by Jim Johnson
She frowned. "What kind of support?"
"Well." Herikhet glanced at Ruia. "Let's just say I have to spend the day conducting a complicated healing ritual for our Ranger friend, and I'm going to need to draw on the strength of whoever is willing to lend a hand."
Ruia shook her head. "I don't understand."
Herikhet lifted his bowl of wine and drained it, then set it on the platter in the center of the table.
"Think of it like this: the Ranger is a vessel. Normally when he's healthy, he is full of life. Right now, he's badly wounded and fighting a battle against infection that he can't win by himself. He’s burning off what little life he has remaining inside him."
He glanced at Ruia and Teteri, then continued. "I have the means to pull healing energy from other people and myself and sorta channel it into the Ranger.” He picked up their drinking bowls and poured a little from each of their bowls into the empty bowl.
“With enough help, I might be able to burn out that infection from the inside. So we'll be both healing him and filling him back up."
He returned their drinking bowls. "It'll be easier if we can spread the load among a lot of folks, but, either way it'll still be a long, hard day. And there's no success guaranteed, even if we got the whole town to pitch in."
Teteri nodded. "And what risk is there to those who lend their support?"
Herikhet shrugged. "Depends. Probably not too much, unless something really goes wrong. Should be little more than being really tired by the end of it. Maybe a nose bleed or two, but it should really be no worse than putting in a hard day's work."
He glanced at Teteri. "Or night's work, as the case may be."
She offered a thin smile. "Noted. One other question…why heal this Ranger at all?" She leveled a challenging look at him and then swiveled it toward Ruia.
Ruia traded a look with Herikhet, then responded before the priest could say anything. "My friends and I owe the Ranger our lives. I can't stand aside and let him die, not without at least trying to save him. It's the right thing to do."
Herikhet nodded. "And besides, I want to know what he's doing out here anyway. He wasn't sent to patrol the frontier just to rescue villagers. There's something going on in the south. He's the only visitor to this town from that way in over a month, and I think it'd be good to get some news about the rest of the world."
Teteri smiled. "I was just curious. I'll check my list of workers on call for tomorrow and see who I have to spare. I won't leave you empty-handed, Herikhet."
He nodded his thanks, and then let out a big yawn. "I think that's my cue to get on to bed." He stood and leveled a finger toward Ruia. "If you have any sense about you, you'd take a plate of food up to bed with you and get some sleep as well. Tomorrow's gonna be a long, hard day."
Ruia glanced at Teteri. "Would that be all right?"
Teteri smiled. "Of course, my dear. Take as much as you want. If you make a mess I'll have Opal clean up your room while you're at the temple tomorrow."
Herikhet excused himself and headed for the exit to the room. Teteri helped Ruia pile a wooden plate full of meat, olives, bread, and other finger-sized tidbits, then preceded her out of the room.
As Ruia stood to leave, she felt a sudden chill in the air and a tremor through her hekau. She glanced around the room. It was empty save for her and the young soldier who had been snoring on one of the senet tables. When she glanced in his direction, she flinched. He was awake and staring right at her, his head resting on his folded arms. He had a bandage wrapped around his head and a strange gleam in his eyes.
She tamped down a surge of fear and stared back, but then broke off the contact when she felt her hekau flare up in warning. Her skin felt hot and flushed. She hurried out of the room and left the strange soldier behind.
CHAPTER 11
ZEZAGO NODDED SILENTLY, HOLDING FIRM HIS connective hekau thread to the soldier. He kept his will firmly in place on the man's mind, holding his gaze on the young woman as she stared at him and then left the senet room in a rush.
Interesting, very interesting indeed. He commanded the soldier to return to his barracks and his bunk, and then set a compulsion for him to sleep once he arrived. As the soldier passed through the senet house and out into the dark street, Zezago eased off his control of the man's mind and withdrew the hekau tendril from the man’s ba and returned to his own body at rest in the sun temple ruins.
Once firmly settled in his own mortal shell, Zezago took a few cleansing breaths and then slowly opened his eyes, readjusting his vision to the soft firelight inside his working chamber. The senet room had been brighter, harsher, and the lower light here was easier on his bleary eyes.
He stood and dispelled the warding around him with a casual wave of his hand and a severing of the hekau connection to the core of his being. He stepped out of the chalk circle and focused on the mundane tasks of feeding himself and drinking water before lying down on his small cot. He pulled a thick wool blanket over his naked body.
He called out to the construct. As the massive form shambled into his chamber, Zezago pointed toward the small fire. “Stoke that up, if you please. It got cold during the night and this temple’s builders did a poor job at insulation. The priests here must have kept themselves warm with their faith and little else.” He snorted. “For all the good it did them.”
The construct stared at him with its glowing eyes and then turned away to do his bidding. Zezago closed his eyes and tinkered with the new information he'd gleaned that evening through his link with the soldier, who had become his eyes and ears within the fort and town. He heard the construct rummaging around the piles of sticks and debris they’d gathered recently, and decided to use him as a sounding board. It was so much easier to think out loud.
“That Ranger somehow survived the battle. Impressive in itself, but it seems that priest has a very guarded hope of the man recovering. I’m intensely curious as to whether the priest has the ability to heal the Ranger’s hurts.” He mused on that, then nodded. “That priest is certainly worth watching. It'll be worth knowing what he’s capable of before we gather our forces and attack the fort.”
He cracked open an eye as he heard the construct stoke up the fire. The villagers, what remained of them, were split between the temple and a tent outside the fort. Perhaps twenty in total, though the soldier hadn't been able to get to the temple during the day. He had to keep up appearances with his former allies so as to not draw suspicion.
And even then, the soldier had earned a few strange stares and a couple well-intentioned jibes about his distractedness, which Zezago hoped would stand up under further scrutiny. He'd hate to lose such an asset too early, though he knew that he'd lose the soldier eventually. The foreign compulsions planted into his mind would break him soon enough. It was a matter of time. He had to get as much out of the poor man as he could before his candle burned out for good.
His thoughts turned toward the young girl, that firebrand from the village. “Now she…she is someone to watch.” He remembered seeing her briefly during the first battle with his troops and the Ranger, the night he had borrowed the body of an owl and soared high to seek out his soldiers.
The Ranger and that girl had rallied the villagers and cleared the field of his constructs and troops. He'd seen their hekau auras that night. The Ranger’s had been much brighter than hers, and at first Zezago thought it just a trick of the night, of his strange owl eyes and senses, but no. The more he reviewed the actions of that night, he was certain the girl had something of the art about her. She had strength to spare, and if she were to be properly taught how to use the hekau—taught in the old ways—she could become a powerful practitioner.
Zezago smiled to himself. “Alternatively, if she could be bent to my will, I could place controls upon her and use her for any number of terrifyingly useful purposes. In fact…” He sat up on his cot, and bunched the blanket around his stomach and chest. “If we play things just right, and set the right triggers, I could take her for my
own, and then she could prove to be the linchpin to restore this ruined sun temple to its former glory and help bring my Housekin in to take over this broken empire.”
He stared at the construct, which stood near the merrily-blazing fire, its task completed. Yes…the more he analyzed the parameters and the possibilities, the more the pieces fit into place around that girl and her latent hekau.
“Tomorrow will be a day worth watching very closely.” He would have to make sure his soldier was in place to witness the healing ritual. He wanted to evaluate the strengths of his potential enemies, and also the potential of that girl. Did she possess the power he'd need?
“In fact, I’m not sure I should trust this to the soldier alone. Perhaps I should risk getting a personal view of things. What say you?”
The construct offered nothing, but Zezago could imagine the argument. He shook his head. “You’re right. It would be far too dangerous for me to risk going into the town on my own. There is too much at stake. I can’t risk losing everything with a chance encounter with that priest, or the Ranger, should he recover.”
Zezago glanced at the construct again. “No, no, you’re right. Best to remain here and manage things through the soldier. No sense risking myself just yet.” He settled back onto his cot, inhaling deeply of the thin woodsmoke rising from the fire. The dawn could not arrive soon enough.
CHAPTER 12
TJETY REACHED INTO HIS NEWFOUND HEKAU reserve and called forth a trio of shadow-forms of himself, each armed with khopesh and pistol. He set them forward to attack the jackals and the snakes, and fell back to defend himself as the battle engaged. His shadow forms were the stronger, and they easily beat back the first wave of creatures.
However, the dark storm clouds continued to roll forward. Now that they were much closer, he could see the rippling edges of the cloud bank take form into the guise of hundreds of those cruel jackal-beasts, snakes, and other demons pulled from the depths of the Duat—terrifying monsters that would feast on his flesh and soul while he yet clung to life. They resembled death in countless forms.
He rallied his shadow troops around him. The gift of hekau from Lady Mayat was still strong, but he doubted it would be enough to defeat that massive storm of demons. He needed another option…wait!
He recalled the words of Lady Mayat. She said help was coming…but who?
“Ruia!” Ruia had found a way to help him, perhaps had gotten him to a proper curate or temple.
Yes, that had to be it! He glanced at his shadow-warriors. “We have to hold them off for as long as we can. We don’t have to defeat them all, we just have to hold our ground!”
The shadow-warriors stared at him with bright eyes, silent and awaiting his bidding. He glanced at the encroaching storm, and felt a rumble through the ground beneath him. That reminded him of chasing Meret, and then the earthquake that had knocked them both unconscious.
That’s it! The maze of rocks and boulders Meret had hidden in!
Tjety grasped the sudden inspiration and focused his will, and shot his ba-form along the silver thread back to his broken body, dragging his three shadow-warriors with him. He moved his ba-form over to his body and called forth all the strength remaining in his hekau. He formed a labyrinth of defense around his body and ba, placing his body in the center of the maze and his shadow-warriors at strategic locations. The monsters would be forced to enter the maze at one point and would have to fight their way through many twists and turns before they could reach him.
He prayed to Lady Mayat that it would give Ruia time enough to do whatever she was going to do, but then he braced himself for the first onslaught of demons.
CHAPTER 13
A GENTLE TAPPING ON HER DOOR roused Ruia to full wakefulness. She’d been having a strange dream of being lost in a strange maze full of twisty passages and shadowy forms. As she blinked her bleary and crusty eyes, Teteri opened her door and walked into the room, carrying a platter of food and drink.
"Still abed, Ruia? I'd have thought you'd be up and dressed already."
Ruia sat up, holding the blanket to cover her chest and shoulders. Her movement displaced Merow, who had been perched on her pillow, pressed against her head. He grumbled and then moved to another spot on the bed.
"I didn't sleep well. I've been dozing on and off." Ruia rubbed her eyes with her knuckles. "Been thinking about Tjety and my people."
Teteri gave her a sympathetic nod. She glanced at her as she worked. "Do you prefer coffee or tea?"
"Tea is fine. I like the smell of coffee but never developed a taste for it." Ruia wrinkled her nose. "Too bitter."
Teteri prepared a bowl of tea. "I like to put sweet syrup in my coffee. I find it helps to cut down on the bitterness."
Ruia pushed the sheets off and stepped into her sandals and padded over to where she had hung up her dress on one of the hooks next to the door.
Teteri stirred the tea and watched her as she dressed. Ruia tried not to be embarrassed as she pulled the dress over her body. She shrugged it off and accepted the tea.
Teteri said, "Iba and Khebi are preparing a bath for you now. Once you've finished, I'll have a clean dress for you." She fingered the sleeve of the dress Ruia had on. "No need to wear this dirty thing today."
Ruia blew on the steaming bowl to help cool the tea. "I've only worn it one day. I wouldn't want to trouble you for another dress so soon."
Teteri chuckled. "This is a town, Ruia, not a fishing village. We wear clean clothing here on a daily basis, sometimes even a change of clothes when we have a dinner engagement or guests."
Ruia sat on the bed. "You must be well off to afford so much clothing and to pay someone to wash it all. If I had more than a couple of dresses, I'd end up spending all my time washing clothes and my other chores and duties would be left unfinished."
Teteri nudged the stool over to the side of the bed and sat down. She reached out to take one of Ruia's hands in hers. "Ruia, you must know that any chores you've had are gone now. You're a free woman, able to make whatever choices you want in this world."
Ruia sipped at her tea. "I know, Teteri, I know. I thought about that some last night." She pointed at the mirror. "I don't feel like that little girl I see in the mirror any more. I've…changed somehow. I don't know how or why, but I don't feel like I did a few days ago, before the attack on my village."
Teteri nodded. "I know the feeling. The day I felt like that was the day I walked out of the orphan house I'd been living in and the day I started my business." She waved at the room around her. "I think I've done all right."
Ruia stared at her, trying to see beyond the fine dress and the cosmetics. "I don’t know if I could do that, Teteri. Are you happy?"
Teteri turned sharply to face her and held her gaze for a moment. Ruia was surprised to see a flash of fire in those eyes.
After a moment, Teteri took a breath and then smiled, the fire in her eyes easing off. "A good question." She patted Ruia’s leg. "And yes, I am happy. Happier than I’ve been in a long time." She glanced toward the window. "The town is growing, slowly, admittedly, but growing. The regular influx of new soldiers and refugees from the frontier and from Hesso lands are bringing our population up. The more people in town, the more need there is for a communal space people can go to enjoy themselves, some games and good food, and some intimate companionship."
She gestured toward the window, which Ruia took to mean the town outside the room. "I've talked with the merchants and we think the town might soon be large enough to support a theater, and despite the presence of the troops, we may need a local militia or constable to help keep the peace."
"The town seems quiet enough…"
Teteri nodded. "You're here at a good time. Most of the caravans and the tradesmen who work the frontier and travel up and down the river are currently either in the northern lands or heading to Waset City. When they come back here, and they will, they can be a bit…rough."
A knock on the door sounded, and a young girl poked h
er head into the room. "Madame Teteri, the girl’s bath is ready."
Teteri said, "Very good." She glanced at Ruia. "Are you ready?"
Ruia nodded, then drained the bowl of tea to the dregs, and then followed Teteri to another room downstairs near the kitchens, where two girls and a large clawfoot tub filled with hot, steaming water waited for her.
The next hour or so was pure bliss. She allowed Teteri and the others to help her out of her dress and into the bath, and then they cleaned her thoroughly, scrubbing her with soap salts until her skin was red and angry-looking. They then dried her with large towels and worked in a sweet-smelling oil all over her body.
Even though she had bathed with the villager women back home, she somehow felt self-conscious around Teteri, and she couldn't really figure why. Perhaps it was the woman’s veiled, mysterious look at her and her body. Sooner than she would have liked, their ministrations were completed. Teteri held out a dress for her to put on. This one was a simple sheath like the one she had worn the day before, though this one had short sleeves that ended at her elbows and a frilly hem along the bottom. It was also not as form-fitting, which Ruia was grateful for.
Once she was fully dressed, she looked at herself in the room's full-length mirror and glanced at the women.
Teteri nodded appreciatively. "Very lovely, Ruia. Don't you think so, Iba? Khebi?"
The two girls in the room looked up from the bath, where they were starting to clean up the materials they had used to tend to Ruia. Their answers overlapped. "Very nice, Madame."
Teteri took Ruia's arm and led her through the kitchens and outside to the back of the senet house. "I've taken the liberty of sending food and drink to your fellow villagers, along with a few of my musicians. I hope your friends are in an amenable mood when you get there."
"You really shouldn't have. But thank you." Ruia blushed. "I don't know how we're going to be able to repay you for all your kindness. It really has been too much."
Teteri waved it off again, though Ruia thought she sensed something under the surface. She felt a disquieting ripple in her hekau.
