Titans of Chaos

Boggin leaned and whispered, "Highness, if I may mention, the young lady is of the blood ofHelion, not to mention, ah, Oceanos and Tethys, lords of the endless waste. Our universe mustseem a small place to her, three cramped dimensions, a mere fifteen billion light-years across. Thegirl suffers from claustrophobia."

Mavors waved him away. To me, he said, "I am not asking why you came to see me; I am askingwhy you are absent from your post without my leave. These were not your orders."

"Wh-? I mean, I beg your pardon, sir? Orders?"

"You and yours went to ground on an island. You knew, at least from the moment you saw myfleet part to let you pass, that you were meant to serve as bait for Lamia, and whoever is behindher. Obviously I meant you to draw her out; for that reason I let you go. By going, youacknowledged. You were impressed into my service as of that moment. But if you will not perform,I have no reason not to gather you back in."

"Are you making a bargain with me? We can be free as long as we act as bait for Lamia?"

"Bargain?" The tiniest hint of a frown darkened Mavors' features. "My bastard half brotherMulciber bargains. I do not bargain. A sovereign imposes duties. What sort of nation could stand,were every man a shopkeeper, like Mulciber?"

"That greatest nation in war and peace, in the arts and sciences, in laws and in letters, the worldhas ever known!" I said hotly. "Great Britain is a nation of shopkeepers, and the foe who mockedher with those words was laid low."

Mavors raised an eyebrow and glanced once more at Boggin. Boggin was still holding the UnionJack, idly puffing to make the colors stream: He could make a breeze stiff enough to lift the flagwithout even distending his cheeks. When he felt Mavors' eyes upon him, he casually put thestandard behind his back.

With a rustling shrug of his red wings, he said in a confidential tone, "Your father Lord Terminusgave me the latitude, that is to say, the discretion to choose in which nation to raise the children,ah, the monsters, Highness.

Your stern cities of Rome and Sparta had both known days of ascendancy, that is glorious days,um, at one time, historically speaking, of that we need harbor no doubt, but I have always had aweakness, as one might expect, for the colder and paler peoples of the North."