. “Who is Oriel?” Tanise asked.
“My daughter,”
“So you and Jael’s husband…” Tanise trailed off.
“Not the way you’re thinking, no,”
“She seems to be fairly confident in her knowledge,”
Tanise noted.
“Just as you are when we ask about the Tree,”
“The Tree of Knowledge?” Tanise asked.
“An aspect of Yggdrasil,”
“Not that squirrel,” Tanise protested. “He’s horrid.”
“He only teases you, because he knows he can get away
with it and because you react to it. Ignore him and he’ll stop soon enough,”
“
“Something is wrong,”
Tanise rushed into the living room where Eddy and Ina
were watching the evening news. “
“Okay,” Eddy agreed. “The news is just depressing me
anyway. Five hundred and thirty-seven men and women between the White House and
Congress and not a whole brain between them.” He picked up the remote control
and changed the channel.
“I don’t think the weather report is going to cheer
any of us up, dear,”
“That’s not unusual after a snowstorm,” Eddy
remarked.
“Worse than normal,”
“That’s too cold!” Tanise cried as soon as she heard
the projected low temperature. “It’s too soon in the season, He could be
damaged by this!”
“That’s not a natural cold front,”
Tanise was crying uncontrollably while
“When you say it that way, Mother, I get the feeling
quiet time is over,” Nin-ti remarked.
“Probably,”
“That’s more up your alley than mine,” Nin-ti
replied, “but I understand it’s suppose to get fairly cold tonight.”
“Too cold,”
“Well, you ought to know,” Nin-ti agreed.
“That’s the problem, Nin-ti,”
“You got it,” Nin-ti agreed. “Do you want to talk to
Enki?”
“Not if you’re handling it,”
“All right,” Nin-ti agreed. “I’ll get right on it and
call you back as soon as I have something to tell you. Is that crying I hear?”
“Tanise is a bit overwrought,”
“Tell her we’re on the case,” Nin-ti signed off.
Two
Tanise was still drying a few stray tears when the
doorbell rang. Eddy got up to answer the door, but was stopped by Ina. “Let me
get that, Eddy,” she told him. He stepped back from the door. A few months
earlier he might have protested her protectiveness, but a few hard-learned
lessons had taught him to defer to all three of his guardians.
Ina opened the door with
“What’s a du-pa-cha?”
Ina asked, confused.
“A temporary house,” the strange woman replied
irascibly, “like a wickiup or a
tepee.”
“You brought a tepee with you?” Ina was taken aback.
“Oy, no,” the strange woman replied. “Enki sent me.
Didn’t anyone call ahead?”
“You are Nuvak’chin’Mana?”
“I’m not Britney Spears,” she retorted and Ina
stepped out of her way. “I am also known as Horo Wuhti, Cold-bring Woman and
Snow Maiden, and in spite of all those frigid titles, I can still appreciate
the marvels of a modern home heating system.”
“Welcome, Nuvak’chin’Mana,”
“Better than ever,” Jael replied, “my step-daughter
here is definitely one of the best healers ever.”
“Actually we should have come down sooner,” Oriel
admitted, “but Jael, Rona and I have been catching up with each other.”
“So, if I’m not mistaken, you’re a Hopi kachina?”
Jael asked Cold-bring Woman.
“That’s right,” Cold-bring Woman replied, “and you’re
a demoness from Hell, right?”
“It’s a living,” Jael shrugged. “I’ve been out of
touch the last couple hours. What brings you here?”
“You have powerful enemies,” Cold-bring Woman
replied. “Two of them are bringing this terrible arctic cold. Already the
temperature has dropped twenty degrees
below freezing and will go another
twenty if we don’t stop them.”
“Who’s doing this?” Tanise demanded.
“Their names are Gangs-dkar-sha-med and Cailleach,
child,” Cold-bring Woman replied.
“Cailleach is an ancient Celtic goddess of the
weather, also of the seasons,”
“She is also a bringer of cold, snow and death, but not
everyone on the other side is evil, Nature,” Cold-bring Woman replied. “Some
are just being seduced by the chance to gain power greater than they have ever
had.”
“Tibetan,” Jael informed her. “She generally appears
as an all white snowdemon.”
“A colleague of yours?” Ina teased Jael.
“Not at the moment,” Jael replied, “but we have met
in the past. I was not particularly impressed, but then it takes more than a
color scheme and the cold shoulder to impress me. We didn’t get along, but I
was just another low-level messenger at the time so I guess she felt no reason
to be courteous. Or maybe she’s just that way naturally.”
“She’s a bit of a show-off,” Cold-bring Woman
commented. “I can appear as a giant kuchina doll if I so desire and will while
working because I am stronger in that form, but I don’t see any need to walk
around in that guise all the time. Anyway, this cold wave that is dropping in
from the north is being caused by those two,” she told
“But if you also bring cold,” Tanise asked, “why
would you stop it?”
“I bring the necessary cold and snow needed to
replenish the Earth, child, but this does not replenish, it punishes and
tortures. We must all work to banish this threat. Enki believes my abilities
added to your own will be more than sufficient to stem the threat by
Gangs-dkar-sha-med and Cailleach. You are Mother Nature,” she continued turning
toward
“I’m fighting them too!” Tanise told her with more
courage and force than Eddy had yet seen her display. “This is my Tree they’re
attacking and I’m his guardian.”
“One of them,” Jael corrected her. “I’m in too. My
job when not here is related to ecological balance.”
“Each of us has something to offer,” Cold-bring Woman
nodded, “And you, goddess of love?”
“I am also a protector of gardens,” Ina replied, “and
have been Queen of Heaven in the past.”
“Then welcome, Your Majesty,” Cold-bring Woman
replied dryly. “We have wasted too much time already. We must get to the Tree.”
Cold-bring Woman changed most visibly, however. As
she had mentioned earlier she could look like a giant Hopi kachina doll and
this was, indeed, how she appeared. Her hair remained white but she was
suddenly wearing colorful clothing covered with geometric shapes that Eddy
assumed had some symbolic significance. As soon as she had made this change the
five women were enveloped within a dome of pale white light.
Not knowing what else to do with himself, Eddy went
into the kitchen to make a fresh pot of coffee. “I think it’s going to be a
long night,” he commented to himself. As he watched the women, after returning
to the greenhouse room, he thought he detected minor changes to the dome of
light around them and realized they were fighting a fierce and subtle battle.
There wasn’t anything he could do to help, however,
so he tried to sit still. Unable to do that, he tried turning on the
television, but soon turned it off again. He tried reading a book, with similar
results.
“It’s hard to just stand by and do nothing, isn’t
it?” he heard a female voice ask from the kitchen door.
He looked up, startled, “Oriel! I didn’t realize you
were still here.”
“I wouldn’t up and leave just because my friends are
having trouble, Mister Salem,” she replied. “Besides, I may be needed again
before the night is out, though I hope not.”
“How long is this going to last?” Eddy asked.
“I don’t know,” Oriel replied. “It might sound
strange to you, but by now you probably have more experience with this sort of
thing than I do. In essence, I’m just a doctor. I’m a very good one, of course,
but I was born to be a healer and that is what I am. I’m only fifteen years
old, though, so maybe someday I’ll be much more. Or not,” she added. “I like
being a doctor. It’s not just a job for me, you know. It’s who I am.”
“And I’m just a retired advertising man,” Eddy
remarked.
“No,” Oriel laughed. “You’re more than that. Anyone
can see that.”
The silent battle in the backyard continued for hours
until sometime after two in the morning when there was suddenly a howling,
frigid gale and a blinding flash of light. As Eddy and Oriel blinked the glare
away, they saw two figures had suddenly appeared in the backyard. One was an
all white crone with fangs and long straggly hair. Even her eyes and claw-like
fingernails were white and Eddy correctly concluded this was Gangs-dkar-sha-med.
The other, obviously Cailleach, was a
short, broad woman, also with white hair and a dress-like garment of off-white
linen that wrapped around her twice.
“Not much of a color scheme,” Eddy muttered to
himself, but Oriel heard him.
“How can you make jokes at a time like this?” she
asked.
“It helps to keep me from going screaming into the
night,” he replied.
Outside the battle had suddenly become much less
subtle. Tanise’s resolve had evaporated and she shrunk back against the Tree’s
trunk as Jael, Dee, Ina and Cold-bring Woman faced the other two. Neither of
the attackers were armed with an obvious weapon, but Cailleach was casting
fierce spells of lightning and cold, while Gangs-dkar-sha-med, summoned
howling, ice-filled winds.
For their own part, Dee and the others were having
difficulty standing up to the sudden attack. The appearace of their attackers
had thrown them off balance and in that moment they were vulnerable. Cold-bring
Woman was knocked to the ground and hit her head against a rock at the side of
the watergarden. Stunned, she attempted to get
up, but fell back down again.
“Get back inside, Eddy,” Ina groaned at him.
“Don’t think so,” Eddy refused. “You need help.”
“I’m just winded,” Ina told him. “Oh, I really don’t
want to do this, but…” she suddenly transformed into the warrior bird figure
Eddy had seen only once before and shot up into the sky. Then with a hawk-like
shriek, she attacked Cailleach from above.
Cailleach managed to duck away and lashed back with
an icy sword that suddenly materialized in her hand and Ina fell to the earth
hard enough for Eddy to feel it shake. He looked at her to see she had fallen
unconscious and was bleeding, but already Oriel was racing to her aid.
Meanwhile Cold-bring Woman had gotten back to her
feet but a vicious gust from Gangs-dkar-sha-med, blew her back off them and
also knocked Dee and Jael over as well. Cailleach capitalized on that attack
and attacked Jael immediately. Jael was able to roll away form the initial
attack and get back to her feet to engage in a one-on-one fight with the Celtic
goddess.
“No!” Tanise cried. “I need to protect him!”
“That’s my job,” Eddy told her. “For now just protect
yourself. He entered the shed, grabbed a couple of short, stick-like objects
and headed for the Tree.
Both cold goddesses then turned toward the Tree to
find Eddy blocking their path. He was holding a pair of lit road flares, each
burning with a bright red strontium-induced light. Gangs-dkar-sha-med fell back
in fear, but Cailleach growled and jumped at Eddy, who stuck one of the flares
in her face. She screamed and attempted to attack him once more but was
suddenly gripped by a large wooden hand.
Eddy looked to see where it had come from and was
surprised to see the arm it was attached to was sticking out of the wound in
the unconscious Ina’s chest. Cailleach struggled in the grip of that hand even
as a tall goddess stepped forth from Ina’s body. The new goddess looked at
Cailleach closely and finally said, “I do not know you, but you will not hurt
me or anyone else again,” and flung the hapless Cailleach up and into the sky
where she soon disappeared as she shot through the clouds. There was a brief
flash of light somewhere above those clouds and then it was dark again, but the
new goddess was already turning her attention toward Gangs-dkar-sha-med,
cowering from the light of Eddy’s flare several yards away.
“I don’t know you either,” the goddess decided as a
loud crack could be heard from above and a branch suddenly fell off the Tree,
knocking the Tibetan goddess out. “but then I don’t think I know most of you.
What is happening here?”
“Who are you?” Eddy asked, still holding on to the
flares defensively.
“I could ask the same of you,” the goddess replied.
“You won’t need those fire sticks anymore.” She wiggled a finger and the
normally unquenchable flames died abruptly.
Three
“Yes, that is my name,” Asherah agreed. Asherah was a
trall, dark-haired goddess, once her woody appearance faded. Her hair reminded
Eddy of the bouffant hairstyles of the 1960’s, although he kept averting his
eyes, not wanting to stare impolitely, that was difficult as besides a few
necklaces and bangles, she wore nothing whatsoever. “and you are… . You’ve changed, haven’t you?”
“Quite a few times,”
“I’m surprised I recognized you,” Asherah admitted in
tones of wonder. “How long has it been, Gaia?”
“Since we last crossed paths?”
“I...” she began. “I don’t know.”
“Well, you came out of Ina’s chest,” Eddy informed
her. “Dee, who is this?”
“This is Asherah, Eddy,”
“A great honor, Eddy Salem,” Asherah replied.
“For me as well,” Eddy replied politely.
Asherah smiled slightly. “That is what I meant. It is
a great honor, and an incredible burden you have been saddled with.” She paused
to think about that, then added, “It is also an honor to meet you. Who are all
these people… uh… we had much in common at
one time, but I am uncertain what to call you. Ninmah? Artemis? By what name
are you known in this time and place?”
“In this time, I am Mother Nature,”
“Fitting,” Asherah nodded.
“But in this place I am usually just called
“
“It’s a long story and it gets longer in the
telling,”
“Healing, mother,” Oriel replied. “I need to see to
Cold-bring Woman and Jael.”
“I can wait,” Jael informed her, stepping back out of
the house. “I have a few minor glass cuts, but nothing deep or very painful. In
fact I can probably heal myself, but I think we need to see to healing the
windows. It is cold out here. Uh… who are you?” she asked Asherah, “and isn’t
it a bit cold for streaking?”
“What is streaking?” Asherah asked, confused.
“Running around in public naked,” Jael replied
informatively, “more often done by immature males. You are emphatically not
male.”
Eddy came out of the house just then with a long
winter coat and draped it over Asherah’s shoulders. “Thank you,” she replied
simply, wrapping it a bit tighter around her. “It’s cold here. Where are we?”
“
“Where?” Asherah asked again.
“Why don’t we all go inside,”
“Watch out for all the glass,” Eddy warned them.
“I’ll handle that, dear,”
Eddy went to Ina and asked, “How are you?”
“I feel very much lighter,” Ina replied dazedly.
“I’m not surprised,” Eddy remarked, “carrying a whole
other goddess around inside you for the last few thousand years.”
“I did what?” Ina asked, startled.
“Let’s get you inside too,” Eddy suggested. “The few
who know enough to explain are all there already anyway.”
“How long have you been inside of me?” Ina asked Asherah
once the situation had been explained. “When did we merge?”
“I don’t think we did,” Asherah replied. “Not in the
usual way. I’m not even sure how it happened. Let me think a bit.”
“I still don’t completely understand,” Eddy admitted
while Asherah thought. “Who is Asherah?”
“At first she was a Canaanite goddess,” Ina
explained, “Just as I was Astarte or Astarot or a whole host of other names.
Many of
“Parts of me were, although they were all distant
aspects, “I was still more active in Mesopotamia until the Hellenistic period,
But Asherah was as much an aspect of me as she was of you, although you were
closer, I think.”
“But this is not the Canaanite Asherah,” Ina decided.
“Oh she was the Canaanite Asherah at one time, but like most of us she moved on
to the later aspect. This is Mother Asherah of the Israelites.”
“So she is the aspect of you who diverged?” Eddy
asked. Ina nodded. “So how did she end up inside of you again?”
“You got me,” Ina shrugged. “Asherah, what’s the last
thing you remember before coming to life again here?”
“It was the end of the monarchy of
“The latter day prophets, Jeremiah and Nehemiah,
despised me and railed against those who worshipped me even though I was the Shekhinah, the female aspect of El Shaddai.” Asherah continued. “Like
their Israeli cousins, the people of
“So how did you end up with Ina?” Jael asked.
“I do not remember.” Asherah admitted. “I only
remember fleeing for my life. I can only surmise that I somehow sought to merge
once more with Anat and Astarte.”
“Interesting,” Ina remarked, “And yet you were still
being worshipped as Tanit and I always thought the Roman sea goddess Tethys was
an aspect of yours.”
“I never merged with those aspects,” Asherah replied.
“I’m not sure if I was aware of them at the time.”
“I’m sure they were, although I don’t know if they
merged with each other either,” Ina told her.
“I don’t think you were completely forgotten by the
Jews, even if they no longer worshipped you,” Jael opined. “In Jewish ritual,
it is still the women who light the Shabbat
candles and there are songs sung to
the Sabbath Queen. The modern
teachings, as I understand them, barely recall your existence, but there are
still traces of old beliefs and rituals left over even now. Then there’s a
representation of the great menorah that was taken from the
“Without what hairdo?” Asherah asked.
“The way you wear your hair is similar to a fashion
that was last popular about forty-some odd years ago,” Jael replied.
“What? This?” Asherah asked, reaching up and pulling
a large, puffed up wig off her head. “Just one of my attributes. I think a lot
of religious folk used to confuse me with Hathor from
“You should try having to work in kachina form!”
Cold-bring Woman told her.
She briefly
flashed into the large, stiff looking doll-like form in which she was most
powerful and then back again. “Humans expect some silly things of us, don’t
they?” Asherah laughed.
“I thought you were associated with trees,” Eddy
noted, “Are you also associated with the sea?”
“Oh yes,” Asherah nodded. “Also with motherhood,
healing, family and a host of other associations. I was an all-purpose goddess,
but then so were Astarte and Anat and our other aspects. There were some
differences, though. I was the wife of El and Yahweh, whereas Astarte was
Ba’al’s consort. Anat was primarily the warrior aspect.”
“She eventually merged with Athena,” Ina told her.
“I don’t know that name either,” Asherah reminded
her, “but it appears I have some catching up to do. This is an interesting
house. Where is the fire that heats it against that awful cold?”
Four
They stayed up all night talking to Asherah and
bringing her gradually up to date, although Eddy started snoring just before
dawn and Tanise helped him into his bedroom. Instead of rejoining the others,
she sat in a chair next to his bed and asked, “Eddy? Why did you use those fire
sticks against Gangs-dkar-sha-med and Cailleach?”
“They’re called flares,” he explained tiredly, “and I
thought that if we were fighting against people who fought with cold, then
maybe fire would be effective. Pretty stupid, I guess. Sorry if I scared you.”
“I thought you were wonderful,” Tanise told him
warmly, and while they didn’t bother Cailleach much, Gangs-dkar-sha-med seemed
genuinely frightened of them. Should I have been afraid of them too?”
“They do burn with a very hot flame,” Eddy remarked,
“and fire can harm the tree, I suppose, but I wasn’t about to stick them too
close to the Tree. Many things can be both dangerous and useful, but so long as
you are careful and handle them with respect, you’ll be in no danger.”
“I wasn’t scared when you used them,” Tanise told
him. “I know you would never harm us.”
“Good,” Eddy sighed. “Sorry to conk out on you, but
I’m very tired. We’ll talk later if you like.”
“Okay,” Tanise agreed, but she remained in the chair
until
Eddy woke up to find
“Morning, Eddy,” Jael greeted him cheerfully. “Late
night, huh? I’m trying to convince Asherah to join us, but she doesn’t think
she’s welcome.”
“I didn’t say that,” Asherah denied. “I only thought
we might not be completely comfortable with each other until I can catch up
with the last two and a half millennia.”
“Well, I can understand your discomfort,” Eddy
replied, “but you are more than welcome to stay here while doing your catch-up
work. I seriously, doubt any of us will be uncomfortable with you and if you
think you have a lot to learn, just consider Tanise. She’s not quite two months
old yet and still learning a lot of
basic stuff.”
“Sure,” Jael added enthusiastically, “ you can learn
along with Tanise and also help teach her.”
“Fruit of the Tree of knowledge might help as well,”
Eddy added.
“Good idea, Eddy,” Jael commended him. “Ratty’s
supposed to be coming with some today. I’ll just make a call and have him bring
a double load.”
“I can just hear him complaining now,” Eddy laughed,
“’What am I? Some supernatural fruit monger?’” Jael laughed and then had to explain
Ratatosk to Asherah.
“See, that’s the point,” Asherah told them, “You’re
constantly having to stop and explain your jokes to me. It’s like you are all
family.”
“We are,” Eddy agreed, “and we’re willing to adopt
you, if you like. The modern world must seem a bit intimidating, especially if
one of the last things you recall is the destruction of
“That does make sense,” Asherah agreed. “I shall
consider it.”
“Good,” Eddy replied. “And feel free to take as long
as you like to make a decision. My home is your home. Where are Ina, Tanise and
Cold-bring Woman this morning?” he asked Jael.
“Tanise is sleeping downstairs,” Jael informed him.
“She was up late. Typical teenager,” she laughed. Tanise, Eddy had to admit to
himself, did look like a teenager in spite of her young age and she was
beginning to act like one as well. “Ina is helping Oriel take Cold-bring Woman
home. She’s okay, but more than a bit shaken from the encounter last night.
Gangs-dkar-sha-med and Cailleach were more than she expected and I think she
was a bit embarrassed by how quickly they took her out of action. We tried to
explain that could have been any of us and Ina was wounded worse that she was,
but Cold-bring is one proud goddess. I think that’s why Ina went with her. They
share more than a few attributes, pride being among them and Ina’s hoping to
show her that it’s no shame to be beaten so long as you do your best.”
“Ina’s been showing more depth lately than when I
first met her,” Eddy observed.
“Yeah,” Jael smirked. “It’s about time she grew up!”
She turned to Asherah and added, “You missed her bimbo phase.”
“Not really,” Asherah replied. “She already had a
trace of that when we were co-aspects of each other. You see she and Ba’al were
the young, virile, sexually active couple to the Canaanites. El and I were the
older, more mature couple. At some points we were the senile couple for that
matter, so it was quite a relief when we were the only divine couple to the
Israelites and we were ageless to them.”
“Sounds like the Israelites moved back to religious
fundamentals,” Eddy observed.
“In a sense,” Jael replied, “although most modern
scholars see the priests of the Yahweh side of the religion as the fundamentalists.”
“Oh, Astarte was quietly, and not so quietly,
worshipped there too, but even then our attributes were being combined. It just
was that she was the younger, stronger Queen of Heaven of the Canaanites. I
filled that function to the Children of Israel. The Yahweh-only prophets,
however, painted the worship of me and the minor household gods with a rather
evil brush, and they confused me with Astarte and Anat and the others,
intentionally, I think. There was never a completely clear dividing line, but
they obscured it still more and decried our worship as evil and disgusting.
Hardly fair considering most household ceremonies to me involved the sacrifice
of incense and bits of food, oh and flowers. I liked the flowers. The large
altars built and consecrated to me in the High places were often built next to
or beneath trees although I was also often represented by one or more poles
erected next to the altars.”
“There were quite a few pictorial representations of
you,” Jael told her, “carvings and clay statues.”
“Not carvings,” Asherah corrected her. “Carved or
graven images were forbidden, especially when worked in wood. That’s why I was
more often depicted with clay figurines or in metal plaques. I was associated
with trees, remember, and it was considered quite sacrilegious to attempt to
carve an image of me in wood.”
“That got taken to extremes later,” Jael remarked,
“when no images of God were allowed at all. Jews still do not attempt to make
images of their God these days.”
“I can see the logical progression of that,” Asherah
admitted, “although it must make worship all the harder.”
“Humans are pretty adaptable,” Jael remarked.
“Is Rona still in there,” Eddy asked suddenly.
“I’m still here, Mister Salem,” Rona replied. “Why
would you doubt it?”
“I haven’t heard from you since last evening
sometime,” Eddy told her.
“I fell asleep after everyone came inside,” Rona
admitted. “Jael may not need to sleep, but I still do, although not anywhere
near as much as I used to.”
“I keep telling you,” Jael cut in, “it’s just a habit
you haven’t grown out of yet.”
“That’s easy for you to say,” Rona laughed. “You
weren’t the one doing all the yawning.”
“The heck I wasn’t,” Jael told her. “You just thought
you were tired, but my mouth is the one that kept opening uncontrollably.”
“Dear, you’re mouth is open most of the time whether
we’re yawning or not,” Rona retorted.
They were suddenly interrupted by Asherah’s laughter.
“Are they always like that?” she asked Eddy.
“No, sometimes they fight,” Eddy replied. “So, is
there anything left in the fridge for breakfast?”
“I’ll second that,”
“Sure and if they killed the Tree I’d die too,” Eddy
replied calmly. “It seemed to me it would be better to go down fighting.”
“Oh you!” she breathed and hugged him fiercely. “What
am I going to do with you?”
“Darned if I know,” Eddy retorted, “but let me know
if you ever figure that out.”
“Hey,” Jael called from the refrigerator, “we seem to
have a lot of eggs, and a large chunk of cheese. How about omelets?”
“Let’s have pancakes instead,”
“Sounds good,” Jael agreed and went to work.
“What ever happened to Gangs-dkar-sha-med and
Cailleach last night?” Eddy asked, finally helping himself to a cup of coffee.
“Cailleach is out for the cycle,” Jael reported. “Asherah
here took care of that.”
“I was not quite myself,” Asherah admitted. “All I
knew was that someone was attacking a tree and I took a personal affront to it.
I should have had better control of myself.”
“So, you tend to wake up a bit cranky,” Jael told
her. “We’ll all keep that in mind. The fact of the matter is that whether you
were aware of it or not at the time, you did the right thing,”
“At least as far as you are concerned,” Asherah
countered.
“Situational ethics?” Jael asked. “Maybe, but knowing
the significance of the tree now, would you act any differently?”
“I probably wouldn’t have been as patient with the
attackers,” Asherah admitted.
“Good enough for me,” Jael told her. “And
Gangs-dkar-sha-med was picked up and dragged out of here a few minutes after
you went to bed, Eddy. Not that she was in great shape either. Getting knocked
on the head by a branch of a World Tree is enough to set anyone’s clock back. I
doubt she’ll be recovering soon. I meant to ask,” she told Asherah, “why did
you do that? Wouldn’t it damage the young Tree?”
“I didn’t do anything to her,” Asherah replied.
“No,” Tanise added as she entered the kitchen a bit
sleepily, “the Tree did that himself.”
“Really?” Jael asked. “I thought he was asleep for
the winter.”
“He was and is again,” Tanise remarked, “but he is
not yet very deep into his slumber, and the attack woke him up.”
“I guess he wakes up as cranky as Asherah does,” Jael
laughed. “It’s nice to know he can defend himself, though. Has that ever
happened before,
“There are stories of a Tree in another universe who
defended herself, by throwing rotten fruit at an attacker,” Dee replied, “but
I’ve never heard of one deliberately sacrificing a limb.”
“It may not be that big a deal,” Jael countered.
“Yggdrasil drops some of his smaller branches all that time.”
“This was not that small a branch,”
“Trees are capable of regenerating,” Eddy pointed
out. “I know whatever branch replaces that one won’t be quite the same, but I
think it is better to lose the branch than the whole Tree, don’t you?”
“Absolutely,” Jael agreed and the others nodded. “but
what are we going to do with the fallen branch? Disposing of wood from
Yggdrasil is always tricky. I mean you can’t burn it, because the fire will
never go out.”
“There are ways,”
“First batch is just coming up,” Jael remarked.
“Tanise, why don’t you tell the boys in the greenhouse that breakfast is
ready?”
“Breakfast?” a high squeaky voice asked from the
doorway. They all turned to see Ratatosk carrying a basket of fruit. “I’m good
with that. So where do you want this?” he asked, indicating the basket.
“I’ll take that,”
Asherah took a bite of orange and sighed. “It’s been
a while since I had the fruit of this Tree, but then it’s been a while since I
did anything at all. Yes, this is starting to help.”
“Hotcha!” Ratatosk exclaimed, noticing Asherah for
the first time. “What a babe! Who are you, beautiful?” Asherah spared him an
annoyed glare before continuing to eat the orange. “Whatcha doing at the Solstice?”
“And what makes you think a mangy squirrel like you
is worthy of doing anything with me at the Solstice?” Asherah asked
disdainfully.
“Aw, come on, babe!” Ratatosk insisted. “Some chicks
like ‘em furry.”
“Come to think of it,” Asherah told him, “maybe I
could use you.”
“Yeah, they all come around in the end!” Ratatosk
crowed.
“I could use a good squirrel fur coat for the
winter,” Asherah concluded, giving Ratatosk a predatory look.
“Ah…” Ratatosk backed off a step, “maybe another
time, Babe. I’m still using this one. Isn’t anyone going to ask how I got here
so quickly?”
“Don’t tell me,” Eddy remarked, “let me guess. You
finally found the back way in that
“Yeah,” Ratatosk nodded, “Good guess.”
“No guessing involved,” Eddy remarked. “And I’ll also
bet you found it totally unguarded?”
“Well, of course, since I was the first to find it,”
Ratatosk replied.
“Not the first,” Eddy told him, “not by a long shot.
We had a couple visitors stop in last night.” He explained what had happened
the night before.
“Oh, sorry about that,” Ratatosk replied, sounding
genuinely contrite. “I really did just find it this morning. Maybe I should
have been eating that fruit too.”
Five
The weather remained cold for the next week, but it
was a chill well within the usual seasonal range of temperature. Tanise
reported that the Tree, after waking up during the attack, had finally slipped
off into a much deeper hibernation.
The fruit from the Tree of Knowledge helped both the
dryad and Asherah over the course of the next few days. “At least now I can
understand half of what I see on the television,” Asherah remarked, “although I
don’t think I’ll ever understand the so-called reality shows.”
“Don’t let that bother you,” Ina commiserated “I’ve
been around this whole time and I still don’t see the attraction. I guess
someone does, but then none of us are part of the core demographic. You know,
it’s really nice to have you with us again. Seems like old times.”
“We were often a contentious lot in the old times,” Asherah
reminded her.
“We haven’t changed all that much,” Ina laughed. “The
other night should be proof of that, but I’d like to think that some of us are
no longer as petty-minded as we once were.”
“Hard to believe after what you say about how
everyone wants the new Tree,” Asherah remarked.
“The Tree is a bit of an exception, I think,” Ina
told her. “There’s too much to gain, so a lot of us are back-sliding a bit, but
the fact that some of us are actually trying to protect it without possessing
it is new.”
“Why are you doing that” Asherah asked. “I know why I
am, it just seems like the right thing to do, but…”
“That’s why we’re doing it too,” Ina nodded.
The weather moderated during the second week
following the cold attack on the Tree. It warmed up into the low seventies the
day before a large Nor’easter swept up the coast, dumping rain all across
Southcoast
Eddy, torn between wanting to avert his eyes politely
and attempting to be a firm, but kindly authority figure, stood frozen inside
the greenhouse room, uncertain how to deal with it. Finally, however, he
realized he would have to brazen this out. Tanise was now two months old and
while she might look like a teenager, been born with a lot of innate knowledge
and gained still more from the fruit Ratatosk had delivered, she was still very
much an innocent.
Eddy walked back into the house and grabbed an
umbrella. “Going out?” Jael asked as he passed back through the living room
where she and Ina were busy reading the newspaper.
“Just into the backyard,” he replied. “Tanise is
dancing in the rain.”
“She is?” Jael laughed. “That’s adorable.”
“In the buff,” Eddy clarified.
“No shame in that,” Jael insisted. “She really is
still just a child, you know. And it’s not like she can be seen from the
street.”
“Yeah,” Eddy agreed conditionally, “but she might
decide to do that in the front yard next.”
“I doubt it,” Jael laughed. “She’s probably just
communing with the Tree. She can’t do that from the front yard. Haven’t you
noticed she never leaves the house or backyard alone.”
“I thought she had gotten over her agoraphobia,” Eddy
remarked.
“I don’t think it’s an unreasoning fear of anything
in particular, Eddy,” Ina corrected him, “Tanise is not really a part of this
world, not completely. Her true world is the one yet to come. I doubt she feels
completely comfortable in this one. I doubt she ever will, but she’s already
facing the source of her discomfort bravely.”
“And brazenly,” Eddy added, glancing over his
shoulder.
“Want one of us to talk to her?” Jael asked.
“No,” Eddy shook his head. “I’ll give it a shot. She
listens to me, I’ve noticed.”
“She loves you, Eddy,” Ina pointed out. “You’re the
only father figure she’s ever going to have.”
“What about the Tree?” Eddy asked. “She does keep
referring to it as ‘he?’”
“The tree is closer in nature to a husband,” Ina
replied. “He’s her other half.”
“So she’ll never marry?” Eddy asked.
“She might,” Ina replied, “but it will have to be
someone who truly understands he will always be second in her heart to the
Tree.”
“Well,” Eddy sighed. “Let me go see if I can get her
to come in from out of the rain.”
He walked back to the greenhouse with the umbrella
and spotted Tanise’ leaf dress draped over the back of the computer chair. He
decided she must have been using the computer when she chose to experience the
rain. He grabbed the dress, folding it carefully over his arm. When he did he
discovered more conventional clothing underneath it. He wasn’t sure what to
make of that, so he just took the leaf dress with him.
It was warm and steamy outside, not entirely unusual
for the middle of December in
Tanise had stopped spinning around the garden and was now standing under the
leafless branches of the Tree, with her back to the house and her arms
outstretched, as though inviting the rain to wash over her,
“Tanise,” Eddy began. It was almost a whisper, but it
startled her anyway.
“Oh! Eddy!” she
gasped, spinning around to face him. “I didn’t know you were there.”
“Sorry,” he muttered, determined to keep his eyes
glued to her face. “You shouldn’t be out here undressed. The neighbors might
see you like this.”
“So what?” she asked. “Clothing is unnatural!”
“I suppose that’s so, dear,” he replied. “None of us
are born with it, but wearing it is something we all do in polite society.”
“Then I don’t want to be in polite society,” she told
him rebelliously. “I don’t like clothing!”
“Not even this?” he asked holding out the dress of
colorful maple leaves.
“That’s different,” she told him quietly. “It’s mine.
It’s me.”
“Then please put it on,” Eddy requested.
She took the dress from him and slipped it over her
head. Immediately it changed from a stiff garment that felt almost like
leaf-encrusted cardboard into something that flowed around her and shaped
itself to her body. It was certainly no longer stiff in the least.
“That’s better,” Eddy told her, relaxing a bit, “Now
let’s go inside. You’ll catch your death out here.”
“Nonsense,” she scoffed. “Rain will do me no harm.”
“So you say,” Eddy retorted weakly. “However, I would
rather you didn’t parade about naked like that. Next spring after the tree
matures and you have an entire new universe to live in, you may do as you
choose, but for now I would really appreciate it if you were to remain decently
attired.”
“But I don’t like any of the clothes I have to wear,”
she complained. Eddy suspected they had reached her real objection to clothing.
It wasn’t the covering of her body that she objected to so much as what she had
been given to do it with.
“Who chose your clothing? Jael?” Eddy asked.
“She brought them,” Tanise told him, “but I think it
was Rona who chose them. She’s not as much fun as Jael.”
“Meaning her tastes are more conservative,” Eddy
understood. “Well, I can’t very well ask Jael take you shopping without Rona,
although given their obvious differences, I’m surprised she deferred to Rona’s
tastes.”
“Jael acts like she’s always in charge,” Tanise
observed, “but I think Rona wins most of their arguments.”
“You may be right,” Eddy nodded. “The quiet ones like
Rona often do. I could ask
“Mother Nature wears even more boring clothing than
Rona chose for me,” Tanise objected. “Why can’t you take me.”
“Any time I leave the house, Enki starts shifting our
guardians around like a general planning the next World War,” Eddy explained.
“He also has to see about keeping you and the tree safe. I imagine he must get
cold shivers every time we go for a walk around town. If I take you off to the Galleria,
or better still, up to
“How about Ina?” Tanise suggested. “She’ll let me buy
things I like, I’m sure of it.”
“Okay,” Eddy agreed, “but I want you to promise me
that if she disagrees with your choices, you’ll bow to her decision. Ina has
exquisite tastes in fashion so if you choose something she doesn’t like, there
will probably be a very good reason for it.”
“I’ll be good,” Tanise agreed happily. “When can we
leave?”
“We’ll let Ina make the arrangements,” Eddy told her, “but my guess is you’ll be able to
go later today.”
Tanise was happy with the result and finally agreed
to come back inside. Ina was delighted at the chance to go shopping with the
young dryad and left after making a single call. They were gone for several
hours and when they returned, Tanise was wearing a bright t-shirt and jeans and
had quite a few boxes filled with other clothing designed to appeal to
seventeen year old girls. Most of them were brightly colored even though Eddy
was fairly certain the less bold colors were currently in. He smiled and
reminded himself that Tanise’s leaf dress was bright so it probably should not
be surprising that she would prefer human clothing in similar colors.
Six
With Asherah now part of the home team as Ina and
Jael started calling everyone who actually stayed in Eddy’s house, Ina found
she had more time to spend cultivating her followers in
“I don’t recall you ever being associated with the
Winter Solstice,”
“You used to be a springtime goddess,” Asherah added.
“April was your month, was it not?”
“Well, yes,” Ina agreed, “but even the cult of a springtime
goddess should have an observance at the solstice.”
“Are you making this up as you go along?” Eddy asked,
from the couch where he had been watching the news.
“Of course not!” Ina replied instantly.
“It’s just that it seems to me that a springtime goddess
cult would consider the winter a rather somber time,” Eddy remarked.
“Eddy has a good point,” Asherah told her. “Winter
for your followers should probably be a time of mourning. Just when was it you
were banished to the Underworld.”
“This lot knows me better as Venus or Aphrodite,” Ina
pointed out. “neither of those aspects were sent to Hell. Forcibly married to
Hephaestos, yes, and that was hell enough! But you do have a point; so far I’ve
been there for all joy and celebration. ‘Happy, happy’ is fun, but you can’t
very well appreciate it fully without some sorrow to balance it. I think this
should be a serious occasion. Maybe a bit of Innana’s descent into Hell should
be part of it. Eddy, you’re right I have
been winging this and a religion based entirely on joy may sound good at first,
but it won’t help anyone deal with the bad times that are unfortunately
inevitable.”
“Well, I wouldn’t recommend going too far along those
lines,” Eddy told her.
“No,” Ina shook her head. “The Roman dramatist Terrence coined the phrase ‘Moderation in all things’
in one of his plays, although he was far from the only ancient to advocate
such. It’s a principle I’ve been trying to encourage.”
Jael came in through the greenhouse door just then.
“I’m back. Sorry I took longer than expected.”
“No harm done,” Ina told her, “I’m not ready to leave
just yet.”
“You know, it might be better to let them party on
their own,” Jael suggested.
“Last time I did that, they used me as an excuse for
an orgy,” Ina replied sourly. “I’m all for loving, but as we were just
discussing when you came in, there is a proper time and place. I’m no longer
giving the customers everything they want, especially if all they want is to
get laid. They don’t need me for that. No, this time I’m guiding my followers
toward a sensible and mature religion.”
“Starring the Queen of Love?” Jael asked skeptically.
“More power to you if you can manage it. Um… is that why you’re doing it?
Power?”
“No!” Ina almost shouted in reply. “No,” she repeated
in softer tones. “Well, maybe… I didn’t think I was. Now I don’t know. I’ll
have to think about that.”
“It should help you keep the evening serious, at
least,” Asherah told her.
Ina smiled slightly. “I guess it will,” she replied
quietly.
“Jael, I’ve been thinking,”
“That’s really not necessary,” Jael replied. “We saw
him just…”
“That was over two weeks ago,” Rona cut in.
“Was it?” Jael asked. “Can’t have been.”
“Jael,”
“You all are family too,” Jael countered.
“That’s sweet, Jael,” Asherah told her, “and I
appreciate the sentiment more than you know, but you should never neglect your
husband either.”
“Marcus understands,” Jael maintained.
“Does he?” Asherah asked. “He must be quite
remarkable then, but there’s no reason to not be with him tonight. Go. I’ll
hold down the fort for you.”
“I don’t know,” Jael replied uncertainty. The
temptation was obvious, but as a demoness, she understood the dangers of
temptation.
“You don’t think I have the ability?” Asherah asked
pointedly.
“Great Mother, no!” Jael exclaimed.
“It’s been a long time since anyone called me that,” Asherah
laughed. “I’m also a goddess of family, though, and I really encourage you to
maintain your own.”
“Please, Jael?” Rona asked.
“Oh, very well, I suppose I could use a night off,”
Jael finally agreed, “and thanks. But we’re not going to make a habit of this!”
“Of course not, dear,” Asherah told her in an
unconscious imitation of how
“We’re off then,” Jael decided. “I don’t need to pack
a bag or a toothbrush. Hey, Ina? Going our way?”
“Oh? Are you going out tonight too?” Ina asked.
“Maybe I should stay in.”
“No need,”
“You’re sure?” Ina asked.
“I’m always sure,”
“Did someone just leave?” Tanise asked, coming up
from her bedroom in the basement. Eddy explained what she had just missed.
“Good,” Tanise decided. “Jael and Rona should spend more time with their
husband, I think. Too bad he lives so far away. Ina was telling me tonight is
special?”
“To some people it is,”
“Why do some give it more than others?” Tanise asked.
“It’s a religious thing for them,”
“For us, however,” Eddy added, “It means a quiet
evening at home again.”
“I like that,” Tanise decided. “I’m going to miss
this place when my Tree transcends.”
“You can always come to visit,” Eddy told her.
“Can I?” she asked. “I mean will I be able to cross
back over?”
“I’m not sure about the rest of this world, dear,”
“And it will always be your home,” Eddy assured her.
“Now I was thinking of calling out for Chinese food tonight.”
“If you don’t mind,” Asherah replied. “I would really
like to cook tonight. “Would you like to help me, Tanise?”
“I don’t know how to cook,” Tanise admitted.
“Then I’ll have to teach you,” Asherah replied
practically. “You know how to use a knife, I know. I’ve seen you chopping
vegetables.”
“Well, cutting meat and vegetables, sure,” Tanise
nodded. “That’s not cooking.”
“It’s a big part of it,” Asherah replied. “Come on.
Let’s see if we can come up with something better than sweet and pungent
phoenix tails.”
“We don’t have any phoenix tails in the pantry, do
we?” Eddy asked
“I think she’s referring to a certain way to prepare
shrimp,”
“I’ve been meaning to ask,
“Well, I haven’t wanted to worry you,”
“Why would that worry me?” Eddy asked.
“It suggests two possibilities,”
“It could also mean we’re out of really big enemies,”
Eddy remarked.
“It could,”
“Well,” Eddy sighed, “tomorrow’s another day. For
this evening we can settle in and watch some of the new movies Jael brought in.”
“Are you sure,”
“Every once in a while they make for a change,” Eddy
replied. “Besides I’m living with several women, so it’s only natural to assume
that I’ll have to watch the occasional chick-flick. Although it would be
strange for Jael to choose them, I think. Sounds more like Rona, if you ask
me.”
“No,”
“She tells me she used to,” Eddy remarked, “but that
after she met and subsequently married Marcus, her standing in Hell’s ranking
system stopped meaning as much to her.”
“She’s been offered promotions several times since
then,”
Asherah and Tanise produced a Chinese-style meal that
was both delicious and pleasing to look at and in less than a half hour.
Complete with soup, three entrees and dessert. After the talk of phoenix tails,
however, when Eddy found scraps of meat he couldn’t readily identify, he
decided not to ask what they were, just in case they had substituted something
really odd, like sautéed parrot loins.
Watching
movies in the evenings had become a regular occurrence in Eddy’s house since he
had bought the DVD player. They all regularly bought or rented favorites to
share with each other and the ones they chose were of less interest to Eddy
than just being with these strange people who had become a new family for him.
They were most of the way through the second feature when Eddy’s phone rang.
More often than not lately, Tanise had run to answer
it for the chance to chat with Nin-ti or Enki or one of the other gods who
called in from time to time. In spite of her refusal to leave the house without
someone to accompany her, she was a very gregarious soul and seemed to love
talking to anyone who called. This time, however, she was so engrossed by The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, a
movie that bored Eddy silly, she stayed glued to her seat, leaning comfortably
against Asherah.
“I’ll get it,” he told
“Daddy?” a woman asked from the far end of the line.
She sounded like she was just a heartbeat away from tears.
“Maggie?” he responded to his daughter. “What’s
wrong, dear?”
“Daddy, Peter and I are through,” she managed to get
out between sniffles, “I’m coming home.”
Seven
“Well, I couldn’t very well tell her, ‘No, you can’t
come home,’” Eddy explained a week later, privately thinking he should have
printed the sentence on a flashcard. They were driving north into
“Nor would I have forgiven you if you had, dear,”
“How am I supposed to introduce you?” Eddy asked.
“Hi, Maggie! It’s been ages, dear. Welcome home! Oh, by the way, this is the
woman I’m shacked up with, but don’t worry, She’s really Mother Nature so it’s
okay.”
“We’ve been through that, Eddy,”
“She didn’t like any of our other suggestions,” Eddy
recalled.
“And she really does think of herself as your
daughter,”
“Yggdrasil isn’t a pleasant sounding name to modern
ears,” Eddy observed. “I can’t blame her for wanting to change it. Most women
do that through marriage though. Maybe I should have formally adopted her.”
“We’re holding that in reserve,”
“And what do we do next time Ratatosk pops in to
tease Tanise or ogle one of the rest of you?” Eddy asked.
“We’ve warned him off,”
“Well, if we can keep this quiet until the Tree
transcends, they won’t think old Grandad needs to be sent to a home. After
that, they’ll be able to see for themselves that there’s something truly unique
going on here. That’s a big change from over the summer. Back then the tree
changed appearance almost every day and it grew like a shot every time we
transplanted it. It wouldn’t have been hard to prove the crazy stories. Now the
Tree is just a very tall maple and the only remarkable thing is that you can’t
see it from the front of the house.”
“Or anywhere off your property,”
“Maggie wouldn’t even bother to confirm it for
herself,” Eddy admitted. “Can’t say as I’d blame her. If I hadn’t lived through
the last year, I doubt I would either. Also Maggie is pretty level-headed and
down to earth.”
“Ah,”
“Sadly,” Eddy agreed, “but then so was I until you
came into my life. I just didn’t realize it at the time.”
“I found you interesting from the first time we met,”
“Yep,” Eddy replied. “We want the Ted Williams tunnel
at this time of the evening. It’ll mean a clean shot right into
“Nothing wrong with your memory.”
“Why that moment?” Eddy asked.
“What do you mean?” Eddy asked.
“Well, you’ve already heard about how we found you?”
“Mister Waters told me that he was able to divine the
best person to raise the tree,” Eddy replied.
“More accurately,”
“Right,” Eddy agreed as they passed into the tunnel,
“I was the person most likely to be able to raise the Tree.”
“That’s right,”
“You used to be married to him,” Eddy pointed out.
“Hmm, yes. Are you sure that no longer bothers you?”
“I figure he’s your ex because you two no longer feel
that way about each other,” Eddy replied.
“We’ve both moved on,”
“I really am,” Eddy confirmed.
“You’re quite a remarkable man, dear,” she told him
fondly.
“I doubt that,” Eddy replied, “but tell me about how Enki
was being too clever.”
“Oh yes.” She paused, “That. Well, I really had
planned to raise the Tree myself. I wasn’t out for the power, I was fairly
certain I could disassociate from her before the moment of transcendence. There
was a young tree that made it to maturity round about the time
“What’s it like?” Eddy asked.
“Unlike any other,”
“Maybe They don’t think you should get involved
there,” Eddy remarked, “or else They know that for some reason they shouldn’t.”
“Well, They certainly know they should not tell us,”
“I still haven’t heard what Enki did,” Eddy remarked.
“Instead of telling me that you would be raising the
young tree, he said we were sending the seed to you because it would be safest
in your hands until planting time came. It may not have been a direct lie,”
“Not at all,” Eddy agreed.
“Well, he didn’t bother to correct that until a few
minutes before we arrived on your doorstep. Naturally I was upset and resented
both that he had tricked me and that you, not I, would be the keeper of the
seedling.”
“No wonder you acted so coldly toward me,” Eddy
remarked as he headed for Terminal B where
“I was quite angry,”
“Mmm, yes,” Eddy chuckled. “It’s not nice to fool
Mother Nature.”
“How true,” she laughed. “Was that one of your ads?”
“No,” Eddy denied. “ConAgra Foods was never a client
and I never even tried their margarine.”
“I did,”
“No, probably right on time, unless Maggie’s plane is
delayed,” Eddy replied as he swung the car on up the ramp and to the next floor.
“Much later and I might as well have driven up to the loading zone.” He found a
fortuitous space on the embarkation level of the terminal.
Terminal B was a large, wide building that housed
nearly half the airlines that flew into
“We’ll never be allowed past the security point on
that concourse,” Eddy remarked. “Only people with tickets are allowed these
days.”
“I can get us through unquestioned,”
“I suppose you could at that,” he replied, “but it’s
not necessary. Besides they ought to be here in a few minutes. If we went on
down to the gate, we could easily lose them in the crowd of passengers.”
“So do you want to wait down by the baggage claim
area?”
“I’m not that patient,” Eddy laughed. “This is my
daughter and granddaughter after all and I haven’t seen them face-to-face in
years, That little camera Jael set up on the computer helped, but for some
reason Maggie could never drag Amelia in front of it to meet me. Last time I
saw her, she was still wearing diapers.”
“Then it’s a good chance she isn’t any longer,”
“She’s still going to seem a bit on the innocent
side,” Eddy pointed out.
“There is that,”
“She doesn’t like to lie,” Eddy observed.
“Normally I would applaud that honesty,”
“There’s Maggie,” Eddy pointed at a middle-aged woman
in a long brown winter coat strolling around the security point. “I just realized,
you look at least a decade younger than she does.”
“So, the old man is robbing the cradle,”
“That’s okay, dear,” he replied while waving at his
daughter, “I still love you. Maggie! Over here!”
“Dad!” Maggie called back, rushing over to hug Eddy
and kiss his cheek. “I’m a terrible daughter. I should have visited more often.
Really I should have.”
“You were too far away to do that on any sort of
regular basis,” Eddy told her. “I’ve always understood. It’s good to have you
home now though.”
A strange look on Maggie’s face came and went as
though she was trying to decide whether she really had come home at last. Then
with tears, rolling down her cheeks, she hugged Eddy again and told him,
“Thanks, Dad. I love you.” They hugged a bit longer until an impatient cough
from behind Maggie broke them up. “Oh!” Maggie continued, “And this is your
granddaughter, Amelia.”
“Mom!” Amelia complained. “You know I prefer Amy!”
“Hi, Amy,” Eddy greeted her. “Do you have a hug for
your granddad or should we just wave from a distance?”
Amy gave him a perfunctory hug. “Nice to meet you,”
she added unenthusiastically.
“Amelia didn’t want to leave
“Can’t say as I blame you, Amy,” Eddy spoke directly
to the teenager. He had found that the best way to handle Tanise was with the
same respect he would give any adult so it was natural to try the same with
Amy. “All your friends are there, aren’t they?”
“Yeah!” Amy agreed sullenly. “I could have stayed
with Dad, you know.” Behind her, Eddy could see Maggie mouthing the words, “No
she couldn’t,” but he decided to get that story later.
“Where are my manners?” he remarked, “This is Delores
Meter. I told you I’ve had a number of house guests recently.
“It’s nice to meet you, Maggie,”
Maggie examined Dee as though with x-ray eyes and her
eyebrows compressed subtly so
Amy barely touched hands with her, but
“So how was the flight?” she asked Maggie as they
started toward the baggage claim area.
“Flights,” Maggie corrected her. “We had to change
planes three times through seven cities.”
“Really?”
“Bad timing,” Maggie replied with hostilely.
“Sorry to hear that,”
“Not really,” Maggie responded, “but I’m too tired to
eat now. I just want to go home and sleep this off.”
“How about you, Amy?” Eddy asked. “Hungry?”
“Uh uh,” Amy replied. He wasn’t able to tell if the
response was sleepy, sullen or a combination of the two. Like
“Well, we’ll just pick up the luggage and be on own
way,” Eddy decided.
“Why don’t I get the car and bring it around to the
gate?”
“Good idea,” Eddy remarked, handing her the keys. She
took them and started toward the car, but stopped once they had descended out
of sight on the escalator. Then she did an about-face and headed directly for the bookshop Jael was
rushing out of.
“What are you two doing here?”
“Uh, hi,” Jael responded lamely. “Um, Enki thought it
might be best if I kept an eye on you and Eddy from a distance?” In her
discomfort, she made it sound like a question.
“You aren’t sure?”
“Oh, okay, I slipped out of the house on my own.
Don’t worry, Ash and Ina are still there,” Jael assured
“Ash may be,”
“Don’t see her now,” Jael noted.
“She probably moved out before you did. Why did you
stop to actually buy a book?”
“The shopkeeper was glaring at me,” Jael protested. “I
had to buy something in order to look normal. You all just moved on before I
could finish paying.”
“Hope it’s a good read,”
“
“I suppose not,”
“Don’t worry, I have Ratatosk filling in for me,”
Jael told her.
“Did I hear you right?”
“I know you two don’t get along,” Jael admitted, “but
he’s as good a protector as any of us in his own way.”
“Oh, just go home and get him and whoever Ina chose
to fill in for her. If Pan were still alive this cycle she’d probably have
called him in,”
“He was a woodlands god,” Jael pointed out.
“But leaving him in reach of a cute young nymph like
Tanise would have been disastrous,”
“Not with Asherah on the job,” Jael smirked.
“Yes, ma’am,” Jael responded.
By the time
“What took so long?” Eddy asked curiously.
“I, uh, took a shortcut,”
“Well, no matter,” Eddy smiled. “You’re here now.
Could you pop the trunk open, please?”
They loaded two bags each from Maggie and Amy into
the luggage compartment in the car. “That’s all you brought?”
“There was one other, but it seems to be taking a
vacation to
Both Dee and Eddy tried striking up conversations with
Maggie and Amy on the way home, but both women replied with only terse
statements and eventually they all stopped talking and spent the trip home as
though each of them were traveling alone.
Eight
“Dad,” Maggie asked after being introduced to Ash, Ina,
Jael and Tanise, “who are all these women?”
“My friends,” Eddy told her simply. “They’ve been
staying with me. It’s nice not to have to live in an empty house, don’t you
think?”
“But they’re all…” she paused looking for the words
she wanted. Eddy let the silence stretch rather than trying to finish the
thought for her. “…so young,” she finally concluded.
“Don’t be fooled,” Eddy chuckled, “They’re older than
they look.”
“There must be one heck of a good beauty shop in town
then,” Maggie shot back. “Tanise looks about Amelia’s age.”
“Ah,” Eddy responded, “Tanise is the exception that
makes the rule. “She’s a bit younger than Amy.”
“Dad, I prefer that she be called Amelia,” she
admonished him.
“But she prefers to be called Amy, dear,” Eddy
replied gently. “You don’t hear me insisting you be called Margaret, do you?”
“But…” Maggie began, “I suppose you’re right, but I
only think of her as Amelia. She didn’t insist on being Amy until Peter and I
separated.”
“She’s looking for her identity,” Eddy pointed out. “You
know the divorce had to have torn her in two. She loves her father, doesn’t
she?”
“She does, but I’ll be damned if I can figure out
why,” Maggie replied. “He doesn’t feel the same way about either of us. He
certainly didn’t want her.”
“Are you sure?’ Eddy pressed. “Maybe he just didn’t
want to hurt her by making her choose. Not a wise choice on Peter’s part, but
none of us is a genius when it comes to love, I think, except maybe Ina. You
might try talking to her; she has some pretty deep insights on the subject.”
“Where did you meet her?” Maggie demanded. “Where did
you meet any of them, for that matter?”
“Through a mutual friend,” Eddy replied. “Have I
mentioned my friend, Mister Waters?”
“Once or twice,” Maggie admitted. “I got the
impression you didn’t see him very often.”
“He’ll be here in a couple days for the party,” Eddy
told her.
“Party?” Maggie asked.
“New Year’s Eve,” Eddy replied. “Too bad you weren’t
here for Thanksgiving. We had a bit of a blast that day. I think this will be a
bit quieter. Only a couple dozen or so will be here and a lot of them will only
be putting in an appearance before moving off to other parties.”
“This is so strange, Dad,” Maggie told him. Eddy
detected a note of worry in her voice. “Not like you at all. Last time I was
home, you had very few friends.”
“That was just after your Mom died,” Eddy recalled.
“Well I’ve decided I don’t like living alone. You and Amy were off, seemingly
forever, in
“Oh no!” Maggie told him, sounding now much more like
the daughter he remembered. “You are not setting me up! Even if I were ready
for it, which I’m not!”
“Okay,” Eddy nodded. “I didn’t invite them here for
that anyway. They were coming even before I knew you’d be here. So what
happened?”
“What do you mean?” Maggie asked.
“With Peter?” Eddy amplified, “and your job in
“Oh, Dad,” Maggie sighed. “The company lost its
government grant and had to make cutbacks. They decided to can my entire
department and sold the assets off to some company out of
“The stress of being out of work can do that, I
hear,” Eddy remarked.
“If only it had been that simple,” Maggie replied.
“It turned out he was seeing someone else for the last two years and finally
decided to leave us.”
“I’m sorry, Maggie,” Eddy told her. “Really, I am.”
“Yeah, well that’s over,” Maggie told him. “I saw no
reason to stay in
“That’s wonderful, darling,” Eddy told her. “What
about Amelia, though?”
“She’s seventeen and she’s already been accepted at
Brown starting next fall, and she’s a straight-A student. She’ll sail through
her last semester at
“She doesn’t seem all that happy to be here,” Eddy
observed.
“She’s angry with the world right now,” Maggie
replied. “She’ll get over it.”
“Did she have a boyfriend in
“What? I seriously doubt it,” Maggie replied, shaking
her head at the idea.
“Why?” Eddy asked. “Is she gay?”
“Oh, of course not!” Maggie shook her head again.
“She’s a normal teenaged girl.”
“Well, from what I hear these days there’s a fair
argument that has nothing to do with normality, but have it your way,” Eddy
told her. “The point is, she’s seventeen. I’d find it less normal if she didn’t
have a boyfriend, or whatever. I suspect you may have inadvertently destroyed a
case of young love. Or maybe she’s just resenting the fact that you dragged her
away from everything and everyone she knows.”
“She’ll get over it,” Maggie told him again. “She’ll
make new friends. In a week she’ll forget all about
“I doubt that it will be that easy,” Eddy told her.
“I really do. Your grandparents made me move twice growing up. It took me over
a year to get used to it both times. Moving is hard on kids. Divorce is hard on
them too. You’ve handed Amy a double whammy. I wouldn’t be surprised if it
takes her a while to forgive you or me.”
“She’s just being overly dramatic, I tell you,”
Maggie maintained.
“Of course she is,” Eddy chuckled. “She’s a teenager.”
“You don’t even know her,” Maggie told him heatedly.
“That’s true,” he admitted readily, “but I know her
mother.”
“Do you?” she asked skeptically.
“Most people don’t change all that much,” Eddy
pointed out, “not after they reach adulthood. I think I know you fairly well.
It’s only been fifteen years you know. Hmm, that’s odd.”
“What’s odd?” Maggie asked.
“Oh nothing,” Eddy laughed. “A friend told me
recently that the world came to an end fifteen years ago but that nobody
noticed.” It was a gross simplification of what he’d actually been told, but it
was the most he figured he could actually say on that subject.
“Funny,” Maggie noted, “for me, I thought a new world
was starting about then.”
“That too,” Eddy replied. “Whenever the world ends a
new one replaces it evidently. That’s why no one notices.”
“Sounds like a convenient circularity, but, Dad, I’ve
never noticed you being so interested in philosophy.”
“It’s just something I picked up over the last
eighty-four years,” he told her. “Look it’s getting late. Maybe you need to get
some sleep?”
“It’s still not quite eleven in
Eddy looked around the house and discovered for the
first time since the ladies of Springtime Seed had moved in, there wasn’t
anyone awake at night in the living room. It had been the one feature he had
adapted to most easily, in fact. When unable to sleep there had always been
someone up and alert to talk to until he managed to relax enough to sleep
again. He knew where everyone was, though. They were in their bedrooms, keeping
the same schedules they had before, but now they had to keep them in their
rooms at least until they had gotten to know Maggie and Amy well enough to be
able to understand and predict their nighttime habits,
Eddy thought they were being a bit too cautious and
that someone ought to be openly awake, just not all night, but he had deferred
to
“Are you sure you don’t mind having to feign sleep?”
Eddy asked as he started getting undressed behind the closet door.
“Not at all, dear,” Dee responded. “It’s just the way
we all have to work for a while is all. And I don’t even mind sleeping once in
a while. It’s recreational. I am sorry your daughter hates me on sight,
however.”
“I think we shocked her is all,” Eddy replied. “I
mean to her eyes it looks like I’m shacked up with a woman young enough to be
my daughter. It’s only natural that sort thing would creep her out. I think
she’ll come around in a week or so. I’m more worried about Amy. I have a sneaky
suspicion Maggie doesn’t spend enough time with her. How did she respond to
Tanise?”
“They haven’t met yet,”
“I wish we had more rooms in the house,” Eddy
commented. “Amy was used to having her own room in
“A house this size with five bedrooms is unusual
enough,”
“How do you know that?” Eddy asked, climbing into bed
beside her.
“I’m not omniscient, but I do have some ability along
those lines.”
“I’m glad you did,” Eddy told her. “It confirms some
of my own guesses. I think losing Julie was the worst thing that ever happened
to me, but it would have been even worse if I lost her through a fight.”
“It would have been,”
“No, it’s all right,” Eddy replied and he stretched
out and closed his eyes. A moment later
Nine
“Hello,” Tanise greeted Amy the next morning as she
returned from brushing her teeth. “Are you Amelia? I’m Tanise. Sorry I slept
through your arrival last night.”
Amy groaned inarticulately, then added, “I’d rather
be called Amy.”
“Really?” Tanise asked. “Amelia is a lovely name.
It’s your name, though. Amy it is.”
“It’s an old-fashioned name,” Amy replied, sitting
up. “You really like it?”
“I said so,” Tanise nodded, “but my opinion doesn’t
count.”
“Sure it does,” Amy argued.
“Not as far as what you want to be called goes,”
Tanise shook her head.
“Oh, yeah,” Amy nodded reluctantly. Since her parents
had started fighting she had rebelled as well. She found herself naturally
saying things just to get them to react. It felt like losing when Tanise gave
in so easily. Then she realized she was being silly. It was one thing to argue
with her mother, but this girl might turn out to be a friend. Fighting for no
good purpose on first acquaintance wasn’t a smart move. “I suppose you’re
right,” she admitted.
“Hey, it’s your name,” Tanise told her. “Use it any way
you like or change it completely if that suits you.
“Dee” Amy asked. “You mean Ms. Meter?”
“Yes, that’s her,” Tanise agreed.
“Why does she have different names?” Amy wondered.
“Is she a spy?” The notion intrigued her.
“I don’t think so,” Tanise replied, not entirely
certain what a spy was nor why one would need a lot of different names. “You
hungry?”
“Totally ravenous,” Amy admitted. Her mind did a
double-take. How had this strange girl managed to draw her out so easily. Amy
thought she had built her protective wall carefully enough, but Tanise had
managed to get past the barriers as though they didn’t exist. Then Amy shrugged
and decided to go along with it. She hadn’t really been liking herself much
lately anyway.
“Well, there’s always something to eat in the kitchen
and Ash makes the best pancakes,” Tanise told her.
“Cool. Let me clean up, though,” Amy begged off. “I
must look a fright.”
“You look fine to me,” Tanise opined.
“You’re not a boy,”
“Does that make a difference?” Tanise asked
innocently.
Amy looked at her strangely. Of course it made a
difference. “I’ll be up in a minute,” she replied instead. Tanise nodded
happily and bounced out of the room. “She’s a bit too perky if you ask me,” Amy
noted sourly, then admonished herself for the criticism. It appeared they were
going to be roommates for the next few months until college started. The least
Amy could do was to try to get along.
The thought drew her back to her circle of friends in
“Good morning, Amy,” Ash greeted her as she came into
the kitchen. “We have blueberry pancakes this morning. Would you like three or
four?”
“They smell lovely,” Amy replied more cheerfully than
she thought she could. What was it about these people? “Just two, please.” Ash
handed her a plate with two pancakes, half an orange cut into wedges a dab of
butter and a sprig of mint and also gave her a cup of cranberry juice. “Thank
you,” she told Ash and took it to the table where Tanise and Ina were sitting.
“We’re going party shopping this morning, Amy,” Ina
told her, indicating herself and Tanise. “Want to join us?”
“Where are you going?” Amy asked, determined to find
an excuse not to.
“I have several party shops on the list Eddy gave me,”
Ina told her conspiratorially, “but just between you and me, I think we want
something better than the usual tin foil and cardboard New Years decorations,
so it’s going to take some serious shopping. We may have to hit every mall from
here to
“Can we do that in one day?” Amy wondered and
suddenly realized she had just agreed. What was
it about these people?
“Well, if we really get stuck, we can try again
tomorrow,” Ina shrugged. “but by tomorrow I expect to be busy decorating.”
“So we’re buying decorations?” Amy asked.
“And food,” Ina told her. “Mostly food. We’ll spend
more time looking at decorations, though.”
“What about balloons?” Amy suggested. “Do you know
how to make those large balloon constructions I’ve seen on TV?”
“I could probably figure it out,” Ina told her
confidently. “You need to blow up a lot of balloons and tie them together or on
to a frame, depending on what you plan to make. What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know,” Amy admitted. “I just thought of it.”
“How about the Tree?” Tanise suggested.
“What tree?” Amy asked.
“Uh, the big one in the back yard,” Tanise replied
with only a slight verbal stumble. “Can we do that?”
Amy looked out the kitchen window. “That’s a big
tree, isn’t it?”
“Yes he is,” Tanise replied proudly.
“I think that would be very appropriate,” Ina
decided. “Should we do it in spring or fall colors?”
“Both,” Tanise decided, “and some branches should be
bare for winter.”
“And I suppose some should be darker green for summer
as well,” Amy opined.
“Well, that certainly changes our plans,” Ina noted.
“We’ll need to pick up some chicken wire and a tank of helium, though we won’t
need that for the tree, but I like balloons that float, don’t you? We do need
some compressed air, because we’ll blow out our lungs trying to inflate that
many balloons the old-fashioned way. Maybe I’ll just buy or rent a small
compressor. We’ll also need a lot of string. Hmm, sounds like fun, but it won’t
take long to buy all that stuff. Good! That means we have more time for food
shopping. We’ll do that in
“What’s going on in the backyard?” Amy asked.
Ina looked, “Oh, that’s the rotisserie we built
yesterday for the ostrich roast. Eddy made a joke about that while shopping for
Thanksgiving and we thought it might be fun to actually try it. Ash is
supervising the hearth, of course. How’s it going, Ash?”
“Everything is right on schedule,” Asherah told her,
“although we couldn’t do it with stuffing like Eddy wanted. It would have taken
too long to roast over an open fire. As it is, we’re talking about one hundred
pounds of meat.”
“Is that really an ostrich on the spit?” Amy asked.
“Oh yes,” Asherah told her. “We found a farm growing
Blackwing Ostriches about thirty miles away and bought one. Cleaning it was the
hard part. They slaughtered it for us and gutted it, but we wanted the feathers
and plumes so removing the feathers was on us. We did that last night while you
were still flying in.”
“Why did you want the feathers and plumes?” Amy
asked, interested in spite of herself.
“Presentation,” Ash told her. “You three aren’t the
only ones working on decorations.”
“Will we have some left over for inside?” Ina asked.
“I was planning to use them all inside,” Asherah
replied. “Did you need any?”
“Not really, I just thought you were using them
outside,” Ina told her. “Never mind.”
“I haven’t yet completely decided how to arrange
them,” Asherah continued, “but maybe they will go well with the balloon tree.”
“Sounds good,” Ina replied. “I think we’ll go
shopping for fancy appetizers in
“Where are you going?” Maggie asked, entering the
kitchen.
“We’re going shopping for Granddad’s party, Mom,” Amy
replied challengingly. Perversely, it
made her feel better that she could still be irritated by her Mom. All these
others were making her feel bubbly and while it was a pleasant feeling, she
didn’t think she should be feeling that good.
Maggie looked like she wanted to forbid Amy from
leaving the house, but could not find a valid excuse for it. “Pancackes?” Ash
asked her.
“Thanks,” Maggie replied, sufficiently distracted.
“Is there any coffee?”
“See you later, Mom,” Amy told her as she followed
Ina and Tanise out of the room.
Maggie took two bites of the pancakes and Ash joined
her at the table. “Who are all you people?” Maggie asked her bluntly.
“Eddy’s friends,” Ash told her simply. “One by one,
he invited us to move in. That’s all.”
“And that Delores Meter?” Maggie asked. “What does
she think she’s doing with my father.”
“Cuddling mostly,” Ash replied. “They’re in love.”
“Disgusting,” Maggie commented.
“Love is never disgusting, Margaret Terrula,” Ash
told her sternly. “It is rare and beautiful and, in this case, none of your
business.”
Maggie glared at Ash, but was unable to maintain her
anger and eventually fell back to eating breakfast. She was just finishing up
when Eddy and Dee walked into the room. “Dad?” she asked, pointedly ignoring
“You’re going to buy a car just before the New Year?”
Eddy asked. “Good luck.” Asherah got up from the table and started preparing
breakfast for Eddy and Dee.
“It made more sense than driving down from
“Well, see Tom over at East-End Auto,” Eddy
suggested. “He always helps me when I need a new car.”
“That’s a Chrysler dealership, isn’t it?” Maggie
asked.
“They have a second building for Suburus these days,”
Eddy added.
“I’ll take a look,” Maggie agreed. “Maybe one of the
smaller Jeeps. I’ve been driving SUVs for so long now, I doubt I can kick the
habit.”
“How about Amy?” Eddy asked. “Does she have her
license?”
“Just barely,” Maggie replied. “I’ll worry about a
car for her after she graduates. Then again she’s going to school in
“I hear parking on College Hill can be difficult, but
residents usually have a spot,” Eddy remarked. “But I was actually thinking of
an early graduation gift.”
“You shouldn’t try to buy her love, Dad,” Maggie
snapped.
“That wasn’t my intention,” Eddy denied, “but it is
customary for grandparents to dote on their grandchildren, isn’t it? I seem to
be fifteen years in arrears on her account.” He chuckled as he said that, but
stopped when Maggie glared at him.
“I won’t stop you from buying her a car, Dad.” Maggie
told him. “I was wondering how I was going to budget it in anyway, but wait
until May when she graduates.”
“June, dear,” Eddy corrected her gently.
“Commencement ceremonies around here are in June.”
Maggie grabbed the keys to her father’s car and left
the kitchen. “Hey, Maggie!” they heard Jael call to her. “Great morning, huh?”
Then they heard the slam of the front door. “Wow,” Jael commented dryly as she
entered the kitchen, “and I thought I woke up cranky.”
“You do wake up cranky,” Rona told her.
“Shh!” Jael admonished her. The plan had been for
only Jael to be seen around the house.
“Relax,” Asherah told them. “Maggie’s out looking for
a new car and Amy’s out on errands with Ina and Tanise. Would you like a second
breakfast, dear? I’ve still a bit of batter left over after Dee’s and Eddy’s
pancakes.”
“Yeah, thanks,” Jael replied. “I think I would. I am
eating for two, after all.”
“You’re going to wear that joke out,” Rona warned
her.
“So I’ll come up with a new one,” Jael chuckled and
sang “Me and my shadow…”
“Funny,” Rona replied flatly.
“What’s wrong?” Jael asked. “Marcus is flying in
tonight and Ina will be in
“You certainly are,” Rona grumped. “Sorry, I
shouldn’t, I know. It’s just that I got used to not having to hide all the
time.”
“Oh yeah,” Jael agreed sympathetically, “That was
nice for a bit. Tell you what. We’re having quite a crowd over tomorrow night.
I think we can safely let you out off and on.” Rona was silent. “Mostly on,”
Jael tempted her, “and you can have Marcus at midnight.”
“Oh, all right,” Rona agreed finally. “And it’s only
for another three months, right?”
Ten
Eddy was amazed at the job of decorating the girls
had done with Ina. The balloon tree they made featured a wide trunk in one
corner of the living room, but with branches that hung down from and traveled
along the ceiling out into the greenhouse room and up the stairs, and Asherah
had used some more of the chicken wire to build a frame on which she attached
the ostrich feathers so that it looked as though the bird was standing in the
middle of the room.
He had deliberately underestimated the number of
guests for Maggie’s sake, but the attending gods and goddesses knew they each
had a scheduled time, arranged by Nin-ti, at which to show up. And when quite a
few stayed a bit longer than planned, there was no problem since there was
plenty of room in the back yard where the ostrich was being served. The evening
was warm for the end of December and was still just over forty as midnight
rapidly approached.
“Wow!” Amy breathed to Tanise, from the corner they
had chosen to occupy, “Who are all these people?”
“Friends,” Tanise replied carefully.
“That guy Gil is well built, isn’t he?” Amy observed,
looking over at Gilgamesh who was chatting comfortably with a tall dark-haired
woman who looked nearly as well-built as he was. “And that Herkule? Cute and
all Euro-looking!”
“He’s old enough to be your father,” Tanise pointed
out. It was a line Jael had coached her at.
Amy sighed. “My Dad is definitely not that cute,” she
grumped. “Who’s that blonde woman with Jael’s husband, though. They’re kissing!
Jael will have her eyes out if she catches them.”
“No she won’t,” Tanise giggled. “That’s Rona. She’s
Marcus’ other wife.”
“That’s bigamy!” Amy gasped. “It’s not legal anywhere
in the
“I don’t think they care,” Tanise giggled again.
“I thought Jael was nice,” Amy remarked, “but… eew!”
“Jael is
nice,” Tanise defended her. “This is love and love, as Ina tells me constantly,
takes many forms. Their arrangement doesn’t concern us and if it makes them
happy, I’m all for it.”
“Hmm,” Amy reevaluated her new friend. Tanise had
seemed a bit shallow at first, and all too ready to agree with anyone just to
be friends. The fact that she actually had a backbone was a revelation, and one
Amy welcomed, even if she was on the receiving end this time. “I touched a sore
spot, did I? I’m sorry. What’s the high school like?”
“I don’t know,” Tanise admitted. “I don’t attend it.”
“No?” Amy asked. “Why not?”
“I want to do that!” Amy decided. “I only have one
semester left and I could probably pass the exams right now. I’m going to go
talk to my mother about it.”
“She seems to be busy with Thor at the moment,”
Tanise noted, pointing at yet another muscular gentleman with blond hair. Thor
was dressed in casual slacks and a sweater, but even so, he seemed quite
statuesque.
“Then she won’t want to fight about it, will she?”
Amy replied smugly and started out across the room.
“She’s a bit manipulative for my tastes,”
“She hasn’t so far,” Tanise replied.
“Well, maybe she’s only that way with her mother,”
“I’m sorry,” Tanise replied contritely. “I don’t like
lying.”
“That because you’re a nice girl, dear,”
“I will be,” Tanise promised. “She’s coming back.”
“She agreed,” Amy reported happily.
“Did she really?”
“Well, it was more like, ‘Yes, dear. Whatever you
want,’” Amy replied.
“If she doesn’t change her mind in the morning,”
“We have,” Amy replied. “I’m stuffed.”
“I’d like a bit more of the carrot salad,” Tanise
replied.
“Did you eat any of the meat?” Amy asked her.
“Just a taste,” Tanise replied. “I’m not really fond
of red meat. I like fish though.”
“The ostrich was really good,” Amy remarked. “I
didn’t know it tasted like beef. I always thought it would taste a bit like
chicken. Isn’t that what they always say about exotic meats?”
“Do they?” Tanise asked innocently.
“Well in the cartoons and TV shows, anyway,” Amy
replied. “Come on, let’s fatten you up.”
“Huh?”
“I mean get you some more of those carrots, unless
you want ice cream instead,” Amy suggested.
“Is there any ginger left?” Tanise asked eagerly.
“Let’s find out!” Amy replied.
“I hear you’re doing a great job here, Eddy,” Hawk
Wilton, Nin-ti’s partner, told him while the girls were investigating the
pleasures of the dessert table.
“I haven’t done any of it by myself,” Eddy remarked.
“It was a team effort.”
“It always is, Eddy,” Hawk, the ex-baseball player,
replied. “It always is. But don’t understate what you have done. I understand
you knocked old Loki out of the park last summer..”
“I took too great a chance,” Eddy laughed. “I think
if I’d let him whine on for another minute or two Iblis would have killed him
for me and I wouldn’t have had to spend most of the next month in bed.”
“You don’t really know that,” Hawk told him, “and
Enki says that if it hadn’t been for you, Loki would have destroyed the Tree
while it was still a sapling.”
“It wasn’t bravery,” Eddy denied. “It was unthinking
stupidity. That and the fact that I was likely to be killed whether I did
anything or not. I figured I might as well do something.”
“And that is what heroes are made of,” Hawk told him.
“Thanks, Hawk. Ah… Could you do me a favor?” Eddy
asked.
“Name it,” Hawk responded. Eddy pulled a baseball out
of his pocket and held it out to Hawk.
Hawk laughed. “It’s been a long time since anyone
asked me to sign one of these. Hey, is this a Celestial League ball?”
“Ina got it for me,” Eddy admitted.
“She did?” Hawk asked as he fished through his
pockets for a pen. “That was nice of her. Inanna has always been the most
erratic player on the team. It took a month just to figure out she was a
southpaw. She kept trying everything right-handed, just because I demonstrated
everything that way.”
“Odd, I never noticed she was left-handed,” Eddy
remarked. “Guess that sort of thing is off my radar.”
“Why would you need to be aware of that?” Hawk
countered, finally finding a pen. “I manage a ball team - knowing how a player
throws a ball and swings a bat is essential - but you used to be in
advertising. Do I have that right?”
“You do,” Eddy nodded. “I spent better than forty
years writing copy and designing ad campaigns. Hmm, I see what you mean, the
only time handedness mattered was if the artwork got in the way of the copy.”
“Exactly,” Hawk nodded, signing the ball. “Still you
should have been there the day I finally straightened Inanna out and made her
bat lefty. She hit a homer straight out, though by then I think Isimud was
throwing her grapefruits. She kissed every baseman along the way as she ran the
bases too, except for Marduk there,” he pointed at a powerfully built man of
medium height who had an ostrich rib in his hand. “He’d been needling her all
afternoon. Besides he was still wearing his catcher’s mask.”
Amy and Tanise were near enough to overhear the
conversation and Amy nearly dropped her dish of frozen pudding at the sound of
the names Inanna and Marduk. Tanise noticed and asked, “What’s wrong?”
“Oh nothing,” Amy told her. “I think my ears were
playing tricks on me. This is strange ice cream. I don’t think I’ve ever had
this flavor before.”
“Frozen pudding’s a
“Can’t say that I have,” Marcus admitted, “but I’m
too full to eat anymore.”
“Silly!” she admonished him. “You should always leave
room for a little ice cream. Here, have a taste of mine.”
The front door opened just then and Enki entered with
a dark-skinned goddess on his arm. “Who is that with Enki?” Marcus whispered to
Jael. He kept his voice down, but it was just loud enough for Amy to hear as
was Jael’s replied.
“Tefnut, from
Enki made his way through the crowd, greeting
everyone by name and eventually reached the table where Tanise and Amy were.
“Tanise!” he held his hand out to grasp hers. “Nice to see you again, dear.
Your tree is looking magnificent.” From seemingly out of nowhere he handed her
a long-stemmed purple iris.
“Thank you, Mister Waters,” Tanise replied,
remembering Enki’s mortal alias.
“Her tree?” Amy asked suspiciously, accepting a
similar yellow iris from him.
“And yours as well,” Enki replied, pointing at the
immense balloon structure. “I assume you are Amy, Eddy’s granddaughter? Pleased
to meet you. Is your mother around this evening?”
“She went out about twenty minutes ago to spend some
time at her new boss’ party,” Amy replied.
“I suppose that was a smart choice,” Enki decided.
“Will she be back before midnight, do you think?”
“She said she would,” Amy replied.
“Good,” Enki nodded, “Oh have you two met Miss
Tefnut?” He performed the introductions and then moved on to have a word with Cold-Bring
Woman who was helping herself to coleslaw in the greenhouse room.
Amy turned to watch him, wondering where he was
hiding the flowers he seemed to be handing out to all the women and then
started looking closely to the others at the party as well. “There sure are a
lot of powerful-looking people here tonight,” Amy remarked. “I didn’t know
Granddad had taken up with so many bodybuilders.”
“Exercise is good for you,” Tanise told Amy, refusing
to sound nervous even though Amy was seeing more than anyone hoped she would. She
took a sniff at her flower to discover it was nearly scentless. “Now what?”
Amy was staring out into the backyard in frozen
fascination. “Uh…” she began and stopped to rub her eyes before looking again.
“My mind really is playing tricks on me tonight,” she laughed. “For a moment, I
could have sworn I saw
“Oh, that’s just R…” Tanise began, then mentally
shifted gears faster than a NASCAR driver in the hope that Amy wouldn’t notice,
“really weird!”
“Yeah, isn’t it?” Amy giggled. “I’d better not let
anyone know or they’ll think I was sneaking drinks all night.”
“That’s okay,” Tanise told her, “I’ll tell them you
weren’t.”
“Thanks,” Amy told her, “but they’d probably just say
I was lying and you were swearing to it. Adults are like that, although as
adults go, this bunch seems pretty cool. Wish my Mom could be that cool, in
fact.”
“It’s almost Midnight,” Eddy told both of them
sometime later. “Would you like some
“Granddad,” Amy objected against her private wishes,
“we’re only seventeen.”
“Well, it is New Year’s Eve,” Eddy replied. “I think
we can make a rare exception.”
“Mom would never approve,” Amy told him. She wasn’t
sure why she was being such a goodie-goodie. It might have been Tanise’s
influence. She didn’t seem to be disobedient or rebellious in any way. That was
strange. It was stranger, Amy thought, that she liked the odd girl she’d just
met. She’d always ignored that sort back in
“Your mother was drinking New Year’s
“She was?” Amy asked.
“By your age she was occasionally sipping from my
beer glass for that matter, especially when she thought I didn’t notice,” Eddy
continued.
“My Mom?” Amy asked. Eddy nodded. “Okay, I’ll have
some.”
“Just half a glass,” Eddy told her.
“Aww,” she instantly started to object, then stopped
herself. A moment earlier she had been trying not to have any. It was not that
she had never tasted an alcoholic drink. Most of the kids had tried beer and
wine back home, a few of them were already having control problems with it, she
knew. But Amy was just not inclined to rebel against her mother along those
lines, normally.
“You are underage,” Eddy reminded her, “as you were
so quick to point out.”
A few minutes later they counted down the end of the
year and sang the “Auld” song. Another half hour later guests started leaving,
although Maggie didn’t return to the house until sometime after dawn.
Eleven
Jael and Asherah greeted Tanise and Amy two mornings
later with a pile of text books. “You two really slept in,” Jael observed as
the two stumbled into the kitchen. “New Year’s Eve was two days ago.”
“What’s all this?” Amy asked, looking at the books.
“Your new school books,” Jael replied. “Christmas
break is over, time to go back to school. You may be home-schooling this
semester, but you still have to pass the tests, and that includes the MCAS.”
“What’s the MCAS?” Amy asked.
“It’s the set of exams
“Oh,” Amy replied. “We had those in
“Yeah, I looked it up,” Jael admitted, “so I didn’t
think the concept would particularly shock you. Now these are the text books
the local school department expects you to use.”
“Aw geeze!” Amy commented as she looked through the
stack. “Half of these I read in my junior year. The rest of them look like
they’re older than you and Ash together.”
“Can’t be,” Jael shot back, “They’re not written on
clay tablets.”
“Very funny,” Amy told her sourly, not noticing the
shushing motion Ash gave Jael nor the grin Jael returned.
“But if you look closely, you might notice the
dinosaur tracks on some of the covers,” Jael concluded.
“Can’t we at least have breakfast first?” Amy
requested.
“Sure,” Jael shrugged. “You’re the one who asked what
the books were for. Now while you’re eating I’ll do the good news-bad news
joke. The good news is the local school department is willing to allow you to
home-school on this exceedingly short notice. The bad news, you’ve figured out
for yourself; they have a set curriculum they expect you to follow.
“Also,” Jael continued, “just because you’ll be
learning from one of us, you still need to meet the men and women who would
have been your teachers at Old Rochester Regional. The good news is that they
have some equivalency tests and if you pass them and the interviews, we may be
able to cut down the class work a bit.”
“You keep looking at me,” Amy commented. “What about
Tanise?”
“Tanise has been home-schooling since last semester,”
Jael informed her. “You’re the one we need to get approval for. Anyway, we have
probationary permission to go ahead with this and so long as you’re a good girl
when meeting people face-to-face, you get to finish up your diploma in the
comfort and convenience of home.”
“You sound like a bad advertisement,” Amy grumped.
“So long as you sound like a good student,” Jael told
her. “We have a lot to get through in the next few weeks. Your graduation MCAS
takes place in the last week of March, that’s less than three months away.”
“You mean I’ll be done by the end of March?” Amy
asked, delightedly.
“No one is that lucky, kid,” Jael told her. “That’s
just the MCAS. It’s a major requirement for your sheepskin, but not the only
one. You’ll also have to sit the exams the teachers at Old Rochester give you.”
“I have to take tests from teachers I never met?” Amy
asked, choking on her breakfast.
“Hey, I never promised you an easy ride,” Jael
retorted. “Besides, you’ll meet them several times before the tests. It’s one
of the stipulations they insisted on. They’ll be monitoring your progress and
making sure Ash and Ina and I aren’t letting you slide.”
“Do I need to do a senior project?” Amy asked.
“No one mentioned that,” Jael admitted.
“Good,” Amy breathed.
“It’s a good idea, though,” Jael considered. “What
were you working on in
“Not fair!” Amy replied. “I had a partner there and
she has all the notes we made.”
“You have a partner here,” Jael pointed out, nodding
toward Tanise. “Could she forward copies of those notes?”
“We had a pile of photocopies a foot thick,” Amy
admitted.
“Well, I suggest coming up with some other project
then,” Jael told her firmly.
“How about trees?” Tanise suggested.
“What about them?” Jael prompted. “Pick something
very specific and study it.”
“What’s with you and trees?” Amy asked Tanise.
“I like trees,” Tanise replied.
“I’ve noticed,” Amy remarked.
“Then you should also notice that Tanise is quite
knowledgeable on the subject,” Ash told her. “With her help, I don’t think this
would be too onorous an assignment.”
“You really know a lot about trees?” Amy asked
Tanise.
“Like she was born to them,” Jael quipped as Tanise
nodded shyly. Amy noticed Ash rolling her eyes at Jael’s comment and assumed it
was an old joke. It probably was if Tanise was really fascinated by trees,
which made sense; she was the one, after all, who suggested the large balloon
tree that still decorated the house two days after the party.
“That’s called dendrology, isn’t it?” Amy asked
thoughtfully.
“There you go,” Jael responded. “Actually, it is a
study of all woody plants, but I think we can include all woody plants, at
least for consideration for your project.”
“What sort of project?” Amy wondered.
“That is for you to figure out,” Ash replied.
“Why don’t you two think about that this morning?”
Jael suggested. “Ash and I will try to work out a study schedule for these
texts.”
“The project I was working on in
“How so?” Tanise asked interestedly.
“Lots of research and lots of writing,” Amy replied
off-handedly, “and all of it while sitting on our butts.”
“That doesn’t sound like much fun,” Tanise told her.
“Can’t we do something a bit more…” She faltered looking for the right word.
“Real?” Amy suggested. “Fun, maybe?”
“Both,” Tanise replied.
“We might,” Amy considered, “but the work involved is
bound to vary in direct proportion of the amount of fun involved.”
“What?” Tanise asked.
“The more fun we have, the harder we’re going to have
to work in order to justify it,” Amy explained. “Did you have something in
mind?”
“Soil conditions have a lot to do with how any plant
grows,” Tanise commented. “We could test soil conditions in various parts of
town and compare those conditions to the trees nearby.”
“What are you planning to track?” Amy asked. “There
are a lot of conditions, I imagine; Soil pH, organic matter, various trace
nutrients… I don’t know what else, although I suspect I will by the time we
finish.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Tanise admitted. “That
could be a very large project, couldn’t it?”
“If we did it properly, it could take years,” Amy
replied, “and a lot of money. We’d have to buy soil testers for the pH and
organic content and probably buy lab time for the analysis of some of the other
factors. We need to scale down or choose something else.”
“We could conduct a census of the trees in
“How big is
“About that,” Tanise.
“So how many trees is that do you think? One hundred?
Two?” Amy asked pointedly.
“Over one hundred,” Tanise replied, “but not much more
unless we go further out from the center.”
“One or two days worth of research then,” Amy
considered. “I doubt they’d let us get away with that. I wonder how expensive
soil pH testing kits are.”
“I thought you said that was too much work,” Tanise
objected.
“Testing everything is too much work,” Amy replied,
“but we can test and record the pH of the soil around representative trees,
comparing maples against pines, oaks, ashes and whatever. We’ll do as many as
we can afford to and see if there’s a correspondence between species and soil
alkalinity or acidity.”
“One hundred soil tests,” Tanise nodded. “That’s
going to take a lot of time, isn’t it?”
“I don’t know,” Amy admitted. “Let’s run this past
Jael and Ash and see what they think.”
Ash told them, “I like the idea, but I don’t know if
the scope and cost is appropriate.”
“That’s not a problem,” Jael told her. “I can get
these two corporate sponsorship from the Springtime Seed Company. Actually, we
sell a pretty good pH tester for something under twenty dollars. I’ll give Nin-ti
a call and ask her to send over some of them. I’ll want you two to work
together however, but having two tests at each location will help vallidate all
your work.”
“You should also map the locations of all trees and
carefully record just where you got your samples,” Ina added, entering the
kitchen. “I couldn’t help but overhear the plans for your project. I don’t
think you need to worry about the scale either. Start with
“Compare your results to the trees around the grounds
of the high school,” Jael suggested, “or with trees in
Eleven
They need not have worried about Amy’s and Tanise’s
project plans. The teachers they met with repeatedly informed them that no such
project was required, although the Biology teacher admitted it would be a
superlative science fair project if they had time to complete their study.”
“The ground is frozen right now,” he pointed out,
“although it’s possible you will have a period of thaw during which to take
your measurements. I must also commend you on the way you have stated the aims
of your project. You have managed to propose an experiment in which you have
not presupposed a result. That, of course, is the way it is supposed to be, but
in my experience far too many students would assume certain results before
taking their measurements. I am usually forced to send such proposals back to
be reframed.”
The science fair was scheduled for late March and
both girls felt they could complete the project in time so the teacher promised
to get them entry forms. After the interview both of them threw themselves
whole-heartedly into the proposed project, although they soon discovered that accurately
placing each tree on their map of the town was more time-consuming than they
had originally thought.
As the next two weeks progressed, however, as Amy and
Tanise grew closer, Maggie became increasingly antagonistic toward
“More than you have since you arrived,” Jael snapped
back.
“Some of us work for a living,” Maggie told her
nastily.
“And some of us work far harder than others,” Jael
replied.
“What do you mean by that?” Maggie demanded.
“Nothing you want to hear,” Jael told her.
“What did you mean by that?” Maggie demanded again.
“Forget it,” Jael told her and walked away.
“Get back here!” Maggie screamed at her.
“Like you said, dear,” Jael told her as a parting
shot, “Some of us do have to work for a living, and right now I have a job to
attend too. Tell your Dad I should be back by Midnight.” She closed the front
door behind her.
“What’s going on down there?” Eddy asked as he came
down the stairs to investigate.
“That awful Jael woman,” Maggie told her father. “You
should fire her.”
“She doesn’t work for me,” Eddy told her, “and I
wouldn’t fire her if I could.”
“Just what does she do for you?” Maggie asked.
“She’s my friend,” Eddy told her. “That’s all she
needs to be.”
“I thought
“
“I don’t like the way they are using you,” Maggie
told him, sounding like she was near tears, but something about her manner
didn’t seem right. She was being overly dramatic and her body language was all
wrong as well. She was holding herself in a position that suggested strength,
not weakness or sadness. Her words didn’t match her posture and after a career
of crafting advertisements, Eddy had a finely tuned instinct for what it took
to look sincere.
“So far they’ve saved my life at least twice,” Eddy
told her, “so if they are using me, it seems like a fair trade.”
Maggie stared at him in frustration before finally
saying, “I have to go to work. I’ll be back late.”
Incidents like that happened on an almost daily
basis, even Amy was not immune from Maggie’s temper. Any time Maggie caught her
working with Tanise and sitting classes
with one of the others, Maggie would drag her away from them and give her some
useless chore to do instead. Several times she tried to talk Amy into giving up
the home schooling and going to what she called “a proper classroom with
teachers who actually knew something.” Inevitably Amy would refuse, standing up
for the others and in general defying her mother.
When Amy had first arrived in Hattamesett, she had
been angry at her mother, angry at her grandfather and his friends and angry
with the world in general. However, in the few short weeks since her arrival,
she had not only come to terms with the move, but had become quite enthusiastic
about it. She was sending messages back and forth to her friends in
The entire matter reached its peak in the second week
of January when Eddy finally lost his patience. Maggie had been telling all the
goddesses to leave the house when she thought her father was not nearby, but
increasingly they had begun to ignore her. Even Ina, quickest to anger of them
all, refused to take any notice of Maggie’s presence at all. “It’s either
that,” Ina confided to Jael, “or turn her into a swan or a worm or something
else that doesn’t make any noise.” Jael laughed, encouraging the ancient war
and love goddess. “When she goes on like that you really have to wonder what any
of us were doing when we warned Utnapishtim or Noah what was about to happen.”
“I suppose it would have been a very lonely world
without any life on it,” Jael commented.
“Yes, well you could be right,” Ina admitted. “I’ve
been to the Moon. It’s times like this I miss the peace and quiet.”
“It won’t last much longer,” Jael told her. “Both
“What?” Ina asked. “And turn her into a pillar of
salt? I don’t think Eddy would forgive them. Still, the local deer might
appreciate it.”
It was only a minute later they heard Maggie shouting
at
“In time we will leave,”
“And the time is now!” Maggie exclaimed. “I don’t
know what sort of spell you have over Father, but I will not see him controlled
by the likes of you.”
“We’re doing nothing to your father except loving him
is all,”
“If you really loved him,” Maggie snapped at her,
“you’d leave and take that little snip of a girl with you. She’s a bad
influence on Amy.”
“Actually, she’s been a very good influence on your
daughter,”
“No, you’re going out!” Maggie returned to her
original theme. ‘I’m calling the police.”
“No, you are not!” Eddy told her from the stairway.
“Maggie, dearest, I don’t know what’s gotten into you lately, but Dee and the
others are my guests and this is my house and they will stay as long as they
want to and I will not hear another word about it. I don’t know how many times
I’ve already told you this, but that is not going to change.”
Maggie stared at her father for a long moment and
looked like she was about to say something even worse than she had already.
Then suddenly she turned and ran up the stairs past Eddy. She stayed in her
room for only a few minutes then came back down and headed for the front door.
“Where are you going?” Eddie asked her.
“A fat lot you care!” she shouted back and slammed
the door behind her.
“I’m sorry, Eddy,”
“No,” he told her. “You’ve been amazingly patient.
I’ve been blind to what was really happening. I thought she was just chafing
under the lack of personal space in the house at the moment and the shock that
her old man had a new love interest. She has to learn that life is change, and
that each of us has his own life to live. She’ll get over it in time, I’m sure.
Maybe we’ve all been too patient?”
Maggie stayed out of the house nearly all night,
slipping back in just after Four a.m. and then only staying in her room for two
hours before rushing off to work where she apparently stayed until nearly midnight.
This turned out to be her pattern for the next two weeks; leaving early, coming
home late and barely talking to anyone while in the house.
“This is typical Mom,” Amy admitted to Tanise and Ina
one afternoon. “She always sinks herself into her work when she’s feeling
stressed. Before she got laid off I barely saw her for two weeks because the
rumors of cut-backs were already flying. Before that there were other times
when I’d have to take care of myself for a week or so at a time, especially
while she and Dad were separated.”
However another week later, Amy grew concerned when
Maggie continued to withdraw from the rest of the household. “This isn’t like
her,” she explained to Ash,
Jael decided to confront Maggie at her next
opportunity, some two and a half weeks after Maggie had first stormed out of
the house. “Maggie, you may be angry at us, but you’re taking it out on your
daughter,” Jael tried gently with internal prompting from Rona.
“A fat lot you care, you little strumpet!” Maggie
snapped at her.
“Strumpet?” Jael echoed. “Who even uses that word
anymore?”
“Shut up, slut!” Maggie screamed. A strange
transformation seemed to come over her. Blood rushed to her face, darkening her
complexion and she bent her hands into claw-like shapes, as though about to
attack Jael.
“Hey! Calm down, girl,” Jael told her, backing away
slightly.
“Get out!” Maggie shouted repeatedly. “Get out! Get
out! Get out!”
Jael withdrew that time and after the encounter,
Maggie didn’t exhibit any further signs of incipient violence, although she
remained hostile and withdrawn.
“There’s something very wrong, Eddy” Jael told him
near the beginning of the second week of February. She, along with Dee, Ina and
Asherah finally decided they had to talk to Eddy about his daughter. “It’s been four weeks since she started
withdrawing. It’s not healthy for her to be like this.”
“It’s been a bit long,” Eddy agreed, “but I think we
need to give her a bit more time. She’s been through a lot. The divorce was
especially rough, Amy tells me, and even though it was her choice, so was the
move back here. She’s had a lot happening to her this year.”
“Haven’t we all?” Ina replied. “Eddy, even Amy has
noticed, or maybe I should say especially Amy. She knows Maggie better than any
of us and she says this has been going on far longer than ever before.”
“She’s been better this past week, hasn’t she?” Eddy
asked.
“She hasn’t threatened to claw anyone’s eyes out, if
that’s what you mean,” Jael told him.
“Then let’s give her a little more time, shall we?”
Eddy suggested. “We have less than two months before the Tree transcends. Good
thing it’s been quiet on that front lately.”
“I hate to sound like a B-grade movie,” Jael
remarked, “but it’s been too quiet. There’s something happening out there only
we haven’t the foggiest of what it might be.”
“We’ll have to wait and see on that count as well,”
Twelve
“Granddad,” Amy told him exactly one week after
Jael’s encounter with Maggie, “Mom’s not right. I think she’s seriously out of
it or something. She’s sick; I just know it.” Tanise had come with her for
moral support. Amy was fully aware that Eddy didn’t want to admit there could
be anything wrong with his daughter.
It had been a quiet Saturday so far. Ina left around
noontime for a trip to her cult in
“Now, now,” Eddy tried to comfort her. “Your Mom’s
going to be just fine.”
“Not the way she is,” Amy protested. “Look I know her
better than anyone. She isn’t acting normal. She might have at first, but she
never stays like this for more than a week or two. Never!”
“Well, she has been acting oddly of late,” Eddy
considered, “and all of you keep telling me the same thing. Maybe it’s time I
started really listening.”
A blood-curdling scream filled the house just then.
“What was that?” Amy asked fearfully.
“I don’t know, stay here,” Eddy told her and rushed
into the living room and then upstairs where something heavy crashed to the
floor, shaking the entire house. The noise was coming from Maggie’s bedroom and
when Eddy arrived, Maggie was lying on the floor while Jael and a strange woman
were deep in battle using hands, feet and claws.
The strange woman may or may not have been wearing
clothing, but was garbed in wispy clouds of blackness. She was several inches
taller than Jael with the same raven-colored hair although instead of being
long and wavy, hers was tightly curled. She had eyes the color of flame, skin
the shade of soot and horns half again as large as Jael’s protruding through
her temples.
“Who’s that?” Amy asked, from just behind Eddy.
“I told you to stay in the greenhouse,” Eddy told
her.
“Eddy!” Jael screamed. “Get them out of here!” She
made a warding gesture just as the other demoness breathed a tongue of greasy,
smoky flames at her. The fire split in two before hitting her and passed,
leaving her untouched, but the room filled with the stench of brimstone.
“You’ve learned the old arts, snippet?” the other
demoness snarled disbelievingly.
“I’m just full of surprises, Lilith,” Jael called
back defiantly.
“Not for long,” Lilith replied and indistinct cloud
of darkness bloomed forth to envelop Jael. There was a grunt of pain from within
the black cloud, but they could see nothing within.
Tanise shrieked and dragged Amy away with her, but
Eddy rushed in to help his daughter. Maggie was stirring on the floor and Eddy
started helping her to her feet. Seeing Eddy as if for the first time, Lilith
leaped at him with claws where her hands had been a moment earlier.
Jael’s arm stuck out of the black cloud and grasped
Lilith’s ankle, pulling her up short. The cloud dissolved instantly and Jael
pressed her advantage, slamming Lilith against the far wall. “Eddy! Get
everyone out of the house! I’ll hold this one off.”
Maggie gasped a brief scream and was suddenly more
alert as Eddy finally dragged her out of the room and down the stairs. They had
just barely reached the ground floor when the front door crashed open to reveal
the tall blonde Valkyr Skuld, sword
in hand, closely followed along with several other women, of whom Eddy only
recognized many-armed Kali, who until that moment had been counted among those
who were defending the Tree.
“Back door,” he muttered to Maggie and together they
ran toward the back of the house.
Skuld yelled a battle cry and took off after them,
but Amy grabbed a pot from the bench in the greenhouse and threw it directly
into Skuld’s face. She blocked the flying crockery with her sword, shattering
it into a hundred pieces, many of which continued on their trajectory,
temporarily blinding her.
Eddy directed them all out into the back yard, and
tried to get them out the side gate, but Tanise ran instead directly to the
Tree and then disappeared into its wide trunk. “What?” Amy asked, pointing at
where she had last seen Tanise.
“Later!” Eddy told her and forced them through the
side gate and into the front yard, There was a crash of glass above them and
Jael came flying backwards out of the window and fell at their feet. She was
tougher than she looked, however, and rolled a few feet and then got back to
her feet.
“Everyone here?” she asked, “Good! Run for it!”
“Tanise is inside the Tree,” Eddy told her as they
ran.
“Bright girl!” Jael commented. There was a flash of
light and a loud noise behind them, and Jael turned to face it. Several women
were coming out of Eddy’s front door. And then just as she thought she might
have to face them alone, Asherah was at her side. From the next block, Eddy
couldn’t tell what they were doing, but the two of them forced their enemies
back into the house.
Then Eddy’s car rolled out of the driveway, seemingly
of its own volition and came to rest a few feet from Eddy. “Get in,” he told
Maggie and Amy. Maggie jumped into the front seat and Amy into the rear. A
moment later Jael and Asherah ran up and got in on either side of Amy.
“Well that pretty much bungs up my plans for the
evening,” Jael commented through swollen lips. Then she paused to take a deep
sniff and looked at Asherah. “You saved the pizza? How? Why?”
“We have a long journey,” Asherah explained, “and no
time to stop for food. Besides, it is a sin to waste.”
“I ought to know that,” Jael commented. “You don’t
have a cell phone, do you?”
“Until now I didn’t need one,” Asherah replied.
“I have mine,” Amy told them, reaching into her purse,
“but you have to tell me what’s going on.”
“Girl Scout promise,” Jael told her.
“You were a Girl Scout?” Amy asked skeptically. “I’d
have thought that would have bored a demon.”
“I prefer to be called a demoness,” Jael replied, “Just
let me have the phone and I’ll tell all.” Amy held back a moment. “Geeze! You
bargain harder than my boss!”
A moment later Rona materialized in Jael’s place and
grabbed the phone out of Amy’s hand. “Who the hell are you?” Amy asked,
startled.
“Your worst nightmare,” Rona told her smoothly and
she started to punch the buttons.
“A social worker from Hell?” Amy asked.
Rona tapped her nose to signal that Amy had gotten it
right on the first guess, then she snapped the phone shut and looked at the
display. “No signal. I think it was damaged, by a stray bit of energy when you
witnessed the fight.”
“Let me out, Rona,” Jael’s voice came from the
blonde’s lips.
“You’re in too much pain,” Rona denied.
“I can handle it,” Jael insisted. “Besides, I’m the
only one who knows where we’re going.” A moment later Jael was back and the
street lights suddenly turned bright green and the road slanted upward into the sky.
“What happened back there?” Asherah asked. “I was
just getting dinner, remember?”
“Maggie was possessed,” Jael reported, “by Lilith,
one of the four queens of Hell.”
“Mom!” Amy gasped. “Mom?”
“She’s sleeping or passed out,” Eddy replied as he
drove on.
Jale reached forward to examine Maggie. “Asleep.
Possession takes a lot out of the victim. I suspect Lilith’s been behind a lot
of our troubles since last summer, maybe before. You missed the best part of
the gloating.”
“I can imagine. I’ve run into that one before,” Asherah
replied sourly. “and her allies?”
“I recognized Skuld and Kali,” Eddy supplied.
“I wondered what happened to Skuld,” Jael commented. “Sure wish she’d stayed
underground.”
“Kali?” Asherah asked. “I though she was on our
side.”
“Evidently not,” Jael replied. “I also picked out
Morrigan and Skatha. I’m sure the others were of a similar ilk; warriors and
destroyers.”
“And now they have the Tree?” Asherah asked. “That
doesn’t sound good.”
“They won’t hurt the Tree,” Jael told her. “Not yet
anyway. They have too much to gain by being in control at the moment of
transcendence. The problem will be in figuring out how to keep them from
killing the tree when we try to take her back.”
“You promised to tell me what was going on,” Amy
reminded her.
“And you believed the word of a demoness?’ Jael
countered.
“Jael!” both Rona and Asherah admonished her.
“Oh, I’m just having fun,” Jael told them. “Might be
the last time for quite a while. Amy, you’ve figured out part of it. You know
I’m a demoness.”
“Two demonesses it looked like to me,” Amy replied.
“No, Rona is as human as you and Eddy are,” Jael told
her. “The difference is, she’s dead.”
“I beg your pardon!” Rona objected, partially
replacing Jael.
“I can’t pardon you,” Jael replied instantly. “You’ll
have to speak to a priest. Well, she died, but I sort of joined with her soul
before she could be consigned to either Heaven or Hell. It’s a long story, but
we’ve been sharing life ever since.”
“That explains what Tanise meant when she said Marcus
had two wives,” Amy reflected. “Tanise! She disappeared! What happened to her.”
“Relax,” Jael told her, “and have a slice of pizza.
Tanise isn’t human and she’s safer than we are for the moment.”
“She’s a demoness too?” Amy asked.
“By the deepest Pit!” Jael laughed. “No! She’s a
dryad, a wood nymph. She took refuge inside her tree.”
“A dryad?” Amy asked, “But I thought they were all
bubble-headed bimbos.”
“They never had a good publicist, I fear,” Jael
replied. “In general they are gentle souls and sometimes a bit flighty, but
Tanise is very special. She’s smart and brave. It was very courageous of her to
hide inside the Tree when Lilith and Skuld might have decided to chop it down.
Of course she would have been killed in the process anyway, but as it stands
she can take them with her if they try. She’s our hole card in this deal and I
suspect they don’t really know she’s there.”
“She can do one other thing to help us,” Asherah
added. “As long as she is inside the tree she can stop anyone from entering the
yard from the back way in.”
“What back way in?” Amy asked. Jael quickly explained
about the new World Tree, also explaining that
“And you?” Amy asked Ash.
“My name is Asherah,” Asherah replied. “I was the
mother goddess of the Canaanites and the Israelites.”
“The ancient Jews had a goddess?” Amy asked, sparking
yet another explanation.
Just then a terrible shriek could be heard outside
the car. Amy looked out the window beyond Asherah and saw a large dragon with
scales that looked like they had been made of stainless steel. There was smoke
coming out of its mouth, but before Amy could discover whether there really was
fire where there was smoke, Asherah rolled down her window and made a gesture
with her right hand. A moment later the dragon smacked noisily into an
invisible wall and fell to the ground. The sky turned bright violet and the
road disappeared so that the car seemed to be driving on thin air delineated
only by the white and yellow lines on either side of their path. Having been
through this sort of thing before, Eddy continued to drive the car.
Jael and Asherah continued answering all of Amy’s
questions. Finally, once Amy’s curiosity was satisfied for the time being, Jael
told Eddy, “Don’t panic. We’re about to enter traffic again.” A moment later
they were on a long straight four-lane highway surrounded by office buildings,
shopping centers and housing developments.
“Where are we?” Eddy asked.
“
“You actually have real offices?” Eddy asked.
“Of course,” Jael replied. “We knew from the start we
would need a base of operations on the Mortal plane and when we decided how we
were going to contact you, we decided the best way to go about it was to
actually found a corporation to front for us. Didn’t Enki tell you that?”
“He did,” Eddy admitted, as he pulled into a parking
spot in front of the tan building with a large white and green sign that said
“Springtime Seed Company:” “I guess I just thought it was a paper corporation
working out of a mailbox.”
“We could have, I suppose,” Jael admitted, “but even gods
need to be somewhere and while most of the original crew were either ancient
Mesopotamian gods or had analogues among that pantheon, not all of us did. I
certainly did not. Also strange as this might sound, but commuting from Hell
every day can get to be a bit of a drag. The trip to and from Dilmun is much
longer.”
“Where’s Dilmun?” Amy asked.
“It’s the Sumerian version of Heaven,” Jael replied.
“How long is my Mom going to sleep?” Amy asked next.
“Hmm, let’s help her inside, we have a few cots and
she’ll be able to sleep this off,” Rona replied. “Yes, Jael, I hear you
complaining, but I also feel your pain, I’ll let you out when Oriel gets here.
I promise. Let’s go, folks.”
Maggie woke up immediately, but was amazingly
incurious about her location. Amy suspected someone was keeping her
tranquilized. Together they all walked through the glass front door of the seed
company and at the end of a small lobby encountered Nin-ti sitting behind a
desk.
Nin-ti wasted no time and even before they had
crossed the lobby, made a quick call to Enki over the office phone system.
“Call Oriel too, please,” Rona asked her. “Jael needs her stat!”
Thirteen
“It’s not that bad,” Jael insisted, breaking through
once again.
Nin-ti gasped. “Are you certain? You ought to take a
look in a mirror.”
“I’m fine so long as I don’t have to think about it,”
Jael maintained.
“Don’t believe her,” Rona pushed herself to the front
once again. “She’s bleeding internally, has two broken ribs and bruises over most of her body.”
“I’ll call Oriel immediately,” Nin-ti replied, “but I
can handle the ribs myself, remember.”
“So you can,” Rona nodded.
“Just keep her from manifesting,” Nin-ti told her.
“Hey!” Jael complained.
“Jael,” Nin-ti told her sternly, “I love you like a
sister, but you are one of the worst patients I have ever encountered. Now stop
trying to hurt yourself.”
“What’s happened?” Enki asked worriedly as he rushed
into the lobby. They brought both him and Nin-ti up to date as they helped
Maggie onto one of the cots in the “office cubicles” behind the lobby.
“I also let Inanna and Ninhursag know what’s
happened,” Nin-ti reported, “so they won’t go walking into a trap. Ninhursag
will be here in a few minutes.”
“I thought she was here,” Asherah commented as Nin-ti
escorted Rona into another of the cubicles and Enki led the rest of them to the
building’s elevator.
“She was,” Enki nodded, pushing the button for the
second floor, “but she left a few minutes before you arrived. Have you eaten? I
can call something in.”
“We had pizza in the car,” Amy told him. The elevator
door opened on the second floor. “I could use some pop, though. Or tea if you
don’t have any.” There was a large conference table in the room.
“You name it, we have it, Amy,” Enki told her.
“Cool. Is Tanise really safe?”
“As safe as she’s likely to be for the time being,”
Enki replied. “We’ll try to contact her on Yggdrasil if she can get there.”
“Yggdrasil?” Amy asked.
“The great World Tree from whose branches hangs the
universe,”
“Blame the Christian Fundementalists,” Amy replied.
“When I was in the third or fourth
grade, there was a big stink about that. They complained that if students
couldn’t be taught about Jesus in public schools, then they shouldn’t learn
about false gods either… “ She looked around at the people surrounding her and
realized what she had just said. “Uh, sorry about that. Their words, not mine.”
“Hey, being a false god, isn’t so bad,” Enki laughed.
“At least I can go to a public restaurant without turning the bread into fish
or the water into wine, though that last trick might have come in handy at
times. Of course, I invented beer, you know.”
“You did?” Amy asked.
“I was the god of inventors,” Enki explained. “I had
a reputation to maintain, and it was something to do with surplus grain.”
“Well I do remember some of the ancient stories from
before the school was forced to take them from the curriculum,” Amy recalled.
“Mostly about how Apollo seemed to make a habit of seducing nymphs for lack of
anything better to do, or how Zeus killed his father and slept with all his
sisters.”
“Whether they wanted to or not,”
“Well, not in quite those words,” Amy admitted, “but
we figured it out. Kids are a lot smarter than adults give us credit for. Gee,
now that I think of it, most of those stories came down to illicit sex, didn’t
they? Orion the hunter attempted to rape Artemis. Narcissus fell in love with
himself. We already covered Zeus and Apollo.”
“And don’t get Ina started on Hephaestus,” Eddy warned
her.
“Is she really Aphrodite?” Amy asked.
“And many more besides,”
“Let’s see,” Amy closed her eyes to concentrate. “I
remember a story in which Thor and Loki visited the giants and were tricked
into contests in which they had to try to lift the entire earth, drink the
oceans dry, race the wind and so forth. And comic books seem to delight in
retelling the Ragnarok myth. But I don’t recall hearing about any big trees.”
“Ratty would be crushed,” Eddy laughed.
“Who?” Amy asked.
“You know about the Tree of Knowledge and the Tree of
Life in the Garden of Eden?”
“Well, sure,” Amy shrugged. “We covered all that in
Sunday School.”
“It’s the same Tree,”
“What? Can’t be.”
“Why not?”
“I’m not stupid, you know,” Amy shot back defiantly,
“just uneducated, evidently. So now what do we do?”
“Planning is going to be essential,” Enki remarked,
“and intelligence will be the key to planning. “I’m calling in Ratatosk for a
report and I know Zeus and Odin are going to want to know what’s happened as
are all our other allies.”
“Is it safe for us to meet all in one place?”
“That depends on where we meet,” Enki replied. “This
building should be safe enough. Our enemies have had plenty of opportunities to
attack here, but haven’t.”
“There hasn’t been much reason to,”
“There’s always Dilmun,” Nin-ti suggested as she came
out of the elevator.
“I thought that was too far away,” Amy commented.
“For a daily commute, yes,”
“Osirus would want us in
“Full of, uh, vinegar,” Nin-ti replied.
“Rona understated her injuries, There were four broken ribs, not two and her
back, there is a cracked vertebra and two compressed disks. I honestly don’t
know how she managed to move under her own power. I healed the ribs and started
in on the back injuries, then Oriel arrived. She’ll have Jael fully healthy in
no time.”
“That’s good,” Enki replied. “I was half
afraid she might have suffered a permanent injury.”
“In almost anyone else, those injuries
may have been permanent,” Nin-ti pointed out. “I don’t think I could have
endured them.”
“Jael is tough,” Asherah commented. “She
has impressed me many times since I returned. She’s wasted as middle management
in Hell.”
“She’s turned down promotions several
times,”
“She seems very quiet,” Amy told her.
“It’s not like Mom at all.”
“I’ve been keeping her tranquil,” Asherah
told her. “She has been through quite a lot and unlike you, I don’t think she could
really deal with the fact of who we all are.”
“She’s going to have to, isn’t she?” Amy
asked.
“There’s no need for her to know
everything,” Asherah replied. “We can modify her memory.”
“There are springs of Lethe,” Dee added,
“outpourings from the
“What about her job?” Amy asked.
“We’ll find a way to cover for her until
this is over,” Enki assured her. “We can enchant a Nereid to look just like
her.”
“A Nereid?” Amy asked.
“What are they teaching you in school
these days?” Enki countered disbelievingly.
“We’ve already covered that,” Asherah
told her. “A Nereid is a nymph of the sea, a daughter of Nereus. It is a good
idea. A Nereid will know more about the sea than practically anyone else. Who
else should fill in for an oceanographer?”
Eddy and Amy tried to get some sleep on
guest cots downstairs, but Amy despaired of ever falling asleep although she
realized she must have since it was dark outside a few objective minutes after
she lay down. She heard soft snoring coming from the next cubicle where Eddy
was and she got up and poked her head in through the open door and saw him
sleeping soundly. Her mother was in the next cell beyond that and she, too, was
sound asleep. Jael, however, was not where she had been when Amy went to bed.
Amy wandered over to the glass front
doors and looked outside at the palmettos that had been planted in several
places around the parking lot in order to pass for landscaping. She stared at
what, in her limited experience, were strange-looking trees, longing to make
them seem more real, by running outside to touch them. Being able to feel their
bark under her hand would do the trick. However, when she tried to open the
door, she discovered it was firmly locked and there was no way to open it
without a key.
Unwilling to go back to sleep, she took
the elevator upstairs to see what everyone else was up to and to see how Jael
was. What she did not expect to see was a giant squirrel who sounded like the
fourth and former member of
“I keep telling ya,” the squirrel was
saying. “No one has so much as approached the backdoor, never mind tried to
break through our guards there. You can go talk to Marduk and Thor for
yourselves.”
“Don’t worry, Ratatosk, we will,” Enki
replied seriously.
“Hey who’s the new babe?” Ratatosk asked,
spotting Amy still in the elevator.
“This is Amy Terrula, Eddy’s granddaughter,”
“It’s not long enough to do that comfortably, Nature
Babe!” Ratatosk snapped back at her. He turned to face Amy, “Hey, Toots,”come
on in and join the party.”
“Party?” Amy echoed, finally entering the room. “Oh
yeah, I saw you at the New Year’s party, didn’t I?”
“Could be,” Ratatosk replied cautiously, turning
nervously toward the others.
“Yeah, I saw
“Depends on what you heard and saw,” Enki replied,
“but you’re probably right there.”
“Given your outspokenness, I’m surprised you didn’t
just start asking,” Ina remarked.
“Tanise kept convincing me I hadn’t really seen or
heard anything strange,” Amy admitted. “She’s a clever one, isn’t she?”
“We’re very proud of her,”
“Jael,” Amy greeted the demoness. She was seated with
the rest of the gods and doing nothing to disguise her true nature. “You’re
looking much better. The horns suit you.”
“I still have a few bruises where they don’t show,”
Jael admitted, “but I’ll be better within the day. Enki, when we go back to the
house, I want you to leave Lilith to me.”
“I can’t promise you that, Jael,” Enki told her.
“Lilith is far too powerful for you to take alone. None of use can afford to
lose you on any number of levels. I will promise you one thing, however. You
can be in charge of the contingent that attacks Lilith directly.”
“Aww!” Jael replied, comically batting her eyes at
the ancient water god, “You’re so good to a poor little demon from the wrong
side of the tracks.”
“Is there really a wrong side of the tracks, uh… a low
rent district of sorts, in Hell?” Amy asked curiously.
“Ask some folks and they’ll tell you all demons are
from the wrong side of the tracks,” Jael laughed.
“Anyway,” Ratatosk continued, “as far as Marduk knows
no one else even knows the back way is there.”
“That can’t be true,” Amy told him.
“Gangs-dkar-sha-med and Cailleach knew about it. That’s how they got into my
Granddad’s backyard.”
“Nah,” Ratatosk shook his furry head, “Can’t be,
babe. They must have sneaked in over the fence like the Asuras did last
spring.”
“That fence is armed now,” Enki told him. “I don’t
think even Ninhursag could get in without causing major damage both to the
fence and herself. How did you know about that, Amy?”
“Tanise told me a couple days ago,” Amy
admitted. “I thought she was making it up. We were trying to tell each other
scary stories, but now it all sort of fits. At the time I was amazed at her
imagination, but now I guess she really isn’t all that imaginative, is she?”
“To date Tanise has shown herself to be
very intelligent and resourceful,” Ina commented, “but when it comes to
imagination, she’s rather literal-minded, but remember, she’s only a few months
old. I’ve always said imagination might be a potential, but it takes experience
to bring it out. She still hasn’t much experience.”
“Well, she’s getting it by the truckload
at the moment,” Amy pointed out. “Oh my God! She’s really stuck in that tree,
isn’t she? If she comes out, they’ll get her.”
“Stuck isn’t quite the right word,” Enki
replied thoughtfully. “Forted up might be a closer approximation of her
situation.”
“But if they damage the tree, won’t it
hurt her?” Amy asked.
“That’s true,” Enki replied, “but she
would be hurt regardless of whether she was in physical contact with the Tree.
Right now, I’m very glad she is inside the Tree. That means we have a spy, but
we need someone who can reach her without being seen.” He thought about that
for a moment and then began to grin.
Another moment later, Ratatosk realized
Enki was grinning at him. “I don’t like that look in your eyes, Wet One,” the
squirrel told him nervously.
“Nonsense, you’re the perfect courier to
go between here and there,”
“Oh yeah,” Ratatosk replied, shakling his
head, “like that lot won’t notice a hundred pound squirrel scampering among the
branches of the Tree.”
“We can fix that,” Ina told him. “It’s a
simple bit of magic.”
“What the heck are you talking about?”
Ratatosk asked, showing more fear than any of them had ever seen in him in the
past.
“Don’t worry,” Enki assured him. “It
won’t hurt a bit.”
“What won’t hurt?”
“Normally, I would just put a
glamour on you so you would look
normal-sized,” Enki explained, “but Lilith is likely to be able to see through
any such glamour.”
“She’s a master of that sort of thing,”
Jael admitted grudgingly. “She’d see through it in a nanosec.”
“Possibly,” Enki nodded, “although I am
very good at them if I do have to say so myself. This time, however, we need a
true transformation.”
“Whoa there, Waterboy!” Ratatosk stopped
him. “Don’t go getting any fancy ideas!”
“Don’t worry, Ratty,” Enki laughed, “I’m
just going to shrink you a bit.” The elevator door opened again at that moment
and Eddy stepped into the room.
“Why not just turn someone else into a squirrel?”
Ratatosk demanded. “Hey Eddy, how about a hand here? I’m being out numbered and
bullied to boot!”
“None of us are squirrels by any sort of
nature,” Enki explained, waving Eddy off. “Only you can move around that way
naturally and without attracting attention.”
“He’ll need to be black too,” Eddy
commented.
“What!” Ratatosk shouted. “You’re going
to change the color of my fur? Are you mad?”
“What’s the matter, Ratty” Amy asked.
“Are you prejudiced?”
“Of course not,” Ratatosk denied, “but a
squirrel’s fur color is very important. It’s part of my identity. Why black,
anyway?”
“Most of the squirrels in my part of town
have black fur these days,” Eddy explained. “It started about twenty-five years
ago or so when one or two suddenly appeared in the next town over, and, well,
they spread. Most folks think they hitched a ride from somewhere else on a
truck or a moving van. They’re thickest on the ground in Hattamesett, it seems,
but they’ve been found all over
“Evolution in action,”
“Evolution?” Ina questioned. “Why would
black fur be an advantage? Wouldn’t it make the animal easier to spot by a
predator?”
“Whoever said evolution was an
intelligent process?”
“That school board in
“Are you saying they know more than I do
on the subject?”
“No. I wouldn’t dare,” Ina replied with a
chuckle.
“As it happens, the black squirrels in Hattamesett
really are a bit more aggressive than the common Eastern Grays that are
indigenous to the region,”
“Considering how aggressive squirrels
tend to be in the first place, that must really be something,” Eddy remarked.
“A little bit goes a long way in
evolutionary terms,”
“Then why aren’t all squirrels that
color?” Amy asked.
“Just because a gene is dominant, doesn’t
mean it is common, not across a world-wide population,”
“But what if they replace the gray
squirrels?” Amy asked. “Wouldn’t that make the grays an endangered species?”
“If they interbreed,”
“As fun as this science lesson is,”
Ratatosk spoke up, “there is no way you are going to turn me into a puny black
squirrel.”
“Yeah?” Ratatosk blustered. “We’ll see
how you like it when I eat all the seed out of your birdfeeder!”
Fourteen
“The poor kid is nearly frightened beyond
reason,” Ratatosk reported on his return to the branches of Yggdrasil. “She was
actually happy to see me.” Rather than stay in
Eddy was amazed at how easily Amy had
adapted to the divine plane. He had trouble accepting the notion of walking
along the wide branches of an impossibly large tree from which he could summon
any sort of fruit or nut that grew on a tree. For Amy it was just something
that was, and while she was fascinated by the remarkability of it all, she did
not seem to spend any time with phrases like “that’s impossible,” and “gotta be
dreaming!”
“It would happen more often if you were a
little nicer,” Amy told him.
“Everyone’s a critic,” Ratatosk replied,
annoyed.
“So what’s happening down there?” Enki
asked.
“Other than having a very scared dryad
camped out inside a sleeping tree?” Ratatosk asked. “Well, Lilith wasted no
time making herself at home. You already know she had her brute squad replace
the guards you had patrolling the streets of Hattamesett.”
“Yes, Hercules and Gilgamesh are still
recovering and we lost three others for the cycle,” Enki replied. “Too bad she
took that leaf from our book. We could have just besieged the place and waited
her out.”
“Don’t underestimate Lilith,” Jael warned
him. “She’s as smart as she is treacherous. By now she’s probably spotted any
holes we had in our defenses and plugged them up.”
“Except for the back way in,” Enki
replied.
“No,” Ratatosk told him, “but that’s only
because Tanise is blocking it for her.”
“Lilith probably doesn’t know that,” Jael
argued. “If the path seems closed, she’ll assume it closed up on its own.
That’s probably why no one tried to run Marduk’s blockade. They avoided it on
the initial assault and when they tried it later, it didn’t seem to be there.
It gives us a secret way back once we have a plan.”
“Could be, toots,” Ratatosk told her.
“Anyway according to Tanise, Lilith is definitely the head honcho there, or is
that head honcha? Skuld is her right hand and doing most of the order giving,
but there are at least a dozen others there at any given moment, most of them
are female. Don’t know if that means anything, but they’re some of the scariest
women I’ve ever encountered. No wonder the kid is frightened.”
“Would it be possible for me to talk to
her?” Amy asked. “You can turn me into a squirrel if you have to.”
“That won’t be necessary,”
“Doesn’t she have to be in the Tree to
block the way here?” Amy asked.
“She does,”
“No!” Ratatosk told her. “I won’t do it!”
“It can’t have been all that bad,” Ina
remarked. “It’s all a matter of scale.”
“The worst part was the other dryads
laughing at me,” Ratatosk replied.
“What other dryads?”
“Nina and Mina,” Ratatosk replied.
“They’re camped out with Marduk and Thor.”
“It’s winter,”
“Maybe nobody ever explained that to
them,” retorted Ratatosk. “Why don’t you ask them about it yourself.”
“I will,”
They hurried up the branch to the trunk
of the Tree and then started heading down and around to the far side. Eddy,
having been there before, had learned to visualize the trunk as a long highway
with many exits so apart from a momentary disorientation as the trunk seemed to
twist around from vertical to horizontal, he proceeded right along. When he
looked over at Amy, however, she seemed to be having trouble keeping her
balance, walking with her arms spread wide as though on a tightrope.
“It helps if you think of the trunk as down,”
he suggested.
She stopped moving for a moment and
suddenly smiled widely and was able to walk normally from then on. “How does it
do that?” she asked him.
“I’m not sure,” he admitted, “but I think
this place is as much a state of mind as it is a physical location. That’s why
you can see it as a sort of road.”
“A road?” Amy asked. “It still looks like
a tree to me, just on its side.”
“Whatever works for you,” Eddy told her.
“Will Mom be okay back in
“Asherah’s staying with her,” Eddy
reminded his granddaughter. “With a bit of luck when she wakes up she won’t
know any of this happened, but will feel more well-rested than ever before.”
“Why am I here?” Amy asked after a few
minutes of thought. “Shouldn’t I have been left behind too?”
“That would have been my choice,” Eddy
admitted, “but I’ve come to realize our friends here sometimes know things without
even realizing they know them.”
“It’s called intuition, Eddy,” Jael
remarked, “and maybe the others have it, but I’ve never experienced the female
sort of that beast. Amy, you’re here because you chose to be. Besides, how
could any thinking person refuse to visit the divine plane given the
opportunity? This place is the tourist attraction to end them all! All it’s
missing are the tourists, which is probably a good thing. Imagine this place
with thousands of cameras clicking and flashing every moment.
“Imagine this place with Ratty manning
the souvenir shop,” Amy laughed.
“I heard that!” Ratatosk shouted from
well ahead.
They hurried down the trunk of Yggdrasil
for another fifteen minutes then started
down one of the branches.
“Why aren’t there any leaves on this
tree?” Amy asked as the trunk faded from view in the distance.
“What did you expect?” Ratatosk asked sarcastically. “It’s the middle of
February and we’re near the
“That was a special occasion,”
“Yeah,” Enki agreed. “That’s my job.”
“Gods!” Ratatosk grumbled, “Can’t live
with them, and they won’t stay dead no matter how many times you kill them.”
A short time later, after several
branches diverged along their path, they finally reached the location of the
back way into Eddy’s yard from Yggdrasil. If it had not been for the hero gods,
Thor and Marduk, standing and the nymph sisters, Mina and Nina, sitting on the
edge of the wide branch, Amy thought she would have just walked on by and never
noticed anything special about the spot, save that it was on the largest tree
in Creation, just like every other point on the Tree. The only difference was a
slight knob in the bark toward the side of the branch.
“I couldn’t sleep,” Mina told her. “Maybe
it’s global warming?”
“Interesting excuse,”
“It was hard to stay awake at first,”
Nina admitted, “but after our trees became fully dormant we were much better.”
“What ever possessed you to try?”
“The new Tree,” Mina told her. “We
thought we might be needed.”
“I wish I had known earlier,”
“Aww,” Nina cooed, “but he was so cute!”
“I suppose,”
“Sleep walking?” Mina asked.
“Doesn’t matter,”
“Can we do that?” Nina asked.
“In a way only you can,”
“I’ll give it a try,” Mina told her and
promptly disappeared. A few minutes later she reappeared with Tanise.
“Tanise!” Amy shouted joyfully. They
hugged for a long time before
“We can’t keep you here for long,”
“I know,” Tanise replied, “but it is nice
to see you all.”
“Everyone is fine,”
“I’m…” she began, “I was going to say
fine, but…”
“You’re not fine,” Eddy joined them,
taking Tanise into a comforting embrace. She began to sob. “You’re scared out
of your wits, aren’t you?”
“Mm hmm,” Tanise mumbled affirmatively
into his shoulder,
“That’s natural,” Eddy assured her. “I
would be too in your position. I’m not sure I would have been brave enough to
stay in the Tree though.”
“That wasn’t bravery,” Tanise denied.
“The Tree is my private refuge. He’s my one safe place.” Then she started
crying again, “But he isn’t safe anymore!”
“Oh, you’re safe for the time being,”
Eddy told her. “Lilith wants the power of the Tree too badly to harm you now.”
“I won’t let her have him!” Tanise told
him defiantly. “He’s not hers! He’s for you!”
“We don’t want her to have him either and
we’re working toward getting him back, that’s why we need you there watching
everything they do,” Ina joined in.
“Or at least as much as you can see from
the back yard,” Jael added.
“I can see into most of the house,”
Tanise admitted, “so long as the window shades are open in all the back
windows, which they are.”
“They are?” Eddy asked. “We didn’t leave
them that way.”
“I think they opened them all to be able
to keep an eye on the Tree and the backyard from as many angles as possible,”
Tanise opined. “They know there used to be a passage into the yard even if they
don’t know why it doesn’t seem to be there any more.”
“Can any dryad do that?” Eddy asked
“I can’t relax as long as that… that hag
possesses my Tree,” Tanise told him.
“Hag?” Jael laughed, “Well she is old
enough, but I doubt she would admit to the title. She’s rather vain.”
“Along with being greedy, arrogant and
selfish,” Ina added. “Does it show that we’ve met?”
“I’d have never guessed,” Enki chuckled.
“She’s every bad thing I’ve ever been
accused of,” Ina admitted. “I wonder if she’s a distant aspect, not that I
would ever merge with her.”
“If you look at it in the right way, at
least half the female deities are distant aspects of yours,”
“The other half are yours,” Ina
commented.
“There are exceptions, and we do have
overlaps, but yes,”
“I’ll do it,” she replied bravely, and
with only a slight tremor in her voice.
“You won’t be alone from now on,” Mina
told her. “Nina and I will stay with you and keep you company. Besides, that
will be two more pairs of eyes watching the house.”
“Good idea,”
“Where are you going?” Tanise asked.
“We’re going to meet with our allies,”
None of the others had visited Hawaiki
before either, but Jael explained to Tanise, “It’s the home of the gods of
Polynesia, I think, or one of them. From what I was able to learn it is an
important part of the old religion of the Maori, and many if not all of the
other people of Polynesia, although
“For you maybe,” Ratatosk countered. “I’m
still not sure exactly which branch they meant in the fourth paragraph of the
directions Odin sent me. I could swear we’ll be walking in a circle for an hour
or so at one point.”
“Maybe we will,”
“Too subtle for my tastes,” Ratatosk told
her.
“I know,” she sighed.
Fifteen
“Welcome to Hawaiki, the island that can
never be charted,” a long-faced god with over-sized teeth and slanted eyes
greeted them. “I am
“Two of them!”
“What just happened?” Amy asked, worried
even as Enki and
“They essentially just joy-buzzered each
other,” Jael commented. “That’s what you get when you put two trickster gods
together.”
“Serves them right,” Ina added with a
stifled giggle.
Eddy and Amy looked around them. They
stood on the golden sand of a wide beach near a forest of palms, thick with
tropical underbrush. “Warm here,” Amy remarked, taking her jacket off.
“We’re on the other side of the world,”
Ina reminded her, also removing the warm woolen coat she had worn while on
Yggdrasil. “To tell the truth, I’ve been dreaming of a place like this all
winter.”
“Me too,” Jael confided.
“Why didn’t you just go on your days
off?” Amy asked.
“Too many other responsibilities,” Ina
told her. “Our most important one is guarding the Tree and we sure screwed that
one up, didn’t we?”
“You couldn’t have known what was going
to happen,” Amy replied. “There hadn’t been any trouble since I arrived.”
“Then we should have been doubly on our
guard,” Rona told her, making a brief appearance then allowing Jael to return.
“Rona’s right,” Ina admitted angrily
although the anger was directed at herself. “Dee and I should never have been
out of the house at the same time. Dee had to consult with Enki and the others,
but I did not have to be in
“Don’t hurt yourself too badly on that
account,” Eddy told her. “We all agreed that Jael and Asherah along with the
security force on the streets would be sufficient to ward off an attack. Even
Enki agreed.”
“It appears I have been wrong again,”
Enki remarked. “I may have been the god of wisdom, but when I’m wrong I go all
the way. A lot of the blame falls to me. I’m the one who divined the prophesy
we’ve been guided by. It told us that the Tree was safe so long as it was in
Eddy’s guardianship. We all assumed that meant so long as he was in the house,
no one could take the tree from him, but it was even more literal than that. It
was just an obvious statement of the truth. If he’s in possession then the tree
will be unharmed. There was never anything about being able to hold onto the
Tree merely by being there. It was just my faulty interpretation.”
“We all agreed with you,”
Enki looked at her for a moment, then
shook his head slightly, but finally replied, “Thank you, Ninmah.”
“What’s all this?”
He led them into the forest of palms,
heedless of the fact that there were no visible paths. A path just seemed to
form just in front and then closed up behind them as they passed. A few minutes
later, they reached the mouth of a large cave and
“You live in a cave?” Enki asked, looking
around at the rough basaltic walls.
“It’s expected of us,”
“I’ll bet,” Jael laughed.
“If it makes you feel any better, I also
have beachfront property on Lana’i,”
“Not
“I was trying to be subtle,”
Inside the tube there were various
cavities and side tubes that were fitted with comfortable furniture and other
amenities. There were vases filled with brilliant tropical flowers and for
being deep inside an extinct volcano, Amy thought the air was amazingly fresh.
“Odds are they aired the place out for
us,” Enki told her. “I know they did when we came for the ball games.”
“I thought you said you hadn’t been here
before,” Amy remembered.
“Not here, not to this Hawaiki,” Enki
replied.
“Okay, you’ve finally managed to give me
brain sprain,” Amy admitted tartly.
“Well, Hawaiki is not just a single
place,” Enki replied. “There’s Hawaiki nui – great Hawaiki, Hawaiki roa –
extensive Hawaiki, Hawaiki pãmamao – far distant Hawaiki, Hawaiki tapu – sacred
Hawaiki.”
“And which is this?” Amy asked.
“Hawaiki nui,”
“Aspects?” Amy wondered.
“You already understand how gods tend to
have various aspects,”
“I’m not sorry the members of this
pantheon are on our side,” Amy began, “but why are they? I’d have expected them
to be neutral. What’s the connection?”
“The connections are many and very deep,
Amy,”
“Not only that,” Dee continued, “but
while most of our pantheons have those within them who would side with Chaos,
all the heaviest hitters here are on the side of order this time around, regardless
of where they have stood in the past. Even those who are often seen as
destroyers, like Pele, the Hawaiian goddess of fire and volcanos, are in favor
of bringing the new tree to term.”
“Why?” Amy asked.
“She hasn’t confided in me,”
The meeting was held in a large, open
chamber deep in the heart of the mountain. All around them there was the sound
of trickling water, which amazed both Eddy and
Amy.
“Of course there’s water down here,” Jael
whispered to them. “We’re underground. Even on a volcano water seeps into the
ground. Actually this is one reason some volcanoes can explode so violently.
The hot magma hits the water and turns it to steam and, well, you can imagine
the rest, I’m sure. If not, try boiling the water in a kettle, but with all the
holes plugged up sometime. Eventually the pressure within will get too great to
be held by the kettle, or more likely whatever you used to plug it with, and
boom!”
“That won’t happen here,” Amy replied
uncertainly.
“Not any time soon,” Jael assured her.
“First of all, this one really is extinct and also it’s a divine home. This
volcano will only erupt if they allow it to.”
“We cannot afford to wait too long before
taking back the Tree,” Odin declared near the beginning of the session.
“We have time to plan carefully, Lord
Odin,” Enki replied. “Lilith holds the House and its grounds for the moment,
but with Miss Tanise still on the premises we still hold the Tree.”
“That is not at all certain, Lord Enki,”
Zeus commented. “That is only your interpretation. The situation is
unprecedented. There has never been a World Tree with its own dryad before. We
don’t really know what that means and the Infinites refuse to say.”
“The Infinites have Their own concerns,
Lord Zeus,” Enki replied. “They know how this will play out but telling us
would probably change the outcome. I, for one, am happy They not talking.”
“Why is that?” Zeus asked.
“I doubt They’d hesitate to comment if
our failure was inevitable,” Enki replied. “That doesn’t mean our success is
assured, but it does mean we still have a chance.”
“You’re reading too much into the actions
of Those who are ineffable,” warned Yu-Huang-Shang-Ti, the Chinese Father of
Heaven. “It could also mean that the interference by an Infinite could save the
Tree and thereby doom our own universe.”
“I don’t see how,” Enki replied.
“Of course not,” Yu-Huang-Shang-Ti told
him. “You are not omniscient. Still we are all dedicated to bringing the Tree
to maturity and it makes no difference whether you are correct about the
Infinites, we still have to act as we see fit.”
“Thank you,” Enki replied with a bow.
“Now let’s review what has happened over
the past year. You will recall it was just about a year ago that Mister Edward
Salem received the Seed in the mail…” He went on to review everything that had
happened since then and was still doing so, in fact, when Eddy and Amy were
forced to leave the chamber and get some sleep.
“Don’t worry about missing anything,”
Eddy told his granddaughter. “The same thing happened in Dilmun last summer.
Now that was a world! From the top of
“Really?” Amy asked. “It was a flat
world? How does that work?”
“By magic, I suppose,” Eddy shrugged.
The debates in the council chamber raged
on for the next several days. Everyone was agreed that the Tree had to be taken
back from Lilith, but agreements dissolved beyond that point. Many of the gods
present were in favor of a frontal assault similar to the direct action that
allowed them to regain the Sapling from Loki and Iblis. Others pointed out,
correctly, that they had been very lucky and might easily have lost the Tree
and that it was possibly even more vulnerable now than it had been the summer
before since now it could not be moved.
In order to help planning, Enki produced
a scale model of Eddy’s house and the surrounding town. He populated it with
model cars, human figurines and even scaled down animals that moved around the
town, reflecting what was really happening there. It could also be set to show
the results of various actions.
Jael, disgusted by all the wrangling,
disappeared for three days and returned with reports that chilled the hearts of
even the most hardened deities. “Lilith fully intends to own that Tree or take
it with her,” she told the assembled gods. “According to Tanise and the other
dryads, a ward has been placed around the base of the Tree.”
“What sort of ward?”
“She made eighteen amulets of blood and
placed them around the trunk in three concentric circles,” Jael replied as
though that should have said it all.
“Is that bad?” Odin asked.
Jael took a deep breath while Rona
silently counseled her to patience. “I suppose it depends on how you feel about
numerology, Lord Odin,” she told him. “In this case she’s casting a spell using
three sixes, also called the number of the beast. It’s a value that carries a
lot of power in Hell as it draws directly on the power of the Fallen Throne.
Uh, that’s the throne of Hell, often confused with the former ranking in Heaven
of some of Lucifer’s supporters. That’s the bad news. The good news is that
while Lucifer was intent on remaining neutral in this conflict, Lilith has
forced His hand. He’s not particularly happy about that and He still won’t take
an active personal hand in the conflict, but He has recalled all demons back to
Hell; anyone who doesn’t show up had better be very good at hiding for the next
few cycles.”
“Is this your way of saying you’ll be
leaving us, Jael?” Enki asked.
“No, I’m the exception that makes the
rule,” Jael smiled. “You all are stuck with me for the duration. Lord Lucifer
also gave me another bit of help that, no offense intended, I think it will be
best to keep under my hat for a while longer. He does have one request though.
If Lilith survives our tender ministrations, he intends to give her a few
lessons in demonic precedence. Trust me, it won’t be pretty.”
“That couldn’t possibly have taken three
days,”
“Scoping out the competition,” Jael
replied smugly. “I’d have invited some of you along, but you seemed to be
having such fun with the toy soldiers, I couldn’t bear to drag you away.”
Most of the gods scowled at her
impertinence, but both Enki and
“I’ll get to that,” Jael promised.
“Sorry, we got a bit distracted from the triple ward. I can’t know exactly what
it is without seeing it for myself, but there are certain features of such
constructs that we should keep in mind. First of all, the ward truly is triple
in nature. It is a single construct, yes, but it is also three constructs
melded together. Consequently, it may have more than one purpose. It could have
as many as three different purposes, or it could have just one. It all depends
on the demon who sets it up and what he or she wants to do. If you want it to
really concentrate all its power on a single purpose, such as holding anyone
from entering the yard from the Tree, it will be very powerful indeed.
“However, that might not be the only
reason it’s there,” Jael continued. “It could also be there to kill the Tree if
anything goes wrong for Lilith. It could just be an early warning should any of
us attempt to get in that way, but given who we’re dealing with and the
difficulty in setting up a triple six ward, I kind of doubt Lilith would
have gone to all that trouble just to
set a magical burglar alarm. This sort of thing is very old magic, folks, and I
suspect you know what this sort of thing can do better than I. I didn’t even
understand how all this worked until Inanna showed me some of the old ways of
doing things. Um, Amy? Remember those discussions we had about how no knowledge
is ever truly useless? This is a case in point.”
The assembled gods nodded at that, mildly
amused.
“So much for our home schooling moment,”
Jael chuckled. “Okay, that’s what’s blocking the back door. Now what really
took a long time, besides my own lessons in magic of the Abyss…”
“Does that make it Abysmal magic?” Amy interupted,
to the amusement of the gods.
Jael chuckled too, “I believe the term is
‘Abyssal’ in this case. What really took most of the time I was gone was my
recon job in Hattamesett. That collection of doll houses you’ve been playing
with are all well and good, but I noticed right off what was missing. Not a
single one of Lilith’s allies or minions, whatever they are, are in your model.
That’s not a surprise since none of us, with the exception of Eddy and Amy,
would show up on it as well.
“Anyway, for a devious old witch,” Jael
continued, “Lilith is not demonstrating a whole lot of imagination. I always
did have some doubts about some of the elders of Hell, but let’s leave my
prejudices aside. Now Enki changed the patrol patterns of our perimeter guards
every day, but Lilith, or whoever was in charge, I suspect she left it up to
Skuld, set them up in the exact same pattern we were using the day they
attacked us. That’s what took me so long. I wanted to watch them for several
days and make sure of what I was seeing. Folks, I can tell you where each guard
will be at any given moment.”
“That should come in handy,” Enki nodded.
“Now all we need is a concensus as to how we’re going to do this.”
“Actually I have a plan along those lines
as well,” Jael told him.
“You do?” Enki asked curiously.
“I am a total package,” Jael replied in
her sexiest contralto.
Sixteen
“What kept you, Jael?”
“I was out thinning the ranks of Lilith’s
perimeter guard,” Jael told her. “You remember my little zap gun, don’t you?
Not surprisingly it works just as well on gods and demons as it does on frost
giants.”
“More like a little zap bazooka,” Eddy
remarked. “It looks like a rocket launcher.”
“It’s not a friendly looking piece,” Jael
admitted, “but a weapon that can take out a god doesn’t have to win beauty
contests.”
“Where is it now?” Eddy asked. “Did you
loan it to one of the others?”
“Oh no,” Jael laughed. “It’s too
dangerous to trust in just anyone else’s hands. With the exception of Enki,
everyone I’d entrust it to is right here. I wouldn’t want to use it in Eddy’s
home except as a final resort anyway. It’s not an indoor toy. Don’t worry. I
have it tucked away in a very safe place. Right now I have something to use
that is far more powerful.” She drew a small folding knife out of the back
pocket of her jeans and opened it up. The two and a half inch long blade was
brighter than steel and, in fact, looked as if it had been made out of pure
silver. “Good things come in small packages,” she remarked. “Mina? Or is it
Nina.”
“What if I told you I was Tina,” the
nymph responded playfully.
“I wouldn’t believe you,” Jael told her.
“I doubt there are that many insomniac dryads in the world this winter.”
“I could have come from south of the
equator,” she countered.
“You’re Mina,” Jael concluded.
“How can you tell?” Mina asked
challengingly. Eddy was curious about that too, the two sisters looked
absolutely identical.
“Nina’s eyelashes are just a bit longer,”
Jael told her.
“They are?” Mina asked.
“Check for yourself when you get back,”
Jael replied. “For now, please dive in and ask Tanise to join us.” Mina nodded
and instantly disappeared.
“I’m curious,” Asherah admitted. “Were
you really able to tell Mina from Nina just by their eyelashes?”
“Of course not,” Jael chuckled. “I took a
wild guess. I had a fifty-fifty chance of getting it right.”
“In my experience,” Eddy told her,
“fifty-fifty chances are a million to one against in getting them right.”
“Mine too,” Jael admitted, “but there is
always that one time. Darn! I just wasted mine, didn’t I?”
“Looks like it,” Eddy remarked.
“Oh well, maybe next millennium,” Jael
shrugged as Tanise appeared with Mina beside her. “Hi, kiddo. Today’s the day.
All or nothing. Are you ready?”
“Do I have a choice?” Tanise asked
nervously.
“None of us do, dear,” Eddy told her.
“Will you stay with me?” she asked Eddy
nervously. “Just in case?”
“You bet,” Eddy told her, doing his best
to force confidence into his voice. “You and I will be the Tree’s last line of
defense.” He silently wished he still had the strangely glowing club with which
he had killed Loki, but that had been destroyed by Dee and Enki at their
earliest convenience following the Battle of Yarmouthport. Now they were
entering into battle once more, but this time in Hattamesett – the one place
they really did not want to be noticed. And the only physical weapon in sight
was Jael’s silver pocket knife. “Just what good is that anyway?” Eddy asked
Jael.
“You remember that gift from Lucifer I
mentioned back in Hawaiki? This is it. I know it doesn’t look like much, but
when cutting a mystical line, like Lilith’s ward, symbolism counts for more
than blade length. The blade is of the purest silver so it would be terrible
even for cutting string with.”
“It would work a few times,” Ina
commented.
“But it would get dull quickly,” Jael
replied. “However, for cutting through mystic energy, it is superb, especially
with the enchantments on it. When the time comes, I’ll go first and dispel the
ward. That will be in…” She checked her watch. “another seven minutes and some
odd seconds. My, how time flies when you’re having fun. Oh, by the way, it’s
only going to take a few seconds to deconstruct that ward, if that, so please
don’t leave me hanging out to dry. This is supposed to be a coordinated
surprise attack. It wouldn’t be much of a surprise if I have to come back and
tell you I’m done.”
“I’ll handle that,” Tanise told her.
“I’ll follow directly behind you, but I’ll stay inside the Tree. As soon as
you’re done, I’ll flash back here and give the word.”
“That works for me, just don’t hesitate,”
Jael warned her.
“Don’t worry,” Tanise replied. “I’ve felt
the weight of that curse on me ever since it was set. I’ll know when you’re
done.”
Jael nodded and checked her watch again.
“Six minutes,” she noted. She verbally counted down the time as it passed every
fifteen seconds, then counted down the last few. “…five, four, three, two,
one.” They never knew if she actually said “zero,” as she was no longer in the
Tree when the time came.
Tanise flashed out a moment later and was
back almost as quickly, “Go!” she told them.
The order in which they did so had been
worked out in advance. Dee and Ina were the next two to enter Eddy’s backyard,
followed by Asherah, Marduk and Thor. Mina and Nina were not supposed to put
themselves at risk, although they too disappeared from the branch on Yggadrasil.
Then it was Eddy’s turn, but Tanise had an idea of her own.
She grabbed his hand and willed them both
back to the Tree, but instead of arriving on the ground in front of the Tree,
they were inside the Tree itself. “I wanted you to feel this just once,” she
told him in what he thought was a pure mind-to-mind communion. “Isn’t he
magnificent?”
Eddy could feel what she meant. From
inside the Tree, he could feel every fiber of wood, the tip of every branch and
the contents of each tight little bud. He could feel each layer in the bark of
the tree as it wrapped comfortably around him. He could even feel the sap
starting to move the sugar from deep within the tree to the surface and up into
the buds, although in late February, the process was just beginning. He felt
the tree just beginning to wake up! And in the branches, about thirty feet
above the ground, Mina and Nina sat with their legs hanging over the edge.
He also felt Tanise with him in an
intimate and embarrassing hug, but there was nothing but love in her at the
moment. It was a perfect moment, in fact, but he knew it had to end. Beyond the
Tree, he could see his friends deep in battle with Lilith’s forces of chaos.
The backyard was a tight melee of
deities each using the abilities that most suited them.
Inanna had assumed her warrior-bird form.
It was a form she had come to hate, Eddy knew, but she did not hesitate to use
it now that it was needed most. Dee and Asherah had joined hands and were
standing statue-like on the flagstones of the patio outside the greenhouse
room. It did not look as though they were doing anything, except demons and
minor gods who tried to attack them were falling to the ground in a heap all
around them. Thor and Marduk were using vaguely similar weapons; Thor bore his
trademark hammer, Mjolnir and Marduk was using a jewel-encrusted mace. Eddy
wondered how it would hold up in battle conditions, but evidently the gemstones
were more than mere decoration. Jael was not in sight, but there was a lot of
noise coming from inside the house.
There were a lot more gods and demons in
the house than Eddy had thought there would be, but he learned later that as
Jael had started killing the perimeter guards, Skuld ordered everyone to make a
stand in the house itself.
“How do we get out of here?” Eddy asked
Tanise.
“Not yet,” she told him, hugging him
harder to keep him there. In that instant he understood leaving the Tree would
be as simple as stepping through a door, but curious as he was about what was
going on inside, he stayed in the Tree at her insistence. “You can see inside
the house if you really concentrate,” she added.
He did concentrate and saw Enki and a
dozen others burst through the front door. They were demolishing his house from
within, but there was no helping that for now. The Tree was all that was
important.
Suddenly Eddy felt an intense pain in his
feet and felt Tanise shriek soundlessly beside him. He was about to leave the
Tree then, but Nina and Mina jumped down from their branch and shouted a
warning to
It was only after the pain had subsided
that Eddy realized that all he had to have done to escape it was to leave the
Tree. Somehow, at the time, that would have felt like cowardice. Once more he
made an attempt to leave the Tree and once more Tanise held him back. A moment
later the wall that enclosed the master bedroom upstairs exploded outward,
flinging Jael and Lilith into the backyard.
The two demonesses were locked in what
looked like an old-fashioned wrestling match and fell to the ground as one,
barely noticing the impact. They continued to fight with fists and spells until
Lilith realized where she was. Lilith flung Jael away and through one of the
few remaining greenhouse glass panels and then turned to attack the Tree itself.
“Now!” Tanise told Eddy and in an instant
Lilith discovered them blocking her path. The demon queen snarled wordlessly
and transformed into her most terrifying aspect, with claws a foot long, horns
that could gore one’s spine out from the front as well as six inch fangs that
dripped venom even as Eddy stood his ground, and a tongue of fire. Armed in
that unnatural fashion, she jumped at Eddy and Tanise, only to be caught by the
foot and dragged back by Inanna.
Inside the house, Skuld had a battle all
her own. As the forces she had commanded in Lilith’s name dwindled, she rapidly
found herself having to fight for her life. She managed to kill several minor
gods on Eddy’s side, and wounded Marduk and Enki. Then she was fighting Thor
who had several advantages over her, not the least of which was psychological.
In the backyard, Lilith attacked Inanna
desparately, shoving her right hand claws deep into Inanna’s abdomen and then
shoving her harshly back against the House. The wall caved in slightly where she
struck and then slid to the ground unconscious.
Lilith turned once more to face Eddy and
Tanise, only to be struck from behind by Jael once more. Jael, Eddy thought,
was not looking good. Her face was bloodied and one horn was obviously cracked.
It looked like she had a broken nose and she was limping badly. Lilith, on the
other hand, was covered in blood as well, but her wounds were more superficial.
She was slightly winded, but not at all as badly wounded as Jael was.
Skuld and Thor continued to battle, sword
against hammer. Thor continuously pressed his advantage, driving Skuld ever
backwards until they too had reached the back yard. Then Skuld, finally free to
really swing the sword unrestrained by the walls and ceiling of the house
delivered a full round-house swing toward Thor’s head. He blocked the blow just
in time by driving Mjolnir against the sword blade, shattering it in several
pieces.
As that was happening, Lilith scraped her
claws viciously toward Jael, who ducked under the blow, only to be caught up in
a spell Lilith had cast using her left hand. A cloud of greasy smoke issued
from Lilith’s hand and enveloped the younger demoness. Eddy could hear Jael’s
brief grunt of pain and then a thump as she fell to the ground.
Lilith laughed triumphantly and dispelled
the greasy-looking cloud only to discover Rona standing in front of her,
holding Jael’s “zap gun” confidently on her shoulder.
“Neat trick, huh?” Rona smirked, and then
she pulled the trigger.
Lilith tried to dodge the blast of
nothingness that spewed from the lensed
muzzle of the weapon, but she never stood a chance. She never even had time to
scream out. She was just there one moment and gone the next. “I guess Hell is
going to have to get by with only three queens from now on,” Rona remarked
smugly.
Skuld wasn’t completely down yet, however,
and she used Lilith’s death as a distraction in which she used her leg to trip
Thor up and then knocked him out with the hilt of her shattered sword. She ran
desperately for the house only to find her way blocked by a squad of Valkyries led by their chief Freja.
“We’re going to have a very long and
protracted conversation when I get you home,” Freja told Skuld grimly. “I
imagine your sisters will have a few choice words for you as well.” From the
looks on their faces Eddy realized that words would only play a very minor role
in Skuld’s fate.
The errant Valkyr stood there in seeming shock for a long moment before
suddenly turning toward Eddy and in a single move drawing her knife and leaping
at him where he stood, protecting the tree.
Surprised at the speed of the move, Eddy
was unable to do more than start to twist away as Skuld’s dagger plunged deep
into his shoulder, narrowly missing his heart. The force of the blow, however
slammed him up against the tree even as the blade stuck out of his back.
Then to the surprise of everyone present,
a bright ray of the purest white light burst from out of Eddy’s wound,
dissolving the blade and continuing on to totally encase Skuld in a white
version of the greasy black cloud Lilith had used on Jael, only when the light
faded, Skuld was trapped permanently inside a large block of crystal.
Then, when the light from his wound winked
completely out, Eddy fell face first to the ground and passed out.
One
Eddy did not open his eyes again for the
next week and a half and when he did, he was only barely conscious.
“I don’t know what’s wrong,” Oriel
worried as she sat with the others in the rebuilt greenhouse room. “I’ve done
everything I know how to do and he still is not responding. Was there anything
special about Skuld’s knife.”
“That’s hard to say,” Jael replied
thoughtfully. “It no longer exists. I wasn’t around to see it happen either.”
She still sported a few bruises, but the worst of them had faded and even her
cracked horn had been magically repaired.
“I was,” Rona admitted, “but all I saw
was this great burst of light and by the time my eyes cleared up Skuld was on
ice almost literally. I thought it really was ice at first too.”
“Did anyone else witness it?” Oriel
asked.
“Freja and her valkyries did,”
“I, uh… I had my eyes closed,” Tanise
replied. “I’m sorry, but I was really scared.”
“I’m sure you’ll grow out of that in
time, dear,”
“I was out for the count as well,” Ina
replied. “I didn’t think Lilith was that strong. If she ever comes back in a
future cycle, I’ll have to make sure I don’t underestimate her again.”
“It will be a while,” Jael remarked. “My
boss fully intends to impress upon her the meaning of the phrase ‘eternal
damnation.’”
“That doesn’t help,” Oriel remarked.
“Nina and Mina had their full attention on the Tree and neither Amy nor Maggie
were here.”
“Have you tried talking to Freja?” Ina
asked.
“I did,” Oriel replied, “but she wasn’t
able to help me either.”
Amy
came downstairs and sat dejectedly next to Tanise. “Mom’s with him,” she
reported, “but she needs to go to work soon.”
“It’s time to check his pulse again,”
Oriel remarked. “I’ll stay with him.”
She got up and a few minutes later Maggie
rushed downstairs, told Amy to “Be good and study hard. Your MCAS tests are
next week.”
“I know, Mom,” Amy replied tiredly. “Have
a good day.” Maggie rushed out the door without acknowledging anyone else’s
presence and Amy added, “Like I really care about those tests right now.”
“You should care,” Jael told her. “Eddy
wouldn’t want your scores to suffer on his account.”
“Why do people always say that sort of
thing?” Amy shot back.
“Because it’s true,” Rona told her. “We
never want a loved one to suffer on our account.”
“I suppose,” Amy replied, picking up a
book on linear algebra. “You know, this was a lot more fun before I knew who
you all were.”
“Why should that make any difference?”
Tanise asked.
“I don’t know,” Amy replied. “I suppose
it should actually make it even more fun. I mean how many other girls get to
know they were tutored by the gods and in Jael’s case, if I get something wrong,
I can always say the Devil made me do it.”
“Uh uh!” Jale told her sternly. “You’re
actions are your own. The Devil won’t make you do anything; we’re busy enough
with the souls who get into trouble without our help!”
“You’re no fun,” Amy groused, but smiled
slightly after saying it to show she did not mean it. She stared out into the
backyard, only recently completely cleaned up and repaired following the battle
there and noticed a trail of moisture trailing down the trunk of the Tree.
“What’s that?” she asked Tanise.
“Hmm?” Tanise replied, turning to look in
the same direction. “Oh, that’s the spot where Skuld’s dagger came out of Eddy’s
back and stuck briefly in the Tree.”
“That white light was really the Tree
itself striking back on Eddy’s and her own behalf,”
“But what’s all that water coming out?”
Amy asked. “It’s like the Tree is crying.”
“More accurately, he is bleeding,” Tanise
told her, apparently untroubled. “That’s sap. The wound will close naturally in
a few weeks, maybe even before the first of April.”
“Now that gives me an idea,” Ina
remarked. “Can we collect that sap? I mean, it isn’t poisonous is it?”
“Not at all,”
“But that’s also the Tree of Life, isn’t
it?” Ina pressed, “or something like it?”
“More something like it,”
“What does?” Jael asked.
“The Tree is starting to wake up. She
won’t be entirely awake until the day of transcendence, but plants don’t awake
as rapidly as animals do. I think that’s why Eddy is only partially awake
himself. He and the Tree are bound together. We’ve known that since the day he
planted the seed a year ago, but I don’t think we realized just how closely
bound they are.”
“I did,” Tanise remarked.
“I suppose you did, dear,”
“I think the Tree is offering his sap to
Eddy,” Tanise replied.
“And I think,”
By nightfall they had well over a pint of
sap and
“Is it morning?” he asked weakly.
“Almost sunset,”
“Another of Oriel’s magic potions?” he
asked.
“Oriel uses modern medicine, whether
synthetic or natural, but yes, in a sense, I think this might be a bit magic,”
she told him. “Taste it.”
“I’m going to hate it, aren’t I?” he
asked.
“I doubt that,” she chuckled. “It doesn’t
taste like very much at all.”
She held the glass to his lips and he
took an experimental sip. “Sugar water?” he asked. “If so, it needs more
sugar.”
“Maple sap, actually. Go ahead and finish
it. Oriel says you need more fluids than you’ve been drinking anyway. If you
don’t start drinking she’ll only hook you up to an IV,”
Eddy finished the glass, and told her,
“Thank you. I think that did help.” Then he fell asleep again.
“His pulse is stronger,” Oriel reported a
few hours later, “but it’s going to take more than a few ounces of tree sap.”
“That’s okay,”
They continued collecting sap from the
tree and giving some of it to Eddy on a daily basis, but the rest they stored
away in the refrigerator until they had nearly five gallons of it. Eddy did continue to improve slowly, but was
still unable to get out of bed for more than an hour at a time. Then one
morning a week after he first started to wake up he found Tanise and Amy
tending a large pot on top of the stove. “What are you doing?” he asked weakly.
“Making syrup!” Amy told him happily,
“though you’re starting to look pretty good without it.
“Have you been studying for your MCAS?”
Eddy asked, sitting down at the table. “Your Mom tells me the testing starts
tomorrow morning.”
“She told you that yesterday, Granddad,”
Amy reminded him. “I have my first session this afternoon. Don’t worry. Tanise
and I have aced all the practice tests.”
“But we haven’t done anything on the
science fair project in weeks,” Tanise reminded her.
“Oh my God!” Amy exclaimed. “I forgot all
about that. But we had most of our results finished before Lilith interrupted
us. I think we can pull it together after the MCAS tests are over. We’ll have a
full week, after all.”
Half an hour later, Jael drove Tanise and
Amy to the school for their tests and Ina took over watching the pot boil.
“Only slightly more exciting than watching grass grow.” she remarked lightly to
Eddy. “Hmm, level’s starting to get low. Time to add more sap. Too bad it’s
only a ten quart pot. This would be faster if we could boil it all down at
once.” She added another gallon and a half of the sap and when it came back to
a boil, started skimming off the froth that formed at the top. Eddy went back
to bed while she was still skimming and when she next sat down to rest, Asherah
had joined her,
“I think it’s starting to carmelize,” Asherah
remarked.
“That’s good,” Ina told her. “Maple syrup
ranges in color from a light golden to a dark brown and it’s the carmelization
that brings out all the flavor. Right now it’s just barely starting to show
some color. I wish we could rush the process along, but Tanise wouldn’t forgive
us if we did. She insists it has to be done the long and traditional way.”
“Wouldn’t that be over a wood fire then?”
Asherah asked.
“It would, but she’s a modern sort of
wood nymph so a modern stove suits her purposes. Besides, when have you ever
heard of a dryad intentionally burning wood if there was an alternative?” Ina
asked pointedly. “Well, I think that’s it for the next hour or so. Want me to
make a pot of coffee?”
“I’ll do that,” Asherah told her. “I
still need practice with a coffee pot. No one even knew what coffee was last
time I walked the Earth.”
“How did we do without it?” Ina laughed.
“All we had was Enki’s beer and no coffee to help get over the aftereffects of
it. No wonder civilizations developed so slowly until the Renaissance!”
Asherah was just skimming the froth off
the boiling sap for the final time when Amy and Tanise returned. “Those tests
were tough!” Amy remarked, “but I think I did okay. I think Tanise had an
easier time of it than I did, but then I never liked the books they wanted me
to read. Say what you want, but I don’t think Ethan Frome and Silas Marner
should count as literature. No wonder most of the kids around here don’t like
to read if they think all books are like those.”
“The exams are meant to test your
limits,” Jael reminded her. “You have to expect some fiendishly difficult
questions.”
“They weren’t that fiendish,” Amy replied
easily. “There wasn’t a single question I had to guess at wildly, just some of
the multiple choices I could only narrow down to one or two possible answers.
One of them was just because I could never keep track of the generations in
“Only the botany section,” Tanise
remarked, “but we’ll get through it, I’m sure. How’s the syrup coming along?”
“This is what’s left of the original ten
gallons of liquid,” Asherah informed them. “The boiling temperature is up four
degrees above that of pure water, so we still have quite a way to go, but the
article I read says the temperature will rise quickly as we get closer to the
end.”
“We’ll want to use a smaller pot for the
final process after filtering the liquid,” Ina remarked, “but it should be done
some time after midnight, I think.”
Two
Amy and Tanise climbed the stairs an hour
earlier than normal the next morning when they awoke to the smell of pancakes. Stepping
into the kitchen they saw Ina and Jael chatting animatedly with Maggie while Asherah
serenely made the pancakes.
“You all really should have told me who
you really were earlier,” Maggie was saying to them. “Really, I thought Dad was
getting foolish in his old age and you were all capitalizing on it.”
“We were,” Jael chuckled, “but not the
way you thought. Your father was the best person to raise the new Tree so we
recruited him to do it. If you really want to get technical, we tricked him
into it, but I know he’s never regretted it for a moment.”
“No, he wouldn’t,” Maggie agreed. “Dad
has always loved plants. I’ll admit that I have been worried about him since
Mom died, especially since he kept growing all those plants she loved even
though he personally had no use for them.”
“We all do things to keep those we love
close to mind, Maggie,” Ina told her. “Now do you think you can stop arguing
with
“She really does love my Dad?” Maggie
asked. Ina and Jael both nodded emphatically. “I suppose I’ll have to make
peace with her too.”
“About time, Mom!” Amy remarked tartly,
causing everyone to turn toward her and Tanise.
“Ladies,” Asherah told the girls sternly.
“I’m sure you’re hungry but you really should get dressed first.”
Amy looked at herself and Tanise; they
were both wearing pajamas. “We’re covered,” she shrugged. “These aren’t exactly
sexy, you know. They’re flannel.”
“At least put on a robe, Amelia,” Maggie
told her.
“Aw!” Amy complained, but allowed Tanise
to drag her back downstairs. Rather than donning the suggested robes, they
actually got dressed in jeans and blouses before heading back for the kitchen.
Eddy and Dee had just arrived when they returned and Ash was placing a plate of
pancakes in front of Eddy.
“Not sure I can eat that much,” Eddy
remarked.
“I think you may be surprised,”
Eddy began eating slowly while Asherah
served everyone else. “Wow!” Amy enthused after her first bite. “This is great
syrup! What a great way to start the day. Just let me at those MCAS exams, I
don’t think they can throw anything at me I can’t answer!”
“Tree of Knowledge,”
“The point is to pass the tests,” Jael
remarked. “The source of her knowledge is irrelevant.”
“What?” Amy asked. “Do you mean this
really is making me smarter?”
“No,” Jael replied, “just more
knowledgeable. Think of it as a divine gift and you know what a double-edged
sword that can be!”
“What about this extra energy?” Amy
asked, “Is that just my imagination?”
“I doubt it,” Ina remarked. “That syrup
is mostly sugar, you know.”
“Oh yeah,” Amy nodded. “Well thanks!”
Eddy not only finished the stack of
pancakes, but a second one as well, feeling increasingly better with each bite
so that by the time Amy and Tanise were ready to leave for their exams he felt
better than he had in years, including the time just after Jael had fed him a
berry from the Sumerian aspect of the Tree of Life. Oriel arrived toward the
end of the meal and after a brief examination declared Eddy to be fully
recovered.
“Good news, Granddad!” Amy enthused.
“Jael, will you give us a ride to the school this morning?”
“I’ll do that,” Maggie told her. “It’s on
my way to the office. Jael can pick you up this afternoon.”
After they left, and while Eddy went
upstairs to change into something other than pajamas, Ina looked at Jael and
asked. “Don’t you think we should have told them?”
“What? And ruin the surprise?” Jael
laughed.
“Besides,”
“This little bit wasn’t enough for
immortality, was it?” Asherah asked.
“Maybe,”
“It’s potent stuff,” Jael admitted, “It
cured even the few remaining aches and pains I had. I suspect they’re in for
something pretty close to immortality.”
“Perhaps,”
Amy and Tanise breezed through their
exams that day and the next. “No wonder you weren’t having any trouble!” Amy
remarked to Tanise after that first day.
“I’m less than a year old,” Tanise
reminded her. “It was the only way I was likely to get a full education before
April First. After that I won’t be able to visit this universe any more and it
will be thousands of years at least before there’s a civilization like this one
in the new world, if then.”
“Why can’t you return here?” Amy asked.
“I’m not human,” Tanise told her. “You
know that. I’m a dryad and bound to my Tree. The Tree isn’t part of this
universe and after transcendence the backyard won’t be in this universe anymore
either.”
“And we’re wasting your final time in
this world in getting ready for the science fair,” Amy noted.
“This is fun,” Tanise retorted. “What
else should we be doing?”
“Shopping?” Amy suggested. “Hanging out
at the mall? Giving each other makeovers? I don’t know.”
“I don’t need to go shopping and why
should I want to hang out at the mall?” Tanise countered. “I don’t really need
clothes. I have my leaf dress and frankly I’m not sure I’ll bother wearing
clothing in the new world. More importantly, I like me the way I am and I like
you the way you are, so why bother with a makeover? But if you want, we have
another week after the science fair. I’ll spend it with you any way you like.”
“Yeah, okay,” Amy told her, shrugging off
an incipient tear. “So what conclusions can we draw about the pH of the soil
around maples, versus the soil around oaks, pines and spruces?”
The science fair was an exciting day for
both of them. They arrived early on Friday afternoon and set up their display
in the assigned booth, collecting a lot of stares from the other students. A
few of the students approached and introduced themselves, but most seemed
hostile toward two girls who had not actually attended their school and yet
were competing in their fair. One young legal prodigy challenged their right to
be there based on the published rules of the competition and eventually the
judges were forced to inform Tanise and Amy that while they were welcome to
exhibit their entry, they were barred from winning any of the prizes because
the rules specifically stated they had to actually attend the high school.
The teacher who had invited them to enter
was incensed by the ruling and went to bat for them. He had the support of a
few of the parents, and the rather vocal protests by half the students there
who had instantly started taking sides when the problem first came up, but the
judges were adamant. Eventually, the teacher was forced, at last, to withdraw
his protest. “I’m sorry, ladies,” he apologized to Amy and Tanise. “I would
never have put you in this position nor have suggested you do all this work had
I known this would happen.”
“We had fun doing it,” Tanise replied
maturely with a shrug.
“And we learned a lot along the way,” Amy
added. “I think that’s what this is supposed to be about, don’t you?”
“It is, but you don’t have to actually
submit to judging now, you know,” he told them.
“I think we’d like to, if it isn’t too
much additional work for the judges,” Amy told him.
“I wouldn’t take much pity on them,” the
teacher laughed. “Besides I’m one of them as well, and one more exhibit to
judge is hardly a problem, not out of this many.”
“Good,” Amy replied, “Because I’d really
like to know if this project scores higher than the one I did in Anchorage last
year.” After that more of the students came around to meet them and several
insisted they come to the post-fair party the next evening.
The questions the judges asked amazed
Amy. She had been expecting more in-depth inquiries into their work, but the
questions seemed superficial, asking only about their methodology with very
little apparent interest in their results. “Maybe they’ll judge our conclusions
after reading our paper,” Tanise suggested.
The fair began in earnest the next
afternoon when the display was open to the public although most attendees were
the immediate family of the students.
Jael and Ina quickly picked up a fan club among the high school boys,
which amused Amy and Tanise no end. After that many of the boys could be found
near Amy and Tanise’s exhibit in the hope that Jael or Ina would be there as
well.
“Once upon a time,” Ina confided to the
girls, “the attention would have thrilled me, but after a millennium or two you
learn that life’s a lot more fun if it isn’t all about you.”
Finally the results were announced and
Amy and Tanise walked off with an Honorable Mention because, according to the
chief judge, even though they were not elegible to compete, their project still
scored higher than any of the others and it would be criminal not to acknowledge their
accomplishment.
Three
The final week before April First could
be best described as quiet tension. Jael took to the streets of Hattamesett
with her zap gun to help augment the perimeter guards’ strength, but had to
admit she was really doing it just to keep busy. Enki continued to urge them
all to stay on guard, however. “There’s a lot of tension all over the world and
there are still more than a few gods who would love to get their hands on the
Tree,” he told them repeatedly.
“Have there been any attempts since we
returned to the house?” Eddy asked on March Thirty-first as they sat together
over coffee.
“Barely anything worth mentioning,” Enki
replied.
“Which means something has been
happening?” Eddy pressed.
“Just a few independent thinkers, trying to
sneak past us,” Enki admitted. “None of them stand a chance, but they try
nonetheless. The chance for ultimate power is tempting to almost anyone.”
“And the length of time one holds the
tree doesn’t matter so much as who has it at the moment of transcendence,” Eddy
nodded.
“Not completely true,” Enki told him.
“The longer one holds the Tree before it transcends the deeper the bond between
them will be. Someone grabbing it at the last moment won’t have the control
someone who has possessed it for months would have, at least at first. Later on
it wouldn’t make such a difference anyway. New gods would develop in the new
universe eventually and all of them would be aspects of the original supreme
deity. Of course he might not choose to merge with any of them, that’s always a
choice not a requirement.”
“Who was the original supreme deity of
this universe?” Eddy asked curiously.
“I haven’t the slightest,” Enki shrugged.
“Only the Infinites know that, and it’s just one of many things they won’t
discuss. I’m sure there’s a reason for that, but I don’t know that either.”
Finally the day of transcendence arrived.
Enki arrived at the house at first light along with Nin-ti. He also pulled the
perimeter guards in to the house and confided to Eddy that he had sent half a
dozen others to back up Marduk and Thor, both of whom had long since recovered
from their injuries. Even Oriel was there, having delivered several dozen of
Eddy’s favorite cheese rolls. Tanise was wearing her leaf dress and spending
all her time in the backyard with Amy, sitting by the water garden and sipping
coffee.
Ratatosk had arrived as well and was
gleefully swapping verbal jibes with Jael and Inanna. Asherah ignored the
squirrel but found herself deep in conversation with Marduk as they chatted
about the old days.
“To tell the truth,” Enki told Dee and
Eddy, “I’m really worried about a last ditch effort to take the tree. I hear
Ares took a platoon of lesser gods off on a so-called bivouac last night and
none of them have been seen since. I suppose he may have merely felt like
stretching his legs on a camp-out, but the timing is suspicious.”
“I’ll kill him myself, if he dares to
show up now,”
“Looks like it,” Enki laughed.
“What do you mean?” Eddy asked.
“Let’s go into the backyard and see for
ourselves,” Enki suggested.
They found everyone crowding into the
greenhouse room and even Amy and Tanise had taken shelter there. Outside, the
light was getting much brighter the colors were becoming more intense and the
shimmering sound was getting louder and louder. Soon the sound became a roar and
then a cacophony too intense for any mere word to encompass. At the same time
the yard filled with a bright white fog and everything within was obscured to
their vision.
The roaring sound continued for over two
more hours, while everyone had lunch and a mid-afternoon snack. Maggie
eventually went upstairs and found a small package of ear plugs she had not
used since leaving
The sound faded away after two and a half
hours and the fog in the backyard finally cleared up to reveal an entirely new
world. The Tree appeared to be many times its former height, although it still
had the same number of branches. Everything had grown in proportion, however.
The water garden was now a pair of large lakes with a tall waterfall between
them with the tree situated by the shores of the upper lake. That upper lake
was filled with clear blue water that almost seemed to glow of its own light,
but the lower lake was filled with life. In it were immense goldfish and frogs
and millions of blue lotuses.
But what held Eddy’s attention was the
Tree itself. It still had no leaves, it was too early in the season for that,
but the buds were swelling and it would not be long before it was in flower.
Eddy’s house, was also on the shore of
the upper lake, not more than one hundred feet from the base of the tree. The
others allowed him and Tanise to approach the Tree first and just as Amy had wanted
to do with the palmettos in
Eddy looked up and saw a scar in the
bark, the mark of where Skuld’s blade had touched it and also where Tanise had
inserted and later removed the tap. High up in the tree he saw a pair of
nesting robins and also a pair of cardinals, all of which were several times
their natural size. Eddy wondered what else might have found a home in the
Tree.
“Nice Tree!” Ratatosk commented.
“Thanks, Ratty,” Eddy replied. “I guess
we did a pretty good job after all.”
“Not bad,” Ratatosk remarked, then he
spotted a black furry squirrel sitting on the lowest branch. “Hey, sweet
thing!” he called to her, “Whatcha doing after work?”
“Ratty,” Tanise warned him sternly,
phasing back out of the tree. “You leave her alone until she’s of age or you’ll
answer to me.”
“Oh yeah, that’s scary,” Ratatosk crowed.
“A forest nymph is threatening…” he trailed off suddenly when he got a look at
her face. “Yes, ma’am,” he told her, backing off. “I’ll wait until she’s old
enough.”
“Now that was impressive,” Amy told her.
“For a moment you looked like one of the Furies.”
“For a moment,” Tanise admitted, “I felt
like one of them.”
“And how do you feel, Eddy?”
“Pretty good for an old man,” was his
automatic reply. “Actually, I feel great. I was feeling pretty good this
morning, but now it’s like I’m in my twenties all over again.”
“Well,” Enki told him, “you know the old
saying. You’re only as old as you feel? In your case that will be literally
true from now on.”
“What do you mean?” Eddy asked.
“As the principal god of the new universe
you can expect to live as long as it does,” Enki informed him.
“I’m a god?” Eddy asked disbelievingly.
“Not just a god, dear,”
“I thought you had to be a god in the
first place,” Eddy admitted. “And obviously the job doesn’t come with
omniscience, since I can think of all sorts of things I don’t know.”
“Maybe Infinity is something you have to
grow into as well?” Jael suggested to Ina. They both laughed. “Eddy, I imagine
there will be a certain breaking-in period, or maybe the rules of this universe
are different and you don’t have to be all-knowing, all-seeing and all that.
We’ll figure that out in time, I guess.”
“And Maggie and Amy are goddesses to one
extent or another in this universe too,” Ina told him.
“I’m going to make a terrible goddess,”
Maggie commented, sadly. “The way I’ve been behaving, I must be the new devil.”
“Not necessarily,” Ina told her. “You
have a beginning in this universe but if I’ve learned anything this past year,
it’s that a goddess can always change her ways.”
“Besides I wouldn’t call you a fallen
goddess in this universe,” Jael added. “If anything, you’re a redemption
figure. You were possessed by a demoness, but were freed from the curse and
redeemed yourself in everyone’s eyes.”
“Besides,” Asherah told her, “this is a
different universe. It may never have a devil figure. The rules are different
here. How? We don’t know yet, but we have an eternity to learn them.”
“And I’m a goddess too?” Amy remarked.
“Cool!”
“You’re still going to Brown next fall,
young lady,” her mother told her.
“That’s right,” Jael laughed. “If I
wouldn’t tolerate a dumb bimbo as the Tree’s guardian, I certainly won’t let
one of the first deities be a drop-out.”
“Good thing I want to go to school then,”
Amy remarked. “And given all the cautionary tales, it’s probably a good idea if
I don’t let divinity go to my head, which will be easy since I’m not a goddess
in that world, am I?” Strangely, no one answered or even looked her in the
eyes. “You’re kidding, right?” Amy demanded.
“You are who you are, dear”
“I will,” she promised.
“You knew all this would happen from the
start, didn’t you?” Eddy accused her.
“I knew it would happen so long as you
were the one to bring the Tree to term,”
“No, just happily surprised,” Eddy
admitted. “So just how long will this new world last?”
“An eternity at least, I would think,”
- 30 -