Anubis Nights (32 page)

I didn’t know what to do. I shook my head. “Is she all right?”

Winslow shrugged. “For now.”

Osiris held Kelly to his chest, letting her rest on his forearms. His fake curved beard pressed into her abdomen as he bowed his head. Then he shoved her into the air above his head, balancing her on his flail and crook as he cried out, “Feed me!”

The four wizards stumbled toward the god, their eyes growing wide.

“No!” they yelled in unison.

As I watched, they aged from young men to old men then shriveled to desiccated husks and crumbled to dust that flew forward and drifted off into the wind in less time than it takes to tell you about it.

“You might need your hands free,” Winslow said. He waved a hand in my direction, and the leather bonds snapped.

I rubbed my raw wrists. Why had he set me free?

“Come with me,” Winslow said and started down the slight incline toward the god.

I didn’t want to go anywhere near that thing.

Over by the tomb, Aye stepped forward and stared at the gigantic god. He smiled and opened his arms toward the green-skinned guy.

“O great Osiris,” Aye said. “Exalted art thou on thy throne!”

“Who dares speak to me?” The god’s voice would make milk curdle.

Aye stepped back. “I am Aye, king of Egypt.”

“Thou hast stolen the throne,” Osiris said, his voice thundering.

“Pardon me,” Winslow said. “Do you know who I am?”

Osiris turned his gaze on Winslow but still held Kelly aloft. “A tiny worm. You aren’t even of Egyptian stock.”

“Be that as it may, I am the one who gave you physical form, O Great One.”

“I fail to see the significance.”

“I can also take it away.” Winslow sounded calm, as if he were simply chatting with a friend about what’s for dinner.

Osiris tossed Kelly to the side and strode in our direction. I wanted to back up. I did chance a glance behind me and saw that the guards were all kneeling with their heads pressed to the ground. I spun back toward Osiris then checked around us.

Everyone save Aye, Winslow, and I were kneeling.

I did the prudent thing. I knelt and bowed my head toward the ground too. As I did so, I pulled on the strap of my pack so the canvas bag hit the ground beside me. I reached inside and rummaged around.

“I am Osiris! I am the ruler of the dead and the king of the living!”

“I’m Henry Winslow. I will be born long after you’re no longer worshipped.”

I pulled a magazine from my pack and drew my Glock, glad they hadn’t taken it from me. I loaded the gun and tried to control my breathing.

Osiris looked confused by Winslow’s statement.

Winslow stared up at the god without fear. “I challenge you to a magical duel. The stakes are simple. If my champion defeats you, I get your crook and flail.”

“Your champion?” Osiris said.

“Yes, this man over here, cowering in terror.” He pointed at yours truly.

“What the hell are you doing?” I asked.

Winslow grinned. “I need those instruments before we go. That’s all.”

“Then you fight him.”

Over by the tomb, Aye finally found his tongue. “O Great Osiris,” he said, his voice breaking a bit, “thy strength is vigorous, and that man”—he pointed at me again— “is an enemy of Egypt.”

“Why have you not slain him?”

Aye went back to silent mode, and he shrank to his knees.

Osiris whirled back to face Winslow. His flail sparked with lightning, and his crook hummed with power.

“You have nothing to offer me,” Osiris said.

“Not true,” Winslow said. “I offer you the woman you used to draw energy from the magicians. She is infused with magic and would be the perfect vessel for Isis.”

Winslow pointed at Kelly, and she sat up, shaking her head.

“What happened?” she asked.

“You are now a prize to the victor, my lovely warrior,” Winslow said.

Osiris looked at Kelly. “Rise before Osiris,” he said.

Kelly gave him a disgusted look. “Fuck off,” she said.

“This one has spirit,” Osiris said. He nodded. “I like that.”

“Very well, if your magic can defeat my champion, you may have Kelly as the vessel for Isis. If my champion defeats you, I get your crook and flail.”

“He is but a man. I am one with the stars. I am—”

“A loudmouth,” Kelly said. “Jonathan, are you all right?”

“For the moment,” I said.

Winslow spread his hands. “Do we have an accord?”

“No,” Kelly said. She didn’t have any weapons on her, but she raced toward Winslow anyway.

I knew what she was doing. If she could kill him and grab me, we could avoid the battle with Osiris and pop forward to the relative safety of the 1870s.

Unfortunately Winslow also knew what she was doing. He held up a hand, and Kelly hit a magical wall. She bounced backward. Winslow turned his attention to her, and I aimed my gun at him.

“Let her go,” I said.

“Or you’ll shoot me?” he asked. “You’ll be trapped here.”

“Right,” I said and shot him.

Winslow grabbed his shoulder, sat down, leaned forward, and vomited. “You shot me,” he said.

“Noticed that, did you?” I said.

“What is the meaning of this noise?” Osiris said.

“Family squabble,” I said. “Nothing to do with you.”

Kelly and I moved toward Winslow. As soon as we touched hands, I planned to shoot him in the head.

I hate adverbs. The one I hate more than any other is the word unfortunately.

That damn word causes me more problems.

This time it reared its ugly head because unfortunately Osiris didn’t like playing second fiddle. He snapped his flail, and it struck Kelly in the face with a flash of light. Kelly flipped sideways in a handless cartwheel right into King Tut’s tomb.

Winslow held his shoulder, blood leaking between his fingers.

The ghost of King Tut stepped through the wall of the tomb and saw the prostrate people including Ankhesenamun. He looked at Osiris then at me.

“Tutankhamun,” Osiris said. “I shall be with you soon. First I must slay this enemy of Egypt.”

“He is not an enemy,” Tut said.

“Thank you,” I said.

Osiris gazed at me, surprised. “You see the spirit of Tutankhamun?”

“Kinda hard to miss,” I said.

Ankhesenamun looked up. “My beloved is here?”

“Stay down, Ankhesenamun,” I said. “You’ve done enough.”

Kelly staggered out of the tomb. She couldn’t see Tut, but she could tell something was going on.

“My wife always does what she thinks is best for Egypt,” Tut said.

“Her actions have nearly gotten me killed,” I said. “They still might if Hulk Junior here has anything to say about it.”

Tut didn’t get the reference, of course, so he simply ignored it. “I wish to move to the afterlife,” he said to Osiris. “You are the guide and the gateway. We have no purpose in this land anymore.”

“I wish to live in this realm,” Osiris said. “To taste the air, to see the stars, to feel the bones of my enemies crushed beneath my feet. I wish to have her as the vessel for Isis.” He pointed at Kelly.

“Calm down, O Great One,” I said. “We can work this out without violence.”

“I enjoy violence,” Osiris said. He aimed his crook at me, and a bright light flashed out of it.

The light hit me square in the chest.

Like all magic, it flowed around me harmlessly.

“Your call, asshole,” I said and aimed my Glock at him. I pulled the trigger time and again. Bullets slammed into his chest and head.

Osiris was a god.

The bullets had no effect.

Those guys on that
Ancient Aliens
TV show saying the gods were flesh-and-blood aliens were so full of shit.

Osiris flung his arms open wide. Lightning shot from his crook and flail. Thunder rumbled in the clouds. Rain fell in the desert. The prostrate people began inching backward, trying to get out of the way of the coming battle.

Osiris unleashed a great deal of power into the air. Lightning flashed from above and struck his crook and flail, making them glow with a fierce power.

“I shall destroy you!” Osiris said.

Massive amounts of power flowed through those items.

I raced forward, thinking a lot of magic had been expended to create his physical form.

Now a lot more magic was being pulled into the whip and the hooked staff.

I leaped into the air, using Osiris’s thigh as a stepping stool to vault myself higher. I twisted in midair, caught the whip and crook, and surprised the god when I yanked them from his grasp. I came down behind him, whipped the flail around his neck, hooked the crook around his throat the other way, and pulled as hard as I could.

“Close your eyes!” I said.

All that built-up energy needed someplace to go.

I clenched my eyes shut as tightly as I could.

The god struggled to pull free, but I felt his neck beginning to give. I pulled harder, knowing fresh magic is easier to break.

Osiris exploded in a flash of brilliant light.

I felt it blast around in all directions.

The crook and flail went dead, and I dropped to my knees.

Nobody spoke.

I let the silence hang for a moment then said, “Well, that was interesting,” and opened my eyes.

“Are you all right?” Kelly asked.

“Never better.”

King Tut’s ghost gave me a nod. “I can feel the pull of Osiris in the Underworld. Thank you. Please do not let my wife suffer. They will kill her for what she’s done.”

He stepped through the wall into his tomb.

The palace officials slowly rose. They looked around and patted themselves to make sure they were all still alive.

Aye stormed in my direction but stopped after a few steps, realizing if I’d blown up a god, a man wasn’t likely to be much of a threat.

“What have you done?”

“I dispersed a god. All in a day’s work. Well, night’s work.”

“You killed Osiris?”

“Osiris can’t be killed,” I said. “He’s back at his station in the Underworld, guiding souls to the afterlife.”

He wanted to say or do something, but I could still see fear in his eyes.

“Smile, Aye,” I said. “I’m not staying here. You get to rule Egypt for however long you have left. Or would you like me to stick around?”

“No,” he said quickly.

I moved over to him, and to his credit, he didn’t back away. I leaned close. “You got away with murder,” I whispered. “If I thought you had more than a few years left in you, I’d kill you where you stand.”

He backed away from me. “The gods have spoken,” he said to the people. “The old ways are best. Let us place Tutankhamun’s belongings in his tomb.”

He moved toward the tomb entrance, his hands glowing white to provide the light the servants would need to carry everything inside for Howard Carter to find in three thousand years.

General Horemheb walked over to Winslow. I carried the crook and flail in that direction.

“You are an enemy to Egypt,” Horemheb said. “You called a god here to do your bidding, but you are not a god. We serve the gods. For your folly, you must die.”

Wait. What?

He pulled a sword and ran Winslow through.

Winslow gasped.

I broke into a run. “Kelly!”

She heard me and raced toward me.

Winslow tried to draw another breath and failed. The light faded in his eyes.

“Hurry, Jonathan,” Winslow said. “I’ll hold as long as I can.”

I heard him but the significance didn’t register at that moment. All I could think was I needed to reach Kelly before she disappeared into the future to leave me stranded in the past.

Every step seemed to take forever.

“Hurry,” Winslow said. “Can’t. Hold. On.”

He pitched forward onto his face.

Kelly’s hand closed on my arm.

Something grabbed my other arm.

The world swam around us.

Blue and white lights flashed and spun around us.

Kelly’s eyes met mine. She motioned to her right. I turned my gaze that way and saw Ankhesenamun clutching my arm.

Then the world solidified.

We dropped to the floor of a dark room.

Something hot and wet spilled on my arm.

“What the hell was that?” a woman’s voice asked.

“I don’t know,” a familiar voice said.

“Brand?” I said. “Is that you?”

A gas light glowed to life, illuminating an old woman and Brand in a king-sized bed. They were clearly in postcoital snuggling mode. We were in a large bedroom in a nineteenth-century mansion.

The hot wetness was vomit. Ankhesenamun wiped her mouth but couldn’t keep from retching again.

Kelly looked up at Brand.

“Please tell me that’s not your great-great-grandmother you’re sleeping with,” she said.

My head spun from the time travel. Everything felt surreal.

Then the old woman spoke again. “Edward? Kill them.”

Brand grabbed a gun from the nightstand beside the bed and pointed it at my face.

“Well,” I said, “this should be fun.”

TO BE CONTINUED IN
SUNSET SPECTERS

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Gary Jonas grew up in a military family, so he moved a lot as a child. His original plan was to be a comic book artist, but in college things changed. He took a creative writing class for the easy A, and found that when he wrote stories, people were affected emotionally by them in ways they weren’t by his artwork. He switched from art to writing without ever looking back. Well, he might have looked back a few times, but by then it was too late. He sold his first short story to Marion Zimmer Bradley for the anthology
Sword and Sorceress VII
. Many short story sales followed to various magazines and anthologies including
Robert Bloch’s Psychos, It Came from the Drive-In, 100 Vicious Little Vampire Stories, Prom Night,
and many more.

His first novel,
One-Way Ticket to Midnight,
was published in 2002, It made the preliminary ballot for the Bram Stoker Award. While the novel was well-reviewed, it didn’t sell for shit, so Gary turned to writing screenplays for a few years. A couple of Hollywood options led to nothing, and the notes from producers, while sometimes spot-on, were also sometimes way out in left field (if they were even in the ballpark). Gary returned to novel writing with
Modern Sorcery.
You can visit him online, and sign up for his mailing list on his
blog
.