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  “You could have told me sooner,” Morton muttered, but seemed used to Marduk taking charge and doing things in his own way.

  “Stay right here.” The strength in Morton’s voice had Marduk once again believing that they backed the correct man in their quest for survival. “I’ll send for Richard immediately, and we’ll get to the bottom of this. In the meantime, I’ll send two of your associates to free my stolen men.”

  He strode to the door with a purpose and called to the first soul who walked by.

  “You there! Go tell Richard Wollaston that I need to see him, now…and on the way there, send two of Marduk’s men to me.” His voice brooked no argument, and, within minutes, Enlil and Lahar were off to the rescue, and Morton was left pacing the fifteen foot length of his house, waiting for Wollaston’s arrival while Marduk looked on. They didn’t wait long.

  “What’s this all about,” Wollaston demanded, entering the abode without so much as a knock.

  “You tell me, Richard.” Morton got right up into the taller man’s face. “I’ve been told that two of my servants have been removed from the village and detained by you for purposes unknown. Perhaps you would care to fill me in on the details?”

  Wollaston prevaricated. “I was planning to let you know, Thomas. Just not until I had an idea of what they could be worth. I’ve been approached by a trader from Newtown. The colony of Virginia is paying good money for able-bodied young men to be shipped down to work on the tobacco plantations. I thought if we sold off all our still-indentured servants,” he sent a pointed glance to where Marduk sat in the shadows, “we would have enough money to assure seed for next year’s crops and an enormous expansion of our holdings.”

  “And you thought to do this without my knowledge?” Color rose on Morton’s face. “These are my men, Richard! They have been through much hardship, and I have promised them all freedom when their terms have run out.” Veins popped out on his forehead, and Marduk momentarily despaired of an apoplectic fit. “I will not have this, Wollaston! Do you understand me? I will not abide this behavior!”

  Richard Wollaston sneered down his long, pointed nose. “Just try and stop me, Thomas. The wheels are in motion and, if you don’t assist me willingly, my friend in Newtown will lend me enough men to overcome your feeble resistance.” He turned to leave. “So give in gracefully and the rest of the village will be better for it.”

  “You mean your pockets will be better for it,” Morton fumed. “Do not think for a minute I believe you have this settlement’s best interest at heart.”

  Wollaston walked out the door.

  “I’ll see you hanged, Richard,” Morton called after him. “I’ll see you run out of the Bay Colony! Oh God!” He fell back into the wall and reached for his handkerchief to mop his face. “Whatever will we do, Marduk? Whatever will we do?”

  The rest of the scene took place in a blur of speed; Marduk and his men meeting with Morton, Tess’s lethal-looking thirteen leading an uprising of citizens against Wollaston, eventually driving him and his cronies out of the village at gun point, a ceremonious renaming of the settlement to Merrymount.

  Tess saw prosperity abound as the colony became the fastest growing town in all of Massachusetts Bay, reaping the benefits of perfect weather, fine crops and abundant trade with the natives. All was well, it was better than well until, egged on by the Mount Wollaston exiles, the Puritans of Plymouth Colony got their long-johns in a twist.

  “Thomas. We’ve got to rein things in.” Tess was once again in Morton’s home, listening to Marduk speak. “Many of the citizenry have gotten out of hand, including a good number of my men.” He looked truly worried. “I fear that our Puritan neighbors aren’t going to put up with our actions for much longer. Our celebrations have become much too blatant, our successes too prominent. Mark my words, Myles Standish will not just sit by quietly and watch.”

  Blurring again, Tess witnessed yet another meeting between Morton and Marduk. This time Thomas held a letter.

  “We are accused of drunken orgies in honor of Bacchus and Aphrodite, carnal relations with native women, drinking and dancing like fairies around the Maypole.” He turned troubled eyes to Marduk. “What shall we do?”

  Marduk wished with all his heart that it was not too late, but Morton had turned a blind eye for far too long. Marduk’s men had all encouraged the lavish gatherings, using their combined powers—against orders—over the elements to assure abundance for all and relishing in the debauched atmosphere after eons of enslavement.

  Marduk was not entirely innocent, taking full advantage of his physical prowess and partaking of women when and where he pleased. He did not paint a pretty picture of himself for Tess. She saw what he had momentarily become and felt his regret as he allowed his life in Merrymount to unfold before her. Enlil too, bared his tainted soul and showed her far worse of himself than Marduk had ever envisioned.

  When the pictures in her head slowed down, Tess knew she was about to see the end of the story.

  “It’s May Day, Marduk! There will be much celebrating when the sun goes down!” Anshar tried to goad his friend out of his foul humor, but failed for all his effort. Marduk had a bad feeling about tonight, and his mood sent a rumble of thunder across the sky.

  “Anshar, gather everyone together. I feel the need for a meeting.” He didn’t explain further, but sent Anshar on his way to assemble the gods.

  Something wasn’t right, and he needed to get to the bottom of it. The big men started trickling in, grumbling at having to leave the bonfire that was just beginning to light up the dusk. Lahar, Absu, Ninurta, Dumazi, Emesh, and Enten entered first, with Shamash, Ishkur, Kulla, and Enlil bringing up the rear with Anshar. Marduk looked over the group.

  “Where is Dagon?” he questioned sharply. All of the gods looked at each other, but none of them knew. Here was the thing that had been subconsciously bothering Marduk. “Has anyone spoken to him in the last couple of days?” They all shook their heads in the negative.

  “He’s been very secretive these past few months,” Enlil ventured. “He leaves for periods of time, then returns but doesn’t speak to anyone. It’s almost like he’s watching…observing, not really participating in anything.” Enlil shrugged and laughed. “But you know Dagon. Now you’ve got me being paranoid, Marduk.” The blond-haired giant wanted to get back to the fun like everyone else.

  “I’m not being paranoid, Enlil.” Marduk was more than worried now. “We need to call off the celebration tonight. Put out the bonfire and tell everyone to go back to their homes.” Tess knew Marduk wasn’t being a buzz-kill. Something big was about to go down, and she was afraid to see any more.

  Twelve large warriors left the long house and made their way up the hill to where the townspeople had gathered, drinking and making merry around the Maypole. Someone had place deer antlers on the pole and another fool was spouting odes to Cupid’s mother. One more drunken buffoon was holding court, proclaiming their Puritan neighbors the Princes of Limbo and decrying Myles Standish.

  Marduk’s men wended their way through the crowd, entreating and cajoling their neighbors to stop and go home, but it was too little too late.

  An army of Puritans suddenly swarmed the common, meeting no resistance. The citizens were completely surprised in their debauched state. Everyone was rounded up in short order, sharpened stakes and blunderbusses putting the revelers at a distinct disadvantage.

  Myles Standish wielded the ax that brought down the Maypole and, when Thomas Morton stepped forward, he was arrested on the spot.

  “Dagon!” The god’s name was called by Standish as Morton was clasped in irons. “Tell the good people of Merrymount,” he sneered the town’s name, “the crime for which their leader is being accused.”

  Here was the serpent in the garden, Marduk grimaced. Dagon, evil now overwhelming his beauty in the glow of the firelight, stepped forward and smiled.

  “Morton has been supplying guns to the local Algonquians,” he proclaimed over t
he immediate protest of the citizens. He caught Marduk’s eye and gloated. “I have proof that is irrefutable.”

  Standish took over at this juncture. “Thomas Morton, I hereby arrest you in the name of King Charles of England. May you be brought to a swift justice!” And just like that, Merrymount met its downfall.

  Tess saw Morton tried, convicted and banished to an island off the coast of Maine. She saw Merrymount renamed Mount Dagon, watched it succumb to famine, and eventually burnt to the ground. But worst of all, when Morton had been dragged away that night, she saw her brave and courageous men, who had stood by their leader, walk away from their home and become…nothing.

  At first, Tess believed their disappearance was just the end of her vision, but when she realized she was still aware of the landscape around her, still aware of people to her back, and still witnessing Dagon in all his glee, she understood that her twelve—not her thirteen men any more—had lost some kind of a battle and had been…relegated to the mist?

  She opened her eyes, not knowing what to say. What was it that she had just seen? Marduk and Enlil looked totally drained. Tess licked over dry lips.

  “You can call the men in the little white coats now,” she muttered wryly. “Only this time, they’re for me.”

  Chapter Eleven

  Marduk and Enlil sat back, waiting. A myriad of emotions played across Tess’s face. Wariness eventually won out.

  “So you guys expect me to believe this.” It was a statement edged in skepticism. “Don’t get me wrong, it was a wonderful show, and I’m sure any audience would appreciate such great hypnosis. But you’re really asking me to buy this?” She shook her head incredulously, then paused.

  “Okay. Let’s just say I go along with you for a moment.” She glanced skeptically at the two, unable to believe she was cutting them any slack. “Why would you bother to show me this stuff? What does it matter, and why should I care?”

  Marduk silently gave Enlil the “go” on this one.

  “Because somehow,” Enlil looked beseechingly at Tess, “for the first time since 1628, Marduk and I are…we have…hmph,” He cleared his throat. “Because of you…our bodies are once again tangible.”

  “No shit, Sherlock. We’re all tangible or we’d be dead. Spirits. Ghosts. Poof! You want me to conclude that you’ve been…what…around but invisible for longer than anyone on Earth has been alive?” She blew air between clenched lips. “You guys are fucking nuts!”

  She’d expected instant rebuttal or maybe even a “ha-ha, the joke’s on you.” What she didn’t expect were two stoic males, arms folded calmly across their chests, quietly staring at each other as if she suddenly didn’t exist.

  How much more of our past does she need to hear? Enlil asked Marduk silently, but Tess heard him. Does she need to know what we are? What we are capable of?

  She’s far too suspicious to believe anything else without a demonstration of our powers. Marduk sighed. It’s important that she understand us and that we gain her trust. Follow my lead.

  Ironically, it seemed to Tess like this was the first time in forever that the two had gotten along, when, once upon a time, they’d used their powers together and acted as one. Were they going to attempt that again?

  “Hello… I’m still here, you guys!” Tess wasn’t sure why she was putting up with this. She should have told the cops earlier that she was being accosted by two fruitcakes and had them locked up for assault. But no! Something inside her…yearned…well maybe “jonesed” a little for the dark-haired cutie and felt unnaturally protected by the blond. So it was beyond comprehension, but she was going to listen a little more.

  “There is something we’ve left out,” Marduk began, “a couple of things, actually.” He strummed his fingers nervously on his bicep.

  “Now we’re getting somewhere,” Tess answered smugly. “Continue.”

  “We’re actually, umm, both of us…and so are the other eleven guys you saw in the vision…we’re, ah, gods.” Marduk expected more disbelief, perhaps some verbal abuse, but what he got instead was a rich peal of laughter that filled the room.

  “Gods!” Marduk watched Tess’s mirth overflow. She had trouble catching her breath, and tears sprung from her eyes. “You guys are merciless,” she panted. “Knock me out, stitch me up, and then feed me the biggest line of bullshit I’ve ever heard!”

  Marduk scowled. “Has anyone ever told you that you have a seriously nasty mouth?” He wasn’t all that bothered by her vocabulary, just perturbed that it was aimed at him.

  “Sooooo sorry!” Tess gingerly wiped the moisture from her face. “But you must admit you deserve it. Feeding me all this crap and expecting me to swallow it.”

  “We can prove everything to you.” The thunder god was not used to being doubted or questioned.

  “I can’t wait!” Tess expounded. “More hocus pocus?”

  Marduk sighed. This wasn’t going to be easy. “Think of something obscure,” he demanded. “Something I couldn’t possibly know about and I will tell you what you’re thinking.”

  “Yeah right,” scoffed Tess. Marduk quickly picked up that she wanted to shut him down, but was intrigued despite herself, to test his…magic skills. She settled in and he watched her bring up a picture of a dog, Archie, her border collie in Maine, and also herself, a little younger, with her arms wrapped around the dog’s neck. It was a cherished, but slightly sad memory. Had her dog passed away?

  “All right, I’ve got it,” he nodded. “First, you thought not to acquiesce to my ‘game,’ but decided it might be humiliating for me, therefore you decided to continue. Am I correct?”

  “Like that takes a genius to figure out.” Tess curled her lip at his response. “Come on, Kreskin, stop stalling.”

  He launched right into it. “You’ve got your arms wrapped around a very pretty dog—medium in size, colored white, black, and brown. I believe it’s the breed known as border collie. One of his ears sticks up and the other is half flopped over. Wait…wait.” Marduk paused, troubled now. “It looks like you…but it’s not.”

  He was puzzled at the image. The little mouse in Tess’s head looked fuller through the face, her hair was curly not straight, and it was cropped short around her neck. It could have been Tess from another time in her life, perhaps a picture she carried of a happy past, but the thing that dissuaded him from this was the color of her eyes.

  “Why do you have ice-blue eyes in this picture?” He was inordinately upset at the disparity in the image. “Why have you altered your appearance to confuse me?”

  Tess sat, stunned. Had Marduk really been able to see into her mind, hear her thoughts? She remained silent and thought “twin sister.”

  “That explains it,” Marduk crowed. “You weren’t trying to fool me.” He stopped short. “My gods!” He turned to Enlil, who was ghostly pale. “That means you have two…two…”

  Tess was fully freaked out now, but not enough to have missed Enlil’s distress. “Two what? And you better be straight with me,” she demanded. “Are you a mind reader, as well? What do you think my sister and I are to you?” It had been a long day, and Tess was more than ready to explode. She didn’t know how much more her beleaguered brain could take.

  “You are my…great, great, great, and a whole lot more greats, granddaughters.” Enlil searched her face, as if looking for bits of himself.

  “I’ve got news for you,” Tess spat back, really not buying it this time. “In that ‘vision’ you gave me, I saw you guys in England and then in the good old US of A. Both my parent’s ancestors came from Italy and arrived at the turn of the twentieth century. So what do you think of that,” she ended smugly. “Physical impossibility!”

  “I don’t know what to tell you, little one,” Enlil came back gently. “But blood doesn’t lie, and the blood you shed today has my essence, and strongly too, as in direct lineage.”

  “Well, a DNA test will clear that up,” she snapped. Tess was not believing them for one minute. No way someone coul
d just…what…sniff blood and know where it had come from. “And it’s time to get this other stuff straightened out, too! I get it that you might be really good mind readers, but you better show me something that will knock me out of my sneakers if you want me to believe anything coming out of your mouths.” She sat back and crossed her arms across her chest, mimicking their stance from earlier.

  As if coming to some kind of silent agreement, Marduk answered for them both. “Fine, you’ll need to join us outside.” Without waiting for her agreement, both men pushed to their feet and left. Marduk re-entered before she had a chance to move, scooped up the bag from lunch, and deposited it in her trash, then turned again and slammed back out the door.

  She let loose a snort of laughter. A polite and gentlemanly psychopath. How endearing.

  Tess followed them outside and sat on the front steps. Dusk was rapidly approaching. Her guests stood a small distance away, conferring and pointing down the street.

  “You stay there,” called Marduk, “and watch carefully.” Tess did as instructed and Enlil marched off toward Beale Street. There was no one about, it being a fairly cold Saturday in April, and Tess had a good look at the “god” as he walked away. She snickered. Hmmm, she pondered, Grampa sure has a nice ass.

  This earned her a glower from Marduk, and she remembered that he could read her mind. She stuck her tongue out, which reaped the benefit of a fast, white grin, before she turned her attention back to Enlil…Enlil who suddenly misted into tiny particles and disappeared from sight.

  “There.” Marduk looked at her in that superior way again.

  “There, what?” Tess questioned. “You’ve already proved that you guys are good magicians. So he pulled a vanishing act. Lots of magic guys can do that.”

  “I’m going to go after him. I will also disappear from your view, and when that happens, I want you to come after us.” He looked at her with hardened eyes.