Read Online Theta by Lizzy Ford - Free Book Online

said. He held out an
envelope to me.
    Though I wanted to tear it out of his hand
and devour it, I accepted it with the grace and composure befitting
my royal title. Theodocia’s letters came semi-monthly, and I
incessantly worried about her in the period of time stretching
before the arrival of a new one.
    “ We also have a prisoner,”
the commander said and cleared his throat.
    I looked up from the envelope to meet his
gaze, raising an eyebrow in quizzical inquiry.
    “ He found one of our
scouting teams,” the commander continued. “He said he has a message
for you from someone you seek.”
    Tucking the envelope into the pocket of my
cargo pants, I motioned for him to lead us to this mysterious
prisoner.
    “ Are you not under orders
to kill deities posing as humans?” Herakles asked. He fell in
behind me, and we followed the commander.
    “ He gave us reason to
consider him useful.”
    I glanced over my shoulder at Herakles. At
my expressive look, he spoke again.
    “ Her Majesty wants to know
what you mean by this.”
    “ He healed all the wounded
and sick in the infirmary,” was the quiet response.
    There were several gods and goddesses with
the ability to heal. Until I met this one, I wouldn’t know which it
was.
    “ Including my son and wife,
who were stricken with dysentery from the initial source of
polluted water we tried to use,” the Commander added. “And he’s not
fully possessed.”
    I didn’t think it possible for someone to be
halfway possessed. Either a god had forced its way into a human
body, or it hadn’t.
    “ That is a useful ability,”
Herakles said with a considering glance at me. “Dysentery’s killed
sixty so far.”
    My jaw clenched. Aside from dysentery, we’d
lost another fifteen lives during negotiations with other towns for
food, or at the hands of either marauders who lived in the forest
or by the townspeople themselves. Another twenty-four were dead
from hunting deities. I’d been to visit each family of someone who
died, and we’d created a separate pyre for each man and woman.
Every night, we held a new wake. The names and faces of those who
had died were a blur in my exhausted mind, which was a source of
embarrassment to me. If these men and women sacrificed their lives
for my cause, should I not remember their names?
    Between managing an army, visiting grieving
families, and hunting for deities, I barely slept. When I did doze,
I had nightmares.
    I understood too well how useful a healing
deity could be.
    But I much preferred a dead deity.
    We passed through the main shopping mall,
whose stores had been converted into barracks where the soldiers
lived with the other members of their units. Of the three anchor
stores, only one had survived the gods’ wrath. It was transformed
into our headquarters, which contained barracks for all the command
personnel and common areas consisting of public baths, showers and
restrooms, a dining hall, and a massive refrigerated storage area
where we kept every last tiny piece of food that was brought in by
hunting parties or left over from the nightly wakes. Soldiers slept
in other abandoned stores throughout the mall. Outdoor kitchens
prevented the buildings from becoming too hot and freed up living
space. Most of the design aspects of our compound had been based
off of Herakles’ ideas. He had a knack for the basic building
blocks of surviving anywhere, with any kind of resources.
    We exited the headquarters. Many members of
the army had brought families or close friends with them from DC.
Those who were not official soldiers or support staff lived in the
adjacent buildings of a strip mall across the street but still well
within our protected compound. The lights were out in the other
buildings, and it was quiet this time of night.
    I had no place designated for prisoners of
war, since I never planned to take any, and was curious to see
where the soldiers kept the imprisoned deity. I sensed the god
before I saw where we were