36. Virtual vice
A/N A Kakodemon (kakodaimōn) is an evil spirit or (in the modern sense of the word) a demon. The word comes through Latin from the Ancient Greek κακοδαίμων (kakodaimōn) meaning an evil spirit.
Ares' prediction about the Titan's behavior came true faster than I had thought it would. Less than a week after Thanksgiving there was a terror bombing in Monte Carlo, Monaco, blasting the entrance of the famous Casino to pieces and killing almost two hundred people. The observation cameras showed a male of typically Middle Eastern looks who apparently had killed himself and in the process sent 178 other poor souls across the Styx flow. But looks can be deceiving. That asshole was as Arab as Mickey Mouse. In fact he was a Titan from the settlement of Abromz, which is situated somewhere beneath the Swiss Alps and one of those cities Hercules' groups had marauded. Neither was he a suicide bomber. The Titan had, just seconds before the bomb went off, loosened the belt surrounding his waist and dimension-jumped off, back home to Abromz, no doubt for a paycheck and a pat in the back.
The same midmorning Ares called the New York group and all the surrounding deities over to his place and he told us everything he knew about this act of terror and what we Olympians were now expected to do. Hercules and some of his gods had already gone down to Abromz to find the bomber and those connected to him. Meanwhile we were asked to keep our eyes and ears open for similar occurrences in the USA, mainly here in New York and in Washington DC.
"The Casino bombing came as a surprise, we admit we were short on intelligence," the war god admitted. "But since then we have done a few updates to our information gathering detail. We know now that the Titans might be trying to hit somewhere around here, probably during the Christmas shopping."
"But what if..." Kumiko began. "Can we all still go home for Solstice celebration?"
"I hope so," Ares said. "But if anyone will have to stay behind and guard this city I'll do that."
"You still cannot forgive yourself for 9/11, right?" Bellona asked.
"It's not about that," Ares addressed his sister. "It's rather the reason that I won't order anybody to skip the party of the year and not be willing to do that myself as well."
"I'll stay with you if needed, dad!" Penthesileia offered.
"As will I," Kyknos added. "No one should be alone at Solstice, even if it's just about patrolling."
"Thanks," Ares replied. "That's heartwarming, kids. But let's not decide anything yet, the solstice is the 22:th, that's just 3 days before Christmas. Most probably a try at instigate terror in say New York will take place much earlier. Around mid-December when most people are out, like that goof over in Stockholm last year."
"The one who actually took himself across the Styx!" Paradox grinned. "And failed to kill as much as a mouse otherwise, in spite of being in the middle of one of the major shopping streets!"
"That sure was him," Hekate replied. "And unlike most of the rest he was a 'real Muslim' as well."
Hekate's gallows joke provoked some raw laughter around the table and then Ares went on:
"This means we got things to do, ladies and gentlemen. I don't think we're going to need enforcement this time, because it's not going to be so much about fighting as about tracing. That's why I let Hercules borrow Phobos, Androkles and Bia. The rest of you are going to patrol New York, Washington, Boston and Miami, the latter meaning mainly the NASA compound."
"We've got a warning about the space centre?" Deimos asked.
"Indeed we got," his father replied. "And I want you to go there. Taking Lysandros, Nerio, Penthesileia, Xantos and Paradox with you."
"Lift off!" Lysandros grinned as he saluted Ares.
Then Ares went on and handed out assignments. I got to stay together with him, Saxa, Palaistra, Kyknos, Polemos, Nemain, Proioxis, Palioxis, Kydoimos, Enyalios and Hekate here at Manhattan. It was as if Ares understood my desire to remain at home now for a while. The rest became sent to Washington DC, Boston, Toronto and Chicago. I wondered if there would be some time for me to actually do some Christmas shopping. I could at least visit my parents, and in my mind I planned to also stay with Ares in New York over the Solstice if needed. That would give me an excuse to celebrate Christmas with my parents and my brother, even if the Yuletide holiday felt a bit strange for someone who lived among the Olympian gods now. Someone who had seen where the dead went for their afterlife and a million other things which proved that the world was so much more complicated than any religious explanation. Both more horrid and beautiful. I was more than happy to have experienced that, even if it had meant almost being thrown down a vortex and then having my heart thrown into another.
I also knew that whatever Apollo would say later to me, I was not quitting this duty. Ares was right, I was a goddess of war, and I intended to stay that way. That was what I did and what I would keep on doing as long as there was a single being out there in need to be defended against cruelty and injustice.
"Aidra? Was it?" the voice of Keiko cut through my reveres.
"Uh, pardon me?" I looked up. "Sorry, my mind was elsewhere."
"Not with Apollo, I hope." Ishiro's wife went on.
"No, eh - I was thinking of... my parents."
"Okay. That's reasonable. Now, I was asking about a thing Ishiro and I and a few others've been working on now for a while. It's regarding that dream you had in Washington this spring, just after the attempt against President Obama. That being you dreamt about, it was not connected to any of the Triad Titans?"
"I... I'm not sure," I said and looked around at the gathered gods in the room. "I only encountered Torianus, the other Titans were just names. The others had already killed them when I entered the Orb."
"Do you remember much of the dream?"
"Very little. To be true, I think Katy might remember more," I glanced over at Hekate, who was looking at something on her laptop together with Kydoimos.
"Would you be able to identify that being in your dream if we presented you with some suspects?"
"You mean - as in a confrontation?" I spun my tea-spoon between my fingers and regarded Keiko, wrinkling my brows.
"Sort of. Athena's son Helikaon has been making some magic recordings of suspects we have for the attempt against the president. Could you imagine having a look at them?"
"Certainly," I nodded my head.
"But I must warn you, some of these characters are rather - creepy."
"Don't worry, Keik, I think I've got a kind of - vaccine out there."
The Japanese laughed and raised her brows.
"I guess after confronting Torianus - the Titan Voldemort - you're not that scared anymore."
"Of course I may become scared," I replied. "But I'll do it in spite."
"Great, I'll tell Heli to come here as soon as he can make it." Keiko said. I asked her what they had learned about that being I had seen in my dream and where they had found their suspects.
"Actually," Keiko answered, and drunk of her tea, "almost already from the start, Hekate suspected that the daemon, the Kakodemon you saw was not working with the Titans. It was a completely different set up. Some kind of vice guys skulking in the shadows of the big bad Titan assembly. Because everyone was focused on the latter those beings weren't even noticed, they could sneak inside like little computer Trojans, well hidden behind the major scrum of badasses. However Hekate, Helikaon, Ishi, Oreiro , Theosoris and I've been investigating this side track while everyone else have been focusing on snuffing out the Triad. Now, with the Titan leaders gone, we feel that we ought to end this business for good. Aidra, we'll show you those Kakodemons we have on recordings and then we'll see if you can identify them."
"All right, Keik, come on over to my place then... when?"
"Tomorrow. I hope Heli can make it at least."
"Tomorrow then!" I nodded.
O0O0O
"This is a biocrystal," Helikaon said and placed the strange-looking object on my side table. Leaning forwards in the sofa, I regarded the object. It was light blue and more or less luminescent. First it appeared to be of glass, but it was a bit less transparent and milkier in its appearance. A kind of gem-stone perhaps and roughly the size of my fist. Helikaon himself was blond and handsome, and very reminiscent of Zeus, same kind of sky blue eyes and charming dimples in a chiseled face. But he was a bit more freckled and something with his more smoothly curved chin and cheeks reminded me that his father was Helios.
"It's organic?" I asked.
"No, not 'bio' in that sense. But as in 'biography' - retelling of lives. It's a magic recording crystal. These things were very widely used before non-magic cameras became common. And these days they're mostly used for supernatural purposes. You can get things to stick on a biochry which seldom stick on regular film or digital memories."
"And that's where you got these - kakos?" Saxa asked. She had volunteered to come and sit by me as a moral support when I went through these confrontations. In spite of her having been warned against saying anything that could possible affect my judgment, I was glad to have her there, as a silent supporter. In the room were also Keiko and Oreiro, the latter being Helikaon's mulatto brother. Both of them had been working with tracing down the kako that had ordered the fylgjademon out to kill the American president. The general assumption was that if we nailed that kako we could get the one behind, the one who wanted president Obama dead.
"That's where we have the kakodemons," Helikaon confirmed.
"How many are they?" I asked.
"Five in the number." the blond son of Athena replied.
"One suspect and four dummies I assume?"
"Then you assume wrong," Oreiro answered. "This isn't exactly done like an American police investigation. We don't have the time for 'dummies'. In fact all of the kakos in these recordings are suspects."
"Interesting," I replied, recalling all the hundreds of witness confrontations I had been partaking in during my years in the NYPD. "Let's get started then!"
O0O0O
The large manor was situated on top of a steep hill in a desolate landscape reminiscent of Britain - or at least the Britain I knew from films and TV. Save for a visit to London a few years back I had never been to the British islands, so I had nothing really to compare with. Besides it was dark and stormy with rain 'falling horizontally' across the land and of course whipping right in my face. No matter that I knew I was safe home in my sofa and in tripping trance, this felt real enough. The biting cold wind, the rain and the roaring noise from the sea to the left of me. Some flickering lightning and clashes of thunder as if Zeus was in a bad mood. Thus I found myself pulling my jacket tighter around my neck as Helikaon and I flew closer towards the large manor. And - I had to admit – that building had a certain Harry Potter feel to it.
As we closed in on the structure the Harry Potter feeling faded, mostly because of the huge satellite dish mounted on a balcony and quite a few other appliances, some old style TV antennas and other gadgets which I had no clue what use they served. The lights were on at the bottom and second floor, a porch light was flickering as it dangled to and from in the gale winds. Helikaon stopped and then he pointed to a window:
"Easiest way in," he whispered and I nodded, had to remind myself that I was very much intangible in spite of being so much aware of my surroundings and of my body. But that was how these kinds of 'recordings' worked, since they were generally used for entertainment purpose. You were supposed to believe you were there.
Nevertheless, I hardly felt how I went through the glass window; there was no dimensional warping like plastic cobwebs across your face like when you do these things in real life. Instead it was as if the window had been open in spite of the foul weather. Thus I had to turn my head and look back upon that window, only to find that the glass being well in place and even reflecting the divine light which Helikaon had conjured up.
"Why, we could as well have flown through the wall," I said to him.
"True," Helikaon replied. "But we have to keep some sense of reality in spite, after all this is supposed to feel like you're actually going to visit this kako."
"A kako with a huge satellite dish on his roof, weird!"
"Now, even a kakodemon can be fond of watching the TV. And this fellow is from India so he needs this supersize dish to watch the transmissions from home."
"Yes, where are we by the way? England?"
"No, Normandy, France."
Without further words, Helikaon opened up the door in front of us and we passed through a long corridor where wall-mounted lamps burned and the feeling of being in an old hotel was notable. This was so well done I could even smell that the place hadn't been cleaned in quite some time. As we were walking the floor was even creaking beneath our feet. I looked down just to see what I was wearing and found myself in my sneakers, a pair of black jeans and a purplish pink woolen cardigan I bought only yesterday. Glancing at Helikaon I found that he was wearing black leather pants and a black sweater with green Matrix-inspired falling Greek letters upon it. The very same thing he had been wearing when he came through my front door today. These biocrystals were impressive indeed. Much better than any virtual reality technology I've been trying so far.
Soon we were descending a broad, winding staircase and entering a ground floor living room through a pair of large double doors which we passed through without opening them. And there he was - Praham Gunda, the kako we were seeking. He was nothing like what I had expected of a kakodemon. First of all he wasn't scary, he just looked like a portly old little Indian gentleman. Then he was playing a black grand piano, treating the keys almost sensually while conjuring up his Brahms. Next to him, leaning against the musical instrument stood a woman looking a bit like Katy Perry but with a darker complexion and a rounder chin. It was obvious she had Indian blood as well, even though it was evident that most of her genes were of the Euroamerican kind. And the way she was looking at Gunda made it clear that she was his lover. I had expected something scary, someone like count Dracula. Apparently I was wrong.
"Now," Helikaon leaned towards me and whispered in my ear. "Watch this carefully, Aidra. Or rather listen, since I believe it was the daemon's voice you remembered most." I nodded and hummed in agreement, wondering what would come to pass now. Then Helikaon made his move, just as the thunder crashed outside the window. Never missing an effect this Olympian! In the light of the next flashing lightning he showed himself and strode across the Persian carpet until he was standing no less than three metres from Gunda and 'Katy Perry'. She became the one to note Helikaon first, her face turned white and she dropped the crystal glass of red beverage she had held, and almost in slow motion it fell to the floor, spilling the port wine across floor and furniture.
"You!" she called out in a shrill voice and Gunda stopped his music and turned. "You're back!" she called out.
"Indeed I am," Helikaon said with an almost sarcastic bow towards the lady by the piano.
At the same time Gunda had turned to face us and he was also taken aback by Helikaon's appearance, his eyes widening until all of his black irises were visible, like knob eyes on a teddy bear. Once again I found it hard to believe that this - gentleman - was in fact an evil thing, responsible for hundreds of deaths during his more than 500 years old life span.
"What? Do you? Want?" 'Katy Perry' almost whimpered. Still there was something steely beneath her fright.
"So so, Statiera," Gunda said and glanced over at the slender woman before his eyes flickered to the shattered glass and the spilled wine on the parquet flooring then finally returning to Helikaon. "The Greek won't harm any of us, isn't that true, Sir Helikaon."
"Not this time," the son of Athena replied.
"So what do you want then?" Gunda's voice was still polite, although I could hear the skillfully concealed snarl.
"Barak Obama, what does that name say you?"
"The American president. What's with him?" Gunda replied. A new clap of thunder shook the windows of the living room, and the candles on top of the piano flickered.
"Who could've saved him?" Helikaon said with a steely voice, taking a slight but notable step closer to Gunda.
"What? You mean something has happened to him?" the Indian raised his brow.
"Will happen." Helikaon took a step closer. "But who will save him?"
Now I understood what Athena's son was trying to do. He was trying to conjure up something similar to the voice and choice of words I had heard in my dream. But this was not the man. Already before I heard Gunda say:
"He might be impossible to save. Not that I care." I knew he was not the man we were looking for.
"Helikaon!" I said and thus made the other two notice me. As Statiera spotted me her face suddenly changed, became that of a snake-like being, before it returned to normal the next millisecond. It happened so fast that I wasn't even sure I had seen it. But with a hateful voice and strangely lisping R's she said:
"Amerrrican!"
"Statiera!" Gunda snapped and the snake woman flinched. Then he went on. "To whom do I own the honor?"
"Aidra," I simply stated. It felt odd to leave out the surname, but as a goddess I wasn't supposed to use it, had I learned. Turning to Helikaon I simply stated:
"He's not the one."
Helikaon nodded.
"All right," and then it was like a cut in a film and we were back in my living room where the sunlight was shining through the large windows and Saxa and Oreiro were sitting in the opposite sofa regarding us.
"Wasn't it rude to leave just like that?" was the first thing I could think of asking.
"Well, Aidra, this was after all just a recording." Helikaon smiled. I bit my lip and sighed:
"But it seemed so real - so interactive!"
"That's the thing with the biocrys. They are able to ad lib on the recording to fit whatever you say or do - within reasonable limits of course."
"Then what was - well, 'real' of what we saw?"
"Most of it." Helikaon answered. "I visited Praham Gunda a while back and questioned him. Asked him about President Obama, forcing him to say something similar to what that kako in your dream said. The closest I got was 'bet you Greeks'll save him anyhow'. Aidra, you knew even before he spoke, this was not our man, right?"
"Yes, his voice and most of all his lilt was different. This daemon in my dream, he didn't have that educated Oxford English with a slight Indian accent which Praham Gunda had. His way of talking was definitely American. Southern I should say."
"Hmm..." Helikaon looked thoughtful and then he looked almost as if he was cringing.
"It can't be..." he began and then he went on: "I guess it might be worth a try at least."
"What?"
"We'll test Kevin Bretley. He's the most 'American' in this crystal. Yet besides of hating Obama's guts I can't believe it's him."
"I know you said that, Heli, but we must still try him!" Oreiro insisted.
"Why don't you think it's him?" Saxa asked. "I remember the bastard, he was a..."
"He's a friggin' racist. Klu Klux Klan Bretley, some call him." Helikaon said. "However when I confronted him in Ge-Henna he had been out of the loop for so long that he had hardly any clue what was happening on Earth. And he's still raging mad!"
"He killed Martin Luther King!" Saxa insisted.
"That doesn't mean..." Keiko began.
"Woah - guys! Wait!" I held up my hands. "I'm not following a byte of what you're saying now. A mad racist in another dimension who killed Dr. King. What has he got to do with... Anything? And who was that lady with Gunda - Statiera?"
"Statiera is a gargoyle. Never mind her," Helikaon was saying. "And Kevin Bretley, he's another Kako. Real name is Brummer. And he hates humans with more skin pigmentation than yours truly. Now, whatever people may say about him being a possible instigator of the attempted murder of president Obama, he's not really on top of my list. Simply because he's not sane enough to scheme anything like that at the moment."
"Well, take me to him anyhow! After all we have nothing to lose beside some ten minutes or so of our lives." I said.
"Sure thing, let's go!" Helikaon answered.
O0O0O
I had hardly heard about the place called Ge-Henna, apparently it was a dimension to which most daemon races had retreated since the Earth had become quite a bit crowded with humans for their taste. Ge-Henna turned out to be a hellish place to say the least. In fact, Helikaon told me later, this place which was probably partly the origin of the notion of the Christian hell. Still, it wasn't underground or anything, there was a dark orange sky spanning above the rocky dessert-like landscape, a sky with two minor reddish suns and a few day stars. Spread around the strange rock formations were small mesas and wicked thorny plants which had a certain poisonous look to them, some with flowers shining with a sick, greenish luminescence. I saw no animal life though, or at least nothing I could identify. But the most notable thing was small burning pits like volcano craters and weird geysers spewing some brimstone smelling and foamy liquid now and then.
Helikaon escorted me through this peculiar place, across a derelict stone bridge spanning over a river of some purplish slime, and up a flight of uneven stairs cut into a rock. On top of this rock laid yet another tiny abode. (What was it with kakos and rock houses?) My guide didn't bother knocking, he and I just passed beneath a rough vault and inside, across a courtyard empty save for a crucified being looking vaguely human. In fact the poor thing reminded me of Gollum, I noted before I had to turn my head. It became too painful to look when I found that the being was actually still alive, twisting to get rid of the nails in ankles and wrists and moaning slightly, almost like a sad dog. 'Gollum' was also missing an eye, the hole in the skull still raw and bleeding.
"Shit, Heli, what is this?" I shivered.
"This is the true nature of the kako," Athena's son replied. "Gunda is just like this as well, don't let yourself be fooled by his taste in music and art and his schooled behaviour. He has been responsible for similar deaths although he usually tortures his subjects with little more subtle methods."
"But... how can you let this go on?" I asked.
"We can't. Generally when we find an active kako we stop him or her. This time we have chosen to abide for the time being, at least until we have located the kako who is the link to the one who wants Obama dead. After all, killing the kako and we lose the only clue to we have to the true instigator."
"Ouch!" I shivered as the crucified 'Gollum' whined again. "What is that being on the cross by the way?"
"A naked-goblin. Most goblins are hairy as you might know. But this race is hairless, evolved that way because they live by the sea and feeds mostly of seafood which they dive and catch. You probably didn't notice but they have gills on their torso, so they can breathe under water as well."
I decided against having a closer look for those gills and we left the courtyard behind us. But it didn't become any better when we entered that little dwelling of this kako - which appeared in manners as far from Praham Gunda as possible. This Kevin Bretley had obviously decorated this filthy place with the rests of his victims, since there were skulls and bones everywhere, only a fraction of them appearing to be human. There was even something standing in a corner which looked like the complete skeleton of an angel.
"Boel," Helikaon said when I stopped a fraction of a second to look at the angel. "A cherub who was unlucky enough to cross the path of Kevin Bretley. He hates angels almost as much as he hates gods. That was how we came across him first. Then there were a few things we found which pointed in the direction of president Obama's would-be assassin."
I was going to say something more but instead Helikaon called up:
"Bretley! Hey Bretley, show your ugly face!" First nothing happened but when Helikaon called again something like a bullet whistled by my left ear and impacted with the wall behind me, sending mortar all around. Then came the next and then the next and then an arrow which hit Helikaon's shielding and bounced back and hit the opposite wall before landing on the floor. No matter that this wasn't for real or that the bullets wouldn't have harmed me anyway, I still detested being shot at. The next moment the being showed up. Some kind of prejudice had me expecting the ugliest of ogres. Nothing could be more wrong. Kevin Bretley was in fact looking like a male super model. Fair, well sculpted and beautiful. And as he treaded into the room Helikaon whispered to me:
"The model 1A Aryan. Hitler loved this punk."
"I can tell," I replied between clamped cheeks, taking in the ghastly pale perfection of this kako.
"You again, asshole! Get outta here before I blast your head to pieces," the being called Kevin Bretley snarled and shook his rifle against us for good measure. "And the bitch with you as well."
"Hey prettyboy," I snapped back. "I don't appreciate being called 'bitch' by some old nazi fart."
"Can say lotta worse things about you, don't you worry about that!" the kako replied.
"Forget it," Helikaon cut in. "We'll be outta here leaving you alone with your crucified troll, just tell us who wants Barak Obama!"
"Doesn't everyone want that nigger?" the kako spat.
"Perhaps," Helikaon grinned, sounding oddly calm. "You're thinking of somebody special or what?"
"Naaah! I'd done him in if I could. But I cannot go there anymore. Too much scum on Earthside nowadays. Jews and niggers and elves and..."
"So you wouldn't know if anyone wanted to do anything to Obama or not? Or how to stop that one?"
"Why you ask me. I wouldn't stop anyone who'd take a chance to smash that ugly scull in."
No matter that I was fuming at that moment and couldn't think of anyone I'd rather snuff than this creep Kevin Bretley, I could tell he was not the daemon we wanted. Not this time alas. So I stopped Helikaon's enquiry with short word and the next second we were out of this awful Ge-Henna.
O0O0O
"This is my dream!" I whispered to Helikaon as we walked down the big, empty hall with its rows and rows of pillars which seemed to go on forever. The hall, which felt like it belonged to some cathedral of a forgotten cult, was more or less a ruin, with nature slowly but unrelentingly claiming back what man had changed. Wines were covering the large pillars of rough sandstone and the floor was filled with holes from which tree roots protruded and where tufts of weed and sickly fungi grew. What appeared to be glass was crunching beneath our feet and through the roof came silvery moonlight - just like it had in my dream.
"The one you had in Washington?"
"Yes. You know about it?"
"Hekate told me. Said it was creepy. And coming here I can understand it was."
"So who is the kako we are to see here?"
"Toshinari Minamoto. Old bastard between a kako and a Japanese Oni daemon. Kinda ironic if it would've been him. He's been generally anti American but during the last decades he's been lying rather low, not really showing himself around Earthside. I was beginning to believe the old freak to be dead, that someone had done him in, when Keiko came across him while looking for something entirely different."
Naturally I had to ask Helikaon what a Oni was (a kind of horned ogre with large fangs) and a few other things. It was out of interest of course but mostly because I wanted to hear his voice. It felt reassuring to know that I was not alone in this creepy place, which reminded me so much about my old nightmare. That a clever, experienced and brave son of Athena was walking next to me ready to fight by my side against whatever might appear. But the only thing we encountered was some flying rodent-like beings which Helikaon referred to as batmonkeys. They screamed at us in shrill voices and bombarded us with pebbles and small twigs, obviously considering us intruders, but as we walked further on they let us be and returned to whatever holes they were hiding in.
Perhaps ten minutes later we reached the sea of my dream. Just like the grand hall, this was not exactly reminiscent of the nightmare. Instead it was obviously man-made (or at least created by sentient beings) since it was squared and even. A pool rather than a pond. The island with the Gazebo was missing entirely, but as I told Helikaon that he just pointed ahead of us, towards an overgrown garden, sloping downwards towards fields covering in mist and where luminescent spots were dancing. Marsh gas I figured. Or something scarier perhaps. Something alive...
"He's down there," the god said.
"In the swamp?"
"No, there's an old cottage in the garden. Come on, Aidra. It's a bit rugged to go right through the thickets but there should be a path somewhere."
True enough, soon we found a tiny track made of more or less broken stone slabs, most of them overgrown with this strange grass with tops adorned with tiny and round pearly things. As we started walking the meandering path into the darkness beneath gnarled trees I asked:
"What is this place really?"
"Samargia," Helikaon answered. "It used to be a kind of paradise. The Chinese used it a lot, but they forgot about it when they turned communists, and now there's almost no one coming here, as a result the eternal night has fallen."
"Eternal night, how does that work?" I glanced up, trying to see the heaven over the tree tops. But all I saw was small specks.
"Well it's not like the sun doesn't rise anymore, but the place is merely forgotten, left to its own devices."
"Too sad. Why won't anyone take care of it again? Tend this garden for instance, I can tell that it used to be beautiful once."
"I imagine no one can be bothered." Helikaon shrugged. Then he pointed ahead of us. "There he is." Looking in indicated direction I saw orange light shining through the tree branches. Coloured like fire and slightly wavering - or perhaps that illusion was created by the moving trees. I swallowed. So much told me that this was the man - no make that the beast - we had come for.