Magi Saga 1: Epic Calling (5 page)

Amy struggled for something to say, something to do. She scanned the room, looking for inspiration as this beast stood before her, waiting to see what she would do, apparently Horlack found it amusing to see a Magi squirm. Amy just wanted to get out of here, out of Egypt and back to Yasmin. As far as she could see she had two options, she could try running out the tomb right this second and hope Horlack would be too slow, or she could try Magic on him and then run. She reasoned that the other Magic in the room had been broken, so she wondered if maybe her own Magic might now work.

Her mind swam with possibilities and options that crowded about her head, she felt like she was drowning in a sea of possibility. She wanted to cry, to slump into a corner and hope it all went away. But with a sudden clarity she thought, ‘oh fuck it,’ threw caution to the wind and tried to use her Magic.

But the dampening effect on the area was still there, and nothing happened.

Horlack clearly sensed this, and it made him laugh. His booming roar filled the room and rattled her ear drums.

‘Your Magic won’t work in here you fool, you’re far too weak, you pitiful little human.’

Amy had had enough, her resolve had left her now, she knew she was dead, she knew this would be the end, she didn’t care anymore, she just wanted him to get on with it. She dropped to her knees, her body limp, her head bowed down, and she began to sob. She knew she sounded pitiful, weak, but she couldn’t help herself, she didn’t want to die like this, she didn’t want to die at all in fact. She had harboured hopes that she would live forever like Yasmin, become immortal, but that had all gone now, and in another second she would be just another stain on the stone floor.

As she wasn’t looking at Horlack, she didn’t see him glaring down at her from his full height, she didn’t see the scowl and frown change, she was unaware that a grin was now spreading across Horlack’s face as something else occurred to him, but then he spoke.

‘It’s been far too long since I’ve had a woman.’ He said to himself.

Amy’s sobbing suddenly stopped, her eyes suddenly wide after what she just heard. Abject horror filled her world at that phrase as she realised with mounting terror what Horlack had in mind. She slowly raised her head and as her gaze rose up the things body she saw how his loins were growing stiff. Amy’s bottom lip quivered uncontrollably as the thoughts that came with the sight of that two foot and growing member ran through her mind. Raising her gaze further she saw the hunger and lust on Horlack’s face, and suddenly the option of submitting to her fate was no longer there.

With a speed that shocked even her, Amy bolted for the door. She kicked up dust and scraped her fingernails over the sandstone as she made a desperate attempt at fleeing the scene. Tears filled her eyes making her stumble over the rubble in the room as she lunged for the doorway. The huge entrance was blurry and tough for her to make out but she could still see it, she had got to her feet and now sprinted the few metres to the door.

She heard Horlack drop and smash the final lamp that he had still been holding, which plunged the tomb into utter darkness. But she knew the exit was right in front of her, she just had to keep moving straight and she’d be out and free. Amy could hear Horlack only a second behind her; she could hear the scrape of his huge talons upon the sandstone as he moved. She was nearly there, so very nearly free, if her luck would only hold out a few moments longer.

She charged forward in the gloom her tears making her vision swim, when suddenly her foot hit the edge of the foot thick stone slab that lay just outside the final chambers entrance and she fell forward.

Her face smashed down onto the stone with a crack. Pain shot through her and she called out, still sobbing. Her nose, lips, and jaw burnt with pain as she felt the warmth of her blood fill her mouth. Something small and hard sat loose on her tongue; a tooth had been smashed free. She spat it out along with a thick mouthful of blood as she gathered her senses about her and she realised what she had done. She felt like an idiot, but when that hell born laugh rang out behind her she knew she couldn’t hang around. She started to move but felt suddenly weak from the shock of the fall, her hands were shaking and she wasn’t sure she could get up. She gasped for breath as her throat filled with blood, while the lights behind her eyes that had sprung into life on hitting the stone began to fade.

Something big, warm and rough grasped her leg. She yelped. She reached out and grabbed the top edge of the stone slab she was laying upon as Horlack pulled. She held on tight as he yanked on her leg. Noticing some resistance he stopped pulling for a second and Amy took the opportunity to adjust her grip on the stone for better leverage. Then he pulled again, but slowly this time, as if testing her strength. She knew she would be no match for him, even though Yasmin had made Amy stronger than the average human with her magic. With her body stretched taught again, her hands holding on for dear life, she felt the muscles in her leg pull beyond what they should do. Pain shot along her side and she began to scream, as she desperately hung on. She knew this couldn’t last, something had to give, and at that moment, something did give. With an ugly sounding pop her hip came out of joint.

Amy wailed at the stabbing pain while behind her, Horlack laughed. He’d done it on purpose, he was torturing her, and he loved every minute of it. But it seemed he’d grown bored of it now, and this time he really pulled. Amy’s nails scraped along the stone slab in a desperate bid for grip, a couple of them popped loose from her fingers leaving little trails of blood along the sand stone as she disappeared into the darkness.

Amy’s voice echoed from the tomb, she sobbed and wailed and begged for mercy, screaming ‘No,’ over and over again. Soon the words became unrecognisable in amongst the screaming and crying, while Horlack grunted and growled. Amy’s cries ended in a scream that sounded more animal then human, but other sounds continued to issue from the room as Horlack indulged himself.

The Bedouin scanned the tents around him, convinced he’d heard something this time. He disliked the scavenging he was forced to do, but the policies of the Egyptian government were putting an end to his way of life. Allah would understand, he would pray for forgiveness again later.

He stopped outside another tent and noticed the dropped mug in the sand. He frowned but ignored it and stepped inside.

Jackpot!

Spread out on the table were the finds from this dig, he disliked these white men who came in the name of science to open up the tombs and take away the history and heritage of his country, he would take these and sell them himself instead.

The huge slab in the centre of the table caught his eye first, he lifted it slowly in awe of the detail in the carvings. This would feed his family for a month at least. He had been about to turn his attention to the other items when an almighty roar sounded in the distance.

The Bedouin froze. It had been a bone chilling sound, the type of sound you hear only in nightmares. He leapt from the tent into the light, convinced there’d be a lion or something outside. But he could see nothing, just the sand, kicked around the tents that dotted the area by a light wind. The day felt warm, and yet he felt a chill in the air, something wasn’t right.

An almighty crashing sound issued from the nearby plateau, the sound of heavy stone falling on stone, followed by another, louder roar.

The Bedouin didn’t need any more warning, he turned and ran towards his camel atop a nearby dune, the stone slab in hand. He might not have everything he wanted but he wasn’t leaving without this beauty.

He knew exactly where to go, if he made good time he could be in Cairo in a day, in time for the next market. There he knew someone who would pay well for such a prize.

The wind picked up suddenly, rushing through the camp, the tents protesting by slapping the loose canvas against their sides, the guide ropes trailing. The sand flowed like a ghostly apparition in the evening twilight, pulled to an area outside the camp, the force of the gale growing as it reached the epicentre of a mini whirlwind on a nearby dune. The spiralling gale of sand caught the low sun light turning it golden and luminous as it whipped around, growing in intensity towards the centre.

It was over in a matter of seconds, the winds stopping dead as if switched off by some unseen button. The sand dropped to the ground around two figures. They had not been there moments before when the wind had picked up, they hadn’t been in Egypt at all in fact, but here they stood, as the sand hissed to the floor they gazed out over the dunes.

Kez looked at the landscape before her, it wasn’t her first time in the desert and most likely probably not her last. The deserts of the world were never her favourite place to be, they were dry and hot and she found it very difficult to walk in them. The sand got everywhere; it itched and seemed to be impossible to get rid of. Kez wasn’t dressed for this hot environment, she wore a large flowing ragged cloak, its dirty ends catching the dry wind. Beneath her hood, Kez's face in all its alien beauty hid in the shadows. Her strange appearance and alien movements made the average person on the street feel very uncomfortable it looked so odd. She relished those moments.

Nate, stood next to her looking over the landscape, he seemed slightly better dressed for the warmth, in his khaki combat trousers and white vest. A tall man and powerfully built, she supposed he might be handsome in a traditionally boring way. Chiselled jaw, strong cheek bones, short blonde hair and piercing blue eyes, he had a young Brad Pitt aura to him, intelligent and brooding.

Tattoos wrapped around his body, muted colours in various blasphemous shapes covered nearly every inch of his torso, only stopping at his wrists and neck line. The tattoo’s depicted various traditionally unholy or horrific images, from the usual inverted holy symbols, like an upside down cross or pentacle through to pictures of demons, dragons, gorgons and other hellish creatures raping and torturing a variety of women, men and holy figures from scripture such as Jesus and Mohammad.

The sunlight caught his body as Kez looked at him, framing him in a nimbus of golden light. He held the privileged position of Yasmin’s current favourite apprentice, and had done so for several years now.

Kez looked back out at the camp and allowed her mind to open up, letting the flow of magical energy become visible to her. The currents were stronger where life had recently been, and also much stronger around one tent in particular. Kez surmised that it must have been Amy’s tent. Meanwhile, just beyond the tents, the Dead Magic Zone sat over the plateau, visible as a dome shaped area devoid of Magical energy, just as Kez expected.

Amy should have reported back once every so often to update Yasmin, but she was days overdue now and a cursory Magical scrying showed that the camp seemed to be deserted, so Yasmin had sent Kez and Nate to have a look around.

‘Go and check out the tomb.’ Kez said flatly to Nate, ‘I’ll be in the camp.’ She walked forward and moved towards the tents, while Nate moved off in the direction of the tomb.

As she moved down the dune, the sand cascaded along the slope before her with each step, the wind pulled at her black hair and ragged hood. She passed between the now rather sad looking shelters and camp equipment, sizing the area up, looking for any life at all. The silence made the whole thing into something like a ghost town, an abandoned settlement left suddenly and unexplainably several days ago.

She pulled back the flap of the occasional tent, to look inside at the abandoned personal effects. Clothes, shaving equipment, cuddly toys, all just left to the desert.

Outside Amy’s tent she paused a moment on the threshold to see Nate disappear over the nearby ridge heading to the tomb before she moved inside.

The large tent held a bed, suitcase, table and chair, nothing too out of the ordinary really. On the large table, Amy had set out the finds of the dig, all laid out neatly and virtually untouched apart from a dusting of several days sand over everything. It looked almost as it should have done, apart from the glaring omission from the display. One piece was missing, the biggest of the lot, it had been set in the middle of the table and taken up the largest area with everything else arrayed around it. There were a few photos of it next to where it should have been, and some notes as well. Kez picked up one of the photos and let the sand fall from its surface.

There in the square piece of paper she looked at the photo of the huge stone slab, about a foot in length on the longest side according to the measure placed next to it in the picture. Under the image, on the white strip of the Polaroid, Amy had written ‘The Artefact?’

As far as Kez knew, she’d been the only person that Yasmin had told about the Artefact she suspected lay in the Tomb here and it’s Magical potential. Presumed lost centuries ago, to those in the know, this Artefact could change everything. But had it been found here?

Looking at the notes, Kez began skimming through them. Amy had copied some of the carvings and made careful rubbings of others and noted down some observations from her studies of the artefact. She seemed to come to the conclusion that the slab had a Magi origin, and maybe even of specifically Nomad roots. She also noted down some doubts about the slab as it didn’t really seem to radiate any Magic, and there had been one final room to be opened in the tomb. Amy had written about some of her doubts about opening up that chamber, and that had been the last thing she had written. Were those doubts proven to be accurate? Kez would find out from Nate soon enough.