“Oh yeah? What kind of deeds makes up for somebody with evil in their heart?” Nilla asked. She wished he would get on with it.
"Sacrifice. Blood sacrifice, if necessary. The longer we go unredeemed, the steeper the payment. They told me that should the necessary rituals go unfulfilled and the good works left undone it might eventually be necessary to wipe out the human race altogether. For the good of the world.'
'That's'' Nilla started, but she knew better than to finish.
'Crazy? I know you think it so. Your generation knows better. Your land doesn't believe in gods. You believe everything just sort of happens for no reason, isn't that right? You call that belief science. In my day we knew better. When the gods, especially when the Fathers of Clans spoke, we listened.'
Nilla stood up on the top of the rock and stared down at him. 'Did you start the Epidemic?' she demanded. 'That's what I'm feeling here. You brought the dead back to life so they could kill all the living for you. I swear''
'Lass, you're confusing the author with the agent. I didn't make this apocalypse. I serve it. As will you.'
She shook her head violently and started away from him, moving as fast as she could, walking flat-footed on the uneven rock. The sun's heat, stored up all day in the rock, burned her feet but she kept moving. She wanted to get away from him, away from'
'You were created to be the sword in my hand. My weapon.' He stood before her. She hadn't seen him move, hadn't even seen him blink into existence there, he just' was there. She stopped short before she collided with him. 'Why do you think your name was taken away from you?'
'Brain damage. There was no oxygen going to my brain so part of it died.'
He grinned at her. 'That sounds crazy to me. Why would the Father of Clans bring you back damaged? He had his reasons, I can assure you. He wants to make this task easy for you. You have no attachments to the humans. They hate you'you may safely hate them back because you don't remember what it is like to be one of them. You can do violence without guilt. You don't ever need to question your own motives. What a gift you have been given!'
'Christ! I'm not some kind of evil undead warrior! I don't want to hurt anyone!'
'Except Jason Singletary.' Mael place a hand on her shoulder and squeezed. The touch felt good'it had been a long time since anyone had touched her'but she shrugged it away. 'I've seen through you, Nilla. You would have shaken him till his teeth rattled in his mouth if it would have gotten you a name. And what about those children? You lead them right to their deaths, even after I warned you to stay apart from them.'
She took a swing at Mael, her hard fist tight as a muscle cramp, but the blow met no resistance. She felt a clamminess in the air but there was no connection. She reached out and grabbed for his throat but her fingers just disappeared into his flesh as if she had stuck her hand into a column of smoke.
Nilla threw her hands up in disgust and turned around, heading back the way she'd come.
'His life has been one of torture. He's been in pain since he was a child. Your heart didn't go out to him, though. You were willing to use his pain. You wanted to make him hurt more.'
'And that's a good thing?' she demanded. She was not surprised when she found him standing in front of her again. She tried walking right through him but he grabbed her shoulders and stopped her dead in her tracks. 'You want me to do that, to hurt him?'
'Lass, you haven't been listening. I want to stop his pain.' Mael glanced down into the canyon, toward the weathered shack. 'I want to take it all away.'
Nilla looked too and her eyes nearly bugged out of her head. A dead man stood on the doorstep of Singletary's little home. The dead man with no arms. With his head the corpse butted open the door and stepped inside.
She nearly broke her neck racing down the side of the rock.
Monster Nation
Chapter Eight