Chapter One Hundred and Fifteen: The Devourer
“I am in awe,” said Ana as she watched the ripples of Sobek’s departure. “I had thought your mission a mere fantasy, Kiya, but now I know you truly walk with gods.”
Yidini bowed and said something. “He wants to apologise for doubting you,” said Ana. She looked at the darkening sky. “It is getting late,” she said. “Lend your spear to Yidini so he can catch us fish while you and I make a fire.”
Kiya handed over her spear then gathered firewood with Ana. They made a pile of dry grass, then Ana took two stones from her belt purse and struck them together. Sparks fell upon the grass and after a few tries they caught alight and flames started to flicker. Kiya carefully added sticks to the fire and soon she could feel the warmth.
Yidini was standing in the river with the spear poised. Above him white-headed fish eagles wheeled. One dived and came up with a fine, fat fish. Kiya was about to remark that the bird was a better at fishing than the soldier when Yidini stabbed down and held up a fish pierced through the body by the spear.
“This will be our farewell feast,” said Ana. “Tomorrow, Yidini and I will go back north to the grassland to make an ivory treaty. I assume you are going to head south to see your father. Those strange clouds we saw must have something to do with him.”
Kiya was dismayed. She had assumed that Ana and Yidini would remain with her on the mission. But why should she think that friendship alone would bind them to such a task? For Ana the needs of Crete would always come before all else. She hid her disappointment with an effort. “Thank you for being with me this far,” she said.
Kiya, Ana and Yidini spent the night sleeping on the grass beside a grove of acacia trees. When Kiya awoke the next morning she was disconcerted to find that she could not move. She tried to sit up and found that she was held to the ground by a net.
The horrid scent of rotting straw assailed her nostrils and a pair of strong arms rolled her over so she was completely encased in the mesh. Terrified, she screamed for help. She felt herself being dragged across the ground and screamed again. There was a pause. She struggled to free herself but, before she could do so, she was hauled into the air, where she dangled, swinging gently within the net.
“Let me go,” she shouted and wondered why Ana and Yidini had made no attempt to rescue her.
The net spun slowly round and she was able to adjust her position so she could see the world more clearly. Ana and Yidini had also been captured and were hanging in nets suspended from the acacia trees.
“How are you, Kiya?” called Ana.
“I have not been wounded,” said Kiya. “But I am helpless.”
“We have been foolish to be so easily captured,” said Ana. “Yidini should have kept watch.”
“Who has imprisoned us?” asked Kiya.
“I do not know. But I am sure their intentions are not good. Yidini seems to have been hurt for he has made neither sound nor movement.”
At that moment the soldier groaned and then started to struggle.
“I see that you are all awake.” The strange voice drew their attention away from Yidini. Kiya turned her head and saw a man. He sat upon another man, who was kneeling on all fours beneath him. The man who formed a seat was naked but the one who addressed them had a crown of grass upon his head and an animal skin wrapped around his waist. “Welcome to my kingdom,” he said.
“Who are you?” asked Ana.
“I am The Devourer. These are my two brothers Seize and Bind.” He indicated the man beneath him and beckoned to another who was on guard. Kiya once more smelled the odour of decaying straw as he passed by her and took his position kneeling at his brother’s side.
“How is it that you speak Egyptian?” asked Kiya.
“Because we are Egyptian gods,” said The Devourer.
Kiya raised her head and breathed deeply of the unpleasant odours of the three men. The scent of stale fish and foetid mud made her shudder. There was something very wrong with the kas of these three. “You are not gods,” she said. “You are monsters and belong in the Molloch mine.”
The Devourer leapt to his feet. “Never dare say that again!” he shouted. “We escaped from that hideous place many years ago. I was like my brothers then – incapable of thought. We roamed the forest aimlessly and would have died of hunger but we came upon a boy and killed and ate him.”
“Fiends,” said Kiya.
The Devourer ignored the insult and sat once more upon Seize. “My brothers ate the flesh but I was fortunate enough to eat the brain. It was soft and delicious and I absorbed not just nutrients but also the ability to think. Using my new-found intelligence I was able to direct my brothers to make weapons and traps. We fed well on wildlife but I realised that my mind was gradually losing its acumen. So I led my brothers down from the plateau onto the grassland where we could find more people and I could feed on more brains.”
“Is that why you have captured us?” said Ana. “To feed on our brains?”
“And to enjoy your company,” said the Devourer. “My brothers have little conversation and life, for someone as intelligent as I, becomes boring.”
“Why don’t you let them eat brains and become intelligent too?” asked Kiya.
The Devourer smiled. “I prefer them to do my bidding,” he said. “We have killed many humans since we came to live in the grasslands. I let them eat the liver to become strong and the heart to make them brave, but only I can eat the brain.” He licked his lips. “Talking of such things makes me hungry. I will start by eating the brain of the man.”
He stood up and pointed at the net that contained Yidini. “Fetch!” he said.
His brothers leapt to their feet and ran to the tree. One picked up a rope, which they wound around the struggling Yidini so that his arms were pinioned to his sides. Then they untied the net from the tree and dragged the unfortunate soldier to The Devourer.
“No, have mercy!” he shouted.
“Let him go!” yelled Kiya.
The noise of their cries reverberated through the trees and sent birds whirling into the air in startled flight. The Devourer took no notice of his victim’s distress. He carefully unravelled the net so Yidini’s head was exposed.
“I have discovered that a living brain gives my intelligence a greater boost than a dead brain,” he said and picked up a small axe. “I regret that my victims find the process painful but, after I have eaten a few spoonfuls, they stop screaming.”
Yidini struggled and begged for mercy, but he was held fast by a brother on either side. Kiya watched The Devourer angle the axe to make a sideways stroke across the top of the soldier’s skull, then she closed her eyes and held her breath, horrified by the terrible fate that awaited him.
Kiya and the God of Chaos Page 115
