The Tainted Web (The Godhunter, Book 7) (22 page)

The strength of their bodies, their beating hearts, calmed me more and I was able to push back the insanity that was threatening my mind. I sighed and let go of the images, let my mind cover them over and paint them black. It was all in my head, that's what that psychopath Iktomi had said. Well then I'd bury it there. I wouldn't let him win.

“I'm okay,” I pushed them back. “I am now, really. I just need a hot shower and some fresh clothes and then I'll join you all in the dining room.”

“
Carus,” Azrael's hand was on my shoulder and I felt the comfort of his magic slip into me, easing the anguish even further. The little bond we had now flared to life at his touch and pulsed warm inside me. “Take your time, it's okay.”

“
No, it's not,” I patted his hand to ease the sting of my words. “We need to get that bastard. I promised Torrent I'd protect him.”

“
We're all in Torrent's debt,” Odin agreed. “He
will
be safe, I vow it.”

“
Yeah, okay, Oathbreaker,” I grinned at him and everyone erupted into relieved laughter.

“
There's my girl,” Trevor came forward and helped me to my feet. “Do you need some assistance in your shower?”

“
No, I'm fine,” I kissed his cheek and walked through them, sharing quick touches along the way. “Are you okay, Torrent?”

“
Perfectly,” he nodded. “Your family has been most kind.”

“
Good,” I looked around and noticed a distinct lack of imps. “The imps?”

“
Imps are good,” Kirill answered. “They looked for you for long time, vent back to zat place but you vere not zere.”

“
I know,” I shooed everyone out the door, “go tell them I'm okay, that it wasn't their fault.”

“
Da,” Kirill left with one last look.

“
Minn Elska,” Trevor hesitated at the door. “About what was said before, I just want to say I'm sorry. I don't want to fight with you but we do need to talk about things.”

“
Later,” I sighed and closed the door. “Much later.”

Chapter Thirty-Three

“So it is Iktomi,” Teharon sounded resigned.

After my shower, we'd gone over the gruesome details of my capture and subsequent torture at the hands of Iktomi. Everyone had ranted and raged and it was wholeheartedly decided upon that Iktomi should die horribly. The anger had fortified me, brought me back a little from the dark place Iktomi had sent me to, and helped me think clearer. I was finally able to eat something, so there was a platter of roast beef sandwiches in front of me on the dining table.

“Yeah I can say that with absolute confidence now but who's this Mica guy?” I asked around a bite of sandwich. “He's the same one who tried to steal Pan's company and I didn't see him there at all.”

“
Mica is the Coyote God,” Torrent answered as he looked over the sandwich I'd placed in front of him. “He's been Iktomi's partner for centuries.”

“
He's a trickster, just like Iktomi, more miscreant than villain.” Teharon added. “They've never done anything sinister. Nothing like this.”

“
Well they've upped their game,” I swigged down some water and tried to push aside the screaming in my head. “Even putting aside what Iktomi did to me-”

“
Ve are not putting aside zat,” Kirill interrupted and his declaration was met with nods and sounds of agreement.

“
Yes, well,” I swallowed back the gratitude I felt for my friends and focused on the things I witnessed at Iktomica. “We've established that Iktomi is a fucking psychopath but as far as Iktomica goes, I've never been so repulsed by anything in my life. No wait, the skinned children were worse to see but the potential evil here is even greater. At least those kids hadn't been tortured, they were killed quickly first.”

“
Skinned children?” One of the imps had stopped eating to stare at me in horror.

“
Yeah,” I gave him an apologetic look for bringing it up. “That guy's dead now. Don't worry about it.”

“
Oh, okay,” the imp went back to eating happily.

“
So tell me more about this Iktomi and Mica team,” I gave my attention back to Torrent and the rest of the God Squad fixed him with intent stares as well.

“
I know they're both powerful but Iktomi has considerably more power. He holds Mica back because he doesn't trust him,” Torrent shrugged. “They both can shapeshift. Iktomi changes into a spider and Mica a coyote, but that's probably obvious from their names and the fact that you've already seen Iktomi.”

“
Yeah, not too creative there,” Pan huffed.

“
And to that,” Teharon frowned, “we add the Navajo legend about his web being the Internet.”

“
So we have Navajo to thank for this,” I groaned. “I didn't even think about that.”

“
How so?” Meilyr was following the conversation intensely.

“
A god's magic is influenced by human belief,” I explained. “So if humans believe Iktomi will control the Internet, it gives him the power to do so.”

“
Yes,” Teharon was rubbing his forehead. “Iktomi probably couldn't resist. He always liked easy conquests.”

“
Mica doesn't come around often,” Torrent mused. “I believe he has a place in the God Realm where he lives. He leaves the running of the company to Iktomi and only comes in when Iktomi decides to share some energy with him. You may be able to use Mica's resentment to your advantage. I've seen him give Iktomi some nasty looks when his back was turned. Otherwise, I don't know of any weakness that Iktomi has. I haven't met a lot of other gods before all of you but I can hazard a guess that he's one of the most powerful if not
the
most powerful.”

“
Maybe,” I agreed, “but we have something he doesn't.”

“
Lots of weapons?” Torrent asked with a hopeful tone.

“
In a way,” I laughed. “We have each other. It sounds like Iktomi doesn't have any friends. He doesn't have anyone to stand beside him. So he may be powerful but if we combine all of our power together, I think we trump that.”

Torrent gave me a relieved smile. It must have been hell for him, leaving the only life he'd ever known while thinking his maker would most likely hunt him down and kill him repeatedly. He'd witnessed Iktomi's version of justice first hand, so I'm sure he had no problem imagining up tortures that his father would wreck upon him.

“Okay,” Thor commanded everyone's attention, especially mine. His attraction level had gone up for me since the argument with my men and after the hell I'd just gone through, his sweet face was like a cool breeze on my burned soul. I wanted to curl up in his lap and cry. I frowned at the thought, maybe Iktomi had done some permanent damage to my mind after all. “So at least we know who we're dealing with now and thanks to Torrent, Vervain, and her imps, we even know where to find Iktomi and we know the level of power we're dealing with. Does anyone have any ideas on how we should take care of this?”

“
We need to talk to Estsanatlehi,” Teharon said. “Her sons know Iktomi and Mica.”

“
Sons?” I put my sandwich down. “I thought her and Mr. T only had one son?”

“
No,” Teharon frowned, “they have twins but they don't speak of them very often and when they do, they usually just refer to Nayenezgani. He seems to lead the other son, Tobadzistsini. One is dark, one is light, two sides of a coin but inseparable. Where Nayenezgani leads, Tobadzistsini follows. If Estsanatlehi can speak with them, she may be able to get us more information.”

“
Yes, I know of these gods,” Torrent agreed around a bite of sandwich. “They're unaware of the extent of Iktomi's reach, I don't believe they've ever been to Iktomica, but they've visited his territory in the God Realm.”

“
But if Iktomi is friends with them...” I didn't want Mrs. E to have to suffer anymore. What if Iktomi went after her?

“
No, it's like you guessed,” Torrent stopped me. “Iktomi and Mica have no friends. They're not even friends with each other really. I told you how Iktomi keeps Mica out of the loop. I think the only reason he even added Mica's name to the company's is to prevent him from leaving for good.”

“
Why is he still there?” I asked.

“
Because Iktomi,” Teharon gave me a reproachful glance, “is frighteningly powerful, as you've already experienced. He's a good ally to have if you remember to never trust him completely.”

“
Yeah and if you enjoy murder and mayhem in your spare time,” I griped. “Oh, and horrific forms of torture.”

“
Yes,” Teharon agreed. “He has truly sunken to new lows of vileness. I can't believe he could become so heartless.”

“
So evil,” Torrent sighed and looked over at me.

“
Evil,” I agreed. “Okay, contact Mrs. E. We have no other options and I'm all out of ideas besides destroying the Internet.”

“
How would you take down the Internet?” Thor wondered and the imps around me gasped.

“
You can't,” Azrael announced from his seat at the end of the table. He was the only one of my men who I wasn't mad at, since he'd been absent during the fight, but that didn't mean he didn't share their views on my behavior. He'd have to be included when we hashed it all out. “It's world wide. You'd have to destroy every server out there and that would bring down most of the commerce in the world, not to mention the damage it would do to governments and who knows what else. You'd cause more harm than you'd prevent.”

“
Ok,” I frowned. “So we need to find a way to cut him off from the web and then pull his plug.”

“
We can help,” Meilyr said and the rest of the imps nodded enthusiastically. “We can destroy his web.”

“
No, honey,” I smiled gently at him. “We just said we can't do that, it'll hurt too many people.”

“
No, not the whole Inter Realm,” Meilyr smiled back at me like I was joking with him. “Just Iktomi's web, the tainted threads. Like you did with the threads to distract him. We can tear about the large columns, the center of the web, and lure him through the Inter Realm, possibly here,” he stopped to listen to the other imps, speaking so fast and high, I couldn't understand them, and then he nodded. “Yes, this would be a good place because there is only one connection to the Inter Realm here and that is easily shut down. We lure him here, you shut down connection, and you squish the spider.”

“
That's brilliant,” Pan clapped his hands and the imps beamed at him. “You need to bring these guys around more often, Vervain. I like them.”

“
We like you too,” Meilyr continued to speak for the group. “Funny god with horns like a faerie.”

“
Ah,” Pan looked around the table with wide eyes and we all laughed at him. “Thank you.”

“
What do you think, Torrent?” I directed everyone’s attention back to our newest ally. “You know him best.”

“
Would Iktomi chase down anyone messing with his connections?” He mused for all of one second. “Absolutely. It might even make him mad enough to chase them blindly, not noticing where he was going. I'd say there's a good chance you could catch him here and if you turn off the router, he'll be stuck but my only concern is how you're going to bring him down once he gets here. I honestly don't know if you have enough godpower here to kill Iktomi.”

“
I think it's a good plan,” Thor frowned around the rock in his forehead. Yes, there's an actual shard of rock embedded in his thick skull, don't ask me why, he never really explained it to me. Something about a bar brawl. You usually couldn't see it behind the fall of his hair anyway. “Whether we have enough power doesn't matter, it'll have to be enough because we can't allow this madman to live after what he's done to Vervain but what about the other one?”

“
Mica would definitely retaliate for Iktomi's death,” Torrent admitted.

“
But what could he do with his entire network down?” I wondered.

“
Put it up again,” Torrent shrugged. “I'm sure the imps do good work but machines can be replaced and Internet connections re-established. Mica would come back with a vengeance, especially knowing that the company and all its power, would finally be his.”

“
We'll have to come up with a separate plan for Mica then,” I mused. “It's doable, we know where he works after all.”