Shadowhunter (Nephilim Quest Book 1) (54 page)

There was a tiny flash of hope in Angel's mind, but she was very careful not to show it. This could mean she would not have to take Elijah as her husband. The thought of Nephilim children who could not be infected was on top of the list of Cain's fears.

"We will try, but it's not very likely that we'll do it easily."

"I don't care whether it is easy or not." Cain's voice was cold. "I only care that it is done. Sooner or later. I do understand the challenge, but I demand results."

"Yes, father." Angel had long practice in keeping her expression emotionless.

"Anything else? The girl?"

"I did not manage to infect her. She is still normal. But she has grown a lot in height – and I could already hear a silent hum from within her. She should be having her wings soon."

"That is a bit early... It should have been another year at least... But it could be that these are just the first signs, and the actual wings won't develop until later. It has been known to happen – the wings taking several months to develop."

"Her family has a history of early development..." Angel said. "I studied her bloodline, after Lilith's Time Walker group stole her as a baby. It took a while to find her mother's adoptive family, because she did not use her real name in London. But eventually I did find the small country village, where she was raised, before moving to London. I heard some wild stories about her."

"Really? What did the stories say?"

"I talked to those people who had been children at the same time. I found some of them still alive in old people's homes. I took a job as a nurse for a few weeks to get to them."

Cain stepped away from the window. He looked amused.

"This is interesting. You nursing feeble humans to find information. When were you planning on telling me?"

"As soon as I had interviewed enough of them, to be sure the stories were not simply old minds losing their touch with reality before death... I was writing my report when the news came she had been found, and Kitty's death had to be arranged. That became my primary responsibility. And after that getting Dana to us."

Cain nodded.

"Very well, acceptable. And what did these people tell you?"

"They told me that Dana's mother was bullied as a child. She was very tall already when she was young, and very shy. That is all it took for children to pick on her. She tolerated them, and tried to be accepted. But once the children went too far, pushing her face down in the mud when she was wearing her best dress, because her family was leaving for a wedding. She lost control, and her wings opened when she was only ten years of age."

"Ten? I have never heard anyone getting their wings at ten years of age!" Cain was openly surprised.

"She possibly did not remember much about what had happened either, because her mind wasn't ready for the wings yet, so she probably forgot about it afterwards. But like any new Nephilim, her emotions were very strong. Let's just say that she punished the children so severely they never even talked to her again. They were too scared to do so. After that her wings disappeared."

"I can imagine their horror..." Cain chuckled, "being beaten by an angel..."

"The children told their parents, of course, but no one took them seriously. The girl wasn't exactly angelic, after all. Especially having beaten the other children. Also the parents did not believe a little girl could beat their children so badly and came to the conclusion they had all been fighting with each other. Still, after this she became an outcast."

Cain laughed.

"Sounds like she would have been a very good wife for Nathaniel, after all. If we had known of her pregnancy, we could have infected her, or the baby at least, and all would have been well. But, as it was..."

Angel stood upright and showed no emotion for the fate of her half-brother. It was not permitted to grieve for those who had fallen out of Cain's favor.

"So, what are your plans next?" Cain asked.

"We shall wait and see where they will go for the clue. Surely they must have figured it out already. The clue has to be in our time, if the prophecy is right."

Even while speaking she knew she had said the wrong thing, but the words were already out. Cain's hands were round her neck so fast she did not even register their movement.

"NEVER doubt the prophecy!" Cain said quietly and squeezed, so that she began to choke.

She could not speak, could not nod to show that she agreed. She only had to wait to see whether he would kill her or not. And she could not show her fear in any way – that would awaken Cain's killer instincts instantly. He had no control over himself, when that happened, but killed anything and everything that stood in his way.

He did not kill her. After a while he dropped her on the floor.

"I apologize, father," Angel managed to whisper, "will you forgive me?"

Cain was trembling with fury, but forced himself to calm down.

"I understand you are still young. I forgive you. You must study the prophecy again. And again."

"I will, my father." Angel stayed on her knees on the floor.

"Go. Arrange to have them followed, so we may learn what the clue is. And when they leave for the Trail of Angels, have them followed even more closely, no matter what it costs."

"It shall be done." Angel rose to her feet, her head bent submissively so that her long blonde hair obscured her face.

Cain dismissed her with a wave of his long fingers and returned to his position by the window. The lad now had the stallion under his control. Cain was satisfied.

CHAPTER SIXTY-NINE

69. Divination

Our boat navigated a channel of the river that would take us to the Great Lake. We passed the pyramid of the great king Senwosret, and continued towards the lake of the sacred crocodiles.
 

Mut-Bity had told me the story of the lake. King Menes, who unified the upper and lower Kemet into one kingdom, had been hunting near the lake. Suddenly his dogs, excited by the chase, turned against him. They could have killed him easily, but a crocodile came and scared the dogs away. The crocodile had carried the king over the lake into safety. To thank the crocodile, king Menes decreed that the lake would be a safe haven for crocodiles for all times. The king established the city of Shedt, the city of the god Sobek, which became the center of crocodile worship. All temples in this area were dedicated to Sobek.

When we finally came to shore one morning near Mi-Wer, Mut-Bity took me to the cabin of the boat.

"Stay here. Do not show yourself on the deck. Stay away from the wind."

Mut-Bity climbed on the pier and left. The captain pushed the boat away from the pier and the shore. Then we waited. I sat in the cabin on deck, and peered at the goings-on through the slits in its woven walls.
 

Because Mi-Wer was the summer home of the king's Great Royal Wife Tiye and the royal children, many of king's wives were living there. I knew quite a few of them, and I had learned many languages, because most of them came from far away kingdoms. Either their fathers, the kings, had sent them as wives to our king, or they had followed in the retinue of a royal bride to Mi-Wer, and became minor wives themselves.
 

The king travelled here once in a while, when touring the country, and often spent every night with a different wife. He liked to make love to many women. Still, there was no threat to Tiye as his main consort, the Great Royal Wife, and she was the mother to the heir of the throne. I had often sat with my mother and watched her as she told what she saw in the future to the Great Royal Wife.

On one such time I had been watching the big, flat water bowl. Mother had poured oil on top of the water. Mother and Tiye had been discussing something, and I forgot myself, watching how the oil moved slowly on the water. I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew was that I was on my back on the floor, and mother had bent over me.

"Shuet!" she said and slapped me softly on the cheek, "Wake up!"

I sat up, scared. It was very impolite to fall asleep in the presence of the Great Royal Wife.

"I am sorry, mother. Forgive me!"

For some reason the Great Royal Wife was looking at me with an odd expression, and her servants were staring at me with round eyes.

Soon after this the same servants began to bring me little gifts. I did not know how to react, because before they had mostly avoided me. I was certain it was because I was so ugly. But now they started to bring me little cakes, and wooden dolls with real clothes, even jewelry.
 

My sister began to be jealous of all the attention, and she showed it by spending more and more time in the daylight sun with the children of Mi-Wer. I could not follow them there. I was alone most of the time, listening to their laughter and play, and one day I did not want to sit in the shadows anymore. I went out and joined the children.

As before they looked at me as if I was strange, but did not go elsewhere. And I sat in their midst and played with dolls and balls, and played games in squares drawn to the ground with a stick. I could have cried with joy. I had friends!

My skin burned so badly I nearly perished. My skin was in big blisters, and I got a high fever. I sat and howled aloud. I could not lie down because of my burned shoulders, and neck, and scalp. The oldest of my mother's servants, Mut-Bity, took it as her duty to take care of me. She had seen more than I had realised and she scolded my sister.

"This is your fault!" she said angrily to my sister.

"I did not force her to go into the sunlight..." my sister tried to explain.

"Shut up! You were envious of the gifts she had received. You knew she cannot bear sunlight, but did not bring her in when you saw her outside, or bring your friends inside to play with her. No one wants to be abandoned and alone. Of course she wanted to play with you. But because you knew what the sun does to her, and did not act on it, it is your fault!"

"Mother!" my sister began to sob, "listen how your servant is speaking to me!"

"I hear," mother said from the next room, where she was making a poultice for my burned skin. "Firstly, she is right in what she says. And secondly, she is not my servant."

Her words were balm to my hurt feelings, and my sister grew quiet from sheer surprise.

"Mut-Bity saved my life once, and from her own free will she became our protector," mother's voice came nearer and she stepped into the room, "and you will address her with respect."

Mother's poultices helped slowly, but my skin remained angry and red for a long time. I thought I looked like a red and white cow. I withdrew into my own world even more, slept during the day and spent my nights on the roofs of Mi-Wer. Mut-Bity often kept me company. She seemed to have developed a special interest in me, and it felt good. I was a child, and she was old, but it was comforting to have company.

One night I finally managed the question that had been in my mind for many days.

"What is it you are protecting us from?"

Mut-Bity did not smile.

"From evil. You especially need to be protected."

I was too young to understand real evil yet.

"Why did the servants bring me presents?"

"They believe you are a great seer like your mother, and want to be in your favor so you would scry their future."

This was surprising.

"But I am no seer!"

Mut-Bity turned to look at me. The stars were so bright that even on a moonless night they cast her shadow on the roof next to mine. The world seemed to be all black and white and there was no sense of depth.

"Do you remember the day you fainted in Tiye's rooms?"

"I did not faint, I fell asleep," I corrected.

"You looked into the vision bowl of your mother, and it was as if you had fallen asleep with your eyes open. You spoke with an odd voice, and you predicted the future."

"What did I predict?"

"Two deaths. First the death of the crown prince Tuthmoses. And then the death of the king. You told to the day he would die, and you told everyone who was listening how even the gods would die with the new king."

"But the king is not dead..."

"The day has not yet come. Word about you has spread, however. I am not sure you are safe here."

"What would threaten me here?"

I did not find it odd that I spoke like an adult to Mut-Bity, even though I was only six years of age. Mother always said I was born old. I learned to speak at two years of age, but I spoke full sentences from the beginning.

"Evil. Evil in human form, which could use a good seer to further their own purposes."

I did not understand. But when a messenger from Inbu-Hedj, the city of White Walls, came with the news that prince Thutmose had died of a strange disease after a few brief days, my mother did not hesitate. She and Mut-Bity packed my belongings quickly.
 

Mut-Bity fetched her bees from a nearby garden, and we were on our way to the harbor before the news had spread. We heard the first ululations of grief over the walls of Mi-Wer when our boat had already left the pier. And on that journey we had been until the pale man appeared.

CHAPTER SEVENTY

70. Council of Nephilim

It was Daniel and Elijah together who introduced me to the Council of the Nephilim.

The image the phrase had originally conjured up was a dozen of them sitting cloaked in a semi-circle in some ancient crumbling castle, but the truth could not have been further from that.

Instead of a tower, I found myself standing in the south foyer of the extremely modern London Convention Centre. I was looking down at a carpet with grey, blue and red squares, while Daniel and Elijah collected our nametags from people sitting at a low table near to an enormous glass wall opposite the theatre. To my surprise the nametags were ready and waiting for us. Then I realised that this was probably what Daniel was arranging when he disappeared briefly from the desert.