Chapter 27:

All the noble boys cut, and not one guard claimed to have seen anything.  The boys said that the God had cut them and he may have.  All the boys had been healed.  Each of them was scarred from the cut, but all of them had been healed. 

Only magic could have done that.  They'd all had cocks and balls the day before.  Now, none of them did.

The God Cult, Heddwynn thought.  How could it have come to the city, the heart of the empire?  But, it wasn't much of an empire any longer, was it?  The whole western part of the country had become infested with the God cult.  Those that had joined the cult had been castrated. 

There wouldn't be another generation of subjects to rule in that part of the country; and if the cult continued to spread, there wouldn't be another generation in the entire kingdom.

Cadell had assured him that the God was defeated; and -- until recently -- Heddwynn had thought he was.  Certainly there had been reverses.  They had lost the four hundred noble boys from the dungeon, then lost three thousand golems in the first crossing of the straits. 

Heddwynn had lost ten thousand more in an attempt to cross the second time, but their opponents had lost twice that number of men.

But this loss of the cocks and balls of every noble boy was the most devastating of all.  What if those nobles loyal to Merfyn had also been cut?  Then, where would they be?  Nysrogh would feast on their souls.  That's where they would be. 

Besides the boys that had just been cut, there was no more than twenty noble boys in the kingdom; and probably no more than a half dozen of those had their man hair.   A half dozen boys, and come fall, Cadell would need sacrifice three of those, three, or he, Cadell, and Merfyn would die.

Heddwynn had heard tales of a man claiming to be the God come to Earth in human form.  He hadn't believed the tales until now, but here was proof.  Someone -- someone with magic -- had cut all the noble boys, boys securely imprisoned within high walls.  Yet, someone had entered and cut those boys, someone claiming to be the God. 

The men and golems guarding them and the slaves attending them, claimed not to have seen anything.  Possibly they didn't.  If it were the God, he could have walked past them. 

Still, Heddwynn had them all tortured, then set upon poles.  Even if they hadn't been disloyal, they had failed to guard the boys.

Now, though, he had to go to Cadell and Merfyn, admitting to them that he'd failed to protect the boys -- their cocks and balls, a commodity more precious than gold or jewels. 

If there were only two noble boys left with man hair come the time for the sacrifice, Heddwynn knew whose soul would be forfeited.  At least -- for now -- he commanded the army. 

* * *

"What?" said Cadell and Merfyn, almost simultaneously when Heddwynn reported to them that the boys had been cut. 

"How could it have happened?" asked Cadell.  "Did you not have them well guarded?

"Yes," answered Heddwynn, "the boys claimed that the God cut them.  Only someone using magic could have passed through the gates and past the guards."

"How do you know it wasn't a conspiracy?" asked Merfyn. 

"I had the guards tortured.  Even so, none gave information that would lead me to believe he knew how someone could have gained entry to the compound.  If magic wasn't used, all the guards and slaves would have had to be involved; besides many of the guards were golems, who wouldn't have been able to deceive me; none of them reported seeing anyone.  Entry could have only been gained by magic."

* * *

The God?  Could it possibly be the God?  But how?  He had blinded the God, even killed his king.  That alone should have defeated him.  Cadell had installed Merfyn as king, dedicating him to Nysrogh by cutting off his cock and balls.

Then, some boys had eluded being cut for golems, cutting themselves instead.  Somehow, they had then killed all the golem shells and freed the noble boys from the dungeon.  They had pursued them with three thousand golems, but lost them in the straits between the mainland and the island.

Somehow, all the males they had cut between Langaris and the coast had strengthened the God.  The parting of the sea had been powerful magic indeed, more powerful than anything Cadell could have done.

Then they had lost the ten thousand golems in their attempt to invade Anglesey; but Cadell had killed even more of their soldiers. 

It's true the God cult worried him, but he thought they were safe behind the walls of Langaris.  They had over five thousand golems in the city and another five thousand in the countryside around Langaris, all looking for the leaders of the God cult, especially for the one calling himself the God. 

Now, someone calling himself the God had entered the city, even entered the stronghold where they had kept the noble boys, cutting every last one of them. 

The boys had been the source of Cadell's power -- his magic.  Without them, he was little better than a magician.  He couldn't effectively do magic without a boy to sacrifice, one with cock and balls. 

There wasn't a noble boy in the entire city that had cock and balls, not even those without man hair.  Cadell could work some magic against other humans by sacrificing a human boy who had man hair, but there were precious few of those in the city.  He had used most of them to make golems. 

At least the golems would obey him, even over the orders of Heddwynn.  It was he, after all, that had cut their shells, giving their souls to Nysrogh.

"Find this person," Cadell told Heddwynn.  "Seal the gates of the city.  Let no one out.  Arrest all strangers; set them on poles.  We end this threat here and now."

"But if he's the God?" said Heddwynn, "If he's the God, what can we do?  How can we kill the God?"

"The God is a spirit, as is Nysrogh.  Both have always worked through surrogates.  Never has a god appeared in this world.  Perhaps this person claiming to be the God is really Prince Emrys.  One boy came to me before with the tale of a boy in with the golem shells that was actually the prince, but he said that he'd been cut.  I thought then that, if it were the prince, it wouldn't matter because he would already be a golem shell.  Perhaps, though, he was the one who killed the golem shells.  Perhaps the prince has been our nemesis all along."

Still, if it were the prince he was up against, not a god, the prince was still a worthy adversary.  He had won each time they'd fought, hadn't he? 

Oh, he'd lost more men than Heddwynn in their last encounter at the straits, but even that had been a defeat for Heddwynn and Cadell.  It had stopped their invasion of Anglesey.

Too, the magic he'd used to cross the straits -- walking on water -- had been beyond any that Cadell could have done, not without the sacrifice of a boy of royal blood, and if the prince lived, he was the only boy of royal blood that lived.

But if it were the prince, he no longer had cock or balls.  All boys in the stockade had been cut, whether by Cadell or by themselves.  And if he had no cock or balls, he was precluded from being king.  All the God's kings had to be whole, perfect of body.

If it were the prince they were up against, they need find him and kill him.  Even if he were cock-less and ball-less and could never be king, he had the power of the God behind him; and the God became stronger each day, while Cadell and -- through him -- Nysrogh became weaker.