Gods and Pawns by Kage Baker Read Free Book Online Page B

mother,” said Tanama, and went back indoors. Mendoza turned to watch her go.
    Interesting family dynamic. And…Lewis, there’s another mortal in the house.
    “Hem! Well,” said Lewis, “quite right, great Orocobix. To continue, then: I take it that some members of your family are not presently here?”
    “Tonina is refreshing himself in the void,” said Orocobix. “We expect his return to the flesh presently. As for Kolibri…he is engaged in certain duties. You understand, of course, that there are matters beyond a servant’s comprehension? Very good. Let it suffice that he also sends his most cordial greeting to our brother Maketaurie.”
    “Certainly, great Orocobix,” said Lewis.
    I think the one inside must be sick, Mendoza transmitted, from what I can pick up of his life signs. And of course gods are never sick, so they’re keeping it a secret, aren’t they? Or perhaps he’s just too inbred to be presentable.
    I suppose so. Lewis studied the royal family critically. There were a few signs of genetic trouble; Cajaya’s high narrow chest, a trace of scoliosis in Agueybana. Poor things. They must have been marooned here for generations. I wish I really were an emissary from another god; they could use some new blood.
    I somehow doubt the Company’s going to patch up their little pantheon with a gift of chromosomes.
    Lewis cleared his throat. “All this will I relate to my master, of course. No doubt his munificence will be extraordinary. In the meanwhile, is there any service we may render you, divine ones?”
    “Oh, of course not,” said Orocobix airily. “Which is to say, other than one or two little things…I scarcely like to bring them up, they’re hardly worth notice…but if you could see your way to, perhaps, putting a new roof on the palace? Now that the rains have begun, the leaks will be dreadfully inconvenient, you know.”
    “And the garden needs weeding,” said Atabey.
     
    Climbing the ladder with an armful of cut reed, Lewis reminded himself that he was exploring a lost civilization , after all. He peered down through the roof beams at the humble interior below—somebody’s bedchamber, rough furniture many times repaired with jungle liana or braided cotton fiber.
    “So great Orocobix floated in the void and ate a lot of fish,” he speculated to himself. “And fought with storm-spirits. A seagoing culture, obviously, and they found themselves obliged to adapt to specialized agriculturalism.
    “And if they came from some other place, let us say somewhere in the Caribbean, perhaps that was why they hadn’t any interest in teosinte and grew manioc instead. But rain forest soil’s dreadful to grow things in, so…Orocobix the First, clearly a clever chap, devised elevated fields of terra preta .
    “The thing is, how? What, and from whence? Gosh, I wish I’d been programmed in anthropology…”
    He worked on, lashing reeds in place with liana cord, wondering how Mendoza was faring down on the garden terrace. A voice floated up from some room in the house below him. A child? Yes, the little girl Tanama…
    “…they look very lively for dead people to me . And not at all like bats! Except for their clothes, which are sort of loose and shiny, like folded bat wings. The boy is pretty and nice, but the girl is angry. What do you suppose the dead have to be angry about? Anyway, isn’t it exciting?”
    A silence followed her remark. Or did it? Had there been a faint reply?
    “You know what I think? I think the world is possibly a lot bigger than they always told us it was. And realer! Maketaurie is real. Coaybay beyond the sunset is a real place. I could tell Mother and Father were surprised by it all, they didn’t know what to do. And you should have seen Cajaya being nice! It was just hysterical. She smiled and smiled and smiled until I thought her face would crack!
    “Wouldn’t it be lovely if she went away to Coaybay to be a queen? I wonder what would happen then? I suppose