by Vered Ehsani
The were-lion hissed, her lips pulled back to reveal an impressive array of teeth that caught the lingering rays of the sun.
Koki brushed this off and turned her gaze on me. “Now, girl, you shall see what revenge is. You shall breathe it in and drink it down with the blood of your friends. I shall let you live to see all you cherish destroyed.”
“A grudge is a heavy load to carry,” Kam said, his voice a rumble of thunder.
“Particularly when you’re missing a leg,” Koki retorted.
Kam shrugged his shoulders. “The lost leg is a result of your actions. You broke the Law to begin with.”
The way he said ‘Law’ made it sound capitalized and of consequence. Koki hissed at the word, which heightened my curiosity, particularly because it upset her.
“Anansi mentioned something about a Law,” I said, studying Koki for her reaction. “Care to elucidate?”
“It’s similar to the Society’s mandate to keep our kind a secret,” Kam explained.
Koki hissed again. “Society. Bah. Run by a dog and a few cavemen.”
“Irrelevant,” Kam said. “You are breaking the Law with your unprovoked attacks on humans.”
Koki sneered. “And what is your business with this mortal, spirit? Why don’t you zap along home to your thundercloud?”
Kam responded by stabbing his spear in the ground and removing his bow and notching an arrow. I followed his example, pressing the index and middle fingernails of the metal fist atop my walking stick; a blade slid out, its sharp edge reflecting the colors left by the lowering sun.
“I see,” Koki said and sighed with exaggerated disappointment, even as her eyes glowed with bloodlust. “If you insist.”
At that moment, as if unwilling to witness the battle, the sun vanished beneath the glassy lake and Nyarvirazi roared.
At that signal, the world receded as a woman transformed into a Mantis, and arms, legs, claws, wings, steel and teeth hurtled at each other.
Mr. Timmons stalked around the giant Mantis, reaching for her, seeking to draw out her energy and absorb it. The Popobawa flew onto her back, scratching claws against her armor-like insect shell. I slashed at her legs, hoping to repeat my previous trick, but the blade slid off the armor.
“Her shell is too thick,” Kam shouted just as I reached the same conclusion.
“At the joints,” Mr. Timmons said with some effort; apparently her energy was not as amenable to manipulation as human energy. “That’s where there are chinks in the armor.”
It seemed my first and only successful attack on Koki had inadvertently found one of those chinks, a trick I couldn’t duplicate. My blade was doing no more damage than scratching the surface, and in the process blunting itself.
The were-lion leaped onto the face of the Mantis, claws attempting to gouge out her eyes. The resulting sound was as nails on a chalkboard and it caused the lion to hiss right before one of Koki’s limbs punched the big cat off. I heard the crunch of bone as Nyarvirazi fell at an awkward angle and lay still.
“One down,” Koki cackled.
Kam spared one distracted glance at his sister and that was all Koki needed. With one limb, she snatched the bow away and snapped it in half while with another limb, she slashed a jagged claw at his neck.
Only the quick reflexes of a trained warrior saved him from decapitation (and I didn’t imagine that even a Lightning Spirit could recover from that); he raised his club to deflect the blow. Instead of catching his neck, the claw sliced across his forehead. The resulting wound went clear through to the bone.
A geyser of blood, an elixir to Koki, gushed forth, blinding Kam. He never saw the blow she delivered across the back of his head, but he certainly felt the results. He dropped instantly to the ground.
“Three down,” Koki clicked out, her solid black eyes glowering at me.
Three? The lion, Kam and…? I didn’t dare look about, but knew whom it had to be when I saw the Popobawa circling above Koki, Kam’s spear in his claws.
A movement caught my eye. Nearby, Mr. Timmons lay on his side, clutching his stomach, a dark liquid oozing out between his fingers. I hurried over, kneeled beside him and lifted his head onto my lap. He groaned, his eyelids twitching, his jaw slack.
“Mr. Timmons,” I whispered while Koki laughed, a hideous sound.
I glanced up. The Popobawa was closing in, our only hope now. Before Koki could register his presence, the bat man plummeted down, aiming the spear at the joint connecting her head to her long neck.
Perhaps it was the sound of wing against wind that alerted her. Perhaps she was cursedly aware of every vibration around her. Whatever the case, she spun and reared up so that the spear missed her neck but buried itself in the joint connecting one of her limbs to her body. The Popobawa’s momentum pushed the spear in deep and his body crashed against the Mantis, throwing her to the ground.
I should have experienced a sense of vindication at her pained shriek, but whatever I might’ve felt never materialized. As she fell back, her two front limbs, powerful tools for a prodigious hunter, sprung up, out and back again. In their clutches was a struggling bat.
Twisting about until she could see me, Koki tightened her grip, her claws ripping into the leathery wings. Her jaws settled on the Popobawa’s neck. With a rabid shaking of her head, she sawed into the skin. Only the thickness of the leathery hide protected him, but for how long?
Shadows retreated and the scene was starkly lit by a full moon that hung heavily over a still lake, bloated on all the light it now cast away from itself. The lake didn’t want any, for it reflected all the light back into a perfect, magnified image of the moon.
The beauty and tranquility of the setting mocked me, for all about was the ugliness of a violent and futile death. Echoing my sentiments, something howled from within the nearby stand of acacia trees.
It sounded like a werewolf.
But there were no werewolves in East Africa, I reminded myself. Except…
“No,” I breathed out, just as a werewolf leaped out of the undergrowth, oversized canines bared, his pale fur gleaming in the moonlight.
“Drew, no!” I screamed just as he launched himself onto Koki’s back.
Dropping the tattered Popobawa, the Mantis spun about, her claw-tipped arms slashing at the air, but Drew’s teeth had managed to find a hold in her armor and he hung on, barely.
Sensing the futility of jabbing at the wolf on her back, Koki sank onto her belly and began to roll about. Drew whimpered but would not release his hold.
And in that darkest of all moments, as I held my wounded love in my arms and my brother fought an impossible foe, a silence descended about me, bathed in moonbeams and a cool breeze. A presence I hadn’t felt for a while appeared by my side, and I didn’t have to look to know what it was.
My wolf.
Its energy rivaled the moon in brightness; its ferocity matched my terror. Its glittering gaze was fixed upon its werewolf brother; its soundless growl reverberated with a force that I felt in my bones. There was only one thought in the mental space the wolf and I shared: defend our pack. There was only one enemy: Koki.
Save him. Stop her, I commanded with every particle of my being.
And my wolf responded.
With a flash of energy, it latched onto the slender neck of the Mantis, under her jaws. She screeched, the werewolf forgotten as she jabbed at the wolf, but her limbs passed through it as if it was no more than a ghost, a ghost with teeth that could penetrate the hardest shell and tear at the toughest flesh.
I felt my energy dip as it fed the wolf, but it was worth giving what I had to feed its strength.
Drew flopped about on Koki’s back as she bucked and twirled about, shrieking her fury.
“Her eyes,” Mr. Timmons whispered. I leaned toward him without losing sight of the battle. “Only… vulnerability.”
I placed his head gently on the ground and looked about for my walking stick. Inside one of its compartments were a set of darts
and a blowpipe. On my hands and knees, I scrambled about, groping at the ground. There it was, next to a prostrate Kam.
Not daring to look at the deep, bone-scraping gash across his forehead, I pulled at the stick, the fist end of which was lodged under Kam’s back. He muttered something and opened his eyes.
“I thought you were dead,” I gushed as I yanked the stick to me and twisted a knob. A narrow drawer opened.
“It’s rather difficult to kill a Lightning God, even when he’s in mortal form,” he said, his voice rumbling with humor.
“I’m so glad you find this amusing,” I said as I pulled out the blowpipe and the sachet of darts. Had I dipped them in poison recently? It didn’t matter, as long as they hit her eyes.
Kam pushed himself up. That’s when I noticed the gash had healed; all that remained was dried blood and a thin, white line. “A plan?”
“Poke out her eyes,” I said between gritted teeth, for at that moment Drew was flying through the air. He smacked against a tree trunk, and fell to the ground with a heavy thump where he remained unmoving.
Kam stood, seemingly rejuvenated by his short nap. He pulled an arrow — the last one — from his quiver. He held it loosely, snapping his wrist back and forth as if to test the weight of the arrow. Nodding, he glanced to me.
There was nothing to say. My limbs quivered from fatigue as the wolf continued to drain me, but the blowpipe didn’t require a lot of force. I slipped out two darts and we moved to face Koki, which wasn’t as practical as it sounded, for her head was flaying back and forth as she sought out the wolf hanging beneath her chin.
“Let go,” Kam said.
I understood his intention: we needed a shot at a set of eyes that preferably were stationary, at least for a couple seconds. I had never tried to control the wolf before, but now was not the time for doubt. I reached out to it, ordered it to let go, just for a moment, and then it could continue to fight our enemy. Just… Let… Go…
The wolf vanished and appeared by my side. Koki’s head jerked about, seeking out her tormentor, and found us. Hissing and jaws snapping, she prepared to attack.
Kam and I spoke no word but acted. His arrow flew at the same time my first dart did.
Both missed their targets.
Koki lowered her head in time for the arrow to bounce off the top of her head. The dart flew over her, but a second one was on its way. It embedded itself in the space between her left eye and the insect armor. It wasn’t enough to blind her but certainly sufficient to enrage her further.
With an unearthly scream, she launched her great mass at us. One limb smacked Kam into the lake while another pinned me to the ground. I had nothing left except the wolf and it was fading as my energy did. It tried to bite at the jaws threatening me, but its force had receded with my own.
It was over. I had nothing left.
I hoped Dr. Ribeiro and the twins had found Jonas, Cilla and Lilly.
I prayed they would find a way to escape the madness.
I waited for the end, my eyes closed, determined not to give Koki the satisfaction of seeing my liquid anguish shimmering beneath my lashes.
And that’s why I never saw the Spider arrive.
Chapter 26
“Stop.”
The single word was uttered in a screechy, high-pitched, inhuman voice.
I assumed it was my inadvertent plea, uttered by a primal need to survive, and I cursed myself for relenting to my terror. Mercy was unknown in Koki’s world, only vengeance and victory. She wouldn’t stop.
But she did. Her jaws, glittering with drool and rage, hovered above my neck, their tips grazing my jaw. I dared a glimpse under my eyelashes. Her eyes, two dark and soulless stones, glared down at me. Her entire form was rigid.
Behind her, I could see several sets of thick legs, each taller than an elephant. All the legs were connected to an immense form.
“Anansi,” I whispered.
Koki craned her head back. “What are you doing here?” she snarled at her husband.
“The Law,” Anansi squeaked as he walked around her.
I could feel the slight tremor in the earth from his weight and I marveled again how such a giant could have such a minuscule voice.
She hissed at him, clearly unimpressed by the interruption.
If he had any reaction to her disregard of this law, it didn’t show up on his face. The eight lidless eyes didn’t blink, his jaw didn’t clench and the thick hairs covering his body didn’t so much as twitch. His head turned slightly, angling toward me, and I found myself staring into four sets of eyes.
I didn’t believe I had any energy left for emotion, but I amazed even myself with a spasm of trepidation. It was never a good sign when a supernaturally enhanced insect studied you, particularly when the insect was carnivorous.
“Alive?” Anansi asked.
I blinked my eyes, but that didn’t seem answer enough, for the spider lurched closer, his breath enveloping me in a scent reminiscent of a musty attic cluttered with dust, cobwebs and dried-up insect husks.
“Yes, I’m alive,” I gasped, trying not to inhale, which was a rather difficult trick given the body’s inconvenient requirement for air.
Satisfied, Anansi turned his multi-eyed gaze to his errant wife. “The Law,” he repeated.
“My leg,” she growled.
The Spider didn’t laugh, as he had when I’d told him what I’d done. He wasn’t overflowing with compassion either. “The Law has price,” he said with a marked lack of concern for his wife’s loss.
The Mantis quivered with the effort to restrain herself from snapping her jaws about my small, soft-skinned neck. I could see the frustrated rage burning in her eyes. The embedded dart wobbled precariously and I distracted myself by wondering how deeply it had lodged itself under her shell.
“Fine,” she said with a snap of her jaws. Fortunately for my head’s connection to the rest of my body, she had pushed herself away just before. “This isn’t over, little girl, only postponed until next we meet.”
I was more than prepared to accept a postponement, as I had no intention of meeting up with her ever again. With a last snap of her jaws, she stalked away from me. Just before entering the forest, she swiveled her head almost 180 degrees, a most disagreeable habit practiced by ghosts, ghouls, owls and certain insects.
“As for your precious Society, don’t expect much from them,” she warned in a tone that delighted in delivering unfortunate news. “For they may very well succeed where I have failed.”
With that enigmatic statement, she cackled loudly as she skittered away into the darkness of the trees.
All that remained was the giant Spider looming over me.
“Remember,” he squealed. “You pledge.”
Tempted though I was to protest, to explain I had given no promise, I was too exhausted and relieved to do more than lie there unmoving. Satisfied, Anansi heaved his mass around and followed the Mantis into the night.
Chapter 27
I was quite prepared to slip into a comatose state, right there and then, on the moon-drenched shores of Lake Naivasha, and remain so until the following week.
Even as my eyelids blinked wearily and my overwhelmed mind began to withdraw from reality, Mr. Timmons uttered a faint groan, the Popobawa fluttered a mangled wing as he tried to pull himself upright, and something splashed about in the lake nearby.
I summoned what vestige of energy I could and resisted the lure of sleep. My first task was to check if there was some other vile beast preparing to attack us from the water. I’m not suggesting I could’ve actually done much to dissuade it, but at the least I would’ve blown a dart or two.
The source of the splashing was Kam, floundering about in the shallows of the lake.
“Kam, do stop messing about,” I muttered as I pushed myself onto my hands and knees.
“I can’t swim,” Kam said, the whites of his eyes glowing… well, white.
“How can that possibly be?” I demanded, pr
essing the bronze fingernails to retract the blade on the end of my walking stick. I then used the stick to pull and push myself into a vertical position. “You’re a god of lightning and thunder and wet weather. How can you not swim?”
Standing upright, water dripping off him, he glared at me as a drenched house cat might, his skin markings dimmer than normal. Perhaps he too had been drained by the encounter and the necessity of healing a life-threatening head wound.
“I come from the sky, not the lake,” he said, his voice rumbling with the threat of a lightning bolt aimed at my head.
“As you wish,” I said.
I glanced at the Popobawa who had transformed into a torn and bloody Mr. Elkhart. He was swaying slightly while holding one mangled arm against his chest with his other hand, but otherwise was managing the act of simultaneously standing and breathing, and doing so remarkably well. He nodded at me tersely.
I next turned my attention to Mr. Timmons, convinced as I was that both Drew and the were-lion were dead. I could barely handle the task of staying conscious at that moment; if I had to gaze upon my brother’s corpse, I would surely give up the effort and swoon away.
“Mr. Timmons,” I said gently, nudging him with the end of my stick. I didn’t attempt to kneel beside him, as much as I yearned to hold him, for I was certain I’d remain thus on my knees, unable to stand again.
“Your bedside manners are atrocious, Mrs. Knight,” he said through gritted teeth.
“And then there’s my cooking,” I added, half-delirious with fatigue and shock. “Mrs. Beeton would despair of me entirely.”
Mr. Timmons snorted, an effort that resulted in his entire body cringing with pain. I bit my lower lip to silence my foolish babbling.
Kam, having saved himself from drowning in a couple feet of water, squatted beside Mr. Timmons. “He needs a doctor urgently,” he announced.
“Thank you for pointing out the obvious,” I muttered. “I am most obliged. Can you carry him back to Dr. Ribeiro?”
Kam glanced to his sister who lay where Koki had flung her.
