Servant of the Gods (33 page)

He had to be warned.

Seeing where her gaze went, knowing that if Khai was caught off guard they were surely lost, Narmer shouted, “Go!”

“I’ve got him,” Djeserit called, as she ran to the King’s side.

Irisi lashed at her horses, her lions racing alongside. Dodging soldiers and chariots, she slashed at the Djinn who tried to intercept her.

Alu caught one, tumbling with it out of sight among those fighting.

She couldn’t stop to see if Alu was all right…as much as it grieved her.

Then Kahotep drove up beside her to guard her flank, his strong face grim. She glanced at him.

He met her look.

Whatever came, he would have her back. Heartened, she tightened her hand on her sword, her other firm on the reins of her chariot.

As always it was Irisi’s hair that caught Khai’s attention, the long brilliant golden of trail of it gleamed in the sunlight, streaming behind her like a comet’s tail as she drove through the lines.

By God or by all the Gods, she was beautiful.

At the same instant her eyes met his. She straightened to stand taller in her chariot, pointing with her sword toward the back of his lines.

Khai, his heart sinking, turned to look.

To see a mass of Djinn closing on his rearward divisions.

Shouting orders and gesturing signals to his commanders, he turned those divisions to face the enemy just in the nick of time.

Now it wasn’t just his troops who were caught in the pincer but the Djinn as well. It wouldn’t last long, the numbers were too great.

Irisi…

He turned to look as she fought her way through a knot of Djinn, her sword flashing and slashing to drive the Djinn away, her lions tearing into them as Kahotep guarded her back,.

Signaling to his men Khai sent a group to help them cut their way through to him.

“Irisi,” he shouted as she turned toward him.

“I know how Kamenwati’s doing this. He’s created a Horn that will call the Djinn.”

He stared at her in near disbelief.

“We have to get it, or he can simply summon more.”

She looked at him, her blue eyes steady, resolute…accepting…

A silence seemed to settle around them despite the shouts and cries, the clash of swords.

Her moment had come…

“If I can reach him,” she said, “if I can get the Horn…I might be able to stop this.”

She would have to go into the heart of them, fight through them somehow.

Khai felt his heart go still…

Blood, gore, and ichor spattered she was so beautiful. Her glorious hair streamed in the breeze, her eyes were determined, and her love for him was brilliant in them.

Irisi’s throat was tight, looking into Khai’s dark eyes, the sun warming the gold in them. Everything she needed was there in them.

“I love you,” he said.

“And I love you,” she answered.

Khai looked out across the battlefield around them, hearing the sounds of battle now behind and around him as well.

It was suicide, but either way they would die. She and this – whatever it was she planned – was their only chance.

He called up a squad of archers and two squads of his foot soldiers.

There wasn’t time for much instruction.

As much as he wished he could go himself, he couldn’t. The battle wasn’t over. Someone had to lead the Army. Someone had to guard her rear, to give her a place to retreat, if she could.

And if she failed... 

Someone else had to try…

He could only pray that part of the prophecy was true.

Prophecies weren’t written in stone… It had been a warning, not a guarantee.

Irisi looked into Khai’s eyes, drawing strength from the steadiness she saw there in them. She drew in a sharp breath.

It was time.

They had a moment only to reach out, for their fingers to touch.

Khai’s eyes met hers.

Without breaking that glance, Khai gave his orders.

Some of his men formed up in a great flying wedge with archers in the center around Irisi and Kahotep. Four of his best men guarded them.

It was the best protection he could offer.

Behind him, his men were falling and the line in front wavered.

He had to go, to shore them up.

“At all costs,” he said, looking at his men, “You must get her there.”

He pointed.

Among them not an eye blinked, although he knew that they all knew it was likely their death. They would be cutting into the very heart of the Djinn, where so many had already fallen. It was suicide and every man and woman among them understood that.

The price for failure, though, would be paid by those they loved.

Not a one backed down.

Khai couldn’t have been more proud.

He signaled to the front lines to close up, to push forward as best they could, and directed the archers to focus their fire.

“Go,” he said.

Commanding the woman he loved into the heart of the enemy.

Irisi turned her chariot and went…

Her hair streamed behind her like a banner, her reins secured, and her swords in her hands.

At Khai’s command the men in the forward lines pounded forward as the archers behind them sent a hail of arrows into the mass of Djinn to clear the way for Irisi’s attack. That forward line slammed into the mass of Djinn, the surprise of the attack buying them cubits. Many died. Surprise held those who survived. They fought and parted to let Irisi’s wedge pass. Khai’s men at the fore braced themselves behind their shields as they drove into mass of the Djinn, spears thrusting and swords hacking.

It was horrific. The men before her seemed almost to melt away before her eyes as the Djinn cut them down. Still the army advanced, driving forward into the mass of Djinn, the soldiers clearly understanding that this was the only hope for the rest of the army and all of Egypt.

Even so, it nearly broke Irisi’s heart to watch them die.

She called up wind and water to lash at the Djinn as they howled and shrieked, driving the enemy back a little.

From behind her, arrows whirred, striking the force ahead of her. Djinn fell, staggering and snarling, but not all died.

Her lions took their own toll, but Alu had yet to find them again. In the back of her mind she feared for him.

Even so, it was a battle of attrition, gaining only a body length for each who died. They fell away at a terrible rate.

The archers took their toll but the Djinn still whittled steadily away at the foot soldiers. Soon the archers would be forced to draw their swords.

Irisi looked ahead, her heart catching… She wasn’t certain they would make it in time. They were still too far…

And yet they must.

Kamenwati, focused on the main body of the army which pressed forward in response to Narmer’s exhortations, turned, becoming aware of his more imminent danger.

A gesture and Baraka fell from his chariot, dead in an instant. In stunned shock, his men faltered, before one of Baraka’s commanders stepped up and began to shout.

But it was a blow.

The front line wavered, gave on that flank.

At the same time, Kamenwati lifted the Horn once again.

Irisi didn’t know if Kamenwati could use the Horn to call up more Djinn, but if he pulled enough of them around him they wouldn’t have a chance of getting through, and then all these soldiers would have died for nothing.

So would everyone else. Khai, the King, Kahotep, Djeserit, Paniwi and the baby, gentle Nafre. If not now, then later as Kamenwati and the Djinn took Egypt and ground it beneath their heel, and after Egypt, the rest of the world. And they would. Kamenwati was greedy, and there would be nothing to stop them.

It was as if the soldiers around her understood her sudden urgency, even though she’d said nothing. Something seemed to communicate it to them. As one, they put on one more push, one more surge, driving themselves desperately forward into the ranks of the enemy. One of the men took a wound that at any other time would have been grievous, yet he pushed forward, driving ahead even as his legs buckled and gave out beneath him.

An ifrit took another, but his comrades cut the thing and him down before they could attack.

Closer, just another few feet closer…

Kamenwati’s head turned… He saw her…

Dark magic flared…

As her own magic did even as she tossed her sword up into the air, caught it, and threw it like a spear…

Kamenwati gestured and slapped it out of the air.

Half the archers redirected their efforts from the Djinn around them and turned them on Kamenwati…

Irisi felt the dark magic release. Something moved past her. A flash of magic intercepted it.

Behind her she heard Kahotep grunt as he took the brunt of the magical blow.

Then, to Irisi’s shock, one of her horses stumbled as a ghul took out its front legs and she was falling, tumbling out of her chariot.

Instinctively, she tumbled, rolling in mid-air to take the worst of the fall on her shoulders. She came to her feet with her swords already swinging…

Emu and Kiwu were beside her, guarding her back.

Then there was only the battle to stay alive, to reach her goal. Khai’s men formed up around her, all of them pushing forward through the mass of Djinn ahead of them.

Watching from the field, drawing his people into the main body of the army to bolster those still fighting and save what he might, with his heart in his throat Khai saw Irisi’s brilliant head disappear among the darkness that was the Djinn. Only Kahotep could be seen still mounted, hacking furiously around him, trying to reach her.

The Djinn closed tightly around the band of men.

Turning in his saddle, Khai shouted orders, calling up another wedge, fury and grief driving him.

As one, Khai’s soldiers fell in around Irisi, and one by one they fell away from around her, too.

She spun and fought, going berserk as she had all those years ago. It was part of who and what she was.

A sword slashed her arm, but she didn’t feel the pain.

Emu came out of seeming nowhere to take the arm of the ghul that had done it at the shoulder.

A sila turned to smoke but the man it tried to possess fought it, driving his sword into his own belly to stop it. She took the man’s head so he wouldn’t suffer. Anguish twisted her heart, but her eyes were fixed on Kamenwati’s chariot as they fought ever closer.

Another sila swarmed her. Choking, she drove it off with a flash of light, a burst of magic from Kahotep helping.

Claws raked her shoulder, but the one that wounded her was gone as a soldier ran it through even as he fell to it.

It was all horror – the changing shapes and forms of the Djinn, watching some of them feed on the fallen while some of their victims rose as ghul themselves.

She closed her mind to it, fought her way forward…

Suddenly there was space in front of her…and Kamenwati.

The Grand Vizier turned, clearly stunned to see her emerge from the mass of Djinn.

His face darkened with fury and his eyes glowed like embers as rage lit them.

A Marid Djinn leaped at her in response to Kamenwati’s gesture.

Diving and rolling to escape it, Irisi saw Kiwu pounce on the Marid and get flung away even as Irisi herself spun away from Kamenwati’s furious attack, his sword hammering down at her. Kahotep dove from his chariot at Kamenwati. His weight drove Kamenwati back a step, throwing Kamenwati off balance, before Kamenwati took him by the throat and tossed him back into the heaving mass of Djinn.

A dozen of them turned and descended on Kahotep.

In a flash Kiwu spun and leaped after the priest to help as Irisi scrambled to her feet, her sword braced to catch Kamenwati’s next attack even as she turned, spun and shifted to drive a kick into the face of an oncoming ghul.

“Don’t kill her,” Kamenwati growled at the surrounding Djinn. “I want her alive.”

It was clear Kamenwati had forgotten who she’d once been.

He glared at her as he battered at her with his sword, his dark eyes glowing red even in the brightest sunlight.

“But you’ll wish you had died, for a very long time,” Kamenwati said, his words a promise. “I’ll make you beg for death.”

Each blow made her hands sting, go numb. He was stronger and faster than she’d expected. She didn’t so much parry the blows as deflect them, turn them, her very life dependent on her speed and agility. She spun, fought and turned the attacks on her.

Cold fear swept through her but she put it aside…there was no time for it. There was only fighting and surviving.

The Djinn circled, closed around her…

If they wouldn’t kill her, she had the advantage. She needed to reach Kamenwati’s chariot. They had a chance if she was quick enough.

Then someone else was there to buy her time…

Khai with the remnants of his own wedge around and behind him, his people spreading out to drive back the Djinn.

There was blood on his face, more on his arms and body.

Almost all his men were gone but Khai drove himself on…

Until he saw a flash of golden hair swirling in the sunlight and the darkness that had closed over his mind lifted…

Irisi…

Her eyes met his…

And attacking her, Kamenwati.

Over the clamor of battle Khai heard Kamenwati’s words…

Sensing the danger behind him, Kamenwati looked at Irisi, smiled and said, “Watch him die.”

He turned as quick as a snake…

Irisi’s heart went cold.

A Marid Djinn leaped for Khai even as Kamenwati reached for power and threw it at him.

Khai felt a small jolt go through him as the amulet on his chest turned hot… Irisi’s charm…

A golden blur, Nebi hit the Marid before its claws touched Khai and Khai cut down the next.

The spell Kamenwati had cast was turned away, striking one of the ghul… Shock was clear on Kamenwati’s face.

He was distracted.

Irisi dove toward Kamenwati’s chariot and the Horn, closed her fingers around it. A hand caught her ankle and jerked her out onto the blood-soaked ground. Wrenching herself around onto her back she looked up into Kamenwati’s face, thrusting her left hand sword up to shield herself from the blow… Her arm went numb from the force even as Khai grabbed Kamenwati’s shoulder to yank him back…

Kamenwati spun then drove his blade toward Khai’s stomach…

Fear punched through her.

Blocking the thrust, Khai locked swords with the man, trying to push the Vizier’s sword away…

The shocking strength of him nearly caught Khai off guard. His sword reverberated with the force of the blow. How had Irisi taken it?

Bracing himself, he put both hands to the hilt to take the next.

Furious, hate peeling his lips back from his teeth, Kamenwati hammered at him as the Djinn closed behind and him, his men falling one by one.

Spinning, Khai turned from an ifrit’s attack, driving another Djinn off with a kick even as he eeled away from Kamenwati’s thrust.

Khai.

Terror for him, for all of them, ran through Irisi.

A Djinn leaped for her.

Raising the Horn to her lips, Irisi blew…

It raised a thin, eerie, gut-wrenching wail, the sound piercing… So close it made her ears ache, set her teeth and her bones painfully on edge, a horrible screeching.

The sound drew Kamenwati’s attention… His body locked as one half of him warred with the other…

Khai hit him hard across the jaw with an elbow, following it with his left clenched around the hilt of his sword. The finger guard caught Kamenwati hard in the face and the Grand Vizier went down.

As if from out of nowhere there rose a great and terrible wind, howling, blinding, the sand in it thick. That wind scoured the battlefield, and when it passed the Djinn were gone.

All of them.

The battlefield was empty.

For a breathless moment everything went still, even the breeze.

Khai turned.

Dropping the Horn, Irisi scrambled to her feet. She ran toward him.

For a time Khai had thought she was dead…

Irisi.

Catching her up in his arms, he buried his face in her brilliant sun-warmed hair, oblivious to the blood and gore on her, as she clung to him in return.

“Khai,” she whispered.

Drawing his head back, Khai touched her face. “I thought you were dead...”

She touched his face, her hands shaking, and he saw the glimmer of tears in her eyes.

“And I was afraid you very nearly were…”

He pulled her close, his hand buried in her hair, his face in the curve of her throat.