Chapter 341 - Irema part 7

The Ural Mountains of Central Russia are one of the oldest mountain ranges in the world. An alien landscape of strangely shaped rock formations, vast systems of underground caverns and subterranean rivers, it is the dividing line between Europe and Asia in your modern world. Twenty millennia ago, it was the eastern frontier of the God King's dominions. The mountain we'd settled was called Asharoth, which meant "god-mount". Asharoth was the counterpart of Fen'Dagher-- its twin, you might say-- only in our kingdom we revered life and the living, and the mortals who came to us were our equals, not slaves or food or obsequious flunkies. I would not allow it when I gathered my army to destroy the God King, and I prayed to my ancestors that our people had not fallen into decadence in my absence.

The following night, as the mountains grew larger on the horizon, we passed the outermost watch-posts of our burgeoning empire. The immortals that manned these posts, guarding Asharoth against the advances of our enemy, came out to challenge us as soon as we drew near. Most of these vampires were newly made and not all that powerful. Expendable, I thought guiltily. None of them were familiar to me, although Irema and Tapas seemed to know a few of them.

Irema took me from the sack at the first outpost we came to. As they scrambled from their hut, surprised by our sudden appearance, Irema held me up so that all the men could see me.

"Behold!" she cried. "The Divided God returns!"

Because of Irema's strange talent, none of the guards had sensed our approach. They didn't know we were coming until we appeared right before them, as if congealing from the darkness. They were doubly shocked by the sight of my head—it was a gruesome image, I must admit. Blood-starved and tattered. They cried out in awe when my eyes rolled in their direction. You'd think they never saw a decapitated Eternal before.

"It is as they say!" they exclaimed. "He still lives! He cannot be killed!"

It was much the same at each outpost we passed.

Irema held me in her arms from that point on. I have to tell you, it was a great relief. I had endured the confinement of her stinky rucksack because it was necessary, but it was much better being out in the open. I could see my surroundings. Feel the wind on my cheeks. Though I did not really need to breathe, I had felt as though I were suffocating in that bag. I suppose I am a little claustrophobic.

We came upon a mortal settlement not far from the southern pass. This settlement was also unfamiliar to me, though the huts, low domed structures, reminded me of the wetus I had lived in when I was a mortal man. It was a pleasant remembrance. And, of course, the people rushed out to see us when the night watch shouted the alarm. As before, Irema held out my head for them to see, and they paid tribute to me, some of them falling to their knees. It was not a thing that I liked, to be worshipped in such a manner, but I had accepted it long ago as essential to my battle with Khronos. Mortals would not believe that a man could conquer a god, but a battle between two gods… now that was excitement! That fired the imaginations of mortal men, made them want to march to war!

Their abuella (which was a member of the priesthood I'd invented) strode forward to honor me. The vampire was old when he was made but strikingly handsome, with long straight white hair and a large hooked nose.

"Just as it was prophesied, the Father has returned!" he cried, waving his arms dramatically. "Soon he will be restored and the Evil One shall be cast out from the world! Exiled to the outer darkness to wander in desolation and despair, forever and ever! All praise the Father, who was Divided for our sake! All praise the Father, who shall deliver us from the gods of the west!"

He was very good. They nearly fell over themselves praising me. We lingered only long enough to be political, then continued on.

As we navigated the southern pass, a familiar face came out to greet us. Actually, it was three familiar faces. Eris, the two-natured Eternal, his Asian lover Usus, and my beloved Zenzele's vampire wolf Vehnfear. Vehnfear led them to us. The wolf, I discovered later, was immune to Irema's power. Perhaps it was because wolves depend more on their noses to see the world around them than their eyes. Whatever the reason, he sensed us from afar and rushed out to greet us.

I recognized the wolf's bark immediately and could not help but grin as the animal came loping around the bend, head down, tail thrust stiffly out behind him.

Tapas knelt to embrace the excited beast, laughing as the wolf lapped at his face. "You old dog!" Tapas cried. "It's good to see you, too!" Vehnfear turned to Irema then, and Irema lowered me down so the wolf could slather my face. I grinned and squeezed my eyes shut as the wolf licked me from chin to crown. The love of canids is deep but very, very wet.

"Okay, that is enough!" Irema giggled, holding me up and away from the animal. "We're glad to see you, too!"

Two more immortals were coming in our direction. I could not identify them yet, but one, I sensed, was an Eternal. I looked expectantly toward the bend in the passage, thinking it would be Zenzele, but it was Eris and Usus instead. They had finally caught up with Vehnfear.

I was only disappointed for a moment. It was good to see some familiar faces. I no longer felt so out of touch.

Eris was one of our first recruits. He had belonged to a small tribe of nomadic hunters called the Orda. We had encountered them on the steppes of the Eastern Dominion, not far from these very mountains. Zenzele and I had made gods of them in exchange for their service in my war against the God King. Eris, a hermaphrodite, was made an Eternal by the Living Blood. He had immediately rejected his Orda brothers, who had treated him unkindly over the years. In their stead, he had devoted himself to my lover Zenzele, his zealous commitment to the "Mother" tempered only a little by his love for the vampire Usus.

The ethereal beauty bowed to us as he approached. "The Mother sends her regards, and bids you make haste to the peak of Mount Asharoth," Eris said. "She is eager to be reunited with her husband."

Usus stood at his side, the feathery trim of his cloak flapping in the wind. The Asian immortal eyed me with terrible pity, though he did not speak. I had saved his life once when it seemed a hopeless cause. I could see that he wished to repay that kindness, though my restoration was far beyond the healing power of his Blood.

"Why does she not come out to greet us?" Tapas asked.

Eris's tiny mouth seemed to vanish. He leaned toward us as if he were imparting a secret. "She is exhausted," the hermaphrodite said. "Every night, the God King sends his Eye to torment her. She has been defenseless since Irema left to free the Father from Uroboros. Mother resists the God King. She battles him in her thoughts. But Khronos is unrelenting."

I was not sure I understood what he meant, but it concerned me greatly. Like the God King, Zenzele was able to project an invisible Eye from her mind, send her spirit out of her body so that she could view events from a great distance. Just before I departed for Uroboros, meaning to surrender myself in exchange for Ilio's freedom, the God King had assaulted Zenzele's mind while she was projecting her Eye. His psychic attack had left her temporarily shaken and weak. It sounded as if he had continued to attack her after I left.

"Let us go to the Mother, then," Irema said. "I will blind the God King's Eye and give her some respite."

Eris nodded. "Rest is all she needs." He smiled at me slyly then, batting his lashes. "That, and her lover."

We went to see my goddess.