FALSE GODS

20 The Mudborn

One hundred and seventy years back, Ruben Agrippa’s great grandfather, Rhesus Agrippa, had purchased the land in the middle of nowhere for a piece of silver. Over a hundred acres, it had fertile soil with good texture. The surrounding forest flourished with winged and land game and well-placed watering holes for hunting. He envisioned a sprawling household with grain stocks and spices and meat for trade. Self-assured of his venture, Rhesus set about birthing seven children to handle the future enterprise.

In the early years, his vision seemed to pan out splendidly. The farms had good harvests every year, and the game collection was in surplus. The Agrippa family started saving gold. They built a mansion overlooking a brooklet. Rhesus died fulfilled, believing he had arranged perennial income for his descendants.

Around a hundred years ago, the Ascendancy mandated establishing a hundred-foot high wall around Theikos. It was to keep out barbarians from entering the cities unlawfully. The border wall would pass not more than a few miles ahead of the Agrippa land. With the miracles born of godly powers and the divine architecture of the titan Myron, the wall was successfully built within a year.

While the rest of the citizens of Theikos reveled, the Agrippa household suffered peril and disaster.

The river Struma that flowed out from Theikos was turned around by the construction of the wall, thus inundating the adjoining lands. Floods swept across the terrain, wiping out prosperous farms. The diverse game beasts fled from the area to drier habitats.

In a matter of a few months, the Agrippas’ trade and commerce collapsed. Their grand mansion was razed in the deluge. The river went underground, forming marshes and swamps. Desperate for survival, the Agrippas sought stable ground on their ruined lands.

They dug fifty feet into the soil on a prospective plot to find underground water and a solid pan. Satisfied with the location, they built a modest home. Several decades later, Ruben inherited the house.

“Are the marshes swallowing our house?” Elias asked, alarmed.

“That should not be possible, son. It was constructed on firm ground. Your great grandfather made sure of that.”

“Father, come look!” Rhode called out.

The Agrippa cottage was in the middle of a clearing with natural fencing of winterberry and rye. The only other shelters in the clearing were the animal sheds and the grain silo.

Rhode was pointing to the fringes of their homestead. The ground was wet and seemed to pulsate.

“What in Sol’s name is happening?” Lysa exclaimed.

It was as if a bog had surrounded their homestead.

“The mud wasn’t there when I walked in, Father.” Rhode offered.

Two paths led out of the clearing, and both seemed to be obstructed by the mysterious ring of swamp. It was around twenty feet wide and seemed impossible to jump over.

Elias picked up a large stone and cast it into the muck. The rock landed with a splotch and sank.

That did not bode well.

“Are the gods punishing us?” Lysa muttered, panicking.

“This is not the work of gods, dear. Something malevolent is at the root of this. We need to escape to higher ground.” Ruben declared.

It took a while for the Agrippa family to prepare for travel and load their ox wagon with essentials. Meanwhile, the encircling bog seemed to have crept in. Dark clouds had gathered overhead, courting a thunderstorm. It was close to noon, but the overcast weather made it look like dusk.

Elias helped his mother into the carriage.

“Please, let’s hurry,” Lysa urged her son.

“We will start right away, mother.”

Father and son had prepared solid planks to help the carriage cross over the bog.

Rhode came back running from the well.

“There’s no water to draw. The wells are full of mud.”

“Then we will make do with what we have,” Ruben decided, climbing the rider's pillion.

Rhode had a crawling sense of dread. As if the world was ending.

Was it really her fault? For disappointing her parents and her groom-to-be? Were the gods punishing the family for her misdeeds? Perhaps she should have let Jirel touch her. Lysa had raised her to believe that men make the world go round and women must live in their shadows, supporting them in their ventures.

“What are you waiting for? Quick! Get on!” Ruben shouted above the wind, which had picked up suddenly.

Rhode found a seat in the wagon.

Thunder rumbled and cracked. The weather was going to be worse than they had expected. But a storm so early during summer was unnatural.

Ruben whipped the oxen, and they started. The wagon was heavy, but the beasts of burden were strong and well-fed. Lysa muttered a prayer to the gods. They would be safe once they cross the mysterious bog.

They were about to ride over the planks when the oxen stopped. The wagon came to a grumbling halt. The beasts wouldn’t budge anymore.

“What is it, you witless animals?” Ruben chastised the draught cattle.

They stood in their positions and bellowed loudly, refusing to respond to Ruben’s reins, whip, and curses.

“Father, they are scared,” Elias mumbled.

“Damn these godforsaken beasts! Even they have turned on us!” Lysa croaked.

But the cause of the oxen’s trepidation soon presented itself.

The planks placed on the bog snapped from the middle and sank. The wet ground seemed to have sucked them in. And then, the mud rose like small hillocks from the ground. The mounds took forms, horrifying, shapeless blobs of mud with eyes and mouths. They rose from all around them.

Lysa let out a piercing shriek and swooned.

“Elias, take your mother inside!” Ruben hollered.

He picked up a pitchfork and threw it at one of the blobs. The implement dug into it and then sunk in as if ingested.

“Father, the house!” Elias shouted.

Ruben turned around to see that their cottage was partially sunk into the marsh, teetering like a capsized ship. Entering it would lead to getting buried alive.

“To the granary!”

They carried what they could from the wagon and rushed into the shelter. Rhode looked back and saw the mud monsters climbing out of the pits and slinking towards them. The most rational explanation of what was happening before her eyes was that it was a nightmare. And she hoped to the gods she woke up soon.

Ruben and Elias shut all the doors and hammered nails on the frames.

“What are those things, Father?” Elias screamed.

“I know not what they are, son. But they are not from the green world we live in.”

“How do we fight them off?”

“I’m afraid I have no answer to that,” he replied, leaning on his son. “We will probably die together, as a family.”

Elias hugged Ruben, and they stood back-to-back, guarding the walls of the granary.

Rhode watched them helplessly. Wasn’t there something she could do?

EAT THE GIRL! A voice rang in her head.

Rhode turned around, looking for the source. But there was no stranger in the granary.

The sounds of the world seemed to have been shut to her. The thunder and wind, the guttural moans of the mud monsters, the nervous talk of her father and brother. Everything had gone mute to her. Only a chorus of voices pierced through.

EAT THE GIRL!!

Did the cries belong to the creatures outside?

Then why could Ruben and Elias not hear them?

EAT THE GIRL!

So they WERE after her!

Rhode’s mind raced. If she gave herself up, her family would not have to die.

But SHE did not want to die.

The monsters would kill her anyway.

The doors, windows, and walls of the granary started trembling. Stored sacks of grain fell off their stacks. The very foundations of the shelter seemed to shake. Moments later, the monsters would barge in.

Ruben and Elias stood manning the doors.

“Rho, get back, stay with mother!” Elias called out.

When there was no response, he turned around and saw one of the windows was open. The tremors had stopped.

“Father!”

Ruben rushed to the window. Rhode was outside, walking towards the monsters. They had paused their advance and stood like sentries around the shelter.

“No! Rhode! My little girl!” Ruben called out in anguish. The window was too small for him or Elias to get out.

He ran to the door and started plucking the nails.

After taking the door apart, they rushed after her. But the creatures had retreated. They dived into the bog whence they came, and the marsh thinned, gradually disappearing.

“My little girl! My gift from the gods!” Ruben screamed, falling on his knees.

Rhode was being carried away on the torso of one of the mud monsters. It had picked her up with an appendage and pulled the body towards itself. The girl was stuck to its chest, half-submerged. It smelled horrible- of rotten plants and dead animals and stagnant water. Then the creatures jumped one after another into the bog.

The swamp was slowly thinning.

“My gift from the gods!” Ruben’s voice carried over to her.

No, Father, I was a disappointment to you. At least this way, I was useful to you once. Mother will understand. Women are to be used for the ventures of men. Such acts give worth to their lives.

The mud-being carrying Rhode also plunged into the bog, and suddenly the world disappeared around her. There was darkness and the touch of muck and marsh. She held her breath for some time, but mud entered her through the nose and mouth when she let go. Rhode suffocated. Her thrashing was pointless inside the swamp. And then life left her.

Outside, the weather over the Agrippa cottage improved. The marsh disappeared, and the sun broke out at noon.

It made no difference to Ruben and Elias, who sat grieving a family member’s death. Inside the granary, Lysa lay unconscious, ignorant that her daughter was gone forever.