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old body was human and your new body is a rapidly growing frog with too many
mouths. I’m surprised he can control the body well enough to stumble around at all.”
“Mutex could have been immortal,” Cole said. “If he’d been allowed to take on his full
size, he would have been unimaginably formidable. Mutex’s plan was a good one. An
evil one, of course, yes, but a good one.”
“He shouldn’t have taken something I needed,” Marla said. “I would have left him alone
if he hadn’t taken the Cornerstone. Until he tried to expand his theocracy too far east
anyway.”
Ch’ang Hao twisted off Mutex’s head and flung it to the ground, where it exploded in a
geyser of vegetation, creeping vines and big, waxy, white flowers. The frog-body
shuddered, slumped, and became a mound of dirt. Ch’ang Hao looked at the remains of
his vanquished foe for a moment, then began shrinking. He was soon out of sight below
the tree line.
“Think the collapsing god managed to smother all the poison dart frogs?” Marla asked.
“I will find out,” Cole said. “Perhaps I can enlist Ch’ang Hao to crush any that remain.
And I will find that odd basket Mutex had as well. It may simply be enchanted, but it
could also be an artifact, and those are always useful.”
Marla took off the snakeskin belt and laid it on the grass. “Cole, could you give this to
Ch’ang Hao? So he can, I don’t know, give it a proper burial or whatever?”
“I don’t think the gesture will make him forgive you,” Cole said.
“Yeah,” Marla said. “I don’t expect it to. How many mortal enemies does this make
now, Rondeau?”
Rondeau hummed and counted off on his fingers. “Do we count the Rummage twins as
one mortal enemy or two?”
“Two, I guess. They’ve got separate issues with me.”
“I count thirty-five, then,” Rondeau said. “But most of them are shit. Not like Ch’ang
Hao. And he’s a god; gods are patient. So you probably don’t have to worry about him
for a while.”
Marla didn’t answer. The Cornerstone was gone. She didn’t have to worry about any of
her enemies, really, except for Susan. Soon enough, Susan would cast her spell, and that
would be the end of Marla. At least when she was erased from the world she would
have no regrets. There wouldn’t be anything left of Marla to do the regretting, not even
a ghost.
“Those two pretty much wrecked the Tea Garden,” B said after a while. “That’s too bad.
It was a really nice place.”