Sword of the Gods: Agents of Ki (Sword of the Gods Saga) (39 page)

He reached out to touch her arm.

With a shriek, Ninsianna threw her pillow at him and crawled over the low foot-rail into the bed of the ebony-skinned woman. The woman retreated further back into her bunk, but she did not hiss at her the way the other women would have done.

"See," Ruax said. "What'd I tell you? They're all stupid."

"She doesn't look too stupid to me," Procel said. He stepped on the bottom bunk and reached across the bed at her. The ebony-skinned woman shrieked and made her finger symbols even faster, muttering
ibilisi, ibilisi, ibilisi.

With a sudden jerk, Procel lurched forward and grabbed her arm.

"Get your filthy hands off of me!" Ninsianna shrieked in Ubaid.

She kicked him in the face.

Procel fell backwards, his feathers flying everywhere as he beat his wings to catch his balance. Ruax roared with laughter as Procel landed flat on his back.

The ebony-skinned woman grabbed Ninsianna by the arm and yanked her along with her as she skittered off the bed and ran…

"No!" Ninsianna shrieked as she realized where the ebony-skinned woman was taking her.

Ruax fluttered across the room, his hand outstretched to grab her.

The ebony-skinned woman tugged her into the alcove to stand behind the massive shape hidden beneath the blanket.

"C'mon, get her," Procel rolled forward and got up, his expression a mixture of anger and curiosity. "She just spoke to me!"

The green tail that stuck out of the blanket moved.

"You must have been imagining things," Ruax laughed. "Humans aren't sentient until Zepar jacks them up with that mojo of his!"

"Naw, she talked!" Procel said. "Really. She did. Help me catch her and let's see if we can get her to do it again."

Procel flared his wings. The ebony-skinned woman shrieked and dove behind the monster that lay behind the blanket, crouching in terror on the floor. Both men stepped towards her, their hands outstretched. Never had Ninsianna ever thought she'd see her husband's species as the
enemy.

Like a mountain that had been suddenly awoken, a shape rose up from beneath the blanket, larger, even than the two Angelics, and cast it off, terrible to behold. The lizard demon was eight cubits tall, broader than an Angelic by half, with a sharp dorsal ridge which reared up on top of his head like a fish's fin. His flesh was green and patterned like a snake, and out of his hands jutted long, sharp claws.

Ninsianna screamed.

The monster bared its fangs and licked the air with a terrible, long forked tongue.

"Ssshheee told you to get your handsss off of her!" the monster hissed at the two Angelics in a heavily accented version of their own language.

"Whoa!" Procel leaped back. "Guess who's awake?"

The ebony-skinned woman's chanting grew louder, but she did not budge from where she crouched behind the lizard demon. She was afraid of
him,
but she was absolutely
terrified
of the two Angelics.

"Shit!" Ruax fumbled at his thigh for his pulse rifle, which was strapped securely in its holster.

The monster slapped his tail against the floor and puffed out his dorsal ridge so it reared up even further, but it stepped no closer to the two Angelics, nor did it step backwards to move closer to
her
. It stood there, a solid green wall between her and the two men. Ruax got his pulse rifle out of his holster while Procel grabbed a large spoon from the bowl of cut-up vegetables and held it in front of him like a sword, but neither creature stepped closer to the other.

"Lose your skirt, lizard?" Ruax pointed to the blanket on the ground.

"Aw, man, forget about him," Procel tugged at Ruax. "Look at him! Even if he
does
survive, Shay'tan's going to execute him for spilling the coordinates to Earth."

The two Angelics backed up to grab the rolling cart they'd used to wheel the food into the room. Ninsianna pressed her back into the wall of the alcove, not sure whether she was safer
here,
or out with the other women where the two Angelics could manhandle her.

"Why isn't that guy dead, already?" Ruax said as he tugged Procel out of the room.

"Eh," Procel said. "He serves a purpose. At least the women stopped shitting in that alcove."

The two men chattered as they shut the door behind them. As soon as the door closed, the lizard creature leaned against the wall and slowly collapsed down onto the floor.

Ninsianna stared at the creature, not sure what she was supposed to do. Here she was, face to face with one of the demons which inhabited her nightmares, and instead of hurting her, this one had
helped
her.

She looked to the ebony-skinned woman for guidance, but the mind-damaged woman could provide none. Whatever had been done to these women, it had left them with enough of their faculties to survive, but little more. The dark-fleshed beauty, however, seemed to be a bit more intact than the other women, who descended upon the table, shrieking and fighting like hyenas fighting over a carcass, the moment the two Angelics vacated the room.

With a groan, the creature grabbed the blanket and pulled it over itself, shivering. Ninsianna didn't know much about lizard demon physiology, but even
she
could see the creature's color was more grey than green, the dull look to his eyes, and disheveled look of his uniform that spoke less of being slept in and more of having been in some kind of scuffle. The creature retracted his claws and whimpered. All of its fingers were bent in unnatural directions. It must have hurt like the devil for it to extend its claws to stand in her defense.

Ninsianna stared at her enemy. No. This creature was
Mikhail's
enemy. But now that she'd seen how his own people treated her people, first Lucifer, and now the two Angelics, she had to question what little her husband remembered. Perhaps
he
was good, but thus far, well, everything she'd assumed was now open for re-interpretation.

"Hello?" Ninsianna held out her hand. "I'm … um … thank you?"

"You're welcome," the lizard man hissed. His eyes were large and gold-green like any lizard on Earth, but through the slits she could see the creature was intelligent.

"I can, um," Ninsianna stammered. "I'm a bit of a healer, you know? Maybe there's something I can do to help you?"

The lizard creature sighed and shut his eyes. "He was right, you know."

"Who?"

"Ruax."

"About what?" Ninsianna asked.

With a groan that sounded more as if it an emotional wound rather than a physical pain, the lizard man leaned its head back against the wall. As he did, Ninsianna saw that the black streaks on its neck and wrists were not natural skin markings, but
burns.

"Even if I
do
survive," the lizard man said, "I have betrayed my Emperor and god. My family will be cast out into the street and my wife assigned as punishment to marry the lowest-ranking street sweeper in the Empire. I am worth more to her dead."

"That's a terrible thing to say!" Ninsianna said.

The lizard-man did not answer, merely began to shudder as if he was having trouble breathing.

"Sir?" Ninsianna asked. "Are you okay?"

The creature opened its large, gold-green eyes and Ninsianna realized he was crying.

"She's sitting on a clutch of eggs, you know?" the lizard man said. "I'll never even get to see them born."

"Who?" Ninsianna asked.

"My wife," Apausha said. He shut his eyes again. "I finally served the Empire long enough to be gifted a wife, and the first thing I did when they tortured me was betray them."

"We'll get out of here," Ninsianna said. "We will."

"How?" the lizard man asked.

Ninsianna had no answer, so instead she told him what she hoped.

"My husband will come and rescue me."

The lizard-man's mouth curved upwards in a wistful smile which was surprisingly human-looking for a lizard.

"That would be nice," the lizard said. From his expression, Ninsianna knew he did not believe her.

There was a moment of silence. The ebony-skinned woman got up and walked over to the table where the other women squabbled over pickings for this morning's meal. Ninsianna expected her to have to fight for her food the same way everyone else did, but they stepped aside, allowed her to take the choicest pieces of fruit and carry them over to place in front of the lizard man. Even mind-damaged, the ebony-skinned woman had the wherewithal to make friends with the scariest monster in the room.

Perhaps
she
should do the same?

"What's your name?" Ninsianna asked.

"Apausha," the lizard said. "Lieutenant Apausha, a pilot in the Sata'anic Merchant Marine." He leaned his head back and sighed. "And I must confess, before you take pity on me as
she
has," he pointed to the ebony-skinned woman, "that I am the man responsible for delivering these women into Lucifer's hands."

~ * ~ * ~

November: 3,390 BC

Earth: Village of Assur

Mikhail

Pain radiated out of his chest. The only thing which mattered was each painful breath and the reason he
fought
to take each breath, the small hand which lay safely ensconced within his. Shuddering breath out. Small breath in. Each breath aggravated the place Needa had pulled out the knife. How long had he been out? Someone had covered the window with a cloth to keep the chill out, but from the way the sun failed to shine directly through the weave, it had already moved to the other side of the house. Late afternoon, he suspected.

"Ninsianna?" He reached to touch her hair, hidden beneath the red hood of her favorite cape. Stupid cape! If not for that cape…

"I am here." Her voice shuddered with the dulcet undertone of tears.

He tried to roll onto his side so he could face her, but his own weakness, paired with the clumsy way his wings scrunched awkwardly beneath him, thwarted his efforts, leaving nothing but pain stabbing through his chest. He tried not to whimper, but he must have because Ninsianna rose and pulled her hand out of his.

"Let me tell Mama you're awake. It's time to change your dressings."

"Don't go," Mikhail reached towards her. "Please, it is
you
I need."

Ninsianna pushed him gently back onto the bed.

"Lay still, or you'll re-open your stitches."

"How long have I been unconscious?"

"Three days," she said. "You're still running a fever, though you seem a little better than you did last night."

"Lay down with me?" he pleaded. "Please? I miss you so badly it hurts."

"Mama is more familiar with these kinds of fevers." She pulled her red cape tighter around herself, as if she was cold. How long had she sat there, refusing to leave his side? He realized he was acting selfishly.

"Go,
mo ghrá,
" he murmured. "Go get some rest."

She kissed his chest, right next to the poultice which stank of bitumen-tar and myrrh sap, and then hurried out of the room.
He lay his head back against the pillow in defeat and shut his eyes. Time drifted, and then his mother-in-law bustled in with Siamek in tow, carrying a large woven basket full of healing supplies.

"Mama," he gave his mother-in-law a weak grin.

Needa's expression was grim. She pulled up the little three-legged stool which usually occupied the kitchen and sat down next to him, her hands still glistening with water. A strange thought crossed his mind. Why wasn't Ninsianna tending to him?

Because she's exhausted, that's why,
he chided himself.
Stop behaving like such an infant and pleading with your wife to hold your hand.

"How are you feeling?" Needa asked.