The beast hissed, pulling back the veiny skin around its mouth to show me the rotting arsenal of teeth waiting inside. It lowered its head and charged. Adrenaline ignited in my blood, sending an electrical pulse that ripped through my body and left my fingertips numb and aching. I swung my scythe wildly and closed my eyes, trying to conjure up a picture of Gabriel or Saul or even Maalik. If I was going to die, the last image in my mind was not going to be of some mangy hellcat.
My wrists jerked, and a strangled gurgle hissed past my cheek, carrying the nauseating aroma of sewage. I cracked my eyes open. The blade had pressed through the monster’s throat and connected with its spine. Its eyes went empty as it fell into my lap and bled out over the deck.
Everything ached and burned. I hardly realized I was holding my breath until my vision began to blur. I gasped and rolled the dead cat off my legs. Leaning on my scythe, I stood and joined the others.
“Horus! Set your falcon on Caim already!” Coreen shouted from the other side of the ship. One of the demons had nicked her just above the brow and her own brighter blood was running down her face and into her eyes. Horus wiped the blood off his brow and nodded. The black of his eye disappeared once again, lost to the light.
The falcon responded and dove for Caim’s ship, while another hellcat crashed through the deck railing.
“Here kitty, kitty,” Kevin taunted the beast.
His face still held that creepy calm, but his eyes were wilder now. He had torn off his turtleneck, and gobs of sticky demon guts were splattered across his chest and matted in his hair. The hellcat snarled and dug its front claws into deck floor, splintering the blood coated boards. Kevin took a quick sidestep and thrust his scythe into the creature’s middle. It twisted around and hissed at him, ready to attack, but the sound of a distant horn drew its attention away.
One of Caim’s demons perched atop his highest mast and blew the horn again, signaling their retreat. Horus’s falcon circled overhead, preparing to snatch up the little beast, but the light of Horus’s eye found him first and called him off.
The hellcat on our ship looked back at Kevin, enraged that it was robbed of the chance to devour him, and then it spotted Coreen. She kneeled on the deck, trying to use the sleeve of her turtleneck to dab the blood out of her eye. The cat hurled itself onto her, sinking its claws into her side, before taking flight.
Coreen’s screams replaced the sounds of battle. I froze, unable to think or move. Josie reached into her quiver, but it was empty. A strangled sob escaped her before she dropped her bow and clasped both hands over her mouth.
A fleeing hellcat came to help Coreen’s captor celebrate their catch. It latched onto her dangling legs, tearing through her slacks and provoking more shrieks. Josie turned away and buried her face in Horus’s shoulder. He wrapped a bloodied arm around her and stared ahead, defeated and hopeless. The sound of ripping flesh and snapping bones was horrid, but seeing Coreen’s insides explode from her as the demons pulled her apart was almost too much. I had to fight to control my breathing as the creatures swooped down and fetched up body pieces like candy from a piñata.
“I should have killed it,” Kevin whispered. The bloodthirsty haze had vanished from his eyes. “Why didn’t I just kill it?”
“We have a job to do.” I tried to keep my voice from trembling as badly as the rest of my body was. Someone had to keep it together, and someone had to help me clean up the ship before the demon blood burned enough holes in it to sink us.
“It’s over, it’s over,” Horus whispered in Josie’s ear, rocking her and stroking back her short hair as she sobbed against his neck. The falcon perched itself on the ship, wrapping its talons around the deck railing, or what was left of it anyway. Horus’s eye returned to normal, and the giant bird ascended in a beam of light, back above the clouds.
“Why didn’t I just kill it?” Kevin was still mumbling to himself, swimming in his guilt and coming down from his first blood-high. He wrapped his arms around himself and shivered. Things weren’t starting out well for him. Grim would assign him a new apprenticeship when we got back, but in the mean time he was going to listen to me.
“Kevin, there’s a stack of buckets and a few mops in a closet next to mine and Josie’s cabin. Go get them,” I ordered.
He headed off without responding, still mumbling to himself and shaking his head.
“How far are we from Duat?” Horus asked over Josie’s shoulder.
“I don’t know, maybe half an hour.”
“Let’s just worry about the bigger puddles for now. I have a niece that can take care of the rest when we get there.”
“You sure she won’t mind?”
“Kabauet is the goddess of cold water.”
“Thanks.” I tried to smile, but the fresh image of Coreen’s insides kept crossing my mind, making it a little difficult.
Josie finally pulled away from Horus and faced me. “She was almost a thousand years old. That could have just as easily been one of us,” she hiccupped.
I didn’t think she was so pleased about the promotion anymore. I was still in shock. That was the only explanation I had for not sobbing hysterically or mumbling mantras of guilt like my fellow reapers.
Chapter 14
“This only is denied to God:
the power to undo the past.”
-Agathon
Although Aaru was a realm in itself, Duat, the Egyptian underworld, was the only way to get to Aaru. That was where the Weighing of the Hearts ceremony took place. Even though it was an old tradition, and there were ways of determining a soul’s destination without the ceremony now, the Egyptian gods still insisted that it took place for the few souls who passed through their gates.
“Well, son of a golden cock!” Anubis, Horus’s half-brother and the Egyptian god of embalming, greeted us as we docked at Duat’s harbor.
Horus blushed, even as he laughed at the old joke. According to the myth, Horus was conceived after Isis resurrected Osiris from the dead. Seth had become jealous of his brother and murdered him. He cut him into pieces and scattered them. Seth didn’t seem to get along well with anyone. Oddly enough, when Isis went looking for the pieces of her husband to resurrect him, she couldn’t find his penis. Supposedly, it had been eaten by a fish. So, she made him a new one out of gold. Son of a golden cock, indeed.
“Where’s Dad?” Horus asked.
“With Mom. She’s been away from home for a hundred years. They have a lot of catching up to do.”
Isis wasn’t Anubis’s real mother, but she had raised him as her own. Even though he now knew Nephthys, Isis’s sister, was his mother, he still called Isis Mom. Maybe the fact that Nephthys had tricked Osiris into sleeping with her helped his decision. The sisters had since reconciled, but Anubis wasn’t as forgiving as Isis. The peace treaty kept most deities in line, but bitter grudges were still lurking under the surface.
“We have a new soul. Don’t they want to witness the ceremony?”
“I’m way ahead of you little brother. I sent Kebauet to announce your arrival.”
“Good. I was hoping she would be around. I have a favor to ask of her.” Horus looked back at our ship.
Anubis followed his gaze and turned sullen. “What happened?”
“We were attacked by Caim and his demons.”
“Where’s Coreen?”
“Gone.” The Egyptian god hung his head in shame. As powerful as he was, I imagined he was being tormented by guilt far worse than the rest of us.
“I see.” Anubis cleared his throat and turned to me. “Leave your ship here. I will have it cleaned and repaired before returning it to your harbor tomorrow. For your troubles, I will also cover the coin for your return to Limbo. I am very sorry for your loss,” he added.
“Are we there yet?” Wosyet poked her head out of mine and Josie’s cabin and sighed with relief. “Well, that was one experience I don’t plan on having again. I can’t believe coins are inactive over the sea. If someone had told me that
before, I would have never agreed to put myself in harms way.”
“Don’t worry,” Horus snorted. “I wasn’t planning on taking you back to Limbo with me.”
“Oh, I don’t mind going to Limbo to speak with the Fates. I just don’t think the boat ride is necessary.”
“If we hadn’t been on the boat, Coreen probably wouldn’t be the only one missing.”
“They’re only reapers. Grim can make more.” She sighed and stormed down the ramp to where Anubis waited. “Perhaps I’m better suited to help you weigh the soul,” she cooed and brushed against him.
“Perhaps you’re better suited to lick the feet of Osiris and beg for forgiveness for your rudeness towards our guests.” He glared down at her.
“You’re about as charming as your brother,” she sneered before hurrying away.
Anubis shook his head and turned to Horus. “I don’t understand what the Fates see in her. Are you sure they won’t deal with you directly?”
“I don’t know,” Horus said. “We’ll find out tomorrow.”
“Let me know if you plan on taking another soul across the sea. I know it’s expensive to travel by coin, but if you have to go by boat, I want to be there to help next time.”
“I will. Thank you.” Horus gave his brother a weak smile.
“Here.” Josie picked up my robe and draped it over my shoulder. She already had hers on. The hood was damp from where she had rinsed the blood out of her hair. She looked like she was feeling better. I still looked like hell, but it was on purpose. I wanted Grim to see exactly what his ignorance had cost. I wasn’t sure if he cared, but I was going to make him care, one way or another.
Chapter 15
“If God did not exist
it would be necessary to invent him.”
-Voltaire
I could hear Maalik shouting through Grim’s office door as I stepped off the elevator. Ellen jumped up from the front desk and threw herself in front of me with one of her practiced smiles that made her look like a ventriloquist’s puppet.
“Sorry honey, Grim’s in a meeting right now,” she whispered as she glanced nervously towards his door. I could still hear what Maalik was saying.
“You’ve put the fate of Eternity on her shoulders, and you refuse her this one request? You use her to hold your position of power. You treat her like a slave and mistrust her after all these years of service!”
I clenched my jaw and glared at the door. “I like you Ellen. Move.”
She lifted her chin and frowned at me. For a minute, it looked like she was going to hold her ground, but then she noticed the blood drying in my hair. She bit her bottom lip and edged out of my way.
I threw Grim’s door open and stormed in. He was leaned over his desk, his face red and twisted as his mouth opened, ready to shout something back at Maalik. Then he saw me, and his eyes widened in surprise. Maalik snapped his head around, and most of the anger in his expression evaporated.
“You can take this promotion and shove it up your ass until you find the time to explain to me just what in Eternity is going on,” I roared over the room.
I didn’t care that Grim was my boss anymore. I didn’t care that he could probably convince the council to vote me out of existence. I wasn’t going to touch one more soul until he explained everything.
“Well, if that isn’t enough proof, I don’t what is.” Maalik swallowed and pulled his eyes away from me to look back at Grim. The old reaper glared from me to Maalik and then straightened his tie before sitting down.
“Fine. You take her,” he snapped. “Oh, and Maalik, if this creates any problems, I will hold you entirely responsible. No one has ever been voted off the council, but don’t let that fool you. It can be done.”
“With you running Eternity, I don’t fool myself into believing anything.” Maalik folded his arms and nodded to me. I followed him out of the office and into the elevator.
Ellen sulked behind her desk, her eyes red and glazed over, as if she could start crying any moment. I hoped she wouldn’t be in too much trouble with Grim.
When the elevator door closed behind us, I turned to face Maalik. “So are you going to tell me what’s really going on around here?”
His shoulders tightened and he frowned, but he wouldn’t look at me. “No, but I’ll take you to someone who will.” His hand gripped mine and I jerked. An icy coin pressed against my palm. I opened my mouth, but he stopped me. “Khadija,” he whispered.
A sharp wind pushed at my face and I closed my eyes against it. When I opened them again, we stood in front of a stone house surrounded by woods. I wasn’t sure where we were, and that terrified me more than anything. The only person I had ever trusted enough to take me anywhere with a coin had been Saul.
“She’s waiting for you. I’ll be right here when you’re finished.” Maalik finally looked at me. His eyes were soft with worry, but I couldn’t tell what from.
Was he reconsidering dating me? Was I less attractive because of the sudden drop in my life expectancy? Or was it just the demon guts tangled in my hair?
I wanted to ask him a thousand questions, but a nervous urgency pulled my gaze back to the house. I let go of his hand and walked up to the door. It opened before I had a chance to knock. I looked back to Maalik for reassurance, and he nodded. I stepped inside.
While it had looked like an English cottage on the outside, inside was a much different story. Brightly colored silks hung from the ceiling. A few were pulled up and pinned to the walls, forming an entrance into a labyrinth of silky material. I moved through the maze with a familiar ease until I found her.
She was a soul, and an old one at that. It wasn’t necessarily the way she looked, but the way she felt. Her eyes smiled warmly, like she had been expecting me, and I was right on time. Her eyes were all I could see from the cover of her scarf. Under the milky haze that all souls have, I could still tell she had an olive complexion.
She waved her hands and I felt myself sway with their motion, until I found myself seated on a cushion before her. The power she held over me sent alarms off in my head, but I could do nothing to break free from her invisible leash.
“I know Grim can seem like a tyrant at times, but he really does mean well. He was very worried about us meeting. I’m sure you noticed,” she laughed. Her voice was slow and inviting with an exotic accent, but the completeness of her power kept me rigid in my seat.
“Very few know of my existence here. Do you know the importance of my position?”
“No.” I could only whisper, for fear my pulse would explode out of my throat.
“Of course not.” She tilted her head to one side. “I did rather well creating you, and I know you will be the one who sets me free.”
She laughed again at my confused expression. It was a bubbly-sweet sound that beckoned me to laugh with her, but all I could do was tremble.
“Grim has told you nothing? Then we have much to talk about. I am the one responsible for who Grim has become. I am the one who holds the beliefs of humanity so he can use them to his advantage. I am the one who made you,” she finished poetically, her eyes sparkling.
Things were slowly falling into place and making more sense. I began to wonder how I had never questioned any of this before, and then remembered I was created to serve, not to ask questions. She was Grim’s dirty little secret. The skeleton in his closet. She was who Maalik had been talking about back in Grim’s office.
“How?” I whispered.
“When a faith is created, those who create it are not believers. How can they be, when they simply did what they had to, to insure peace and harmony among their people? When those first believers open their hearts and give themselves so truly to a faith, that is when gods are born. I am one of those first believers.
“When Grim found me, he could see for himself. That’s why he kept me here, instead of taking me on to Firdaws Pardis in Jannah, the Islamic paradise. He showed me the great suffering of Eternity during the war, and he knew wi
th all the compassion I carried that I would not refuse to help end it.” Bitterness slipped into her voice, but then she sighed and her tone went neutral again.
“The war did end, and I have stayed here in Limbo for a very long time, helping Grim contain the excess soul matter, but even a soul can grow weary and old if it stays too long in one place. I told Grim he needed to find another, but his pride blinds him. He doesn’t want anyone else to know how he rules Eternity. It would make him vulnerable.
“I know my limitations. This will be the last year I can help him. If he doesn’t find another soul to take my place, Eternity will be burdened by war again. Even now, I should not be here. I am not as strong as I once was. I can feel soul matter slipping away from me, and it will not be long before Eternity is faced with a new presence that is uninvited. It cannot be helped, and I pray it will not bring war.”
“Is that what he has us doing? Looking for your replacement?” I was disgusted. Why wasn’t Grim out looking for the soul himself? It was to ensure his reign of power. “Why me? Why Josie and Kevin and Coreen?”
“Not them, just you,” she sighed. “The others were a distraction. There are some who do not approve of Grim creating reapers with the soul matter. They think it is too close to breaching the treaty. The only thing that keeps them from declaring war is the fact that the reapers are controlled as a working class and not respected as gods. If they knew that I made you unique, they would not be pleased.
“Grim is the only other who can feel the importance of a soul. I didn’t tell him about you until very recently. I’m sure that’s why he’s so upset. He doesn’t feel so special anymore, but it had to be done. He’s too engrossed in the council dealings now. If he left to search for another soul, his absence would be noticed by all. I needed someone I could trust to find my successor. I trust you Lana.”
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