Rise of Gods (The Paternus Trilogy, #1)

by Dyrk Ashton

Moonlight beams through paisley lace curtains, projecting dappled patterns across the otherwise unlit room. Tucked tight in her antique brass bed, Fi dreams that she’s an old man dreaming. A soft pulsing light and a baby boy, floating on an ocean of reddish waves. Remember this time, she commands herself with that part of her mind that’s still her own, remember...

In a tiny room, sterile white, a withered old man gasps awake on a hard twin bed, wide-eyed and bewildered. A simple thought sparks in the darkness, struggles for space amongst the brambles and fog that infest his addled brain, forcing a tiny gap in which to breathe. I don’t dream! He clutches at thin sheets and stiff foam pillow. The thought trips over itself, I don’t dream, stumbles, I don’t... and falls, I... The old man’s sky blue eyes swirl to golden brown, then stormy gray, and emerald green, then fade, becoming dull, colorless, vapid. Brambles close in and the smothering fog of dementia billows, once again pervading every corner of his mind.

To pass the time, he peruses the frieze relief sculptures on the walls that would normally be seen on the outside of such a temple. Asterion sculpted them millennia ago, with a little help from monk apprentices. Arges and Tanuki worked on a couple of them. The Bull put those in the darkest corner in the back. Tanuki can’t blame him. They aren’t very good. Though Arges still likes to grumble about it. Tanuki wanders in the gaslight and shadows to the shuffle of his bare feet, click of his toenail claws on slick stone, soft hiss of burning lamps and huffing flicker of flame. The friezes are wrought in the Greek style, but if an outsider were to consider them to be based on myth, they would observe there are figures represented from stories around the world. There is Zeus of the Greeks, but also the Roman god Jupiter. Then Romulus and Remus, but Abel and Cain as well. Odin and Thor, Shiva and Ganesh, Anubis and Sekhmet, captured forever in all their immortal glory. Titans, Giants, Aesir, Vanir, angels, demons, Deva, Asura, bhutas and ganas. A veritable who's who of the panoply of gods and demigods, and hundreds of lesser creatures of lore. Thunderbirds, spiders, snakes, bears, bats, dragons, centaurs and ape-men, in addition to trolls and dwarves, gremlins, goblins, ghouls, flying fiends of the sky and monsters of the deep blue sea reflect in Tanuki's gaze. Most prevalent are half-men/half-beasts of a staggering variety, including a dozen configurations of human/canine and hu...

The details are so fascinating that an info dump is as riveting as the action...

Max crawls along the edge of the well, all eight eyes trained on Edgar. His voice is eerily whimsical and soft. “Will you walk into my parlor? said the Spider to the Fly, ‘Tis the prettiest little parlor, that ever you did spy; The way into my parlor, is up a winding stair; And I have curious things to show you, when you are there.” Edgar takes a bold step to block Max from Mrs. Mirskaya’s prostrate figure, and Fi and Zeke are surprised to hear him finish the stanza. “Oh, no no, said the Fly, to ask me is in vain;