The Serpent Waits

by Bill Hiatt

  Magnus’s spell began its work, reaching out to the perimeter of the room, sealing the walls with latent sunlight. The light from the staff dimmed as he worked but did not go out.

  “Done!” said Magnus, and the light returned to normal levels. “That may not be my best work, but it will keep them out of this room. Now, if I understand the knowledge you gave me correctly, the best powers to invoke are the powers of Serket and Aket. Both absorb poison, and both are capable of imprisoning the coils of Apep, right?”

  “Very good,” I said. “Yes, that is exactly what I would do.”

  Magnus allowed the light to fade as he raised the staff to join the might of Aket and Serket. His use of the staff was not as smooth as mine would have been, but the power he summoned was enormous, more than enough to break all the spells. It surged forth like a river of healing—and then faded as if it had never been.

  “Damn it!” said Magnus. A deepening frown clouded his face, and he shook with barely contained frustration. “The magic venom on those bullets may be all from Apep, but it’s also trapped the way so many of Hafez’s spells are. Attempting to remove it will trigger it.”

  “We need David,” said Jimmie.

  “Yes, Captain Obvious, but he’s out of action. I could probably break the spell restraining him, assuming it’s Celtic magic, but Stan’s body is also in the grip of the poison. I doubt David can manifest under those conditions.

  “We need to find something else to confuse the spell long enough to keep it from killing our people before I can get it out of them.”

  “The mark of death?” I asked.

  “Maybe,” said Magnus. “Now that I don’t have to generate constant light to fend off shadow assassins, I can use the staff to undo whatever Magnus did to imprison all those ghosts. I doubt any of them are members of his fan club. Let’s see, Osiris this time, right?”

  “Egyptian magic doesn’t deal with ghosts, but Osiris is lord of Duat, the realm of the dead. If they are constrained, he would be the logical one to invoke.”

  The might of Osiris flowed from the staff as powerfully as the Nile—but it was not enough. I could sense the restriction Jimmie was talking about, but it remained in place no matter how hard Magnus pushed against it. It jutted up like a mountain suddenly dropped in the middle of the Nile.

  “Is nothing ever simple?” asked Magnus. He dashed the staff to the ground. “It has the power—I can feel it. It should be more than enough, but it isn’t.”

  Jimmie listened for a moment. “After all this time, the trapped spirits have internalized the constraint. It’s still there because they aren’t letting go of it—and they don’t even know it.”

  “Here’s a thought—tell them!”

  “There’s no need to yell,” said Jimmie. “I’m trying, but as long as the constraint is up, I’m still not able to make them understand what I want.”

  “So we need to communicate with the dead to complete the removal of the imprisoning spell—but we can’t communicate with them until the spell is removed? Great!”

  “Having a tantrum isn’t going to help,” said Jimmie, looked at Magnus as one would look at a spoiled child.

  “I guess you’re the expert on tantrums, Boy in a Man’s Body.”

  “Your bickering is accomplishing nothing,” I said, looking at both of them. “Hafez could launch another attack at any time, and there are only three of us to meet it.”

  “We have the power,” said Magnus, picking up the staff.

  “Which you clearly don’t know how to use,” said Jimmie.

  Magnus raised the staff as if to strike. I stepped between them and gently put my hand on it. Magnus was angry, but not quite angry enough to lash out mindlessly at me.

  “It’s not your fault. Hafez knew he might not be the only one in this world at this time who could use the staff. He clearly prepared a number of his spells to be hard to overcome, even with its power. That was his way of ensuring against—what would you call it?—a hostile takeover.”

  “Sorry,” Jimmie muttered to Magnus.

  “Yes, you are—” began Magnus. I could almost see a tirade forming in his head.

  “Let’s spend our energy outthinking Hafez. Even with the help of a seer, he couldn’t have anticipated everything—and we now know she wasn’t telling him all she knew.”

  “Yeah,” said Jimmie. “He didn’t know David could in some way use the staff. Wait a minute! That gives me an idea.”

  “First time for everything,” muttered Magnus.

  “Just shut up!” snapped Jimmie. “Would you rather insult me or save Eva and the others?”

  Magnus dropped the staff and grabbed Jimmie by the front of his shirt. “You use her name—on me?”

  Instead of struggling, Jimmie went limp in his grasp. “Look, I may have doubted you at times, Magnus—but I never doubted you loved Eva. That’s all I meant. You risked your life to save her before. Maybe you could save her again.”

  “And send her back to your arms?” asked Magnus. His anger had turned his face into an ugly mask. Nonetheless, he let go of Jimmie. “Well, what’s this genius insight?”

  “You remember what Sophia said? We could only prevail by the union of opposites. David thought she was talking about you and him—and maybe she was. But I think she was mostly talking about us. We’ve fought constantly for six years. If I said the sky was blue, you’d argue the point—and, if I’m being honest, I’d probably do the same. Shakespeare used opposites to mean opponents, as in “the incensed points of mighty opposites.”

  “Spare us your erudition. Suppose you’re right. How do we unite? David could draw the blessing of God out of the staff because of what amounts to a design flaw. What can you draw out of the staff? Anything? Maybe a little extra teen angst to go with your fifteen-year-old psyche.”

  Anger smoldered in the back of Jimmie’s eyes, but I saw willpower there as well. “As far as I know, I can’t interact with the staff directly.” He touched it, and nothing happened. “But I can interact with the dead—and you can link our minds. We don’t need the whole group this time, just us. Link with me, tie me to the staff through you, and let me amp up my power to communicate with the dead. Wrap that in the authority of Osiris, and we can bring the imprisoning spell crashing down.”

  Magnus looked at him as if he had suddenly turned into a giraffe. “Uh, that’s not entirely stupid.”

  “Worth a try, it seems to me,” I said. I wondered how any of them had put up with Magnus for so many years.

  “Open your mind to me,” said Magnus grudgingly. I could feel the link bind them together. The staff glowed as if in greeting of Jimmie.

  “A good plan. It’s unfortunate you won’t live to test it out.”

  Ceridwen—no, Hafez—was standing in the doorway, smiling in triumph, bathed in the emerald glow of Shar’s stolen sword.

  Dark Strategies Revealed

  “Surrender!” yelled Magnus. “You cannot prevail against the power of the staff.”

  “Good bluff, but I’ve seen what this sword can do. You cannot touch me with any magic. Even the staff cannot breach its protection.”

  Jimmie charged, but snakes sprouted from the floor and grabbed him. He fought back, but his arms were bound in their coils before he could kill them.

  Three more security men walked through the same door Hafez had entered. All were aiming handguns at Magnus.

  “In case you were wondering, I neutralized your invisibility and inaudibility some time ago. No such spell can prevail against the power of my home’s defenses. My men won’t miss you this time—and you know what the magic on those bullets can do.”

  “What do you want?” asked Magnus in a calmer voice than I would have expected.

  “The staff, of course. And Amenirdis. I really didn’t want to have to search for another god’s wife. By the way, thank you for figuring out how I could re-empower her. I could probably just have reappointed her through my authority as pharaoh, but I wasn’t sure with Amun h
imself involved.”

  “You will not give me back my place against Amun’s will,” I said—much more calmly than I felt.

  Hafez laughed. “I can kill any of your friends before you could stop me—and if they mean nothing to you, I know the maniacal dancer over there does. One way or another, you will give me what I want.”

  I did my best to sense what was happening to the others. Lucas might have been fast enough to surprise Hafez’s men, but he had gone so deep into his dance trance that I saw no quick way to bring him back to awareness without Hafez noticing.

  Jimmie was bound too firmly to move, but he wasn’t unconscious. I could feel subtle energy flowing between him and Magnus. If I could keep Hafez distracted long enough, they might just provide him with a little surprise.

  “I could be persuaded to go along with your plan voluntarily,” I said. “But you’d have to bind yourself by oath to leave all these people alone.” As I spoke, I took a couple of steps in Magnus’s direction. “Oh, and I should add Creirwy. She came with us but disappeared early on. I imagine you have her captive.” Two more steps.

  Hafez sneered. “Have you not figured out that she released me from Ceridwen’s clutches. She’s my ally.”

  “That doesn’t make any sense,” I said. Two more steps. “Why wouldn’t she have betrayed us earlier?”

  “She has only been mine to command since I told her I had implanted in her mother a spell that allows me to kill her with a single thought. I designed it so that Ceridwen couldn’t detect it. I might have killed her earlier, but I suspected I could use it to force one or both of her children to obey me—and I was right.”

  So many odd details fell into place, though once again, Hafez was claiming more credit than he was due. When he was preparing to throw magic at Ceridwen that seemed too faint to accomplish much, he was trying to trigger the spell inside Ceridwen. It was my interference, not his foresight, that kept him from killing her right then.

  “That’s not what I’d call an ally.” Two more steps.

  “It is irrelevant anyway. You’re in a poor position to bargain.”

  “No, I’m not.” Two more steps. “Amun left me my magic when he took my office. I could unleash the wrath of Ra against myself.” Two more steps. “I’d die—but it would be worth it to frustrate you.” Two more steps.

  Hafez frowned. “You wouldn’t do such a thing!”

  “You might not.” Two more steps. “But don’t judge everyone by your ignoble self. Some people care about more than themselves.” I came to a stop in what I hoped was the right spot.

  “Your men may have magically enhanced aim, but I doubt they can make bullets go around me and hit him.”

  Magnus took the hint. He must have been preparing as I moved into position because he drew power with incredible speed. From the staff charged a trio of war god animals: the falcon of Montu, the lion of Apedemak, and the hawk of Sopedu, becoming fully material right next to Hafez. At first, they seemed to be charging the pharaoh, and he sneered again, knowing that as long as they stayed magically charged as they were, vibrating with the power of violence and slaughter, they could not breach the protection of Shar’s sword. At the last moment, they became more solid, but instead of attacking Hafez, they lashed out at his surprised guards, who did not have the same protections. Empowered beaks, claws, and teeth made short work of them.

  Hafez stood wide-eyed, mouth hanging open. He had not foreseen this strategy.

  I felt the restraints on the ghosts tremble. To keep him from noticing, I charged him, imitating the battle cries I had heard in life only from a distance. The sunlight of Ra danced around me in an oddly hypnotic pattern. The effect didn’t last long in the light-suppressing atmosphere, but it served its purpose.

  He swung his arms, and snakes materialized all around me, but I was ready for that stale trap. Amun’s wind lifted me beyond their reach, then flung me at Hafez.

  We collided with enough force to stun both of us. Hafez would have gotten the better of that exchange if he had been himself, but the body of Ceridwen, though more vital than its middle-aged guise appeared, was not as tough as his Apep-blessed body, nor as muscular. He didn’t completely let go of the sword as I had hoped, but he wasn’t immediately in any position to attack me or do more magic.

  “I will kill them all,” he mumbled. It wouldn’t require much effort for him to destroy every one of the venom-infected in the room.

  I managed to grab one of the guns. I had never used such a weapon, but Amy had. I drew on her experience, aimed and pulled the trigger.

  As long as Hafez held the sword, he would not be vulnerable to his own magic venom, but a bullet was still a bullet, and the sword offered no protection against that.

  I should have shot to kill, but there was enough Amy in me at that moment that I shot him in the right arm instead.

  He maintained his grip on the sword somehow, but blood spurted, and he reached over with his left hand to try to slow the bleeding.

  I moved forward, intending to knock him out. I had been too focused on him, however. The coils of an enormous serpent closed around me, and there was nothing I could do. I tried to blind it with the light of Ra, but I could not maintain it long enough. Nor could I direct the wind of Amun at the serpent without hurting myself in the process.

  Hafez had already stopped the bleeding with Ceridwen’s magic and was struggling to his feet. He could easily kill almost everyone in the room with a wave.

  Magnus, however, had not been idle. Jimmie rushed past me, sword raised. Hafez managed to trap him again—just barely. A crocodile of Sobek appeared right next to the pharaoh, though. Physical enough to be a threat despite Shar’s sword, it charged the former pharaoh, who stumbled backward and nearly fell trying to evade it.

  I could feel the barriers constraining the ghosts crumble. Just a little more time, and Jimmie could test his theory.

  Hafez dove awkwardly and grabbed a gun. The crocodile lunged—too late. It fell heavily to the floor, a bullet through its brain.

  Hafez turned and started firing at Magnus. The sorcerer started to raise a shield drawn from the power of Neith, ruler of arrows, but he was not quick enough. Two bullets struck his starry tunic and bounced off, but a third grazed his neck, and a fourth struck his left hand. Blood gushed from both wounds, and Magnus was barely able to stand, let alone draw power from the staff.

  I looked at Jimmie. His eyes were closed, and he was mumbling, seemingly to himself.

  I felt no response. Had it all been for nothing? Then it was as if Osiris had thrown open the doors of Duat and ordered the dead to rescue us. I felt a chill and the presence of many, many ghosts. They flowed into each magic-infected body, even Magnus’s.

  Jimmie’s eyes were still closed, but he was smiling.

  The change was too great for Hafez not to notice. I felt his power coil like the serpent from which it was derived as he prepared to let all of the magic poison strike.

  His command shot through the air like flaming arrows—but the poison spells, confused by the sudden evidence of death within the bodies they inhabited, uncoiled and crawled away. Their victims showed immediate signs of returning consciousness.

  The ghosts in the room were as thick as fog. Even if Hafez shot new victims, he would be unable to kill them by magic. I feared he might try to kill the old-fashioned way—by gunshot—but instead, he fled the room like the coward he truly was.

  “Can you free us from these snakes?” asked Jimmie. The ghost fog swirled around us. The snakes’ eyes widened in fear, and, cowardly as their master, they fled.

  Magnus had managed to stop his bleeding, but he was in no condition to pursue Hafez. Nor were our semiconscious comrades, some of whom were only partly healed from their earlier wounds.

  “Jimmie, we have to stop him from getting away!” I yelled as I stumbled toward the door. He followed me, wreathed in ghosts.

  “My new friends aren’t affected by his misdirection spells,” said Jimmie. “I’ll take
the lead.”

  I followed my resurrected friend and his dead fans. Hafez had a head start, but his wound must have reopened from all the frantic action. Even without the ghosts, I could have followed his blood trail.

  I expected him to head to the front door, but we had to follow him up the stairs instead. When we reached the second story, we followed the blood to what I assumed was the master bedroom, though the mass of Egyptian antiquities overshadowed the bed. Hafez, still clutching Shar’s sword in one hand and the gun in the other, was opening a portal using Ceridwen’s magic. That explained why he hadn’t discarded her form in favor of his own, stronger body.

  The portal was nearly open. Jimmie charged. The portal shuddered as Hafez focused on him. Though off-balance, the ancient pharaoh managed to aim and fire. The bullet hit Jimmie’s sword hand, shattering bones and causing him to drop his weapon. The ghosts shuddered as if they had seen their own deaths again. They wrapped themselves even more tightly around him to prevent Hafez’s magic from taking him.

  “Stay back!” yelled Hafez. “Stay back or you both die!”

  If we let Hafez go, who knew what other resources he might be able to use against us? Even without the staff, he could be dangerous. However, Jimmie, trying to stop the blood spurting from his hand, his body taut with pain, could no longer take him. I was the only hope.

  Praying Lucas knew what he was talking about, I ran at Hafez. He shot to wound, not to kill, but it wouldn’t have mattered. The patua deflected the bullet, just as Lucas had said it would.

  Hafez, unfamiliar with Afro-Brazilian magic, was surprised his shot bounced off. He didn’t fire again or bring up his sword to fend me off. Taking advantage of his momentary lapse, I lunged around his blade and struck him as hard as I could in the face.

  I was no fighter, but Ceridwen’s body wasn’t that of a warrior, either. Hafez’s grip on his sword loosened, and I struck his hand hard enough to make him drop the blade.