He eyed me with that empty, cold look a predator has when eyeing its prey. He grinned, which was an altogether strange sight since he had the head of a mottled, brown crocodile. The fingers on his right hand were closed into a fist the size of my head while his other hand held a long golden spear that he leaned casually against.
“Are you the next champion?” he drawled in a voice that was all long syllables and charm.
I nodded because I wasn’t sure if my voice would work. Power hummed around him like a palpable cloud. It zipped around him like tiny gnats, popping every so often in small sparks of green light. I wasn’t sure how he did it exactly, but somehow, some way, he brought ancient Egypt’s power right into the heart of Fairy. Well, that was a neat trick. Hopefully it would work to my advantage because I was pretty sure I could tap into it.
“If I defeat you, it will give me forty-nine victories. I only need fifty to claim the Sidhe Courts as my own. Do you acknowledge that you are the forty-ninth combatant to face me?” Sobek asked as he glanced past me, staring up at the wall above my left shoulder. That was where the Morrigan stood.
I swallowed and tried to ignore the growing pit in my stomach, tried to ignore the hairs standing up on the back of my neck, tried to ignore the little voice in my head screaming at me to run away. I shook my head and forced my fear down, forced my trembling legs to straighten, and forced my heart to stop hammering in my chest.
“Yes. I am the forty-ninth challenger,” I said, totally impressed with myself because my voice was steady and almost nonchalant.
Sobek’s nostrils flared for an instant, and he threw back his head and laughed. A rich booming echoed across the water, filling the land with a sound that made me think victory parties.
“Your scent has changed, young one. I still smell the fear on you, but there’s more now. Determination, excitement?” He shook his head and his enormous snout swung from side to side, huge teeth catching the light and glinting like miniature stars.
“Annoyance,” I snapped as I stepped up to the edge of the pool. The musky smell of plants and mud filled my nostrils. “I’m going to get all sorts of muddy if I step into that.” I pointed at his lagoon. “Plus my new armor will fill up with water… no good will come from it.”
“An excellent point. But if we don’t fight here it will be much more difficult to drag your body into the water to save for later.” It wasn’t a threat, it was just fact, and he delivered it with that same jolly Texas drawl he’d been using the whole time.
“Assuming you win,” I said in my most confident voice. I wasn’t sure if I would, but I hated being dismissed. If overconfidence was a sin, this guy had it in spades.
“Assuming I win,” he agreed with a shrug. “No one ever knows for certain.”
I knelt down and put my left hand in the water. Its cool embrace crept over my skin, and without thinking, I scooped up a handful and put it to my lips. Sobek’s eyes widened as he watched, his giant crocodile tail swishing back and forth in the lagoon.
The water tasted like sour apple candy and spicy peppers. To say it was an unexpected flavor was an understatement. Isis trembled in its sheath, and I reached back and pulled her free. The blade throbbed in my hand, casting brilliant white light outward in nearly every direction. It spilled over the water like a rushing wave, turning the ground in front of me into an opaque white surface.
Sobek stumbled backward, splashing water in every direction as he tried to regain his balance. It took him a second or so, but he managed to keep from flopping over into the water. His massive body curled into a low crouch as the white spread out over the ground around him, reducing his pool until it just barely contained him.
I took a step forward, and instead of finding muddy water beneath my feet, the ground was solid. I took another step, and then another, until I was several feet beyond the bank. The bird-headed creatures began to caw and squawk so loudly that the noise was deafening in my ears. Then, very slowly, they began to move away from the others, swarming out of the sides of the army until they stood together in one solid mass of soldiers.
“Isis…” Sobek said, awe stripping away all the other emotion in his voice. “How are you here?”
“This one has called me forth, Sobek.” The voice that came out of my mouth wasn’t mine. It was higher pitched and more regal sounding, like an ancient courtly princess. It was a voice that would have made my knees turn to jelly if I wasn’t the one using it. “And I am not alone.”
Before I could do anything, my left hand reached down with a mind of its own and plucked Set from its sheath. Red light burst out of the weapon like a striking serpent, fanning out around me like a giant hood that rose up into the sky and painted the horizon crimson. The jackal people raised their heads heavenward and howled, breaking ranks so fast they knocked over others in their haste to join Isis’ birdmen.
“Set too?” Sobek shook his head once. “You align yourself with this girl as well?”
“Yes, it is so.” The words came out full of rage and hatred. They boomed out of my mouth, so deep it hurt my throat to make them.
Sobek narrowed his eyes at me and took a step forward onto the solid white. As he did so his pool closed up, leaving no trace that it ever existed. “There are always three, girl. Who is your third?” he snarled, anger evident for the first time. “Re? Osiris? Horus?”
“No.” The word exploded out of me like a living force that threw Sobek backward. He hit the ground with a wet sounding thud and slid several feet. Apep’s power burst forward out of me, swirling up and down my body in the dark, smoky rings of a coiling serpent. Apep’s massive body trailed over me like one of those rock stars with a too big snake.
Apep’s head reached upward and out, towering over the battlefield and the remaining creatures fell to their knees. They made gestures I didn’t pretend to understand as they prostrated before him.
“Now you see what you are up against.” The voice that came out of my mouth was a wet hiss of power, and the words tossed the soldiers around like papers in the wind. “I am the darkness that swallows everything.” The huge snake’s head struck outward until it was nearly eye to eye with Sobek. “Do you dare to face me, Sobek?”
Thoughts flashed across Sobek’s face so quickly that I couldn’t quite make them out before they disappeared. “So she is fool enough to release you too, Apep?” he said finally. “That doesn’t mean she can control you, or any of you.” He gestured at the snake and bared his crocodile teeth. “You may have the power of chaos on your side, girl, but you are still a mortal.” He charged me then, spear upraised to strike. “And I am a god.”
18
Sobek’s attack came so quickly, I almost didn’t see it coming. I dodged left as his spear passed so close to my body that it pierced through my gilded armor like it was made of Styrofoam. The metal shrieked, tearing free in a burst of sparks. I hurled myself to the side as one clawed fist cleaved the space my head occupied a moment before.
I rolled, coming to my feet in an instant and whirling to face him, the twin blades of Shirajirashii all but throbbing with power in my hands, and the butt of Sobek’s spear came crashing backward and struck me in the chest. My ribs broke. That strange sharp pain I’ve felt so many times before pushed the breath from my lungs as I flew backward off my feet.
The white beneath me shattered in an explosion of crystalline shards that dissipated into steam before I even struck the ground. I hit the surface of the lagoon and skipped like a rock, once, twice, three times, before sinking beneath the surface. The cool water closed over my face as I tried to gasp for air, but I couldn’t will my lungs to work correctly.
Pain, sharp and cold, radiated out of my chest, throbbing in little waves that would have torn sounds from my lips if there was breath in me. My back struck the muddy bottom in a sort of slow settling motion, and my hands fell to my sides. My twin swords sank into the murk as I stared up at the surface three feet above, the noonday sun nearly blinding.
I had t
o move, had to get to the surface and breathe, but it seemed impossible. Sobek sauntered toward me from several feet away, making no effort to stop the water from roiling around him as he moved. The end of his spear dragged along the silty bottom throwing up great clouds of murkiness as he came closer. He probably could have moved so flawlessly that I wouldn’t have noticed him coming if he wanted to do so, but for some reason, he didn’t see the point.
A huge hand plunged downward through the water, seizing me by the collar of the armor and hauling me free of the surface. The cold wash of wind against my wet flesh made me shiver. I gasped. Cold air seared my lungs and throat as I coughed and sputtered.
Sobek eyed me carefully, holding me up so that our eyes were level. “Forty-nine,” he said calmly.
I drove my knee upward, slamming it into his stomach. Pain shot through me and the world went a little dim as the sound of shrieking metal echoed across the land. The god looked down, turning his entire head to the side to do so. I’d put a dent in his armor, but done little more as my leg fell back uselessly.
“Give up. Admit defeat, and I won’t kill you, girl,” he said, and his voice had that half-sad tone of regret. He would kill me, but it’d bother him a little bit.
I lashed out with Set, the blade burning bright red in my hand. The motion made my stomach roil and my head pound. Spots flashed across my eyes as he caught the sword, bare-handed. The sudden, jarring stop jerked down my arm and whipped across my body. A shriek of pain exploded out of me, and I shut my eyes for the barest second as dizziness threatened to overtake me.
Sobek glanced at it and sighed. “You really are going to make me kill you, aren’t you?”
Maybe I hadn’t been serious before, but I was now. Up until now, I’d been treating the whole adventure somewhat jokingly, but no more. Now I was pissed. It was time to get serious.
I released Set then, pretending to let my hand fall to my side. “White Sparrow,” I croaked as my fingers brushed his side. A roiling mass of white light exploded out of the sky and struck Sobek like rain sliding off metal. My power just washed off him like water off a duck’s back as he shook his giant head at me.
His nostrils expanded and contracted as he huffed out a sad, annoyed breath. He flung me, and I careened through the air. Wind rushed by my ears as the glint of golden light came toward me.
Sobek’s spear caught me full in the chest, piercing what was left of my armor like I was wearing a stick of warm butter. It plunged through my body with a finality that tore a coughed, choking scream from my lips. It ripped out my back, point slamming into the ground moments before I hit the dirt so that I was suspended in a half standing position as it buried itself in the thick mud.
Isis slipped from my hand, hitting the ground with a dull thud. Blood gushed out from my chest, and while I was sure he missed my heart because I wasn’t dead, the thought didn’t make mountains of confidence spring forth.
In the distance, I could just barely make out Warthor’s face filled with shock and horror as he leapt down from the wall in one fell swoop. I reached out and gripped the haft of the spear protruding from my chest. I shut my eyes and pulled.
Agony like I’ve never felt before rushed over me like fire over an unsuspecting forest. It burned me up, blazing so white hot that I could barely think past it. I knew I was falling backward because I could feel my body pitching toward the ground. I barely managed to turn so that I landed on my side, and to be honest, I didn’t feel myself hit the ground.
I know you aren’t supposed to pull impaled objects out because you could bleed to death, but I couldn’t fight being pinned to the ground like a giant butterfly. Even Dirge fought on after being disemboweled, not for long to be sure, but she did it. If she could do it, I could do it. Sure, I could try and heal it with magic, but then I’d have less power to kill this shit out of him with, and at the moment, that seemed more important. I could heal after he was dead.
“If you touch her, the fight is over,” Sobek said, and I knew he was talking to Warthor. “She won’t like it if you intervene before she is done.”
“I know,” Warthor’s voice was as cold as a glacier. “This isn’t the first time she’s done something stupid.”
“So you won’t throw in the towel for her?” Sobek asked, and he almost seemed to be pleading with my old master.
There was a long pause, so long that I opened my eyes to see Warthor staring at me. Tears rimmed his ice-blue eyes as he shook his head once. “No. Not ever.”
“And you won’t try to stop me from killing her either, will you?” Sobek asked, but it was hardly a question.
“No.” Warthor shut his eyes and turned away then, fists clenched so tight that they were bone-white. “I cannot.”
I reached out and grabbed the muddy hilt of Isis. The blade thrummed in my hand as I slashed outward with two quick strikes. The ends of Sobek’s spear fell away like broken kindling, leaving a piece of golden steel protruding only a couple inches on either side of me.
With one breath that rippled down my body like magma, I hoisted myself to my feet. “Okay.” I licked my lips and the coppery taste of blood filled my mouth. “Let’s try this one more time.”
“What are you trying to prove? That you’re tough? Done. That you’re brave? Noted. That you’re strong? I believe you,” Sobek pleaded. “Please do not make me kill you to prove a point.”
I held out my left hand and with a force of will that left my head spinning Set ripped free from Sobek’s grip and came shooting through the air toward me. I caught it in my outstretched hand and staggered back half a step. My body swayed woozily as the Egyptian deity shook his head.
“I can’t give up,” I said, taking a step toward him. The water under my foot solidified into a hard surface of pure white. I didn’t have the power or control to make the entire lagoon solid again, but the area under my feet, I could manage that. For now.
“Why not?” Sobek asked as he reached to the side and pulled a gleaming khopesh out of thin air. The Egyptian sickle-sword sparkled like hammered silver in the light of the sun, so bright that I could barely look at it. “Why do you persist when you cannot win?”
I gestured toward the walls. “Because they cannot win. Because they are too weak to stand before you.” I swallowed. My mouth was so dry that it was like trying to swallow a mouthful of sand. “Because if I stop fighting, then they will be defeated that much sooner. Every moment I stand here gives them just one more moment of breath.”
To be honest, I wasn’t sure if that was true, but it sounded like it should be. Besides, if I was going to die, it might as well be like this. That’d make Dirge’s memory proud. For some reason, that seemed important.
Sobek almost smiled but his eyes held a sadness unbefitting a crocodile. “They would kill you, and yet, you would throw your life away to buy them a few more seconds? It sounds noble, but it also sounds stupid.”
“Noble is just stupid when it counts.” I drove the twin blades of Shirajirashii into the ground. “Hankyouran Shinibana.”
White slammed down on us like a hammer, covering the pond and surroundings once more and stretching far beyond. The sky above faded into a pure white sheet so immense in its emptiness that it felt claustrophobic, even for me. Sobek stood looking at me, head half-cocked to the side as the white spread out around us like a living thing, swallowing us entirely. Everything else faded from view so that it was just the two of us standing there in an endless sea of white.
“Interesting,” Sobek murmured almost to himself. His crocodile eyes swept around for a moment. “Where have you taken me?”
Before I could reply, a roar echoed across the landscape. I turned my head toward the sound, and my jaw dropped. Standing before us was a huge upright hippopotamus with the tail of a crocodile. Her giant belly bulged beneath her pink linen mu-mu as she took a menacing step toward Sobek, anger burning in her dark eyes.
“What are you doing here with her?” she cried, pointing at me with one lion paw of a
hand. She narrowed her eyes. “Are you cheating on me?”
I glanced at Sobek who seemed as stunned as I did. A look of horror flashed across his face as he took a step back.
“You think I’m fat don’t you,” the creature wailed, putting her hands to her swollen stomach and shaking herself. “I can’t even see my feet anymore, and you think I’m fat, and you’re leaving me for a little girl.”
“Um…” I said, not sure what to do, but when the hippo glanced in my direction, I suddenly wished I could make myself very small.
“It isn’t like that at all, Taweret,” Sobek raised his hands palm outward. “She’s just some girl. I don’t even know her name.”
I wanted to say something along the lines of “wrong answer” and make a buzzing noise, but Taweret’s bellow made my knees weak and my heart threaten to burst out of my chest. She surged forward in an instant and slapped Sobek across the face. Crocodile teeth flew from his mouth as he stumbled backward.
“You’re leaving me for a girl, and you don’t even know her name?” Taweret squawked before turning narrowed eyes on me. Actual flames seemed to pour down her cheeks, and the claws on her lion-like paws extended. “Well… after I’m done with her, she won’t be quite so pretty,” she snarled.
“No!” Sobek cried and lunged forward wrapping his arms around the pregnant hippo-goddess and tackling her to the floor. They landed together in a heap that made me cringe away from them.
Taweret whirled on him and bit down on his shoulder tearing away a chunk of flesh in a spray of gore. Sobek screamed and backhanded her across the face with his good hand. The blow seemed to stun both of them, and they just stopped and looked at each other for a long time.
“I’m sorry,” Sobek said breaking a silence that made me so uncomfortable that I had the sudden urge to run and hide.
“No you’re not,” Taweret cried. “You’re always going off and leaving me. Always ignoring me for this war or that fertility goddess.”
The Lillim Callina Chronicles: Volumes 1-3 Page 52
