Working God's Mischief Read Free Page B

“Asgrimmur, who’s next?” The ascendant was helping the Bastard watch Cloven Februaren reconnect the first bottle to its feed.
    â€œHammer and Zyr.”
    â€œSounds risky. Why?”
    â€œRed Hammer is risky. He’s emotionally juvenile. But War is the opposite. He’s the most thoughtful Shining One. The others respect his wisdom. He’s the one most likely to adapt.”
    â€œDouble Great, you done with that? Good. Asgrimmur, make it happen.”
    Cloven Februaren joined the ascendant. He disconnected the bottle from its petcock while Asgrimmur laid hand on and talked fast.
    Voice choking, Anna said, “Asgrimmur, get out of my line of fire!”
    The ascendant stepped aside. “There isn’t a problem that…”
    Anna’s face went white. She stabbed her slow match into the touch hole of her falcon.
    A shadow burst out of the silver glass bottle’s opening.
    Enriched godshot shredded the Instrumentality called Red Hammer. It shattered the bottle and the entity still inside it, too, along with everything else between Anna and the wall. It ripped the clay pad there. The blast shifted tables and broke small glassware. The roar deafened everyone.
    It stunned or rendered unconscious those who had been in front of the falcon’s mouth.
    Seeing no one else fit, Hecht took charge. By means of signs he got his family to drag the others back behind the falcons. Some hearing returned by the time they finished. Hecht told Pella, “Help your mother reload and shift her aim. I’ll take care of these folks.”
    There was little he could do now. Time would bring them back.
    His own hearing returned quickly. First voice he heard was Anna wanting to know if she had done the right thing.
    â€œAbsolutely, darling. The demon meant to attack Asgrimmur.”
    â€œBut…”
    â€œYou did the right thing.” That was what she needed to hear.
    The lesson was not lost on the watching goddesses. They looked stricken.
    Massaging his ears, the ascendant stood. “They’ve just fully realized that they’re in the presence of the Godslayer. Ironically, their fear of him triggered the cascade of events that brought them to this.”
    â€œGodslayers,” Hecht mumbled. Grimmsson looked like a man with a biting ulcer. “What’s the matter?”
    â€œThere isn’t much Gray Walker left but what remains is distraught. Red Hammer was his son. Zyr was his only real friend.”
    Hecht eyed the ascendant’s stump. That lost god-friend, Zyr, had been a one-hander, too. “What about Arlensul?”
    â€œI get nothing.”
    â€œWasn’t Red Hammer her brother?”
    â€œHalf brother. Like most of the early gods, the Walker got around.”
    â€œDidn’t call him All-Father for nothing, eh?”
    â€œNo. Also, Arlensul didn’t like Red Hammer.”
    â€œWhere do we stand now?”
    â€œHeris will now get all the cooperation she wants. Extinction means more to immortals with no expectation of an afterlife. Mortals arrive in the world under sentence of death. We know it, we don’t like it, but we accept the fact that we can’t do anything about it.”
    â€œLet’s hope she does get what she wants.” He was not sure what that was, though.
    She did, for sure, have her entire self wrapped up in it, though.
    *   *   *
    Four hours fled before everyone recovered enough to continue. Some ate. Old soldier Piper Hecht napped.
    Ferris Renfrow tried communicating with the freed goddesses. They were not gracious. Had they not been at a disadvantage they would have had nothing to do with Arlensul’s half-breed get.
    When awake Hecht kept an eye on Cloven Februaren. The old boy’s mad, adolescent sense of humor might cause him to do something absurd.
    Heris and the ascendant cleared the mess left by the falcon blast. They tossed the wreckage out the windows.
    Pella helped. Though