“Shut up,” Caleb thundered. “I…”
The door opened. “I think you should both be quiet,” Sienna said, stepping back into the room. “Karan, fetch us all some Kava – and some more stew and bread for Frieda.”
“I don’t need it,” Frieda protested.
“Yes, you do,” Sienna said. She looked at Caleb. “I couldn’t locate the source of the resonance. That alone is worrying.”
Emily nodded, slowly. If someone had been attempting to break down the wards – or study them, in hopes of finding a weak spot – there should have been a clear link between them and the wards. Sienna should have been able to locate the would-be burglar and fry him. But if the resonance couldn’t be found…? Were the wards reacting to the entity’s aura or…or were they being probed from a distance?
Which should be impossible, she thought. But so is a god walking the world.
She glanced up as she heard the front door rattle, readying a spell. Sienna and Caleb did the same, while Croce and Karan took up positions behind them. If someone broke through, somehow bypassing all the defenses, it would be the last thing he did. And then the door opened, revealing General Pollack. Emily couldn’t help a surge of relief. He looked to have aged twenty years in the last couple of hours, but he was alive.
“Dad,” Caleb said.
“Stay there.” Sienna’s voice was so cold it froze Caleb in his tracks. “Watch and wait.”
General Pollack stopped, holding his hands in the air to prove they were empty. Sienna stalked towards him, the wards gathering around her. Emily sensed them probing General Pollack, confirming he was alive, unharmed and definitely not under outside control. Sienna relaxed, then kissed her husband with a passion that made Emily look away. It was suddenly easy to believe their marriage had been a love match.
“I’m glad to see you alive.” Sienna relaxed, slightly, as she led her husband back into the living room. “What happened?”
“That…that…thing…was killing people,” General Pollack said. He sounded as tired as Emily felt. “Most of the council…a dozen guardsmen…it recited their crimes and then turned them to stone. I…I had to stab myself with my knife just to break free and run.”
Sienna laughed. “I always knew you’d make it.”
“Thank you,” General Pollack said.
Emily felt a flicker of wistful envy as Karan hugged her father tightly. It would have been nice to have a father she knew, a father she actually loved. Someone who had been there for her from the moment of her birth…she shook her head, telling herself that there was no way to change history. If she’d had a loving family, she might never have left Earth at all.
But my life would have been better there, she told herself. And then…who knows?
“We have a major problem,” General Pollack said. “That…thing…is dangerously powerful.”
“He’s a god,” Marian insisted. Her eyes were fever-bright. “He is.”
“It can’t be,” Emily said. “If it was a real god, none of us would have escaped.”
She sighed, wishing she felt better. “It’s a trick of some kind. We have to figure out how it’s done.”
“Justice only has power over those who deserve punishment,” Marian said. “Father doesn’t deserve punishment.”
Emily looked back at her. “Did Antony?”
“You don’t know what he might have done in the dark,” Marian pointed out. “He could have committed all sorts of crimes that were never revealed.”
“And if that were true,” Sienna said, “how many others also deserve punishment – and didn’t get it?”
Emily thought as fast as she could. If Justice was all-powerful, they were doomed. That was beyond dispute. Resistance would be utterly futile. She could remember a couple of books and comics where all-powerful characters had been beaten, but most of them had only worked because the omnipotent enemy hadn’t had brains to match his power. The real world was rarely so helpful.
And yet…
She’d never studied any of the local religions, but she’d always had the impression they talked about immensely powerful entities rather than all-powerful beings. They were very much like the Norse Gods, if she recalled correctly. Thor and Loki were powerful, she knew, yet they could be beaten by mere humans. But then, they were really nothing more than supercharged humans. The Norse – and the Greeks, Romans and Celts – hadn’t conceived of a single being who lived on a whole different scale, whose existence comprised the universe. The concept of God had come later.
The Norse Gods weren’t all-seeing, she thought. And that meant that they could be beaten.
She wished, suddenly, that she’d spent more time reading about the myths. How much of what she knew came from the original legends, instead of the comics and movies? The movie versions of Odin, Thor and Loki might bear little resemblance to the older versions…
“He’s a god,” Marian said. “His motives might be beyond us!”
“He’s slaughtered the council,” General Pollack said. “I don’t know if any of them survived.”
“You might be the last,” Sienna said, quietly.
“I was never on the council,” General Pollack reminded her. “My appointment didn’t come with a council seat.”
“They deserved it,” Marian said. “How many lives were blighted because the guildmasters ran the city to suit themselves?”
“The guildmasters weren’t perfect,” General Pollack said. “But there were worse criminals in the city.”
“This looks very much like a coup,” Sienna added. “Use Justice to slaughter the former government and cow resistance, while the new government is imposed.”
“He’s a god.” Marian’s eyes shone with tears. “And all of the stories agree that one day he will return!”
“They say that about all the gods,” Sienna said. “Have you ever seen a god?”
“You have,” Marian insisted. “Mother…”
“It’s a trick,” Emily said, quietly.