Cursed By The Gods Book 1 and 2

Chapter 39

From the rise of dawn to the setting of the sun people of Camelorn rejoiced with their king and queen. Everyone came to celebrate the blessings of the gods on the royal household bringing with along gifts to present to their queen who sat at the right hand side of her husband in her yellow tunic and with her crown on her head, the stones on her crown gleaming as they caught the light from the fire and from the torches on the wall.

Octavius sat on his throne on the king’s dais with his brother, Angus, by his side, who for the first time in years got rid of his many cloaks, in place of his cloak he wore a dark blue royal robe that was the proper outfit for a person of his standing. As Adviser and Commander of his brother’s army the emblem of Ashterah was pinned to his clothes.

As the people cheered, danced and praised their gods and king, Angus and Octavius stood to bless the queen and the child she carried.

"She will be tall and graceful as the columns of the temple of our great god Robos."

The whole court and the people shouted "Ay!"

"May she be even more beautiful than our queen"

The whole court laughed drunkenly and responded. “Ay!”

"And her hair will shine like the gold of the ripe corn at harvest time"

"Ay!"

"And her skin will be the fairest among maidens of her peers."

As the eating, drinking, dancing and blessings were going on a lone figure stood at the corner of the room merging with the shadows in a dark cloak with a bent back as if burdened with a heavy load. No one paid her any heed, in fact people pushed her away from their path to get more food and drinks. Even the servants treated her with disdain, refusing to offer her a goblet of wine of some bread. That was how she, Termla the goddess of justice wanted it. She was here on a mission not for the bread and wine, or the grapes or the olives, she wasn’t here for the people to notice and worship her either or to rain false words of adoration and honor on her. She was here to know what tricks Helena, queen of the gods, had up her sleeves. Termla tensed as she felt the presence of Ashterah, she pulled the cowl of her shabby cloak tighter around her to secure her face. She had no business with Helena’s daughter but it would do her good to avoid getting caught by her. Besides, she and Ashterah were not the best of friends, war and justice never had a common ground in battle. Ashterah was a hot headed b***h who took actions without thinking unlike her the epitome of justice who let reasoning rule. For whatever reason Ashterah was here it was none of her business, she would do anything possible to stay off her path.

Termla scanned the crowd again in frustration. For weeks she had trailed Helena, watching her every move to see what the goddess was hiding, now that she knew what it was she couldn't find it. Her mission was to find Helena’s secret and stop great disaster from befalling all of mankind and heavenly beings. No one was beyond mistakes, not even the gods – especially the gods- but Helena was a hypocrite in every form of the word and it sickened Termla. For a goddess who was supposed to guide the gods and the people with justice, truth and fairness she was quite the opposite of any of those qualities but Termla was determined to put an end to that

She tried to push past the people to get a little closer to the front, doing her best to ignore there hateful thoughts the people had about the bent, old form she took . They took her as a beggar and treated her as such but in her real form, in her goddess form they pretended to love and worship her and pathetically seek her favors. The similarities in the evil and deceptive hearts of men and gods never ceased to amaze her. It was a case of the blind leading the blind.

She came a point where see above the heads of everyone else that was when she saw what she was looking for. Adna, goddess of excess holding a whole jar of wine for herself was pushing through the crowd in the hall, of course no one noticed she was different because she blended in well with her drunkenness. She staggered blindly and drooled as a result excess drunkenness, she was the goddess of excess so nothing she ever did was moderate which explained why she was always too drunk, too fat, too thin when she cared about her weight, too mindless to care about anything or anyone but herself.

As she staggered carelessly she fell on the floor and lay still, the people around her pulled her to her feet. She turned towards them and grinned drunkenly, kissing everyone who had helped her.

Termla growled in disgust at the stupidity of the goddess. Pulling her cowl lower she escaped through a side door to await her by one of the fish shops at the end of the village market. As soon as Adna passed with her arms around a young good looking lad Termla shot her hand out and grab her. The young man with her was startled but once he regained his composure he reached out and grabbed Adna’s other hand.

“Let go of her you old hag!” he raged.

Adna laughed drunkenly. “Yes, my love, fight against this old witch for me. Be my knight.”

The young man, emboldened by her words took hold of Termla’s wrinkled hand and started to twist it, Termla summoned her powers and blasted the young man back, his head came in contact with wooden pole of another shop and he passed out.

Adna’s eyes widened and she laughed. “Take me home then, old hag, I don’t care if you are old and ugly I’ll manage you.”

“Shut up you little rat,” Termla hissed. She forced Adna’s chin up, a feat that wasn’t easy since her form of an old woman made her hand shaky so she transformed to her normal god form; tall, lean defined arm muscles, clear white eyes and dark hair with her bracelet of truth around her arm. Adna stopped giggling as soon as she saw who it was that held her.

“You tricked me!” she shrieked. She tried to twist her arm free of Termla’s hand but it was of no use since she was so drunk her resistance was less than feeble. “What do you want?” she asked finally when she saw there was no hope of escape for her.

“I want you to get sober enough to answer my questions.” Termla eyed the drunken, staggering goddess trying to get her bearings. Adna struggled to keep her eyes open, the hand she was trying to twist out of Termla’s grip was now limp. “Are you ready?”

Adna nodded.

“What are you doing here?”

Adna blinked rapidly, stupidly as she tried to understand the goddess of justice. Her mouth opened, no coherent thought formed at first until she burped several times. Then the question sank in and soberness sank in too, with surprising strength she pulled her hand from Termla’s grasp and tried to escape. As fast as lightening Termla caught her and held her throat in an iron grip, as Adna silently struggled she realized with panic that it wasn’t helping.

“Choose between Helena and me. I am the one holding you now, you lie to me and I’ll cut your precious tongue off.”

Adna went limp as Termla squeezed her throat tight but after several heartbeats she decided she needed her tongue so she raised her hand and sighed deeply when Termla’s grip lessened.

“You will need to let go of my throat for me to speak. Please,” she begged.

Termla let go of her throat but kept her hair in her grip, bent her neck to expose her throat and manifested a silver knife coated in the Mekai, one of the substances known to fatally injure a god. As Adna saw the golden liquid on the knife she knew Termla meant business and could see the murderous glare in her eyes.

“I will talk, Termla. Helena sent me.”

“I know that,” Termla growled impatiently.

Adna swallowed fearfully. Her eyes darted between the mekai coated knife to Helena’s face. Between the present when Termla could fatally wound her beyond healing and tomorrow when Helena would maybe have her tongue or her head temporarily for betraying her she figured she was better off with the latter.

“Helena sent me to watch the queen and to make sure the children survive.”

That wasn’t what Termla expected. “Why would Helena ask you to make sure they survived? Her goal was to have them killed.” Termla narrowed her eyes on Adna’s pale white face. “Are you telling me the truth?”

Adna nodded quickly. The bracelet of truth immediately turned a bright gold, she was sadly telling the truth. Termla could not understand the thinking of Helena. She had expressed rage when she wanted to have the children killed now she wanted them to survive?

She released a shaking Adna and cloaked herself with darkness. When the darkness dispersed she was gone and Adna, gasping and holding her throat ran back towards the palace.