Magic of the Nile (39 page)

 
The blade was some metal unknown to him, silver-colored, covered in golden hieroglyphics. His swift perusal of the characters in the red light revealed a prayer, or perhaps a spell. The markings swirled and changed even as he read them, as if written in sand.
Magic.
The weight of the blade in his hand was perfect, and he knew he could cut a swath through enemy ranks with ease, if the foe was human. Glancing past the goddess to the sacred door, he doubted he’d be facing anything recognizable.

“Stay close to me, follow my lead,” Sekhmet ordered as she walked past him. With one paw, she rotated the door handle, which appeared to be solid gold in the shape of the hieroglyph for the word
ka.
The portal opened into a scene straight from the nightmare he’d been having before her arrival.

The hallway beyond the door sloped downward, the coal black walls and ceiling covered in detailed paintings glowing red. One glance was enough to imprint his mind with scenes of demons torturing humans, death and destruction lovingly depicted. Warmth poured out, surrounding him, taking his breath away for a moment, but he hefted the odd shield and marched after the goddess. The hall was narrow, no room for them to walk shoulder to shoulder. Heat radiated from the ground, penetrating the stout leather of his sandals. A distant drumbeat punded like an uncanny heart. He had to draw a deep breath of the acid smelling air to keep his own heart from beating in time with the ominous sound. After a few moments the climate became more bearable and as his breathing eased, Sahure realized they’d come to the end of this tunnel.

Whiskers twitching, Sekhmet turned, paw to her lips in a warning. More lioness than human, she crept out of the passageway to a narrow plateau which ended in a sheer drop. Following her, Sahure found himself on a ledge, barely wide enough to stand. Gazing beyond the goddess, he saw a dizzying set of stairs carved into the stone, going straight down at an angle that was going to be hard to navigate without tumbling headlong to whatever waited below.
 

Whiskers flared, she pointed with her chin. “Your lady.”

He stared at the scene in the midst of the cavern ahead.
 

Huge yellow and green stalactites dripped from the ceiling, shedding red drops of water like blood onto a floor spiked with black stalagmites big enough to impale a giant, were he to fall. Open fissures in the ground breathed steam and burning vapors. In the middle of this underground room, the floor rose to become a flat plateau, oddly shaped into a series of ledges.
 

Sekhmet growled, pointing in the direction of the plateau. “An
utukkai,
a demon in the service of Qemtusheb.”

Sahure squinted, wishing he could see better in the gloomy cavern, envying the goddess her cat-eyes. A faint vibration rumbled through the stone under him and he caught a glimpse of the otherworldly denizon.

Easily twice Sahure’s height, he estimated, with horns, the demon stood on hoofed legs, spiked tail lashing the ground, tentacles like those of an octopus waving in the air where arms should have been. An imposing sight and a daunting opponent. Sekhmet, however, seemed oddly pleased as she began to move. “They send only one low level
uttukkai
, which tells me their god is wary of angering us or provoking us too far. This is good news.”

Sahure hefted the sword as Sekhmet sidled toward the precipitous stairway. He had to give his attention to the treacherous footing, but kept glancing at Tyema and the demon, who had now lifted her above his head, wrapped in one thick tentacle like the body of a huge black serpent. He was taking her in the opposite direction, apparently heading toward the fiery glow in the distance to the west.

When Sahure hit the cavern floor after jumping from the fifth step, he didn’t wait for the goddess but began running after Tyema and the demon, using the nooks and crevices of the cavern as cover. Sekhmet was at his shoulder in a moment, easily keeping pace.

As he got closer to the source of the fierce light, he realized it was a lake of fire. Stretching farther than the eye could see, gigantic roiling flames of red, yellow and orange flame crashed against the land mass with a thunderous impact that echoed in the cavern.
The
Lake of Fire? “Are we in the Afterlife?” he whispered to Sekhmet as they paused for a moment, taking shelter behind a stalagmite while the goddess reconnoitered. Sahure was impatient to rescue Tyema, but the Great One was his commander on this field of battle and must be obeyed.

“The Afterlife you know is but one of many destinations in this realm,” she said. “The Lake of Fire spans all boundaries.”

The demon paused at the edge of the lake, attempting to improve his hold on Tyema, who screamed defiance, kicking his face and punching as best she could at the muscular coils wrapped around her midsection.
 

Unable to sit and watch this scene unfold, terrified for Tyema, Sahure broke into a run. “If you value your miserable life, put her down and move away,” he yelled, sword raised to impale the demon.

Quick as a desert whirlwind, the monster spun around, clutching Tyema closer until she squeaked like a mouse in the grip of a snake. Eyeing Sahure from a set of bulging eyes, the demon appeared to be amused. “What’s this? A second human where none should be? Are you a willing sacrifice, then?” The tail seemed a living thing, weaving a sinuous pattern of defense between Sahure and the creature’s body. Studded with spikes dripping green ichor, the appendage ended in a dangerous black stinger, extended like a dagger, ready to strike.
 

“I’m no sacrifice and neither is she.” Sahure couldn’t get a clean stroke with the sword, although he hacked off the tip of the tail with a mighty blow as the stinger slashed toward him, which sent the demon screaming and sidling away. Tentacles waving in apparent anguish, the demon swore in Hyksos, but retained its hold on Tyema, closing the tentacle more tightly.

“Go back, save yourself, you can’t help me,” Tyema shouted in between panting efforts to breathe or to tear the tentacle loose. Tears cascaded down her face. “We can’t both die here. You have to protect our son, warn Pharaoh.”

“Listen to her words,” the demon advised, curling the damaged tentacle close to its body and cradling it with a smaller arm. “Escape to your world however you came here, for if you linger, I’ll have you. I was summoned to take this one,” he said, waving Tyema in the air like a trophy. “But two
kas
to harvest is even better. Interfere with me again and I’ll add you to my tally.”
 

“I won’t let you take her,” Sahure said, trying to get close enough to do more damage, wondering where in the Seven Hells Sekhmet was.
Some shield mate!
“And you’ll never defeat me, demon.”

“You delay me, mortal.” The demon glanced out across the lake and seemed to come to a decision. It reached one sinuous tentacle into a pouch slung on a belt around its portly middle and threw a handful of glowing stones on the ground between them. “You humans like games, play senet with these.” Extending the tentacle holding Tyema straight above his head and holding her there, the creature waded into the lake of fire, immersed in flame to his waist, which didn’t seem to affect him, covered as he was in an almost stonelike green leather skin. Laughing with a shrieking sound like wind clawing at crevices in a canyon, he strode away through the fiery waves.
 

The small coals grew into man-sized, featureless, many-armed blobs, much like the octopus Sahure had once seen, captured at sea and brought to Pharaoh’s court as a curiosity. If these beings had mouths or eyes, they were well hidden. Whipping their barbed tentacles through the air, the group blocked his access to the lake. One managed to graze Sahure’s arm before he shifted the shield to protect himself and the contact left a pattern of small red welts, as if he’d been burned by poisonous thorns. Arm throbbing, he backed away, frustrated, shield raised.
Now what?

Green light flared behind him, a shower of green sparks falling beside him, accompanied by the roar of an enraged lioness. Sekhmet in lion form bounded past. Launching herself at the new enemy, claws tearing huge holes in their unarmored bodies, she was seemingly unaffected by the poison in the tentacles. Whenever one of the creatures sought to wrap itself around her body, the tentacles blackened and shriveled away. Yelling a battle cry, Sahure waded into the fray behind her, now acting as her shield mate, slicing off tentacles as he went, doing as much damage as he could to the ones she injured as she whirled and pounced.
 

One attached itself to her back as she rolled and yowled defiance. He slashed at it and then pursued it across the black sands as the thing crawled away, pinning it with the edge of the shield and slicing through what seemed to be a neck. He ran back to the battle in time to watch the goddess bite the head from one of the demon assailants, spitting it aside with disgust and crushing another between her front paws, long talons punching holes in the bodies. He hurled the sword at the center of a larger demon about to launch itself at Sekhmet’s haunches and the enemy fell. Retrieving his weapon a moment later, he realized they’d vanquished the army of uncanny warriors Tyema’s captor had unleashed on them.

But we’ve wasted much time.
Seeing no one left to battle them or bar his access to the lake, Sahure ran forward to follow the demon and Tyema. The furnace-like heat drove him from the shore’s edge. Clearly whatever power the demon possessed to walk unscathed through the flames didn’t apply to humans. Swearing, he spun around in the gray sand to face his companion. “By Set’s teeth, goddess, do something to get me across this lake! I have to follow them, I have to either save her or grant her a clean death myself, to ensure her safe passage to the Afterlife.”

Sekhmet sat daintily cleaning her claws with her sinuous pink tongue, but at his words she morphed into her human state as green light flashed and sparks flew.

“I’m the goddess of fire,” Sekhmet reminded him calmly. Walking past him, to the edge of the lake, she raised both arms, paws facing the fire, lethal claws unsheathed. Her tail lashed the ground, raising clouds of gray dust as she intoned, “I am she who rules your fierce heart and I command the living flames to give way.”

As Sahure watched, breathing hard after the battle, impatient to be on his way, the flames parted, drawing away from each other, until there was a six foot wide path down the center of the lake in the direction the demon had gone. Almost out of sight, apparently on the far shore, the demon wheeled in place for a moment, bellowing defiance, and then sprinted to the east. Sahure stepped onto the hot lakebed, full of glowing coals and glittering black sand. Sekhmet snagged his arm, nearly yanking him off his feet.

“I can only go this far, mortal, now we’ve killed the interlopers and driven off the higher order demon to the other side of the lake. My king Osiris forbids direct confrontation with the enemy in their own land, but they’re fair game if they trespass on our side.”

He shook off her grasp. “Thank you for bringing me here, for arming me.”

“The waves will remain parted for a time, if you can rescue her and return. The portal I opened will remain as well. You only have until dawn in your own world.” Sekhmet tapped her claw three times on the amulet she’d given him. Heat and fire pulsed through his arm from the enameled disk. “You’ve proven yourself to be an excellent battle comrade this night, so I grant you one additional boon, resistance to the effects of being in this place where humans shouldn’t be. Touch your lady and she too will be protected for a time. Our debt is discharged, agreed?”

“Agreed.” He didn’t care whether Sekhmet felt she’d done enough or not. It was plain the goddess would offer no more help, and he had to be on his way to have any hope of rescuing Tyema. “Thank you, Great One.”

Purring, she released her grip on his arm and he sprinted forward, into the lake, running down the center of the path she’d cleared for him. Uncanny, glowing creatures flopped on the black sands, gasping for the world of fire they normally swam in. The stench from the lakebed was overwhelming. He tried to avoid the grotesque fish and other animals as he went, nearly falling when something squished under his sandal. Catching his balance, he ventured too close to the wall of fire and a long, suckered tentacle snaked out to encircle him. He parried the blow with the shield, bringing the sword down on the thick ropy limb a second later, severing it. Accompanied by a deafening scream from below the fire’s surface, the stump withdrew into the lake. The piece curled around his waist fell away. Kicking it aside, breathing hard, Sahure broke into a run again, realizing he had to keep his distance from the boundaries.

Glancing over his shoulder to see how far he’d come, he could barely see the shore any longer. Sekhmet was still watching, a tiny figure in the distance, raising one paw to acknowledge him.
I don’t understand any of this, even whether I’m awake or dreaming, but the stakes couldn’t be higher. Thank the gods I was properly respectful to her people when I was at Kharga.
Shifting his attention to what lay ahead, he settled into the ground eating trot of a trained warrior, a pace he could maintain for hours. It wouldn’t do Tyema any good if he arrived at the far shore unable to fight. He refused to think about what action he’d take if the demon had already moved on, away from the lake.
I’ll track the bastard through all Seven Hells if need be, to save her.

Ahead he saw the shore and soon was making his way up a slight incline onto the dry ground. He half expected the fiery waves to crash together behind him, but the path remained open.
I wish I knew how much time Sekhmet gave me
. But then he shrugged as he searched the ground for traces of the demon and Tyema.
This rescue attempt will take as long as it takes.
Glancing around, he noticed an odd statue. Taking a moment, he went closer. It was a larger than life-sized baboon, carved from pink-flecked gray granite, seated on a platform resting on a tripod of carved flame bearing traces of red and yellow pigment.
Had I entertained any doubts, this makes it clear I’m in the Afterlife, standing beside the Lake of Fire, just as the Book of the Dead describes.
The line of baboon statues stretched off to his left, as far as he could see, but no trace of his quarry.