Free Theatre of the Gods by M. Suddain Page B

a dream, picking up objects and saying, ‘This is not my beautiful lamp. This is not my marble baboon.’ This was not his unconquerable universe. It was an alien universe, and it made him feel even more alone, even more of a stranger than he ever had.
    *
    It was also the kind of dimension – much like the one he claimed to have left – which did not take to strangers, or their ideas about other universes. Until now.
    ‘… And then when the giant clam opened you were standing there, dressed only in kelps and weeds of the ocean. And you held in your hand a starfish, and you said, “Take, my Queen, this is for you. I bring you the stars, the stars from the borderless sea.” Oh, what a dream it was!’ The Queen spoke now in the excited voice of a child. ‘Is it not fantastic? My vision has told me that you would be the one to restore this Empire’s greatness, and give the people hope again. So you see how this great Empire needs you, my dear old Fabrigas.’
    ( Dear old Fabrigas. The Queen had once declared that if he spoke again of other universes she would have him fed to omnigators, and then have those fed to wild mountain pigs, and then have those set on fire.)
    ‘Our people suffer from plague and shortages. Our enemies mass at our borders. They want to destroy us. We need hope again. And that is why we are sending a fleet to the next dimension.’
    ‘No no no. Oh please, no …’
    The Queen was building to a fever pitch, the wires attached to her limbs were fizzing on their pulley wheels. ‘My people need hope. They despair, my people, but when they hear that the Great Fabrigas has decided to help us by leading us to the next universe they will sing again!’
    ‘My … my Queen,’ said Fabrigas, ‘I beg of you not to require of me such a thing … ’ He took a small step, a large slip, the magistrates gasped, in the tank below a single fat tentacle flopped upon the floor with a slap that echoed like a whip-crack.
    ‘Do not be frightened.’ The Queen’s eyes were wide, her voice a whisper. ‘You will be given the best and fastest vessel, a strong and able crew, as fine a pilot as we can catch, and you will be in the company of the largest and most formidable battle fleet we canmuster. You need not fear. This is not a death sentence. You will be like one of our great young heroes: leading our warriors into the unfathomable depths, facing many trials, returning home to my bosom a conqueror. Your face will be carved in the Hall of the Heroes. You will stand forever with other Immortals: Tristanzi, Gyminastica, Ultravoxus.’
    ‘My Queen, I am not a young hero any more. I am an old man. For the love of everything, I am more than one thousand years old!’
    ‘Silence, hero! It is decided. Now I’m thirsty!’ cried the Queen. Both her hands flew into the air and hung there for a second. ‘Thirsty!’ cried Barrio, his crooked mouth slick with spittle. Eunuchs sped into the room carrying silver trays with glasses full of coloured liquids. ‘Red!’ cried the Queen. ‘I want r-r-r-r-r-red!’ The word ‘red’ whirred off her tongue like a propeller. A eunuch held a beaker the colour of day-old blood to the Queen’s face and her awful, greenish lips closed like a sea slug around the tip of the straw. The sucking sound rang through the chamber; it sounded like strips of paper being slowly torn. And Fabrigas’s heart – that too had been torn into even pieces. He gazed down at the iron cuffs which lay nearby. He thought about his comfortable cell with all his books and his nice, comfortable bed. He looked down at the now-still pond in front of the throne. Several would-be assassins had tried to use non-slip shoes to reach the Queen. They now slept with Leonard. He thought for a second how nice and simple it would be to join the giant octopus in his calm, cool world below the surface.

A FREE BIRD
    Word busted from the chamber with the purposeful fury of a team of elephants. In the First Chamber the