Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) (157 page)

"Uh," Dadbeh hesitated. He stared off into the shadows. "The Uruk who tried to kill you ambushed some Kemet traders. I took refuge with them for a while. I helped them steal back their camels, and in return they let me keep one of the raiders alive to bear witness on Shahla's behalf. They told me where we might find the lizard demon's base."

"North," Mikhail said.

Dadbeh's face dropped. "You already know?"

"She-who-is told me," Mikhail said.

Dadbeh's face dropped further. Had he really only come back because he thought he had something of value to offer in exchange for a chance to drag this so-called witness before the tribunal to testify? Mikhail studied Dadbeh's stricken face. Yes. He had. Mikhail didn't have the heart to tell the man that nobody cared. Shahla was dead, and everybody hated her. Including him...

Pareesa glared at him and moved closer to flank Dadbeh, the way she usually flanked
him.
Ebad moved in lockstep with Pareesa. Mikhail softened the raptor-like flare of his wings. It had been just that attitude which had caused the elite warrior to leave their village. No matter
what
he felt about Shahla, it didn't behoove him to alienate a man so naturally talented at the art of special forces fighting.

"She-who-is was rather vague exactly
where
north the base was," Mikhail said. "So if you can enlighten us, it would save us time."

"They set up at a village called Ugarit," Dadbeh said. "Past the headwaters of the Buranuna River, west over the mountains to the edge of the Akdeniz Sea." His mismatched eyes were earnest, and through the sand and other guck smeared across his face Mikhail could swear were blended tears.

"We shall discuss this intelligence with Immanu and the Chief once we have rid our village of the invaders," Mikhail said. He shoved the remaining pulse rifles back into Dadbeh's satchel. "Take the sword you like best; deliver the rest of them unto the warriors beyond."

He pointed back the way Dadbeh had come.

"Ebad ... about eight houses down, I saw Pudagan on the roof with a spear. He is an old man, but he had a rope with which he could pull up the bundle of swords and ease them down the other side. Take a sniper position with the pulse rifles on that roof, and be ready to fire into their backs the moment they breach the inner wall. Lay flat and use the roof wall for cover. And bring Dadbeh with you."

"What about Pareesa?" Ebad asked.

Mikhail slung the satchel filled with pulse rifles across his chest.

"She is the only one of you light enough for me to carry."

Pareesa squealed as he grabbed her around the waist, and before she could protest, catapulted them both into the air.

~ * ~ * ~

February: 3,389 BC

Earth Orbit: Prince of Tyre

Ninsianna

Ninsianna blinked as, all of a sudden, her eyes came into focus. All around the healer's room
,
people's spirit lights began to sparkle as her gift of
seeing
was restored.

Something had changed.

Doctor Halpas and his two male nurses moved with efficiency as they heaved Jamin onto a table and pulled down a bright, round light to illuminate the damage to his body. Ninsianna took a bracing breath and forced herself to step closer to the patient, towards the terrifying white specter of the monster which had inhabited her nightmares for the better part of the year. The white-winged guardian stood over his lover so tenderly, so fiercely, that, for a moment, it seemed as though he wasn't the man who had kidnapped her and stood over her with a knife, making her believe he'd cut her baby from her womb. She stepped closer, closer to the monster, closer to her nightmare.

The room stank of blood. A fat, bluish-grey snake of intestine peeked out of Jamin's gut like an infant's head slipping from its mother's womb. Unlike the time he'd been gored by an auroch, not only had his belly been pierced, but his intestine had been severed, torn out and shredded. Gut-wounds were
always
fatal, especially one as gruesome as this. Although the Angelics had awesome medicine, her gift of
sight
told her that Jamin’s prospects of survival were slim.

Her ability to see grew brighter. The closer she stepped to Lucifer, the stronger her gift of sight returned. When she had seen him before, his life-energy had been the color of piss-puke-putrid green gangrene, the color of infection, the color of flesh which had rotted and fallen off. He was the only living creature she had ever seen who had no point of light to work with at all.

Now, however, his spirit-light was a different color...

Jamin's was grey.

Lucifer's
was grey.

Zepar's spirit-light was still the color of piss-puke-putrid gangrene.

With her goddess-kissed eyes, she could see the double, intertwined threads of light which streamed from Lucifer’s heart to Jamin’s. It was a bond. The bond which all the Angelics had spoken of, the one they longed for, the one they claimed had been stolen from them by the Eternal Emperor. It was the peculiar bond which Mikhail had tried to give to
her
. The one which had always felt intrusive. The one which had felt like he asked too much of her, his heartfelt
need
to always be able to
feel
her…

A tear trickled down her cheek as she realized that Jamin had given Lucifer the bond that
she
herself had refused to give to her husband. And because he had, Lucifer chose to drain the life-energy from his own body rather than lose him to his wounds.

And Zepar was furious!

She could see the filth pour out of him like some great, dark mallet, trying to pound its way back into Lucifer's body, clamping around his head and squeezing it like a lion's jaws. A limitless funnel of the putrid energy poured out of the ethers as Zepar used it to try to regain control. Lucifer fought it. He fought it because he wanted to save his lover.

Words to the Song of Ki came into her mind…

True love will in inspire the Other One,

To pierce her heart upon a thorn,

And bring back hope where there is none,

For agape can access Ki's song.

Her?

Him…

Jamin was the Agent of Ki?

One of the nurses pushed aside the stark, beige curtain which separated the scrub area from the main part of the operating room and trudged out, his pale wings drooping with bad news.

"His blood type is H-negative," the nurse said. "We don't have any of that type in stock."

"Sata'anic blood?" Doctor Halpas blurted out. "Where in Hades will we get Type-H-negative blood? His blood pressure is fatally low."

The nurse held up a bag of clear, amber fluid.

"All I have is plasma, Sir," the nurse said.

"Well get it started," Doctor Halpas said. "It's better than nothing at all. If nothing else, it will keep his blood pressure up."

The nurse stuck the amber sack upon a pole, and then took some sort of clear, flexible reed and pushed it into Jamin's arm.

"Mister Prime Minister," Doctor Halpas said. "You need to step back, Sir, so we can get to work on him."

"I'm not leaving him," Lucifer said.

"Sir," Doctor Halpas wore a hint of frustration. "Your friend has almost bled out, and you are injured yourself. Let one of my nurses attend to your wings and let us work on your friend."

For the first time Ninsianna noticed that Lucifer's pale, white wings were splattered with scarlet, pierced by at least a dozen arrows and atlatl darts. An odd sense of pride fluttered in her breast as she saw the fletching. Those were
Ubaid
weapons!

"I'm not leaving him until he's out of danger," Lucifer said.

With her goddess-kissed eyes, Ninsianna could
see
that the moment Lucifer stepped aside, Jamin would die and Lucifer would stop trying to channel the light of She-who-is. The filth which had controlled him would take over worse than it ever had before because, without his mate, Lucifer would have nothing left to live for. All he would care about is revenge.

It was time to flip this situation on its head.

“Stop telling him to leave!” Ninsianna snapped. “Don’t you people know anything at all?" She stepped right up to the oversized Angelic nurses, poking her finger up into their faces like a tiny, angry weasel. "Humans are
different
from you cold-blooded Angelics! Jamin needs his mate at his side. It's the only thing keeping him alive!"

She moved up to Jamin's head as if she knew what she was doing, the place where Doctor Halpas had said she'd be out of the way. She remembered what she had done to keep Mikhail in this world when his ship had crashed.

"You must touch him," Ninsianna said, "and talk to him while they put him under so he knows that you’re still here.”

Lucifer whispered something into Jamin’s ear. Jamin grimaced. There was no mistaking the tenderness in Lucifer’s face as he pleaded with her former fiancé to stay.

“This is ludicrous!” Zepar protested. “Lucifer, you are badly wounded yourself. You need immediate medical attention!”

For the past several months, it had not been just her
words
which had helped the mind-broken women in Lucifer's harem find their way back to their sanity, but her
touch
paired with those gentle words. She touched Lucifer's forearm, the flesh of the man who for months had inhabited her nightmares. It felt just like the flesh of any other man, not the fire she had sensed when he had touched her before. She formed an image, and then she pushed it through her fingers.

“Jamin needs to
feel
you,” Ninsianna said. “So long as he can feel you, he will fight with every fiber of his being. But his wounds are too egregious to heal all on his own. You must stay with him and help him heal."

Lucifer met her gaze for the very first time. Ninsianna gasped as she realized he had the most beautiful silver eyes she had ever seen. A breath, a whisper, a voice she had not heard for months, whispered joyously into her brain.

Morning Star…

Her mouth opened and shut, but there were no words in existence to give shape to what the goddess had just revealed. Speak. She must speak to him. She must find the words to sway him…

She remembered something the disgruntled Angelics had said as she'd encouraged them to bond to the women in the harem.

"The emperor took this ability away from your kind because he grew tired of losing mated pairs," Ninsianna said. "But you still possess the echo of the ability; the ability to heal your mate.”

Zepar lunged forward and grabbed her by the arm.

“You killed her husband," Zepar shrieked. "You just blew up her parent's house, her village chief and her friends. Why in Hades would she want to help you?”

“My husband is still alive,” Ninsianna said, "and Jamin was once my betrothed. I spurned his love when I chose one of
your
kind to be my husband. It caused Jamin to turn away from my people because he was angry that I had hurt him."

"Why would you help?" Lucifer asked. There was no tenderness in his face as he looked at
her,
but neither did he wear a sneer. He wore the look of a man who had often known betrayal, and as he spoke, Ninsianna could feel the intrusion into her mind.

"I shall not help
you,
" Ninsianna said,
"
for you have kidnapped me and held me prisoner upon your ship. But I will help
him
. Because once upon a time I cared for him, and I do not wish to see him die.”

She felt Lucifer probe her memories, but his touch was much more gentle, less intrusive than when the Evil One had done it, a seeker searching for the truth. He found that truth and he felt her regret, that she had treated Jamin callously
. She realized now that
she
had set him off on his downward spiral. A tear slid down her cheek. All along, he had offered to her the same gift as Mikhail, and she had spurned it because Jamin had been inarticulate about giving voice to the wish which had lived inside his heart.