Pawn (26 page)

No more.

Tracey, his poor older sister. She had been next. And she too had been broken. But for her the pain and suffering had been transformed into coldness. The chill of a heart that no longer beat in her chest. So she didn’t hate. She didn’t love. She didn’t care. And because of that she could do anything. She could hurt anyone, and never know a moment of guilt. She could be hurt, physically, emotionally, and it simply didn’t affect her. She just carried on, planning and scheming, and destroyed everyone around her who dared to care for her.

No more.

And there were others. Looking at them he was suddenly sure of that. Other children his parents had destroyed in that most foul of ways.

It could not be borne. Not any longer. And suddenly the fear was gone and something else was filling him. Something hot and powerful. Something that could not be ignored. Something that blazed within him like rocket fuel.

“No more!” He shouted it at the two of them, the words simply ripping loose from his heart, cracking the ceiling tiles with their power. They looked up as pieces of dust and stone started falling all around them, for maybe the first time in their lives, frightened. It was only the beginning.

“Never again!” The sword felt impossibly light in his hands, the shield too, and the whole castle shook with his words. There was light glowing all around. Good light, safe light, comforting light. He didn’t fully know what it was, but he knew it was meant to be. It was everywhere, filling the room, blinding his parents, making them try to cover their eyes with their hands, weapons forgotten, and he knew that it was coming from within him. From inside his very soul.

“You must be stopped!” The light grew and grew, and the castle shook as though caught up in an earthquake. People were screaming, his parents were screaming, falling to the floor as it shook too violently for them to keep their footing.

“You must be judged!” And that was it. The calmness within him. The strength and light he had found. The very centre of his being. Judgement. They had to be held accountable for their crimes against the children. They had to know the horror and pain and suffering that they had caused.

“You are guilty!” It was a scream of power that rent the very earth beneath them. It was a blast of light that tore the sight from everyone. And above all else it was righteous.

His parents screamed. Terrified out of their skins as they finally felt the pain and terror of their victims. And of course it was too much for them. They ran from their pain and terror, they ran so hard and so far and when they still couldn’t escape it, they ran some more. But there would be no escape for them. There would be no return to their old lives. They had simply run all the way into madness, and Rufus knew that they would never return from it. They would run forever.

That was as it should be. But there was more to do. Much more. He knew it. He felt it. So much evil against innocent children. It had to be stopped. Those who did such terrible things had to be stopped.

Rufus turned to the other criminals and instantly knew their evil. All of it. They could hide nothing from him. Someone started shooting at him about then, a machine gun sending little parcels of death screaming towards him. But he wouldn’t allow it. Not again. And with a wave of his hand, the weapon was torn from the hands holding it. The bullets had never even touched him.

“Kursetis.” He turned to the closest. “Your drugs have caused children everywhere to lose parents and loved ones. The children of your slave workers in the fields have suffered without their parents and without the medicine they needed. They have starved and been beaten, and forced to work on your plantations. And so many of them have died.” He stared straight at the drug lord and the man all but withered in front of him. He knew his crimes, he just didn’t care. Or he hadn’t until then.

“You are guilty!” The blast of light hit him straight in the face and the scream of righteous fury tore at his ears, and the man fell to the floor in a quivering heap. His mind was gone, and in its place there lived only terror. Rufus knew that he too would not return from the place he was running to. He should not. Death would be his only release. He turned to the next.

“Daminos. Your weapons have been used to kill and maim countless children in countless wars. Wars you support.” The cold man stared at him for half a heartbeat, frightened by what he was seeing, and then he too was smashed by his judgement. “You are guilty!” And just like that another cold blooded monster was left screaming on the floor. His mind would not return. It should not.

“Venner.” The man shrieked with fear and put up his hands almost as if to shield himself from what was coming. There was no shield.

“My lord!” He ran to Plutos, begging. But Plutos couldn’t help him. He was too busy standing there looking shocked.

“Your factories in Thailand. Child labour. Beatings, starvation and corruption and murder. And your time in the whorehouses. Hurting and abusing little kids. Enslaving them. No more. You are guilty!” The light hit him and he fell to the ground screaming, babbling something about monsters and demons, and Rufus moved on to the next.

One by one he judged them and he found them guilty. Guilty of unimaginable crimes against innocent children. Crimes that could no longer be tolerated.

Soon they were all gone. All their minds destroyed as they discovered their evil first hand. And then there was only one left. Plutos. Standing there, all alone, surrounded by gods and knowing his judgement too was coming. He looked worried. But he was made of stronger stuff then his servants. Strong enough at least to bluster.

“Save your tricks mortal. I am a god, far beyond the reach of your petty judgement. I will not be judged by you.”

“But you will.” Rufus faced him directly, and looked straight into his soul. It was no more difficult than that of the others to see everything. He might be a god, but Rufus understood that in his crimes he had gone far beyond his domain. No god could go beyond what he was. To do so was to leave himself open. And he was wide open.

“Your greed, your lust for power, it has caused terrible suffering to children. You knew it would. And you knew of Venner and his factories and his whorehouses. You knew and you didn’t care. You knew of these others as well, and what they had done to the children. You knew and you did nothing. You even rewarded those who did these evil things. You rewarded the drug lords and gun runners as they tore innocent lives apart.”

“That is not prosperity. It is greed allowed to grow and fester into a wound that cuts the entire world. A wound of bleeding children. It cannot be allowed.”

“You are judged and found guilty!” His light found Plutos and finally he screamed. His swarthy face screwed up with pain, and he fell to his knees, head in hands, trying to stop it. But he couldn’t.

“And then you did the most terrible things to the rest of the people.” A goddess with a silver spear suddenly spoke up from the other side of the room, and there was light glowing within her too. Good light. Rufus welcomed it as he welcomed her. Whoever she was she was just.

“Theft, murder, betrayal, torture. Every darkness that mortal man has known you have allowed and encouraged if it so much as brought you another piece of gold.”

“You are judged and found guilty!” The light from her joined his as it smashed into the god of greed, and Plutos shrieked like a little girl, before he fell the rest of the way to the floor and curled up in to a foetal position.

“And then you did disobey the commands of the Council. You tried to inflict your base desires upon the others when it is not permitted. Then most foully, you did dare to lay your hands upon not one but two goddesses. The most basic of all our laws, broken.” A huge man had stepped forwards, and Rufus instantly knew him as the man from the restaurant. Zeus? But he was far more than that. He was authority. He was king. The power within him was always that of a father. Father of mortals, father of even the gods. He was in the end, the god of fathers.

“You are judged and found guilty!” Plutos screamed even before the light from the giant hit him, and then he screamed some more as he burst into flames. God or not, that had to hurt. And of course it would not stop. Plutos was a god. He could not die. And his suffering would not end until his sentence was complete. Until his every sin had been thoroughly burnt out of him.

“Moirae?” The giant turned to her in question.

“Eight hundred and forty three years.” She answered the question he never asked, passing not sentence as he understood it, just the length of time it would take for Plutos to finally be cleansed of his sins. That it seemed was also a matter of fate.

“So be it.” The giant waved his hand and Plutos was gone, off to wherever gods such as he went to serve their time. And just like that it was over. But it took Rufus a while to realise that. Instead he just stood there, staring at the fallen, wondering on some level if it had really happened, and on another why he was doubting it. It had happened. He had done it, and he was finally free of his suffering. He knew it. He felt it. He just didn’t understand it.

“Moirae.” The giant called her name and all eyes turned to her again, even Rufus’. Her eyes though, they turned to him. Then she walked over to him, beaming at him like a proud mother.

“Well done.” Two simple words but somehow he knew she meant them, just as he could suddenly see within her to understand a little more of the truly ancient woman that she was. And the truly good one. Deep, old, complex and filled with plans, wheels within wheels turning behind her eyes, but still he could see through to her heart and knew it was true. He didn’t intend to study her in that way, but he couldn’t help himself, and he bowed to her, finally understanding that whatever she was, she deserved his respect. And then, still unbidden he bowed to the others, the gods and the mortals both. It was right.

Moirae took his hand, clutched it tightly for a second, then raised it high in the air as she turned to face the others. “Brothers, sisters, mortals and celestials, I give you our new brother reborn. Rufus, the Celt. God of the Broken Child.”

With those words she not only named him, she named his purpose. She told him what it was that burned within him. The need for protection and the hunger for justice that all abused children needed and deserved. And the fire within him burned brighter once more. He had work to do.

Yet one thing more still mattered to him as much as what he was, and suddenly she was in his arms, warm and soft and so very lovely.

“Aphrodite.”

“Rufus.”

It had been a very long day, a very long month and there were so many things he needed answers to, not least of which was exactly what had happened to him. But in the end there was actually only one question he really wanted answered just then.

“Can we go home now?”

***********************

Chapter Thirty One.

“Hey beautiful.” Rufus greeted Di happily as she lay sunning herself on the beach. He was still amazed that she had retained that impossibly strong hold on his heart even after he’d ascended, something Moirae kept trying to explain to him. But then that was her dominion, and he was always a mortal where she was concerned. Still it didn’t matter when he knew her own magic bound her to him just as strongly.

“Hey yourself.” She smiled and as always his knees went a little weak. Luckily there was room enough on her beach towel for two, and he quickly dropped his jacket and sword and joined her on the warm sand. It was a lovely beach she had, even though he still wasn’t quite sure if it really was in Cyprus. Or even in the world. There were so many things he still didn’t understand.

“I heard the news.” Of course she had. With Moirae as a close personal friend she’d probably heard it even before it had happened.

“Good.” He stretched an arm across her middle and pulled her slender waist gently towards him so that he could kiss her properly and feel her body warm and soft against his. Di didn’t exactly object to his manhandling her. But then she’d probably been lying on the beach for some time, waiting for him to come home.

“Bit dramatic wasn’t it?” But her mind wasn’t really on the job of wondering how badly he’d screwed up this time. Not when she was already wrapping herself around him and undoing his shirt. Neither was his.

“Bad guys. They need some taking down now and again.” It still bothered him that he had so much power and yet so little. That he couldn’t fix all the world’s problems with a snap of his fingers. But it was enough that he could help. Especially when from time to time he got to do something truly spectacular to someone really evil. Even if Moirae would moan and complain about it, and
Dikē would probably lecture him all over again about maintaining a low profile. Influence, that was that name of the game. Work through people not on them. But then she never considered the influence that a spectacular comeuppance on a paedophile might have when the media got hold of it. And they would. He’d made sure of that.

They might have been able to somehow cover up the battle in Plutos’ castle. He still wasn’t quite sure how, save that every piece of hard evidence had vanished and all the witnesses had stopped talking. Those that weren’t now locked away in institutions. But this? No. It would be talked about, and the word would go out. Harm children and maybe something terrible would one day happen to you.

“And you too my love.” Her hands moved on to his belt. “Dikē’s coming over for dinner. She says you two need to talk.” She giggled a little, knowing he was in for a hard time, again.

“Then I guess we’ll just have to be quick.” His hands found the sides of her bathing suit and he started pulling it down.

“What here? Now?” She wasn’t actually that bothered by the idea. After all they had the beach to themselves and Eumonia wouldn’t come to bother them for a while. Di just liked to pretend that she was.

“Oh yes. Right here! Right now!”

“Well that’s all right then.” And it was.