Into Darkness

61

“Where do they sleep?” Richard asked back over his shoulder after he had moved forward in a crouch and taken a peek.

“We like to sleep in beds of water weeds where it grows thick on the banks of the water,” Sang told him, “often with our legs in the water.”

“So then most of them will be sleeping right beside the areas of water?” Richard asked.

“Yes,” Sang said. “That is where Glee like to spend the night. It is comforting.”

Richard found the concept disturbing but didn’t say so. “But these Glee don’t eat the water weeds or the muscle snails like you eat,” Richard told them. “These Glee eat those like me. So do you think they would still sleep on water weeds the same as they used to do?”

Sang thought about it a moment. “Now that you mention it, I’m not sure. But I believe they would still want to sleep the same way as Glee have always slept. They still want to keep their skin wet, and stay where the boars won’t come.”

Richard nodded, thinking. He turned back and peered into the distance, trying to spot any of them sleeping at the edge of the water. Richard finally looked back at the others as they waited.

“The Glee who have been eating people from my world don’t eat the float weed anymore, so they lose the green sheen to their skin that all of you have.”

“Like that spy you found,” Iben noted.

“That’s right. All of you have that green coloring. The ones down there won’t have it.”

Iben nodded. “Now that you showed us that with the one you caught watching us for the goddess, we can easily know any who are followers of the goddess.”

“That’s exactly right,” Richard said, “so remember that if things get confusing in a battle. I don’t want any of you to accidentally slash those with us if some of you lose the water weeds wrapped around you.” After another quick look, he turned back to the Glee with him. “Is there a way to tell the goddess apart from the rest of the Glee down there?”

Almost all the Glee were nodding even as he was finishing the question. Iben stretched up, looking over the rise to be sure of the lay of the land, and then gestured off toward the swampy areas.

“I don’t see her,” he said.

“But how would you recognize her?”

“The one who calls herself the Golden Goddess hatched in a nest of eggs that had unknowingly been built almost on top of a rare plant,” one of the other Glee with them said. “It was the first thing she ate when she emerged from her shell. She then broke open the other eggs and ate her sibling offspring so that she could grow fast and strong.”

“None of you eat the other eggs in the nest with you, do you?” Richard asked.

They all looked horrified at the very notion. Just about all of them were shaking their heads, not wanting to be associated with eating their siblings.

“That is not something our kind does when they hatch,” Sang told him. “The parents would prevent it. I don’t know why her parents did not, but maybe she did it while they were asleep.”

“What does all of that have to do with recognizing the goddess?” Richard asked.

Iben spoke up first. “That rare plant growing by her nest, the one she ate when she first hatched, is somewhat poisonous. As a result, it scarred her skin and gave it a golden color unlike any of the other Glee. Also, she is big for a Glee, at least a head taller than any of us. Her whole life she has always used her size to torment and intimidate others.”

Richard realized then that all the Glee were very similar in stature. They were all lean, and their skin all looked the same. From the description it certainly seemed like he would have no difficulty at all recognizing the goddess.

Although, he couldn’t imagine how she would look golden in this world. Everything was tinted some shade of red. Only Vika’s red leather outfit looked normal to him. But the rest of her was tinted red. Her blond hair was a rather lovely rose color.

He guessed that maybe the golden color was simply relative to everything else. But finally, with an easy way to recognize the goddess, Richard felt like they at least had one advantage on their side.

“Do you think she will be down there with the others?” Vika asked.

“Oh yes,” Sang said, nodding confidently. “She likes the others to see her among them so they can admire her. Her golden skin color is the envy of all for its exotic appearance. She likes others groveling and seeking her approval, so she is always among them.”

“Besides, she never likes the others to be out of her sight,” Iben said. “She doesn’t easily trust that they will stay loyal.”

Not wanting to waste what darkness there was, preferring to have that on their side along with the element of surprise, Richard finally gestured for them to move out. With Vika beside him, he started out in a crouch, heading down the long slope into the place of the goddess and her followers. He worried about their numbers. When they had attacked back in Richard’s world, there were sometimes large numbers of them, so they were likely to encounter even more of the enemy Glee here.

All the Glee wrapped in water weed followed Richard down the rocky slope. None of them seemed to grasp the concept of sneaking up on an enemy. He urgently signaled for them to crouch down the way he and Vika were doing. They did their best considering the wrap of water weeds but found it awkward.

The Glee they were after were quite familiar with being vicious. Most of the Glee with Richard and Vika apparently had not yet met any of their fellow Glee with such a capacity for brutality. The spy had said that they were coming to kill Sang and all those who weren’t followers of the goddess. This was going to be a savage encounter.

To say that he greatly feared for those with him was an understatement, but this was their world, and this was about their lives and future. Richard couldn’t simply fight this war alone and then hand them their freedom from the Golden Goddess, or others who would eventually spring up from her legions of followers to take her place. Sang and his group had to take part in stopping the threat to their world and way of life.

He hoped that when it came right down to a battle, they would show the same capacity for ferocity as those they were about to face.