Tempt the Stars

me being species-ist and bigoted and whatever, but . . 
    I still didn’t.
    But Mother didn’t look bothered. She lifted a single eyebrow, the way I’d never been able to do. Every time I tried it, both of mine went up, leaving me looking surprised instead of elegantly amused. But she nailed it.
    “When, Asag? When I killed Ninurta, and set your people free from ten thousand years of bondage. When I slayed Pazuzu along with half his legions, and thus put an end to the war you could not. When the great Kamish fled from me, bleeding from a thousand wounds, and weak enough to allow you to hunt and exile him—”
    “You did none of that for us! You were not trying to save us!” The voice was furious.
    “Of course not. But the result of my actions was helpful, was it not? Or have you forgotten how they scourged you, the ones you now term ‘Ancient Horrors,’ but whom once you called lords and served humbly along with all your kin? Have you so quickly forgotten how they gloried in blood and war, while your people suffered in want and endless fear, waiting to be called up again and again, for no victory was ever enough, and no defeat deemed final . . . ?”
    Mom kept talking, but I was having real trouble concentrating on her.
    I was experiencing something like the electric frisson I’d felt with Mircea, only that was like saying a raindrop felt like a deluge. And okay, yeah, this might explain a few things. Like how I kept popping into other people’s heads, or them into mine . . . or it might have if I knew what the crap was going on. But I didn’t, and I couldn’t focus with what felt like a few thousand volts running along every vein.
    Help, I thought vaguely.
    “They left you bleeding on the battlefield,” Mother was saying. “Fodder for the carrion eaters. Or cowering behind your wards, alone on your little worlds, unable to grow or interact or explore, for fear of what prowled in the night—”
    “You chief of all!” The demon sounded like he was choking.
    “Oh, not chief, Asag, surely. Not for you. I only preyed on the powerful.”
    The room laughed, if slightly uncomfortably. It didn’t do much to break the tension. I had a feeling nothing would.
    “Whatever you may think of me,” Mother continued, “the fact remains that the killing of the great ones allowed saner voices to prevail at many courts, helped to bring about the end of the ancient wars, and did much to usher in the current era of, if not peace, at least of more stability than you have ever known.”
    “And we should thank you for this?” the one she’d called Adra asked mildly.
    “No, but you should, perhaps, thank me for thousands of years of freedom from my people’s depredations. When I barred them from earth, it cut them off from your worlds as well. You may think I took a heavy toll on your numbers, but how many would they have taken? In more than four millennia, how many?”
    “Do you hear?” Asag demanded. “She is our benefactor now!”
    “It is difficult to hear anything,” another voice interjected. “Over your chatter. Some of us would prefer to hear the Queen of Heaven.”
    “Heaven is where she should have stayed. Along with the rest of her kind!”
    “But we did not stay. We will not stay,” Mother said sharply. “You asked me why I came; it was to tell you this. My people have become desperate. They feasted in the good years, and grew strong. But also far more numerous. And unlike you, they did not restrict their population. They come now because they must; our world cannot support so many, even at a basic level. And when they come, whatever the price, they will come for you. And they will not take merely the ancient ones and be done with it, as I did. They will take you all.”
    “Suddenly, they can return, after being barred for so long?” the one she called Adra asked. “Suddenly, your great protection fails?”
    He sounded less crazed than the other guy, but I wasn’t sure he was any less skeptical. I guess I couldn’t blame him; it sounded like she’d played them pretty well in the past. But if she was going to bring them around now, she’d better hurry.
    I’d passed tingly, traveled through fiery, said good-bye to scorching. And was starting to approach whatever it was called when one of those cartoon characters pushed a finger in a light socket and it lit him up, showing the skeleton through the skin. Even my hair felt crunchy. A human wasn’t meant to channel this much raw