The Godlost Land by Greg Curtis Page A

she was also of the temple. The enemy of his enemy was still his enemy.
     
    “What I am?” She seemed offended.
     
    “A priestess of that filthy, traitor goddess!”
     
    There was silence for a bit after that as she stared at him, no doubt angered by his words. As if she had any right to be angry after what she and her ilk had done. Then she drew herself up to her full height – as best she could when still held down by the chains – and took a deep breath.
     
    “I am Erislee Moonsong, High Priestess to Artemis, the most wondrous Goddess of the Hunt. She who brings fortune to hunters and food to tables.”
     
    The expression on her face was one of serenity and joy. As if her mistress hadn't done all the terrible things she had. Or more likely as if it didn't matter.
     
    “And monsters to peaceful cities,” Harl added angrily. “To slaughter enough innocents to create a river of blood! To ravage Lion's Crest and the five kingdoms! To enslave the survivors and steal everything from them leaving them to starve!”
     
    The bitterness was beyond his ability to contain. But he didn't want to contain it. He wanted to kill this woman! More truly he wanted to kill her mistress. But he couldn't kill a goddess. That was beyond something a mere mortal could do. Even if the Goddess had, as was said by her priests, descended to the world and now called Lion's Crest her palace, she was beyond mortal justice.
     
    “She did not do that!”
     
    The High Priestess snapped out her denial instantly, and with anger on her lips. A lot of anger. He wondered why. Artemis had done it. She'd killed hundreds of thousands in some sort of divine display of her might. For a goddess that was proof to her worshippers of her power – surely she would be proud of what she'd done? Her servants too. Lying about it though, trying to pretend it wasn't her – that was an entirely mortal sort of thing to do. Gods didn't lie. They had no need to.
     
    “I was there. I saw.”
     
    “You saw lies! Whatever visions you saw they were false!”
     
    Once more she was quick to deny him the truth, and it jarred. It was such an obvious lie when the beasts came from the temple itself. When they were led around by the priests and the temple soldiers. When they themselves sent them out to kill. Even if there was some sort of civil war going on between the priests, that could not be doubted. In fact Harl didn't know what to think. None of it made any sense. He also didn't know what to do either. Should he kill her and be done with it? She surely deserved to die. But if he did and she was somehow rebelling against her mistress he could be making a mistake. Leaving her alive to cause trouble for her fellow priests might be better. But of course he had no idea what was happening. So he turned his mind to the more obvious questions. “Why were your fellow priests locking you away?”
     
    “Because they're not my fellow priests of course. They follow the demons. These ones mostly follow Est.”
     
    Demon thralls? It was a serious charge to level against someone. Especially against a priest. Those who were found to belong to the various denizens of Hades and the rest of the demonic realms were put to death. It was the only way. After all, demons had only one purpose in life – to eat. And what they ate were people. Sometimes it was the flesh, the blood and the bones. But sometimes, particularly with the more powerful demons, it was the life force itself that they consumed. And no matter what they did, when a demon took a thrall, it was always with the intention of getting him to provide him with food. A thrall was a bonded servant, little more than a slave. But a demon thrall was something less than that. Their service was bonded with their blood and their souls. Whatever their master wanted they did. They had absolutely no choice.
     
    And then there was Est. The demoness assassin. He knew her name of course. Most people did, if only as a name spoken