Zeus reached him just before me, and to my surprise, took the gross, wet, sandy, slobbery stick and gave it a hard throw.
Spud took off like a fuzzy brown bolt of lightning.
“Uh, oh,” I said. “Don’t let Bertie see you have that kind of arm. She’ll make you pitch for the Ordinary Octopuses.”
“Death would be preferable,” he said, as we fell back into an easy walk.
“To answer your question, it is about keeping you safe, yes, but it is also about our weapons. The breach of our realms was not something that has ever happened before. Not like that. Not so easily. And to be able to transport our weapons and taunt us by delivering them to our doorstep?” His eyes tightened.
“Goap said he was trying to help us. Arm us against the king.”
“They crossed our thresholds.”
“Yes, but—”
“They took our weapons.”
“Sure, but—”
“They delivered them to us in paper boxes. A mockery of our power.”
“Okay. I can see how—don’t give me that glare—Icansee that it was a breach of things that shouldn’t have been breached.”
Spud reached the stick and picked it up. He trotted slowly toward us.
“You think the king of hell is going to attack Ordinary?” I asked.
We’d both stopped and were waiting for Spud to reach us.
“No.”
Interesting.
“Want to let me in on your reasoning?”
“Demons don’t follow rules, Delaney. They rarely follow a straight path to what they want. If he wants Ordinary, he’ll find a better way to get it than a frontal assault.”
Spud reached us. I bent for the stick, but he turned his head to the side and sat with the stick in his mouth. No more throwing.
I started walking back the way I’d come, the breeze stronger now, salted and cool against my face.
“Maybe that’s the one thing gods and demons have in common,” he mused.
“Frontal assaults?”
“No.”
“Power hunger?”
“No.” This time his tone was a little amused.
“Super massive egos?”
He chuckled. “No. They aren’t always what they appear to be.”
I hummed. “I know a few deities who are all lightning bolt and thunder, inside and out.”
“Yes, well, I didn’t say we wereneverwhat we appear to be.”
