Read Ebook: The God Next Door by Doede William R Ivie Larry Illustrator

Font size: 10 px 15 px 20 px 25 px 30 px 35 px

Background color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Text color: BlackWhiteGrayLight GrayDark GrayDim Gray

Apply/Save settings

Ebook has 142 lines and 6550 words, and 3 pages

She shook her head. "Never. They are no longer my people. They have disowned us."

"And because of me even those in the cavern have disowned you."

Suddenly she stiffened beside him. There, directly in their path, stood the Sand God. It was blood red now. It pulsed violently. The great voice burst forth.

"Leave the woman!" it demanded angrily. "The webfoots are nearing your position."

"I cannot leave her. She is helpless against them."

"What form of primitive stupidity are you practicing now? Leave, or they will kill you."

Stinson shook his head.

The Sand God pulsed more violently than before. Ice melted in a wide area around it. Brown, frozen grass burned to ashes.

"You will allow them to kill you, just to defend her life? What business is it of yours if she lives or dies? My race discarded such primitive logic long before it reached your level of development."

"Yes," Stinson said, "and your race no longer exists."

The Sand God became a sphere of blue flame. A wave of intense heat drove them backward. "Earthman," the great voice said, "go back to your Earth. Take your inconsistencies with you. Do not come here again to infect my planet with your primitive ideas. The webfoots are not as intelligent as you, but they are sane. If you bring your people here, I shall destroy you all."

The sphere of blue fire screamed away across the frozen wilderness, and the thunder of its passing shook the ground and echoed among the lonely hills.

Sybtl shivered against his arm. "The Sand God is angry," she said. "My people tell how he was angry once before, when we first came here. He killed half of us and burned the ship that brought us. That is how Kaatr got the tube-weapon. It was the only thing the Sand God didn't burn, that and the skirts. Then, when he had burned the ship, the Sand God went to the sixth planet and burned two of the largest cities, as a warning that no more of us must come here."

Well, Stinson said to himself, that does it. We are better off on Earth. We can't fight a monster like him.

Sybtl touched his arm. "Why did the Sand God come? He did not speak."

"He spoke to me."

"I did not hear."

"Yes, I know now. His voice sounds like thunder in the sky, but it is a voice that speaks only in the mind. He said I must leave this planet."

She glanced at him with suddenly awakened eyes, as if thinking of it for the first time. "Where is your ship?"

"I have no ship."

"Then he will kill you." She touched her fingers on his face. "I am sorry. It was all for me."

"Don't worry. The Sand God travels without a ship, why shouldn't I?"

"Now?"

"As soon as you are safe. Come."

Steam rose from the burned area, charred like a rocket launching pit. They stepped around it carefully. Stinson felt warm air, but there was no time, now, to warm cold feet or dwell on the vagaries of Sand Gods.

Together they crossed the narrow valley. Sybtl led him toward a tall mound of rock. Here they came to the creek again, which flowed into a small canyon. They climbed the canyon wall. Far away, small figures moved. The webfoots were on their trail.

She drew him into a small cave. It was heated, like the great cavern, but held no walled pool nor mysterious lighting. But it was warm, and the small entrance made an excellent vantage point for warding off attack.

"They will not find us...."

A high-pitched keening burst suddenly around them. Stinson knew they had heard, or felt the sound for some time, that now its frequency was in an audible range.

"The Sand God," Sybtl said. "Sometimes he plays among the clouds. He makes it rain in a dry summer, or sometimes warms the whole world for days at a time in winter, so the snow melts and the grass begins to green. Then he tires and lets winter come back again. He is the loneliest God in the universe."

"What makes you think he's lonely?"

She shrugged her shoulders. "I just know. But he's an angry God now. See those clouds piling in the East? Soon they will hide the sun. Then he will make them churn and boil, like river whirlpools in spring. At least he does this when he plays. Who knows what he will do when he's angry?"

"The Sand God isn't doing this," Stinson said. "It's only a storm."

She covered his lips with her fingers. "Don't say that. He may hear you and be more angry."

"But it is, don't you see? You give him powers he does not possess."

Sybtl shook her head and stroked his face with her long, slim fingers. "Poor little God-with-fingers-on-his-feet," she said. "You do not understand. The Sand God is terrible, even when he plays. See the lightning? It is blue. The lightning of a storm that comes by itself is not blue. He is running around the world on feet like the rockets of space ships, and when he strikes the clouds, blue fire shoots away."

The clouds continued to build on one another. Soon the blue flashes of lightning extended across the sky from horizon to horizon. The earth trembled. Sybtl moved closer, trembling also.

"He never did this before," she said. "He never made the earth shake before."

Great boulders crashed down the canyon walls and dropped into the creek. They dared not move from the cave, although death seemed certain if they stayed.

"I'll leave for a moment," he said. "I'll be back soon."

"You're leaving?" There was panic in her voice.

"Only for a moment."

"And you won't come back. You will go to your world."

"No. I'll be back."

"Promise? No, don't promise. The promises of Gods often are forgotten before the sounds die away."

"I'll be back."

He disappeared at once, giving her no chance to object again, and went to the desert of sand, where he had first arrived on the planet. He wanted to see if the storm were world-wide.

Stinson had never been in a sand storm before, even on Earth. He could not breathe. He could not see. Bullets of sand stung his skin. Bullets of sand shot into his eyes. Clouds of sand howled around him. He fell, and the wind rolled him over and over in the sand like a tumbleweed. The skirt flew up around his face. He could not get up again.

He returned to the cave.

Soon after, while they sat huddled together, watching the chaos of tumbling rocks, lightning, and driving rain, the high-pitched keening came again. A sphere of blue fire appeared in the east. Its brilliance put the lightning to shame. It bore down on the cave swiftly, purposefully. Stinson prepared himself to leave. In spite of his desire to protect Sybtl, it was useless to get himself killed when he was powerless to help her. But at the last moment it veered off.

"Fiend!" Stinson screamed the word, vaguely marvelling at his own fury.

Share on: WhatsApp @Hash Facebook Tweet