by E. A. Copen
She smiled. “His middle initial is H for Harry.”
Seb H. Feneque. Qebehsenuef. I’d never been much good at word puzzles, but I was pretty sure Seb’s legal name was nothing more than an anagram of his god name. He was hiding in plain sight, working with Ancient Egyptian mummies. No wonder he was an expert. But maybe that meant the other brothers had done the same thing, rearranging the letters of their Ancient Egyptian name to form a legal name. If that were the case, it’d make them a hell of a lot easier to find. That sounded like information I could hand over to Emma so she could prosecute them. Now if only I could connect them to the cut-up corpses.
Breaking it to Beth was a different matter altogether. Luckily, I didn’t have to.
Osric strode out of the shadows, looking more cocky than normal, which I hadn’t thought possible until that moment. “I’ve got us a map.” He held up two empty fingers, and black smoke materialized there, forming a flat page.
“Great, now we just have to worry about running into guards,” I said and joined him on the walk to the door. “Which way once we open the door?”
Osric looked down at the flat shadow in his hands. It just looked like black paper to me, but apparently, he could see something there that I couldn’t because he promptly said, “Right.”
I opened the door, made a right turn into the hallway and stopped when a stranger strode out to meet me. He was tall and thin with dark hair. Nothing about him stood out beyond the powder blue suit. The man who had been bidding against me for lot forty-two.
He tucked his hands into his pockets, no more bothered by the presence of the three of us than a hawk with a full belly would be watching a mouse crawl through the underbrush.
Osric bumped into my back and let out a curse, but looked up. “Who the hell are you?”
The other guy’s lip twitched. “So, you’re the new Knight of Shadow. That must mean you’re the Pale Horseman.” His eyes slid to me, appraising.
This guy has to be a god of some sort. I activated my Soul Vision, expecting to see a shining golden soul in his chest. Instead, he was filled with darkness black enough to make the shadows dancing at his feet seem bright. More than that, his shape changed under my vision, giving him large feathery wings. The only light that remained emanated from his head and hands, and it was blinding enough that I was forced to look away.
This guy was no god, but he had to be a major player with the way the bidding had gone. I’d never seen anything like what I saw looking at him.
“You may call me Mr. Morningstar.” He made a slight bow. “But you’ve nothing to fear from me.”
Beth’s arm slid around mine. She wore a fierce expression, but I could feel her trembling. “I don’t like this.”
“I mean you no harm.” Mr. Morningstar shrugged. “But I have dealings with Mr. Kerrigan, and I would like to conclude them before you leave.”
Dealings? What the hell did I have to do with this guy? “I won the bidding war,” I said, standing straighter. “So if you’re here to negotiate—”
Morningstar gave an amused smirk. “Negotiate? Perhaps. I do have an offer I’d like to tempt you with, but perhaps we’ll save that for another time in favor of expediency.” He reached into his suit.
At my side, Osric tensed like a tightly-wound coil. I braced and slid a little more in front of Beth.
Morningstar didn’t even seem to notice, but he didn’t pull a weapon from inside his suit. He brought out a small jewel encrusted box.
“The queen’s sheut box.” I narrowed my eyes. “What do you want for it?”
He tossed the box, and I fumbled to catch it, turning over in my hands once I had it. It looked intact, but it couldn’t be that easy. Nothing was ever that easy.
“You will take the box, but leave the rest,” Morningstar instructed. “And when you kill the sons of Horus, which you undoubtedly will, you agree that your debt to them passes to me to collect on a future date.”
My head jerked up, and I studied Morningstar. I owed Fade and his baboon buddy three days of my time. If I agreed to Morningstar’s terms, he’d own my soul for three whole days. I didn’t like the idea of owing anything to some guy I didn’t know, especially someone powerful enough to make gods quiver in fear. “And if I refuse?”
He tilted his head slightly, a dark light shining deep in his eyes. “You don’t want to refuse. Not for the sake of your mortal friend.” His eyes flicked to Beth.
Dammit, he had me cornered. But that didn’t mean I had to accept his terms as-is. “I get to choose the date,” I offered.
Morningstar shook his head. “If I allow that, you’ll never make good. But I am willing to entertain another offer. What if we set for a future date? Say, Shrove Tuesday of this coming year?”
Beth’s grip tightened on my arm. “Lazarus, don’t.”
I didn’t want to, but the other option sounded even worse. Handing Beth over to Morningstar wasn’t even on the radar as a possibility. I passed the box to Beth, stepped forward and offered a hand. “Deal.”
Morningstar didn’t take my hand, instead inclining his head in thanks and then turning away.
“Hey, you’re just going to leave me hanging?” I shouted as he walked away.
“I know better than to be within arm’s reach of the Pale Horseman.” He raised two fingers in a wave. “Farewell, Horseman. For now.”
Flames sprang up around him mid-step, flashing with blinding green lightning. I blinked, and when I opened my eyes again, Morningstar was gone, leaving behind nothing but a small scorch mark on the floor.
Chapter Nineteen
We crept down the narrow hallways, keeping to the shadows. In light of everything I now knew about shadows, you’d think that was a bad idea, but Osric seemed most comfortable in the dark, and I didn’t want to drift too far from him. Occasionally we’d hear disembodied voices traveling down one of the side hallways, prompting us to hurry along, but we always seemed to avoid the patrols.
Until we reached the first display room where I’d seen the Jade Scroll.
Three gods stood in the center of the room. Fade stood with his arms crossed on the far left. The baboon guy—who I assumed was the Hapi Beth had mentioned earlier—stood on the far right, balancing on his toes. A wild grin was painted on his face. Seth Emits stood between them, dark eyes glaring from under his heavy brow.
Osric drifted to the right while Beth fanned left, and I took the middle. No one was leaving the room without a fight. While I could probably take one of the shadow gods in front of me, I couldn’t rip the souls out of all three, not without some serious help.
I glanced over at Osric. He’d already bled through the makeshift bandages. His normally dark face had paled by two shades, and I’d noticed him walking with a slight limp. He was far from his best, especially since he didn’t seem to be able to call on his daggers.
Between the gator fight and her own waking nightmare, Beth had ruined the slinky black dress she wore. One shoulder strap hung limply while the other kept her dress up by only a few thin threads. Not that it’d fall if the straps came off. It was hugging her body tight enough in all the right places that it wasn’t going anywhere. I wasn’t worried about her modesty though. I was more concerned that the only thing she was armed with was a single high heeled shoe.
And me, without my staff.
They’d done a good job of wearing us down. It’d be a tough fight even if we were at our best, but as we were, we didn’t stand a chance. So, I resorted to what was always backup plan number one.
Stalling.
“Eenie, meenie, miney, mo.” I moved my finger back and forth between them, stopping on Hapi. “If you’re Hapi, and you’re Imseti, and Seb is Qubi-whatsit, that must make you Duamutef.” I pointed at Fade. “Am I right?”
“Astute,” said Imseti, rolling his eyes.
“Can I eat him now?” Duamutef licked his lips.
Hapi hopped forward a step, shoving Fade back in the process. “Me first.”
“We’re not allowed to eat him.” Imseti’s lip curled. “It’s against the rules of the game. And if you break the rules…”
“You’re out!” Hapi clapped his hands and grinned ear to ear.
“Fine,” said Duamutef. “But she never said anything about killing the competition.”
His brothers slid away from him, eyes sweeping between Duamutef and me.
I turned to Osric, scratching my head. “Any idea what they’re talking about?”
He gave me a heavy look, one that said he might know more than he was letting on. One that almost looked like…regret. But what did he have to feel sorry for? If anything, I should feel sorry for him after what the gators had done.
“We had an agreement,” Hapi snarled at his brother.
“And the agreement stands for now.” Duamutef extended one hand to his side and a staff a little longer than mine appeared in his fist. Except his had a half-circle blade on either end of the staff.
Imseti mimicked the motion, but a spear appeared in his hand. His eyes shifted to Osric. “Well, Sir Knight? Have you had enough? Dusk approaches.”
“All we want is the necromancer,” Hapi added, and then his eyes flicked to Beth. “And maybe the woman.”
Osric went rigid. The defensive stance he’d taken faded into something more appropriate for prey than a predator, and he looked to me, the apology already on his face. “Good luck, Horseman. You’re going to need it,” he said and bolted. The three god brothers parted to let him through without even trying to stop him.
I stared after him, slack-jawed. “Son of a bitch!”
Imseti extended his free hand. “You have two choices. Hand over the box and live or render payment in full immediately. Failure to do either of these will result in your death.”
Shit, without Osric, I was a dead man and so was Beth. Well, not a man, but you get it. I looked to Beth who had been inching her way along the wall, trying to disappear into the shadows. Hapi had been watching her from the corner of his eye. I thought maybe if she could get a few steps further, I could toss her the box, and she could make a run for it, but I didn’t think she’d be fast enough to escape the three of them. Not without a distraction.
But what could I do? I didn’t have much information, but the three of them had let a few things slip just now. They seemed to all three be after the same thing: souls. Anything to expand their power base. Problem was, there was no way to divvy us up evenly between the three of them. No matter how it all went down, one of them was going to get screwed.
They also thought I had their box, which I didn’t, but I wasn’t going to let them in on that fact. “I won this box fair and square, fellas.” I cracked my knuckles.
“You won nothing. You stole everything,” Imseti said.
If I could just keep them talking, they might give me something worth taking back to Emma. “Not my fault you trapped me in a waking nightmare when I showed up to pay you. Say, while we’re on the subject of payment, I owe you guys for last night. You killed a couple friends of mine. Stole another faekin’s organs. What’s with that anyway?”
“Enough!” Imseti bellowed and pointed his weapon at me. “Let’s kill him.”
Hapi dropped to all fours and rushed me, propelling himself into the air using his back legs. Baboon fangs flashed in his mouth. I sidestepped just in time to avoid becoming a baboon snack and found myself stepping into the path of Duamutef’s spear. It jabbed forward, catching my right arm. Luckily, I’d stumbled and the spear sliced more than stabbed me. A line of hot pain flared across my bicep. I grabbed at the burning cut. Duamutef swung the spear at my feet and missed, but only because I hopped up and let him sweep the spear under me.
Another fire erupted in my back between my shoulder blades. I grunted and fell forward when Hapi tackled my legs. He screeched and chomped on my leg. All I could do was howl. That was cut short by the shadow that fell over me.
Duamutef raised his spear. “Goodbye, Horseman.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable fatal stab. With Hapi chewing on my calf, there wasn’t anywhere for me to go. I was all out of moves. At least I’d given Beth the chance to sneak away. I hoped she’d taken it.
I got my answer when her voice echoed through the room. “Stop!”
Duamutef’s spear halted with the tip resting on the back of my head. I couldn’t tell if Hapi stopped biting me or not because my whole leg had gone icy, but the pressure there let up a little. Even Imseti turned his head. I shifted so I could look too.
Beth had made it as far as the exit tunnel, but stopped there with one hand outstretched, the palm flat. In it rested the tiny sheut box. “You want the box, right? If I give it to you, you have to promise to let him go.”
Duamutef pulled his spear away from my head. “Stupid girl. We have no reason to honor that promise. Now that we know you have the box, we can kill him, track you down and take it.”
“But not all of us can take it.” Hapi crawled away from me, leaving bloody knuckle prints on the floor. “Only one can have the box, Duamutef. Why wait? I’ll kill her now and take it.”
Imseti raised his chin. “I’ll accept your offer, girl. With one condition.” He turned back to me, eyes blazing. “The Horseman kills Duamutef first.” He swung his double-bladed weapon low enough that I felt the blades pass over my head and probably cut a few hairs away. But the blade missed anything important on me, instead slicing through Duamutef’s ankles.
Duamutef toppled, and I threw myself at him, activating my Soul Vision as I tackled him. He screamed as I plunged my hand into his chest, a high-pitched, inhuman scream that sounded more like a dog howling than anything. As my fingers wrapped around the glowing, golden orb inside him, his body thrashed once, then went rigid. The soul fought me, even after I pulled it free. Duamutef stared at his own disembodied soul and let out one last shaky breath before his body turned to ash beneath me.
Imseti watched me struggling with the soul as it tried to jerk left and right in my arms. The soul, which had been the size of a baseball inside of Duamutef, had grown to the size of a basketball and seemed to be made of melting ice, making it slippery. It had nearly escaped from my arms when Imseti reached out and plucked the soul from my grasp with two fingers.
“You always were the most gullible,” he said, staring at the soul. Then, he opened his mouth and devoured his brother’s soul.
Behind him, Hapi screeched and backed away. “Brother, you lied! You lied!”
Imseti smiled, licking his fingers. “Not a lie, dear brother. A better offer simply came along.” He turned to hold his hand out to Beth. “Now the sheut box, if you please.”
Beth gave Hapi a nervous glance, but the baboon guy was too busy shrinking against the nearest wall to pay her any mind. She rushed forward as if Imseti would change his mind and dropped the box in his offered hand.
“Thank you.” Imseti’s fingers seemed to elongate so he could wrap them around the box. “Now as for you, dear brother.” He turned on Hapi, who screeched and fled down another corridor. Imseti watched him flee and smirked. “Take the Horseman. Now that I have the box, I have no use for him. Victory is all but in my grasp.”
Chapter Twenty
I didn’t lose consciousness on the way out, but I did lose a lot of blood. Blackness threatened at the edges of my vision a few times, but I willed it away.
Near the end of the long tunnel, we stepped out of the pocket dimension and I felt like a couple of trucks had backed over me. The shift from the pocket dimension to my own placed an extra weight on my shoulders. Up until that point, I’d been limping along slowly, but that extra weight threw me. I collapsed in Beth’s arms.
That’s when it really dawned on me how bad off I must be. I needed a hospital, but I didn’t know how I was going to explain my symptoms. Yes, doctor. That’s right. I said a baboon. No, I wasn’t at the zoo. Why do you ask? The mental conversation made me giddy. Or maybe that was the lightheadedness.
“Dammit, Lazar
us,” Beth grunted, trying to drag me the last few feet. “You need to lay off the booze. You’re getting heavier.”
I didn’t have an answer for her, so I let my head hang. At the pace we were going, it’d be a while before we got out, and then we’d have to deal with the guards who’d taken my staff. Bleeding to death or not, no way was I leaving the square without getting that back.
I must’ve faded for a minute, because the next thing I knew, we were outside the monument, the stairs behind us. Only one cat shifter was on guard, the dumb one from earlier. He frowned at my condition and Beth’s exhaustion but made no move to help. “Claim check?”
Beth shifted my weight with another grunt. “What did you have?”
“Staff,” I mumbled. “Wooden.”
She turned back to the guard. “I don’t know where his check is, but he had a wooden staff. I left a black dagger.”
The guard frowned. “No claim check, no claim.”
I dropped to the ground with a grunt as Beth let go of me. “Look, Puss-in-Boots,” she snarled, grabbing the cat shifter by the tie. “Give us our stuff, or you’ll get to find out what it feels like to be neutered.”
He let out a small whine, and she let him go. “One minute.” He shuffled off to the other side of the monument only to return with my staff and a black leather thigh holster with a dagger jammed into it.
Beth took both, stopping to strap the dagger to her thigh before trying to collect me. It was much more difficult since she was trying to hold onto the staff, but she managed to drag me a few feet before we fell over again.
“Stop,” I said, rolling over onto my back. I sat up enough to have a look at my leg. I couldn’t see the injury, but my entire pant leg below the knee glistened a darker color in the setting sun, and I could feel the blood sloshing around in my shoe. “Hurts.”
Beth scooted closer on her knees, chewing on her bottom lip. She knew exactly what I did. Even if we called a squad to come and get me, there was no patching up my leg so I could walk around on it, not for a long time. While I was laid up healing, the two remaining sons of Horus would have free rein over the city to kill more fae, whatever their reasons for doing so were.
