Titans of Chaos

A one-hundred-yard length of pine tree came crashing like a battering ram through the air behindme, flung like a javelin. I ducked and swerved in time, and saw the wall of bark, yard upon yardof it, sailing by, a few feet from my face, wrinkled black texture of the bark whistling andwhispering.

Some drunken girl had thrown a tree. At me. Thrown a tree. You would think, once I found out Ilived in a world ruled by pagan gods, that not much would surprise me. I staggered and gawpedat the sight of a mast-tall tower of living wood, dirt clods still clinging to its many roots, slippingpast my face.

The stagger saved my life. A boulder the size of a car hissed past me to the other side, flung like abaseball, and shattered against the ground with a sound like a bomb igniting, sending rock chipsflying. Pow. If I had not stopped to stare, I would have been right about there right about now.

A shrill yell like a flock of falcons screeching rent the air. They thought it was cute to throw rocksand trees. Now they all wanted to do it.

I stopped short and turned, and saw, like a herd of whales jumping all at once, arching, fifty hugeand ponderous cylinders of wood toppling grandly, hugely, unstop-pably, crashing down throughthe air toward me.

Two of the airborne trees had shrieking maenads clinging to them: One was yodeling like acowgirl, happy to the last; the other was covered in blood and tried to leap clear of the branchesas the tree toppled. Apparently these women did not pause to find out who or what was in thethings they threw, or who or what was in the way.

I sprinted toward the area that seemed most clear of landing lumberyards, the part of the forestwith the most trees and other obstructions to slow the immense rain. Only one or two rocks wererocketed my way-there simply were not that many boulders for the shrieking women to pull up.

The trees all fell, uprooting other trees, quaking and crashing, and the earth cried out in pain andshook. I ran toward the thickest part of the dust cloud, which now expanded, gale-winged, outfrom the toppling wreckage of the broken forest.

I was blind for a moment and ran with my best sprinter's speed. These maenads were all strongerthan me, and faster, too, but they could not hit what they could not see.

When I came clear of the dust cloud, the trees were thicker than before. Only a handful of themaenads had me in direct sight, and one of them was sitting down to cry, because there was dustin her eyes.