Unbound

by Shawn Speakman

  My real name is Ash, usually just a humble bodyguard. But tonight . . . I was playing the prince!

  That's why I was laying against the cool sheets, bowl of figs and sweet cakes next to me. A few low torches lit the sumptuous room. I'd had a hot bath, a massage, been sprinkled with flower petals, and wished good night by servants a few hours ago. Honestly, it felt sort of like being off-duty, having a little holiday.

  That's were I was wrong. I nearly ended up dead because of it.

  I'd drifted off and been sleeping for a while when Meres, one of the palace servants, tiptoed in. Waking, I watched him through slitted eyes, pretending to be asleep. Meres is a nice old guy. I figured he was carrying through with his nightly chores. Come to check the room was safe, verify that I was sleeping, and all that. He'd done all that earlier in the evening, but he was getting up there in years. Could be he just couldn't tell the difference between me and the prince--or notice that it was closer to sunrise than bedtime.

  When he walked over and stood beside the bed, I figured I should say something. I didn't get the chance to.

  Through the cracks of my almost closed eyes, I watched Meres grin strangely. He rubbed his hands together in devilish enthusiasm, and then he changed shape. The old man vanished. Instead, he became a cross between a crocodile and a sea squid. He had twelve tentacles instead of arms, with barbs at the ends of them. His long snout was lined with a jagged bristle of teeth. With that, I knew exactly what he was. Not a kindly old caregiver. He was one of the bau. He was the spirit of a dead demon that has been enslaved by an evil magician. They can be sent out on missions. Stuff like trying to kill a prince while he was sleeping. They're horrible monsters, but they shape-shift into other forms. They only drop their guise right before they kill.

  Opening his jaws, the bau blew a breath of fetid vapor down toward me, and then he lunged.

  * * * * *

  As the bau's jaws descended, I kicked with all the strength I had. My foot smashed into his lower jaw, slamming it shut. I grabbed it with both hands and held it closed. That's the thing about crocodile jaws. They put all the muscle into bone-crushing bite power, but they're pretty easy to hold shut. I'd had experience with this, you see.

  The bau's eyes bulged with surprise.

  I planted both feet on his chest and thrust him upward, flipping him over. As he flew over me, I let go and scrambled away. The bau crashed down loudly, smashing a couch to bits. For a moment, he was all flailing tentacles and roaring anger.

  I hope the noise would attract the palace guards. I snatched the spear I kept hidden under the bed. It's one of my favorite weapons. I considered hurling it at him, but as he lumbered forward I got the feeling he might be able to knock it away with one of those tentacles. Then I'd be weaponless. Better to hang on to it. I stepped toward him. Using the spear like a staff, I went to work.

  Despite the bulk of his upper body, this bau had spindly legs. I swung low, trying to take them out. The demon jumped. Pretty nimble, really. I swung high, but one of his tentacles batted the spear away. I tried jabbing at his chest. Bad move. He grabbed the shaft and nearly yanked it out of my grasp. I only got it back by using it to pull myself forward and swing up on. I planted a roundhouse kick across his jaw. He loosened his grip. I hit the ground running away from him and pulled the spear along with me.

  I needed to rethink. Clearly, getting in close with the spear wasn't working. Throwing it was risky, but the barbs on the bau's tentacles looked nastier the more I watched him slash them around. No, better to keep my distance and nail the beast.

  When I had a clear shot at him, I planted my feet and hurled the spear with everything I had. The spear sailed toward him, iron point glistening and the shaft behind it driving forward. It should have pierced through his chest and pinned him to the wall.

  It didn't.

  He twisted to one side. The spear slipped by a hair's breadth from his body. Even his tentacles managed to curve out of the way. The spear slammed into the wall and stuck solid. The shaft swayed with the force of the impact.

  The bau's face wasn't exactly the easiest to read, but I had a feeling he was looking pleased with himself. He came at me. I did the only reasonable thing. I ran for the exit. The bau beat me to it. I skimmed away and kept moving. I tried to dislodge the spear from the wall. No dice. It wouldn't budge. I had a quiver of throwing knives in my own room, but the bau wouldn't let me escape the prince's quarters. Instead, we kept up a deadly game of chase. To slow him down, I chucked anything I could at him. Chairs, bowls, vases, cushions, those silky soft sheets: whatever I could get my hands on. Between the bau's bellows and the crash of things breaking, we really made a racket.

  Where were the palace guards? They should've been here by now.

  "A little help would be appreciated, guys!" I called.

  If they weren't going to show up to help me out, I was going to have to pull off something unconventional, something that would catch the demon by surprise. It took me a while to come up with my bright idea. I only figured it out after about the fifth time I'd jumped over or slid under the spear jutting out of the wall. Just because it was stuck didn't mean it couldn't still be used as a weapon.

  The next time I ran passed it, with the bau hot on my heels, I grabbed the butt of the spear shaft. Using my momentum, I pulled it to one side, feeling the tension build. I held it for a second, until the demon was heading right at me, and then I . . .

  I'd like to say that I released the shaft and watched it swing around and hit the bau right in the gut. That was my plan. It didn't go that way. Before I could let go, the tension on the shaft yanked me off my feet and sent me hurtling into the bau's midsection. I thudded into him, knocking him back.

  I struggled to my feet, winded. The bau didn't let me catch my breath. He rose too, rubbing his tummy and looking offended. I turned to run again, but I noticed something. Using the spear like a catapult must have loosened it. It lay on the floor, freed from the wall. I snatched it up, set the shaft against the base of the wall, and turned, aiming the point behind me. The bau didn't see the spear until it was too late. The force of his own body drove the point into his chest. His face--which was so close to mine I could've planted a kiss on his scaled snout--registered the pain of the injury for a moment. Then it changed. It lost the fury of the fight. It grew soft with relief. His body lost its flesh and blood substance and he faded into vapor.

  With that, I sent him back to the spirit world.

  * * * * *

  I stood panting, glad to be alive. In the eerie silence of the room, I wondered again where the guards were? I mean, seriously, there was no way they could've slept through that! I'd give them an earful when I found them.

  Then I had a horrible thought.

  I dashed out of the room, down the passageway to the guard post. What I saw confirmed the worst. The two guards hadn't been sleeping. Not unless you mean the sleep that never ends. They were dead, cut to shreds by the bau's barbed tentacles. Gruesome. They probably never knew what hit them. One minute old Meres was chatting with them. The next they were getting sliced and diced and gnawed on.

  Meres was going to be horrified when he found out what happened. Chances were he was fast asleep in his room, with no actual role in this. He'd hate it that his form had been used to deceive the guards to their death. And almost to my death, for that matter.

  Anger surged up in me. Two people dead, and for what? A foul attack on the prince, obviously. Whoever sent that bau hadn't even done their homework well enough to know the prince wasn't in the palace! Whoever enslaved the creature wasn't the brightest. A clever magician would've dispatched the bau on his mission and then hightailed it out of there. If this guy wasn't clever he was probably still nearby, hoping to verify that the bau had succeeded.

  And if he's nearby, I thought. I can catch him!

  I still had the spear in hand, but I figured it wouldn't hurt to get a bit better armed. In my room, I strapped on my knife belt. Three razor-sharp blades, e
ach of them perfectly balanced for throwing. I'd sent a few demons back to the underworld with these.

  Next, I flipped open the locked box on my desk. The stylus lay there, a slim sliver of writing tool. It was a beauty, a present from Lord Thoth, the god of scribes and magical knowledge. He gave it to me when I began my magical training. It wasn't just any old stylus. It was a magician's primary instrument. Instead of writing words on papyrus, it wrote magical hieroglyphs. I called them “glyphs” for short. Write the correct glyph in just the right way, and almost anything was possible.

  The only problem with the stylus was that it didn't work at night. That's why I didn't have one at hand to turn the bau into a chicken or something. Egyptian magic isn't like the stuff practiced outside of the Nile Valley. For us, magic is gift given to us each day, when Lord Ra--the falcon-headed god--joined with the sun. It's kinda complicated. But the basic idea is that when the god and sun merge, the light they shone down on Egypt had magic in it. It's how we powered our sun barges and skiffs. It's what energized our excavation tools and supply transports. And it's what gave our spells life.

  At night, of course, magic didn't work. Good thing sunrise wasn't far away.

  I slipped the stylus under my belt and took off. My plan was a reasonable one. I'd alert the palace security force about the bau and the dead guards, and have them sound the alarms. If the magician was in the city, we'd nab him. Good plan, right?

  Well, it never happened.

  * * * * *

  The moment I ran out of the prince's compound I saw him. It would've been hard not to.

  The magician was mounted on an enormous, horrible winged creature. It was all beak, two big choppers that were so massive it barely seemed his body should be able to fly with it. Its glowing orange eyes turned and simmered on me. Its taloned feet gripped the peak of the glowing obelisk it perched on. No doubt about it: it was a winged spirit, a flying demon that powerful magicians could bend to their will.

  The magician himself--it was obvious he was the wicked magician at this point--started when he saw me. He wasn't expecting to see me alive. His stern features hardened even more. He cursed under his breath, and then barked a command. The bird's wings flared out, pitch black, blocking out the lightening morning sky. The creature leaped. It slammed its wings down, creating a great rush of air that almost knocked me off my feet. The mount and rider carved away, rising with each wingbeat.

  "No!" I cried. He was getting away! I didn't stand a chance of hitting him with a knife, and the stylus was still powerless. I ran to the edge of the balcony, wishing I had wings. My eyes followed the shape of the creature as it grew smaller. It was so frustrating!

  I had just about given up hope when I heard a sound behind me. Spinning, I saw a messenger beetle. He was short, just up to my waist, with a hard green shell that protected his wings. He walked upright on two legs, but he had the full insect allotment of six. He looked to be off on some early morning business.

  "You there, beetle!" I snapped. "Can you fly?"

  The insect turned. Realizing who I was, he bowed an honorable greeting. "Yes, I've just recently received second class flier status. I would be first class, but--"

  "Good," I interrupted. Rude, I know, but there were time issues to consider. "Fly me."

  "Fly you?" He looked perplexed. "I carry messages, not . . . boys."

  "You do now. I command you with my authority as the Prince Khufu's Shadow. Take me in pursuit of that magician." I pointed.

  The beetle stood a moment taking in the view of the winged creature flying into the night sky. "You're joking," he finally said.

  "I wish I was."

  "You've picked the wrong beetle." He wiggled one of his antennas. It had a noticeable crook in it. "I've got a faulty antenna. Lord Set snapped it once, and it never healed properly. Means I have a hard time flying straight."

  Watching the winged creature grow smaller, I said, "I'm sure you'll do your best." I tossed my spear aside. There'd be no way to hold onto it with what I had in mind. I snatched the beetle up, flipped him over, and grabbed him by his lower legs. Once I had a good grip, I swung him into the air and leaped off the balcony.

  * * * * *

  "B-b-but," the beetle cried, "my antenna!"

  His shell cracked open and his wings whirred to life. We dropped terrifyingly toward the terrace below us, but at the last minute the beetle got enough control to pull us out of the fall. He flew forward. I held on, dangling beneath him, legs whipping about.

  "Follow that bird!" I shouted.

  "I'll try!" was his answer.

  Considering how he looped and twisted, rose and dove and veered from one side to the other, I found that hard to believe. I admit that I was an awkward load for a beetle to carry, but this was ridiculous! I could barely tell that we were heading in the right direction. We certainly weren't gaining on the magician and his mount. I was starting to think I had picked the wrong beetle after all.

  "Fly straight!" I yelled.

  "I told you I can't! Busted tenny."

  Fortunately, the little guy had strong wings. He kept us aloft. The grounds of the palace scrolled by beneath us. Soon we were over the city itself, and then further into the farmland that stretched off to the south. I was on my own now, no guards to call on for help.

  At least the sun would be up soon. The lightening sky to the east proved it. If I'd been thinking straight, it would've occurred to me that the only problem with my being able to use my stylus was that the magician would be able to use his too. That should've worried me, but you can't think of everything when you're dangling a hundred feet in the air, holding on to the scrawny legs of a faulty beetle.

  "They've landed at the temple to Anubis!" the beetle said.

  I craned my head around to see. I caught a glimpse of the magician dismounting from the demon bird in front of the massive temple. That's all I saw, though, before the beetle veered again. "How hard is it to fly straight?" I yelled, my anger rising.

  The beetle said, "Ah . . ."

  He wasn't answering me. I thrashed, trying to get a better view of whatever he was seeing. "What?"

  "Uh oh . . ."

  "What?"

  "Oh, no . . ."

  I didn't have to wait for his answer. He swung around, giving me a perfect view. The magician was nowhere to be seen. He must've gone into the temple. The demon bird, however, had risen back into the air.

  "He's heading straight for us!" the beetle said.

  Exactly. The creature's enormous wings made short work of the distance. He flew toward us at incredible speed.

  "What should I do?" the beetle asked.

  "Make evasive maneuvers."

  The beetle's voice rose to panic pitch. "Make what?!"

  "Fly weird!" I said. "That shouldn't be hard for you."

  He did. He flew plenty weird. He darted side to side. He zigged. He zagged. He rose up and down. He carved loops. All of this was before the demon even reached us.

  When it did, it just got crazier. The demon swooped in. Its massive beak snapped at us. It lunged and twisted, eyes fixed on us with murderous intent. The beetle flew so chaotically that he nearly pulled my arms from my sockets. I flailed about, legs going this way and that, barely able to hold on.

  All of this happened in midair. From my perspective, the world below shifted and heaved as we moved. I tried not to think about that. What I needed to do, I knew, was sink one of my throwing knives into the beast. With all the motion, it wasn't going to be easy. My timing had to be perfect.

  We corkscrewed between the demon's massive head and the flare of his wing. If I'd believed it was intentional, I'd have praised the beetle for his skills. Only, he was screaming like a maniac as he did it, so I doubted it was planned. We stalled out for a moment above the demon. I saw my chance.

  I let go with one hand and, swinging one-armed, I yanked a dagger from its sheath. Quick as I could, I aimed at the demon's head as it turned to snap at us. I threw.

  Would've be
en a good shot, except that the beetle zinged to the left at just the wrong time. My knife missed the demon. It flew end over end out of sight, falling to the earth.

  "I had a clear shot!" I screamed.

  The beetle babbled in response. He spoke so fast that he pounded words together in a way that made no sense at all. He kept at his crazy flying, and I grabbed my second knife.

  The next time I got a shot I was upside down. The beetle was doing one of his somersaults. We were underneath the demon. As the beetle flipped to avoid him, I swung around. My feet touched the great bird's belly. I ran along it a few steps. I should've kicked him, but I was focused on using my knife. I aimed at the beast and threw.

  Would've worked, except that my running feet got in the way. I kicked the knife before it sunk home. The blade careened away. I grabbed for it, but the beetle, in his wisdom, twisted around the demon and rose at a furious rate. Looking down at the demon as it beat its wings to rise with us, I considered my options.

  I only had one knife left. I wasn't going to hit the fiend like this. The beetle was clearly exhausted. The way the demon was roaring up toward us, both the beetle and I were going to be demon food. If I was going to have any chance of hitting him, I had to be able to really aim at him. I knew what I had to do.

  "Beetle," I said, "if you can, catch me before I splatter."

  With that, I let go of his leg. I plummeted downward, toward the demon bird.

  * * * * *

  The force of the wind tore at me. It roared in my ears. But at least I was dropping in a direct line. I locked my legs beneath me and fell straight toward him, making my body as lean as possible. I tore my final knife free. I cocked my arm back, waiting for the perfect moment.