While the Gods Slumber Pt. 06

"He went with some of the others to get more beer from the granary."

"Find him."

The factor lifted the hem of his robes and hurried towards one of the granaries.

"Members of my van!" San yelled. "Return to the camp at once! Spearmen with me!"

Some of the travelers responded. Those who had been eating and drinking only looked at San blearily. Some already appeared to be unconscious.

Zhura knew the effects of a powerful calmative when she saw them. "The food is drugged," she said.

"No one eats!" San shouted. "With me! To the camp!"

With San, Zhura, Amina and Kaj in the lead, the crowd of thirty or more men and women rushed out of the square towards the site where they had camped, leaving several who were incapacitated behind. Only the four of them were fully armed. The spearmen had left spears and shields behind. As they marched down the sloping, central road, the starlit village remained ominously silent, save for a distant knocking sound and a few bleating goats. A porter in the group groaned, staggering on his feet from reaction to the drug.

As they left the shelter of the village houses and entered a millet field, the village warriors fanned out ahead of them, blocking the path to the campsite. There were at least thirteen men, several with bows ready, arrows held to the string. The stout, jowled man who led them carried a shield and axe. He held up a hand as the two forces faced each other.

"Stop!" he shouted to San. "Let us talk!"

"He's nervous," Ngo observed. "He is badly outnumbered. If we reach the camp, we will overwhelm them."

San hesitated, eyeing the nocked arrows.

Zhura's heart pounded in her chest. Everyone was forgetting the warding stones. The only reason to breach the wards would be to allow demons in. They couldn't wait here for that to happen.

"He is delaying!" she said. She glanced at Kaj, at Ngo. Anyone who would follow her. She felt herself stepping forward. She was strong and quick. She could reach their line, and then the bows wouldn't matter.

Ntoza said I had power. All I must do is choose.

"Come on!" she cried, charging forward.

For a moment, it seemed that no one moved. Then she saw Kaj and Ngo in the corners of her eyes, running at her side. She heard more footfalls behind her.

The bandit leader edged backwards. Archers raised their bows.

Just ahead of Zhura, the pallid form of the sanju demon coalesced, the muscles of its back hunching as it bounded forward in its shuffling gait. It reached up and yanked off its mask.

The bandits ahead of Miliki'tiki shrieked. Several turned and fled, throwing down their weapons. The demon chased them, veering away to the side and vanishing again. Then Zhura was amongst their broken line. She knocked a spearshaft away and slammed her staff into the temple of the first. Zhura whirled, sweeping the leg of a second man and plunging the shaft down on his throat once he'd fallen.

Next to her, Kaj jabbed a man in the belly. Then, holding his weapons in two hands, like a bar, he broke the man's nose, knocking him to the ground. San, a curved sword in hand, slashed a bandit across the back as he tried to run. Other members of the van picked up dropped weapons, or raced ahead to the camp. In moments, the battle was over.

At the camp, a few of the drovers roped the buffalo and goats. Others gathered clubs and staves, or dragged unconscious companions to a safe resting place. Zhura stood with her friends, peering out into the night.

Something worse was coming.

"We need two groups," San said, approaching them. His gaze lingered on Zhura, but his expression was flat. Five of the spearmen, Ngo amongst them, assembled behind him. He held his sword at his side, dark blood dripping from the edges and curved fuller. "One to retrieve those we left at the plaza, and the other to find Tabo at the granary-"

Just then the young factor came running from the village. The ribbons of his headdress were askew, and he had lost one of his sandals. "Tabo is lost!" he cried. "We must flee!"

"What happened!" said San, grabbing his assistant by the shoulders.

"They had trapped Tabo and the others inside the granary," the young man panted. "There were these terrible noises inside, and this... this creature came out..."

Shouts came from the village, followed by a loud huffing, like the bellows of a forge, and the sound of a small stampede. The spearmen formed a short line in front of the camp, flanked by porters with clubs.

A crowd was coming, made up of a few dozen village men. Most were unarmed, but some carried spears or clubs. At the head of the throng was an immense beast, a thing created from nightmares.

The hulking demon - for it could be nothing else - even hunched, was taller than the tallest man by half. Human-shaped, but massively dense, it held a maul that was too large to have been crafted for a human. It wore ripped skins of red draped across its muscular body like a tunic, and a featureless mask of beaten copper. The demon's head was topped by enormous horns that curved over its bovine ears. A mighty bone shield over its mask fused the horns together, much like a buffalo's boss. Fresh blood adorned the demon's horns and bone shield.

The bandit leader stepped forward. "Throw down your weapons, and you will not be hurt!" he said. "Bow to Great Wallop!"

Zhura stepped in front of Amina and Kaj, hoping only that she could protect them.

The spearmen looked at each other nervously. San's sword trembled visibly in his hand.

No more warning came. With a bellow, Great Wallop bound forward and struck. The arc of its maul swept into the line of spearmen and porters, knocking several men into the air.

Almost in unison, the travelers broke and ran, scattering in every direction away from the demon. Zhura had never seen this kind of terror. People dropped everything and abandoned everyone around them as they fled - most in the direction of the orchard.

Zhura ran, staying close to Kaj and Amina. A woman stumbled and fell on the uneven ground. Terrified screams rang out behind them.

As they fled through the trees, Zhura glanced back. Great Wallop was pursuing them, charging through the orchard, bending apple trees and uprooting saplings. Every few seconds, it would toss its head, running down more stragglers.

They were not going to make it. They were running towards the gap in the warding stones. The demon would pursue them to exhaustion. Even if they escaped, they would be scattered and without supplies - easy prey for bandits to track down.

Kaj helped Amina regain her balance as she stumbled. If she fell...

Zhura's friends were only here because of her, and because they wanted a future together.

Zhura could give them that future.

All I must do is choose.

Zhura took one last look at her friends. "Run!" she screamed at Kaj. "Keep Amina safe. No matter what!" When she was sure he had heard, Zhura slowed, and whirled around.

"Zhura!"

She heard Amina's cry, but didn't look back.

A drover fell under the bull demon's horns. Great Wallop trampled the poor man with hooved feet where he lay. Zhura circled around and thwacked the side of the demon's mask. She ducked as the maul came whooshing at her head in a backhand swing.

Many of the village men followed the beast. There was not much room to fight.

Great Wallop wheeled as she circled around it, drawing the demon away from her fleeing friends. It huffed, ducking its head and charging. Zhura threw herself to the side at the last moment. The demon thundered by, careening into one of the unlucky villagers.

The bull demon turned and rumbled, a sound not unlike the rumbling of the elephant Zhura had seen in Mibega. It hefted the maul overhead and brought it smashing down. Again she dodged to the side, jabbing at its elbow as she moved.

Her staff may as well have struck a brick wall. The maul left a hole in the ground, deeper than her foot was long.

The demon was almost twice her height. There was no blocking this beast. It had no weak points on it. All Zhura could do was get out of the way. She dropped flat as the demon swung at her - a blow that would have crushed her ribs to jelly. Then she rolled frantically out of the way as the head of the maul came crashing down again.

Great Wallop rumbled again, like a stormcloud threatening. Zhura realized it was chuckling.

Eyes burned red behind its mask. "I know what you are," it said.

"What am I then?" she said, rolling to her feet.

The village men made a loose circle around them, but they kept their distance.

"Mate with me," the demon rumbled. "Our offspring will know power beyond measure."

"Tell me what I am!" Zhura cried. "Or are you afraid?"

Great Wallop roared, swinging the maul. The huge head cut a furrow in the earth behind it. Zhura launched herself forward, slamming her staff into the demon's knee, to no effect.

"Soon you will tire," the demon said. "Soon you will slow."

It swung its body around again, tracking her as she circled it. "Soon you will falter, and I will catch you. Nothing will be left of you but red paste to nourish the grass."

The demon was right. She couldn't hurt the beast, and she was penned in by the villagers, with nowhere to run. But every moment she delayed was safety for her friends.

"When I learn your true name," Zhura taunted, "I will banish you. Or perhaps these people will do it, just to make you go away."

Great Wallop chuckled. "How will you learn my name?"

"Someone, or something, knows your name. I will find them," she said. "Or maybe you'll be stupid enough to tell me."

The beast bellowed again, and charged at her. Zhura feinted one way. When it ducked its head, she dodged the other way. The tip of its horn whipped past, drawing a line of pain across her shoulder.

"I will rut you until your mind is gone," Great Wallop promised. "You'll birth my spawn until I grow bored of you."

Again Zhura dodged the maul. But she did not see, until too late, the fist that clipped her side, knocking her to the ground. She tried to roll away, but knew she was too slow.

Zhura looked up from her back. The demon loomed over her, its mask inscrutable. Its reek, like burning cattle dung, was overpowering.

"Tell me what I am," she pleaded.

"You smell of demon," it said. "Halfbreed."

"Liar," she spat. Zhura's mother was human.

Wasn't she?

"I think I prefer you," the demon rumbled, raising a massive hoof over her, "as paste."

Suddenly, its body convulsed. Great Wallop roared, as the sanju demon appeared on its shoulder, talons digging into its flesh. The massive demon tossed its head, but couldn't reach the sanju with its horns. It spun and bucked, trying to throw Miliki'tiki off.

Zhura took her only chance. She rolled to her feet and charged one of the villagers, jamming the staff into his sternum with a sickening crunch and a splintering of the wood. She nearly ran over the man, breaking from the circle.

Zhura spared one glance back to see Miliki'tiki thrown clear, rolling across the grass and vanishing once more. She sprinted through the orchard as fast as she could in the dim light, casting away her ruined weapon. In moments, she heard Great Wallop crashing through the trees after her.

She didn't follow the others towards the gap. Instead she ran in a direction where she hoped there were intact ancestral stones. She couldn't outrun the demon forever.

Zhura broke free of the palm trees, running down gently sloped grass. The demon pounded after her, shaking the earth, ripping trees up from their roots to get to her.

She saw the stones appear out of the darkness ahead. Zhura struggled to keep up her speed. She knew the beast was building momentum, gaining on her. Each breath felt ripped from her chest.

Finally, she lunged past two of the obelisks. Zhura looked back to see the massive demon pull up short, its flesh steaming.

It roared in frustration, pounding its maul into the ground. The shockwave knocked Zhura to her feet. Great Wallop gave her one last glare, and then turned back, galloping along the line of warding stones. Zhura spotted villagers coming down the hill behind it. She hurried off, away from Kichinka.

Zhura climbed a bluff overgrown with prickly evergreen bushes and studded with rocks, before she allowed herself to slow. She felt more fatigued than ever. It had been a day or more since rutting with Amina and Miliki'tiki the night before. She was drained. She wondered if this is how she'd always felt, before she met Ntoza.

This is what it feels like to be normal.

There was not much chance of her finding her friends, or heading east in the dark. Her only hope was to avoid capture and the rampaging Great Wallop until daylight, when she might orient herself. Zhura knew downhill was east, generally, but she also knew that pursuers would expect her to go in that direction. So instead, she moved along the slope in what she thought was a northerly direction.

The scratch on her shoulder burned, but she had left her medicines behind. She thought she'd seen a spiky-leafed bush that looked like aloe.

She walked a bit more, and then sat down in a grassy spot, with bushes nearby if she needed concealment.

Zhura sniffed, noting a familiar charcoal scent.

"Sanju?" she whispered.

"Sanju mate?" the demon appeared.

"Yes," Zhura said softly. She was weak but hungered for more power. "Come here."

Miliki'tiki seemed unharmed, its ashen skin unbroken. Zhura crouched and ran a hand along the demon's shoulder and down its arm. She motioned it to turn around, peering closely at its flesh in the starlight. The skin felt almost pebbly, though it appeared smooth.

The demon's cock began to emerge, the helmet of it growing past the bristles at the creature's waist.

"You saved me," Zhura said. "Twice, I think."

Its pointed breasts quivered. For the first time, Zhura touched them, gingerly fondling the stiffened nubs. But she felt a strange hollowness inside, a need she wasn't certain she could fill.

"Do you feel affection, Sanju? Do you... love me? Is that why you saved my life? Or is it your obligation?"

The mask stared back at her, swaying gently.

"Is someone there?" a female voice said from the bushes, in the Kan trade tongue.

Zhura started. The demon pulled away from her and vanished.

A tall young woman emerged from behind the bush. She wore a yellow dress printed in the checkered design Zhura had seen on the women in Kichinka. Her hair was bound into a large puff atop her scalp. She was fine-featured, but with a mouth that seemed to have a somber cant. Zhura guessed they were about the same age.

"You're one of the foreigners," the woman said. "I saw you."

Suspicious, Zhura looked about for others. "What do you want?"

"I escaped. I want to go with you," she said. "My name is Bayati."

"I'm Zhura." Zhura rose to standing, feeling muscles sore with fatigue. "Let's walk some," she said. "Tell me more."

Zhura didn't walk far. Soon she was sitting again, with leaves she'd found along the way. She'd crushed them on stone and rubbed them into the long cut on her shoulder. She gasped as the creamy fluid stung her.

"Everyone in Kichinka fears Great Wallop. I'd seen two vans of merchants captured, much like yours. No one got away. Their traders were enslaved, sold into the south. Some of them are still held in the village."

"Why?" Zhura asked, though she could guess.

"Great Wallop mates with them," Bayati replied. "The chief's wife, and probably others, are already pregnant with its spawn. The demon's human consorts are devoted to it."

Zhura wanted nothing more than to sleep. She lay back on the grass, assuring herself that Miliki'tiki would watch over her. She was weary beyond belief.

"I would have been bred," Bayati said. "My father tried to protect me, but he wouldn't have for long. I saw you fighting the village warriors. I knew it was my only chance to escape."

Bayati might have said more after that, but Zhura did not remember.