Mordecai squinted down at him. “I’m sorry! It must be this damned barrier spell! I think it is blocking sounds as well. Perhaps if you spoke a bit louder… I could almost hear you.”
Karenth uttered a scream of pure rage and frustration, which shook the walls and put the birds of the forest for miles around into sudden flight.
Before his scream was done, the Count put his hands up, waving them apologetically at the apoplectic god below. His mouth was moving as well, and Karenth cut off his own primal scream so that he could hear the wizard’s response.
“I really can’t hear a damned thing!” shouted Mordecai. “Give me a moment. I’m going to go inside and lower the barrier so I can hear you, then maybe we can talk properly, without all this silly shouting! I’ll be right back!” The wizard went back inside one of the towers and disappeared from view, leaving Karenth below, staring upward in complete amazement.
“Surely he does not truly mean to open the barrier for me?” said the god to himself. “Even he cannot be so foolish.” Still, he withheld his attacks against the barrier for a moment on the odd chance that the mortal might be as stupid as his words indicated.
Minutes passed with no sign of the wizard, and Karenth grew bored. It might have been just as well to say he grew angry, but he hadn’t really stopped being angry at any point in the recent past. At last he decided that the Count was making a fool of him. Clenching his will, he began assaulting the barrier again.
After half a minute, Mordecai reappeared atop the wall and shouted down, “Will you be patient a moment! Undoing this enchantment isn’t as easy as you might think, and it certainly doesn’t get any easier with you pounding upon it!” Disgruntled, he went back inside.
The god of justice paused again, staring up at the empty space where the wizard had recently stood. “He is mad…” he muttered to himself. “Can he truly not realize I am here to kill him?”
A few seconds later, the wizard reappeared, grinning widely. “I bet you were wondering if I had gone mad. The truth is I just wanted to see how stupid you could be. Did you really think I would open this barrier for a big, blustering buffoon like yourself?! Ha!” Turning around, the wizard lowered his trousers and presented his naked posterior toward the god, before standing back up and giving the deity a stern gesture with his left hand.
Karenth was stunned. In over a thousand years of dealing with human beings, he had never been so directly and crudely insulted, not even by those that had defied his priests. He stared blankly at the human as he continued waving his hands and making odd gestures. “Now he’s sticking his tongue out at me,” he noted aloud, with a sense of complete astonishment. “No one has ever… ever done that before.”
Before the god could gather his anger to renew his attack, Mordecai stopped and looked at him carefully. “Now that you know how I feel, I will go and lower this barrier. I hope you are brave enough to enter once I do, because I have a lot of interesting plans for you. Your brother will enjoy having some company.” The human went back inside the tower.
Karenth’s rage reached new heights, as the wizard’s words echoed in his mind. Drawing his strength to him, he prepared to assault the barrier once more, when something truly astonishing happened.
The magical barrier vanished.
Karenth looked about, staring at the warriors around him, each of them housing a portion of his brother Doron, the Iron God.
Each of them returned his look of utter amazement. That meant little however, for Doron was not known for his intelligence, even among his own kind. A chill went through Karenth, a sensation he was unfamiliar with. If he had been mortal, he might have had a better name for it. Fear.
Chapter 24
“Ooh! He’s really upset now!” I said to Walter, as the echoes of Karenth’s rage faded away. I couldn’t quite understand the words from where we were inside the keep, but his meaning was clear and it caused me to giggle a bit.
Walter stared at me as if I’d gone mad. “You realize he’s going to take us apart when he gets in here, don’t you? Like a child playing with bugs…,” he muttered.
“He was planning to do that anyway. If we are going to be squashed like bugs, at least we can thumb our nose at the hand that does it. Right?” I retorted. “Put my hands up, like this,” I said, demonstrating the motion in front of him. “Then cock my head to the side, as if I can’t hear him.”
Walter did as I asked. “He seems to have stopped for a moment.” An unearthly howl cut through the air at that point before Walter spoke again, “No, forget I said that. He seems to be losing it now. I think you’ve driven him insane.”
“Tell him this,” I said, dictating carefully, “…I really can’t hear a damned thing. Give me a moment. I’m going to go inside and lower the barrier so I can hear you, then maybe we can talk properly, without all this silly shouting. I’ll be right back.”
“You aren’t serious are you, about lowering the barrier?” asked Walter concernedly.
“No, I’m just teasing him for now,” I reassured the other wizard. After a moment the howling noise from outside the castle stopped. “What’s happening now?”
“The attacks on the barrier have stopped,” reported Walter.
I grinned back at him, “How are the people in the courtyard faring?”
“It’s still a confused jumble, but they should all be inside within another couple of minutes, I think,” answered Walter.
“Let’s see how long our guest is willing to wait,” I replied.
Minutes passed before the attacks resumed. Frankly, I was surprised at how patient the shining god had been. “Is everyone inside?” I asked.
“Not quite.”
“Send my image back out and tell him this, ‘Will you be patient a moment?’” I said, as I began to dictate another message to our irritated foe. The attacks ceased again. “What do you think?”
Walter blew out a lungful of air to release his tension. “I think, that whichever god that is out there, must think you are a madman. It also appears that everyone is inside now.”
“Time for one last message then,” I said, rubbing my hands together. Then I began explaining to Walter what I wanted him to say, describing the visual aids and gestures I wanted to accompany my monologue.
The older wizard seemed to have caught a bit of my madness, because he began to chuckle. Perhaps the stress of our situation was beginning to get to him. Still, I approved of his change in demeanor. Humor is generally a better way to face adversity, in my opinion.
After a moment Walter spoke up, “I think I delivered your message with the appropriate artistic style.”
“What do you mean?”
“I embellished it a bit,” said Walter, “not the words, just the gestures.”
“How so?” I asked. I thought my directions had been fairly inspired, so I was curious as to what my fellow wizard thought could have improved upon them.
“I mooned him,” said Walter, with a sudden laugh. “Or perhaps I should say, ‘you mooned him’.”
I groaned, “I hope none of the townsfolk saw that.”
“If you’re worried about your reputation, it’s a bit late for that,” said Walter. “You gave your true nature away back when you covered yourself in mud to greet the previous Baron of Arundel, all those years ago.”
“True enough,” I responded. “Now let’s make good on our promise and lower the barrier for him.”