Coyote blue

favor."
    "You don't even know who I am, do you? That hurts. You think I don't have feelings?"
    "I'm sorry," Sam said. "I'm a little preoccupied. I didn't mean to be rude." Preoccupied? Naked, in a supernatural world, talking to the dog-food god, trying to get back the woman he loved. Excuse my manners , he thought. "I'm Sam Hunter, and you are?"
    "Anubis, son of Osiris. God of the Underworld." He scratched behind his ears harder and his leg began to bounce with pleasure.
    "Osiris? You're Egyptian?"
    "My people lived in the Nile Valley, yes."
    "But you said that you were Coyote's brother."
    "He didn't tell you that story either?" Anubis was irritated.
    "No, sorry," Sam said. How could Calliope's life be in the hands of this neurotic canine? He decided to try to placate the god. "But I'd love to hear it."
    Anubis pricked up his long ears. "It was long ago," he began. "And the god Osiris brought to the people of the Nile Valley the knowledge to plant grain, and he brought great floods to nourish the grains. With his queen, Isis, he ruled all of civilization, until his brother Set, the dark one, became jealous and killed Osiris, tearing his body into fourteen pieces and scattering them over the valley.
    "But Osiris had consorted with Set's wife, Nephthys, and she gave birth to two dog-headed sons, Anubis and Aputet. When Set found the boys he put them into baskets and set them afloat in the Nile. Later, Isis found Anubis and adopted him. But Aputet floated out to sea and across the ocean to another land in the West."
    Here the dog-headed god puffed himself up with pride. "Anubis was always the one bound to duty, the faithful. He found the pieces of our father and bound them together so that Osiris lived again. For that he was given the job of weighing human souls against truth, and taking people to the Underworld.
    "And my brother," Anubis said, "grew up in a wild land, with the powers of a god and no sense of duty or justice. All he cares about is the stories people tell about him. And he never remembers his brother, who has saved him so many times. He never visits. You're sure Coyote never told you this?"
    Sam didn't know what to say. He thought of the Coyote tales he had heard as a child, and how this seemed to fit.
    "No, I was told he brought my people the buffalo and taught us how to live off the land."
    "He did those things to serve himself. Without a way to live, how could they tell stories about him? He has used me for years to make his stories. Now he has returned to Earth and used you."
    It all fit. "He fucked up my life and got Calliope killed for the stories." Sam was trying to control his anger. "I'm here because he wants people to tell stories about him?"
    "He had to or he would end up like me." Anubis lowered his voice. "Your people don't have a word in their language for "computer" or "VCR" or "television." The children are losing the old stories, the stories of hunting buffalo and counting coup. That's not their world. Coyote was afraid he would be forgotten, like me. With the new stories he's real again. You lived the stories that will bring him back. He doesn't care about the people, only that they are talking about him. I tried. I sent my agent to help you."
    Sam looked at Anubis. "The big black guy, Minty? You sent him?"
    "He's mine, a dutiful son, but he doesn't know it," Anubis said. "I can no longer walk in your world because I am a dead god. I died of change. So I sent the black one to help you. He is mine like you are Aputet's."
    "I'm his? What does that mean?"
    "You were born for his stories. To live them, to carry them on."
    "He wants little kids to hear stories about killing innocent women? That's supposed to be good for a people?"
    "He doesn't care. As long as the stories are told they will hold his people together. He says people need a good bad example. It gives them pride in doing the right thing. I have always done the right thing and my people are gone because of it, swallowed up by the Christian god."
    "So how does the story end?" Sam asked. "Can I bring back Calliope? She didn't do anything wrong."
    "I weigh the souls of the dead against truth. If there is balance, then the soul passes on. If not, I feed it to Ammut."
    The monster snarled at the mention of his name. "I'm stuck here doing this tedious work while my brother roams the world having fun. It's not fair."
    Sam kept pressing. "Let me take the girl back. It's not her fault that Coyote is a jerk."
    "No," Anubis said. "My