"I dare. I dare many things, Fiddleback."
"You? You were nothing, and I gave you all you are. I now revoke my giftz to you." Arrigo El-Leichter's body pulsed out power. "Die!"
The little man, still hidden in the shadow of his warrior, waved the threat away. "Kill him."
Before the youthful assassin could move, Colonel Nagashita ran forward, vaulted off a mound of wolfman corpses and leaped into the air. He drove his katana through El-Leichter's abdomen. The look of betrayed surprise on El-Leichter's face metamorphed into a triumphant leer as he caught Nagashita up in both hands and started to compress his chest.
"Kill them both, then," the little man ordered his assassin.
He had no chance. As El-Leichter dug his fingers into Nagashita's ribs, the ninja leader twisted his own hands and rotated the katana blade 180 degrees in the wound. Ribs popped, and Nagashita jerked, but he retained his grip on the sword. He tugged up, then sawed the blade back and forth. Blood and entrails streamed from El-Leichter's wound, dripping down into the fountain's shallow basin, and the blood pouring from Nagashita's mouth soon mixed with them.
With one final effort, Nagashita twisted the blade around and brought it across, severing El-Leichter's spine. The green nimbus surrounding him died and, locked with Nagashita in death, he fell to the pool. The water flashed red, then green, then erupted in an explosion of green steam.
When it cleared, Coyote saw no one in the fountain. So that is the dimensional gate here! He looked up to see if the Japanese man who had been hovering with him had fallen outside the fountain, or had been taken along with the two corpses. He did not see him at first, but then looked up and saw the man floating in a golden throne.
The little man stepped forward into the backlight of the throne. "So, Ryuhito, do you want the power Fiddleback offers you, or would you like what I can offer you?" A smug expression of superiority accompanied the smile on the little man's face. "He provides you the power to transform yourself. I can give you the power to transform others. I offer my herald as a simple example of my art."
Jytte dropped to her knees. "Pygmalion!"
Rajani stared at him. "Nicholas!"
The little man smiled at Jytte, raising his right hand as if to caress her face. "You were one of my finest creations, Jytte. And you, Rajani, were always an annoyance. Mickey, kill her."
"Mickey?" Rajani cried out as the assassin started toward her.
He hesitated for a half-second, which gave Bat all the time he needed. Streaking across the battle line, he tackled Mickey and brought him down. Both of Bat's arms slipped up through Mickey's armpits and around the back of his neck. Locking his legs around Mickey's waist, Bat rolled up into a sitting position. The muscles in his arms and back bunched as he began to pull back on Mickey's arms and press his head forward.
"No, Bat, no!" Rajani screamed at him. "He's only a child!"
Pygmalion looked over at his charge and seemed about to issue an order when the golden gate behind him collapsed into nothingness. This appeared to disturb him for a second, then he turned back and frowned. "Ryuhito, if you enthrall yourself to Fiddleback, you will be his slave. I know, for I was until I made Lucifer's choice. As you can see, I do with one what Fiddleback could not oppose with many. Come with me, and I will give you this world to do with as you wish."
Ryuhito nodded. The golden throne flared in intensity and became a sphere. It contracted down to the size of a walnut, then floated over and landed in Pygmalion's open right palm.
Pygmalion smiled like a man who had just found an object for which he had searched his entire life. "Though I regret it, it seems I must leave you all alive here." He studied his surroundings for a moment, then let his gaze linger upon the gold sphere in his hand. "I bid you adieu."
"I go!" Mickey's voice squealed anxiously.
Pygmalion regarded him coldly. "I hardly think so."
"I go? See Dorothy? You promised?"
"You failed me, Mickey." The little man held the gold sphere up like a jewel and smiled at its glow. "I do not need those who fail, Mickey."
"You promised!" Mickey's voice grew hoarse with the shout, and he struggled against Bat. "You promised!"
"And that promise is broken, just as is the promise I thought I saw in you. You failed Mickey." Pygmalion spit on the ground. "You are nothing."
Coyote saw the boy try to twist free from Bat's hold, then he went limp and began to sob. Bat, still holding the boy tightly, seemed at a loss to deal with him. Mickey hung like a scarecrow in Bat's arms, tears streaming down his face and washing the blood from his convulsing chest.
Pygmalion smiled, then looked up at the others. "Consider him a present—and a warning. I have an army of warriors modeled after him. They will ensure that my work with Ryuhito will be uninterrupted. This you will soon see, and you had best prepare yourselves for that day."
Sin slammed a new clip home in his Beretta. "I'm ready now."
"How glib, how droll." Pygmalion palmed the sphere, and its light died. "When we return, you will venerate him as your emperor, and you will worship me as your god." His laughter filled the courtyard, but by the time it echoed back to the center, he had vanished in a burst of gold light.
I looked up as Crowley stepped around a knot of docile wolfmen being led away by two of the IDC ninjas. "You missed the party."
Crowley toed the dead flying shark. "If you'd told me it was open season on lawyers, I would have been here." He winced, and I noticed for the first time that he was favoring his right leg. "As it was, I had a bit of a job to do myself with that gold tunnel."
"Are you okay?" I knew he always kept a tight rein on himself, but I couldn't sense even a hint of distress coming from him.
Crowley shrugged. "I'll live. Turns out the tunnel belonged to a Dark Lord named Pygmalion. He's fairly new and works a lot with folks from Earth."
"I know." I pointed to where Rajani, Jytte, Natch and Bat were standing with the warrior Pygmalion had called Mickey. "He was here and abandoned Mickey. Rajani, the Yidam's daughter, says Mickey was a timid five-year-old boy when last she saw him."
Crowley raised an eyebrow. "When was that?"
I shrugged and felt some aches from my clawed ribs. "Two or three weeks ago. She says he has a sister and father in Flagstaff."
"That will make for a fascinating homecoming." Crowley shook his head. "What do you know about Pygmalion?"
"Not much, and all of it picked up by inference." I slung the Stormcloud over my shoulder. "I gather Pygmalion was a human scientist named Nicholas Hunt. Fiddleback offered him power in return for loyalty. Pygmalion rebelled and has been annoying Fiddleback since that time."
Looking over at Mickey and Jytte, both creations from the hand of Pygmalion, part of me wanted to admire his handiwork. I could also sympathize with his rebellion against Fiddleback, and I knew well the pleasure of defying him. I also knew the seduction of the power Fiddleback offered, and I felt strong in resisting it—this time. Will I always make that choice?
Crowley's voice refocused my attention outside. "He's been annoying lots more than just Fiddleback. All the Dark Lords vie against each other for dominance. Pygmalion may well be new, but he is upsetting many of the old power structures. In many ways, he is responsible for having renewed the Dark Lords' hunger for new worlds."
I could see it. Power is a drug that satisfies none. It only creates a hunger for more. Even though one might have enough power to survive, the mere fact that another wants your power makes you more ravenous. Dark Lords that had lain dormant for eons were now waking with empty bellies, and Earth seems to be in season.
Crowley looked around as another group of the transformed creatures walked away under guard. "What are you going to do with them?"
"For now, we're putting them in the secure areas of the GBI complex. Without Fiddleback to guide them, most are very shocked and stunned by what they have become." I shook my head. "They were looking for an edge, a secret that would give them an advantage over
their peers. They thought they'd found it with GBI. Now they're just fodder for tabloid stories."
"At least they can find work in the circus." Crowley walked over and leaned against the triceratops' shield. "Pygmalion had some builder-beings in the lead constructing that tunnel through the dimensions. I moved the markers he had left behind for them into an area with a dimensional gateway. I managed to program it to randomly select a new destination every three seconds, so I've been scattering his no-deposit, no-return warriors all over the place. A lot of them looked like that guy over there, and some of them were good."
I nodded. "When Rajani spoke with Mickey, he became docile. She thinks she has broken the links in his mind that make him a killer on order, and the fact that he's not slain her is fair proof of that. He was fast, Crowley, very fast. The black swirls and lines look like decoration, but they're really carbon-fiber armor. I'd like to see an MRI of him because I think the bones in his arms and legs have been replaced with titanium replicas."
"Interesting. Where's the big guy you were with?" Crowley looked around, then glanced down at the dinosaur's shattered skull. "Out looking for a taxidermist?"
A single loud gunshot punctuated the night. "There was a loose Roboguard IV in the Garden of Contemplation."
We shared a smile, then both looked over toward the main building as Hal Garrett and Sinclair MacNeal led a group of five men toward us. Four of the men wore business suits and, despite the darkness, sunglasses. They seemed unimpressed by the odd menagerie of creatures in the Sun Court. The fifth man was smaller and moved with the care of old age, yet I sensed a vitality in him that even Pygmalion had not exhibited.
Sin stopped and pointed me out with a wave of his hand. "This is Coyote. Coyote, this is—"
"I know." I bowed deeply and held the bow out of respect. Straightening up slowly, I noticed, from the corner of my eye that Crowley had also bowed to the elderly man. I smiled politely and made an introduction. "May I present Damon Crowley."
"We have met."
Crowley smiled. "How kind of you to remember. It was a long time ago."
I looked over at Crowley and raised an eyebrow in a silent question.
Crowley shrugged. "His coronation, a Red Army cell. It was a long time ago."
The small man surveyed the courtyard. "You are responsible for this?"
I nodded reluctantly. "Some of it. The man who catalyzed it, Arrigo El-Leichter, is dead. Your Colonel Nagashita killed him."
"My grandson, is he one of these . . . things?"
"No, sir, he is not." I frowned. "El-Leichter was a pawn of a Dark Lord we call Fiddleback. Ryuhito resisted him. Another Dark Lord, Pygmalion, offered Ryuhito something more. Your grandson left with him."
The small man sighed heavily, then remained silent for a while. Sin looked down and swallowed hard, but the small man shook his head. "You were to get to him and convince him of his error. Clearly things were worse than I imagined, and I did not charge you with the right duty."
He looked up at me. "Mr. MacNeal and Mr. Garrett have told me you are the person who is most capable of dealing with these Dark Lords. Is this accurate?"
"They are generous with praise and optimistic. However, with my friends I am willing to defy Dark Lords."
"Can you bring my grandson back?"
I hesitated as the full import of the question landed on me heavily. Could we find a Dark Lord's home dimension and extract Ryuhito? The logistics and timing for such an operation would be staggering. Part of me knew it would be impossible, but another part said that not even trying would be criminal. "It would be difficult and dangerous, but I am willing to try."
"Good. Whatever it takes, you shall have. From this point forward, this facility is yours to use as a staging area. My people will secure it. Draw up a list of things you need, and I will supply them. Whatever expenses you incur are mine."
"You love your grandson very much."
"This is true, but that is not the reason for my generosity here. As I told Mr. MacNeal," he said hoarsely, "I do not act out of love for Ryuhito, but out of my love for the world." He bowed and withdrew inside his group of guards.
Sinclair stared after him, then turned back with a surprised expression on his face. "Can it be done? Can we find Ryuhito and pull him out?"
"It can be done, but the odds of Elvis becoming the pope are a bit better than our chances of success." I jerked a thumb at the carnage behind us. "Had Pygmalion not intervened, Fiddleback would have won here. Going one on one with a Dark Lord is not a survival trait."
Crowley smiled slyly. "I don't think we'll have to do it alone, Coyote."
"Oh?" The amused tone in his voice sent chills down my spine.
"As I noted before, Pygmalion is not a favorite of the other Dark Lords. In fact, in coming here I met one who pledged his help to destroy Pygmalion."
"Really?"
"Yes," Crowley nodded solemnly. "In fact, he said without him you will fail. I think he's right."
"Who?" A sinking feeling tugged my stomach toward my toes as I realized who Crowley had spoken with. "Fiddleback? An alliance with Fiddleback? I might as well commit suicide."
"Without him, you likely will." Crowley's eyes hardened. "While I don't begrudge you that option, I hope you reconsider. Alone, you'll kill yourself. And the rest of world will die with you."
Michael A. Stackpole, Evil Ascending
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