Random 14

Late in the afternoon of our fifth day in the jungle, Aran-ki-Mopassa, sixth of the eleven gods of the Ortensi, stopped by for a little chat. Wracked with hunger and alien fevers, how could we do other than be overwhelmed by her dark beauty? She towered over us, scarified and antlered and black as a moonless night, swathed in jaguar fur and a writhing coat of tiny jewelled lizards; and spoke in clear, unaccented English.

"Stand, my children."

We stood.

"What is it that you imagine you are doing here? Do you come at the bidding of ek-Kotari, my most hated half-brother, weaver of lie-tapestries in the dark hours of the night? Are you his agents of sorrow?"

I longed to protest that we were not, but I couldn't. My companions were just as silent.

"Or are you the joyous acolytes of Ereh, favourite of ka-Maen? Will you sing for me the song of ascension?"

Though I had never even heard of that song, I could feel its opening phrases rise in my throat, and I longed to sing. But again, nothing emerged. On every side the dense green forest pressed in, oozing wet heat and despair. Even though dappled sunlight glared down through the canopy, we seemed to be engulfed by an immense darkness. Gibbons howled overhead, unseen, their cries as implacable as the goddess.

"Then you must surely have come at the bidding of my twin, ever despised and beloved in equal measure, last master of wickedness and the soft respite of affection, Batrayi-na-Kariensa?" Her voice was as cold as moonlight, now, lending the tropic afternoon a harsh chill more suited to the frozen lands of the North in their long winter nights.

I expected her question to be met by the same silence as before, so it was a shock when sweet young Andreas replied.

"That is so, my lady: we come as the servants of en-Batrayi, as messengers of his embrace. He bids you be content, for there is nothing but love in his actions, and he would bring your people joy."

The goddess seemed taken aback for a few moments, her demeanour heartbreakingly sad.

"Yes," she said eventually; and with that word a quiet ordinariness seeped back into the day. "I'm sure he would." One tear rolled down her cheek and fell sedately to the earth, a tiny green shoot springing up instantly from the spot where it landed. "If only my poor brother had any idea what he was doing." She turned as if to leave; paused; turned back. Paused again.

It didn't feel in any way strange to be trapped in the prison of her whims.

"Doctor Eliasson." I blushed slightly at the realisation she was addressing me. "Understand that Miss Alice will never feel anything for you, not anything at all beyond a tiny, volitionless pity. That is one of fate's cruel choices, and by no means the cruellest. Still, there will come a time when that choice tortures you, and I don't imagine there will be much comfort in knowing that nothing you could ever have done would have made things better."

I tried to take her words with equanimity, with some kind of courage, but my heart was already filling up with tears. Aran-ki-Mopassa's features blurred, becoming for a moment those of my dearest love. She laughed, a laugh choked with unhappiness.

"My temple is just ahead of you, Doctor. What you find there will make you one of the most celebrated men of your age. I wish that could be enough, but it will not."

When she turned away this time there was no hesitation. She was gone in an instant, but her voice lingered slightly longer.

"I'm sorry, Doctor. Truly."

"Yes," I found myself saying to the hot, suffocating jungle. "Aren't we all?"
Posted by matt at December 11, 2005 10:39 PM