Four Horsemen, at Their Leisure by Richard Parks

Author:Richard Parks
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates
Published: 2010-11-15T00:00:00+00:00

You will stop this nonsense at once!

“Or what?”

Silence. While I was waiting for the answer I wasn’t sure would come, I took the time to get a better look at my surroundings, and I had to admit the Consensus had outdone itself. Somewhere within the infinite that was the Consensus, they had created a pocket universe, and so far as I could tell, it was all for me. I stood on a marble island that floated in black space. There were cities, roads, mountains, and trees all made from time-worn bones.

Or we will leave you here forever, alone.

In truth I rather liked the change, but the Consensus knew that.

“Is that supposed to be a threat?” I asked. “I mean, seriously? If you leave me here, of course I’ll stop the ‘nonsense,’ as You call it. The tree is out of my reach. So why are we even discussing this?”

Silence. I sighed. There was nothing like an inconvenient fact to disturb any consensus, even this one.

“Shall I say it, then? The Consensus can’t leave me here, at least not forever. Not if They truly want to try subcreation again. Immortality is for the spirit, not the body, and the Consensus chose to make Death corporeal. So to be blunt—you need me.”

You forget your place! Remember the fate of the Adversary.

I just kept grinning, though there was no humor in it. “Not likely. I was there. Not as I am now, no. Just one more spark of the divine. Like Him, and even then the troubles made no sense if you think about it, which none of us did, caught up in the moment as we were. Yet no part of the Consensus can oppose the Consensus. That’s what the word ‘consensus’ means. So how could there be an Adversary at all?”

More silence. I was starting to enjoy myself. “Obviously, you made Him to play the role He played. Just as you made me and my three brothers, who were all aspects of me. But why make us flesh, incarnate? You didn’t need any of us, not then. The forces that we represent arose naturally in the world, because they were all embodied in the Consensus, and thus in all the divine sparks that once stood as living beings on the earth. Just as the Adversary. I’m right, aren’t I?”

More silence. Then, You’ll be lonely here. You must have company.

In an instant my brothers were made flesh again. For a moment all they could do was stand mute, staring at each other, at themselves, their hands, fingers, elbows. Almost as one they reached up and touched their own faces, then their brothers’. I just sighed.

“Sorry, my brothers. I didn’t ask for this. You were part of the Consensus again. Do you remember?”

After a short hesitation War nodded, then Pestilence and Famine followed suit. “Please….” Famine said, but I knew he was not talking to me. “Take us back.”

No.

I didn’t know if the others heard the Consensus or not, but it wasn’t important now.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.