J Gregory Keyes - The Python King's Treasure

Fool Wolf only had a few days left to live when he saw the most beautiful
woman he had ever laid eyes upon.
  Her hair was spun black glass, spilling down the sides of a face incised
from amber, flowing over shoulders and down breasts of the same red-gold hue.
  He was too far away to see what color her eyes were, but he could feel her
gaze on him. She stood on the edge of a cliff, half a bow-shot above him,
looking down at the jade sea and the cinnamon sun it was swallowing in the
west.
  And at him, on the desolate strand, fifteen days along the way to
starvation.
  He stood rooted, stunned, watching her naked lithe half-shadow in the
melting sunlight.
  <<She is pretty,>> the goddess imprisoned in him sighed, wistfully. <<She
looks good enough to eat.>>
  Fool Wolf's stomach growled in agreement.

A month earlier, in the Land of Nine Princes, in the many-tiered city of
Fanva, Fool Wolf had been considerably better fed. He had arrived in Fanva
with a single carnelian and two copper coins, fleeing from the blood-guttered
city of Rumq Qaj. In the incense-choked gambling temples of Fanva, he had
increased that jewel and those two coins into what was for him a small
fortune. He took a room in a good inn, draped himself in silk, and feasted on
roast pork, pheasant, peacock, and eel. He ate sweet fruits from the
islands-Lorn, whitemelon, fernpears, bananas. He drank wines he could not name
but which pleased him a great deal, and he bedded a series of women of the
same sort.
  His fortunes changed, of course. He was caught cheating by one of the
gambling-house priests. As gambling was a religious matter in Fanva, and
cheating sacrilege, he was sentenced to death.
  While bets were being placed on which form of death would be chosen and how
long he would survive, Fool Wolf escaped his would-be-executioners and fled
into the Gibbering Quarter, where foreign diplomats and madmen lived. He
eluded his pursuit through the open window of a third-story apartment, waiting
breathlessly for distance to hush their cries and footsteps, alert for any
movement by the occupants of his refuge.
  None came, and after five hundred heartbeats, he began to explore. It was a
large place, well furnished with exotic rugs, censers of gold and
cream-colored ivory, screens of lacquered wood and stippled velum. It smelled
strange, like burnt sugar candy and wet dog.
  And books, everywhere. Crammed into shelves, littered on the rugs and
polished wooden floors, piled on low sitting-desks.
  Behind one of those desks sat a dead man. He hadn't been dead long-drool was
still leaking from his mouth. His flesh was still warm.
  Fool Wolf could see no obvious reason why the man died, unless it was the
small, empty cordial glass on the table before him. Suicide by poison, or just
a last drink before dying from some natural cause? Probably the first-aside
from being dead, the corpse did not look unhealthy. In fact, he looked
something like an older Fool Wolf-tall and lean, narrow of face with sharp,
high cheekbones, long black hair plaited into a queue.
  That meant the dead man's clothes would probably fit Fool Wolf. He began
rummaging about the apartment and shortly found a closet full of green robes.
He took one and found it fit rather well, so he cast about for further items
of disguise. A turban, of course, and something with which to make a false
beard, perhaps.
  He congratulated himself on his luck. It looked as if no one else lived
here-there were no woman's clothes, no servants' quarters. The dead man seemed
to have lived alone. He could keep his head down here until the pursuit
cooled.
  He had just settled onto a comfortable cushion with a plate of olives when
the door splintered inward. Fool Wolf froze, an olive halfway to his mouth.
  Standing in the doorframe was a rather large man in a black fighting sarong
and loose, blood-red shirt. His arms, visible from the elbow, were covered in
elaborate tattoos. On his forehead was a single tattoo, the glyph of a tiger
chasing its own tail. A long, curved sword gleamed in his sash.
  The black-clad man walked into the room, followed by two hulking eunuchs
that made him look like a dwarf, and ten guardsmen behind them. All had the
tiger tattoo.
  "Lohar Pang?" The man in black said. It sounded something like a question.
  Fool Wolf pursed his lips. The corpse was in the next room. If they went in
there ...
  "Of course," he replied. "Lohar Pang, at your service."
  "Wonderful. You will come with us."
  "I'm busy at the moment," Fool Wolf replied, bowing.
  "Ah. My apologies," the man in black said. "I misspoke. You will come with
us, or you will die."
  "Oh," Fool Wolf said, "this is a day for misstatement, for I'm not busy at
all. Shall we go?"

Fool Wolf had heard of Prince Fa-few in Fanva had not. He wasn't one of the
nine princes, but he was a merchant of considerable power and reportedly dark
tastes. He looked about sixty, with a trim beard and sooty eyes. He wore a
robe so deeply red it was almost black, bordered with twining serpents and
eels picked out in garnet. His throne was of heavy dun wood and would have
been rather plain if not for the human skulls along the armrests and high
back. Into each skull twenty or so nails had been driven. Fool Wolf suspected
that this had been done when the heads were still breathing and blinking and
screaming.
  Prince Fa frowned down at Fool Wolf, then examined his long, gold-leafed
nails. "This should be a simple task, for one of your repute," the prince
said, flashing teeth like bits of polished abalone. "You have familiarized
yourself with the- problem-and with the gods in question? You examined the
objects I sent you?"
  "Absolutely," Fool Wolf said, wondering what in the name of the Horse Mother
prince Fa was talking about.
  "And you still say you can do it?"
  "Of course. I have no doubts."
  "Good. Then you will live. You will depart immediately." He leaned forward,
and his shadowed eyes caught the flicker of a candle flame, a red fish in deep
water. "If I have to take a hand in this myself, I will be most displeased,"
Fa murmured. "I detest the sea. You understand the consequences if I am forced
to do something I hate?"
  "Of course, Prince Fa," Fool Wolf said, wondering what the consequences
were, imagining they were unpleasant.
  "Good. One of my yachts is prepared to leave."
  It occurred to Fool Wolf that a trip by boat would at least get him far from
the city. After that-well, there would surely be opportunities.

A week later, he was still watching for the first of those hypothetical
opportunities. More specifically, he was gazing at the horizon, wondering how
big the ocean could be.
  Too big to swim, he kept coming back to. So even though he was unwatched by
the crew-somewhat avoided, even-there was no place to escape to.
  Kreth-the black-saronged warrior from the apartment- joined him at the rail.
  "Not much farther," Kreth said, spitting onto the sky-dressed sea, watching
the little foam island thus created break up in the ship's wake. "Can you
really do it?"
  "I've never failed before," Fool Wolf assured him.
  "Obviously. But you've never been to Ranga Lehau before, either," Kreth
grunted. "Still, the prince seems pretty sure of you. He read one of your
treatises or somesuch. How will you do it?"
  "How do you imagine I will do it?" Fool Wolf asked.
  "You don't have to be mysterious," Kreth replied, a bit sulkily. "If you
can't tell me, just say so."
  "I can't tell you, but you can guess, and I can nod yes or no."
  "Never mind then. I'm not good at such games, and I shall see shortly, yes?"
He reached over and gave Fool Wolf a slap on the back that clacked his teeth
together. "But you can do it?"
  "Of course." Fool Wolf glanced over at Kreth. "What's your part in all of
this? Aside from making sure I do my part?"
  "I'm the hunter," Kreth replied. "I will find the Python King's treasure,
never fear. He cannot hide it from me."
  "I don't doubt that for a moment," Fool Wolf replied.
  That's all Fool Wolf got from Kreth, and the hunter was too smart to push
any further. Fool Wolf didn't want to ask a question that raised even minor
suspicion-he didn't know what Lohar Pang was supposed to know. As long as he
was on this boat, with nothing but sea around, he might as well be in Prince
Fa's palace.

Thus it was, two days later, when Kreth came to Fool Wolf's cabin and said,
"It is time," he still didn't have a fart's whisper of what it was time for.
  Up on deck, Kreth pointed to the first land Fool Wolf had seen since the
coastline of Fanva faded in the west. It was an island, looking something like
a giant black horse tooth sticking up out of the water, with its sheer black
cliffs and flat top.
  "That is Ranga Lehau," Kreth commented. "According to our charts, we cross
the tapu when we pass those rocks."
  Fool Wolf saw the rocks he meant, two pillars of stone jutting up from the
water, perhaps three ship's lengths apart. They looked manmade. At the rate
the boat was moving, they would reach them soon.
  As Fool Wolf studied the rocks and the island, Kreth shuffled impatiently.
"Shouldn't you get started?" He asked. He sounded nervous.
  "Don't tell me my business," Fool Wolf snapped. Then, a bit more
mysteriously, "besides, I have started."
  "Oh. I thought there would be more-chanting, or something."
  "In a moment," Fool Wolf said. "If you will kindly darken your mouth."
  The rocks were closer. "Chugaachik!" Fool Wolf chanted. "Do you have any
idea what these fools want of me?" He sang in his own tongue, Mang, not a
language anyone else on the ship was likely to know.
  <<I don't know,>> the goddess answered, in that silent place between his
breaths. <<Why not let me kill them all? That would solve the problem.>>
  "Because I don't think we can kill them all, even with your power," he sang.
  That was a half-truth. He hated Chugaachik, who had killed most everyone he
had ever loved and made him a rootless wanderer, far from his native land. She
just might be able to kill everyone on the ship, but letting her have her way,
even to save his life, was not something he was willing to do unless he knew
he had no choice.
  Besides, it was his body she used, his body that paid for her excesses.
  They were almost to the pillars.
  <<But,>> Chugaachik offered reluctantly, <<there is a large and powerful god
crouching there, beneath the water.>>
  The sea raised up in a mound, and the nose of the boat tilted with it. Fool
Wolf ran and jumped as far as he could toward the island. When he hit the
water, he began stroking furiously, ignoring the brief screams and rending of
wood behind him.

Fifteen days later none of the bodies or supplies from the ship had washed
ashore anywhere. He knew - he had made a compete circuit of the island. In the
four days it had taken, Fool Wolf had seen no sign of human life and no way to
the plateau above him.
  And now this impossible woman, gazing down at him from that unattainable
place.
  "Hello!" He shouted. "Hello up there! Can you help me?"
  She cocked her head to the side but otherwise merely continued to stare.
  "Pakena lafa? Em'tagi?" he croaked, trying Jara and Fanvese. She didn't
respond any more than she had to Mang.
  "Please," he tried again, "I was shipwrecked and haven't eaten in half a
moon."
  The woman regarded him for a bit longer, as if he was some strange shorebird
with an odd call. Then she turned and walked out of sight, into the forest at
the top of the cliff.

For a little while, Fool Wolf nurtured the hope that the woman was coming down
for him, following some secret path or tunnel in the rock he hadn't found. She
would bring all sorts of things from the paradise above. Whitemelon, roast
pig, chicken, deer. Bread. Beer. Wine. The comfort of her flesh, the sweet
touch of her lips...
  But the sea went from jade to obsidian, and the sky opened its six thousand
eyes, and still she did not come. Fool Wolf felt as if he were made of
driftwood. Perhaps when he became light enough, the wind would pick him up,
and he could fly to the top.

By the time morning greened the eastern sky, he had given up. Whoever the
woman was, she hadn't been as impressed with the sight of Fool Wolf as he had
been with her. Of course he was half starved, his normally coppery skin burned
almost teak and his long black hair in brine-petrified knots. He could hardly
blame her if she didn't like what she saw.
  Well, no, that wasn't true. He was dying. He did blame her. Her, and the
gambling priests, and prince Fa, and Kreth, and every sailor and soldier on
the lost boat.
  And he blamed the island, of course. From the sea it had looked green and
inviting. But all of the green was at the top of those walls of glassy rock.
That left him with a narrow strip of sterile white beach, two to twenty paces
wide, a few rocky spurs into the sea supporting nothing more edible than
barnacles, seagulls he hadn't devised any way to catch, fish that must be out
there but which he couldn't find or see in the foaming surf. And he wasn't
going too far into that surf, not with whatever-it-was lurking out there.
  But if she was up there, that indifferent beauty, there must be a way up - a
way he had missed in his four-day circuit of the island.
  So, cursing, he went to his one source of sustenance - a small freshwater
spring seeping from the base of the cliff. He drank as much as his belly would
hold and then started walking. If he remembered correctly, the next spring was
more than a day away.

A couple of things occurred to him while walking. The first was that the woman
- and whatever other people lived atop the island - might come and go by rope,
or ladder, or not at all. Of course, the first time someone went up, there
must have been a natural way, but that might have been a thousand years ago.
  A more serious worry was that he might not have seen a woman at all. It
might have been a ghost, or a goddess, a shapeshifter - or his hungry
imagination.
  He spent a lot of time studying the edge of the cliff, but he didn't see her
again.
  The next day he reached the river. He remembered the spot well, because it
had been so frustrating. The cliffs here were lower than anywhere else on the
island. If he could jump twice again his own height, he would be able to catch
the tree roots straggling over the rim. At the lowest point, a waterfall
tumbled mockingly into a pool and then flowed out to the waiting ocean. He had
looked here for hours, searching for handholds and finding none. No fish in
the water, either.
  The waterfall had worn a deep grove for itself - a narrow canyon, really.
Standing at the base of it, he could curl his fingers onto the top of the
ledge the water came over. But with the water pushing down on him, and the
stone even smoother than elsewhere, he could never get enough purchase to pull
himself up more than a finger's breadth.
  He wasn't going to waste his time on it again.
  That was when he noticed the falls looked strange. The water was bumping up,
flowing over something. He trudged closer.
  A dead tree was wedged in the mouth of the waterfall.

He caught the branch on his third jump, but his muscles had nothing in them,
and he just hung there, water battering him.
  <<Let me help you,>> the Chugaachik said.
  "No. If I do, then you'll kill her. And anyone else up there."
  <<Probably. But why should you care? She left you to die.>>
  Chugaachik had a point. But instead of calling on her help, he pulled again,
knowing it was his last chance. If he failed, he would have to let Chugaachik
have him.
  <<I won't eat her right away,>> the goddess promised. <</'// let you have
her body first. 1 know you want it.>>
  His arms trembled, and he almost gave up. Then he remembered the last time
the goddess had been loose in his body - and what they had done together - and
found some extra strength, enough for one great heave that allowed him to hook
his arm over the wedged log. Another, lesser jerk, and he had a leg over, too.
  He lay that way for a moment, draped over the log, suddenly, absurdly happy.
He managed to cough out a series of chuckles while garnering his energy to
move again.
  The river broadened upstream, and the canyon walls here were still too steep
to climb. But the banks of the river were wide enough to walk on, and gently
sloping, and ahead he could see the waving fronds of fernpear trees.
  He crawled onto the bank and began to walk.
  Fifty paces from the dark, inviting jungle, he came across four wooden
statues, each about the size of himself, carved from tree-trunks. They were
very old, standing at odd angles, half rotted, made to resemble little
squatting men with big heads.
  Beyond them was a town. Or rather, the remains of a town. The roofs of the
enormous buildings had caved in, and creeping vines covered their skeletons.
  At another time, that might interest him. Not now. All he cared about was
food.
  He took three more steps, and one of the statues spoke to him. It didn't
move its rotted wooden lips, but the words appeared just inside his ear, like
a bee buzzing there.
  <<You are not Talehau,>> the voice whirred.
  "Sure I am," Fool Wolf asserted.
  <<No. We know the lineages, and you are not of them.>>
  "All I want is some food from the forest."
  <<You might be a pirate. You might be a thief. You have a powerful spirit in
you. We will not let you enter Lehau.>>
  "The village? Look behind you! They are all dead! You guard nothing!"
  <<No,>> the statue replied. <<One remains. As long as one remains, we
guard.>>
  Fool Wolf gritted his teeth. The woman! That damned woman again!
  "I ignore you now," he told the statues, and strode briskly past them.

He came to in the river, his limbs twitching like dying eels, sparks dancing
before his eyes. With a horrible start, he realized that he was fetched up
against the log, about to float over it and back down the waterfall.
  He flopped back onto the bank.
  "Okay," he panted to Chugaachik. "Okay. Help me. Do whatever you want."
  For the first time since he was a boy, he got no answer, not even a purr or
a growl.
  His heart did a strange twist in his breast. Was he finally rid of her? For
years he had been fleeing the consequences of Chugaachik's actions and
searching for a shaman powerful enough to release the goddess from his body.
How ironic it would be to be free now, just before starving to death.
  He trudged back up the slope to confront the statues again.
  <<You are not Talehau,>> they reminded him.
  "No. But I mean no harm. I just need food. Can't I just walk inland for a
little while, if I promise to come right back out?"
  <<No.>>
  Fool Wolf felt dizzy. There must be some way to argue with these intractable
gods, but he needed rest before he thought of it. Now that he was up here, he
certainly wasn't going back down.

He awoke, then scrambled wildly away from the snake nudging him in the
side.Only it wasn't a snake, he saw, as the foolish colors of sleep leaked
from his eyes. It was a long piece of bamboo, and holding the other end of it
was the woman.
  The sight of her knocked the breath right out of him. She was crouched down,
just beyond the guardian gods. She had wrapped some sort of kilt around her
waist, but it didn't conceal much of her. And he could see her eyes now. They
were the color the smoke would be if you could burn jade.
  "Hello," he said softly. "It's nice to see you again."
  She didn't answer, but she let the stick drop. Maybe she had been wondering
if he was dead.
  "I need a favor," Fool Wolf said, carefully. "Something to eat. Could you do
that for me?" He pantomimed chewing, then thumped his belly. It thudded like a
shaman's drum.
  She watched him as he repeated himself in several languages, then got up and
swayed off into the forest. He watched her long, shapely legs and thought of
them crisped over a fire and served with rice.
  Fool Wolf folded back down by the statues.
  "Will you answer some questions?" He asked the guardians wearily.
  <<Yes.>>
  "Of all the people you once guarded, onhy one is still alive?"
  <<True. Save for one, the Talehau are no more.>>
  "What happened to them?"
  <<My brothers and I were tree spirits. Long ago, when the Talehau first
arrived here, we struck a bargain with them. They would refrain from cutting
trees - beyond a certain allotted number - and we would guard them from
enemies. We could not protect them from themselves, however. The tattooed
Python King, whose island this is, fell in love with a woman of the village
and took her to live with him. Her brother, Mahan, a proud and jealous man,
heard of this. He sought his sister for months. When he found her, she told
him she loved the Python King. The brother, who desired his sister, swore that
if he could not have her, no one should. So Mahan killed her, to spite the
King. In his rage, the Python King slew everyone on the island - all but one,
for he wanted one to carry the memory of what had happened. Then he swore
enmity to Humans and put the tapu around the island.>>
  Fool Wolf tried to absorb all of that. There were a lot of questions there,
but what was most important right now was getting past the guardians.
  "Ah - when the Talehau had visitors from other islands - not pirates, just
visitors - did you let them pass?"
  <<Of course. If they were greeted by the Talehau or the gods of this island
- if we could be sure they were guests, you see, and not interlopers.>>
  "I see. Well - I'm harmless enough. I'm sure you can see that. And you are
gods. Can't you invite me in?"
  <<It is against our bargain to do so, of course.>>
  "Of course."
  But he could get her to invite him in. If she could talk, which he had seen
no evidence of.
  "How long ago was Lehau abandoned?"
  <<Twenty years ago.>>
  Fool Wolf nodded. The woman didn't look a sliver-moon over twenty-five. If
she had been alone since the age of five and hadn't spoken to another human
being since then, maybe she couldn't talk at all.
  But maybe she could, or he could teach her.
  So he took a bath. It wasn't easy - he was weak, and the current, though not
strong by any normal standards, was too rapid for him. He dipped water out
with his hands, then lay on the bank, ducking his head under, working the
salty tangles in his hair out with his fingers.
  He threw away the remains of his robe. Maybe, if she could see his wasting
body, she would feel sorry for him. Or, if she had never seen a man before,
perhaps she would be curious. If she came back.
  And she did come back, near sundown, with a heavy netted bag. His heart
thudded with glee as brightly colored fruit, steaming banana-leaf bundles, and
a dead chicken spilled onto the ground. The woman set about gathering wood for
a fire as Fool Wolf licked his lips.
  "I can help you with that, if you just invite me over," He called. "Weak as
I am, I would be glad to do the work of building a fire."
  She gave no indication that she heard him.
  "Very well - I understand. You have no reason to trust me. But you must like
me - see, you brought me food. It's very nice of you to cook, but I wonder if
I could have some of the fruit now?"
  He might have been talking to the sea.
  Soon he was panting like a dog at the scent of the bird roasting on a spit.
He had never smelled anything better.
  In front of him, she ate every bit of the food. When she was done, she
considered the bird carcass, picked off what remained of the meat, and tossed
the bones at Fool Wolf. Then she threw the rinds of the fruit at him too.
  "You bitch!" Fool Wolf shrieked, pouncing on the remains.
  He ate the rinds, though they were bitter. He ate the bones, too, smashing
them and sucking out what remained of the marrow.
  An hour later, he threw it up, and for the first time she made a sound.
  She laughed, then walked away again.

She repeated her performance the next day, and the next. By the fourth day he
didn't even bother to stir - it was a waste of energy.
  "I wonder why you do this to me," Fool Wolf said. "I wonder how you can hate
me so, when I have done you no harm." He watched her tear a drumstick from a
chicken and take a large bite. He could hear the skin crackle, see the grease
dribble down her beautiful chin.
  "But you can't even understand me, can you? You're just like some poor dumb
beast."
  "No," she said, in Jara, or a language very like it. "I can talk."
  "Then why-"
  "I have little to say to you. You came here to kill me, yes? My father
always said someone would."
  "Not me. I'm just a castaway."
  "Yes, from the boat the Python King destroyed. The one that violated the
tapu."
  "I know nothing of this. I was just a passenger, and an unwilling one at
that."
  "I don't believe you."
  "What's your name?" he asked.
  "Why do you want to know?"
  "Because you are the loveliest woman I have ever seen. Because if you are
going to kill me, you at least owe me the name of my murderer, so I can tell
it to my ancestors."
  "Names are too important for me to give you mine. And you murdered yourself
by coming here. It isn't my fault." She smiled, faintly. "You came for the
Python King's treasure, didn't you?"
  "I heard my captors mention that, yes."
  "I am the Python King's treasure. So you came to kill or kidnap me. You see?
I do have something against you. You aren't the first, you know." She tossed
another cleaned carcass over the tapu line. It was difficult, but he ignored
it.
  "You are undeniably a treasure," Fool Wolf said, "but I did not come here
for you. Though allow me to say - if you were mine, and not this Python
King's, I would treasure you indeed. I have been to fabulous Nhol and ancient
Lhe, to Rumq Qaj, Palipurn, and Fanva. I have seen the great mountain in
Balati and the high plains of Falling Sky. I have walked most of this world,
yet I have never seen any jewel or star as beautiful as your eyes. I have
known many women, but next to you even the loveliest might as well have been a
man. And now that I have heard you speak, no harp or flute - "
  She was smiling, a fascinated little smile. "How long can you keep that up?"
She asked.
  "I could praise your beauty to the end of my days," he answered.
"Unfortunately, that won't be in the very distant future."
  "Hmm." She considered that for a moment, then rolled a whitemelon toward
him. It stopped just inside the tapu line - on his side. He stared at it,
shaking, fearing a trick.
  "Go on," she said. "You've pleased me."
  He took the melon and split it open. The smell of the sweet white meat
nearly overpowered him.
  He gobbled it down and wiped his mouth. "May I have another?" He asked.
  "Talk to me a little more, and you may."
  "Your thighs are like - "
  "No. Not about me. I know what I look like. Tell me more about those places.
Those cities and such."
  "Oh. Well - there's Nhol, Nhol of the white pyramids, which gleam in the sun
as if they were made of eggshells..."

A week later, he was starting to feel less hungry. His flesh was beginning to
gain substance again, though she was still miserly with what she gave him.
  "Why don't you invite me over there?" He asked. "You must know by now I
wouldn't hurt you."
  "I know from your stories you are a thief and a liar," she said.
  "I never said any such thing."
  "No. You dance around it, but it's always there. You are a faithless and
fickle man, Fool Wolf. How can I trust you?"
  "Because I've changed. My love for you has changed me."
  She laughed. "You love me no more than you have ever loved any woman, I'll
guess. You do like the look of me, I think, but then that isn't love, is it?"
  "What would you know about it? Have you ever even known a man?"
  "Others have been where you are now. All were faithless."
  A little chill bristled across his scalp. "I am not them."
  "I've heard stories, too."
  "From who?"
  She shrugged. "I hear stories. That's all."
  She tossed him a packet of steamed breadfruit and was silent while he
devoured it...
  "Tell me," she said. "If I allowed it, what would you do, if I let you come
over here? If I let you love me?"
  He looked up at that, at her supple, gleaming limbs, at the swell of her
breasts. "That's cruel," Fool Wolf said. "That's worse than making me watch
you eat when I'm starving."
  "No it isn't. Or would you like to compare? I can always stop feeding you."
  "No!" he said quickly. "No! I - ah - don't you want to hear more about my
travels?"
  "No. I want to hear the other now."
  He put away the remains of the breadfruit and crept as near the tapu
boundary as he could. He fixed his eyes on her.
  "Well," he murmured, reaching his hand up, as if to touch her, "I would
first caress your arms with the tips of my fingers, until little bumps rose up
on them. And then..."

That night he lay awake, unable to sleep. He was getting used to the strange
night noises of the island, but his mind was working and would not let him
rest.
  He'd almost had her, today. He could see it in her eyes. Soon she would
invite him across. Then he could start thinking about building a boat. Maybe
there were old maps in the ruined village.
  He shook that off - it was too many steps down the road. For now, the goal
was much simpler - to not have to depend on her for his life.
  He shifted his eyes at a slight sound, saw a shadow gliding.
  She was about ten paces from him, a ghost in the moonlight. He kept very
still.
  "Listen to me," she said. "I still haven't invited you over the tapu line.
If you hurt me, or kill me, you will starve here. Do you understand that?
There is no one else to care for you."
  "I would not hurt you," Fool Wolf replied.
  "Good. Then I want - I want some of those things you talked about."
  "Really? And then you will invite me over?"
  "I promise nothing. But maybe."
  "Come here, then," Fool Wolf said, "and you will see that I make good on my
promises." He reached for her leg, and stroked along the inner calf. She made
an odd sound, and after a moment, her knees buckled, and she knelt next to
him.
  He pressed his face into the hollow of her neck, and his face and belly
prickled at the scent of her skin.
  "My name is Inah," she murmured.
  After that, she made more odd sounds. Many more.

One more awakening, one more rude surprise. This one was a sharp kick in the
ribs and a curse. Fool Wolf opened his eyes in time to see Inah flee back over
the tapu line.
  "Liar!" She shrieked.
  "What?" Fool Wolf yelped, staggering to his feet and clutching his aching
flank. "What did I do?"
  She lifted her chin and pointed with it. "Your friends are here," she said.
  He turned. Beyond the waterfall, in the slice of ocean he could see, was a
large boat, very much like the boat he had come on.
  Prince Fa, or more of his men. Inside the tapu.
  "No!" He shouted. "They are my enemies, too. Invite me over! Don't leave me
out here!"
  For an instant she seemed to consider it, then tossed her black mane
contemptuously. "You almost tricked me," she said. Then she vanished into the
jungle.

"I've been waiting for you," Fool Wolf said. Prince Fa did not look happy.
None of the two-score soldiers with him looked happy, either.
  "Have you." The Prince said, frostily. "What happened to my other ship? And
Kreth, and the others?" "The tapu got them."
  "But it didn't get you, the sorcerer who was supposed to deal with it. How
coincidental. Have you secured the treasure yet?"
  Fool Wolf remembered the night, the fierce tangling of limbs. "In a manner
of speaking."
  "Where is she, then?"
  "I don't know."
  The Prince smiled, very narrowly. "Things aren't going well for you, whoever
you are. Lohar's body was found, you know, which reveals you as a fraud. Your
lies have lost me a good ship and some very good men. You may remember, too,
what I said about having to take a hand in matters myself. It cost me more
than I care to say to quiet the Python King and his tapu. Even so, he won't
stay quiet for long. So where is she?"
  "If I knew, I would tell you. She ran into the jungle when you came."
  Fa cocked his head. "But she was here? You talked to her?" His face
traasfigured, slightly. "Oh, I see. More than that. Well. You shall live a
little longer then." He signed to his men. "Bind his hands but leave his feet
free."
  A heavyset thug lashed Fool Wolf's hands together with leather straps.
Meanwhile, Prince Fa approached the sentinel statues. Fool Wolf braced
himself. When the Prince collapsed, he would take advantage of the confusion
and flee back to the beach. If he could swim out to the ship, defeat whoever
was on board...
  He needed Chugaachik now, but he was beginning to think she was really gone.
  The prince wandered beyond the sentinels. He turned and looked at his
soldiers and Fool Wolf. "If s safe," he said. "All of you come with me."

They didn't go far. In the old square of the ruined village, Fa's men cleared
the jungle growth and then, at the edge of the clearing, they hung Fool Wolf
between two trees. They built a fire and amused themselves by searing his
flesh with brands.
  Fool Wolf was Mang by birth - his people were fierce horsemen who raised
their children to expect and endure torture.
  Fool Wolf had never been a very good Mang, and he was weak already. After a
time, he screamed, and screamed again. When they thought he had screamed
enough, they cut him down, bound him to one of the trees, and made camp some
distance away.
  Fool Wolf watched the moon rise.
  "Chugaachik?" He whispered. "Are you really gone?"
  He got no answer. He watched the moon set.
  And with the largest eyes of heaven closed, Inah came.
  "What have they done to you?" She whispered.
  "Go away," he said. "This is what they want. They want you to try to help
me."
  "I'm sorry I didn't believe you," she said. Her fingers traced upon his
face, and he could just make out her eyes.
  "Inah, run."
  "They cannot stop me. You don't know everything about me. I..." her voice
stumbled, and she made a little choking noise. "What?" She gasped. She sounded
confused, Then she slid against Fool Wolf, across his burned flesh, and fell
in a heap at his feet.
  "Well!" Prince Fa's voice came out of the darkness. "Congratulations! You
proved useful after all."
  "I'm going to kill you, Fa," Fool Wolf said.
  "Of course you are."
  "What did you do to her?"
  "An extract of the poison of the Hutoew tree. She will live."
  "Why? What do you want from her?"
  Fa's face appeared in a little glow of witchlight from something in his
hand. Fool Wolf looked down and saw Inah: She had two small darts in her neck.
Her eyes were open, glassy.
  "At first I just wanted her. Now, I want something more. 1 suppose I should
thank you for forcing me to come here, to conquer my fears. Yes, my fears! I
had not realized how powerful I have become. So I will allow you to live a
while, and let you dream of killing me. Such dreams are sweet, are they not?
It is my reward to you, to see me fulfill mine." He turned to his men, who had
been gathering behind him.
  "Bind her, and complete the circle around them."
  "Aren't we going, now that we have her?" One of the men asked.
  "No," Fa said. "We await one more."

Fool Wolf sought for Chugaachik one last time, knowing that if he did not find
her he would die, and so would Inah. Of course, if he did find Chugaachik,
Inah might die anyway. Chugaachik did not treat Fool Wolf's lovers well,
generally
  Fool Wolf's father had wanted him to be a gaan, a shaman. That was how Fool
Wolf had ended up with a goddess living in him. And though he had long ago
abandoned his father's path for him, he still had enough training to set his
spirit drifting into the world-beneath-the-sur-face-of-the-world, the world of
spirit.
  He went about aimlessly, at first, in the dark counterpart of the island. He
walked hard beaten paths where the gaunt dead roamed in circles.
  It might have been days or ten heartbeats of wandering before he found the
guardians, but find them he finally did. Here they were four old men, balding
and bearded, with flesh like knotted wood. They watched him approach with
little half-smiles.
  "Hello again," one said.
  "Hello, grandfathers. I'm looking for something."
  "That being?"
  "The goddess that accompanied me to the island."
  "Ah. She is with the Python King. She fled your body when we touched you.
The King found her before she could return."
  "And where is he? The Python King?"
  They sent him through a forest of wailing trees and dark, scurrying things,
through a marsh where slender cranes that looked liked wrought iron fished for
souls, and at last to a high peak with a bowl-shaped valley at the top. All
along the rim were the remains of shrines, low platforms with small standing
stones. Clustered around the shrines, like ants around fruit, were Human
ghosts, sitting with their heads between their knees, some weeping. One looked
up at Fool Wolf with eyes like the empty space in a chrysalis, once the moth
is gone.
  "Help me," the ghost said.
  Fool Wolf uttered a single, bitter laugh and continued on. But he thought he
heard something, now. A faint voice, speaking his name. He tried to follow the
sound, but it never seemed to get any louder or softer, and he could never be
certain that it really was his name.
  Until the melodic baritone suddenly spoke it right in his ear.
  "Fool Wolf, I suppose?"
  He turned. The speaker was a handsome man of middle years, densely muscled.
He wore a crimson sarong, but the rest of his dark body was clothed only in
tattoos, the mottled spots of a python.
  "And you are the Python King?"
  "That is one of my names. I expected to see you sooner."
  "Prince Fa said he had put you to sleep."
  The Python King blinked as if waking from a dream. "Fa? Fa? He is not that
powerful. But Fa is not his name, and he has hidden his name from me. Hiding
that, he has hidden himself. 1 cannot see him or even long hold the thought of
him before me. Now he is calling me, and I am compelled to go into his trap. I
will forget as I go. I fear he will kill me then, and you, and take Inah
away."
  "There is nothing you can do? They say you made this island. You must have
more power than that."
  The Python King shrugged and clasped his hands behind his back. "An island
is a small thing, really. And in those days creating was easier. I have lived
here too long, forgotten too much. This man - you see, I cannot even remember
what you called him, now - he has studied arts unknown in my day. I do not ken
them."
  "Fa. His name is Fa. He came here to steal your treasure and to kill you."
  "And so he shall. And his name is not Fa."
  Fool Wolf sighed. "You have something of mine."
  "Oh, yes," the Python king said. "Her. Do you really want her back?"
  "No. But I think I have no other choice."
  "I suppose you don't. Though I suspect that she won't be able to help,
much." Behind him a jackal stalked out of the forest. A gray jackal mottled
black, the size of a horse, with red carbuncle eyes.
  "Hello, sweet thing," Chugaachik said. "You missed me."
  Fool Wolf ignored her. "Can you put her back in me? Back in my Mansion of
Bone?"
  The Python King looked at him for a moment, then reached for Chugaachik. He
lifted her by the scruff of the neck and shook her once, hard, so that she
became a long pelt. He rolled her up and squeezed her into a small, black
jewel.
  "Swallow it," the god told him. "Or not. I have to go now. Someone is
calling me."
  "Prince Fa?"
  "I only know I must go."
  The god lifted and flowed, a sinuous smoke, a great snake in the sky. Fool
Wolf caught his tail and went with him.
  Soon he saw the clearing, and his body, and Inah.
  He lifted the jewel to his mouth and paused. Wouldn't it be better to die
than to have Chugaachik in him again?
  No.
  He swallowed the jewel and smelled a sharp tang like wet metal or a bloody
nose. He felt scratching, like a spider beneath his tongue. And, of course,
her laughter, shrill, and a surge of desire that was only a little like lust
for a woman.
  He woke tohis flesh.
  But it wasn't his flesh for long.

He was still bound, but" a grin stretched itself from ear to ear. His teeth
felt like obsidian knives. His fingers were talons. And the rope that bound
him - rotten string.
  Prince Fa stood before him, seemingly oblivious to the changes working in
Fool Wolf.
  "Well," the Prince said, beaming, waving a curved, bloody sword. "You awake
just in time. See who I have before me." He gestured. A huge python, the
length of thirty men, lay near where Inah hung. Its head was hacked halfway
off, but it was still alive, writhing, golden blood bubbling from its
nostrils.
  "He doesn't even know I'm here," Fa said, his voice full of delight.
  Chugaachik chuckled, and it came out of Fool Wolf's mouth. <<Let me have
him,>> she demanded.
  <<Not yet,>> Fool Wolf told her. <<He might be too much even for you. Just
wait a bit, and I promise you->>
  <<You will not cheat me again,>> the goddess said.
  <<I surely will. But not this time. This time, I need you.>>
  Fa had turned his attention back to the great snake, and lifted his sword to
strike again.
  "I bet he would recognize you if I told him your nam,/' Fool Wolf said.
  Fa stopped, glanced at him, and for an instant, Fool Wolf saw fear there. Fa
pointed the sword at him. "Shut up," he said.
  Something clamped upon Fool Wolf's vocal cords. Fa stepped forward and
raised the sword for a blow that would decapitate Fool Wolf. "Just in case you
do know," Fa said.
  <<Now,>> he told Chugaachik.
  <<Now?>> Chugaachik screamed. <<You idiot!>> Black lightning uncoiled. And
as he lost his voice, and his limbs, and his mind to the goddess and her
desires, he shouted to the Python King.
  "Mahan!" He told the god. "His name is Mahan!"
  Then Fa's blade struck him. Chugaachik had managed, in that less than a
heartbeat, to snap the bonds and bring his arms up. The blade sank through
flesh and shattered the bone of his right forearm, allowing the blade to bite
into the side of his neck. Something splashed wetly on his shoulder.
  Fool Wolf snarled.
  Fa's eyes widened, and he swung again, shouting something at the same
moment. Fool Wolf lunged at him but met with a peculiar slipperiness. His
claws would not catch - it was as if the Prince were made of glass.
  And the sword hit him again, this time crunching its way through several
ribs. Fool Wolf screamed, a scream of pure fury, and looked up into the
deathblow dropping toward his face.
  At that moment a great coil engulfed Fa. His surprised look was suddenly
hidden by another coil whipping around to the top of that one, and then the
head of a great serpent, darted down, teeth gleaming.
  Fa had men. Some were running, while others were coming forward to help
their master. All moved as if walking through syrup.
  Blood pumping from his arms, neck and side, Fool Wolf launched himself at
them. Their terror was sweet, but not as sweet as their blood. He eviscerated
every one.
  Then he turned on Inah, full of joy and anticipation.
  He slipped in blood, and to his disgust found that he did not have the
strength to get up. The small part of him that was really Fool Wolf rejoiced.

<<You still owe me!>> Chugaachik howled, somewhere. <<You did trick me! You
almost let him kill us!>>
  <<You had your way with his men. Be satisfied with that.>> "Be satisfied
that we're still alive," he finished, aloud.
  "A gift from my father," another voice said. Inah, who was wiping his
forehead with a damp cloth. He lay on a barkcloth mat in a dimly lit hut.
  "The Python King. Your father."
  "Yes, of course. He mended the worst of your wounds, made water into blood
for you." She bent over and kissed him. "I'm sorry for the way I treated you.
If I had known you would save my life - and my father's life - I would have
been much nicer from the beginning. But I thought you were him."
  "Fa? Mahan? The man who killed your mother?"
  "Did he?" she wrinkled her brow. "Father told me only that he let one
villager live, and that it was a man. He didn't say who it was. How did you
know?"
  "I guessed. All along I thought you were the last villager, the one the
Python King let live. But you aren't. You aren't even human."
  "I'm half human. I seemed human enough the other night, didn't I? You didn't
know, then."
  "No. But you are of your father's lineage, not of the village. It was only
when Fa - Mahan - passed the guardians without even a struggle that I
understood. Who better to remember the crime than the criminal?" He shook his
head. "A mistake. Gods are too fond of poetics and curses. This irony turned
itself on your father. It almost killed him." A sudden thought occurred. "Fa's
boat - what happened to it?"
  "Don't worry. It's still out there. Father kept it for you, and he let two
of the sailors live, as well. We will have a way to other lands."
  "We?"
  She kissed him again. It tingled on his lips. Did he taste snake? A faint
musk?
  "Never fear," she murmured. "I'm fond of you, Fool Wolf, but I'm not going
attached to you, in hopes of a husband and children. That isn't what I want.
But I will see more of the world. I've become bored with this island." She
scratched him behind the ear. "Anyway, I think you will need my help for a
little while, yes?"
  "I won't argue with an offer like that," Fool Wolf told her, smiling.
  All in all, it seemed the best idea to agree with everything she said, at
least until he could walk again.

---
J Gregory Keyes   - The Python King's Treasure
m1nion scan #4
---
m1nion scan #1:   Sandman - Death The High Cost Of Living
m1nion scan #2:   Jeff Wayne's Musical Version Of The War Of The Worlds
m1nion scan #3:   Everything But The Girl (Article from Arena Magazine)