The Serpent Waits

by Bill Hiatt

  “Uh, handcuffs,” said our captive, holding his hands up again.

  “Sorry, I meant our Khalid.”

  Khalid stepped forward and crouched down to eye the door lock.

  “Despite all the high tech around us, the lock is pretty old-school,” said Khalid. “Give me a minute.”

  If he was using a tool, I couldn’t see one. His fingers moved so fast that they blurred. In about half a minute, I heard a click and knew he had succeeded.

  “I’ll lead,” said Tal. “Swords sheathed, but hands on the hilts. Arrows ready, but bows not held in the firing position. If the seer isn’t already an enemy, let’s not make one of her.”

  The suite didn’t look much different from Khalid’s, with one significant exception. An enormous stone archway stood in the middle of the room. Energy that looked like a sandstorm swirled within the arch.

  “What I thought was a life sign is coming from the arch,” said Viviane. “The false signal must be designed to fool snoopers into thinking the seer is in the suite when she’s really…I don’t know. Wherever that portal leads?

  “A fixed portal with no way to see what’s on the other side,” said Carla. “I’m not liking this at all.”

  Tal squinted at the arch. “You’re right. There’s too much interference to tell much.”

  “Is this Ceridwen doing another double-cross?” asked Stan. “Maybe she really is loyal to Hafez.”

  “If she were really loyal to Hafez, she could have fought with him throughout that last battle instead of switching sides, and we would have lost,” said Shar. “The only way to explain her actions is to assume she’s being honest with us now. However, that doesn’t mean Hafez didn’t set some kind of trap for us.”

  “Not for us,” said Viviane. “He had no way to anticipate this situation. But perhaps a trap for anyone with enough magic to know about seers and want to capture his.”

  “Either way, we have to chance it,” said Tal. “Magnus, you’re in charge of whipping up the strongest protection you can. Draw on the others as needed. Viviane, Carla, monitor the environment for traps, particularly subtle ones. Michael, carry the staff. I don’t know if it will make any difference since you can’t wield its power, but if there are traps, the presence of the staff may keep at least some of them from springing. Everybody else, keep those weapons ready.”

  I would have been a more logical wielder of the staff, but I dared not say that. Magnus might have been as well, but his hands were busy with the lyre as he coated us with layer after layer of protection. Tal drew his own sword, and its fire lit our way as we walked into what looked like a magic sandstorm.

  We emerged in total darkness. I could not generate sunlight without giving myself away, but Tal adjusted our eyes to see in the dark.

  We were in a chamber walled, roofed, and floored in stone. The rock had an ancient feel to it. The walls and even the ceiling were covered in murals that looked authentic, but there was no sign of the deterioration one would expect in a genuine Egyptian ruin. How had Hafez created such a convincing replica? The craftsmanship suggested the power of Ptah, which meant Hafez used the staff to build this place. Why he would have done such a thing I could not imagine.

  “Are we inside a pyramid?” asked Gordy.

  “I can’t tell,” said Viviane. “This place is filled with that obscuring magic Hafez is so fond of—but in this case, it prevents viewing even the structure beyond a few feet in any direction. I get the feeling of an enormous edifice, but no specifics. Nor can I sense where the seer might be, though I suspect the structure is designed to conceal and protect her.”

  “Obviously, we’re not in the hotel anymore,” said Stan. “Any idea where that portal took us? Could this be an Egyptian site?”

  “Strategically, Hafez would want it in a location he can control,” said Shar. “I’d guess we’re on or underneath one of his properties.”

  “At least, we’re on the same plane of existence,” said Stan. “I still have internet access on the Sage Phone.”

  “I’m feeling a little dizzy,” said Gordy.

  “It’s hard to tell in the midst of the obscuring magic, but I think I can sense a spell intended to mess with our sense of direction,” said Carla. “Whatever it is, it works even through the protection Magnus gave us. That would account for the dizziness.”

  “It would be hard to protect against this,” said Magnus. “The magic is working on us indirectly, like the concealment at the Summerland House and in the hotel, only much more powerfully. What Hafez had done within the structure is alter reality itself.”

  Stan raised an eyebrow. “Is that even possible?”

  “On a small scale, yes. We’re perceiving what’s actually here, not an illusion, but what we perceive seems subtly wrong to us. Our brains can’t process it correctly.”

  Magnus’s explanation was not like any application of Egyptian magic I knew, but as I looked around, I could not deny the truth of what he said. Contemplating the chamber in which we stood made my head ache. The longer I stared, the more I wanted to close my eyes.

  “I see it now, too,” said Tal. “Hafez must have worked for a long time to create such a distortion. Without being able to use the staff, it will take us an equally long time to filter out that distortion enough to perceive directions again. Normalizing the space around us would take even longer.”

  “If it could be done at all,” I said. “Amenirdis believes this to be a careful use of the chaos of Apep, controlled and amplified by the power of gods such as Isis and Thoth. Such a spell would be hard to break without knowing exactly how it was constructed.”

  With the staff, I could have learned how it was constructed. I could have undone it. I ached to do just that—but I knew I dared not. Not yet. Not unless there was no other choice. Perhaps Tal and his warriors would find a way.

  Tal nodded. “I wouldn’t attempt to break it even if we had the time—which we don’t. On the other hand, we can’t afford to get lost here.”

  “I doubt any kind of navigation spell will work,” said Viviane. “We could try reaching out with our minds. A concentrated enough burst might enable us to reach beyond the area Hafez has twisted. Even if not, we don’t have to be physically present with the seer to communicate with her. Whatever is wrong with the physical space might not extend to the psychic.”

  Tal, Viviane, Carla, and Magnus pooled their efforts, augmented by the music of the lyre. Lucas danced up a little more energy. The power felt mighty enough to smash through the stone walls and cut a direct path to the seer.

  I followed their progress discreetly. They pushed forward, but as they did so, a magic fog like the haze of Thoth billowed up around us, becoming thicker and tougher by the second. The sensation was like trying to swim up a large river against a strong current.

  “Well, that’s not going to work,” said Tal. “Hafez obviously anticipated someone trying to link psychically with the seer. The harder we push, the more powerful the opposing magic becomes.”

  “How can the resistance be so strong?” asked Magnus.

  “In the same way Amenirdis suggested Hafez created the doomsday spell,” said Viviane. “He could have spent months or even years empowering this place to resist prying eyes—or minds.”

  “How does Hafez navigate the place?” asked Gordy.

  “Easy—he uses the staff,” said Carla. “None of us has that ability.”

  I glanced over at Magnus, who was keeping his face as neutral as possible. He wasn’t going to reveal that he could use the staff—which would have ended up exposing me. I couldn’t reveal I could use it, either. I didn’t want Hafez’s destruction spell to wipe out the Santa Maria Valley, though. What choice did I have?

  I pondered the idea of claiming as Amy that Amenirdis had somehow empowered me to use the staff, but that was risky at best. Tal knew more about reincarnation than I did and might be inclined to look at me more closely if I said such a thing—exactly what I didn’t want.

  Shar
gripped the hilt of his sword and pulled the blade from its scabbard. “It doesn’t sound safe to try to use Zom to break the spell that alters reality, but maybe it can sweep aside the resistance to your mental probes. Wait, something’s wrong.”

  He frowned into the emerald glow of the blade. Even my less experienced eyes could tell it looked different from normal—weaker, more tentative.

  “Michael, hold the staff out,” said Shar. He brought the blade down on the staff as he had during the battle, but there was no emerald flash this time. Instead, the blade broke, and the emerald glow faded.

  “What the hell?” said Shar, staring in amazement at what was left of the sword in his hand. “That thing’s supposed to be unbreakable.”

  Tal picked up the other half from the floor and studied it closely. “This is a fake of some kind.” As if that knowledge that somehow unraveled the sword completely, both pieces crumbled into dust.

  “How could this have happened?” asked Shar. “It worked when Morfran used it. When could someone have switched it after that point?”

  “It was the Khalid of this world,” I said, looking in his direction. His eyes dropped to avoid my gaze.

  “I didn’t realize at the time, but he must have been carrying the fake when he grabbed the real one. He used that attack by the Cath Palug to make the switch. He was moving fast. I thought he dropped Shar’s sword, but what he must really have done was drop the fake.”

  “I knew it was a copy,” said Other Khalid. “I didn’t know it was a bad copy. I thought—”

  Magnus grabbed him by the throat. “And you didn’t see fit to mention this until now? That sword might have helped us reach the seer. Where is the original?”

  Eva put her hands gently on Magnus’s. “Other Khalid has much to answer for, but this is not the way. We need to spend our energy reaching the seer.” Magnus stared at her, opened his mouth, closed it again, and dropped his hands slowly from the boy’s throat.

  “I really didn’t know—”

  “Shut up!” yelled Magnus. His hands looked as if they itched for Khalid’s throat, but Eva was watching him, so he didn’t indulge them.

  “Khalid, where is the sword?” she asked, looking into his eyes.

  “Hafez asked me to make the switch and stow the real thing out of sight. It must still be where I put it—in that shadowy corner behind Ceridwen’s cauldron. You could go back and get it.”

  “I don’t think this is Egyptian magic,” said Tal, studying the dust in his hand. “It feels more like Celtic—typical faerie forgery. You know, like faerie gold—it looks and acts real for a short time, but it breaks down quickly after that.”

  “I hate to say it, but maybe we were wrong about Ceridwen,” said Shar. “She must still be gaming us. Otherwise, she would have told us about the blade switch. If the false blade is a product of Celtic magic, it couldn’t be the work of Hafez, and who else is there?”

  “Impossible,” said Tal. “Magnus and I both read her, and she made no effort to block us from anything. She’s on our side.”

  “I’m not doubting your work,” said Stan. “But we’ve been caught off guard by unusual uses of magic before. Could Ceridwen have created false emotions and memories for you to read?”

  “I’m supposed to be the skeptical one,” said Magnus. “And no, that isn’t possible. Ceridwen would have to be able to read minds herself to craft a false mind so intricately. Besides, she would have needed some place to put her actual mind, or the fake one would have taken control. Tal and I know how to read for things like a mind hidden by the blood double spell. There’s no chance she had a false mind overlaying her true one. We checked for that very thing.”

  “Like the fate of Other Khalid, the question of how the sword was made is going to have to wait until we find a way to reach the seer,” said Tal, wiping the dust from his hands. “Maybe the sword is where Other Khalid hid it, maybe not. Going back for it is risky. I don’t doubt Ceridwen’s loyalty, but the existence of the sword does suggest other forces are in play—forces that could have access to Awen, despite all our security precautions. It seems Hafez wasn’t bluffing when he talked about having allies. If we can get the seer’s cooperation, we can probably find out.”

  “On the other hand, I’m not sure if we can reach the seer. We can’t risk moving away from the fixed portal here if we aren’t sure we can get back to it.”

  Carla swirled open a portal. “Looks as if Hafez left a loophole. I doubt we can portal in, but we can definitely portal out. The spell doesn’t prevent us from moving around physically, so let’s try that. If we get too lost to find our way back, we can just open a portal.”

  “Worth a try,” said Tal. I breathed a sigh of relief and followed as the group headed to a door at the far end of the chamber.

  I could see what Gordy meant about dizziness. I hadn’t felt it at first, but with each step, I became a little more disoriented. I counted six chambers, more or less identical, before I lost count.

  I looked at the murals for clues, but there were none. However, they all had the same peculiarity as the murals in the hotel—focus on the serpents of Apep. They watched our progress with cold, unfeeling eyes. I could not shake the idea that they would glide out of the walls and attack us from behind the moment we stopped paying attention.

  We stepped through a doorway and were back in the original chamber, identifiable only because of the presence of the fixed portal. We had either traveled in a rough circle or backtracked without even realizing it.

  “Isn’t there some way to hot-wire the staff so we can use it without being pharaohs, priests, or gods’ wives?” asked Gordy. “This is getting us nowhere.”

  “I’ve been doing some research—” began Stan.

  “Of course you have,” said Magnus, rolling his eyes.

  “I don’t know if this will do us any good, but I think this place may be modeled on an ancient Egyptian labyrinth. Herodotus, the Greek historian, wrote about it, as did five other writers. In general, they describe it in the same way. It had three thousand chambers, half above ground and half below, divided into twelve courts. It was said to be impossible to navigate without a guide—and that was without magic that hindered exploration.”

  “What good is knowing that?” asked Magnus.

  “Because the courts are each surrounded by forty white pillars. If we see a pillar, we at least know we’re near the boundary between courts.”

  “I don’t recall seeing any pillars,” said Viviane.

  “Can we use magic to detect them or some other specific architectural feature?” asked Stan. “Or how about the pyramid at the end? The original complex Herodotus described opened on the underground passage into one. It’s my bet that the seer is in there. If the pyramid is built the way the ones we know of are, she could be in the temple near the entrance or in the king’s chamber.”

  Tal shook his head. “Short of breaking the way Hafez twisted reality, there’s no way to locate much of anything by magic. Even if we could, we don’t know whether this is an exact replica of the original.”

  “I have a diagram,” said Stan. “Is there a way to, uh, upload it to our heads and make our feet follow a path we pre-set?”

  Tal raised an eyebrow. “Interesting—but it might take time to get that idea to work. We also don’t know what our starting point is. I assume the original labyrinth had an entrance of some kind. The fixed portal brought us out in the middle of one of the inside chambers. Without knowing which one, we can’t implement your idea.”

  My hands longed to grip the staff and end this deadlock. Tired as Tal and some of his friends were, though, I still couldn’t beat them all. I had to bide my time.

  “Maybe we can get help from ghosts,” said Jimmie. “Hafez has got to have killed some people, right? It wouldn’t surprise me if one is earthbound nearby. Remember the ghosts trapped in the Summerland house, too. That’s got to make ghosts in general angry.”

  “But what good does that do us?” asked S
har.

  “However Hafez may have distorted reality, the resulting blockage of our sense of direction wouldn’t have any effect on ghosts, would it? If we could find one nearby, it might be willing to guide us through the labyrinth to wherever the seer is.”

  Tal shrugged. “Ghosts do operate in a very different way than we do. It’s worth a shot.”

  Without the guidance of Osiris or one of the other gods associated with Duat, the realm of the dead, I doubted Jimmie’s idea would succeed, but I dared not say that. He closed his eye, and his face took on a detached expression, as if he was no longer aware of his surroundings.

  Oddly, I was more aware of him, as if his call to ghosts had somehow touched me. Yet I was no bodiless spirit, earthbound or otherwise.

  The feeling of connection, of a previously undiscovered bond between us, made me shiver. Perhaps I should find an excuse to break his concentration.

  That wasn’t all that was making me shiver. The room got several degrees cooler. A tiny bluish glow flickered in the middle of the chamber.

  “What do you want?” I wasn’t sure whether I was hearing a whisper or a thought.

  “Are you a victim of Amen Hafez?” asked Jimmie.

  “Many of us are. Can you not hear all of us? The air is filled with our screams.”

  “We can hear you. If you can help us navigate the labyrinth, we may be able to defeat Hafez and bring you some peace.”

  “While he lives, I dare not help you. I could end up in his house and be worse off than I am now, for there is no escape from there. Prove to me that you can defeat him, and I will help.”

  “We are powerful,” said Tal, drawing his sword and letting the flames flicker around it. “And we have Hafez’s staff, the source of much of his power.” Michael held up the staff, and the bluish glow twisted as if in terror.

  “Keep that thing away from me. It is cursed.”

  “We meant no offense,” said Tal. Will you help us?”

  “I will try.” The whispered thought radiated a feeling of reluctance, but the bluish glow moved toward the door.