The Crippled God

away, Blend’s deadly instincts would answer with a fatal thrust – up through her brain. She thought furiously. ‘I was only joking, love. Tufty’s fine .’
    Blend’s brow wrinkled. ‘Tufty? Who’s Tufty? ’
    ‘ Uh, the cat I forgot to feed .’
    The knife vanished beneath the blankets, and Blend rolled over. ‘You never was good with animals,’ she mumbled, and then added, ‘Bet it hates you now. No more cuddles for you, Pick.’ A moment later she was snoring .
    Picker’s sigh was ragged. Wiping sweat from her eyes, she glared across at the ugly thing in the doorway . ‘ Lords above, I hope so .’
    And then she discovered the silver torcs .
    The waters calmed, as they were wont to do whenever he came up from below deck. Shurq Elalle watched the Jaghut approach. The rest of her crew – the few that still lived – sat or sprawled amidships tracking the tall, ghastly warrior with a fascination she almost envied. Here was the once-god of death and the exquisite irony of her meeting Hoodwas simply delicious. Back in Letheras, she’d have wagered her entire fortune that this was one encounter she would never have.
    Instead, she was captaining Hood’s Ship of the Dead, or whatever it was he called it. Vessel of Souls? Death Ship? Something ominous, anyway. Not that she had much to do by way of giving orders and the like. Whatever propelled the craft wasn’t slave to winds, canvas and cordage. And not an oar in sight.
    Suddenly, the seas had become uninteresting. As if all her skills – and possibly it was the same with her crew – all their skills had become irrelevant. And for all the ease and comfort that came with this kind of sailing, her sense was one of tragic loss. At this moment, her respect for the sea wavered, as if fatally weakened, and she wondered if, before long, there would come to humans a true conquest of the waves, spelling the end of humility. And let’s face it, humanity without humility is a dangerous force. Don’t know why I’m thinking as if I’m seeing the future, but that’s how it feels. Some future time when sorcery does too much, when it solves all our problems – only to invent new ones. If this is to be the real future, I don’t want it .
    ‘There is a darkness upon your thoughts, Captain Elalle.’
    She glanced over at him. Burnished tusks, mottled with unimaginable age. Worn, leathery skin stretched gaunt over sharp bones. Deep-set eyes, haunted in shadow, the vertical pupils barely visible – but they’d not been there when he’d first appeared, so it seemed that life was returning to the Jaghut. ‘You can sense such things, Hood?’
    ‘You are the captain.’
    ‘I don’t see the relevance of that – the title has lost all meaning.’
    ‘To the contrary,’ Hood replied. ‘It is by the currents of your thoughts that we find our course.’ He pointed ahead.
    She squinted. A smudge building on the horizon. ‘I’ve conjured up a storm?’
    ‘Out of witless boredom I created ships like this one, and I set captains upon them, choosing those among the dead for whom death has become an obsession.’
    ‘I imagine you’d have plenty to choose from. How can the dead not obsess over their being dead?’
    ‘I am not responsible for small minds, Captain Elalle. Indeed, I always possessed a kind of admiration for those who refused their fate, who struggled to escape my dreadful realm.’
    ‘Enough to let them go?’
    ‘Go? I can tell you that all those who have escaped my realm now exist in misery. For their path ahead is no longer a mystery, and for them hope does not exist. They know that no paradise awaits them, and that no amount of diligent worship, sacrifice, or piety can change that.’
    ‘That is … awful.’
    ‘What it is, Captain, is inexcusable.’
    She considered his words, and then considered them some more. ‘The gods take, but give nothing in return.’
    ‘Ah, see how the storm dissipates? Excellent, Captain … oh dear, it now returns, much more virulent than before. Captain, I would advise—’
    ‘Advise me nothing! Couldn’t you have forced their hand? Done something?’
    The strange, terrible eyes fixed on her. ‘But I have.’
    ‘Then … was it necessary for you to leave the realm of death? Is that why you’re here? It must be. You have set something in motion.’
    ‘I have not acted alone, Captain.’
    ‘I would hear more, Hood. If there is a reason for all this, I – I need to know it.’
    Hood said nothing for a