Working God's Mischief Read Online Free

afraid of heights he liked watching stuff fall.
    Hecht came out of his nap to find the Old Ones gone. He started to demand an explanation, stifled himself. He was not used to not being in charge. Nor did it matter where they had gone. They could not leave the Realm of the Gods.
    â€œHow are you holding up?” he asked Anna.
    â€œI’m all right. I napped some, too. Not as enthusiastically as the Snore King, though.”
    This was good. She could joke. “How about…?”
    â€œI worked it out. I had no choice. And Vali would have taken the shot if I hadn’t, anyway.”
    Hecht glanced at Vali. She nodded.
    Heris said, “Stop fussing, little brother. She’s good. We’re all good. We can hear again. No harm done, and nobody is hungry. Let’s get to work.”
    â€œAll right. But I’m wondering where we’re going, Heris. You killed the Windwalker. He was the reason this all got started.”
    â€œKharoulke had a family. Vrislakis. Zambakli Souleater. Djordjevice the Foul.”
    â€œAnd?”
    â€œAnd they are all spawn of the primal Night, freed by the ice and going unchallenged because Asgrimmur imprisoned the Old Ones. They’re starting to recover,” said Heris.
    â€œKharoulke couldn’t fight you off.”
    â€œHe was alone. I wasn’t. And other old evils are wakening, too, Instrumentalities who think in millennial terms. They can wait for help from wicked people.”
    â€œHuh?”
    â€œRudenes Schneidel? People doing what we are but with bloody evil intent?”
    Hecht gaped, startled by her passion.
    â€œYou know er-Rashal al-Dhulquarnen, Piper. How many resurrections has he been tied to? He won’t stop till he succeeds. You thwarted him in the Connec and at Arn Bedu but he’ll be up to some other villainy by now.”
    Hecht stared. Heris said, “You know where destiny is taking you. You’ll need all the help you can get on the way.” She gestured at the remaining alembics. “If our clumsiness hasn’t turned them against us.”
    â€œI suspect clumsiness doesn’t account for much.”
    Heris nodded. Her expression turned grim. Then she winked. “Onward, little brother. To the next step.”
    â€œDid anybody check for blast damage to the connector tubes?”
    â€œDouble Great did. They’re sound at the wall. He rigged the bowl for the soul egg feed to the one that connected to the bottle Anna shot.”
    â€œBut that one didn’t have the double petcock.”
    â€œNo. The one in front of you did. The tube had a bigger diameter and bent down behind, to the second petcock, but it got cut by shrapnel.”
    Hecht eyed the head-high bowl Februaren had rigged. “That’s too precarious. You put weight in there, it’ll tip over. Why not wait and see what you can do with the right feed once we let those things out?”
    Heris restrained her stubborn determination to be in charge. “Double Great. What do you think?”
    â€œThat this time Piper’s head is working right. We need the double valve to manage the Trickster.”
    â€œAll right. Let’s do that.”
    *   *   *
    The next release brought forth three Old Ones, all female. Of those Hecht already knew one, Wife. That was a name, not a title, though Wife was the spouse of the Gray Walker.
    Hecht watched them swear oaths that bound them to good behavior. Asgrimmur leaned closer as the second goddess swore. “Sheaf. Aspected to grain and crop fertility.” As though that ought to mean something. “She’ll need watching. She was Red Hammer’s number-one wife. And these Instrumentalities can be big on revenge. And the pretty one is Aldi.”
    Cloven Februaren joined them. “One more bottle. And one unhappy Trickster still in storage.”
    The ascendant missed his tone. He nodded. “The last two. One god, one goddess. But she’s Red