Page 25 of Alien God

I dragged my fingers through my hair and sighed.

Finally alone.

“My Lord? I have the bandages.”

... Never mind.

I smoothed my face into something I hoped did not convey my annoyance before I turned around. My parents, my mother in particular, had always impressed upon me how much I was to care for and respect the castle’s staff.

“Thank you, Shoshen.”

Shoshen, it turned out, was not alone. A much older Sionnachan man, leaning on a silver tree crystal cane, was with him. They both flattened their ears.

“My Lord, this is our father, Ashken. He was the previous Master of the Grounds who trained me,” Shoshen said. “I hope you do not mind that I woke him to greet you.”

“Not at all,” I replied, crossing the room to them. “I am happy to meet you, Ashken, just as I will be to meet the others.”

“Others?” Shoshen asked, turning to glance at his father.

“Lord Wylfrael,” Ashken said, his voice deeper and stronger than his use of the cane would have led me to expect, “there are no others. It is only me, and my two children, who serve the castle now.”

My tone turned caustic.

“Was it the invaders? Were the other Sionnachans here harmed?”

If the humans killed them...

I stormed to the door, ready to tear the human out of her room and demand answers from her, even if she could not understand my questions. But Ashken’s words stopped me in my tracks.

“No, my lord. That old Riverdark spell has served the castle well. Those invaders did not come here or harm any Sionnachan that I know of.”

Well, that was something at least. I turned back and rejoined them. Shoshen seemed to remember himself, jumping and making a little “ah!” sound. He brandished a bandage at me, soaked in healing Sionnachan herbs, stepping closer to clean my wounds. I waved him off with a grunt, taking it and doing it myself. I wiped the soaked bandage across my chest, cleaning away the blood and disinfecting the wounds.

“So, where’s the rest of the staff, then?” I asked, switching out my now-bloodied bandage for a fresh one Shoshen handed me reverently. When I’d left, there had been a dozen servants in the castle’s employ.

“Well, my lord,” Ashken began slowly. “To put it plainly, people lost hope you’d ever return. The coffers kept them paid in your absence, but generation after generation, belief that you were dead grew stronger. People began to leave their posts here, returning to be with their families in villages far beyond the mountains. Or they died, and no one was willing to cross the mountains to replace them.” The old man paused, as if unsure whether to say the next part. “Forgive me my boldness, Lord Wylfrael, but few Sionnachans wanted to serve in the abandoned house of a dead god.”

My eyebrows lifted in surprise at old Ashken’s bluntness. I decided I appreciated his honesty.

“I can understand that,” I muttered, passing Shoshen yet another ruined bandage. My front was mostly cleaned up now, and I began packing the wounds with dry bandages.

“We, of course, never felt that way,” Ashken added. “Our family has always held strong in the faith that you would return. Someday.”

“Well, here I am.” I tried to ignore the knife of shame in my guts that twisted at the thought of generation after generation of Sionnachans waiting here for me. Waiting for a god who did not come.

Curse you, Skalla...

“Thank you for remaining,” I said, meaning it. I didn’t particularly care one way or the other about having servants around to tend to my needs, but their loyalty touched me. And with the human prisoner here now, I’d be able to offload tasks like feeding her and fetching clothes for her to the others. Plus, I’d be able to get information about what went on in my absence without having to trek to one the of villages so far from here they likely wouldn’t have any information about the humans’ activities, anyway.

Although...

“Have you been in contact with anyone beyond the mountains?” I asked sharply. I hadn’t yet considered the idea that there could be more human settlements on my world.

“Yes, my lord,” Ashken replied. “After the invaders arrived in their sled from the sky, I sent letters, carried by burrowbirds, to other villages. The replies we received seemed to indicate the flying sled with its foreigners in the valley was the only one, and they did not travel far from here. Though, they had only been here thirty-one days before you arrived today, so there is no way to know what their future plans may have been.”

“As long as their future plans do not include returning,” I mused darkly. I doubted they’d even attempt such a thing, considering how fast they’d fled. If they did try to return in the future, I’d be even stronger, and I’d crush their machine, the sled, as Ashken called it, with my bare fists...

But for now, I was satisfied that they were gone.

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