Anubis Nights (7 page)

“Not ’til morning,” the man said. “You have nice skin, Brand. I wonder if it would fit me.”

Brand smiled at him. “You can look but you can’t touch.”

Joseph smiled back at him. “You have to sleep sometime.”

With a shrug, Brand said, “So do you, Joe.”

“Joseph,” he said. “I’m not tired.”

“Well, if I get tired, I’ll just knock you out and tie you up before I go to sleep.”

“You’ll have to get close to me to do that.”

Brand shook his head. “Joe, you might creep out your average guy, but you’re just dog shit I need to scrape off my boots.”

“Start scrapin’,” Joseph said and launched himself off the bed at Brand. He held a metal slat sharpened to a point, and he swung the makeshift knife with precision.

Brand expected the attack, and while he was no longer a Sekutar warrior, he was still a skilled fighter with many years of training. He moved in so fast that Joseph couldn’t react. Brand used both hands to block the swing, spun inside, and slammed his elbow into Joseph’s nose. The man’s head snapped backward. Brand followed through with a punch to the throat, and Joseph dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

Joseph gagged and tried to breathe. His eyes bulged with fear and pain.

Brand watched calmly. “Thought you were all that and a bag of chips, didn’t you?” Brand asked. “You may scare the little people, but I’m the meanest son of a bitch in this place. I’d have you spread the word, but you’re not going to be alive much longer unless I decide to save your sorry ass.”

Joseph rolled around on the floor, gagging.

“I collapsed your trachea with that punch, Joe. You’ll suffocate in a few minutes.”

Brand watched him struggle on the floor. Joseph pointed to his throat. His face reddened and he tried to cough.

Brand cocked his head to the side to watch.

“A friend of mine says I shouldn’t just kill people all willy-nilly,” Brand said, “but I’m not sold on the benefits of letting enemies live.”

Kneeling beside him, Brand brushed his duster aside and pulled a knife from his belt. “You were planning to skin me, right? Now that the tables are turned, perhaps that’s what I should do to you.”

Joseph’s eyes widened further, and Brand gave him a wicked smile.

“This is gonna hurt,” Brand said. “Move your hands away from your throat, or I’ll cut off your fingers.”

Joseph tried to twist away, but Brand pulled him close. He yanked one hand free, pressed it to the floor, and placed a knee on Joseph’s forearm. Joseph kept choking, his face turning purple. Brand pulled the other hand away from the man’s throat and straddled his chest, keeping the arms pinned. Joseph’s eyes watered, while his mouth widened and contracted like a fish on dry land.

Brand stared into his eyes for a moment then cut a hole into Joseph’s throat just below the trachea. He wiped the bloody knife on Joseph’s stubbled cheek then pulled a dollar bill from his pocket, rolled it into a tight tube, and jammed it into the hole.

“That ought to hold you for a little while. Try and breathe quietly. If I regret this for even a minute, I’ll pinch that bill closed while I watch the lights go out from your eyes. Got it?”

Joseph nodded, fear dripping from his eyes.

Brand shoved him against the wall.

“Damn,” Brand said. “Jonathan is a bad influence.” He moved over and sat down on the bunk to await the morning rounds.

JONATHAN SHADE

Kelly jerked the arrow out of her chest and let it fall to the sands of the Sahara. The archers rushed toward us, no longer firing. They were mostly teenage boys, and they wore more black eyeliner than I’d seen since I searched for a missing person at a goth club.

I looked around us and saw men approaching from a nearby road. We stood in front of a white target filled with arrows, so I suspected this was some sort of archery training or maybe a competition.

Turning back to the approaching boys, I said, “We come in peace.” I heard my voice, but I also heard a different language overpower the words. It gave my voice a haunting sound that would have been great at a Halloween party.

“Where did you come from?” one of the boys asked. His words reached me as gibberish, but I heard the English words more clearly, so the magic translator in the earrings was doing its job. I knew that in a matter of a few hours, I’d hear the English without noticing the ancient language.

Before I could answer, several men pushed through to check on the boys. They wore white kilts, and their skin was so tan, it looked damn near bronze. I backed away from them, and Kelly appeared at my side. We were surrounded by around fifty men armed with spears with the business ends pointed at us.

“I have good news and bad news,” Kelly said.

“I think I know what the bad news is,” I said. “What’s the good news?”

“The arrow struck skin and my shirt is fine.”

“Follow us,” one of the men said. “Aye is coming.” At first I thought the translator had bad grammar, but then I realized that
Aye
was a name.

“No problem,” I said.

They led us away from the practice area to the middle of a street paved with adobe bricks and plastered over with hardened mud. Men behind us kept their spears trained on our backs. They looked unsure so I trusted Kelly to recognize whether or not we were in danger. I checked out the surroundings. On either side of the street were a few adobe buildings with small walls around them, and down the road were a massive wall with another adobe building jutting above it. A crowd of people gathered in the street.

The people were shorter than I expected. Most of the women on the sides of the street stood maybe five feet tall, and the men seemed to average five foot five. At six feet, I towered over all of them, and Kelly at five four was taller than the women too.

A few minutes later, the crowd with the spears parted to admit an older man with a broad multicolored collar that covered most of the top of his chest. He wore a white kilt and sandals like the others, and his eyes held curiosity instead of anger or fear. He gazed up at me and at Kelly. His eyes took in our clothing and our faces.

“I saw you appear from the winds,” the man finally said. “I am Aye, the royal vizier.”

“I’m Jonathan, and this”—I gestured to Kelly—“is Kelly.”

“You were sent by Amun?”

Kelly leaned close and whispered, “Amun is the name of their main god.”

“That’s right. We’re here to find a particular man. A stranger to these parts.”

“And you claim to be gods?”

“We’re visitors,” I said. “We mean you no harm.”

The men with the spears dropped to the ground all at once, their heads touching the street. I took a step back because it surprised me. My first thought was,
Was it something I said?
Then I saw a man approaching with a group of another fifty men. He looked young—maybe eighteen or nineteen. He wore a broad collar, decorated kilt, and sandals as well, but he also wore a blue helmet-type headdress with a cobra on the front. His eyes had dark makeup around them that swished off toward his temples. He used a cane to walk, and as he grew closer, I saw he also had bit of a cleft palate. He had an odd-looking fake blue beard strapped to his chin. A lovely young woman walked alongside him wearing a sheath dress that started just below her breasts. She also wore what looked like a pleated shawl that draped over her shoulders. Her dark hair was heavily oiled and perfumed, and I could smell it from where I stood. It smelled a bit medicinal to me. My guess is that it was myrrh, but I’m not an expert.

Aye bowed to the man.

“You may rise,” the man said. He stared at me. “I am King Tutankhamun.”

“I’m Jonathan Shade,” I said. “You can call me Jonathan. Pleased to meet you.”

Tut regarded me for a moment; glanced at Kelly, who remained silent; and finally turned his gaze to Aye. “Are they from Amun? Or are they magicians?”

“I will find out,” Aye said. Aye faced me. “If you are from Amun, this will not harm you. If you are pretenders or enemies, you will not fare so well.”

He held his hands up toward me, palms out, and I saw light dancing from finger to finger. So old Aye was a wizard. Vizier sounded a bit like wizard, so maybe the word came from ancient Egypt like damn near everything else. I stepped toward him, grabbed his hands, and placed them on my chest.

“Do your best,” I said.

He channeled as much energy as he could draw and hit me with his best shot. I knew his magic was strong, but I just stood there, staring at him.

“Let me know when you’re finished,” I said.

Aye nodded. He turned to Tut. “If he was anything but a god, he should be dead right now. The woman took an arrow to the heart and still stands.”

“Is the woman your servant or your wife?” Tut asked me.

“My wife,” I said because I didn’t want Kelly to have to play like she was a servant. She might hurt me. Then again, she might hurt me for claiming her as my wife, but I suspected it wouldn’t be as bad.

“What brings you to Thebes?”

“We are hunting an enemy of Egypt.”

Tut nodded. “We will arrange a residence for you at the Royal Palace. You will join me and my queen, Ankhesenamun, for a feast this evening. Should you require assistance in your hunt, I shall assign General Horemheb to accompany you.”

“Your hospitality is both welcome and appreciated.”

My Egyptian geography wasn’t the best, but I knew that Thebes was the present-day city of Luxor, and that was a good four hundred miles from the Great Pyramid. So much for being close. Either Chronos had really bad aim or time travel to particular locations was even worse than he thought.

As they led us away, I whispered, “We get to have dinner with King Tut.”

“So?” Kelly said.

“So isn’t that cool?”

She rolled her eyes. “You’re such a dork.”

CHAPTER SIX

JONATHAN SHADE

Aye led us into the Royal Palace. The compound was surrounded by a tall enclosure wall with an entrance at the north end. We moved into the courtyard, which had symmetrical arrangements of blue pools; green shrubs; palm trees; and a massive, colorful garden among them. It appeared the pools irrigated the garden. Beyond that, I saw a roofed but open colonnade with places for people to sit and while away the afternoon in the shade. A single palm tree comprised each column. We passed through that area into an adobe building that had private walled-off rooms. The walls were all painted with beautiful scenes with the standard Egyptian-style art and bright color that sang. I’d been expecting a sea of beige but was granted an explosive barrage of vibrant color and bright, vivid images of paradise.

“Wow,” I said. “This is beautiful.”

Kelly nodded and whispered, “The museums don’t do this place justice.”

“This will be your residence during your stay,” Aye said and showed us into the room.

The bedroom was smaller than I expected and had a raised alcove at the far end with a little bed, built with a wooden frame resting on legs and twine lashings for a mattress. There were linens spread over it and odd-looking headrests at the top. They looked like little stands with curved arms. I wasn’t about to use one of those things. They looked about as comfortable as a hangman’s noose. Above the bed near the ceiling was a small window with thatched wood instead of a glass pane. I guess Egyptians didn’t look out the windows and had them for ventilation only.

Adobe benches lined the rest of the room, and oil lamps stood in niches in the walls. More murals adorned the walls, and I made a note to see about getting some Egyptian art when I got home. It was too cool, and again, the colors were brilliant.

Kelly sat on the bed, remaining silent.

I glanced up at the ceiling, which was constructed from some kind of wood with smaller slats running the opposite direction on top.

Another room adjoined the bedroom, and when I looked into it, I saw it was a bathroom. Basically it was a latrine enclosed on three sides for privacy. A channel cut into the floor led to the outside of the building. A screened area beside that held a wooden stool with a hole in the center that stood above a bowl. I knew I was going to miss indoor plumbing.

“Would you like a servant to bring you some more appropriate clothing?” Aye asked.

“I think we’re good for now. Thanks.”

“One of your servants will bring you to the hall for dinner. Do you have any other requirements at the moment?”

“Again, I think we’re good for now,” I said.

Aye nodded. “I will assign servants to you.” He gave me one last hard look before leaving us alone in the bedroom.

I walked to the doorway to watch him leave, and once he was out of the residence, I turned to Kelly. “Thoughts?”

“They aren’t going to believe we’re gods for very long.” She shrugged out of her pack and tossed it on the floor next to the wall.

“Oh, come on, they believe in tons of gods. Why not two more?” I set my pack beside hers. “Besides, I said we were visitors, not gods.”

“The implication was still there. I’m just saying we should get out of here as soon as possible. We need to get to the pyramids, find Winslow, and kill him.”

“It isn’t every day you get to meet a famous pharaoh.”

“Don’t call him a pharaoh. We don’t know how well the translation spell will work on unfamiliar words.”

“He’s the pharaoh. Why would the translation struggle with that?”

“Because they didn’t call themselves pharaohs. The word
pharaoh
comes from the Bible. Just call him King Tutankhamun to be safe.”

“I shall bow to your greater knowledge.”

“Yes, well, I’m not an Egyptologist, and even the Egyptologists don’t know a lot of what happened in this age.”

“Any clue what time of year it might be?” I asked.

“Well, it’s not Inundation, so it’s not September. Does that really matter?”

“To some degree it does. Since we’re going to make the journey to the pyramids, we’ll need to know what kind of weather to expect. I know it’s hot right now, but how will it be at night? Do we need some warm clothing? Temperature variations in the desert can be crazy.”