I stare at the sailor who has just told me I'm about to die when I get to Tarantos. “None of you here knows what it's like to die, but less than a fortnight ago I was roasting in the flames of purgatory, so I'm not afraid of death. Since being incarnated in the body of a gecko, I escaped from prison and killed those who tortured me. I have killed the king in St. Janith, tossing his decapitated body into the pool outside the palace, and spat out jewels from his crown. By the grace of God, I defeated the demon Baal when it possessed the bronze bull outside the temple. The army of Baal that pursued me was destroyed in the canyon by a flood.”
I pace the quarter deck so all can see and hear me, both the blackguards crewing The Lucky Maiden and the sailors of The Triumphant.
“Hundreds in Ankla could not lay their hands on me, and were destroyed by the storm, as were the ships of the Tarantan fleet. The power of God destroyed the sharks surrounding me in the sea, and I single-handedly took command of this ship, while the dead and dying still lie below deck. Will somebody shut him up!”
I use my tail to point at the sailor with the compound fracture, who is lying on the deck and yelling as he tosses about. A mate of his clamps a hand over his mouth. I think I've finally figured it out—I can't really point with my short arms and stubby fingers, so using my tail is the way to go.
“Taur the bull man and Lady Liana were both demon-possessed, but now they stand before you as free persons, clear minded, and servants of Lord Riyel. Anything I've accomplished is not because of me. I'm just a gecko you might find on the rocks in the desert or on the walls of the lowliest hovel, only large enough to be a clumsy imitation of a man. You're not betting against me and my companions, but against the God the Empowerer.”
I walk up the steps to the helm. “Take us to Tarantos.” I step forward to the railing. “Take down the damn serpent flag and hoist the flag of Lord Riyel!”
The men spring onto action as the ship wheels about, leaning to the water in a tight turn as we circle Ascension Island headed toward the port of Tarantos. We leave The Lucky Maiden behind us, manned by the few sailors who have chosen not to become privateers. The serpent flag of Ashera the Temptress is taken down and burned, followed by hoisting the lightning bolt flag of Lord Riyel.
We sail on until Ascension Island is no longer visible behind us. There's cleaning up to do below decks. The cannons are re-arranged and bodies given a brief ceremony as they are slid off into the sea. Taur and Liana and I are on the quarter deck, the highest deck on the ship in the aft section, beside the helmsman.
“We'll need a new name for the ship,” Taur suggests.
“Good idea. It's a new ship, new crew. Any ideas?” I asked the horned man, who carries his metal war club.
“Captain, permission to speak.” The helmsman looks over his shoulder briefly.
“Yes, by all means.”
“Lady Liana.” He spins the wheel a bit, looking at something on the horizon that I can't see. “It's always good luck to name a ship after a lady.”
I look at Liana, who blushes.
Taur looks out to sea, resting a hand on the pommel of his club. “I like it.”
“It's done.” I give Taur and Liana the nod. The two of them descend the steps and roam the ship to see how the cleanup is going, and to get wind of any change among the crew.
At sundown we eat in the captain's quarters, with a crew member bringing in soup made from the dried fish we caught. After grace, and the meal is finished, we lounge about the table, resting from a full meal, but don't speak until one of the crew has taken the bowls and silverware.
“The dark gods are a trinity,” Liana explains as we stretch out our legs. “We've defeated Baal the possessor in St. Janith. Next we face Ashera the Temptress in the port city of Tarantos. Last is Molech the Destroyer in the city of Sugbu.”
“It's like the dark gods have taken over,” the horned man says. “As strong as I was, I was a slave for years—my mind was overpowered. I saw the bronze bull come to life. How did they become so powerful?”
I lean back in my chair to think for a moment. “When God appeared to me He said, 'They have abandoned Me and forsaken My temples. The dark gods have returned, and the world cries out for a champion.' This world once worshiped Lord Riyel, and as long as they did that, there was protection. Humanity has always had barbaric practices—the torture of captives, human sacrifice, war, mutilation, slavery, but Lord Riyel defeated them all and banished the dark gods.”
“But once people abandoned God the Healer, it created an emptiness that the dark gods rushed to fill.” Liana brushes her snowy hair over her shoulder which is pale, and pure, but covered with ugly scars intended to serve as ornamentation. She waves a hand over the bumps covering her back. “Look at this...who scars a child to beautify her? I remember when the mob killed Vic. They were so happy that they killed an innocent. All of us were barefooted and filthy, but we were happy because we killed a stranger in our midst.”
Taur sighs. “The things I saw in the temple. The dram addicts with open sores and rotting flesh; I could smell them. The painted harlots doing unspeakable things with twisted men. The demon-possessed who foamed at the mouth and cut themselves in their wild worship of the bull god. And if they looked up to me and gave me a role in the temple, it was because they saw me as an animal.”
I close my clear lids and open them, then pat my white belly. “Look at me, an oversize gecko. Lord Riyel sees the man in you, always.”
“It's going to get worse, much worse,” Liana warns us. “Protection has been lifted from humanity, and there's nothing but darkness. You'll need to show the faith of Paul.”
The albino girl has given me another cryptic prophecy, and I'm reminded of the Oracle at Delphi, the seer who always spoke in riddles. What troubles me is that all of the apostles except John died horrific deaths.
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
* * *
When we awaken in the morning the skies are clear and sunny again. The sailors have been up since dawn, and the crew is beginning to hum along smoothly. After a few hours, as the sun begins to warm, we spot land on the horizon. We are eating a lunch of roasted fish by the time we are near shore.
“All hands on deck!” Taur shouts.
The men quickly fall into a line running from the stairs at the quarter deck all the way up to the forecastle deck at the bow. Liana and I walk from one end of the crew in the direction of the bow.
“Him,” Liana says, pointing at one of the crew, a former sailor from The Triumphant who wears blue pants and a white shirt.
I move toward him, but the sailor whirls around, running as if to leap off of the boat. Taur is behind the man, and with a two-handed swing of his war club, like Casey at the bat, he connects with man's head, and he is dead before he crumbles to the deck.
The albino girl and I complete our march down the line until we reach the last man.
“The dead man intended to betray us. Throw him overboard.” I wait as a couple of crew members toss him into the sea. “This ship is now rechristened Lady Liana. Once we reach shore, every ship that does not fly the flag of Lord Riyel is yours, and all its plunder. Mr. Granger is your new captain. Captain Granger.”
The man steps out and salutes me. I return the salute. I started with my hand, but quickly realized my stubby hand can't even reach my chin, so I salute with my tail. Taur, Liana and I walk to the edge of the deck and a waiting rowboat.
“All salute!” the new captain barks, and the men snap to attention.
My companions and I descend a rope ladder and are seated in the boat. With the push of an oar, we drift off from the ship and a half dozen sailors beat the ocean with their oars. Taur's fur cape is draped over his scarred, muscular shoulders, and he grips his war club with both hands as it rests between his legs. Liana wears her new dress and shoes, and I determine to get her a new rose for her hair when I see that the flower in her pure white tresses has faded.
In time the rowboat butts into a gravel-strewn beach. Several sailors hop out and carry Liana to shore, while Taur and I hop down and wade to the beach. After a crisp salute, the sailors push the boat back out to sea, and turn it back around to the the Lady Liana. The three of us march up the beach, and see the spire of the temple towering over the city.
Before we reach the city streets we see that they are strewn with trash,. There is a row of taverns with prostitutes lounging in the doorways, or staggering out of dark saloons with customers. The people are an odd mix, with women wearing beards, and men wearing dresses. Women walk by with shaved heads, but long hair in their armpits. One prostitute approaches Taur, and she must weigh three hundreds pounds. She is already winded from her short walk from the wall of the tavern where she lounged, and there is sweat on her thick makeup.
“I'm yours if you want, honey,” she coos in a voice that bubbles out of her hanging gut. “You gotta pay extra for this kinda quality, but I'm worth every shilling.”
“Sorry,” Taur says, pushing her aside.
The obese harlot hits the curb and stumbles to the ground, rolling. With great difficulty, she sits upright. “Hey, you don't have to be like that!” She raises an enormous arm, with a slab of flabby beef hanging from it. “Carl! He disrespected me!”
The doorman from the tavern approaches, and he's been modified. He is covered with tattoos, and has holes punched in his cheeks, where circles of ivory serve as windows into his mouth, so that his teeth are visible, including his sharpened canines. His face is studded with metal, and he has gauges in his ears, too. He extends a finger and begins to jab it into the chest of the horned man, when Taur slams the end of his club into the man's midsection. The tattooed doorman drops to the ground and crawls over the pavement, unable to speak as he gasps for air.
We hurry down the street and I see a pattern. Many people have scales tattooed over their skin or their bald heads, tongues are split, fingers are sewn together, and ears sliced off, just leaving holes in the side of one's head. I see one woman whose eyelids have been sliced off, but she parades around the streets as though she is the paragon of fashion. Increasingly I see that I am receiving looks of admiration. It's not until one mutilated man approaches me that all the pieces fit together.
“Isn't it great to be reptiles and worship the Goddess Ashera!” He throws an arm around me.
I look at him curiously, and see that he has shaved his head, and covered it with tattoo scales. He's missing his ears, and when he speaks I see that his tongue has been split. He's thrown his only arm around me, because the other arm has been amputated.
“Are you supposed to be a snake?” I ask incredulously.
“I am a snake! A worshiper of the Goddess Ashera!” he loudly proclaims.
“Look, dude, you've got a huge gut on you. There aren't any snakes with beer bellies, unless you just swallowed a capybara.” I realize he wanted to hug me because he thinks he'll look more reptilian by association. I see the confused look on his face. “A capybara is like a huge rat.”
He looks crestfallen. “Are, are you suggesting...?”
I want to shrug my shoulders, but I settle for a tail waving gesture. “Look, dude, if you want to pose as a snake you've got to be a whole lot more convincing than that. You're not even close.”
“You can't say that!” he screams. “I am a reptile. The goddess declares that I am a snake. Blasphemer!”
A crowd starts to gather, and once again I sense that I am the eye of the storm. Taur has his war club at the ready, and Liana places herself between the two of us.
“Are you slandering me? Saying I'm not a snake?” A lady now takes offense at what I just told the one-armed man.
“I'm not slandering you,” I protest, “just pointing out you're a crazy lady, an insane human lady without earlobes and what look like crude jailhouse tattoos of scales. And those fangs look really fake.”
With an enraged shriek she lunges at me, so I am forced to headbutt her, slamming my snout into the spot between her eyes, and she goes down. Her head thumps the street, sounding like a cantaloupe. Now I see that we are surrounded by an armed mob dressed in red, and what few policemen we saw have disappeared.