The Serpent Waits

by Bill Hiatt

  “He shows some signs of being…not completely stable,” said Carla. “Your concern presupposes he could find a lot of allies who were reckless as well.”

  “Tell me it’s impossible, and I’ll stop worrying about it.”

  “We don’t really say impossible very often,” said Jimmie. “If Santa Claus showed up on Christmas Eve, I don’t think any of us would be shocked. That doesn’t mean we don’t do Christmas shopping on the assumption he’ll show up with presents.”

  Gordy chuckled. “That has to be the worst analogy I’ve ever heard. Jimmie is right, though. You can’t live your life relying on the unknown. There’s a small chance Hafez may beat us. There’s also a chance he’ll beat us even with Amenirdis.”

  “On the other hand, Amenirdis isn’t just here to help,” said Tal. “She has her own agenda that conflicts with ours. We want the barriers between parallel universes and different planes of existence preserved. She wants to compromise at least some of those barriers. There’s even a chance she’d join forces with Hafez.”

  “Chango, may I speak to Lucas for a moment?” I asked.

  “I should be going, anyway,” said Chango. “I hesitate to part with such spectacular comrades-in-arms, but the longer I am here, the more my presence poses a threat to the integrity of the barriers. Regardless of the hazard, you must not let Amenirdis draw me back to Lucas a third time.”

  Without waiting for an answer, the Chango persona faded. I was so used to seeing Lucas supercharged that Chango’s absence made him look smaller. “What can I do for you, Amy?”

  “Didn’t you tell me you were reluctant to let your past life be awakened?”

  “Yeah, I don’t mind saying the whole idea freaked me out.”

  “You let it be awakened anyway, didn’t you?”

  “Our Arianrhod helped Tal see visions to figure out how to prevail against our enemies. One detail he picked up was that I had been someone very powerful in a previous life. I still refused at first, but when things got desperate, I said yes.”

  “Are you sorry you did?”

  “Of course not, but I ended up with Chango, who doesn’t want to take over my body. As you’ve seen, he doesn’t really want to occupy it at all.”

  “You didn’t know that when you agreed, though, did you? Yet you allowed your past life to be awakened, anyway.”

  “I don’t like where this is going,” said Tal. “Sure, what Lucas did was brave. Sure, it could have backfired on him, on all of us. That’s not the situation here. We know far more. We know who Amenirdis is. She’s not exactly evil—but she’ll do whatever it takes to bring back Amun.”

  “Look, I’m new at all these…supernatural things,” I was uncomfortably aware of the number of eyes which were focused on me. “All of you know far more about them than I do. But none of you know what lies ahead, do you? At best, you’ve made educated guesses—but you can’t know.

  “For example, you have no idea how Hafez’s staff works. It’s Egyptian magic, and no one here has any experience with that—except Amenirdis. For that reason alone, imprisoning her permanently is risky.”

  “For someone who claims not to know much, she makes a good point,” said Lucas. He smiled, and I remembered why he was so easy to like.

  Tal’s mouth narrowed into a line of disapproval. “The risks may be higher if we don’t. Lady Arianrhod, could you make some kind of arrangement for shared control of the body, with Amy in ultimate control. Hermes worked out something similar for Stan and David.”

  “I see that, and it was a fine piece of work indeed. However, it depends upon the two personas cooperating voluntarily, does it not? It will not work for someone like Amenirdis.”

  “Can we take the blockage we have and put it under Amy’s control? Let her determine when—and if—Amenirdis takes control of the body?” Tal’s disapproving expression told me he wasn’t happy, but I gave him credit for trying to accommodate me.

  Arianrhod shook her head. Her expression was sad but firm. “I have never done such a thing. I could attempt it, but think about what you are asking. Magic sophisticated enough to contain an ancient persona of great power, the control of which would be vested in a novice? You aren’t just inviting disaster in—you’re serving a banquet in his honor.”

  “That knowledge potion one of my previous selves drank accidentally gives me many abilities, one of which is to learn new magic quickly,” said Tal. “If you could design such a system, I can watch as you cast it, see how it looks in Amy’s head—and I will know how the magic works. I could modify it later if I needed to.”

  Arianrhod raised an eyebrow. “I heard the original Taliesin could perform such feats but never saw it with my own eyes. But you forget that not all magic is universal. What I can do with reincarnation is a result of who I am and the role I play on this plane. You might be able to copy the way I structure the magic, but it would not perform for you as it does for me.

  “Even if you could master the one spell, there are intricacies to what I do that you would not learn from it. There is a large difference between being able to duplicate a spell and being able to adjust it at will, and I fear you do not have the time to learn from me.”

  Tal nodded. “I’m afraid you’re right about that.” He looked at me with those eyes that seemed as if they could see into my soul. “Amy, this has to be your choice—up to a point. If you insist on going down this road, I’ll do what I can to keep Amenirdis in line. However, if she puts you or anyone else in danger, what happens after that will be out of your hands. I’ll do what I have to do then.”

  “I understand.” I wasn’t sure I did—not completely, anyway—but I knew enough to agree that Amenirdis was a loose cannon. I couldn’t blame Tal for refusing to let her run amuck.

  “Lady Arianrhod, can you release the blockage but leave the spell that created it in place and give me the power to reactivate it?” asked Tal. “I know that’s asking a lot, but that much control should be easier for me to learn than making small adjustments.”

  Arianrhod nodded. “It will take some doing—but your service in the battle has earned that and far more.”

  Arianrhod bathed me in silver light and chanted. Tal watched her every move. His eyes reflected the light like tiny moons.

  The faerie paused for a moment. Tal had looked away from her and toward me. “Arianrhod is nearly done. Are you sure about this?”

  “Do it,” I replied.

  Something shifted inside my head. A door squeaked open, first slowly, then so fast I couldn’t keep up.

  The second before Amenirdis took control, I realized what a terrible mistake I’d made.

  Looking for a Back to Stab

  As gently as I could, I shoved Amy into the depths of my mind. I had no wish to hurt her, but she was allied with Taliesin, who was my enemy. If I hadn’t been sure before, I was sure now.

  “Amenirdis, I assume you’ve been listening,” he said. I could feel him reaching into my mind, a sensation like the barest touch of cold fingers on skin. I had no idea how he could do such a thing, but I used the power of Amun, master of the invisible, and shut him out. He had no more chance of reading my thoughts than a beggar would have had of slipping into Pharaoh’s palace.

  “I have been. Never has an ally so betrayed my trust.”

  “Well, if that’s how you feel, Arianrhod and I will—”

  “Hold! I appreciate the threat posed by Apep. I will still aid you in your efforts to stop him—unless, of course, you lock me away again.”

  “How can we trust you?” asked Magnus.

  “We have our differences, about which I have always been honest. However, I am a servant of Amun. It is my duty to oppose Apep in all things. I swear by my life, the strongest oath among my people, to aid you in your efforts to stop him.

  “You would not have let me out again if you didn’t know that Amy spoke the truth. I am the only one among you who has knowledge of Egyptian magic, the only one who could conceivably understand the workings
of Amen Hafez’s staff.”

  “We will hold you to that oath,” said Tal. “Lady Arianrhod, thank you for all the help. We would have been in grave trouble without you.”

  “I hope I have helped your cause. I am uneasy.” Arianrhod looked at me as if she didn’t trust me, either. She could not read minds as Tal could, yet she tried to probe me in some way. My walls held against her. I pretended I didn’t notice her effort.

  I was going to need to become very good at pretending if I intended to fulfill the will of Amun.

  Gwynn returned with Ceridwen, now unbound. “She is released into your custody. Heed my earlier warning. As much as I am in your debt, Ceridwen is capable of evil that would more than cancel that obligation.”

  “Thank you for your trust in us,” said Tal. “You will not regret it.”

  Ceridwen rubbed the red spots on her wrists where her ropes had cut her. “No, Majesty, indeed you will not. Taliesin, are you ready to return to Earth?”

  “We’d better get back as fast as we can. Who knows what Hafez may have been up to while we’ve been gone.”

  Ceridwen looked at Gwynn ap Nudd as if asking for permission. He nodded, and the witch opened a swirling silver portal. We stepped through in pairs. Taliesin and Ceridwen led the way. As we lined up to follow, Lucas moved next to me.

  “Are you to be my watchdog?” I asked, keeping my tone neutral.

  Lucas smiled. “Sorry, but someone has to be. You understand.”

  “Were our situations reversed, I would do much the same.”

  “That’s good. Then understand this—if you hurt Amy, I will make you pay.”

  He was still smiling, but the smile was frozen like ice. I wasn’t sure why I found his distrust so unnerving.

  “You have nothing to fear on that account. Amy is me, remember. Harming her would be harming myself.”

  Lucas nodded, but the warmth I had seen in his face before didn’t return. His touch on my arm was light, though, as he steered me through the portal.

  I found myself in a dark alleyway.

  “Why are we here?” asked Lucas.

  “I am attempting to ascertain whether my home or office in Santa Brígida is safe,” said Ceridwen.

  Umbra, the last one through the portal, looked alarmed the moment her feet touched concrete.

  “In the darkness, the Populus Umbrae will find us quickly. We need to stay in the light.”

  I squinted into the darkness. Were there shapes moving in it already?

  Knowing that these shadow people could not endure light, I poured out sunlight.

  “That will keep the shadow assassins at bay—but it also makes us conspicuous to someone like Hafez,” said Viviane.

  “Or, actually, pretty much anyone out for an evening walk,” said Stan.

  “I have safe houses in other places,” said Ceridwen. “It’s been years, though. I can’t guarantee—”

  “Let’s move—quickly!” said Taliesin.

  Another silver swirl, another brief touchdown in Annwn—this time far from the battlefield—yet another portal, and we emerged in a dark room. I lit it up without having to be reminded.

  “This looks good for a place that you haven’t visited in years,” said Carla. “There’s not even a speck of dust.”

  “Like all my little hideaways, this one has some magic to keep it livable during my long absences,” said Ceridwen.

  “Where are we?” asked Taliesin.

  “In the woods near Llyn Tegid.”

  Taliesin raised an eyebrow. “Bala Lake, near where you once lived with Tegid Foel and your children?”

  “And where you as young Gwion Bach accidentally swallowed the potion of wisdom—and set so much in motion.” Ceridwen looked much older at that moment, as if the centuries were too heavy to bear.

  “Seems an odd place to choose,” said Magnus, scowling.

  “I was rushed. At this point, I would rather the past be the past.”

  “Is the location secure?” asked Shahriyar.

  Ceridwen closed her eyes. “All the protections are still in place. This cabin is shielded from all senses, mundane and magical. Unless someone knew it was here, they’d never find it—and there’s no record of it anywhere. Even if Hafez got hold of all my papers, he still wouldn’t know about it.”

  “It’d be hard to ask for more than that on short notice,” said Stan.

  “I have more resources in Santa Brígida,” said Ceridwen. “As soon as we can verify my home there is safe, I’ll move us.”

  “First, this might be a good time to deal with the oaths—” began Magnus.

  “Mother?” asked a voice so harsh it grated on my ears.

  In the doorway, clearly lit by my sunlight, stood two figures. One was a woman so beautiful she must have been blessed by Hathor, goddess of love. She was pale in the way Celts often are, but her face was the sort that made men stop and take notice. Her blonde hair glowed in the light. Her eyes were a deep green like new growth in plants, and her figure, though wrapped in a baggy garment, would still have caught the eye of any man. I didn’t have to look at the men in the party to know they were all staring.

  At least, they would have been unless their eyes fell on her companion first. He reminded me for a second of the way Egyptian gods sometimes appeared in animal-headed forms—but only for a second. Whoever he was, he was no god. His face was covered with thick, coarse, brown hair that would have made him look like a beast had the features beneath the hair not been so twisted. They looked as if Khnum’s hands had lost their skill for just a moment as he shaped this poor soul on his potter’s wheel. He was wearing clothing Amy would have described as medieval—leather armor and matching gear. A sword hung at his belt, and on his back was strapped a shield.

  Ceridwen looked at the man as if he had just crawled out of a grave. “Morfran?”

  Beauty and the Beast

  “This is your supposedly dead son?” asked Magnus. “Has any of what you told us been true?”

  The hairy man’s eyes flashed with anger, and he drew his sword. “You will not speak of my mother in this fashion!”

  “Morfran, I don’t look as I did when you knew me, but I am your former comrade-in-arms, Taliesin.”

  My eyes widened at that, but I buried my surprise as fast as I could. Taliesin must have been the comrade of the Morfran in our world, not in this one. However, Morfran’s anger needed to be quelled now. A hairsplitting explanation of who Taliesin was would not have served that purpose.

  “My friend didn’t mean to question your mother’s honesty—but she did tell us you were dead.” Taliesin positioned himself carefully between Mofran’s blade and Magnus, who was ready with the lyre to overcome the hairy warrior with a blast of magic.

  Morfran’s sword dropped slightly. “Taliesin? You are much changed. I wish I had changed as much.”

  “You were a brave man. That’s more important than your face, my friend. Put away your weapon, that there may be peace between us.”

  Morfran looked uncertainly in Ceridwen’s direction.

  “Go ahead, my son. I have given these people reason to distrust me—in a sense. Magnus’s comment did not insult me.”

  Morfran sheathed his sword. “My mother would have thought I was dead, for I had been captured by the Sons of Mordred. They intended to kill me, and from what I could tell, they went to great lengths to make me appear already dead. No doubt, they wanted to avoid a rescue attempt by my mother and sister.”

  Tal frowned. “I’ve never heard of them. Are they actually descended from Mordred?”

  “So they claim. I wasn’t in a position to demand proof. Their mission is to hunt down any survivors of King Arthur’s court.”

  “There can’t be many left outside your own family, long-lived because of your faerie blood. Arthur and Merlin are beyond their reach. Who else could possibly have survived?”

  “They include reincarnations—such as I presume you are—among their targets. I am lucky they could find no
other original survivors. They postponed my execution in order to prolong their anticipation. Because they did that, I had an opportunity to escape.

  “Once I was free, I came here, where I knew they wouldn’t find me again. Unfortunately, my mother had disappeared, and I had no way to find her, though Creirwy and I did what we could.”

  He walked over and hugged Ceridwen so hard I thought her ribs might break. Unless she was an excellent actress, she was genuinely overjoyed. She really had believed her son dead.

  Creirwy must have been the young lady in the doorway. She ran over and embraced Ceridwen as well.

  The group hug took long enough that Magnus started tapping his foot on the floor. When they finally released each other, Ceridwen looked like a different person. I could see her resemblance with your beautiful daughter much more easily now that the witch didn’t seem so weighed down by her past.

  “I don’t like to interrupt such a happy reunion, Ceridwen, but we need to keep moving,” said Tal. “Who knows what Amen Hafez might be up to?”

  “Amen Hafez?” asked Morfran.

  “He is the evil sorcerer who held me prisoner,” said Ceridwen. “He poses a threat to the universe as we know it.”

  “You were a prisoner all those years? I will cut off his head!” Morfran’s hand moved reflexively toward his sword hilt.

  “We need information from him first,” said Ceridwen. “Then you may cut off his head—if Taliesin agrees.”

  “Uh, we don’t usually kill people if we can help it. I’d rather capture him and turn him over to one of the faerie rulers in Annwn. They’re more than willing to deal with those who threaten to upset the balance.”

  Morfran shifted awkwardly from one foot to the other. “In the old days, it was simpler. Those who were a threat were dealt with harshly enough to deter anyone whose thoughts turned to evil.” He looked over at Ceridwen, who nodded. “Still, if my mother is satisfied with your plan, I will go along. I may accompany you on your quest, may I not? I claim the right of vengeance—even if no head-taking will be involved.”