Роберт Асприн - Forever After

“I was allowing for allegory in the poem, sir.”

“Ah, a wise idea.” Gar looked up and out beyond the perimeter of the firelight. “Do you see a woman out there?”

“Is this another of them ‘allusions’ of yours, sir?”

“No, Spido, the glowing, lavender woman out there.”

“Now that you mention it, I do see someone.” Spido stood and stared for a moment. “She’s glowing, sir. Maybe she’s my goddess. Do you think, sir?”

“I don’t know, Spido. Perhaps I should go check it out.”

“I can go, sir, no trouble at all.”

“And bring her back to a camp that has dirty bowls and the like scattered about? This is a goddess, Spido.”

“Right, sir. Shall I call out to you when things are clear?”

“Very good, Spido.”

Gar left his aide scurrying around the camp and strode out to where the glowing woman stood. The purple-white light she gave off had prompted some of the wildflowers in the vicinity to blossom. Behind her Gar saw faint flashes of gold as a remarkable doe cropped grass as if out grazing on a lazy spring afternoon.

Gar granted the glowing woman a generous smile and she did not shy from it. He bowed and kept his voice respectfully low. “I am honored by your presence, Osina of the Flowers. To what do I owe this visit?”

A rosy glow came to Osina’s cheeks and her flaxen hair drifted as the night breeze caressed it gently. “I have heard much of you lately and felt compelled to seek you out.” The demigoddess opened her arms and revealed herself in all her naked glory. “The only mortal to refuse my charms is a mortal about whom I am curious. And. of whom I have learned much.”

“I am honored by your attention, Osina.”

“And will you accept me now, or is your orientation still in question?”

She laughed and Gar blushed. “My orientation was never in question.”

“There was some confusion, though, last time we spoke. As I recall you had feelings for Colonel Dominik Blaid. He was one of your comrades in arms.”

“Yes, but he was a she .”

“But you did not know that at the time.”

‘True, but I had sensed it.“

“And what do you sense from her now?”

‘That she has given her heart to someone else.“

Osina reached a supple arm out and stroked Gar’s cheek with her hand. “I sense this of you, as well. You will resist me again, will you not?”

“As long as we both live, I will always harbor hope that Domino will return my feelings.”

‘Then I do have a chance.“

Gar stiffened. “Do not think to harm her, Osina.”

The willowy goddess held her hands up. “Calm yourself, Grashanshao-tian-shi , my half brother Kalaran inherited the family’s sociopathic tendencies. I am merely one who blossoms in your presence.”

‘There must be others for whom you blossom.“

“Not really. Good stamen are hard to find.”

“Sir, oh, sir, everything is ready, sir.”

Osina looked past Gar toward the camp. “Who is that bulbous, naked man bouncing from foot to foot in your camp?”

“That is Spido. He is a great hero who has deciphered a prophecy that will lead to the liberation of his village from the forces of evil. He is in love with Squashblossom, but he believes the prophecy indicates he will have a liaison with a goddess.”

The goddess frowned. “Squashblossom of Torfay?”

“You know of her?”

“I keep a watch over my flower-children. Quite the pistil, that one.”

“You know that, and I know that, but Spido doesn’t have a clue. I intend to find a way to let him down easy.”

Osina squinted at the camp. “At the moment, letting Spido down is not going to be easy.” She smiled as Gar winced. “I think, though, I can do something.”

The demigoddess of flowers turned and gestured toward the golden deer. Lavender and lilac lights played over the beast, which slowly transformed itself into a naked woman with closely cropped golden hair, big brown doe eyes, and ears slightly more pointed than most humans. She reached down and plucked a daisy, then scampered off toward the camp as she nibbled the flower.

“Nice trick with the hind.”

Osina half closed her eyes of violet. ‘The trick was in undoing magicks my brother, the Horned One, worked a century or two ago. He saw Elise and fell in love with her. He transformed her into a doe and, well, she was just another point on his rack. Come autumn he got the hots for some swan and flew south. Elise was hart-broken, so I’ve taken care of her.“

“Still, it’s nice of you to have done that for Spido.”

“No problem. Elise was eating some of my cousins there anyway.”

Gar looked down at the flowers. “Your cousins? Were they how you found me?”

“No, you have to torture daisies before they’ll talk.” Osina slowly seated herself and patted a spot beside her. “The etheric winds have been carrying your name. Rango’s sorcellets bandy it about amongst themselves. They’ve cut your Spido out of many conversations, and consider him an idiot as far as geography is concerned.”

Gar sat down facing her instead of beside her. “Part of the prophecy business. Spido is misreporting our location.”

“Just as well. I was misled and visited some of those spots. Quite crowded, they were.”

The assassin’s head came up. “Oh? Your brother’s minions?”

“They were. Wanted to deflower me.” She laughed. “They’re all mulch now. In fact, you should thank me.”

“Yes?”

“I have been effective enough in eliminating the groups who flock to where Spido reports you to be, that it is assumed you are there killing them off.”

Gar took her hand and kissed her petal-soft flesh. “I am in your debt. Not only have you helped safeguard me, but you have told me that there is a traitor among the sorcellets.”

“Not necessarily. Someone could be eavesdropping, much as I have.”

“Kalaran?”

“He is otherwise occupied.”

“Death will do that.”

“Indeed. No, actually, listening in to the conversations would be relatively easy because your sorcellets are flowers with only one blossom. They only understand how to work their communication magick, and they are sending their messages out to specific individuals, but people they do not know well. In fact, the link to them only comes through names. If an enemy were to undertake a baptism or naming ritual and claim the same name, he would get the messages being sent to that person.”

“And if he were a sorcellet himself, he could order the movement of troops to waylay me.” Gar scowled at a daisy and it began to wilt. “Range’s communications network is compromised, but the only way to get a warning to Spotty, Jancy, and Domino is by using that network. Unless you would take them a message for me.”

Osina reached out, touched the wilted flower and it immediately came back to life. “I could, but I will not. It is not my place to interfere in the affairs of mortals.”

“But telling me this much is interference isn’t it?”

The demigoddess shook her head slowly. “I am merely fulfilling my part in the unfolding drama. That amulet you wear, Anachron, has a past and a future. You and I are custodians to ensure it passes from one into the other.” A silence fell heavy between them, but giggles and moans from the camp shattered it. Osina stood and smiled down at the assassin. “Fare thee well, Gar Quithnick. Remember that I am in every flower you smell and that the long grasses that caress your legs are my fingers.”

Spido hid a yawn behind his hand as they rode along the next morning. “Sorry, sir, for not being up at the crack of dawn and having everything ready. Sorry to keep you waiting.”