The mortals were screaming, though he could not hear them. They looked upon him with desperate need, but he no longer understood what they desired of him. And then, blinking, he stared up, not at the hovering, dying dragon, but beyond it.
My worshippers. My children. I hear them. I hear their calls .
The Crippled God slowly sat up, staring down at his mangled hands, the uneven fingers, the nubs where nails should have been. He studied his scarred, seamed skin, the slack muscles beneath it. Is this mine? Is this how I am?
Rising to his feet, his attention was caught by the hundreds of dragons now massing to the south. They had drawn back from the Otataral Dragon, and now had begun writhing, swarming against each other, forming spiralling pillars of scale, wings and dragon flesh, twisting above a more solid mass. The shape towered into the sky, impossibly huge, and from the flattened, elongated ends of those pillars, high above them all, eyes suddenly flared awake.
A word whispered into the Crippled God’s mind – faint, yet still voiced in a howl of terror.
T’iam .
Manifesting. Awakening to slay the Otataral Dragon.
The Crippled God saw a man fighting his way closer to where he stood, as if against a whirlwind. Iron in his beard, a familiar face he vaguely recalled, and with that recollection vague emotions rising into his thoughts. There have been sacrifices this day. Made for me, by these strangers. Yet … asking for nothing. Not for themselves. Still, what do they now want from me?
I am free .
I can hear my children .
And yet they are trapped in the heavens. If I call them down, all will be destroyed here .
There were others, once – they fell as I did, and so much was damaged, so much was lost. I see them still, trapped in jade, shaped to make a message to these mortal creatures – but that message was never understood, and the voices stayed for ever trapped within .
If I call my children down, this world will end in fire .
Craning, he stared beseechingly into the heavens, and reached up, as if he might fly into them.
The uneven fingers strained on the ends of his misshapen hands, pathetic as broken wings.
The bearded man reached him, and now at last the Crippled God could hear his words, could understand them.
‘You must chain her! Lord! She will accept your chains! You must – T’iam is manifesting! She will destroy everything!’
The Crippled God felt his face twisting. ‘Chain her? I, who have known an eternity in chains? You cannot ask this of me!’
‘Chain her or she dies!’
‘Then death shall be her release!’
‘Lord – if she dies, then we all die! I beg you, chain her!’
He studied this mortal. ‘She accepts this?’
‘Yes! And quickly – D’rek is dying beneath us.’
‘But my power is alien – I have no means of binding it to this world, mortal.’
‘Find a way! You have to!’
He was freed. He could walk from this place. He could leave these mortals – not even the deadly power of the Otataral Dragon could harm him. Otataral, after all, is nothing more than the scab this world makes to answer the infection. And what is that infection? Why, it is me .
The Crippled God looked down upon this mortal. He kneels, as all broken mortals kneel. Against the cruelty of this and every world, a mortal can do nothing but kneel .
Even before a foreign god .
And what of the love I possess? Perhaps there is nothing – but no, there is no such thing as foreign love .
He closed his eyes, released his mind to this world.
And found them waiting for him.
Two Elder Gods, each taking a hand – their touches heartbreakingly gentle. The crushing pressure in this place had levelled every feature, darkness and silts swirling in unceasing dance. Currents raged on all sides, but none could reach through – the gods held them at bay .
No, only one of these Elders possessed that power, and he was named Mael of the Seas .
They led him across this plain, this ocean bed lost to the sun’s light .
To where knelt another mortal – but only his soul remained, though for the moment it once more occupied the body it had abandoned long ago: rotted with decay, swirl-tattoos seeming to flow in the currents from the naked form. He knelt with his hands thrust down, buried deep in the silts, as if seeking a lost coin, a precious treasure, a memento .
When he looked up at them, the Crippled God saw that he was blind .
‘ Who is this? ’ the mortal asked . ‘ Who is this, nailed so cruelly to this tree? Please, I beg you – I cannot see. Please, tell me. Is it him? He tried to save me. It cannot have come to this. It cannot! ’