Agon (8 page)

“
I don’t care.” He nodded.
And as much as He knew this was going to be painful for them both,
He had to talk to her. “I’ve told you since…you came to me before
and I told you then not to come back. It was a long time ago, but
you were there. So, if you think that you have more to say to me,
then I’d just as soon you kept your mouth shut.”

“
It was already in the
works before he was killed.” He wanted to reach for her but knew of
all His creatures, she was the one He could not reach. Not yet at
any rate. “I only meant to keep you safe. Had things not progressed
as they had, then—”

“
You mean killing my
father was somehow in this grand plan you have?” He nodded. “I
suppose you’re going to tell me that had this not happened, I’d be
dead now and not a part of your little scheme to get Agon a wife.
Which, I would like to point out, is not going to
happen.”

“
You’ll not marry him?”
She got up and dumped her bowl into the sink. As she started to
leave the room and Him, He stood up and spoke. “He will die if you
do not.”

She paused and He had a hopeful
moment, hoping that she would be reasonable and listen to Him. Then
she turned to Him, and Boss could see the pain in her face; her
heart was breaking and He had caused it. Boss took a step toward
her only to be brought up short when she backed away.

“
He’ll go back with you
today. Don’t allow him to return. If you do, then I will…I’ll…I
will end my own life. You know I will, and this time no one will
find me until it’s too late.” He’d nearly been too late before. “Do
you understand me?”

“
Yes.” He took the step
toward her, and she held her ground. “But when he comes to you, and
he will, what will you do then? Shove him out of your heart, too?
Make him suffer for caring about you? Or will you have him there to
watch you die? He won’t leave you, no matter what I tell him. You
have taken his heart and he will not let you go.”

“
See that he does.” She
was gone before Boss could say anything else. He wasn’t sure what
He might have said to her, but He sat back down. When Agon appeared
in the room a few minutes later, He asked him to have a
seat.

“
She does not want you
here.” Agon stood up, only to sit when He asked him to. “I must
tell you everything. Judith is…she will not…I’m not sure where to
begin. I suppose at the start would help.”

Agon nodded.

“
She was born to a mother
who was clinically dead. They kept her alive so that Judith, only
about five months old in the womb, would have a better chance to
survive. I visited them both often and helped more than I should
have to keep the babe alive. And because of the way she was helped,
her abilities—her horrors, as she calls them—were something that
came because of what I did to keep her safe.”

“
She is blessed.” Boss
shrugged. “I know that she does not see it that way, but she has
been. You saved her for me. You knew that we would be a couple, a
single being.”

“
I did.” Boss touched
Agon’s hand and they went to His office. There He brought up the
day that Judith took her first breath. “From the start she was
special. Nurses could see it. Her time in the nursery was spent
quietly. No one bothered her until her father, his grief profound,
came for her. She never caused him any problems, but he began to
hate her.”

Fast forwarding to her early years,
Boss paused a few times to show the father ignoring his little girl
in favor of the drugs he took. Medicine he called it. But Judith
had known, even as a small child, that it was more than that. It
was what took him from her.

“
When it became apparent
that she was different, he worked hard to get her to not show off.
Not allow others to see what she could do. At first it was the
simple things…moving a cup to her, lifting a book from a shelf far
across the room. Then Judith showed him that she could find out
things from other people. That was when he decided that he could
profit from her. A drug deal going down or money left somewhere
that would be retrieved later. A robbery from a store, and it would
happen so he could be there when the thief came out, to take from
him what he’d stolen. All things he could be there to get the cash,
or in some cases, the drugs to sell for even more money.” Boss
stopped the pictures—memories of her at one place—and didn’t speak
as He and Agon looked at the child.

She’d been put into a cage, an animal
cage that was much too small for her, and left there without a
blanket or food for two days. He moved on before stopping at yet
other picture of her tied to her bed, and a slice of bread nearby
that looked moldy and hard. When Agon spoke from behind Him, Boss
turned and saw the tears on his cheeks.

“
No one ever cared for
her.” Boss nodded, then shook His head. “How did we allow this to
happen? Why did her protector not help her somehow?”

“
He did all he could. But
she ignored him for the most part. Her father told her she was
insane for believing in us, and he beat her more when she mentioned
when someone came to her.” Agon nodded and sat down. “She soon
began to see us not as a protector but as someone who would cause
her pain.”

“
I heard her this morning.
She said she would kill herself if I returned to her. I don’t know
what to do.” He looked at Him, and Boss had a feeling Agon didn’t
want to hear what He had to say but would ask anyway. “Tell me how
to save her.”

“
You must not give her a
chance to push you away.” He looked at the stilled picture of her
seemingly looking at a camera. He knew that she’d seen Him
there…she’d always known about Him and the others. “Her path will
only grow if you are with her. She will…you both will suffer if she
is not with you when her uncle comes for her.”

“
Uncle?” Boss nodded at
Agon and showed him what the man looked like. “He wants to cause
her harm? He is her only living relative then? And he wishes to
hurt her? He should be caring for her, loving her.”

“
He is a man with his own
agenda, I fear. One that would have her dead before her time. A man
without any dogmas or heart when it comes to getting back what he
feels she owes him. He will kill her.” Agon sat down and stared at
the man. A man who would not just kill Judith but take Agon as
well.

Agon left Him a while later. Boss
moved back to the memories and moved beyond what was to what would
be. He knew better than anyone that courses could be changed, but
he knew the outcome of all. Stopping at the point where things
would go either way for the couple, He smiled at the look she had
on her face.

“
You will someday tell Me
you love Me, My child. And when you do, I shall give you all that
you want. Agon will care for you, love you very much, but it will
be Me that cares for you for all your lives.” He left His offices
to go to find Michael. Tomorrow was the beginning of the end for
the couple, and He wanted to make sure things were in
line.

“
I do not understand
this.” Boss nodded after talking to Michael for twenty minutes, but
he was coming around finally. “You wish for me to make sure that
Agon is busy elsewhere when she needs him most?”

“
She will need him, but
must ask. He will…it will be for the best.” Michael cocked a brow
at Him. “I do have some tricks up my sleeve. You will please do
this because I have said so.”

“
You are talking about the
same woman I am, correct? The one that just today had a fight with
Agon that several other protectors came to watch? She is…I was
going to say vocal, but I’ve come to realize just now that she is a
great deal like you. I believe she would say it was raining if she
were standing in a sunny field.” Boss laughed, and Michael growled.
“It was not meant to be a compliment. I was trying to make a good
point.”

“
But it was a compliment
to me, don’t you see? Now. Are we clear on what will happen?”
Michael nodded and huffed at him. “It will not be so bad. Once she
says his name, things will fall into place. You will say I was
right when this is over, I think.”

“
You are forever right, so
that will not be difficult for me to do. I do, however, want to
point out that she will not be happy with anyone when she finds out
what we have done.” Boss nodded and figured she’d be screaming at
Him soon. “I will not take responsibility for her actions if she
finds You. And I have a feeling that she will find You and You will
allow her to. You like a good fight as much as she
does.”

“
Yes I do. So few people
will stand up to Me, including you, but I think she gives as good
as she gets. Our conversations are lively, I think. But I will take
it all upon myself when she is upset.” Boss mentally rubbed His
hands together. He needed a good sparring partner and knew that
Judith would be it. Kala was getting much too cranky in her later
blooming, but He knew that while Judith and Agon would…well, He was
looking forward to this round. And He might even let her think
she’d won, for a while anyway.

Boss made His way to Riss and the
compound. He wanted to see the work that was going on, and mayhap
He’d find a minute or two to play the new game that the men had
invented. It was something that Riss had made up in his long hours
of watching the worms so long ago.

There were nine men and women in the
building. Boss stayed in the back, as far from the others as He
could get while He watched. The name of the exercise was Dutiful,
and the rules were simple…stay focused.

“
There are over ten
million dots on this wall. All of them are black and all but one is
round. You have three minutes to find the one that is not.” The
protectors came up in pairs and searched and searched without any
luck. Finally when they had all had a turn, Riss looked at Him. “Do
you see it?”

“
Nay, I do not.” He got up
to look at the board and searched as hard as the others. Finally He
turned and looked at Riss. “There is not one, is there?

For an answer, Riss pointed to the
first dot. It was square, not round. And once He saw it, He could
pick it out in seconds. When the board was changed, He was able to
find it immediately. He looked at Riss. This plan, or whatever it
was, made no sense to Him or the others just yet.

“
You were expecting
something else the first time you looked, correct? Not sure what,
but each person here knew what the odd dot would look like in their
mind. But once you knew what to see, then finding it was easy. It’s
the same with the humans we watch. Day after day we see them, and
day after day we see the changes. Some of them are small; others
large. Then there are the changes we cannot see, but which make us
look all the harder for them. Changes such as moods and
temperaments. But sometimes looking hard is not what we need to do.
It’s looking for the simple things, like an odd dot, that will make
us better protectors.” Riss smiled. “It is why we are there for
them. Before anyone else, we can see their dots or squares because
we have looked daily. Any change will stand out quicker because we
watch. That is why we must remain, above all else,
Dutiful.”

After a few more lessons on paying
attention, He left the building. He’d found what He’d wanted. The
protectors were more relaxed than they had been in months, some of
them decades, and He could see smiles and hear laughter that had
been long in coming.

There were men and woman on the track
as well. Most of them were in pairs, but some ran alone. It wasn’t
just a way to stay fit but a way for them to unwind, and to be free
of any worries. There were none of those here, it seemed. It was
just as He’d planned. A place for them to regroup and to smile.
Boss watched them for a few minutes more before He made his way to
the other fields. Things were progressing nicely.

“
You should go and see the
pool that’s being put in.” Boss turned to look at Kala when she
came toward Him. “It’s much bigger than I thought it would be. I
was expecting something like the pool in town. This one is big
enough to have the Olympics in.” They made their way over to the
area and He could see that it was only a day or so from being
filled. “Will you use the pool when it’s complete?”

“
Mayhap.” He watched for
several minutes before He spoke again. “I should like your help.
Judith is going to need a friend in the next week or so. I believe
it would do her good for you to help her with finding a
purpose.”

“
A purpose? You think what
she does now isn’t a purpose?” He started to speak, but she was on
a roll and He let her go. “She makes the best jams and jellies I’ve
ever eaten, and her soaps? I’m going to buy nothing else but that
for the compound from now on. And her other herbs…did you know that
you could cook with nearly everything in the ground, including
grass?”

“
I did.” She huffed at
Him, and Boss laughed. “I had a purpose, too, when I started out. I
was merely asking that you give her a purpose with her selling her
own products rather than selling them to others to resell. She has
a shop front now, but it is small potatoes compared to what she
could be doing. And another few employees to help her. It will do
her good to see others. I think you would encourage her like none
other.”

“
You knew that I’d go off
on You, didn’t You?” He laughed. “I think You enjoy arguing more
than You do anything else.”